Deaf children losing out as English councils cut support, charity warns
More than a third of councils in England are cutting educational support totalling £4m for deaf children, according to figures obtained by the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS). The figures, gained through freedom of information requests, show that councils in these areas are cutting 10% on average from deaf children’s services, which the charity warns are already near breaking point. In the last four years, one in 10 specialist teachers of the deaf have been cut, the charity claims. Meanwhile, deaf children are falling behind at every stage of school, and at GCSE two-thirds of deaf children fail to achieve a grade 5 in both English and maths – a key government target. The NDCS said it had received responses from 122 councils, of which 45 said they were making cuts between 2017-18 and 2018-19. The cuts come as councils across England struggle to meet growing demand for support for children with special needs.
Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand
If you’re interested in the end of the world, you’re interested in New Zealand. If you’re interested in how our current cultural anxieties – climate catastrophe, decline of transatlantic political orders, resurgent nuclear terror – manifest themselves in apocalyptic visions, you’re interested in the place occupied by this distant archipelago of apparent peace and stability against the roiling unease of the day. If you’re interested in the end of the world, you would have been interested, soon after Donald Trump’s election as US president, to read a New York Times headline stating that Peter Thiel, the billionaire venture capitalist who co-founded PayPal and was an early investor in Facebook, considered New Zealand to be “the Future”. Because if you are in any serious way concerned about the future, you’re also concerned about Thiel, a canary in capitalism’s coal mine who also happens to have profited lavishly from his stake in the mining concern itself. “Who was that?”
Saudi Arabia accused of torturing female activists by electrocution and flogging leaving them unable to walk
Campaigners have accused Saudi Arabia of subjecting several activists, including female human rights defenders, imprisoned since May to torture and sexual harassment. More than a dozen women’s rights activists have been detained for months, most of whom had campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the Kingdom’s male guardianship system, but some have since been freed. A group of UN experts last month called for the immediate release of six female human rights defenders they said were still being held incommunicado in Saudi Arabia. The arrests in May followed an earlier crackdown on clerics, intellectuals and activists in September 2017, in an apparent attempt to silence potential opponents of the country’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The torture allegations come as Riyadh faces international outcry over the killing last month of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Additional reporting by Reuters
Media Giant Sinclair Hired Reporter From Russian Propaganda Outlet RT Who Produced ‘Must-Run’ ‘Deep State’ Segment
The United States' largest owner of television stations, Sinclair Broadcast Group, mandated that its outlets run a segment on the so-called deep state that was produced by a former reporter for the Russian propaganda outlet RT, according to a new report. The "must-run" piece aired on March 21 and featured Sebastian Gorka, the former adviser to President Donald Trump, lamenting the existence of a deep state—a popular conspiracy theory in some circles that longtime career public servants in the government are working to subvert the U.S. government. Trump has repeatedly complained about such a mysterious rogue network.
Trump's Budget Wouldn't Erase Deficits, CBO Said
Under President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2018, there would have been hundreds of billions of dollars in deficits each year from 2018 to 2027, according to projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That contradicts Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney’s claim that the U.S. “would actually be on a glide path to balancing the budget” had Congress enacted Trump’s desired plan. CBO did say that deficits and debt would be lower under Trump’s plan than they would have otherwise been under law at the time.
Our brains rapidly and automatically process opinions we agree with as if they are facts
By Christian Jarrett In a post-truth world of alternative facts, there is understandable interest in the psychology behind why people are generally so wedded to their opinions and why it is so difficult to change minds. We already know a lot about the deliberate mental processes that people engage in to protect their world view, from seeking out confirmatory evidence (the “confirmation bias“) to questioning the methods used to marshal contradictory evidence (the scientific impotence excuse).
NRA’s Ties to Russia and Alleged Spy Maria Butina Run Deep Despite Denials, Report Reveals
For the first time since the National Rifle Association’s links to Russia became a matter of public interest, the gun advocacy organization released a statement about a trip high-ranking members of the group took to Moscow in 2015. The organization’s lawyers told The New York Times that the NRA’s chief executive had forbidden members of the association from joining the delegation that went to Russia, and noted that the NRA’s then-president Allan Cors had decided not to go on the trip. But despite attempts to minimize the involvement of its top officials, analysts say there is ample evidence that the organization had deeps ties to Russia and a longstanding relationship with Russian guns rights activist Maria Butina, who was recently charged for attempting to infiltrate Republican political circles on behalf of the Russian government.
Weedkiller found in granola and crackers, internal FDA emails show
US government scientists have detected a weedkiller linked to cancer in an array of commonly consumed foods, emails obtained through a freedom of information request show. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been testing food samples for residues of glyphosate, the active ingredient in hundreds of widely used herbicide products, for two years, but has not yet released any official results. But the internal documents obtained by the Guardian show the FDA has had trouble finding any food that does not carry traces of the pesticide. “I have brought wheat crackers, granola cereal and corn meal from home and there’s a fair amount in all of them,” FDA chemist Richard Thompson wrote to colleagues in an email last year regarding glyphosate.
A Russian 'troll slayer' went undercover at a troll factory
Slaying online trolls can be a lonely business. Just ask Russia’s Lyudmila Savchuk, who first exposed the story of Russia’s disinformation campaign back in 2014. The journalist and 33-year-old mother of two, Savchuk started noticing websites and social media accounts attacking local opposition activists in her hometown of Saint Petersburg with a frequency she hadn’t seen before. The posts were all too similar. The verbal assaults too coordinated.
