‘Too Ugly to Be Raped’: Italy’s Highest Court Rules Attractiveness Irrelevant in Sexual Assault Case
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Category: Europe,
Denmark MP told she was ‘unwanted’ after bringing baby to parliament
The Scandinavian country has one of the most generous parental leave policies in the world.
It allows new mothers a statutory minimum of 18 weeks leave. The parents are given an additional 32 weeks to divide up as they see fit.
Denmark MP told she was ‘unwanted’ after bringing baby to parliament – Business Insider
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Ireland Imprisoned ‘Fallen Women’ In Religious Run Work Camps for over two hundred years
For more than two centuries, women in Ireland were sent to institutions like Donnybrook as a punishment for having sex outside of marriage. Unwed mothers, flirtatious women and others deemed unfit for society were forced to labor under the strict supervision of nuns for months or years, sometimes even for life.
…When the Magdalene Movement first took hold in the mid-18th century, the campaign to put “fallen women” to work was supported by both the Catholic and Protestant churches, with women serving short terms inside the asylums with the goal of rehabilitation. Over the years, however, the Magdalene laundries—named for the Biblical figure Mary Magdalene—became primarily Catholic institutions, and the stints grew longer and longer. Women sent there were often charged with “redeeming themselves” through lace-making, needlework or doing laundry.
Though most residents had not been convicted of any crime, conditions inside were prison-like. “Redemption might sometimes involve a variety of coercive measures, including shaven heads, institutional uniforms, bread and water diets, restricted visiting, supervised correspondence, solitary confinement and even flogging.”
…Initially, a majority of women entered the institutions voluntarily and served out multi-year terms in which they learned a “respectable” profession. The idea was that they’d employ these skills to earn money after being released; their work supported the institution while they were there.
But over time, the institutions became more like prisons, with many different groups of women being routed through the system, sometimes by the Irish government. There were inmates imported from psychiatric institutions and jails, women with special needs, victims of rape and sexual assault, pregnant teenagers sent there by their parents, and girls deemed too flirtatious or tempting to men. Others were there for no obvious reason.
…Often, women’s names were stripped from them; they were referred to by numbers or as “child” or “penitent.” Some inmates—often orphans or victims of rape or abuse—stayed there for a lifetime; others escaped and were brought back to the institutions.
…Babies were usually taken from their mothers and handed over to other families. In one of the most notorious homes, the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, scores of babies died. In 2014, remains of at least 796 babies were found in a septic tank in the home’s yard; the facility is still being investigated to reconstruct the story of what happened there.
…Estimates of the number of women who went through Irish Magdalene laundries vary, and most religious orders have refused to provide archival information for investigators and historians. Up to 300,000 women are thought to have passed through the laundries in total, at least 10,000 of them since 1922. But despite a large number of survivors, the laundries went unchallenged until the 1990s.
…the last Magdalene laundry finally closed in 1996. Known as the Gloucester Street Laundry, it was home to 40 women, most of them elderly and many with developmental disabilities.
How Ireland Turned ‘Fallen Women’ Into Slaves – HISTORY
Jeezus…
DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago
Iberia was also relatively warm during the last Ice Age, between 18,000 and 24,000 years ago, presenting a more welcoming climate for animals and people who retreated from the rest of Europe.
…The researchers also discovered that between 8000 BC and 5500 BC, Iberia’s hunter-gatherers were genetically different from each other. This suggests that they interacted with a different group of hunter-gatherers during the Mesolithic era before Anatolian farmers, or those from what is presently Turkey, moved to Iberia and transformed the area yet again. The farmers also mixed with hunter-gatherers, according to their DNA
…Beginning in 2500 BC, the researchers discovered, Iberians were joined by people from central Europe whose showed genetic ancestry from the Russian steppe. And over a few hundred years, the locals and the central Europeans interbred.
Before this, there is no evidence that locals came into contact with anyone from outside the area. But that changed after 2000 BC, when 40% of Iberian ancestry and 100% of the fathers in the study could be traced back to central Europe.
…The research also sheds light on why the language and culture of present-day Basques are so distinct from those of Iberians. The modern people of Basque Country, in northern Spain, are genetically similar to the Iberian Iron Age people with ancestry from the Russian steppe. While people around them mixed with different groups and changed, the Basques held on to their heritage.
…Genetic data will need a boost from what anthropology and archaeology can show about the underlying causes for why this Y chromosome shift happened, the researchers said.
DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago – CNN
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Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today
Men who lived on the Iberian Peninsula 4500 years ago …were replaced as new farming cultures swept into the region and drove them out of the gene pool. …The findings suggest that far from being an isolated cul-de-sac of Europe, Iberia experienced massive changes in ancestry, as waves of hunter-gatherers, farmers, Romans, and others mixed with the local population over the course of thousands of years.
…Central Europeans who were descendants of herders from the grasslands of Eastern Europe and Russia, appeared in Iberia, starting in the early Bronze Age 4500 years ago. They probably introduced an early Indo-European language. …At first, the European farmers lived alongside the farmers already in Spain. ….But within a few hundred years, nearly all the Y chromosomes from Iberian farmers were gone—and replaced by the central Europeans farmers’ DNA.
This meant that somehow, the new migrants replaced 40% of genetic heritage of the Spanish and Portuguese. …”The archaeological record gives no clear evidence of a burst of violence in this period.”
…Still more immigrants came in historical times: first Romans and then Muslim North Africans. At one point 500 years ago, far more people of North African ancestry lived in Spain than today, before Christian kingdoms pushed the Muslim states south and eventually expelled them.
Men who lived in Spain 4500 years ago left almost no male genetic legacy today | Science | AAAS
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Men in Spain were almost completely wiped out 4,500 to 4,000 years ago
Iberia’s population has changed drastically over time, from its hunter-gatherer origins before the arrival of farming 7,500 years ago, through to the medieval period and modern times.
…An influx of new people during the later Copper Age. …By the Early Bronze Age, 500 years later, these newcomers represented about 40% of Iberia’s genetic pool – but virtually 100% of their male lineages.
…The same shift was not observed for women whose DNA remained relatively ‘local.’
…’We reveal sporadic contacts between Iberia and North Africa by 2500 BC and, by 2000 BC, the replacement of 40% of Iberia’s ancestry and nearly 100% of its Y-chromosomes by people with Steppe ancestry.’
What is even more striking now is that both Iberia and India had a similar source – a population of early metal-using stock breeders, who lived to the north of the Black Sea on Russian steppe lands, 5,000 years ago.
They fanned out in both directions, west across Europe and east into Asia, their based economy, domesticated horses and wheeled wagons giving them a crucial advantage over the indigenous farming populations.
Moreover, they are also thought to have brought the Indo-European languages spoken across Europe and India today.
Around 2,500 BC, the researchers found, Iberians began living alongside newcomers from central Europe who carried recent ancestry from those people on the Russian steppe.
…’Resolving the population dynamics in western Europe during the Copper and Bronze Ages is a big step towards understanding the origins of the Celtic languages, which were spoken across western Europe before the rise of the Roman Empire.’
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A little surprised the article did not include any known corresponding social/political history. It seems there is a hypothesis to be drawn between the disappearance of a male population and a sustained pattern of invasion and colonization that almost merits mentioning here.
Bisping: Alleged victim is a bit of a d-ck to press charges against McGregor
“Sometimes, you’re not f—king camera ready, because you know that’s going on Instagram, it’s gonna do the rounds, and they’re gonna show the mates. Sometimes, you’re just like ‘You know what, I’d rather just shake your hand, and have a conversation with you for five minutes, and have a real connection. I’m sure that would be more worthwhile for you.’
“But everybody wants it for the ‘gram,” he continued. “It’s all about Instagram, they want to get that picture. And he flipped. He lost his f—king temper and he grabbed the phone and smashed it.
“It’s not a big deal. It really, really isn’t.”
Bisping: Alleged victim is a bit of a d-ck to press charges against McGregor – Bloody Elbow
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Catalan independence leader Carles Puigdemont on the future of Spain and Europe
After an intense seven-year campaign of street mobilizations and a popularly organized referendum in October 2017, Madrid responded with a premeditated campaign of violence. The pro-independence majority in the Catalan parliament, led by Puigdemont, nonetheless kept its promise: It declared independence from Spain later in the same month. Within minutes, the Spanish Senate voted to dissolve the Catalan parliament and schedule new elections to replace it.
…Despite gaping holes and inconsistencies in the state’s case against them for rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds, it is widely expected all of those currently on trial will be found guilty and will serve long prison terms.
…Respect for identities, for the individual and for “the Other,” is the only possible basis for unity. If this respect is not there, we are talking about something very different, something that has very little to do with democracy.
…We are insisting so strongly on respect for the human right of self-determination. We believe doing so puts democracy to the test. And attacking this right, as the Spanish government is now doing, is precisely what puts democracy in danger. This is why we believe that Catalonia is everybody’s business. A retreat from democracy anywhere on the planet affects all of us democrats in the world.
…This is especially the case within the European Union. I am deeply troubled as democracy recedes in Poland and Hungary. I view it as very much my concern. And I am convinced many Europeans and Spanish nationals are concerned when they see that a member state of the EU like Spain is persecuting people and annulling fundamental rights. Why? Because they understand that, in the end, it will affect them.
…We have been attacked every which way by the European populist parties, starting with the Front National in France. Why? Because all these populist movements are rooted in a very dangerous form of nationalism.
…The degeneration of democracy in Spain is real. The latest indicators from a variety of international monitoring groups show that Spain is in retreat when it comes to fundamental rights like freedom of expression. For example, the Council of Europe’s Greco Group, which charts political and judicial corruption, has issued two reports sternly warning of the deficiencies of the Spanish judicial system and alleging that it falls short of basic European standards. And of the 11 recommendations for reform in the first report, issued a few years back, not one has been implemented. They were thus forced to issue a second report reminding Spain of a decision of the European Court of Human Rights condemning Spain’s violation of fundamental liberties by its sentencing of people simply exercising their right to free expression.
…People who come to Catalonia on their own and observe things realize quickly that it is a transversal movement with a spectrum of ideology stretching from anti-system beliefs to liberal-conservatives. It has both Christian Democrats and anarchists. It is a very plural movement, and thus cannot in any way be described as classist.
Seventy percent of all Catalans have a father or a mother, or both, from outside of Catalonia. This shows that Catalonia is, quite fortunately, not even close to being an ethnic reality! We believe a Catalan is anyone who wishes to become one. And no one is excluded from this process. Today there are many people with no Catalan roots at all who have decided to become Catalans. We are in no way a society built on the idea of ethnic homogeneity.
…The Catalan language provides us with cohesion and helps to give us a collective identity. But there are, within the culture, a wide variety of attachments to it. Knowing this affects our approach to immigration. Our language-immersion policy is anti-classist because it aims to ensure that the traditionally Catalan-speaking elites not be the only Catalan speakers. It has gone from being a vehicle of cohesion for some to being a vehicle of cohesion and democratic participation for many. This is why we jealously guard the Catalan linguistic model and see it as yet another proof of the non-ethnic nature of our movement.
…We have used linguistic immersion to insure that virtually everyone is in a position to express themselves comfortably in both of the official languages of Catalonia [Catalan and Spanish]. Other countries have approached issues like this in very different ways, assigning certain students to schools in one language and another group of students to schools in another language. This is precisely how ethnic separation begins. We have always fought vigorously against this.
…I am a European citizen and free man with all the rights of any other European citizen, like Mr. Macron or Mrs. Merkel, except in one place in the world, which is called Spain. If I go to Spain, I will be arrested and face the possibility of 25 to 30 years in prison. Outside of Spain, I am free to go anywhere with no charges pending against me.
So how is this possible? Well, it brings us back to the shortcomings in Spain’s culture of democracy. There is a European legal structure that guarantees me fundamental rights that are not, in fact, recognized in Spain. This is possible because in the European Union — where admittedly there still is a lot of work to be done on political integration — respect for rights generally exists. In Spain, they take an à la carte approach to justice.
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Ritual animal slaughter law leaves Belgium’s Muslims and Jews facing shortages, price hikes
Belgian law had long required animals to be stunned before slaughter to prevent unnecessary pain. It did, however, grant an exception for ritual slaughter, a practice in Islamic and Jewish religious laws in which the animals are not stunned first. Both halal and kosher slaughter require the use of a very sharp knife to slit the animal’s throat in one stroke and sever the major structures and vessels.
…A new law in the Flanders region of Belgium bans the practices required for both halal and kosher meat. That has meant such products have become harder to find and more expensive in recent months.
…Many Muslims feel the laws are a result of Islamophobia rather than a concern for animal rights. For Jews, they are also an uncomfortable reminder of a darker period in European history. In 1933, one of the first laws the Nazis enacted was a ban on kosher animal slaughter.
…With the help of an American legal fund, a group of Muslim and Jewish organizations have taken legal action and hope to overturn the new law. The Belgian Constitutional Court heard their arguments in January and is expected to rule on the case within weeks.
Ritual animal slaughter law leaves Belgium’s Muslims and Jews facing shortages, price hikes
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It’s still ridiculously easy to manipulate Facebook with anger
Some of the content is similar to those Facebook uncovered in the US: alt-right, nationalist, angry, often hateful of minorities. There’s “Politicised”, a group with a big Union Jack sharing content about how gay Christians are bullied by other members of the LGBT community. Another is straight out of the alt-right handbook: “Being A leftist is easy!” it says, “if anyone disagrees with you, call them a racist!”.
Then it gets slightly weirder. The network’s puppeteers “operated fake accounts to engage in hate speech”, Facebook said. But one account was calling for the leader of UKIP to be charged with hate speech. Another fake group was called “Anti Far Right Extremists”. Another, “Halal Speech”. The network was coordinated, but coordinated to share information which was completely contradictory.
…The purpose of this network, why it existed, wasn’t to try to convince you and the rest of the UK of something you didn’t believe beforehand. The point wasn’t to replace one belief with another. Lying wasn’t the full picture. No, it was cleverer than that.
This network wasn’t trying to change your mind, it was trying to confirm it. [emphasis: peanut gallery] To make you even surer that you are right, and make you angrier with the people who are wrong – the internet’s “leftards” or “racists” – than you were before. The messages were poles apart, and all of it was calculated to provoke exactly the same response: outrage. This strategy, a similar one to those uncovered on Twitter in the past, is all about inhabiting both ends of the political spectrum, and to pull them further and further, angrier and angrier apart.
This wasn’t about changing what people thought. It was about changing what people feel, and the issues themselves have always been whatever people are angriest about. We’ve seen online influence campaigns touch on almost everything on which societies profoundly disagree: police brutality, minority rights, gun rights, transgender issues, anti-vaxx, anti-GMO, online privacy concerns, and alleged government corruption. Wedge issues that inflame existing social tensions.
…This wasn’t fake news. This was a covert online influence operation.
…Given the strategy involved, my bet is that the people behind this network are those who would benefit from the UK becoming more divided.
It’s still ridiculously easy to manipulate Facebook with anger | WIRED UK
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg roasted by Damian Collins committee
The report called for urgent regulation of Facebook — including an independent UK body to stamp out harmful or illegal content — and skewered Zuckerberg for refusing to give evidence to the committee three times.
“By choosing not to appear before the Committee and by choosing not to respond personally to any of our invitations, Mark Zuckerberg has shown contempt towards both our Committee and the ‘International Grand Committee’ involving members from nine legislators from around the world,” the 110-page report said.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg roasted by Damian Collins committee – Business Insider
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In Brexit, Could Ireland Wear the Crown?
In other words, as Britain self-combusts, Ireland—with its young workforce, low taxes, and English fluency—is poised to pounce.
…Ahead of the Brexit deadline, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Barclays moved their EU headquarters from London to Dublin in a bid to minimize disruption; Barclays alone has shifted some $215 billion in asset management to the Irish capital. (Both banks declined to comment on the moves.) Rivals Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs have promised to bulk up their own Dublin operations in the face of U.K. uncertainty, even as they maintain offices in the British capital.
…The ascent of Ireland as a global player and the subtle shift in power between it and the U.K. isn’t going over well with some in Britain—namely, the Brexit supporters who remain in Parliament. One Conservative member derided “the obdurate Irish government” for being overly concerned with border issues. Another was widely condemned in December for suggesting that Downing Street use the threat of economic damage, including food shortages, to compel Ireland to agree to a more favorable deal for the U.K.—an uncomfortable echo of the Great Famine of the 19th century. “We simply cannot allow the Irish to treat us this way,” an unnamed member of Parliament reportedly told a BBC columnist that same month, adding: “The Irish really should know their place.”
…The businesses moving to Dublin, Frankfurt, and Paris are not fly-by-night call centers, sweatshops, or hubs of unattractive work. Rather, they are the white-collar, green-collar, and gold-collar jobs upon which the 21st century’s economic power is being built. Ireland seems prepared to grab them all. “Small is beautiful. It keeps us agile,” says Bushnell, herself not quite 5 feet 3 inches. “We can’t scale nationally. We can only scale internationally. Instead of going wide, we are going deep. That has sent us up the value chain. We’re not call centers anymore. People are taking our calls now.”
If it sounds like the giddy optimism of millennial invincibility, that’s because it is: With a median age of 35.9, Ireland has the youngest population in the EU, putting it on par with such booming populations as those of Brazil, China, Qatar, Singapore, and Thailand. (The EU-wide median is 42.8; Germany claims the highest median age at 45.9.) “We always had cachet but were seen as riding coattails, either of the U.K. or the EU,” says Daniel Mulhall, an Irish ambassador who has served in Britain, Germany, India, and is currently ambassador to the U.S. Times have changed. “We became our own country,” he says. “We have our own ideas at last.”
…A cultural revolution has certainly helped make Ireland more internationally attractive. By referendum, Ireland last year rewrote its constitution to legalize abortion, just three years after it legalized gay marriage, also by referendum. The Irish government last year barred the Catholic Church, which controls 90% of the school system on its behalf, from admissions discrimination on religious grounds. Look no further than Taoiseach Varadkar to mark social progress; he is a gay, unmarried, 38-year-old man of Indian and Irish descent who is the head of government in a country that only decriminalized homosexuality in 1993. In the U.S., this would be the equivalent of the first black president taking office in 1888, not long after the abolition of slavery. “It’s no coincidence,” Traynor says, “that the people fighting for our future here are the ones who can still remember living in its past.”
In Brexit, Could Ireland Wear the Crown? | Fortune
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Germany orders Facebook to change the way it gathers data
In future, Facebook will have to seek German users’ explicit consent to collect and combine such data. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office ordered Facebook to come up with proposals for how to do this. If it doesn’t comply, the regulator can impose fines of up to 10% of the company’s annual turnover, or roughly $5.5 billion in this case.
“We are carrying out what can be seen as an internal divestiture of Facebook’s data,” said Andreas Mundt, the president of the antitrust office. “Facebook will no longer be allowed to force its users to agree to the practically unrestricted collection and assigning of non-Facebook data to their Facebook user accounts.”
…The case could have significant implications for Facebook, particularly if other antitrust regulators follow suit. Europe’s top antitrust regulator, the European Commission, said Thursday it took note of the German decision.
“Regulators are starting not just to show their teeth but to actually bite,” said Paul Bernal, a lecturer in media law at the University of East Anglia.
He said cases like this could eventually lead to regulators trying to break up Facebook because of the enormous control over data it has accumulated over the years.
Germany orders Facebook to change the way it gathers data – CNN
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