Bonjour Planet Earth

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

German woman starts living on a train – because she's fed-up paying rent...

When others get off the train to finally go home, Leonie Müller stays behind. That's because she already is home. The train is her apartment, and she says she likes it that way.

The German college student gave up her apartment in spring. "It all started with a dispute I had with my landlord," Müller told The Washington Post via e-mail. "I instantly decided I didn't want to live there anymore — and then I realized: Actually, I didn't want to live anywhere anymore."

Instead, she bought a subscription that allows her to board every train in the country for free. Now, Müller washes her hair in the train bathroom and writes her college papers while traveling at a speed of up to 190 mph. She says that she enjoys the liberty she has experienced since she gave up her apartment. "I really feel at home on trains, and can visit so many more friends and cities. It's like being on vacation all the time," Müller said.

The 23-year-old's unusual housing choice has gained her media attention in Germany and appeared on national news sites such as Spiegel Online. "I read, I write, I look out of the window and I meet nice people all the time. There's always something to do on trains," Müller told German TV station SWR in an interview. Since risking the move, Müller's life fits into a small backpack in which she carries clothes, her tablet computer, college documents and a sanitary bag. Full story...

No, you don't have to drink eight glasses of water a day...

If there is one health myth that will not die, it is this: You should drink eight glasses of water a day.

It’s just not true. There is no science behind it.

And yet every summer we are inundated with news media reports warning that dehydration is dangerous and also ubiquitous.

These reports work up a fear that otherwise healthy adults and children are walking around dehydrated, even that dehydration has reached epidemic proportions.

Let’s put these claims under scrutiny. Full story...

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'Thousands' of political heavyweights hold Swiss accounts...

Thousands of so-called "politically exposed persons", or PEPs -- a category that includes heads of state and other top officials -- hold Swiss bank accounts, a Swiss foreign ministry official said Monday.

Swiss authorities estimate that "there are thousands of PEPs (with accounts) in Switzerland, not hundreds," Valentin Zellweger, who heads the ministry's Directorate of International Law, told reporters.

Switzerland has repeatedly been embarrassed by revelations, splashed across front pages worldwide, of global political heavyweights hiding funds -- sometimes embezzled from public coffers -- in the Alpine nation's famous banks.

But the country has not taken such scandals sitting down: it has been freezing suspicious assets for a quarter century. Full story...

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Swiss police raid HSBC's Geneva office...

Switzerland, Singapore join clampdown on bank secrecy...

Monday, August 24, 2015

Katherine Albrecht: Windows 10 is full blown electronic tyranny...

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Norwegian prisoner hacks TV system so he can share porn, secretly chat to friends...

An inmate at Norway's Halden prison managed to hack the facility's TV system so he could share pornographic films and secret messages with his fellow prisoners. It comes as the country's inmates face potential restrictions on adult entertainment.

Following the hack, inmates could use their TV sets to chat to each other and share files without the prison guards knowing.

However, prison authorities became suspicious after noticing a spike in data traffic on the system, Jan Stromnes from Halden prison told Norway's VG newspaper, according to The Local.

"We reacted when we noticed unusually high data traffic and that inmates were having more than the normal trouble with their TVs. In addition, we found a handwritten note with a log-in on an inmate during a search,” Stromnes said.

The prisoner has been transferred to another facility, and officials at Halden are considering reporting the incident to the police. Full story...

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John Oliver on America's appalling bail system...

Mass Incarceration: Why does the U.S. jail so many people?

Holland rents out empty jail cells to ease overcrowded Norway prisons...

Sweden closes four prisons as number of inmates plummets...

Pink prisons in Switzerland to calm inmates...

How five unmarried mothers were buried in an unmarked mass grave alongside 796 babies who went missing at Irish nuns' Mother and Baby home of horrors...

The bodies of five women who died at a home for unmarried mothers are believed to be buried in an unmarked mass grave with nearly 800 missing children, according to new research.

The single mothers, aged between 24 and 42, were inmates in the controversial Tuam institution run by the Bon Secours nuns in County Galway, Ireland, from 1925 to 1961.

The home made headlines around the world in June 2014 when the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that no burial records existed for 796 children who died there – and prompted the establishment of a Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby homes.

Reports show that the children suffered malnutrition and neglect, which caused the deaths of many, while others died of measles, convulsions, TB, gastroenteritis and pneumonia.

Evidence gathered by local historian Catherine Corless strongly suggests the babies were buried in a mass grave behind the property. Full story....

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The female paedophile...

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Report: Swiss are freest people in Europe...

Switzerland is the second freest country in the world, and enjoys the most freedoms of any European country, according to a new report.

The annual Human Freedom Index (HFI), published by US think tank the Cato Institute, presents the state of human freedom, defined as “the absence of coercive constraint”.

Covering 152 countries and based on data from 2012, the most recent available, the HFI is “the most comprehensive freedom index so far created for a globally meaningful set of countries”, according to Cato.

The index ranks countries on a scale of one to 10 in 76 indicators of personal, civil and economic freedom.

Topics covered include rule of law, religion, expression, freedom to trade internationally, business regulation and legal system. Full story...

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Ashley Madison hack: Cop commits suicide after he's exposed as member of infidelity website...

Two members of the cheating website Ashley Madison have taken their own lives after hackers published their details, police said today.

Officers in Canada confirmed they have been informed the men killed themselves following the security breach which saw the the details of 37 million members published online.

The names of the two victims have not been released but the news comes as a Texas police captain whose email address appears on the client list is thought to have taken his own life.

Captain Michael Gorhum, who had served for 25 years with the San Antonio Police Department, killed himself last week, it was confirmed today. Full story...

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Cat Lady Dance...

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The seedy underbelly of revenge porn...

Three lakh 'Likes' aren't easy to come by. But Geeta isn't gloating. She's livid, and waiting for the day a video-sharing site will take down the popular clip of her having sex with her vengeful ex-husband. "Every other day somebody calls or messages to say they've seen me," says Geeta.

She is not alone. Two weeks ago, law student Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj Whatsapped women he knew asking if any of them had come across cases of online sexual harassment. In a few hours, his phone was filled with tales of harassment by ex-boyfriends and strangers. Instances ranged from strangers publishing morphed photographs on Facebook, to ex-husbands and boyfriends circulating intimate photos and videos on porn sites. Of the 40 responses, around 25 were cases of abuse by former partners. "I have heard friends talking about the problem, but never realized it was this bad," says Bhardwaj.

These days, revenge is best served online - it travels faster and has potential for greater damage. But despite the widespread nature of the crime, many targets hesitate to complain for fear of being shamed and blamed. "A 15-year-old girl is going to worry about how her parents will react if she talks about it," says Chinmayi Arun, research director, Centre for Communication Governance at Delhi National Law University. There is also fear of harassment by the police, says Rohini Lakshane, researcher, Centre for Internet and Society. Worst of all is the waiting. "Even if a police complaint is filed, it takes ages to find out who shot it, who uploaded it and where it is circulated. Such content is mirrored across many sites," she says. Full story...

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Ashley Madison hack sends shivers through hook-up, porn sites...

Larry Flynt, a defender of free speech and sexual freedom if there ever was one, has this advice for anyone worried by the hack of infidelity site Ashley Madison: Muzzle yourself.

"Don't do or say anything you wouldn't want to read about on the front page of the New York Times," said the founder of Hustler magazine and owner of businesses that sell sexually explicit videos online.

It might be too late for many people who, lured by a supposed cloak of digital anonymity, have shared their innermost wishes, fetishes and fantasies on hook-up and porn sites. And those companies know that their digital troves of secrets are exactly what make them a target for emboldened hackers.

In exposing the Ashley Madison accounts of as many as 37 million users, hackers released a cache of potentially embarrassing and damaging data. The dump contained email addresses for U.S. government officials, UK civil servants, and workers at European and North American corporations, taking already deep-seated fears about Internet security and data protection to a new level. Full story...

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Global stocks tumble further amid doubts about China and emerging economies...

Global markets continued to plunge on Monday, with stocks across Asia sliding sharply in early trading.

Investors’ concerns over China’s slowdown and a souring view of once-favored emerging economies have rattled financial markets around the world in recent days, and showed no signs of letting up on Monday.

The selling accelerated in China’s stock markets, which have slumped in recent weeks despite extraordinary government intervention to prop up prices. The main Shanghai share index was more than 8 percent lower by late morning, erasing its gains so far this year. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was down nearly 5 percent.

The gloom was shared across the region. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average was more than 3 percent lower by late morning, while Australia’s main index was down almost 4 percent at midday.

Most Asian currencies fell against the dollar, including the Malaysian ringgit, which plunged about 2 percent in morning trading. The yen, considered a regional haven currency, rose against the dollar for the fourth day in a row. Full story...

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Train gunman 'dumbfounded' by terrorist tag, says was hungry...

A gunman who attacked passengers on a high-speed train in France two days ago is "dumbfounded" at having been taken for an Islamist militant and says he only intended to rob people on board because he was hungry, his lawyer said on Sunday.

As details emerged of the gunman's early adult life in Spain, lawyer Sophie David said her client -- now in detention near Paris -- also looked ill and malnourished.

French and Spanish sources close to the case have identified him as a 26-year-old Moroccan named Ayoub el Khazzani who was known to European authorities as a suspected Islamist militant.

"(I saw) somebody who was very sick, somebody very weakened physically, as if he suffered from malnutrition, very, very thin and very haggard," David told BFMTV.

"He is dumbfounded by the terrorist motives attributed to his action," she added. Full story...

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Sunday, August 23, 2015

Simon's cat wants that last slice of pizza...

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Maru just loves boxes!!!

‘Let’s roll’ part deux: American (military) tourists thwart ‘random ISIS attack’ in Paris

Everyone loves a good story, especially one with a happy ending – and in the US, if that happy ending has a military flavor too – then it makes for an even better story. On closer examination however, this latest random ‘terror’ incident in Paris appears somewhat scripted.

This past Friday, at 5:45 p.m. on a TGV ‘bullet’ train during the height of commuter rush hour in the town of Oignies near the historic town of Arras, a “Moroccan man” was said to be carrying an AK-47. As if by magic (indeed, magic seems to play a central role in all Daily Shooter events), two plain clothed US serviceman and their ‘childhood friend’ on a European vacation, where hot on the scene – and sprung into action to thwart a potential deadly terrorist attack.

Both President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron have already weighed-in to shower praise of the heroic actions of these three US men and another British citizen involved.

The lone gunman was then quickly subdued by Airman First Class Spencer Stone, Alek Skarlatos, a specialist in the National Guard from Oregon, Anthony Sadler (no military affiliations or government affiliations mentioned) and “British” passenger Chris Norman.

The same script seems to have been circulated to all US media outlets. The New York Times report has particularly colorful, made-for-TV account of the dramatic moment: Full story...

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White House in Chilcot 'cover-up': America bans crucial files that could reveal secret of why Blair invaded Iraq...

Dozens of documents which could finally reveal the truth about Tony Blair’s reasons for invading Iraq have been suppressed by the White House after a year-long fight for their release by The Mail on Sunday.

A cache of more than 80 files detailing discussions between Mr Blair and George W Bush in the run-up to the 2003 war have been found by the US Government – but classified on the grounds of ‘national security’.

The move has infuriated relatives of British servicemen killed in the conflict.

One grieving father, already angered by the failure of Sir John Chilcot to publish his report into the Iraq War more than six years after starting his inquiry, said the Americans should lift the ‘veil of secrecy’ to expose how ‘we were led to war based on lies and deceit’.

Last night, a Chilcot Inquiry source refused to confirm or deny whether Sir John had studied the newly classified US documents, except to say his report ‘only covered the UK Government’s involvement’. Full story...

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Iraq War: major new questions for Tony Blair...

Jimmy Savile report 'tears the BBC apart': Victims' fury as findings are secretly handed to Corporation bosses...

The findings of the Jimmy Savile inquiry are secretly circulating among BBC bosses – but have yet to be shown to victims.

Sources say the long-delayed independent report ‘tears the BBC apart’ and is ‘much worse than expected’. In particular, it is said to show that abuse on the Corporation’s premises was far more widespread than previously feared during the period Savile worked there.

BBC chiefs are also braced for severe criticism over its failure to act on rumours of Savile’s behaviour towards children and young people.

Publication of the report has been postponed several times, most recently at the request of the Metropolitan Police, owing to ‘on-going’ sexual abuse investigations.

The £5million inquiry, led by Dame Janet Smith, was set up in 2012 and was completed in May, but there is still no indication of when its findings will be made public. Last night one MP likened the delay to the Iraq inquiry, led by Sir John Chilcot, which has dragged on for six years. Full story...

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Dame leading Jimmy Savile probe asks why BBC didn't investigate him even...

Why you must dump Microsoft now...

I’ve written about dumping Microsoft before – and I stand by those comments – but the newest outrage from Redmond forces me to it again. I don’t care how “inconvenient” you think it may be, you have to stop enriching Microsoft. NOW.

Yes, I have serious issues with Apple too, but at least Wozniak and Jobs started out as real hackers. Gates was a political monopolist, and it still shows.

As of August 1, 2015 (that is, a few days ago), Microsoft announced a new privacy policy and a new services agreement. In the words of one network professional, “Basically, they redefined their operating system to be spyware.”

The European Digital Rights organization examined these new policies in depth and concluded this:

Summing up these 45 pages, one can say that Microsoft basically grants itself very broad rights to collect everything you do, say, and write with and on your devices in order to sell more targeted advertising or to sell your data to third parties. The company appears to be granting itself the right to share your data either with your consent “or as necessary.”

If you’d like to verify anything, you can find the privacy statement here and the services agreement here. Full story...

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Send in the clowns...

(...)

I didn’t watch any of the recent Republican primary debate. I saw clips, read bits and pieces. With every exposure, I was struck by the entertainment value.

I don’t mean the level of conversation – stupidity dominates all political conversation in the US; this is true for all candidates on that stage just as it will be true for all candidates when the Democrats take the stage.

I mean entertainment value. These debates always offer something of entertainment, but this one seemed different. No doubt, Donald Trump on stage had much to do with this. Something like “you’re fired” and political theatre find that they are the last two left at the bar at 2 AM, if you get my meaning. Perhaps we witnessed the product of this liaise?

Cheering – it reminded me of the staged show that is the NFL draft (apologies to my non-US readers and to those readers with better things to do with their time than take note of another virtually meaningless exercise meant for distracting the masses). Entertainment of a certain type. Full story...

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Forex scandal: White collar criminals must face jail not fines, say UK experts...

Financial penalties expected to hit British banks for Forex rigging will do little to tackle financial crime in the City of London as regulators continue to prioritize high finance over ordinary citizens, experts warn.

British banks could be fined billions in coming months as investors pursue them for rigging foreign exchange (Forex) rates, following a landmark US settlement on Friday.

RBS, Barclays, HSBC and Goldman Sachs were among nine global banks that agreed to the £1.3 billion (US$2 billion) settlement with irate investors who had been affected by the market manipulation.

The New York case is expected to unleash a further flood of claims in London, the largest foreign exchange trading hub in the world. Lawyers say the UK settlements could total tens of billions of pounds. Full story...

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The real bank robbers got away...

Should India's Jains be given the choice to die?

"You have to understand that for us death is full of excitement. You embrace sallekhana not out of despair with your old life, but to gain and attain something new. It's just as exciting as visiting a new landscape or a new country: we feel excited at a new life, full of possibilities," a Jain woman monk tells writer William Dalrymple in his book Nine Lives.

Jainism is one of the world's most ancient religions, and Jain monks lead a life of extreme austerity and renunciation. Sallekhana or santhara is a controversial religious practice in which a Jain stops eating with the intention of preparing for death. It is seen as the ultimate way to expunge all sins and karma, liberating the soul from the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

So when Dalrymple probes further, the monk says that sallekhana is a ritual fast to death which Jains regard as the "culmination of our life as ascetics". She insists it's not suicide.

"It is quite different. Suicide is a great sin, the result of despair. But sallekhana is a triumph over death, an expression of hope... With suicide, death is full of pain and suffering. But sallekhana is a beautiful thing. There is no distress or cruelty," she tells the author.

A court in India doesn't quite believe so. Full story...

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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Why Ashley Madison scandal is much more than a hack...

Husbands and wives across the world are being confronted with their partners’ extramarital affairs after a catastrophic leak at adultery website Ashley Madison spewed electronic evidence of infidelity across the Internet.

Online forums were buzzing Thursday with users claiming to have found evidence that their significant others were on the dating site. In the United States, religious ex-reality television star Josh Duggar made a groveling apology after a media outlet found his financial data in the dump.

In Britain and Israel, Parliament members were put on the spot after their email addresses were found in the trove. And in Australia, one woman appeared to learn — live on air — that her husband’s details were registered with the site.

Family law experts are divided on the likely offline impact of the leak, but Los Angeles-based divorce lawyer Steve Mindel predicted an uptick in business for him and his colleagues.

“We’re all saying: ‘It’s going to be Christmas in September,’” Mindel said. “Pretty soon all of this stuff is going to surface and there’s going to be a lot of filings for divorce directly as a result of this.” Full story...

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200 girls in India leave boarding school for lack of toilets...

More than 200 girls have left their studies at a government-run residential school at Ichagarh in Seraikela-Kharswan district, about 50 km from the country's premier steel town, because of insufficient toilets.

The Kasturba Gandhi Awasiya School has just five toilets for 220 boarders, forcing them to relieve themselves in the nearby fields, where they were regularly harassed by the local boys.

Recently, school warden Anita Bari had approached the Ichagarh police with a written complaint and asked them to check the growing incidents of harassment. The police intensified patrolling in the area after the complaint.

"The school has no boundary wall, making it easy for the locals to harass the girls. Sometimes, stones are hurled at the hostel at night," school authorities complained. The school has students up to Class XII. Full story...

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Friday, August 21, 2015

Greece’s bailout is about helping big business, not its people...

Today we have slammed the conditions imposed on Greece as part of its latest ‘bailout’ package. Campaigners say the programme is not simply misguided, but an attempt to ‘create a corporate paradise in the Mediterranean’, regardless of the level of suffering that entails.

“This package amounts to some of the most extreme ‘free market’ fundamentalism we’ve ever witnessed – even by the standards of the International Monetary Fund programmes imposed on Africa, Asia and Latin America in the 1980s. In short, it says that Greece is up for sale, and its workers, farmers and small businesses will have to be cleared out of the way.

“The purpose of the bailout has little to do with ‘repaying debt’ and everything to do with creating a corporate paradise in the Mediterranean. The debts that matter to Europe’s elite have already been repaid. Today, debt has simply become a straightjacket to discipline Greek society. The real purpose of the programme is economic restructuring, through privatisation and deregulation.

“Under the terms of the ‘bailout’, Greece is ‘up for sale’. From the national lottery to the port of Pireaus to swathes of Corfu, corporations are scrambling to get a piece of the action. Full story...

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Romanian city offers free rides to people reading on the bus...

Those who can’t resist reading a good book on public transport have been rewarded by a city in Romania, which offered a free bus ride to anyone who read a book during their journey.

The initiative, which ran for a week in June, was proposed by Victor Miron, a book-lover and resident of Cluj-Napoca in north-western Romania.

Miron said that he wanted to “encourage more people to read on public transportation”.

He proposed his idea to the city’s mayor, Emil Boc, who then posted it to his followers on Facebook.

The idea received such an overwhelmingly warm response that a year later it was put into action. Full story...

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Does reading actually change the brain?

Hundreds of eunuchs employed to clean up streets in India by blowing a whistle when they see someone going to the toilet in the open-air...

Hundreds of eunuchs have been employed to clean up the streets in India - by blowing a whistle when they see someone going to the toilet in the open-air.

Nearly 300 eunuchs are being paid to take part in the crackdown in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh under a scheme called Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Employees blow whistles when they see someone going to the toilet in the streets before 'politely' telling offenders not to, it has been reported.

According to dnaIndia, Rural Development Minister Gopal Bhargava told PTI: 'The state government's idea to rope-in eunuchs, about two years back, has brought in encouraging results.' Full story...

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Police officer used excessive force in 'stomping' a suspect's head ...

A Police Officer in New Zealand used excessive force during an arrest. The three other officers at the scene immediately reported the incident to their supervisor and appeared as witnesses against the officer in court.

A police dog handler has been censured for "stomping" on the head of a burglary suspect during an arrest in south Auckland, making the man bleed from his ear.

The officer, referred to as Officer E in an Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report, was found guilty by the authority of using "excessive force ... [that was] contrary to law".

Officer E was one of five officers involved in the arrest of two men in Mangere East in December last year.

On December 29, police responded to a report of two suspects trying to break into a house in Kiwi Esplanade.

Four officers in two patrol cars arrived at the scene and managed to catch both men.

One was detained by one officer, while the second man fled and was caught by the other three officers. Full story...

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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Why you should go to Africa instead of college...

Tom: You’ve been up to some interesting activity in Africa that I’d like to ask you about. Let’s start off by telling us what you’ve been busy doing there.

Doug: Well, the last two weeks, I’ve been visiting the Islamic Republic of Mauritania with a short side trip to Senegal. I’ve been pursuing my hobby, which is to propose to a backward country a plan for complete and total free marketization… including taking the country itself public on a major stock exchange and distributing most of the shares directly to the people who theoretically own the government assets. I felt like I had Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight at the Oasis” playing in the back of my mind the whole time I was there.

Tom: Suppose you got everything you wanted, what would the outcome look like?

Doug: Well, 100% of all government assets, land, state-owned companies – everything – initially go into a corporation and we distribute the shares.

Let’s say, 70% pro-rata to every man, woman, and child in the country, so they don’t just theoretically own the government, now they actually do. 15% would be put it in trust for the next unborn generation to defuse that time bomb. 10% would be distributed to people who, let’s say, are of significant help to making this happen, and people who are important, whose rice bowls would be broken, and 5% to take public in major stock markets to raise some capital. Then we get rid of all duties, taxes, and regulations. Full story...

Children paying highest price in Yemen's brutal armed conflict...

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The brothers who funded Blair, Israeli settlements and Islamophobia...

Tony Blair is again in the headlines, this time after Labour leadership frontrunner Jeremy Corbyn publicly voiced the opinion of millions of British citizens: that the former prime minister should stand trial on charges of war crimes if the evidence suggests that he broke international law during the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Blair's conduct since leaving office has received less scrutiny, however. Our investigations show that while Blair was serving as the special Middle East peace envoy of the Quartet, representing the UN, Russia, US and EU, the American fundraising arm of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation accepted money from a family that finances illegal Israeli settlements via the earnings of a convicted felon.

While conducting research on the transatlantic funders of the occupation in Palestine, to be published by Public Interest Investigations later this year, we uncovered tax documents revealing that the California-based Milken Family Foundation donated $1 million to the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2013. The Milken Family Foundation’s director is Michael Milken and its president is his younger brother Lowell, who is also president of another family foundation, the Lowell Milken Family Foundation, registered at the same address. Full story...

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Scale of human suffering in Yemen incomprehensible: UN

The United Nations has strongly condemned Saudi Arabia for bombing the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah, a lifeline for imports of food, medicine, and fuel.

“These attacks are in clear contravention of international humanitarian law and are unacceptable,” UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O'Brien told the Security Council on Wednesday.

O'Brien also said that he was extremely concerned that the damage inflicted by Saudi airstrikes on this city could have “a severe impact” on the whole country, deteriorating the humanitarian crisis.

“The scale of human suffering [in Yemen] is almost incomprehensible… I was shocked by what I saw,” O'Brien further noted, adding that the attacks are unacceptable as they clearly violate international humanitarian law. Full story...

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Chelsea Manning: ‘Why speaking out is worth the risk’

Chelsea Manning is serving a 35-year prison sentence for leaking classified US government documents to the website WikiLeaks. Two years after she was first sentenced, Chelsea tells us why speaking out against injustice can be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Why did you decide to leak documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

These documents were important because they relate to two connected counter-insurgency conflicts in real-time from the ground. Humanity has never had this complete and detailed a record of what modern warfare actually looks like. Once you realize that the co-ordinates represent a real place where people live; that the dates happened in our recent history; that the numbers are actually human lives – with all the love, hope, dreams, hatred, fear, and nightmares that come with them – then it’s difficult to ever forget how important these documents are.

(...)

What would you say to somebody who is afraid to speak out against injustice?

First, I would point out that life is precious. In Iraq in 2009-10, life felt very cheap. It became overwhelming to see the sheer number of people suffering and dying, and the learned indifference to it by everybody around me, including the Iraqis themselves. That really changed my perspective on my life, and made me realize that speaking out about injustices is worth the risk. Second, in your life, you are rarely given the chance to really make a difference. Every now and then you do come across a significant choice. Do you really want to find yourself asking whether you could have done more, 10-20 years later? These are the kinds of questions I didn’t want to haunt me. Full story...

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Why US police are out of control...

America is clearly an outlier when it comes to police brutality. According to The Guardian’s highly useful “Counted” website, U.S. police kill more people in a typical day than police in England and Wales kill in an entire year. Where police in Stockton, California, killed three people in the first five months of 2015, police in Iceland, which has roughly the same population, have killed just one person since the modern Icelandic republic was founded in 1944.

Where the U.S. saw 97 police shootings in a single month (March 2015), Australia saw 94 over the course of two decades (1992 to 2011). And where police in Finland fired a grand total of six bullets in 2013, police in Pasco, Washington, pumped nearly three times as many last February into a 35-year-old Mexican immigrant named Antonio Zambrano-Montes whom they accused of threatening them with a rock.

What is the reason for vast discrepancy? The Black Lives Matter movement blames racism, which is certainly true as far as it goes, but potentially misleading since its suggests that racism is not a problem in countries like England and Australia, which is definitely not the case.

In a recent analysis, Alternet’s Steven Rosenfeld blamed police reliance on excessive force, an absence of supervision, and a confrontation mentality that leads urban cops to see their beats as veritable war zones. While this is certainly the case, the logic is more than a bit tautological since all Rosenfeld is saying is that police are out of control because police are out of control. Full story...

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Release us: a short film on police brutality...

Principal in love dismisses school early, infuriates parents...

Love transcends class. One young principal at a government primary school in Bijnor took the adage rather literally when to spend some quality time with his lady love, the headmistress of another school, he dismissed class for that day and sent all the students packing home. The couple locked themselves in and declared the school shut as early as 10 in the morning.

It was when the children trooped back to their families three hours earlier than other days, that parents, surprised at the sudden 'holiday', arrived at the school to check and caught the lovebirds allegedly locked in an embrace.

Enraged, the parents took the matter to the police, who arrived at the school and took the principal and headmistress off to the police station. An FIR was registered under Section 294 of IPC, pertaining to obscene act carried out in public place, which is punishable with imprisonment for up to three months or a fine or both. The principal and headmistress were later released on bail late Tuesday night. Full story...

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African-American rights activists endorse boycott of Israel...

Young African-Americans facing heavily armed police in the streets of Baltimore and Ferguson over the past year have compared their situation to that of Palestinians under Israeli fire, telling reporters that their conditions were “like Gaza.” On Tuesday, black racial-justice activists took the comparison a step further, issuing a statement linking their cause with that of Palestinians, and putting their weight behind the growing boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

The BDS campaign, modeled after the mass movement to isolate South Africa during the apartheid era, aims to pressure Israel through tactics of economic and cultural isolation into ending its occupation of Palestinian territories and adhering to international law in its treatment of Palestinians.

Tuesday’s statement — signed by more than 1,000 black activists, artists, scholars, politicians, students and representatives of organizations — proclaimed their “solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and commitment to the liberation of Palestine’s land and people.”

“We offer this statement first and foremost to Palestinians, whose suffering does not go unnoticed and whose resistance and resilience under racism and colonialism inspires us,” the statement said. The activists said they are committed to working through cultural, economic and political means to help the Palestinians’ cause. Full story...

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3 UN peacekeepers accused of rape in Central African Republic...

In the latest in a series of sexual abuse allegations against United Nations peacekeepers in the Central African Republic, the families of two women and one girl under the age of 18 have accused three peacekeepers of rape, the United Nations announced Wednesday.

The families came forward on Aug. 12, the same day that the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, ousted his mission chief in the Central African Republic over numerous sexual abuse claims. It is unclear when the three alleged attacks took place.

The United Nations does not typically name the country whose troops are accused, and its officials did not in this latest case. But a United Nations spokeswoman, Vannina Maestracci, said the families said that the rapes took place in Bambari, a market town besieged by fighting between rival armed groups. The United Nations peacekeepers serving in that town are from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country whose troops have a long history of sexual violence in its own internal conflicts.

United Nations leaders have had to contend with repeated allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation in peacekeeping in recent months, especially in the Central African Republic. The peacekeeping mission there, established less than a year ago, has been accused of at least 13 instances of sexual abuse. Full story...

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