Brazil: New Evidence of Army Role in Rio Ambush

  (HRW) – New accounts by witnesses suggest that the killers of a group of people in a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro on November 11, 2017, were members of the army special forces, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch interviewed two witnesses and reviewed witness accounts from case files indicating that the clothing and gear of the killers were the same as those of the army personnel who arrived on the scene minutes later. “Today marks six months of suffering for the survivors and for the…

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How Misogyny, Narcissism and a Desperate Need for Power Make Men Abuse Women Online

(Conversation) – “Another morning, another bit of casual misogyny & abuse”, ABC journalist Leigh Sales lamented last week after receiving a tweet accusing her of “virtually” performing sexual acts on her 7.30 guests. Sales’s comments draw our attention back to the abuse routinely encountered by women, people of colour and LGBTQ people on social media. Indeed, such online encounters appear to be so routine for journalists such as Sales that they are a mundane occurrence. Of course, the abuse of women and minority groups in high-profile positions is, sadly, not…

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As Russia’s government effort to ban Telegram falters, digital activists are pranking the censorship agency

(GV) – Russia’s so-called “Digital Resistance” has struck out against the country’s internet blacklist, an ever-growing list of websites censored by the Russian government. Since April 16, Russia’s media regulatory agency Roskomnadzor has been trying — with mixed results — to block Telegram, a popular mobile messaging service. Since then, the blacklist, or registry of blocked websites, has grown and shrunk many times. The collateral damage of their approach has been enormous. Millions of unrelated IP addresses and internet services were blocked when the agency went after internet cloud services…

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Revealed: the US ‘Christian fundamentalists’ behind new Netflix film on millennial sex lives

United States (OpenDemocracy) – Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution, a new film on Netflix, sells itself as an up-close look at millennial ‘hookup culture.’ It follows students at ‘Spring Break’ beach parties in Florida and shows how ‘sex doesn’t mean anything,’ in the words of one man who’s filmed casually slapping butts and kissing strangers. The Vice-style feature includes stunning aerial views of the coast, electronic music, and disturbing footage of apparent sexual assault. What the film and Netflix don’t tell you is that it was made by a US Christian…

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Hijabs and mini-skirts: What not to wear in Tajikistan

(GV) – There are companies that require staff to wear a certain style of dress. There are schools where a certain form of dress is mandatory. There are events which include a note on the invitation suggesting the style of clothing guests should wear. And there is a country which is trying to implement a dress code for its women, dictating everything from what they should wear at home to the garments they should wear at public events, concerts, in public buildings, or simply on the street. The country which…

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Pest Horror Stories That Will Make You Go on a Cleaning Spree

If cockroaches coming out of an electrical outlet sounds like something from a horror movie, think again. While virtually everyone will deal with a pest infestation from time to time, nothing compares to these homeowners who almost had to burn their house down to get rid of the pests. 1. When Bees Move In Source: Arete Pest Control For Loretta Yates of Ontario, Canada, the yellow, sticky substance that was dripping from the ceiling of the first floor in their house wasn’t sap, but honey that had accumulated from nearly…

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Can Ireland Escape the Influence of Dark Online Advertising on its Abortion Referendum?

Ireland (OpenDemocracy) – The mood music sounds a bit better this time – at least for now. Both Google and Facebook have this week vowed to ban ads from “foreign actors” trying to influence Ireland’s upcoming abortion referendum, after journalists and campaigners exposed how foreign and alt-right groups are funnelling unregulated cash into the campaign, and exploiting loopholes to target Irish citizens via social media. Ireland currently has some of the world’s most restrictive abortion laws, denying women and girls access to terminations even in cases of rape or incest. Over the years there have been horrifying…

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Latest Sudanese Attacks on Darfur Show Protection Needs

(HRW) – Today, the United Nations Security Council will get a briefing on the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region. Since March, government-led attacks have surged against dozens of villages in Jebel Mara, a restive mountainous rebel stronghold in central Darfur, resulting in killings, widespread destruction, looting, and mass displacement. The latest report of UNAMID, the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission, calls the situation in Darfur “generally stable” with some “low scale skirmishes.” With such a gloss-over assessment from peacekeepers, there’s a real risk the dire protection needs of civilians will…

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E. Coli Contamination

(DoomAndBloom) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that food poisoning from romaine lettuce harboring the bacteria E. Coli spread recently to 29 states and sent at least 150 people to the hospital. The areas involved include all parts of the country from Florida to North Dakota to California, and new cases are making it the worst E. Coli outbreak nationally since 5 people died and 200 were hospitalized in 2006. Although E. Coli is a common inhabitant of the intestinal tract, some strains, especially O157:H7,  produce a…

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Armed detainees engage in hostile takeover of Indonesian high security prison

(GV) – A prison riot involving forty convicted terrorists is currently unfolding in Depok, a West Javan city adjacent to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. The riot began on Tuesday evening local time at Mobile Brigade Command Headquarters (Mako Brimob), a high security prison whose inmates include those convicted of terrorism. According to official reports, a standoff occurred as a result of a simple misunderstanding over food between one inmate and a member of Densus 88, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism squad. The situation escalated quickly as the inmate incited others to action, took…

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