TDB Top 5 International Stories: Wednesday 24th May 2017

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5: The Simple Problems with the Right’s Response to the Manchester Attack

Calling bullshit on “virtue signalling”, snowflakes and misleading memes.

As details around the terror attack in Manchester continue to emerge, a torrent of bullshit continues to sluice around Twitter.

This morning, Katie Hopkins evoked the Holocaust, calling for a “final solution” amid a deluge of anti-Muslim tweets; alt-right creeps have been professing their horror while delighting in spinning the tragedy for their own ends; and anonymous users with names like LionHeart66 have been sharing plainly incorrect memes with the sort of people likely to believe any anti-Muslim messages they read.

On right-wing Twitter, in the absence of much officially-confirmed information, a fact-shaped vacuum is being filled by people who had their post-attack script ready before the first reports even began rolling in. Here’s a list of the unhelpful tropes that are doing the rounds, scapegoating communities and taking advantage of grief, and why they’re total bullshit.

Vice News

4: Manchester attack: Salman Abedi named suicide bomber

British police have identified 22-year-old Salman Abedi as the person who carried out the deadly suicide bombing in Manchester that left 23 people dead, including the attacker.

An improvised explosive device went off late on Monday as thousands of mostly young fans streamed out of Manchester Arena in the northern English city at the end of US artist Ariana Grande’s performance, police said.

While announcing the identity of the suspect on Tuesday, Ian Hopkins of the Greater Manchester Police confirmed that police had raided two residential areas in Manchester, and carried out a controlled explosion at one of them as part of the investigation into Monday night’s attack.

Aljazeera

3: HOMELAND SECURITY HIRES ANTI-ISLAM ACTIVIST KATHARINE GORKA AS TRUMP MAKES OVERTURES TO MUSLIM STATES

DONALD TRUMP MADE overtures toward the Islamic world during his visit to Saudi Arabia, softening his outward stance on Islam, but his administration recently appointed a recognized anti-Muslim campaigner.

Katharine Gorka, a controversial national security analyst and anti-Muslim activist, has been named as an “adviser” to the Department of Homeland Security’s policy office, after serving on President Trump’s transition team for the department. During Barack Obama’s presidency, Gorka extensively criticized DHS for teaching employees — wrongly, in her view — that Islam is a religion of peace.

Gorka’s appointment is listed in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the watchdog group American Oversight. Her title, as of April 7, is listed as adviser to the department’s office of policy. The documents also list a previous “temporary transitional” appointment in the chief of staff’s office, with a pay grade listed as GS-15, the highest standard pay for a federal civil servant, indicating a salary of at least $8,600 a month.

David Lapan, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for media operations, confirmed that Gorka’s role in the policy office was permanent and did not require Senate confirmation. Her previous appointment in the chief of staff’s office was temporary and had expired.

The Intercept

2: Palestinian Hunger Strikers in Israeli Jails Protest Trump’s Visit to Israel

President Trump arrived in Bethlehem Tuesday during a two-day visit to Israel as part of his first trip abroad as president and vowed to do whatever necessary to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This comes as Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza launched a general strike Monday to protest Trump’s visit to Israel and Palestine and to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli jails. We get an update from Jerusalem, where Nathan Thrall of the International Crisis Group notes leaders on both sides are unsure what to expect from Trump, who made negative comments about Israel on the campaign trail. “That’s really the locus of the fear on the Israeli side with respect to Trump,” Thrall says. “It’s the notion that he could really try and exert pressure on Israel, threaten real consequences in the U.S.-Israeli relationship, if Israel were not to agree to, let’s say, the outlines of an American proposal for a settlement of the conflict or the outlines of an American proposal on which the two sides would negotiate and work out the details.” Thrall argues that if Trump uses his leverage, “we’re looking at a totally different Israeli-Palestinian peace process than we have seen in the past.”
Democracy Now

1: Second Manchester bomb victim named as eight-year-old Saffie Rose Roussos

An eight-year-old girl, who was described by her school as “simply beautiful”, was the youngest fatality named so far of the suicide bomber who struck at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.

Saffie Rose Roussos was one of 22 children, teenagers and adults who died in an attack which left at least 59 people suffering shrapnel wounds from the blast.

Saffie, a pupil at Tarleton Community primary school near Preston, Lancashire, was with her mother Lisa and sister Ashlee Bromwich to watch Grande, who counts children from primary age through to their late teens as fans.

It is understood Saffie’s mother and sister are being treated in hospital.

Chris Upton, her headteacher, said Saffie was “simply a beautiful little girl in every aspect of the word.”

“She was loved by everyone and her warmth and kindness will be remembered fondly. Saffie was quiet and unassuming with a creative flair.”

The news of her death had come as a tremendous shock, he added. “The thought that anyone could go out to a concert and not come home is heartbreaking.”

Georgina Callander, 18, was confirmed as another fatality.

The Guardian 

 

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. #6
    http://kim.com/
    #SethRich was a hero
    I know that Seth Rich was involved in the DNC leak.

    I know this because in late 2014 a person contacted me about helping me to start a branch of the Internet Party in the United States. He called himself Panda. I now know that Panda was Seth Rich.

    Panda advised me that he was working on voter analytics tools and other technologies that the Internet Party may find helpful.

    I communicated with Panda on a number of topics including corruption and the influence of corporate money in politics.
    “He wanted to change that from the inside.”

    I was referring to what I knew when I did an interview with Bloomberg in New Zealand in May 2015. In that interview I hinted that Julian Assange and Wikileaks would release information about Hillary Clinton in the upcoming election.

    The Rich family has reached out to me to ask that I be sensitive to their loss in my public comments. That request is entirely reasonable.

    I have consulted with my lawyers. I accept that my full statement should be provided to the authorities and I am prepared to do that so that there can be a full investigation. My lawyers will speak with the authorities regarding the proper process.

    If my evidence is required to be given in the United States I would be prepared to do so if appropriate arrangements are made. I would need a guarantee from Special Counsel Mueller, on behalf of the United States, of safe passage from New Zealand to the United States and back. In the coming days we will be communicating with the appropriate authorities to make the necessary arrangements. In the meantime, I will make no further comment.
    Statement from
    Kim Dotcom

    #7
    SBU orders to destroy all evidence of the conducted special operation MH17
    http://thesaker.is/sbu-orders-to-destroy-all-evidence-of-the-conducted-special-operation-mh17/

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