Bulgarians unfazed by anti-Roma hate speech from deputy prime minister

Shame!

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Bulgaria’s deputy prime minister, Valeri Simeonov, has been found guilty of hate speech against Roma — but has not been asked to step down. Prejudice against Roma is widespread in Bulgaria.

Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Mr Trump sought to dismiss George Papadopoulos, who has provided key evidence in the first criminal case connecting Mr Trump’s team to alleged intermediaries for Russia’s Government.”Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!” Mr Trump tweeted. Mr Trump had called Mr Papadopoulos an “excellent guy” last March and tweeted a picture with him at a “national security meeting” in Washington.

Source: Donald Trump blasts aide at centre of Russia probe George Papadopoulos as a ‘proven liar’ – Donald Trump’s America – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Trolls force shutdown of French anti-harassment hotline

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Phone number launched as tool for women being pestered by over-insistent men closes after intimidation and death threats

Internet trolls carrying out an orchestrated campaign of intimidation and death threats have forced the shutdown of a French telephone hotline aimed at shaming men who refuse to take no for an answer.

The anti-harassment phone number was launched on Friday afternoon as a tool for women being pestered by over-insistent males.

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Bus Driver Says He Honked At Citi Biker Before Fatally Running Him Over

Bus Driver Says He Honked At Citi Biker Before Fatally Running Him Over

Dan Hanegby, the 36-year-old man killed by a commercial bus driver in Chelsea this June, did not swerve into a bus moments before he was fatally struck, prosecutors said Tuesday. Instead, the criminal complaint against bus driver Dave Lewis states that he honked at Hanegby, then struck and killed the cyclist in the process of passing him. [ more › ]

Trump to Appoint Anti-Feminist To Key Women’s Rights Position

Trump intends to nominate a woman named Penny Young Nance as ambassador-at-large for global women’s issues. As such, she’d be responsible for managing the State Department’s programs to fight gender-based violence and promote women and girls’ educational and economic achievement.

Here’s the problem: Penny Young Nance has made her career standing in the way of girls’ and women’s rights.

Nance is the President and CEO of Concerned Women For America (CWA), an organization whose mission statement says it “protects and promotes Biblical values and Constitutional principles” in America. The group is as far-right as it gets, and Nance is basically a bargain Phyllis Schlafly — a reactionary zealot getting rich by selling out women and giving the right cover for the right’s openly misogynistic, anti-LGBTQ agenda.

Here’s just a sampling of where Nance and CWA stand:

  • CWA opposed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, partly because it “creates new protections for homosexuals” and partly because it “encourages the dissolution of marriages.” Of course the only marriages that VAWA helps dissolve are abusive ones, but I guess Nance is more concerned with the nuclear family than the 12 million people abused by intimate partners in the United States every year.
  • Remember Jane Doe, the teenage asylum-seeker who the Trump Administration held in custody and prevented from getting an abortion? Penny Nance applauded the Trump Administration’s choice to hold a pregnant minor in detention, deny her access to healthcare, and force her to battle the Trump Administration in court just to exercise her constitutional right to seek an abortion. Nance suggested that Jane could just go home to her parents to “decide what to do” — in other words, that Jane should be deported back to a country where abortion was illegal and returned to parents who beat Jane’s sister to induce a miscarriage.
  • In 2014, when Uganda passed a law designed to put LGBTQ people in jail for life, then-President Obama spoke out against it. CWA condemned Obama for it, saying it was “cultural imperialism.” Weird how conservatives only seem to care about imperialism when it comes to imprisoning gay people! CWA has also said Uganda’s draconian law was “courageous.”
  • Nance applauded Betsy DeVos’ decision to rescind Title IX guidance outlining transgender students’ rights to go to school free from discrimination, suggesting transgender students’ civil rights were mere “political correctness” that were less important than some people who “felt uncomfortable.”
  • Of course, Nance and CWA don’t seem to care much about the 75% of transgender students who feel “uncomfortable” because they’re harassed in school: CWA has lobbied against anti-bullying legislation to protect LGBTQ students and even opposes programs designed to fight bullying. Apparently, telling kids not to call one another names is part of the “pansexual agenda.”
  • CWA lobbied against ENDA, a federal bill to explicitly ban workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people.

Nance even went on Fox to complain about Disney’s “Frozen,” saying that the charming kids movie about two princess sisters who save their Kingdom was bad for “our little boys” who need “ to know that they’re essential. We want to raise heroes. We want to raise real men.” Here I thought almost every movie made since the invention of the video-camera starred boys and men, but sure, whatever, Penny.

Penny Nance is a walking embodiment of the social conservative movement — a woman trying to turn back the clock to the days when women and girls couldn’t choose when to become parents, control our own bodies and economic futures, or even see positive representations of ourselves on TV. No one who opposes women’s rights has any business running an office that’s supposed to empower young women.

The good news: Republicans only have a one-vote majority on the panel that approves ambassador positions, so if all Democrats oppose her and just one Republican joins them, she’s out.

Call your senators. Tell them to keep Penny Nance out of the State Department.

Image credit via.

WHO Update On Plague In Madagascar: 1554 Suspected Cases & 113 Deaths

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The tally from Madagascar’s outbreak of (primarily pneumonic) plague continues to rise with the WHO regional office for Africa’s weekly bulletin on outbreaks and other emergencies – Week 43: 21 – 27 October 2017 now placing the number at 1554 cases and 113 deaths.

This represents a steep increase (245 cases and 20 deaths) over what was just reported by the WHO on Friday (current thru the 26th), and is considerably higher than anything being reported by the Madagascar MOH.

Given the wide spread of numbers we’re seeing, isn’t entirely clear whether everybody is reading from the same page. 

With the caveat that these numbers continue to shift back and forth, here is today’s update from the WHO.

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The outbreak of plague in Madagascar continues to improve, with the number of new cases of pulmonary plague declining in all active areas across the country. In the past 2 weeks, 16 previously affected districts reported no new confirmed or probable cases of pulmonary plague.

From 1 August to 27 October 2017, a total of 1 554 suspected cases of plague, including 113 deaths (case fatality rate 7%), were reported. Of these, 985 (63%) were clinically classified as pulmonary plague, 230 (15%) were bubonic plague, 1 was septicaemic, and 338 were unspecified (further classification of cases is in process). Since the beginning of the outbreak, 71 healthcare workers (with no deaths) have been affected.


Of the 985 clinical cases of pneumonic plague, 245 (25%) were confirmed, 336 (34%) were probable and 404 (41%) remain suspected (additional laboratory results are in process). Fourteen strains of Yersinia pestis have been isolated and were sensitive to antibiotics recommended by the National Program for the Control of Plague.

Between 1 August and 27 October 2017, 28 districts reported confirmed and probable cases of pulmonary plague. During the last two weeks, the number of districts that reported confirmed and probable cases of pulmonary plague reduced to 12.

About 78% (4 825) of 6 203 contacts identified completed their 7-day follow up and a course of prophylactic antibiotics. A total of nine contacts developed symptoms and became suspected cases. On 27 October 2017, 1 055 out of 1 087 (97%) contacts were followed up and provided with prophylactic antibiotics.

         PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS

A high level inter-Ministerial coordination forum, chaired by the Prime Minister, has been established to provide strategic and policy directions to the plague outbreak response. Similarly, the Country Humanitarian Team of the United Nations system established a strategic coordination platform for partners, chaired by the Resident Coordinator.

The health response is coordinated by the Ministry of Public Health, co-led by WHO and supported by agencies and partners directly involved in the health response. The health sector response is organized into four major committees: (i) surveillance, (ii) community engagement and education, (iii) case management, and (v) communication; with the logistics committee crosscutting all committees.

Coordination of partners in the Health cluster has been strengthened to ensure effectiveness, avoid duplication in the field and ensure efficient coverage of the affected areas. The Health cluster is having weekly meetings, with some partners participating in the national coordination platforms.

Cross sectoral non-Health actors (media, transport, defence, education, etc.) are being coordinated by the National Risk and Disaster Management Office (BNGRC).

Nine plague treatment centres have been established, of which six are in Antananarivo. The treatment centres are supported by IFRC, MSF, MdM, UNICEF, and WHO.

USAID provided six mobile clinics to transport patients to hospitals within Antananarivo.

UNICEF supported production of field-tested public awareness/education materials (posters, brochures, radio/television spots). A total of 69 000 posters and brochures have been produced and distributed, including to partners in the Ministries of Transport and Tourism, church groups and other key influencers.

SITUATION INTERPRETATION

While progress has been made in response to the plague outbreak in Madagascar, sustainability of ongoing operations (during the outbreak and through the plague season usually from September to April) remains critical.

Funds for operations are running low, given the fact that only 26% of the multisector response plan has been funded. Additional response logistics such as temperature monitoring equipment (infrared thermometers), rapid diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment, infection prevention and control supplies, and medicines (antibiotics) need to be provided. Efforts to strengthen outbreak control measures should continue. To that effect, partners and the donor community are called upon to provide additional resources (funds, logistics and human capacity) to ensure continuity of the response operations and eventual containment of the outbreak.

How saving West African forests might have prevented the Ebola epidemic | Vital Signs | The Guardian – “Bingo! What I have been saying for past 5 years.”

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa may have surprised most of the medical establishment – this is the first such outbreak in the region – but the risk had been steadily rising for at least a decade. The risk had grown so high, in fact, that this outbreak was almost inevitable and very possibly predictable.All that was needed was to see the danger was a bat’s eye view of the region. Once blanketed with forests, West Africa has been skinned alive over the last decade. Guinea’s rainforests have been reduced by 80%, while Liberia has sold logging rights to over half its forests. Within the next few years Sierra Leone is on track to be completely deforested.This matters because those forests were habitat for fruit bats, Ebola’s reservoir host. With their homes cut down around them, the bats are concentrating into the remnants of their once-abundant habitat. At the same time, mining has become big business in the region, employing thousands of workers who regularly travel into bat territory to get to the mines.

Source: How saving West African forests might have prevented the Ebola epidemic | Vital Signs | The Guardian

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