Author: Sunfire

RT

Are you racist? Your university says you are – even if you don’t say, think, or do racist things – and it’s all down to the color of your skin. Lecturers are now being told to attend seminars to deal with their own “whiteness.”

British universities are encouraging lecturers to acknowledge their “white privilege,” which makes them unwittingly racist. The classes teach university staff that white-skinned people enjoy greater advantages in life due to the color of their skin, and that black staff and students are discriminated against regularly.  Continue reading “‘If you’re white, you’re a racist’: UK university teaching staff to deal with own ‘whiteness’”

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Chinese state-controlled Huarong Asset Management has bought a 36.2 percent stake in the unit of CEFC China Energy through which CEFC is acquiring a $9.1 billion stake in Russian oil giant Rosneft.

According to CEFC filings seen by Reuters, Huarong has bought the stake in CEFC in two tranches, one in December and one in February. Huarong is controlled by China’s Ministry of Finance.  Continue reading “China looking to become co-owner of Russia’s biggest oil company”

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CALEXICO, Calif. (AP) — The daily commute from Mexico to California farms is the same as it was before Donald Trump became president. Hundreds of Mexicans cross the border and line the sidewalks of Calexico’s tiny downtown by 4 a.m., napping on cardboard sheets and blankets or sipping coffee from a 24-hour doughnut shop until buses leave for the fields.

For decades, cross-border commuters have picked lettuce, carrots, broccoli, onions, cauliflower and other vegetables that make California’s Imperial Valley “America’s Salad Bowl” from December through March. As Trump visits the border Tuesday, the harvest is a reminder of how little has changed despite heated immigration rhetoric in Washington.  Continue reading “Ahead of Trump wall tour, little change on US-Mexico border”

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BEIRUT (AP) — Parallel offensives waged by Turkey and the Syrian government on two separate towns in Syria on Monday pushed residents into overcrowded shelters for safety as others tried to flee the advancing forces by road.

Residents and displaced families in the besieged town of Douma in the rebel-held Damascus suburbs of eastern Ghouta were sleeping in shops and in the streets as basements in the town filled up beyond capacity, said Haitham Bakkar, a local resident.  Continue reading “Chaos in 2 towns as Turkish as Syrian forces close in”

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A sudden turn made by a US destroyer lead to a collision with a commercial vessel that killed 10 American sailors, an investigation by Singaporean authorities has concluded.

The incident on August 21 was one of several such collisions last year, which tarnished the reputation of the US Navy. The guided-missile destroyer USS ‘John S McCain’ (DDG-56) collided with a Liberian-flagged merchant ship in the Singapore Strait.   Continue reading “Collision that killed 10 US sailors caused by warship’s mistaken maneuver – official probe”

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Birmingham closed one of its largest schools for a thorough safety sweep Thursday after metal detectors and other security measures failed to keep students from handling a gun in a classroom where one 17-year-old was fatally shot and another wounded in an apparent accident.

Birmingham Interim Police Chief Orlando Wilson said investigators are reviewing surveillance video for clues and interviewing students and staff to figure out exactly what led to Wednesday afternoon’s shooting at dismissal time at Huffman High School.  Continue reading “1 student dead, another hurt by gun in Alabama high school”

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — All eyes are now on Republican Gov. Rick Scott to see if he’ll sign the Florida legislature’s narrowly approved response to last month’s high school massacre of 17 people, a measure that isn’t what he called for, falls short of what survivors demanded and challenges National Rifle Association orthodoxy.

“I’m going to take the time and I’m going to read the bill and I’m going to talk to families,” said Scott, who wouldn’t say whether he’ll sign it. The measure would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and create a waiting period on sales of the weapons. It also would create a so-called guardian program, enabling school employees and many teachers to carry handguns if they go through law enforcement training and their school district agrees to participate.   Continue reading “Will Gov. Rick Scott sign legislature’s compromise on guns?”

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Ubiquitous IT giant Google has silently inked a partnership with the Department of Defense to militarize artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, reinvigorating fears of a Terminator-style apocalyptic scenario.

Google has been secretly working with the Pentagon in order to help its 1,100-strong fleet of drones to detect images, faces, and behavioral patterns, and plans to scour through massive amounts of video footage in order to improve bombing accuracy for autonomous drones. The endgame is to improve combat performance by automating the decision-making process in locating and targeting combatants, The Intercept reported on Tuesday.  Continue reading “All-Seeing Eye: Google working with Pentagon on using AI for drone improvement”

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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — It’s back to school in West Virginia. Teachers across this poor Appalachian mountain state are reopening classrooms Wednesday, jubilant after their governor signed a 5 percent pay raise ending their nine-day walkout.

Teachers expressed relief and exhilaration by breaking out into song Tuesday after legislators approved the pay raise bill, which Gov. Jim Justice swiftly signed. Now the state’s 35,000 public school employees can get back to work — and 277,000 students back to their books.   Continue reading “Back to school: West Virginia teachers return to classroom”

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Now that the Olympic torch in PyeongChang has been extinguished and the athletes and fans have gone home, the US is wrestling with its worst performance in 20 years. Could obesity rates be taking a toll on US athletic performance?

On the surface, Team USA’s total haul of 23 medals, which included nine golds, seems rather respectable. It put the United States in fourth place, behind Norway, Germany and Canada. But not everyone went home satisfied, and least of all the US Olympic Committee, which had predicted US athletes would win at least 37 medals.  Continue reading “Fatpocalypse: Is rising obesity contributing to America’s poor Olympic performance?”

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WASHINGTON (AP) — For Senate Democrats, voting against the Republican tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed into law wasn’t opposition enough. Now they have a plan to reverse some of the tax breaks for corporations and the wealthiest Americans and put the money instead toward a $1 trillion infrastructure package.

The proposal, being unveiled Wednesday, is more campaign theme than actual legislative agenda, since Republicans hold the majority in Congress. But it stands as an alternative to Trump’s approach to both taxes and spending as his infrastructure blueprint has stalled on Capitol Hill.  Continue reading “Democrats would reverse some tax cuts to fund infrastructure”

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An ounce of gold will cost $10,000 as soon as global currencies crash and central banks have to appeal to a gold-backed monetary system, according to Byron King, editor of Jim Rickards’ Gold Speculator.

“If you take the global money supply, back it with 40 percent gold, you need $10,000 gold to make the math work, and that’s just using a 40 percent backing,” he said in an interview with Kitco News on the sidelines of the annual event set by Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC). “And it has to do with the eventual demise of modern currencies.”   Continue reading “Imminent collapse of US dollar & other major currencies will push gold to $10,000 – bullion analyst”

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SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A bill prohibiting domestic abusers and people under restraining orders from owning firearms became America’s first new gun control law since the Feb. 14 Florida high school massacre.

“Well done Oregon,” Democratic Gov. Kate Brown exclaimed Monday after signing the law on the steps of the state Capitol as some 200 people, including victims of domestic abuse and high school students, applauded and cheered.   Continue reading “Oregon governor signs first gun law since Florida massacre”

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — It doesn’t include the assault weapons ban that students who survived Florida’s deadly school shooting demanded of lawmakers, but the state’s Senate narrowly passed a bill that would create new restrictions on rifle sales and allow some teachers to carry guns in schools.

Meanwhile, prosecutors and lawyers for the victims are going to court to handle the aftermath of the Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the court system. Grand jurors are expected to begin hearing evidence on Tuesday against Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old former student who authorities say killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen others when he fired an AR-15 assault-style rifle inside the school.   Continue reading “Florida senators pass gun restrictions; House yet to act”

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The Russian military has said allegations of “hospital bombings” in Eastern Ghouta are false, in a statement issued in response to accusations from the White House that Russia is “killing innocent civilians” in Syria.

Washington’s claims came after the Syrian Army repelled an attack of the US-backed groups, the Russian Defense Ministry said.  Continue reading “False ‘hospital bombing’ claims in Ghouta came after Syrian troops repelled pro-US forces – Russia”

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CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Resistance to the Republican tax overhaul comes with an ideological twist for some Democratic state officials: They’ve styled themselves as champions of the working class but are pushing hard for measures that would reduce taxes mostly for the wealthy.

Democratic governors and lawmakers in a handful of high-income, high-tax states are promoting policies that are intended to spare their residents the pain of the new $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes. Connecticut, New Jersey and New York are even planning to sue the federal government over the new cap, which was a key provision of the Republican tax overhaul adopted in December.   Continue reading “Democrats’ seek to help wealthy in response to tax changes”

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DETROIT (AP) — David Gavitt spent 26 years in prison for the deaths of his wife and two daughters before a prosecutor agreed that the evidence behind his arson conviction was no longer credible. The case helped inspire a Michigan law aimed at compensating the wrongfully convicted.

Yet the state now is vigorously resisting Gavitt’s request for money, going so far as to question whether he’s really innocent. He would qualify for more than $1 million. “My reaction? I don’t know how to put this — anger,” said Gavitt, 59, who works the midnight shift at a tub manufacturer. “It’s like a slap in the face. … I thought we lived in America where the accused doesn’t have to prove innocence. They’re judging me all over again.”  Continue reading “Michigan man cleared of murder now fights for compensation”

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JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Taking a cue from the fight over immigration, some states that have legalized marijuana are considering providing so-called sanctuary status for licensed pot businesses, hoping to protect the fledgling industry from a shift in federal enforcement policy.

Just hours after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Jan. 4 that federal prosecutors would be free to crack down on marijuana operations as they see fit, Jesse Arreguin, the mayor in Berkeley, California, summoned city councilman Ben Bartlett to his office with a novel idea.   Continue reading “States mull ‘sanctuary’ status for marijuana businesses”