Monday, December 31, 2018
Sunday, December 30, 2018
Trump's EPA to Allow Coal Plants to Poison Air With Mercury
Environmentalists are raising the alarm over Trump administration plans to ease restrictions on coal power plants that would allow mercury and other toxins to be released into the air.
Trump officials are considering loosening regulations set up under Barack Obama that have helped to dramatically cut pollution that can cause respiratory illnesses, as well as learning disabilities and other birth defects in children.
Under the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), coal-burning power plants were required to install expensive equipment to cut output of mercury and other polluting chemicals. The regulation led to a drop in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants of an estimated 85 per cent.
The environment has been targeted more than any other policy area under Trump, with changes including allowing oil and gas drilling in Alaksa’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; loosening rules on capturing methane when drilling for energy; rubber-stamping oil pipelines; ending the Clean Power Plan, repealing the Clean Water Rule, and increasing use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels, as well as pulling out of the Paris accord on climate change.
Trump officials are considering loosening regulations set up under Barack Obama that have helped to dramatically cut pollution that can cause respiratory illnesses, as well as learning disabilities and other birth defects in children.
Under the 2011 Mercury and Air Toxic Standards (MATS), coal-burning power plants were required to install expensive equipment to cut output of mercury and other polluting chemicals. The regulation led to a drop in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants of an estimated 85 per cent.
The environment has been targeted more than any other policy area under Trump, with changes including allowing oil and gas drilling in Alaksa’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; loosening rules on capturing methane when drilling for energy; rubber-stamping oil pipelines; ending the Clean Power Plan, repealing the Clean Water Rule, and increasing use of carbon-emitting fossil fuels, as well as pulling out of the Paris accord on climate change.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Friday, December 28, 2018
Vietnamese Men Arrested for Eating Endangered Monkey
Six men have been arrested in Vietnam for killing and eating an endangered monkey and live-streaming it on social media.
The men, aged 35-59, filmed themselves eating a langur monkey in November and streamed the video on Facebook. Police say the men confessed on Thursday to violating wildlife protection laws.
Vietnamese langur monkeys are one of the world's most endangered primate species, living only in the north.
"It took time for us to figure out the suspects involved," police told AFP. In a statement, police added that one of the men bought the monkey from a hunter for 1.1 million dong ($48).
Trafficking and consumption of rare and endangered animals is a lucrative and widespread practice in the country.
While local and international conservation laws are in place, critics say they are not always properly enforced in Vietnam.
The men, aged 35-59, filmed themselves eating a langur monkey in November and streamed the video on Facebook. Police say the men confessed on Thursday to violating wildlife protection laws.
Vietnamese langur monkeys are one of the world's most endangered primate species, living only in the north.
"It took time for us to figure out the suspects involved," police told AFP. In a statement, police added that one of the men bought the monkey from a hunter for 1.1 million dong ($48).
Trafficking and consumption of rare and endangered animals is a lucrative and widespread practice in the country.
While local and international conservation laws are in place, critics say they are not always properly enforced in Vietnam.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Monday, December 24, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Innocent Man Billed By Hospital For Anal Rape
A New York man wrongly suspected of hiding drugs in his bum was reportedly given a rectal probe - and billed for the unwanted examination. Torrence Jackson said he refused consent for the invasive procedure, and suffered internal injuries as a result.
To add insult to injury, the hospital sent 42-year-old Jackson a bill for $4,595.
The incident happened on 16 October 2017, but has only been pieced together after a review by the newspaper of police, court and medical documents. Jackson was originally stopped in his car by police after failing to signal, according to reports.
Officers found a bag of marijuana and cocaine residue in Jackson's vehicle. Police officer Anthony Fiorini said Jackson's posture in the car was consistent with someone hiding drugs in his rectum. Police also said Jackson had taunted them about having drugs concealed on his person, which he denies.
He was taken to St Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse where an X-ray found no foreign objects in his body. Despite that negative finding, police obtained a court warrant to perform a sigmoidoscopy, using a flexible 8-inch tube.
In a private conversation with the police, doctors initially refused to perform the procedure, until advised by a hospital lawyer that Jackson did not have a legal right to refuse. Jackson was forcibly sedated for the examination.
After the procedure found no drugs, Jackson was released and said he only learned what doctors had done to him when he found blood in his underwear. "I felt tampered with," he told reporters.
Upon release, the hospital had a debt collectors' agency pursue Jackson for the medical bill. He refused to pay, and the matter was ultimately dropped.
In a statement to reporters, the hospital said its officials "comply with court orders whenever they are issued for detainees who come to our hospital in police custody".
To add insult to injury, the hospital sent 42-year-old Jackson a bill for $4,595.
The incident happened on 16 October 2017, but has only been pieced together after a review by the newspaper of police, court and medical documents. Jackson was originally stopped in his car by police after failing to signal, according to reports.
Officers found a bag of marijuana and cocaine residue in Jackson's vehicle. Police officer Anthony Fiorini said Jackson's posture in the car was consistent with someone hiding drugs in his rectum. Police also said Jackson had taunted them about having drugs concealed on his person, which he denies.
He was taken to St Joseph's Hospital in Syracuse where an X-ray found no foreign objects in his body. Despite that negative finding, police obtained a court warrant to perform a sigmoidoscopy, using a flexible 8-inch tube.
In a private conversation with the police, doctors initially refused to perform the procedure, until advised by a hospital lawyer that Jackson did not have a legal right to refuse. Jackson was forcibly sedated for the examination.
After the procedure found no drugs, Jackson was released and said he only learned what doctors had done to him when he found blood in his underwear. "I felt tampered with," he told reporters.
Upon release, the hospital had a debt collectors' agency pursue Jackson for the medical bill. He refused to pay, and the matter was ultimately dropped.
In a statement to reporters, the hospital said its officials "comply with court orders whenever they are issued for detainees who come to our hospital in police custody".
Saturday, December 22, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2018
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Trump's Interior Secretary Forced to Resign Amid a String of Scandals
Donald Trump’s embattled interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, is stepping down, following a series of scandals in which he is accused of using his position for personal gain. Zinke becomes the latest official to leave Trump’s cabinet in an exodus following the midterm elections.
Under Zinke’s leadership, the interior department has sought to advance oil and gas drilling and mining on or near public land, rolled back protections for threatened species and shrunk national monuments.
“Zinke’s days of plundering our lands and enriching himself and his friends are over,” said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager for Friends of the Earth. “With an average of nearly one federal investigation opened into his conduct in office per month, Zinke’s highly questionable ethics have finally caught up with him. Now, he is just another name on Trump’s list of disgraced cabinet officials, which the Republican-led Congress has failed to hold accountable.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council quipped in a press release that Zinke shouldn’t “let the $139,000 door hit [him] on the way out”. Zinke came under fire for the department’s spending that much to upgrade three sets of double doors.
Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, called Zinke “the most scandal-plagued interior secretary in recent memory”.
Zinke is linked to a real estate deal with the chairman of the oil-services company Halliburton and is accused of blocking Native American tribes from expanding a casino and of redrawing the boundaries of a national monument for political reasons. He also inappropriately allowed his wife to travel with him in official vehicles and invited campaign fundraisers on a government boat tour, according to the watchdog.
He said: “The damage done by this administration’s anti-conservation policies will not be erased by his departure alone,” noting that Zinke’s replacement would continue to pursue policies friendly to the fossil-fuel industry.
Joel Clement, a department climate scientist who resigned last year, said this week that Zinke and his staff “sidelined scientists and experts while handing the agency’s keys over to oil, gas and mining interests.
Under Zinke’s leadership, the interior department has sought to advance oil and gas drilling and mining on or near public land, rolled back protections for threatened species and shrunk national monuments.
“Zinke’s days of plundering our lands and enriching himself and his friends are over,” said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager for Friends of the Earth. “With an average of nearly one federal investigation opened into his conduct in office per month, Zinke’s highly questionable ethics have finally caught up with him. Now, he is just another name on Trump’s list of disgraced cabinet officials, which the Republican-led Congress has failed to hold accountable.”
The Natural Resources Defense Council quipped in a press release that Zinke shouldn’t “let the $139,000 door hit [him] on the way out”. Zinke came under fire for the department’s spending that much to upgrade three sets of double doors.
Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, called Zinke “the most scandal-plagued interior secretary in recent memory”.
Zinke is linked to a real estate deal with the chairman of the oil-services company Halliburton and is accused of blocking Native American tribes from expanding a casino and of redrawing the boundaries of a national monument for political reasons. He also inappropriately allowed his wife to travel with him in official vehicles and invited campaign fundraisers on a government boat tour, according to the watchdog.
He said: “The damage done by this administration’s anti-conservation policies will not be erased by his departure alone,” noting that Zinke’s replacement would continue to pursue policies friendly to the fossil-fuel industry.
Joel Clement, a department climate scientist who resigned last year, said this week that Zinke and his staff “sidelined scientists and experts while handing the agency’s keys over to oil, gas and mining interests.
Monday, December 17, 2018
Friday, December 14, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Monday, December 10, 2018
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Friday, December 7, 2018
Horny Rhinos
Highway maintenance worker Lamak Sheikh, 56, was in for a surprise when he decided to take some city shots at the Nairobi National Park in Kenya.
Two rhinos, along with a rhino calf, had already made themselves at home in his picture perfect scene. Yet as he shot the images, the cheeky rhinos decided to get up to something a bit less PG.
Lamak, from Kenya, said: "It was another lucky day in my time at the Nairobi National Park."
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Monday, December 3, 2018
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Australian Wedding Magazine Closes Down After LGBT Controversy
One of Australia's leading wedding magazines is shutting down after it refused to feature same-sex couples. Luke and Carla Burrell, founders of White magazine, said advertisers had abandoned them in droves.
The Christian couple said they made the choice because they had "no desire to create a social, political or legal war".
Australia legalized gay marriage last year after the country overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.
In a farewell post on its website, the magazine's founders said they had been targeted by "a flood of judgement," and that couples they featured had been sent online abuse. The post drew a mixed response, with some praising the founders for sticking to their principles, and others branding them homophobes who did not deserve to be in business.
"It doesn't seem to me that your agenda is just to love, it seems like your agenda is just to love straight people," wrote one of their readers.
The Christian couple said they made the choice because they had "no desire to create a social, political or legal war".
Australia legalized gay marriage last year after the country overwhelmingly voted in favor of it.
In a farewell post on its website, the magazine's founders said they had been targeted by "a flood of judgement," and that couples they featured had been sent online abuse. The post drew a mixed response, with some praising the founders for sticking to their principles, and others branding them homophobes who did not deserve to be in business.
"It doesn't seem to me that your agenda is just to love, it seems like your agenda is just to love straight people," wrote one of their readers.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
American Killed By Reclusive Indian Tribe
An American man has been killed by an endangered tribe in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands.
Fishermen who took the man to North Sentinel island say tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach. He has been identified as 27-year-old John Allen Chau, from Alabama.
Contact with the endangered Andaman tribes living in isolation is illegal because of the risks to them from outside disease. Estimates say the Sentinelese, who are totally cut off from civilization, number only between 50 and 150. Seven fishermen have been arrested for illegally ferrying the American to the island, police say.
Local media have reported that Chau may have wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them. "Police said Chau had previously visited North Sentinel island about four or five times with the help of local fishermen," said journalist Subir Bhaumik of the Hindustan Times.
A local news agency reported that Chau had tried and failed to reach the island earlier this month. He then tried again two days later, when he was attacked by arrows but he continued walking.
"Fishermen later saw the tribals tying a rope around his neck and dragging his body. They were scared and fled," the report added.
Chau's body was spotted again a week later. His remains have yet to be recovered. "It's a difficult case for the police," said Bhaumik. "You can't even arrest the Sentinelese. The number of people belonging to the Sentinelese tribe is so low, they don't even understand how to use money. It's in fact illegal to have any sort of contact with them."
Fishermen who took the man to North Sentinel island say tribespeople shot him with arrows and left his body on the beach. He has been identified as 27-year-old John Allen Chau, from Alabama.
Contact with the endangered Andaman tribes living in isolation is illegal because of the risks to them from outside disease. Estimates say the Sentinelese, who are totally cut off from civilization, number only between 50 and 150. Seven fishermen have been arrested for illegally ferrying the American to the island, police say.
Local media have reported that Chau may have wanted to meet the tribe to preach Christianity to them. "Police said Chau had previously visited North Sentinel island about four or five times with the help of local fishermen," said journalist Subir Bhaumik of the Hindustan Times.
A local news agency reported that Chau had tried and failed to reach the island earlier this month. He then tried again two days later, when he was attacked by arrows but he continued walking.
"Fishermen later saw the tribals tying a rope around his neck and dragging his body. They were scared and fled," the report added.
Chau's body was spotted again a week later. His remains have yet to be recovered. "It's a difficult case for the police," said Bhaumik. "You can't even arrest the Sentinelese. The number of people belonging to the Sentinelese tribe is so low, they don't even understand how to use money. It's in fact illegal to have any sort of contact with them."
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