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

Society's Child
Map

Red Flag

Where is the outrage? Katy Perry gives teenage boy a #MeToo moment by kissing him unexpectedly

katy perry kiss teenager
© American Idol Video
American Idol kicked off its two-night season opener over the weekend, which included Katy Perry giving a teenager a #MeToo moment that he will never forget.

Benjamin Glaze, 19, was hoping "his big moment would come as he belted out "Stadium", a song he wrote himself," The New York Times reported. But as he discovered, the moment that made the big headlines came before he even had a chance to perform, when Perry suddenly kissed him on the mouth.

"I was a tad bit uncomfortable," Glaze, who had never been kissed before, told the Times. "I wanted to save it for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special."

Comment: Imagine if this was a man kissing a teenage girl. There would have been dozens of furious liberal thinkpieces written before the show had ended.


Passport

Top officials in Australia call for emergency visas for white farmers facing violent attacks in South Africa

Farmer
© Siphiwe Sibeko / Reuters
A farmer in a maize field in Wesselsbron in the Free State province of South Africa.
A top Australian official has called for emergency visas for South Africa's white farmers, who are reportedly facing rising violence amid government calls for land expropriation in favor of black citizens.

"If you look at the footage and read the stories, you hear the accounts, it's a horrific circumstance they face," said Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton. "I think these people deserve special attention and we're certainly applying that special attention now."

Red Flag

Facebook forced to apologize after its search bar recommends sexually explicit content

facebook
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Facebook has apologized after some of its users reported that sexually explicit videos, including abusive content, was suggested to them via the social media giant's search bar. The alarming results were flagged on Thursday.

People took to social media to express their shock at the autocomplete search suggestions being peddled by Facebook. Some of the terms suggested reportedly included sexual and child abuse, as well as videos of the Florida school shooting.

Facebook appear to have eventually rectified the issue that was causing the unsavoury predictive search suggestions, and the company issued an apology. "We're very sorry this happened. As soon as we became aware of these offensive predictions we removed them."

Megaphone

RT's Afshin Rattansi calls out UK government over Skripal scandal - 'The days of trusting our government are over'

Ashfin Rattansi
© Ashfin Rattansi / RT
Going Underground's Afshin Rattansi hit out at the UK government on the BBC's Question Time program, after the very first question from the audience tackled accusations against Russia over the Salisbury poisoning scandal.

An audience member dove right into the Russia debate, asking: "How certain are you that the Salisbury attack was beyond doubt the responsibility of the Russian state?"

Labour's Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer commended the UK Prime Minister Theresa May in his response, stating that May was correct in expelling Russian diplomats following the attack on ex-double agent Sergei Skripal, which left the former spy, his daughter Yulia and a police officer in serious condition in hospital.
Rattansi swooped on Starmer's comments, stating: "This person to my right who has had close contact with the intelligence services says 'only Russia had these chemicals,'" he said, pointing at Starmer.

"That's something, given that Britain vetoed in the past few hours a UN Security Council resolution asking for an investigation into these atrocities in Wiltshire. Why did Britain veto that resolution? That's interesting, isn't it?"

Heart - Black

The walking dead: Living Romanian man waited too long to overturn death cert

Walking dead
© Karl-Heinz Spremberg / Global Look Press
It appears that literally being alive isn't enough to convince a Romanian court of the fact. Authorities in Vasului have rejected a man's claim that he's alive after he was officially registered as deceased.

Variouslocalmedia report that 63-year-old Constantin Reliu cannot be declared alive because he appealed against his certified death too late. Alarmingly, local authorities say the ruling is final.

Reliu moved to Turkey in 1992 where he found work as a chef, but his family reportedly did not hear from him after his last visit back to Romania in 1999. Hearing no news from him in the intervening years, his estranged wife sought to have him declared dead and managed to procure a death certificate for him in 2016.

Arrow Down

With Telford and other child exploitation scandals, there's an elephant in the room: A casual attitude towards underage sex

Rotherham sex abuse victim
© Getty
One of the victims of the Rotherham grooming ring

A casual attitude towards underage sex is putting children in terrible danger


What do Torbay, Liverpool, Rochdale, Thurrock, Oxfordshire, Hampshire, Bristol and Somerset have in common? All have been the subject of serious case reviews published within the past five years in connection with child sexual exploitation. That's without mentioning Professor Alexis Jay's independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham.

In all nine regions, a clear picture emerges of a culture in which underage sexual activity is viewed as relatively harmless so long as it is perceived to be consensual.

To that growing hall of shame, we must now add Telford. According to an 18-month Sunday Mirror investigation, an estimated 1,000 girls suffered sexual exploitation and abuse in the Shropshire district over a period of 40 years.

Comment: The 'casual attitude' toward underage sex is a result of the elite's attempt to normalize pedophilia and a radical feminist agenda to destroy women and men, the family and traditional values by promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution and homosexuality.


Dollars

China and Russia further cut their holdings in US Treasuries

dumping
© Jo Yong-Hak / Reuters
Moscow and Beijing have cut their holdings in US Treasury securities. Russia sold $5.3 billion in January and has sunk to 16th place of the largest holders of American debt.

It is the lowest level for the country since February last year.

"We absolutely do not hold American securities exclusively. The main thing is that these securities should be liquid. So should be the state that issued them," said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov in an interview with NTV this week.

Russia also invests in the securities of European countries.

Stock Up

So much for economic sanctions: Russia's inflation rate lower than US'... for first time ever

russia
© Evgeny Biyatov / Sputnik
Low inflation is not always good for the economy. However, for Russia, whose economy has been dominated by skyrocketing inflation after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it's a good sign.

Inflation in Russia now stands at 2.18 percent, and for the first time ever it is lower than US inflation, which is currently 2.2 percent. This is another record low for Russia. In 2017, consumer prices rose by only 2.5 percent. In 2016, there was 5.4 percent growth. Thus, inflation has more than halved in a matter of a couple of years.

Such low inflation is unprecedented for Russia. For almost a quarter of a century the economy has lived through much higher rates of consumer prices growth. In the 1990s there was hyperinflation typical for the poorest countries: 2,509 percent in 1992, 840 percent in 1993, and 215 percent in 1994.

The situation improved only in 2000, when prices rose by 20 percent. The last time inflation in Russia was double-digit was in 2015 - 12.91 percent. And this year, inflation is approaching just 2 percent, half of the Central Bank of Russia's target of 4 percent per annum.

Heart

'Top moment of his life': Russian NHL player brings young fan to tears after giving him hockey stick

Hockey player
© Bruce Bennett / AFP
New York Rangers winger Pavel Buchnevich gave one 12-year-old fan the 'top moment of his life' when gave him his hockey stick in the warmup before Thursday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Rangers fan Benjamin was attending the game wearing a Severstal Cherepovets jersey, the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) at which Buchnevich began his career, with the player's name on the back.

When Benjamin waved to his idol during the warmup session, Buchnevich immediately spotted his old jersey and skated to the boards to toss one of his sticks to the boy - prompting the boy to burst into tears.

"I'm wearing this jersey tonight, my grandpa got it for me from a Russian website," the Rangers season-ticket holder said after receiving the stick.

Handcuffs

Amazon's Tokyo headquarters raided on suspicion of antitrust violations

Amazon
© Albert Gea / Reuters
Japanese regulators on Thursday have raided Amazon's Tokyo headquarters on suspicion of antitrust violations. The company has come under the watchdog's scrutiny for the second time in two years.

The Japanese Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) said the firm was suspected of improperly forcing suppliers to shoulder part of the costs incurred for selling their products at a discount. Amazon Japan said it was "fully cooperating" with the JFTC, but declined to provide any details.

In 2016, the JTFC has also raided the firm's offices on suspicions it had unfairly demanded from retailers to set prices on Amazon Japan lower than prices for those products listed on other e-commerce sites. Regulators ended the investigation last year when Amazon Japan agreed to stop the practice.

Amazon has been operating in Japan since 1998. The country was one of the first international expansions for the US firm. It is Amazon's second-largest market outside the US, after Germany, with sales of $10.8 billion in 2016.