Death toll rises as violence and looting spreads in South Africa
Al Jazeera – Protesters clashed with security forces in several areas of South Africa and looters ransacked shopping malls on Tuesday as frustrations over poverty and inequality boiled over in to the country’s worst unrest in years, with the death toll rising to more than 30.
Many of the deaths occurred in chaotic stampedes as scores of people looted food, electrical appliances, liquor and clothing from retail centres, KwaZulu-Natal province premier Sihle Zikalala told the press on Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday’s events brought a lot of sadness. The number of people who have died in KwaZulu-Natal alone stands at 26. Many of them died from being trampled on during a stampede while people were looting items,” said Zikalala.
The bodies of 10 people were found on Monday evening after a stampede at a Soweto shopping mall as looting continued in Gauteng province, premier David Makhura said on Tuesday.
Security officials said the government was working to ensure the violence and looting did not spread further, but they stopped short of declaring a state of emergency.
“No amount of unhappiness or personal circumstances from our people gives the right to anyone to loot, vandalise and do as they please and break the law,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told a news conference.
‘Totally Out of Control’: Nigel Farage Predicts 30,000 Illegal Migrants Will Land in Britain This Year
Breitbart – Brexit leader Nigel Farage has predicted that 30,000 illegal boat migrants will reach Britain by the end of the year, claiming that the migrant crisis is “totally out of control”.
Speaking from a beach in Dungeness in Kent on Monday, Mr Farage shared more footage of illegal migrants being brought ashore in Britain.
He said that there were a few children on board, which he predicted would be the focus of the mainstream media. However, Mr Farage said that “as ever its over 85 per cent young men between 18 and 30”.
“If they are really refugees and they are coming from countries that are so awful why are they deserting all the women and children, none of this actually adds up,” Farage said.
The Brexit leader also shared footage of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) purportedly bringing migrants ashore at the port of Dover. Mr Farage said that he had spoken to a man who had worked for fifteen years on a lifeboat who resigned as ferrying migrants into Britain was “not what he signed up for”.
Farage said: “These local communities have been part of lifeboats for 200 years, they know what it has become, a taxi service, frankly operating to make the criminal gangs huge amounts of money.
“I’ll predict this, I said eight weeks ago that I thought the number that will come will be 20,000, at this current pace it could even be 30,000. It is totally out of control.”
“I have no confidence that Boris Johnson, Priti Patel, or any of them have the guts or the courage to deal with it,” the Brexiteer lamented.
Jamaica to Petition Queen for Billions in Reparations over Atlantic Slave Trade
Breitbart – Jamaica plans to seek billions of pounds in reparations from the UK as compensation for the Atlantic slave trade.
Olivia Grange, the culture minister in Jamaica, said a petition will be sent directly to the Queen by the attorney general to begin the action.
She said Jamaica was a center of the global slave trade, with the Spanish, then the British, forcibly transporting Africans to work on plantations of sugar cane, bananas and other crops, Reuters reports.
“We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced,” Grange told Reuters in an interview at the weekend, adding her voice to a global drive on the subject.
“Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labour to the benefit of the British Empire,” she added. “Redress is well overdue.”
An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil in Jamaica, according to the National Library of Jamaica.
The Caribbean island nation was a British colony from 1655 until 1962.
Grange has not given a figure being sought however fellow politician Mike Henry said the petition is worth some £7.6bn.
Henry told Reuters: “I am asking for the same amount of money to be paid to the slaves that was paid to the slave owners. I am doing this because I have fought against this all my life, against chattel slavery which has dehumanised human life.”
RT – Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced that Covid jabs will not be mandatory in Germany, not even for healthcare workers, saying such a move would break public trust and people must decide for themselves whether to be vaccinated.
Merkel confirmed that her government currently has no intention of implementing mandatory vaccination as a means of combating the pandemic. Speaking at a press conference at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Tuesday, she confirmed that “we do not intend to go down this road.”
The chancellor expressed concern that a roll-out of mandatory Covid jabs could break the trust between the government and the people, and stated that efforts to make inoculation more appealing were preferable. Figures from the RKI already show that 80% of Germans are largely in favor of being vaccinated.
Jens Spahn, the minister of health, echoed Merkel’s position on resisting introducing a mandatory inoculation scheme, stating that vaccination was a decision to be made by the individual, albeit one that benefited society more broadly.
US sees biggest inflation surge in 30 yrs, with consumer prices rising 5.4%
RT – The US consumer price index jumped higher than expected in June, rising 5.4% compared to the same time last year. This marks its largest monthly gain since 2008, and the biggest surge in inflation the country has seen in 30 years.
Inflation surged 4.5% in June, surpassing the estimate of 3.8%, the US Labor Department reported on Tuesday. With the exception of food and energy, this is the largest shift the indicator has seen since September 1991.
Higher inflation was reflected by the surge in the consumer price index, or CPI, which saw its biggest increase since the 2008 global financial crisis.
California rule bans K-12 students from campus if they refuse to wear masks
The Hill – New state rules in California would require K-12 students to wear a face mask inside classrooms and buildings or be banned from entering school.
Students denied entry to their campus for refusing to wear a mask would be provided an alternate form of education, the regulations state. The rule proposes exceptions be made for students with special health needs or disabilities.
The Los Angeles Times noted that students who forget their masks must be provided a face covering. Local school districts could adopt more rules on top of the required state COVID-19 measures.
California’s new regulations follow federal guidance released last week that lets states set guidelines for how school districts return in the fall amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic.
Pfizer to Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Booster with US Officials
Newsmax – Pfizer says it plans to meet with top U.S. health officials Monday to discuss the drugmaker’s request for federal authorization of a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser acknowledged that “it is entirely conceivable, maybe likely” that booster shots will be needed.
The company said it was scheduled to have the meeting with the Food and Drug Administration and other officials Monday, days after Pfizer asserted that booster shots would be needed within 12 months.
Pfizer’s Dr. Mikael Dolsten told The Associated Press last week that early data from the company’s booster study suggests people’s antibody levels jump five- to 10-fold after a third dose, compared to their second dose months earlier — evidence it believes supports the need for a booster.
On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci didn’t rule out the possibility but said it was too soon for the government to recommend another shot. He said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA did the right thing last week by pushing back against Pfizer’s assertion with their statement that they did not view booster shots as necessary “at this time.”
Fauci said clinical studies and laboratory data have yet to fully bear out the need for a booster to the current two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson regimen.
“Right now, given the data and the information we have, we do not need to give people a third shot,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we stop there… There are studies being done now ongoing as we speak about looking at the feasibility about if and when we should be boosting people.”
He said it was quite possible in the coming months “as data evolves” that the government may urge a booster based on such factors as age and underlying medical conditions. “Certainly it is entirely conceivable, maybe likely at some time, we will need a boost,″ Fauci said.
Oklahoma education board BANS Critical Race Theory from schools and threatens to revoke licenses of teachers who promote it
Daily Mail – Public school teachers in Oklahoma could have their teaching licenses suspended for teaching certain concepts about race and racism under new rules approved Monday by the State Board of Education.
With just one opposing vote, the board approved emergency rules to comply with a bill approved by the Republican-led legislature this year that purports to ban so-called ‘Critical Race Theory.’
The new law prohibits public school teachers of grades K-12 from teaching eight different concepts about race, including that an individual, by virtue of his or race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.
It also prohibits teaching that any individual should feel discomfort or guilt on account of his or her race or sex.
The Republican authors of the bill said it targeted Critical Race Theory, which is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism, although there is no mention in the bill of Critical Race Theory, which is not typically taught in K-12 schools.
Democrats in the Legislature who opposed the bill argued it was a waste of time and addressed a non-existent problem.
Carlisha Bradley, the only black member of the board, voted against adopting the rules, saying she believes the new law and the rules are doing a disservice to students and teachers.
‘With these rules, we are robbing students of having a high-quality education,’ she said.
Several current and former teachers addressed the board and said they support the new rules.
Google fined $590 million in landmark ruling
Daily Caller – Google was fined $590 million Tuesday by a French regulator Tuesday for failing to negotiate with news publishers for use of their content.
France’s Competition Authority issued the €500 million (roughly $590 million) fine after Google repeatedly violated April 2020 orders forcing the company to pay news publishers to display their content in search results, the agency announced in a statement Tuesday. The orders were issued after the tech company failed to comply with a 2019 European Union (EU) copyright law mandating news aggregators such as Google license content from news publishers and press agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“Google’s negotiations with publishers and press agencies cannot be regarded as having been conducted in good faith,” Isabelle de Silva, president of Competition Authority, said in the statement.
While the company struck deals with several publishers, it excluded others and refused to pay publishers when displaying their images, according to the agency. The company also failed to negotiate deals with news agencies seeking compensation when Google would display their syndicated content on other outlets’ sites in search results, the agency said.
“Google refused, as it has been asked several times, to have a specific discussion on the remuneration due for current uses of content protected by neighboring rights,” de Silva said.
Google argued the fine was unreasonably high compared to the revenue the company generated.
“Google last year generated less than 5 million Euros in revenue-not-profit from clicks on ads against possible news-related queries in France,” a Google spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We want to find a solution and reach definitive agreements but this fine is out of all proportion to the amount of money we make from news and we will be reviewing the decision in detail.”
The copyright law Google is accused of violating has been criticized as unworkable and restrictive of free expression, according to the Verge. A similar law mandating news aggregators pay publishers was passed in Australia, leading to Facebook preventing Australian users from sharing news in February, the Daily Caller reported.
“While we are committed to complying with the Copyright Directive and the FCA’s orders, this fine ignores the significant efforts we have made to reach agreements and the reality of how news works on our platforms,” a Google spokesperson told the DCNF.
Dem lawmakers fleeing Texas in bid to block voting bill, could face arrest
The Western Journal – At least 58 Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives are planning to leave the state on Monday to block a voting reform bill and flee to Washington, D.C., where they will seek to rally support for the passage of the For the People Act.
According to NBC News, “The majority of the members plan to fly to Washington, D.C., on two private jets chartered for the occasion and use the time there to rally support for federal voting legislation, the source said. Others will make their own way.”
“The lawmakers risk arrest in taking flight. Under the Texas Constitution, the Legislature requires a quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers be present to conduct state business in either chamber,” the report added.
“Absent lawmakers can be legally compelled to return to the Capitol, and the source said Democrats expect state Republicans to ask the Department of Public Safety to track them down.”
“At least 58 Texas Democrats are leaving the state to deny Republicans a quorum and block a vote on GOP-sponsored voter suppression legislation,” More Perfect Union tweeted. “They’re expected to fly to D.C. to rally Congress to pass the #ForThePeopleAct.”
>> Related: ‘Arrested’ on Return: Greg Abbott Responds to TX Democrats Flying to Washington, DC: Gov. Greg Abbott (R) responded Monday night to Texas Democrats fleeing to Washington, DC, to protest Republican integrity laws efforts by stating the legislators “will be arrested’ on return.
Free Britney Movement Brings Attention to the Issue of Humans Owning Humans
Activist Post – As the country is riveted on the plight of a beautiful, rich and famous young woman struggling with a controlling and costly conservatorship, a growing number of ordinary individuals equally impacted by the abuses that are part and parcel of conservatorship are speaking out.
Britney Spears has become the focal point for a rallying to end abusive conservatorships, also known as guardianships, country wide. While troubling details of control, personal, medical and financial, of the star have now been revealed, there are mounting reports of even more troubling abuses across the US, impacting ordinary individuals.
In a recent and comprehensive rundown of the Spears conservatorship, New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow tips his hat to this reality, reporting:
Conservatorships can protect people who are elderly, or who live with profound disabilities or catastrophic mental illness. But there is also a wide range of alternatives to conservatorship that are less strict than what Spears has experienced, such as conditional powers of attorney or formal shared control of finances. As conservatorship law is written, the court is required to determine that a conservatorship is—and remains—necessary. “In practice,” Zoë Brennan-Krohn, a disability-rights attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said, “this is absolutely not the case. What should be happening is that a judge at a reevaluation hearing would ask, ‘What else have you tried? Why isn’t anything else working?’ And, if the conservator hasn’t shown that they’ve tried less restrictive options, the conservatorship should be suspended. But I’ve never heard of a judge asking that in any situation.”
Motherhood Councillors Forced to Assist Transgenders on Their ‘Chestfeeding Journey’
Breitbart – Councillors at a leading Australian mothers’ support group have alleged that they are being forced into assisting transgender women and gay men in their “chestfeeding” journeys.
Whistleblowers have accused the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) of abandoning its central mission to help new mothers in favour of confirming LGBT ideology around gender.
The ABA allegedly suspended seven councillors after other volunteers made complaints of bullying and harassment over the councillors using the term “mother” on the ABA’s Facebook page.
One of the suspended councillors, Sue, told the Daily Mail Australia: “We are only trained to provide peer support for mothers, not gay men, transmen, queer people, agender or asexual people.”
Sue, who has been with the organisation for over 10 years, said that she and many of her colleagues are uncomfortable providing services to biological males or trans women.
“We do not consent to provide that support. We are experts in mother-to-mother breastfeeding we have no skills in assisting in affirming men in their experimental attempts to breastfeed,” she said.
Sue went on to claim that in November, councillors were told that they “should consider using inclusive language”, sparking fears that the ABA would attempt to erase language around motherhood.
‘Then we were told we’d continue to use our mother-to-mother language but would provide tailored information and support for the LGBTIQ+ families. Then we were told our concerns about providing counsellors’ support for men was inaccurate, misleading and wrong,” she said.
A spokesman for the ABA denied the accusations, saying: “We will not be erasing sexed language such as ‘mother’ or ‘mum’ or ‘mothering’ from our vocabulary, and we have no plans to adopt the use of the language such as ‘chestfeeding’ rather than breastfeeding more generally within the Association.”
Yet, the whistleblower revealed that councillors for the Australian Breastfeeding Association have been subjected to five new training videos produced by the LGBT charity Rainbow Families and that courses on “chestfeeding” and “human milk feeding” will begin this month.
In the videos, Sue claims, the councillors are told when answering phone calls they should not assume that it is a mother and instead should refer to the caller as a “pregnant parent” or “chestfeeding parent”.
Mangoes: Enjoy The Health Benefits in Peak Season
The magnificent mango often dubbed “the king of fruits” is now in peak season. This tasty fruit is a member of a family of flowering plants that bear fruit known as drupes, or stone fruit, which contain a pit in the middle. In a mango, the seed is inside the pit. Mangoes originated in India and Southeast Asia and have been cultivated for over 4,000 years.
According to Healthline, studies have found that mangoes boost the immune system, promote digestive health, and improve eyesight, among other benefits. Here are the healthy details:
- Low in calories, but rich in nutrition. One cup of mango has only 99 calories but contains protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins C, B6, E, K, and folate. The fruit is also a source of copper and magnesium. That one cup provides nearly 70% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin C to aid your immune system and help your body absorb iron.
- High in antioxidants. Mangoes are packed with antioxidants called polyphenols that protect the body’s cells against damage from free radicals to slow the aging process. Studies have shown that mangiferin, a polyphenol found in mango, may reduce the risk of diabetes, and other diseases.
- Protects against age-related macular degeneration. According to Medical News Today, a 2019 study suggested that the antioxidant zeaxanthin found in mango plays a protective role in eye health and could reduce the progression of macular degeneration, a condition that can lead to vision loss.
- Reduces the risk for cancer. A Japanese study found that fruits that contain carotenoids, such as mangoes, may reduce the risk of developing colon cancer. In addition, The Skin Cancer Foundation suggests that the antioxidant beta carotene, the nutrient that gives fruits and vegetables their orange color, helps protect against skin cancer.
- Helps prevent diabetes. Several studies have linked consuming mango flesh with reduced blood sugar levels, less body weight, and lowered levels of fats in the blood, according to Medical News Today.
- Prevents heart disease and improves digestion. A study conducted at the University of California, Davis found that eating two cups of mangoes a day had beneficial effects on systolic blood pressure among healthy postmenopausal women. The fiber, potassium, and vitamin content in mangoes also improve arterial function, resulting in a reduced risk for heart disease. The study also found that this delicious fruit improves our intestinal and gut flora.
- Boosts skin and hair health. Mangoes support hair health according to Medical News Today. That is because the fruit contains vitamin A, which boosts the production of sebum, an oily substance that moisturizes the skin and hair.
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