California Bans Plastic Bags – First State to Do So

California Bans Plastic Bags - First State to Do So
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The governor of California has signed the first statewide plastic bag ban in the US. Single-use plastic bags will be prohibited at grocery and convenience stores.

“This bill is a step in the right direction—it reduces the torrent of plastic polluting our beaches, parks and even the vast ocean itself,” said California Gov. Jerry Brown. “We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last.”

Gov. Brown signed bill SB270 Tuesday–the first statewide ban in the US. Over 100 cities and counties throughout California already have local bans, however.

Plastic bags will be phased out of use at convenience stores, grocery stores and supermarkets next summer, when the bill is scheduled to take effect. The bill also allows stores to charge over 10 cents for using paper bags.

However, the fees will be waved for customers who are on public assistance. Lawmakers felt that SB270 would penalize lower-income Californians by charging for bags that were previously free. Use of the proceeds from the fees will also be regulated under the new law.

The bill will not apply to bags used for fruit, vegetables or meats, or to bags used at other retailers.

The bill is being opposed by a national coalition of plastic bag manufacturers. The coalition, proceeding under their trade group, the American Progressive Bag Alliance, is running a campaign characterizing the ban as a cash-giveaway to grocers that will cause thousands of job losses. They are calling for a referendum on the matter.

Other states are also banning single-use plastic bags. Hawaii is expected to follow California with a state-wide ban–all Hawaii’s counties have already approved prohibitions. Local bans have also been implemented in Chicago, Austin, Seattle and other US cities, and legislation is pending in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Puerto Rico.

By Sid Douglas

White House Changes Neutral Position on Hong Kong, Supports the Hong Kong Vote

White House Changes Neutral Position on Hong Kong, Supports the Hong Kong Vote
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The White House, which had maintained a neutral stance regarding attempts by Hong Kong citizens to regain universal suffrage in the face of Chinese national oppression, changed its position Monday and supported democracy in Hong Kong.

“The United States supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong in accordance with the Basic Law and we support the aspirations of the Hong Kong people,” said White House spokesman Josh Earnest in a press briefing, Monday.

“We believe that the basic legitimacy of the chief executive in Hong Kong will be greatly enhanced if the Basic Law’s ultimate aim of selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage is fulfilled,” said Earnest.

“We have consistently made our position known to Beijing, and will continue to do so.”

“We do not take sides in the discussion of Hong Kong’s political development, nor do we support any particular individuals or groups involved in it. We encourage all sides to refrain from actions that would further escalate tensions, to exercise restraint, and to express views on the SAR’s political future in a peaceful manner.”

The US government had faced criticism in recent weeks for an apparent lack of action regarding the events in China.

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong citizens have been demonstrating for their right to universal suffrage over the past week, after the Chinese government decided it would only allow political candidates to run for the 2017 elections in Hong Kong who met the approval of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China (CPC).

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Men May Be Getting More Abuse Online Than Women – Study

Men Getting More Abuse Online Than Women - Study
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According to a recent study, and despite popular sentiment that the internet is not safe for women, men may be ones who receives the most abuse on social media. According to think tank Demos, male public figures are several times more likely than female public figures to receive abuse on Twitter.

The think tank analyzed over 2 million tweets over a two-week period. The sample of public figures included celebrities, politicians, journalists and musicians. An equal number was chosen for males and females.

Despite recent claims that the internet is misogynist and is particularly unsafe for women, the think tank found that men were more often abused than women, at least on Twitter.

Over 2.5 percent of tweets directed at the males–tweets containing the @username–contained abuse. Less than 1 percent of the tweets directed at the females was abusive.

That is, over 1 in 20 tweets sent to the males included abuse. Only 1 in 70 tweets directed at the females included abuse.

There was one category, however, where female celebrities received more abuse than men: journalism. Females in this line of work recieved abuse around 3 times as often as men.

Males were found to also be the most common abusers. Men were behind 75 percent of abusive tweets toward other men, and were behind over 60 percent of abusive tweets directed toward women.

There may be more to the issue than can be understood based on these figures alone, however.

According to a recent Harvard study, men have 15 percent more followers than women, men are almost twice as likely to follow another man than a woman, women are 25 percent more likely to follow men than women, and the average man is 40 percent more likely to be followed by another man than by a woman.

The Harvard team concluded that, although there are more women on Twitter, and unlike most other social networks, men dominate the action on Twitter.

By Eliana Ramos

IBM Develops New Brainlike Chip, 180,000x More Efficient Than Modern CPUs

IBM Develops New Brainlike Chip 2
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The new chip developed by IBM has 4096 cores, 1 million programmable neurons, and 5.4 billion transistors, heralding what some are calling a new era in computing.

The chip, called TrueNorth, is the most advanced neuromorphic (brain-like) chip created, and is incredibly efficient.

The chip consumes only 72 milliwatts at maximum load–equivalent to 400 billion synaptic operations per second per watt. The chip is therefore around 180,000 times more efficient than a modern CPU, and almost 800 times more efficient than other cutting-edge neuromorphic approaches.

IBM Develops New Brainlike Chip 2

Spokespeople for IBM commented on the TrueNorth chip, “One of the key problems with developing a new chip based on a novel architecture is that you also have to create developer tools and software that actually make efficient use of those thousands of cores and billions of synapses. Fortunately, IBM’s already got that covered: Last year it released a specialized programming language (Corelet) and simulator (Compass) that let you program and test your neuromorphic programs before running them on actual hardware.”

“Ultimately, the main purpose of the SyNAPSE project is to take existing systems that simulate the functionality of the brain in software — such as deep neural networks — and run them on hardware that was specifically designed for the task. As you may already know, dedicated hardware tends to orders of magnitude more efficient than simulating/emulating the hardware in software on a general-purpose CPU. This is why IBM is touting some utterly incredible efficiency figures for TrueNorth. For neural networks with high spike rates and a large number of active synapses, TrueNorth can deliver 400 billion synaptic operations per second (SOPS) per watt. When running the exact same neural network, a general-purpose CPU is 176,000 times less energy efficient, while a state-of-the-art multiprocessor neuromorphic system (48 chips, each with 18 cores) is 769 times less efficient. While it’s not directly comparable, the world’s most efficient supercomputer only manages around 4.5 billion FLOPS per watt.

IBM Develops New Brainlike Chip 2

“I don’t think IBM is actually getting back into the consumer electronics market (though that would be amusing). Rather, this is just a concept of the kind of thing the TrueNorth chip might one day enable.”

A technical reserach paper was published in Science today, titled “A million spiking-neuron integrated circuit with a scalable communication network and interface.”

By Andy Stern

Men Read More News, But Women Read More Fiction

Men Read More News, But Women Read More Fiction
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There are variations in who reads what between the sexes. American men have been found to read more news and to discuss news more often than women. Men also use social media platforms that are more commonly used for news discussion than women. Women, however, read fiction much more than men, even when extremely female-oriented genres are factored-out. Women seem to be writing more of the most popular novels as well.

The Newspaper Association of America has found that a greater percentage of men read news than women. Nearly 2 million more men are reading news in the US, despite the fact that there are nearly 8 million more females than males in America. Women, however, are more frequent readers of Sunday edition news than men.

US men are also bigger users of online discussion forums such as Reddit. The average Reddit user is male (59 percent site-wide). Men are also the biggest users of LinkedIn and Google+, while women are bigger users of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Women and men also read news differently.

Men more closely follow sports, science, technology, business, international, political, and consumer news, while women more closely follow religion, health, entertainment, community, arts and culture, crime and weather news.

More specifically, men are more interested in stories about sporting events, international conflict, international politics, court cases, economic conditions, and social issues like immigration, while women are more interested in stories about tornadoes, kidnapped boys, floods, missing pregnant women, trapped coal miners, infectious diseases, contaminated pet food and toy recalls.

Women read more fiction than men. The marked difference between the sexes in novel-reading habits has been consistent. This is true even when the female-targeted romance genre is removed from calculations. Women account for 80 percent of the fiction market.

A recent memorable–although unscientific–experiment by British author Ian McEwan in a London park saw almost all of the people willing to accept the books McEwan and offered to give away taken by women, prompting the writer to say, “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

Women read more novels, more often finish novels they start, more often have opened the books on their shelves, and are more likely to tell the truth about having read a book they say they have read.

It seems that women are also writing more of the most popular novels. A recent New York Times best-seller list contained 11 novels written by women, and four by men.

By Heidi Woolf

 

 

International Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications–Arms Trade Treaty Will Become Law

International Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become LawInternational Arms Trade Treaty Finally Reaches 50 Ratifications--Arms Trade Treaty Will Become Law
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Amnesty International has received the 50th ratification to its Arms Trade Treaty, and the treaty will now become law. The law will be the first of its kind, and will prohibit sales of conventional weapons and munitions to nations when there is knowledge that the weapons could be used to commit human rights abuses.

War crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are among the rights abuses that will constitute grounds for prohibition of arms sales to a country.

In addition, the law will require that states must conduct objective assessments to avoid risks of human rights abuses.

The Arms Trade Treaty began as an idea in 1993. It was hoped that such an idea might stop human rights abuses by stopping the weapons from reaching people who use those weapons to commit abuses.

Read more: Arms Trade Treaty Almost Accomplished, Amnesty Urges 

Currently, sales in conventional arms amounts to nearly USD$100 billion per year. This amount is steadily rising. Over half of the UN General Assembly’s (UNGA) 193 member states make and supply conventional weapons, and the five UN security Council (UNSC) members are the world’s largest arms traders.

Currently, there is no international control of the trade.

It is estimated that approximately 500,000 people are killed annually with firearms. A large percentage of this figure are those killed in battlefields.

In the past year, conflicts in many areas–most notably South Sudan, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Libya and Ukraine–have already claimed many thousands of lives.

The largest importers of arms are India, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. Large amounts of arms are also purchase by several other Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

Amnesty International needed 50 ratifications of the Arms Trade Treaty in order for the treaty to become legally binding. The 50th ratification happened Thursday. The ATT enters into force 90 days after its 50 ratification, so the treaty will be international law December 25, 2014.

“This week we have reached the magic 50 ratifications so the treaty will soon become international law,” wrote Amnesty International’s arms expert Brian Wood.

Argentina, the Bahamas, Czech Republic, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Senegal and Uruguay were the most recent states to ratify.

The treaty is legally binding for all nations that have ratified. Ratification included incorporation of the treaty rules into national laws and submitting official paperwork to the UN consenting to abide by treaty rules.

Many UN members have not yet signed the treaty, however, including top arms exporters China, Israel, Canada and Russia.

Amnesty has pointed out that China is involved in ongoing irresponsible arms transfers, including supplying conflict zones such as Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Libya and Zimbabwe. China also sells to countries with poor human rights records such as  Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, Guinea, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

France likewise supplies Singapore, UAE, Greece, Middle Eastern, North African and other Francophone countries. France cooperates with Russia on defense and naval equipment. France in the past has supplied conflict zones such as Libya, Israel, Egypt, Chad and Syria. These conflicts were supplied between 2005 and 2009, and France has shown itself generally supportive of strict arms trade transfer criteria.

Russia is believed by Amnesty to be the largest arms supplier of Syria. Russia also supplied Sudan, and is preparing to supply Egypt. Russia also supplies India, Algeria, Myanmar, Venezuela, and many African states.

The UK is believed to have supplied arms to Sri Lanka, Libya Bahrain and Yemen, which may have been used to commit human rights violations. It has, however, supplied Iraq, Israel, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen with weapons that may have been used to commit human rights abuses.

The United States–the world’s largest arms trader–supplies 170 countries with arms. The US has respected UN arms embargo’s, as well as restricted arms trade on its own to Myanmar, Chad, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and South Sudan.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctbc9kw1oHA”][su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ctbc9kw1oHA”][/su_youtube]

Amnesty International

138th Self Immolation in Protest of Chinese Rule in Tibet

138th Self Immolation in Protest of Chinese Rule in Tibet
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[BRIEF] Tibetan student Lhamo Tashi self immolated outside of a police office in Tsoe city, Kanlho TAP–the first self immolation in Tibet since April. Tashi is the seventh self immolation in Tibet this year, and is the 138th self immolation in and around Tibet since 2009, when the wave of Tibetan self immolations began in protest of Chinese rule over Tibet.

Tashi self immolated at midnight, September 17.

ScreenHunter_943 Sep. 22 12.51The news was reported Saturday by Jigme Ugen, president of the Tibetan National Congress.

Security police informed the family of Tashi of his death. The family reside in Drukdo village, Amchok township, Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.

Family members traveled to Tsoe to request the body of Tashi, but were told that the body had already been cremated. Some ashes were given to the family.

It is not currently known whether Tashi left a testament or said anything during his self immolation.

Tashi, 22, was a student in Tsoe.

By Day Blakely Donaldson

Brazilian Policeman Shoots Street Vendor Dead When Man Tries to Grab Pepper Spray Can From Police Officer [graphic video]

Brazilian Policeman Shoots Street Vendor Dead When Man Spray Paints Police Officer [graphic video] (2)
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In Sao Paulo, Brazil, a paramilitary police officer shot dead a street vendor when the vendor attempted to grab a can of pepper spray held by the officer. The officer was in the process of arresting another man on the sidewalk with three other officers when the incident occurred.

The vendor tried to grab the can from the officers hand, and in the process of grabbing the can, pepper spray was released from the can. The officer fired his pistol at the vendor, who ran approximately 20 feet before falling dead in a pool of blood.

The vendor, Carlos Augusto Muniz Braga, was lamented by his wife.

“Why does the government deploy police unprepared to deal with the people–and how will I now take care of my three children?” said Claudia Silva Lopez.

Also among the bereaved are three children, aged 4, 9 and 12 years.

Claudia Lopez was not allowed to view her husband’s body.

Carlos Lopez was not working at the time of the incident. Reportedly, he was just passing through on his way to pick up one of his children from school when he noticed the three officers arresting another vendor.

The officer has since been arrested, according to the mayor of the city.

Brazil is known for having a high incidence of death during arrest. In comparison with the United States, where 1 in 32,000 arrestees are killed by police, Brazil has a rate of 1 in 229.

The number is considered to be higher still, however, as many people go missing unaccounted for. In 2013, over 5000 people went missing in Rio de Janeiro.

By James Haleavy

Russia Launches Case Against Ukraine for War Crimes, Cites “Irrefutable Evidence”

Russia Launches Case Against Ukraine for War Crimes, Cites Irrefutable Evidence
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Citing “irrefutable evidence” obtained by the Russian Investigative Committee, Russian authorities have launched a criminal case against Ukraine for its use of prohibited means and methods of warfare.

“We have witness testimony provided by Ukrainian refugees and intend to file a motion that the witnesses be recognized as the injured parties in this case,” stated a representative from Trunov, Aviar and Partners law firm, Igor Trunov.

“I appealed to the Investigation Committee with the application and the answer came to me that the case is initiated,” said Trunov.

The Russian firm is alleging that Ukraine used prohibited means and methods of warfare in Donetsk and Luhansk. The law in question is Article 356 of the Russian Criminal Code, which deals with prohibition in warfare.

“The case was initiated by the crime under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code upon application by unidentified servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, armed members of the National Guard of Ukraine and militants of the right sector and regards prohibited means and methods of war in the breakaway Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics,” said Trunov.

Russian authorities are basing the case on Ukraine’s alleged use of phosphorous bombs in its campaign against the pro-Russian separatist movement in eastern Ukraine.

“During an inquiry into the alleged use of prohibited means and weapons of war, the Main Investigative Department of the Russian Investigative Committee discovered irrefutable evidence of prohibited weapons being used against civilians,” said the official spokesman of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, last month when the report was completed.

The Investigative Committee found that, based on chemical analysis of soil samples taken from areas where eyewitnesses reported shelling from Ukraine, there was evidence of combustion byproducts of H-17 incendiary liquid commonly used in the production of landmines and air bombs.

“People in the affected areas will suffer horribly and will often die an awful death. If not, they experience severe psychological trauma,” said Markin.

Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine have repeatedly accused Ukraine of using phosphorous bombs.

Additionally, Trunov is alleging that Ukraine used weapons against its civilian population and civil objects in violation of the Geneva Convention. Trunov based these claims on a commission formed by the Russia Red Cross to investigate for instances of war crimes in Ukraine.
Trunov stated that these crimes must be investigate by the International Criminal Court (ICC)

State Duma lawmaker Roman Khudyakov has asked the Investigative Committee to provide its evidence for the case.

Trunov said that in the near future he intends to ask the UN Security Council and to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague to address the case.

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as the Sails You Are Familiar With: the Wind Wing

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (10)
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The Greenbird Wind Wing was designed and built under two San Francisco-based entrepreneurs, and has been proposed as a means of cutting down on the over $1 million tax dollars San Francisco spends on its inefficient diesel-powered ferry system. The engineers behind the project have said that the project has demonstrated that it could save 30-40 percent of the ferry fuel bill.

The entrepreneurs, Jay Gardner, president of Wind Wing Technologies and British engineer, Photon Composits Inc. president and yacht sailor Richard Jenkins, have experience in sail engineering. In 2009, Greenbird set the America’s cup landsailing speed record for a wind-powered craft, and is currently pursuing the ice craft speed record.

The ferry system in San Francisco Bay is seldom used by commuters–primarily its is used when emergencies Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (12)knock out the Bay bridge. The ferries are also very costly and inefficient.

Twenty-five government-subsidized ferries use over a million dollars worth of fuel per year–some of them use 300 gallons per hour of use–according to Jenkins. The diesel produces greenhouse gasses, and the Wind Wing has been proposed as a greener, cleaner, cheaper option.

“Traditional sails are basically one side of a wing,” said Gardner. “The benefit of the Wing is that you have two sides, and its a very precise shape.

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (4)
Jay Gardner

“So an equal sized soft sail and a Wing–the Wing is going to be about twice as effective, twice as powerful.”

“The Wing is 45 feet tall,” said Jenkins. “Front to back is 10 feet. It weighs roughly 600 pounds [272 kilograms]. It’s a very light structure, so it will be insignificant to the weight of the ferry.

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (5)
Richard Jenkins

“And it’s potentially very powerful. These ferries are travelling along at 30 or 40 knots sometimes, and it can produce six or seven tons of force at full speed, if required.

“The Wing also has, inside of it, a brain,” explained Gardner. “It has a GPS system. It has a satellite tracking system. It has a vessel data recording system. It knows where it is. It knows where you’re going. All we have to do is turn the Wing on and off.”

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (9)The engineers are not marketing the Wind Wing to sailors.

“The people who drive big ships are not sailors,” said Jenkins. “So, there’s kind of discontinuity between wind-power systems and the people on the boat, who are just not going to use those systems.

“What this Wing does is completely autonomous. The crew doesn’t need to know anything about the Wing or how it works. There’s literally an on-off system.

“We do that by having a feathering tail system. The tail on an airplane controls the pitch and the lift. We have a vertical tail that controls the wing and hence the power that the wing produces.

“If it can make power for the boat it will do. If it can’t, it just feathers and its kind of a benign thing on the ship.

Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (11)“The ferries in the area, they use certainly over a million dollars worth of fuel per year. Twenty-five ferries. We’ve demonstrated that we can save 30 to 40 percent of the fuel costs.”

The designers spoke about the future of the Wing. The future depends on policy- and lawmakers to adopt to environmental demands.

“Are they going to insist that the technology is included in the next generation of ferries?” Jenkins asked.Engineering Team Builds Sail Twice as Effective, Twice as Powerful as The Sails You Are Familiar With The Wind Wing (8)

The Greenbird Project is a partnership between Ecotricity and British engineer Richard Jenkins, to push the boundaries of wind technologies for zero carbon-emitted, wind-powered transportation.

In Sweden, Thousands Protest as “Fascists and Racists” Enter Parliament in Rising Numbers

In Sweden, Thousands Protest as "Fascists and Racists" Enter Parliament in Rising Numbers
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In Sweden, the far-right Swedish Democrats party, often called fascist and racist for its nationalist and anti-immigration policies–as well as for public scandals such as racist comments posted online and photos of swastika-wearing candidates–has become the third largest party in the nation. Thousands demonstrated against the outcome of the vote in Stockholm.

“We want to organize immediately,” said Jazz Munteanu, an organizer of the protests. “I would not want be home on the couch, sad over election results–that we have fascists and racists who have come into our parliament.”

More than 3,000 people congregated at the Stockholm’s main square in response to Munteanu’s call.

The Swedish Democrats party now occupies 49 seats of Sweden’s 349-seat parliament.

In 2010, the party made it to parliament with 5.7 percent of the vote, or 20 seats.

A leader of the Swedish Democrats party, Jimmy Ståhl, responded to the demonstration.

In Sweden, Thousands Protest as Fascists and Racists Enter Parliament in Rising Numbers“We have had an election in a democratic spirit,” said Ståhl, “so I think it’s really strange that you cannot accept the rules of democracy.”

“As I see it, we have one of the best migration policies–to call us racists is just ridiculous.”

In the election, 13 percent of Swedes voted in favor of the Swedish Democrats, despite several pre-election scandals, including the stepping down of one candidate after a photo was publicized of her wearing a swastika armband, and another candidate received public criticism after posting racist and anti-immigrant comments on the internet.

The rising number of voters who supported the Swedish Democrats also did so despite news that the young leader of the party, Jimmie Akesson, gambled the equivalent of approximately US$70,000 online.

Immigration is becoming an increasingly hot issue in Sweden. Sweden currently grants automatic residence to all refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict. This year, approximately 80,000 people are expected to apply for asylum.

Analysts believe Sweden’s rising support for the Swedish Democrats stems from the party’s stance on immigration.

“Islamism is the Nazism and communism of our time. It has to be met with disgust and much stronger resistance than has so far been the case,” said Akesson in August on the issue of increasing Mulsim immigration.

Akesson has been vocal about his criticisms of what he has called “mass immigration.” He has stated that the labour market and school system are particularly affected by immigration.

The party is nationalist, but has stated that it maintains a zero tolerance policy towards racism.

Elsewhere in Europe, nationalist parties are also gaining popularity, such as France’s National Front, which moved into the political mainstream recently.

Moscow Students Organize Demonstration, Wear Ukraine’s Blue and Yellow, Peace Signs

Moscow Students Organize Demonstration, Wear Ukraine's Blue and Yellow, Peace Signs
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[Brief] In Moscow, a group of teenage students organized and carried out a demonstration that included Ukrainian colors and peace symbols.

The children were reportedly responding to comments made earlier by the school’s head mistress, who had responded to an American Eagle t-shirt worn to school by one 7th grade student by saying that the shirt was American propaganda.

The students organized a demonstration in which they came to school wearing Ukraine’s blue and yellow and painted their arms and faces with peace symbols.

The student demonstration was posted to Facebook by a mother of one of the students, Maria Kniazena, who wrote of the action, “I can certainly tell you that I am proud of the children in the class. They have their own opinions, and are not afraid to voice them.”

(Click image for full size)

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