The appeal arises from a case concerning a Nigerian man who came here in 2007, his Irish partner and their child, born in August 2015. The man, who was refused asylum and subsidiary protection and against whom a deportation order was issued in 2008, is said to have two other children, one in Nigeria and one born here in July 2015 to an African woman.

The child was not a party to the proceedings when they were initiated but was later joined to the case by Mr Justice Humphreys.
[...]
What did the High Court ruling find?

An unborn child, including a parent facing deportation, enjoys "significant" rights under the Constitution "going well beyond the right to life alone", the High Court said.
[...]
What is the State's argument?

The State maintains the unborn has no constitutionally protected personal rights beyond the right to life in Article 40.3.3 and is not a "child" within the meaning of Article 42A, inserted as a result of the 2012 Children's Referendum.

Any legal entitlements of the unborn are dependent, it says, on being born alive.

Tough proposals to crack down on immigration and asylum in France have been unveiled by Emmanuel Macron's government amid complaints from human rights groups and street protests by some public agents in charge of asylum procedures.

The legislation is aimed at speeding up the process for asylum requests and for expelling migrants who aren unable to claim asylum. It would also double to 90 days the time a person without papers can be kept in a holding centre.

The bill, which criminalises illegal border crossing, has sparked anger from charities who called it oppressive.

Up to now, suspects have had the option whether or not to appear in court during their trial.
[...]
The right of victims to speak in court has been part of Dutch trials since 2005 [?!]. According to the Volkskrant it has the support of most political parties but is controversial among lawyers. Prominent lawyers Bart Nooitgedagt and Peter Plasman told the paper they object to what they consider `the rise of emotion' in court: formally a `perpetrator' is only a suspect [!] at that stage and `emotions can jeopardise the neutrality of the trial process'.

That's a weird-ass defense of a presumption of innocence.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

The women spoke of incidences of sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape occurring between 2007 and 2015 at UNEF for an article in left-wing French daily Libération.
[...]
The article reveals an organization where young women activists were the target of insistent pressure, notably under the presidency of Jean-Baptiste Prévost between 2007 and 2011.
[...]
"It is important that the omerta [!] is lifted," the current president of UNEF, Lilâ Le Bas told the French press. "I give my full support to the women who denounce the violence they have suffered in the organization."

France should follow the example of US President Donald Trump and pursue a "France first" agenda, Marion Marechal-Le Pen told a gathering of US conservatives outside of Washington, DC, on Thursday.
[...]
Why the speech matters: Marechal-Le Pen withdrew from the political limelight last year after her aunt lost the second-round presidential run-off to Macron. She has, nevertheless, been popular among the FN's grassroots members. Her views on abortion, immigration and Islam have often been more hardline than those of Marine Le Pen. Some observers have touted Marechal-Le Pen as a future FN leader. The party has been struggling to remain united following the presidential election defeat.

Leaders then moved on to discuss the EU budget, with Britain's departure set to leave a hole of about €10bn a year in the EU's budget.

The European Commission has warned of cuts to the Common Agricultural Policy if member states are not prepared to increase funding. It has warned that without an increase in contributions from member states, there will have to be cuts to the biggest spending areas, the CAP and structural and regional funds. It could also mean scaling back on new areas of EU activity, notably migration and border control, and defence.

archived:
31 Dec 2020 coincides with the end of the current fiscal period.
#EUCO wrapup: EU summit agrees on 'Leaders agenda' despite Brexit
Auditor recommends giving committed EU funds to UK after Brexit


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Despite massive public expenditure by successive governments to promote development in the north of England, the results had been dismal. The economic gap between a prosperous south of England and a declining north had widened (Martin et al. 2016). Development policies were not working, and there was a need to rethink development strategies for those areas of the UK that were lagging or declining (Leunig 2008).

The proposed solution was simple. First, focus on the regions of the country that were prosperous and dynamic (London and the southeast). Second, allow "people in Liverpool, Sunderland, and so on" (Leunig 2008) to move to more affluent places to take advantage of the opportunities on offer.

Leunig demonstrated considerable courage by standing in front of what would have been a polite but mostly hostile crowd. What Leunig did not realise, however, like many academics that preceded and have followed him, was that telling people that where they lived, and where they felt they belonged, did not matter would create a reaction.

The worldwide reaction has, however, come from an unexpected source. In recent years, some of the places that `don't matter' have increasingly used the ballot to rebel against feelings of being left behind, of lacking opportunities or future prospects.

About two years ago, the financial press was busy promoting the tiny country of Latvia as proof that austerity works. For example, in May 2016, Bloomberg ran an article with the headline "Austerity Worked for Latvia."

[...]

Well substantively, the allegations are very serious, and they fall into two areas, as you noted in your introduction. One is that Latvian banks, not just one, but now it is alleged at least three, were critical to helping North Korea evade financial sanctions and this was critical to their ability to produce their great advances that they've shown in ballistic missiles designed to be able to deliver nuclear weapons at extremely long ranges, including all of the continental United States. So essentially, pretty much the world.

Some 5.3 million people now have a permanent job, or around 60% of the total people with jobs. Two million people have a flexible contact and 830,000 people are classed as self-employed. The situation has changed significantly over the past 15 years.  In 2003 nearly 75% of workers have permanent contracts.

The aim of the changes is to stamp out sham self-employment, but in practice, there is mounting evidence that companies are dropping their freelancers.
[...]
Some 1.3 million people in the Netherlands do some sort of freelance work, often alongside a regular job, according to figures from the national statistics agency CBS.

According to him, the inflation targeting regime recommended as framework was not feasible, as it was based on adoption of a flexible exchange rate regime, noting that the real convergence was nowhere near achievable despite efforts made so far.
[...]
He also advised that the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) countries to make a presentation on a clear roadmap towards delinking from the French Treasury.

this while AFRICOM and EU increase FDI (USD, EUR) in para-military policing across Sahel region.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

For Bret Schafer, an analyst with Hamilton 68, a site tracking Russian influence on Twitter, the pattern is becoming all too familiar. Hamilton 68 follows 600 accounts run by the Russian government, Russian trolls, bots and individuals sympathetic to the Russian point of view. Data collected by the site over the past few months suggests that Russian social media accounts are now regularly seizing on divisive or tragic news to rile up segments of American society.

"The Kremlin doesn't care about gun control in America, they have no skin in this game," Schafer says. Accordingly, some accounts tracked by Hamilton 68 spew extreme, pro-gun rhetoric. Others attack the National Rifle Association.

credit:J. Crew Spring 2018 persona

Attorney Pleads Guilty to Lying to Mueller Investigators

Alex Van Der Zwaan, who was fired last year by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, a prominent* New York law firm, admitted to lying to Mueller's investigators about his interaction with Rick Gates.
[...]
The charge against Van Der Zwaan does not involve election meddling or the Trump campaign's operations. It stems from the special counsel's investigation into [FARA VIOLATIONS] Manafort and Gates are accused of directing on behalf of pro-Russian Ukrainian interests.

* an extraordinary understatement

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

In a world of senseless chaos and cruelty, there are apparently two ways to comprehend what's driving the student-led gun control activism spreading across the country:

1. After a gunman killed 17 students and faculty at a high school in Parkland, Fla., last week, the students have launched a movement that began in their liberal enclave and snowballed on social media across a generation fed up with mass shootings.

Or:

2. The angry young people giving interviews on national television are not students at all but "crisis actors" who travel from tragedy to tragedy and pretend to be victims, and the students have not organized the protests on their own but are agents of Democratic donor George Soros, the liberal media or the anti-Trump FBI.

If you were waiting for a bottom to America's fake-news madness, it very well may have arrived.

Weinstein apologises for citing Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence in lawsuit
Celebrity back biting to restrain press reporting that they spoke well of Harvey, in fact. But will it prevent subpoenas? har.

archived
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, NY Supreme Court

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Whose Black Panther? backstory at: imixwhatilike.org

< wipes tears >

Box office success developing ...
Happy Black History Y3 D51!


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

MEMORABLE uh MONOLOGUE:But let me also say one thing. One of the things that we like to talk about, one of the other criticisms of Killmonger that I saw was his disrespect of women. I already dealt with the other thing. Well, 'He shot his girlfriend like she wasn't nobody.' Listen, understand something. The girlfriend said, 'I'm sorry,' for a reason. She understood that the moment she got taken hostage she understood that she had become a problem, and she was in the way of the mission, and there's nobody who's more important than the revolutionary mission, because sometimes you only get one shot, and he knew what he had to do. Let me tell all y'a, my feminist friends out there: you can't say that women have agency and women get to make choices and then take away this woman's agency. She was with Killmonger. She knew what the deal was, and when she got taken hostage, she knew what it was going to be. You can't be about that life then all of sudden not be about that life.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Threatened with arrest for a case involving a few dollars in debt held by a collection agency?

This is not a science fiction, nor a scenario from the United States more than 185 years ago when debtors prisons were still allowed. Rather, it's a part of the current justice system where, in states across the country, state courts and local prosecutors abet debt collectors in arresting and jailing some of the tens of millions of Americans who have debt held by private collection agencies.

The injustice is laid out in new report from the ACLU, "A Pound of Flesh: The Criminalization of Private Debt."

"The private debt collection industry uses prosecutors and judges as weapons against millions of Americans who can't afford to pay their bills," said report author Jennifer Turner, also a principal human rights researcher at the ACLU. "Consumers have little chance of justice when our courts take the debt collector's side in almost every case--even to the point of ordering people jailed until they pay up," she said.

source: Some Pig

In many German cities, the air is simply too dirty. But this is nothing new. For years, harmful emissions have exceeded permitted levels and led to high concentrations of toxic nitrogen oxides. They irritate the respiratory system and can cause cardiovascular diseases, lung problems and in many cases premature death.
[...]  
What is the actual issue?

It all began when the environmental and consumer watchdog Environmental Action Germany (DUH) brought legal cases against the states of Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia, because pollution levels in Stuttgart and Düsseldorf massively exceed allowable levels.

In response, a court in Stuttgart called driving bans the "most effective" measure available and said the health of people was more important than the rights of diesel drivers. The Düsseldorf court said that diesel driving bans in the city would have to be examined in detail.

archived: "optics"?
EC legal action forthcoming

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Lake Chad has lost 95 percent of its water over the past 50 years. It has shrunk from over 25,000 square kilometres (sq. km.) to less than 2000 sq. km.

It is difficult to fully quantify the incalculable harm that is being unleashed by this drying up of the lake. The livelihood of the people, over 13 million living immediately around the lake (Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger) has been affected negatively; low levels of water, land for grazing cattle shrinking, fishing grounds receding. In essence the new economy that is being put in place is that of financing young jihadists and the counter terror business. I saw this vividly at Guite where a fish processing facility was turned into a military facility.

There is a lot of money spent on the military while in Chad, less than ten per cent of the people have access to electricity. The levels of poverty that I saw, I have not seen, since the Southern Sudan [war].

Headline of the Day -100: February 16, 2018

Lunatic right-wing Member of Parliament Noel Pemberton Billing publishes an article in his journal Vigilante implying that dancer Maud Allan, currently appearing in a private production of Oscar Wilde's Salome (private because Wilde's plays are still banned in Britain), is a lesbian who is associated with pro-German homosexual conspirators or something. The article is titled "The Cult of the Clitoris," because of course it is. Pemberton Billing has previously claimed  ... Allan will sue Billing for libel but will lose. ... The case will be the first ever discussion of lesbianism in the British popular press (the judge, who is called Justice Darling because of course he is, begged the press, in vain, not to report the details) and the first appearance of the word clitoris in the London Times.

archived
Salammbo

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Ndlozi is a product of whiteness in more ways than one, but the most notable regards are his faux feminist political image, his contradictory adoration for colonial education and cult personality brand as the People's Bae. A brand that is sponsored and affirmed by white media to sway the masses towards neo-liberal or white benefactor politics under the guise of revolution. As a matter of fact, the EFF pretty much thrives on these three pillars, but one pillar that they seem to fail miserably to sell is their male feminist politics. Particularly with their commander-in-chief, Julius Malema, who has a long and well-documented history of sexism, misogyny and deprivation.
[...]
If we are going to open the door to the issue of rape culture, then we have a duty to be consistent and go all in. It is a big and important issue that deserves much more than political opportunism like that we saw when they staged a silent protest against President Jacob Zuma, in the name of Fezekile Khuzwayo and victims of rape, in August 2016, at the Independent Electoral Commission.

Relief coupled with Ramaphosa is looking tenuous.

archived:
Malema is still mostly about theatrics

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Charlie Rose, perv, interviews James Clapper, perjurer, at Council of Foreign Relations, Oct 2016

because it's funnier in retrospect

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

...What I want you to understand is, what happened last night is a form of erasure of black oppression and black struggle. It's a form of erasure of what African Americans have gone through by hitching it to something else. That is what it is. And let me tell you, people say, Yvette, What should Oprah have done? What should Oprah have said? Oprah should have apologized. Oprah should have apologized just like Angelina Jolie should apologize. You don't get to become a millionaire, You don't get to become a millionaire, a multi-millionaire based on what you are exchanging with these wealthy white men and what you are receiving from these wealthy white men and then come in as a hero of the moment. Hold on. Understand something. Before y'all say I'm wrong. Do you remember Charlie Rose? Do you remember that Charlie Rose got into all that trouble? And he had to leave his job because he had been inappropriate and a sexual harasser and a deviant and all sorts of things? Y'all remember that? Well, here is a picture of Oprah with Charlie Rose....