Welcome to Sott.net
Wed, 03 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Syringe

Not Russians?! Five athletes arrested in doping raids at world ski championships


Reuters
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 20:37 UTC
hotel bergland
Five athletes from Austria, Kazakhstan and Estonia were arrested on Wednesday in anti-doping raids at the Nordic skiing world championships in the Austrian resort of Seefeld, police said.

The raids were part of a broader operation targeting a Germany-based "criminal organization" suspected of having carried out blood doping for years, the Austrian police said.

A 40-year-old sports doctor is believed to be at the center of the organization, the police said in a statement, adding that he was also arrested in Germany on Wednesday.

In total nine people were arrested in 16 raids in Seefeld and Germany, the Austrian police said, adding that the operation was coordinated with the German authorities. One of the athletes was caught in the act of doping, officials said.

Munich's state prosecutor's office said the investigation was triggered by statements made by Austrian cross-country skier and doping offender Johannes Duerr to a German broadcaster earlier this year.

Duerr, who was caught doping during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, had talked to German broadcaster ARD in January.

Comment: Police walked in on Austrian skier Max Hauke and caught him 'blood doping', the practice of boosting the number of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to enhance athletic performance:



      Read More...
Dollars

Ikea being sued for discrimination for catalog marketed toward ultra-Orthodox Jews that excluded pictures of women


i24NEWS
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:46 UTC
Ikea
© JONATHAN NACKSTRAND (AFP)
Ikea in Israel is being sued for gender discrimination over a catalog marketed towards the ultra-Orthodox community intentionally excludes pictures of women and girls.

The Israeli branch of the Swedish furniture branch in the past was forced to apologize for the catalog that had been scrubbed of images of females.

The marketing campaign was Ikea's first such attempt to reach out to the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community, which makes up around 10 percent of Israel's population and lives in compliance with a strict interpretation of Jewish laws.

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday was petitioned to approve the multi-million dollar suit against Ikea filed by the Israel Religious Action Center, a Jewish Reform advocacy group, and Hannah Katsman, a modern Orthodox woman.
      Read More...
Quenelle - Golden

Why not? Colombian proclaims himself 'interim president' in Guaido parody


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:21 UTC
parody columbia new president
© Twitter
Columbia's 'new president' is sworn in.
A man donning a replica of the Colombian presidential band copied Venezuelan oppositional leader Juan Guaido as he proclaimed himself the interim president of Colombia in protest of the US-backed coup next door.

A video by RT America's Dan Cohen showing Colombian Alejandro Muñoz, described as a social researcher, artist, and writer, being sworn in as Colombia's interim president in a public square, has gone viral on Twitter.

Muñoz was protesting a meeting of the Lima Group in Bogota on Monday, attended by US Vice President Mike Pence and the leader of Venezuelan opposition, self-proclaimed 'interim president' Juan Guaido.

Cheered on by fellow activists, Muñoz wasted no time upon taking on his new 'role', shaking hands with a policeman and acting all presidential by issuing a bunch of new orders.
      Read More...
Dominoes

#MeToo and the great due-process revival

David French
National Review
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 17:41 UTC
me too
© Brian Snyder/Reuters
I was traveling Friday and missed a rather interesting and consequential story. Lisa Borders, the CEO of Time's Up, an "organization born of the #MeToo movement that advocates for safe and harassment-free workplaces," has resigned. Why? Because her son was accused of sexual assault. But that's not what makes the story truly notable. Family troubles can cause people to press pause on their careers all the time. What's notable is that the CEO resigned in part to advocate for her son's innocence:
Borders made it clear to Time's Up leadership that she planned to proactively defend her son, someone close to the situation who was not authorized to discuss it publicly, and so spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post. This created a difficult tension within the organization, whose mission revolves around believing survivors of sexual abuse.
In response, Time's Up put out a statement that said, in part, that it "unequivocally supports all survivors of sexual harassment and abuse" and that "all of our actions were fully guided by our support for survivors." Here's the statement in full:
      Read More...
People 2

Poll finds nearly 90% of Britons feel UK leadership spurns public


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 17:37 UTC
no brexit
© Reuters/Henry Nicholls
With Brexit looming and British society facing deep social divides, a new poll suggests there are some things which still unite almost everyone in the UK, such as feelings of fear, dissatisfaction and distrust.

Sky Data's yearly 'State of the Nation' poll, published Tuesday, highlights some troubling trends in British society's self-perception. Those who conducted the poll hoped to "shed light on the mood of the nation" ahead of the UK's exit from the European Union, and what they found out was anything but encouraging.

When participants were asked whether they feel their political leaders care about people "like them," a whopping 87 percent of respondents marked either not very much, or not at all. Interestingly, people across all age groups, political allegiances and regions responded with fairly consistent cynicism regarding their politicians' motivations for public service.
      Read More...
Star of David

Illegal Israeli squatters seize over half a square kilometer of Palestinian land in Jordan Valley


PressTV
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:30 UTC
illegal settlement construction
© Agence France-Presse
The file photo, taken on February 21, 2019, shows a view of construction work at Ramat Shlomo, an Israeli settlement in the mainly Palestinian eastern sector of Jerusalem al-Quds. (By AFP)
A number of Israeli settlers escorted by troops have confiscated a large area of Palestinian land in northern Jordan Valley in the West Bank despite the international outcry against the Tel Aviv regime's land expropriation policies in the occupied territories.

Local Palestinian media reports said on Monday that the group placed barbed wire and electric fence around more than 600 dunams (0.6 square kilometers) of Palestinian-owned land in Khillet al-Oqda and al-Sweideh areas of the valley, which comprises a third of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli troops have also installed surveillance cameras on the seized land.

The illegal Israeli land grab in the occupied Jordan Valley is a regular occurrence by the extremist settlers and the Israeli military.

The Palestinian territories are seized by the Tel Aviv regime under the contested Absentee Property Law, which paves the way for Israel to take over the property of Palestinians who have been forced from their homeland following the 1948 war.
      Read More...
Eiffel Tower

French sportswear company withdraws marketing launch of Islamic running veil

Galaxy Henry
Politico
Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:52 UTC
running hijab
© Decathlon
French sportswear brand Decathlon withdrew plans to launch an Islamic veil for sportswomen, after the product's marketing sparked a fresh controversy among French politicians.

Decathlon announced on RTL radio late Tuesday that it made "a conscious decision" to no longer advertise the product in France, after previously claiming it stood by its marketing of the "head cover" for women. AFP previously reported that leading lawmakers and a sitting minister expressed concerns that the product contradicts France's secular values.

"I would have preferred that a French brand do not promote the veil," Health Minister Agnès Buzyn told French radio station RTL earlier, while stressing that wearing such an outfit is not prohibited by France's strictly secular laws.

Some lawmakers had said they would boycott the popular sporting goods retailer, including President Emmanuel Macron's party spokesperson and MP Aurore Bergé. "My choice as a woman and a citizen will be not to put my trust in a brand that breaks away from our values," Bergé tweeted.

Comment: Poll: 79% of French think Islamic veil opposes their values

      Read More...
Attention

Twenty-five people killed in horrific train derailment and explosion at Ramses station in central Cairo


RT
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 16:31 UTC
cairo train crash
© Reuters / Amr Abdallah Dalsh
Video footage showing the horrifying scene of the Cairo train derailment that killed at least 25 and injured another 50 has emerged online.

A fire broke out at the main train station in Egypt's capital on Wednesday following an explosion caused by a train ramming into a barrier at Ramses station in central Cairo. The raging inferno was caught on camera by bystanders.

      Read More...
War Whore

#SayNoToWar trending on Twitter in India and Pakistan


Sputnik
Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:30 UTC
India Pakistan conflict
© Agence France-Presse / Tauseef Mustafa
Indian soldiers and Kashmiri onlookers stand near the remains of an Indian Air Force aircraft after it crashed in Budgam district, some 30 kms from Srinagar
Tensions between the two neighbours are threatening to spiral out of control in the aftermath of the terror attack in Pulwama in Indian-administered Kashmir earlier this month.

With the last two days seeing frantic military activity on both sides of the border - which India called "pre-emptive and non-military" and Pakistan called a "violation of sovereignty" - culminating in the capture of an Indian pilot by Pakistani forces, social media users from both sides of the border are taking to Twitter to drum up anti-war support through use of the #SayNoToWar hashtag.

Comment: See also:

      Read More...
Marijuana

California could run out of weed by summer if enough farmer licenses aren't approved

David Downs
Leafly
Mon, 25 Feb 2019 16:03 UTC
cannabis jars
© Jamie Soja
Supplies of legal cannabis may dry up by summer if California lawmakers can't buy growers more time to get through brutal licensing.
The supply of legal cannabis in California promises to start drying up by spring unless a quick fix becomes law.

On Tuesday, Feb. 19, the California Legislature published Senate Bill 67, to keep cannabis farms open as they await permanent licensing.

Right now, thousands of farms operate under temporary licenses from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Those 6,924 temp licenses are expiring faster than the CDFA can issue permanent annual licenses. Those temp licenses also can't be extended unless existing law is tweaked.

It's been 834 days since California voters approved cannabis legalization in November 2016. So far, the CDFA has issued just nine annual cannabis farm licenses. Another 39 annual farm licenses are pending payment of fees as high as $44,000 per license.

Industry expert and cannabis attorney Omar Figueroa said that without legal farm licenses, there is no legal industry. Meanwhile, the state's illicit market continues to thrive.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts