All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Some London boroughs face significantly high TB rates | Vaccine News

A recent report issued from the London Assembly shows there are specific boroughs within London that have significantly high tuberculosis (TB) rates, despite the nation’s efforts to eliminate the disease.In these boroughs, there are 113 TB cases for every 100,000 people. These rates are notably higher than the ones recorded in Brazil, China, India and Russia.TB is a respiratory illness that is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria can also infect other parts of the body, including the spine.

Source: Some London boroughs face significantly high TB rates | Vaccine News

Ban Ki-moon adds to pressure on UK to stop arms sales to Saudis

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UN secretary general accuses Saudi Arabia of indiscriminate bombing in Yemen and says Britain has duty to stop weapons flow

Britain has come under renewed pressure to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the UN secretary general accused the Saudis of indiscriminate bombing in Yemen and said countries such as the UK had a duty to stop the flow of weapons to Riyadh-led forces.

Speaking in London, Ban Ki-moon said: “Yemen is in flames and coalition airstrikes in particular continue to strike schools, hospitals, mosques and civilian infrastructure.”

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Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Almost 10,000 people have voted in a poll asking if Donald Trump should be banned from entering Australia, with a whopping 73 per cent of them saying he should be denied entry.

Source: Donald Trump: 73 per cent of people in poll say he should be banned from entering Australia – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

france 24 – Thousands of Syrians fleeing Aleppo mass at Turkish border – France 24

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday up to 70,000 people were heading to his country, with 10,000 already waiting at the border.His country hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees.On Friday morning, the main border crossing in northern Aleppo was closed and quiet on the Turkish side near the town of Kilis, with no sign of arriving refugees.But footage released Thursday by activists showed hundreds of people, including many children, heading towards the Turkish frontier, some carrying their belongings in plastic bags on their backs.“We were driven from our homes because of Russia, Iran, Bashar and (Lebanese Shiite militia) Hezbollah,” a child said in the video. “We ask (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan to let us into his territory.”

Source: france 24 – Thousands of Syrians fleeing Aleppo mass at Turkish border – France 24

Knesset attacks Arab members for visiting Palestinian martyr families

PNN/Jerusalem

Earlier this week, Knesset members (MK) of the Joint (Arab) List Hanin Zoabi,  Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas visited the families of some Palestinians killed by the Israeli occupation forces.

This Friday they spoke out to defend themselves once that now, they are being attacked by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by the majority of the Israeli political spectrum.

Their visit came after a request from the relatives of some Palestinians killed by the IOF whom bodies were not return to them.

“We are defending national and human dignity. It is our duty and our right. The real crime is holding onto bodies. It is our duty to do our utmost to get the bodies released,” MK Hanin Zoabi wrote in Arabic on her Facebook page on Friday.

Zoabi was referring to Israel’s policy of delaying the return of bodies of Palestinians killed by the IOF, in an effort to prevent their families to give them proper funerals.

Ghattas also took to Facebook on Friday to defend their actions, accusing Israel of “fascism,”:

“When the trumpets of fascism incite against us, it means that we are protecting human values. We condemn the incitement against party members [as they] perform their duty to help families to return the bodies of their children, which the Israeli authorities hold contrary to international laws and values.”

According to the Israeli media, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein filed complaints with Knesset’s Ethics Committee against the three of them.

“Israeli MKs who visit the families of terrorists who murdered Jews are not worthy of their Knesset seat. I have asked the Knesset speaker to see what actions can be taken against them over this disgrace,” Netanyahu said Thursday.

Yuli Edelstein stated that for him “the meeting constituted outright incitement and encouragement to commit murder. This meeting was a gross infringement against the Knesset and the State of Israel. I hope the High Court of Justice remembers this the next time it debates petitions seeking to disqualify potential MKs.”

Other Knesset members strongly condemned the meeting, and urged both the Ethics Committee and the Attorney General’s Office to censure Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said:

“The Arab MKs are not missing an opportunity to support terrorism. They harm first and foremost their own public, they represent nothing and promote nothing except supporting terrorism and actively working against the State of Israel. The Arab public is the first that should come out against its representatives who act as agents of terrorism and not as its representatives in the Knesset.”

As stated by the Israeli news outlet the Jerusalem Post, if the Israeli Ethics Committee determines the visits of the three MKs were a violation, it can sanction them with suspensions of up to six months from all Knesset activity but voting – a punishment Zoabi received in the past for comments sympathizing with Hamas during Operation Protective Edge (2014 assault on the Gaza Strip) – or a new punishment that has yet to be used, docking their salaries.

 

 

 

 

More drinking water contamination linked to the oil and gas industry in Texas and Pennsylvania

Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, Washington, D.C.

Two recent drinking water investigations in Texas show dangerous levels of contamination.

The larger study tested 550 water samples collected from public and private water wells in the north Texas Barnett Shale region over a three-year period and found that the closer a water well is to a fracked gas well, the higher the concentration of contaminants including arsenic, selenium, strontium, and barium. This investigation also found “alarming” levels of benzene, a known carcinogen.

A smaller study in in south Texas sampled water quality in 80 homes in the Eagle Ford shale region. Of the 80 samples, 20 (25%) showed contamination with high levels of bromide. According to the scientist who conducted the investigation: “almost exclusively those were found within one kilometer of the drilling sites.” The sampling also found a few occurrences of volatile organic compounds that are dangerous to human health.

Bromide is known to be found in oil and gas wastewater, and when combined with chlorine, which is often used in drinking water disinfection, it can form highly toxic byproducts known as trihalomethanes.

In Pennsylvania, a 2015 report issued by Public Herald, a non-profit team of journalists, looked at transparency and procedural problems at the Pennsylvania Department of the Environment by reviewing hundreds of files where water had been contaminated. Back in 2014 I blogged about 248 cases in Pennsylvania where oil and gas companies contaminated private drinking water supplies. Public Herald looked at those and others. Among other things, the report found:

  • DEP used post-drilling water tests to determine contamination in some cases, instead of baseline water tests.
  • DEP never issued determination letters on some cases.
  • DEP does not issue determination letters when a homeowner is working to resolve the issue directly with the oil and gas company, so there are no public records of contamination for those cases.
  • Files were destroyed after only five years.
  • DEP issued different conclusions to homes near each other with similar complaints.

The report includes valuable analysis and offers a roadmap for state regulators to improve their complaint and enforcement process.

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