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Category: Media and Culture,
$180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge
The global plastic binge which is already causing widespread damage to oceans, habitats and food chains, is set to increase dramatically over the next 10 years after multibillion dollar investments in a new generation of plastics plants in the US.
…The new facilities – being built by corporations like Exxon Mobile Chemical and Shell Chemical – will help fuel a 40% rise in plastic production in the next decade
…“Around 99% of the feedstock for plastics is fossil fuels, so we are looking at the same companies, like Exxon and Shell, that have helped create the climate crisis. There is a deep and pervasive relationship between oil and gas companies and plastics.”
…The huge investment in plastic production has been driven by the shale gas boom in the US. This has resulted in one of the raw materials used to produce plastic resin – natural gas liquids – dropping dramatically in price.
…“There has been a revolution in the US with the shale gas technologies, with the fracking, the horizontal drilling. The cost of our raw material base has gone down by roughly two thirds.”
…“In the US, fossil fuel and petrochemical companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars to expand plastic production capacity… All this buildout, if allowed to proceed, will flood the global market with even more disposable, unmanageable plastic for decades to come.”
…A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute with most ending up in landfill or the sea.
$180bn investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge | Environment | The Guardian
Again, straws aren’t really the problem, folks.
Quote from Ford’s testimony spray-painted on Yale Law School entrance
A quote from Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was spray-painted outside the entrance to Yale Law School before being removed later on Monday.
…“Indelible in the hippocampus is the laughter …” was written on the concrete in paint.
Quote from Ford’s testimony spray-painted on Yale Law School entrance | TheHill
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Everyone saw the French Quarter attack. Few saw the mental health care failures behind it.
A review of Paul’s UMC medical records by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune raised significant questions. Four hours after he was admitted, a doctor wrote that Paul was “having auditory hallucinations” and that he was “a potential threat to himself and other people as well as gravely disabled.”
This assessment gave the hospital a legal right to involuntarily commit Paul for up to three days for observation and treatment, with the possibility of holding him an additional 12 days following a re-examination by the coroner. And yet doctors still chose to discharge him, just one day later.
Behavioral health experts said this is not uncommon, that people in need of psychiatric treatment are released on a regular basis, a result of the state’s gutting of its mental health care funding and infrastructure.
…Paul is one of hundreds of homeless kids who cycle through Covenant House and other outreach programs every year, Foots said, many suffering from the same mental health disorders as him, some more severe. If the level of care doesn’t improve, and if hospitals continue to turn away people in need because they lack the necessary beds and funding, she fears what happened to Paul and the men he injured could become more commonplace.
“I work with these kids every day and I know they are all very troubled,” Foots said. “I see their mental illness, but they rarely get the help they need. Just like Dejuan. Those damn voices in his head got ahold of him and he just lost it.”
…He paced frantically while hitting himself and repeating, over and over again, that he needed his medicine.
Then, as if someone pulled a string, he slumped to the floor near the kitchen.
Foots knelt down, her face inches from Paul’s, and locked eyes with him. She said he needed to focus, that he was in control of his mind, no one else. Ignore the people in your head, she instructed him. Staff members told Foots to keep her distance. She refused.
…“The police told me when they got him, ‘At least he’s going to emergency. They’re going to give him some medicine. He’s going to be better and everything is going to be good,’” Foots said. “And that’s what I told Dejuan, but that’s not what happened.”
…Paul was given 10 mg of Zyprexa, an antipsychotic typically prescribed to people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. A toxicology screen came back positive for marijuana. Paul confessed that he smoked marijuana every day since he was 15 and that over the past several weeks he had rarely slept more than four hours a night.
…According to his medical records, Paul told the doctors at UMC he had “racing thoughts about everything and feels stuck in his own head.” If he could get some Vyvanse, a drug prescribed to people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said he would feel “much better and everything would be OK.”
…In this case, however, despite receiving confirmation of Paul’s diagnosis and prior care, UMC doctors refused to give him his medication, his medical records show. There was no explanation provided in the records.
…Warden Perry Stagg, who was seated nearby, interjected to ask Paul if he had been given his medication at the prison. When Paul said no, that the nurse said they can’t prescribe it, Stagg said they would try to figure out potential substitutes “to get him back where he needs to be.”
Since former Gov. Bobby Jindal gutted the mental health care system, taking care of people like Paul has become part of the prison’s job, Stagg said.
“Unfortunately, the Department of Corrections has become the de facto mental health hospital for the state,” he said. “We need to get these mental health services back available on the street and try to catch some of these guys before they commit a crime.”
…“I’m an old, conservative Republican, a lock‘em up and throw away the key kind of guy. Until I came to the Department of Corrections and realized that, hey, that’s not always the answer. There are reasons for some of this stuff and some of this stuff can be corrected.”
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Trump administration could use military bases to export coal, gas
Zinke said the strategy is being considered as a way to thwart opposition by California, Oregon and Washington leaders to allowing export terminals in their states to sell coal or gas to Asia.
…Zinke said that may involve using “some of our naval facilities, some of our federal facilities on the West Coast.”
In his AP interview, Zinke only mentioned one possible facility for natural gas exports: the Adak Naval Air Facility in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, which closed in 1997.
…They are also working on a plan to keep uneconomical coal and nuclear power plants open, citing national security as the justification.
Trump administration could use military bases to export coal, gas | TheHill
WTF?!
Subverting the rule of law and co-opting the military to prop up failing industries? Not even pretending the Trump WH isn’t bought and paid for anymore….
Hungary’s constitution makes street homelessness a crime
The new provision, which went into effect Monday, bans “habitual residence in a public space” and gives police the authority to remove rough sleepers from the streets and confiscate their belongings.
Under amended Article 22 of the revised constitution, homeless people who refuse to go to shelters will be forced to participate in public work programs, which they can avoid only by paying a fine. If they are unable to pay those fines, they will face time in prison.
…Farha added that there were insufficient emergency shelter spaces to accommodate Hungary’s homeless population, estimated at more than 10,000 people.
…In 2013, the government first adopted a law that made sleeping in a public place a criminal offense and allowed for police to fine those who do so. That 2013 law passed after a law that criminalized homelessness was reversed by Hungary’s Constitutional Court on the ground that it violated the right to human dignity
Hungary’s constitution makes street homelessness a crime – CNN
Jeezus…
Kenya must deal with Chinese racial discrimination
A few weeks ago, an investigative journalist revealed that Kenyan workers at the Chinese-built railway were being subjected to repeated incidents of racial discrimination and abuse by their Chinese supervisors. The report also alleged that the China Road and Bridge Corporation, the Chinese conglomerate that operates the 473-kilometer (293 miles) Nairobi-Mombasa railway, was implementing a deliberate segregation policy.
Other allegations were that Chinese nationals were doing jobs that should have been done by Kenyans, and that highly qualified Kenyan staff were assigned minor roles. It’s also alleged that Kenyan workers were segregated from their Chinese colleagues in eating areas, toilets, accommodation and travel. The journalist also uncovered pay disparities on the basis of race. Unfair treatment, long working hours, threats, and harassment were also reported.
Kenya must deal with Chinese racial discrimination — Quartz Africa
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Woman fired after blocking black man from entering his apartment building – CBS News
A white St. Louis woman was fired from her job Sunday after she tried to prevent a black man from entering the luxury apartment building where he lives. D’Arreion Toles said he was returning home from work when the unidentified tenant physically blocked him from entering the building at the Elder Shirt Lofts in the city’s downtown.
Tribeca Luxury Apartments in St. Louis said it was “disturbed” by the interaction in the video and confirmed the woman in the video was an employee, CBS affiliate KMOV reports. After reviewing the incident, the company said the woman was terminated from her position. It noted that the incident did not happen at one of its properties.
Woman fired after blocking black man from entering his apartment building – CBS News
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Russian Orthodox Church cuts ties with Constantinople | World news | The Guardian
The Russian Orthodox Church has announced it will break off relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople in a religious schism driven by political friction between Russia and Ukraine.
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church elected on Monday to cut ties with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is viewed as the leading authority for the world’s 300 million Orthodox worshippers.
The split is a show of force by Russia after a Ukrainian church was granted independence.
Last week Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the “first among equals” of eastern Orthodox clerics, granted autocephaly (independence) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which previously answered to Moscow.
Russian Orthodox Church cuts ties with Constantinople | World news | The Guardian
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Trump’s Attacks on the Press Are Illegal. We’re Suing.
In the Trump era, nasty rhetoric, insults and even threats of violence have become an occupational hazard for political reporters and commentators. To be sure, a good portion of President Trump’s verbal attacks on journalists and news organizations might be considered fair game in this bare-knuckled political moment. The president has free-speech rights just like the rest of us, and deeming the news media “the enemy of the American people” and dismissing accurate reports as “fake news” are permissible under the First Amendment.
But the First Amendment does not protect all speech. Although the president can launch verbal tirades against the press, he cannot use the powers of his office to suppress or punish speech he doesn’t like. When President Trump proposes government retribution against news outlets and reporters, his statements cross the line. Worse still, in several cases it appears that the bureaucracy he controls has acted on his demands, making other threats he issues to use his governmental powers more credible. Using the force of the presidency to punish or suppress legally protected speech strikes at the heart of the First Amendment, contravening the Constitution.
…President Trump has engaged repeatedly in precisely the kind of behavior those courts have found unlawful.
…Trump has also repeatedly attacked the Washington Post and threatened to target its owner Jeff Bezos’s biggest holding, Amazon. This spring the president followed through on his threats, ordering the Postal Service to review rates for the online shopping behemoth. Coming in the wake of the president’s eruptions directed at the Post, that order too appears to be punitive.
…Trump threatened to withdraw the press credentials of reporters who criticized him; in August CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was barred from a Rose Garden press conference for asking questions the White House judged impertinent.
Trump’s Attacks on the Press Are Illegal. We’re Suing. – POLITICO Magazine
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Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
Migrants have long streamed out of Central America in large numbers, increasingly as family units, in attempts to flee poverty and violence.
The “Northern Triangle” of Central America — Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador —rank among the most violent in the world, though homicide rates have fallen in recent years. Drug cartels move illegal merchandise through the region and street gangs control neighborhoods and routinely charge residents “rent” (a euphemism for extortion payments).
Caravans of migrants regularly convene as participants seek safety in numbers. Undocumented migrants transiting Mexico often fall victim to crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and rape — often committed by criminal gangs, drug cartels, coyotes and crooked public officials.
Analysts say most migrants are not dissuaded by the risk of the road and ignore admonishments from the U.S. government, or anti-immigrant sentiments that appear to be more prevalent in the country, because the situation is that dire in their own countries.
“Many Hondurans are or were leaving behind gang or domestic violence in marginalized neighborhoods, where government services are lacking and the day to day life may be controlled by the dominant gang,” said Stephanie Leutert director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.
Mexico sends federal police to stop caravan of U.S.-bound migrants
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Sabarimala: Mobs attack women near India Hindu temple
Crowds of agitated protesters in Kerala attacked female devotees, many of whom turned back as a result.
Several people including an old woman were injured as crowds threw stones at vehicles and attacked police officers.
…But while most Hindu temples allow women to enter as long as they are not menstruating, the Sabarimala temple was unusual in that it was one of the few that do not allow women in a broad age group to enter at all.
This was overturned by the Supreme Court last month, with judges observing that “the right to practice religion is available to both men and women”.
Sabarimala: Mobs attack women near India Hindu temple – BBC News
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