In Stunning Rebuke, UN Votes To Investigate Israel For Gaza Mass Shootings

by Tyler Durden
Fri, 05/18/2018 - 17:00

The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) just issued a stunning rebuke to Israel, voting through a resolution calling on the council to "urgently dispatch an independent, international commission of inquiry... to investigate all alleged violations and abuses... in the context of the military assaults on large scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018," while the UN human rights chief slammed Israel's "wholly disproportionate response."

The UN's top human rights body passed the resolution with 29 votes in favor, two opposed and 14 abstentions.

The two HRC members in opposition were the United States and Australia (the UK abstained), with Israel condemning the vote, which was proposed by a group of countries including Pakistan. Both the US and Israel criticized the resolution's language for failing to mention Hamas the militant group ruling over Gaza which Israel blames for the scores of civilians killed during the 'Great March of Return' protests.



Image via Business Recorder

On Monday 60 Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli live fire as protesters approached the border fence area. The following day U.N. leadership issued a scathing critique of Israel's actions, with the U.N.'s human rights commissioner identifying women, children, journalists, first responders and bystanders as among the dead. "We condemn the appalling, deadly violence in Gaza yesterday," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Though the U.N. commissioner acknowledged the Palestinians' attempt to break down and damage the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, he added that this did "not amount to a threat to life or serious injury and are not sufficient grounds for the use of live ammunit...

Three tourists are the first global cases of a new strain of 'super-gonorrhoea' which is resistant to antibiotics, a new report has warned. Two Australians and the British man picked up the sexually-transmitted disease (STD) while having unprotected sex in south-east Asia. The Brit's case came to light earlier this year, when Public Health England confirmed he had been infected, before later revealing he had been successfully treated. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report, published this month, confirmed that two more tourists, both from Australia, picked up the infection.

This video says about itself:

Vatican Defends Appointing Chilean Bishop Accused of Hiding Abuse

31 March 2015

The Vatican on Tuesday strongly defended its appointment of a bishop in Chile despite protests by critics who have accused him of covering up sexual abuse. Juan Barros was installed on March 21 as new bishop of Osorno as supporters holding white balloons and opponents carrying black ones shouted at each other during the ceremony in the citys cathedral. The appointment outraged some parishioners, national legislators and abuse victims who said Barros had protected one of the nations most notorious pedophiles and asked Pope Francis to rescind it. Critics in Chile say Barros was aware of and helped cover up abuse by Father Fernando Karadima, 84, who was a mentor to a number of younger priests, including Barros.

Translated from Dutch NOS TV today:

All Chilean bishops offer resignation due to abuse scandal

All 34 Chilean bishops have submitted their resignation to Pope Francis. They resign because of the abuse scandal within the Catholic Church...

A neighbour objected to a young couple from Newcastle being naked in their own home. "We are sick of seeing big bums, big boobs and little willy," was the core message of the note, crescendoing to: "We will report you both for indecent exposure." It is such a small thing, banal, without consequence. It connects to no wider narrative and conveys nothing but the bubbling discomfort of human beings living near each other. Yet when Karin Stone (one of the nakeds) posted the note on Facebook, 15,000 people pored over it. An Australian radio show interviewed her. I have got to be honest, I am heavily emotionally invested in the story myself and I do not regret a second of the time I have spent reading about it. There is a through-line to these spurts of emotion we get from spectatorship: the subject matter is not important. It could be human rights abuse or a party-wall dispute; it does not matter, so long as it delivers a shot of righteous anger. Bile connects each issue. I look at that note, the prurience and prissiness, the mashup of capital and lower-case letters, the unlikeliness that its author has a smaller bum or a bigger willy, and I feel sure they voted for Brexit. The neighbours are delighted by their disgust for these vigorous, lusty newlyweds, I am delighted by my disgust for the neighbours, radio listeners in Australia are delighted. We see rage and we meet it with our own, always wanting more. There was the mean note left on the car of a disabled woman ("I witnessed you and your young able-bodied daughter ... walk towards the precinct with no sign of disability"); the crazed dyspepsia of the woman whose driveway was blocked briefly by paramedics while they tried to save someone's life. Last week, Highways England felt moved to launch a campaign against road rage, spurred by 3,446 recorded instances in a year of motorists driving straight through roadworks. Violent crime has not gone up - well, it has, but this is thought mainly to reflect better reporting practices - but violent fantasies are ablaze. Political discourse is drenched in rage. The things people want to do to Diane Abbott and Luciana Berger make my eyes pop out of my head.

Australian scientists have identified a risk to the kelp forests of the oceans, a new way in which carbon dioxide can change the world. Ever more acidic oceans could encourage weedy submarine grasslands to replace the rich habitats of the coastal kelp forests.

Although most climate change forecasts are based on computer simulation, this one has been tested in the real world. The scientists used natural volcanic seeps rich in carbon dioxide to observe the changes to sea floor ecosystems as water chemistry changes with greater levels of dissolved CO2.

Carbon emissions might boost plant life in the oceans, but not all plant life will benefit equally, said Sean Connell, of the Environment Institute at the University of Adelaide.

Weedy species are quicker to capitalise on nutrients, such as carbon, and can grow faster than their natural predators can consume them.

Weedy turf wins

Unfortunately, the CO2 that humans are pumping into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels gets absorbed by the ocean and favours weedy turfs, which replace kelp forests that support higher coastal productivity and biodiversity.

He and colleagues from Australia, the US, New Zealand, Italy and Hong Kong report in the journal Ecology that they made a series of samples of submarine plant growth at natural volcanic vents in New Zealands Bay of Plenty: they looked at rocky reefs on which grew a mosaic of kelp and turf algae, along barren stretches grazed by sea urchins and a native New Zealand mollusc.

They chose the sites because the levels of carbon dioxide and therefore the measures of acidity in the water were roughly what climate scientists would predict for the end of this century, if humans go on releasing greenhouse gases.

They found that ecosystems changed with shifts in water chemistry. While elevated CO2 caused some weeds to be eaten in greater amounts, the dominant sea urchin predator ate these weeds at reduced amounts. This enabled the weeds to escape their natural controls and expand across coasts near the elevated CO2, Professor Connell said.

The slow but inexorable changes in ocean acidity will have inevitable consequences for coastal protection offered by natural ecosystems. Kelp forests provide habitat or nourishment for seals, sea otters, sea lions, whales, cormorants, gulls, terns and shore birds as well as fish. There is evid...

Threat is not a possible future one but one endangering Australia now, parliament toldSign up to receive the top stories in Australia every day at noon Climate change is a current and existential national security risk to Australia, a Senate inquiry has told parliament, one that could inflame regional conflicts over food, water and land, and even imperil life on Earth.The Senate committee inquiry into the implications of climate change for Australia's national security recommended an [...]

Evereden products are formulated with input from Stanford and Harvard doctors.

Today, a new baby skincare brand called Evereden hits the market, joining the growing movement to make safer beauty products. While brands like Beautycounter and California Baby focus primarily on the United States, Evereden has global aspirations, hoping to tap into Asian and Australian markets in addition to North America.

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This 2015 video from the USA says about itself:

What the heck is a crinoid? They might be one of the most common fossils this side of the Rocky mountains but they are seriously cool.

From the British Antarctic Survey:

Major shift in marine life occurred 33 million years later in the South

May 17, 2018

A new study of marine fossils from Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and South America reveals that one of the greatest changes to the evolution of life in our oceans occurred more recently in the Southern Hemisphere than previously thought. The results are published today (17 May 2018) in the journal Communications Biology.

The Marine Mesozoic Revolution (MMR) is a key theory in evolutionary history. While dinosaurs ruled the land, profound changes occurred in the shallow seas that covered the Earth.

During the Mesozoic, around 200 million years ago, marine predators evolved that could drill holes and crush the shells of their prey. And although small in comparison to dinosaurs, these new predators, including crustacea and some types of modern fish, had a dramatic impact on marine life.

Among the species most heavily affected were sea lilies or isocrinids invertebrates tethered to the seafloor by...

New Zealand police have raided a family-operated emu farm suspected of operating as an illegal animal brothel.

Michael Wilson, 43, and his two sons Phillip, 28, and Andrew, 14, have been arrested and accused of illegally operating an animal brothel.

Twenty-six people were also arrested during the raid for their suspected involvement in sexually related activities with animals on the farm.

It was totally disgusting. They would host these parties where the guests would run around naked chasing the birds all night long, one neighbor told local reporters.

The Wilson family-operated farm had been undergoing financial stress these past years and local neighbors were apparently aware of the unusual activities.

Michael was pretty open about the whole thing. He didnt care if some sick Aussie tourists were into screwing with his birds. He even joked that it made the meat leaner, a local man told reporters under the cover of anonymity.

Sex between two consenting adults in exchange for money is legal but a sexual relationship between a human and a bird is not? he argued.

Although the Prostitution Reform Act of 2003 has officially decriminalized prostitution in New Zealand, bestiality and zoosexual activity are still prohibited by law.

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