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‘My stomach dropped’: Transgender troops hit hard by Trump ban

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‘My stomach dropped’: Transgender troops hit hard by Trump ban

Drill sergeant Kennedy Ochoa was putting on his dress uniform when he heard the news.

President Trump had fired off a series of tweets saying the country would no longer “accept or allow” transgender Americans to serve in the military, citing “tremendous medical costs and disruption”.

This was not the way it was supposed to go. For more than a year Sergeant Ochoa had served as a man, following an Obama-era policy change that paved the way for transgender troops to serve openly.

Announcing the change, then-defence secretary Ash Carter called it “the right thing to do” for “talented Americans who are serving with distinction”.

Many transgender troops came out to their commanders and their colleagues and won the support of both.

On Wednesday morning, Sergeant Ochoa was proudly putting on his uniform – the male regulation dress blues he has been allowed to wear for a year – and preparing to graduate from a training course that puts him on track for a promotion in September.

Then he saw the president’s tweets. “It was heartbreaking, my stomach dropped,” he said in a phone interview. “I had to just try and compartmentalise it so I could enjoy today.”

Sergeant Ochoa is unwavering in his desire to continue serving his country. In five days he is due to re-enlist.

“Now I don’t even know if I can do that,” he said. “It just seems like chaos, so many unknowns.”

It wasn’t just service members that were caught by surprise, the timing of the announcement appeared to wrong-foot the military too. A spokeswoman for the Department of Defense (DOD) referred all questions to the White House, saying only that new guidance would be issued soon.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment. At a news conference, President Trump’s spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration would work with the DOD to iron out the details. “I would imagine the Department of Defense will be the lead on that,” she said.

For some, the fallout from the president’s tweets was more certain. Riley Dosh trained for four years at the West Point military academy, graduating in May this year.

Ms Dosh came out as transgender while at the academy. She was secure in her decision following the Obama-era policy change and she had the full support of her commanders. Then, earlier this month, she was abruptly told she would not be allowed to commission as an officer alongside her peers.

Back at home in Austin, Texas, with no employment and no health insurance, she was awaiting a review of that decision. Now it seems certain that she’s headed out of the army for good.

“I was already losing hope that I could commission, now I have absolutely no reason to have any,” she said. “It’s a final nail in the coffin for my military career.”

She would find a Plan B though, she said. The situation was worse for those already in. “This is an absolute nightmare for my trans brothers and sisters who are serving. They now have absolutely no idea what their future is going to be.”

UK government’s drone collision report criticised

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UK government’s drone collision report criticised

Manufacturers have criticised a UK government report on the danger of drones colliding with aircraft.

The Department for Transport (DfT) report recommended registration and competency testing, saying helicopters were especially vulnerable to drones.

The Drone Manufacturers Alliance Europe (DMAE) has questioned the evidence gathered in the report and says some of the testing is flawed.

The DfT said it could not comment for security reasons.

Concerns over the safety of drones led to the DfT’s report.

In July, a drone flying close to Gatwick Airport led to the closure of the runway and forced five flights to be diverted.

Manufacturers ‘working diligently’

According to the UK Airprox Board, there have been 70 near-misses involving drones in 2016, more than double the year before.

DMAE, which accounts for almost 80% of the civil drones operating in the world, said it wanted the department to release the full testing methodology and results of its Mid-Air Collision Study.

“There have been no confirmed collisions anywhere in the world between a modern consumer drone and a traditional aircraft, and drone manufacturers are working diligently on technological solutions to prevent any such collision,” DMAE’s Daniel Brinkwerth said.

But DMAE maintained that it lacks scientific rigour.

“Many of the shortcomings in this summary report could have been addressed during the research process with more robust participation from all stakeholders. All the major drone manufacturers stand ready to assist with further studies by providing materials for testing as well as research assistance from our experts.”

Drone or javelin?

The study, conducted by defence research firm QinetiQ and testing organisation Natural Impacts, compared how helicopter and airliner windscreens would withstand a collision with four classes of drone, weighing from 400g to 4kg.

“Some of the most alarming findings in DfT’s summary are based on an object that resembles a javelin more than a drone,” Mr Brinkwerth said.

“The study’s authors could not find a way to launch a 4kg drone against an aircraft windscreen, so they mounted two motors, a heavy camera and an oversized battery on nylon arms.

“This object could never fly, much less encounter an airliner at high altitude. Researchers need access to the full test results to understand whether this is an acceptable shortcut for scientific research.”

The DMAE response document also highlights a US Federal Aviation Administration report which concluded that small drones were far safer to operate than had been previously assumed.

“Its detailed descriptions of testing methodology and exhaustive test results allowed researchers, manufacturers and others to examine the data and use it to improve drone safety,” pointed out the DMAE.

Source: BBC News

Jeff Bezos: Five things you may not know about Amazon’s founder

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Jeff Bezos: Five things you may not know about Amazon’s founder

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos briefly overtook Bill Gates on Thursday to become the world’s richest person, as his worth hit $91.4bn (£70bn).

A sharp rise in Amazon shares meant Mr Bezos’s wealth eclipsed that of the Microsoft co-founder for a time.

But as Amazon shares fell back, Mr Gates regained the top spot according to Forbes.

Mr Bezos, 53, owns about 17% of the shares in Amazon, but also has interests in several other businesses.

Amazon shares have performed strongly over the past year and later on Thursday the company is expected to report a further increase in sales, one of the reason for the share price rise.

But in recent years Mr Bezos has focused much of his attention on his Blue Origin space rocket business and the Washington Post newspaper, which he bought in 2013, as well as some less publicised endeavours.

Here are five things you may not know about Mr Bezos:

1. His spending is rocketing

Earlier this year Mr Bezos paid $23m for an old textile museum in Washington DC. Once it’s converted to a family home, the Bezos family will be near neighbours in the exclusive neighbourhood with the Obamas, as well as Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

At least that’s what the Washington Post reported, a reliable source presumably since Mr Bezos bought the paper in 2013 with $250m of his own money.

The Bezos family also has homes in Seattle and Beverly Hills, but expenditure on property pales into insignificance compared to Mr Bezos’s foremost passion: rocket science.

Mr Bezos says he is selling about $1bn of Amazon stock every year to fund Blue Origin, the project he has founded to develop commercial space travel.

2. He is generous with bananas

It was Mr Bezos’s idea to start giving away bananas to passers-by in Amazon’s home town of Seattle – a generous gesture, especially since about 4,500 people reportedly take up the offer every day. But when it comes to philanthropy that is still peanuts compared to his peers.

While he and his family have given millions to good causes, Mr Bezos has been criticised for not doing enough. He doesn’t splash out for non-profits on the scale that Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and others do, and is yet to join the 169 of his wealthy peers who have pledged to give away half their personal fortune.

But last month Mr Bezos appeared to be toying with new ideas in the philanthropic sphere.

He tweeted a request for suggestions as to how he could give money away that would have an impact “here and now” – a kind of next-day-delivery philanthropy.

It remains to be seen which proposals – ranging from libraries to tech talent in Africa – have caught his imagination.

3. His brother is the real hero

Good causes are already very much the domain of Jeff’s brother Mark Bezos. He switched from a career in advertising to work for the New York based anti-poverty organisation Robin Hood.

In a 2011 TED talk Mark Bezos relates how, attending his first fire as a volunteer, he was keen to show what he was made of. But someone else was asked to brave the smouldering building to rescue the owner’s puppy.

Mark was given the less glamorous task of finding her a pair of shoes. But she was still extremely grateful.

He draws this lesson: if you have something to give, however small, do it now.

Any ideas for Jeff?

Occupational Safety And Health: July 21st 2017

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By: Joseph Jones

Workers! Are yu fit and well for work?

I am very happy to hear that some of you are now acknowledging the essential factors in the life of a community and are also beginning to understand what unity means, especially in the Trade Union Movement.

By understanding such, it raises the dignity of labour security, self respect and better working conditions. In other words, Unity is strength. “Now let me start here,” as I wrote in my last article, it is not too late to have a fresh start.

Suddenly, the location and direction of life revealed as a mistake, sometimes perhaps even feeling like a waste. But moving forward would be difficult and would require hard and uncomfortable work, perhaps even facing some tough managers, supervisors at the workplace; sometimes we often find ourselves in unexpected places, places we never planned nor wanted to be.

But my advice to you workers, “Forget what lies behind and press forward” to better when thinking of Occupational Safety and Health and moreso to remember that it covers the whole spectrum from accident prevention to the more secretly hazards, including toxic, fumes,dust, noise and stress.

Before I close, let me say something to the Office Worker. So many often are thought to have no health and safety problem this is far from true. Stress is one of the most common complaints.

Worker you face the exposure to chemical hazards from the office. Photocopiers, poor lighting, noise and poorly designed chairs and stools can also present problems.

And now here is a point I am going to share. For all diseases, it is better to prevent rather than cure, but for chronic disease such as cancer, prevention is the only cure.

For this research, it is hard to establish the cause of a chronic condition and even harder to get compensation. Now this is my question and I am interesting to know how many workers in St. Kitts and Nevis have received any sort of compensation for suffering from a prescribed industrial disease? Say it please.

Note well. Thanks to the St. Kitts-Nevis Trades & Labour Union they will chip the rough edges away to bring comfort to all their members and workers.

Thank you.

Inside Scoop: July 21st 2017

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Inside Scoop: July 21st 2017
  • When Idi Amin hear what de people dem saying bout him and de government, he run quick, quick and carry dem out to lunch by de Marriott and later in de night he carry dem to a restaurant round de fort. He tell somebody dat food always does mek him bazurdee so he know two set a food gonwuk wonders for him.

 

  • Dey say dat de people dem who was serving dem say dat dey never see anybody eat so much food one time.  Dey say dat dey thought dat he was gon ask for a bag to carry some home.  But he siddungdere and eat off all and mek dem wrap up what left back in de pot dem for him to carry home.

 

  • He tell somebody dat when he done wid de treasury, he nor nobody for him gon ever have to beg anybody for food again nor dey old clothes to wear. All who come een de cabinet wid more bank account and money dan himcarn ketch up wid him again in life.  If he could tief ten million when he out, imagine how much he going wid now he een.

 

  • People in de know say dat he bring de man from foreign to tek over de soldier dem because he say dat he carn have two Labour people in charge. He say dat de man did well want a wuk so is anyting he tell do he gon do.  He don’t like people who like to follow law and procedure.  Das why dey does have to resign and go.

 

  • He say dat all who gone from in de inner circle and from off de board dem and all de accountant wuk dem want to be following law and procedure. He say dat he carn come out like how he went een.  And if he follow law and procedure dat is what gon happen.

 

  • De frilly mout deputy gone Russia. Dey say dat is somebody he meet on line dat he gone go check out.  He say dat de local people dem who he wid right now too confusionfy and in he position he carn have dem kinda people round him.  He have to stay above de fray.

 

  • De Marriott man did acting in de big wuk since only he and Ms Whisky did here. Dey say dat he had was to give a big speech to de Chamber.  People who was dere say datdey never hear more streups when he done and somebody ask him if he find out who de White man be yet.

 

  • School children say dat de lady say dat if she could stay in she office and don’t feel sick, dey could do de same ting too. Dey say dat de Marriott man say dat he son does come visit him and he ain tekeen.  He ain get no hole in he hand like he was on a cross like he did get from de school.  So it must be a different kinda mould to what did up de school.

 

  • Dey say dat de new park done cost more dan de football, de cricket and de athletic stadium put together and it ain done yet. And dey say dat is all PEP people doing de wuk.

 

  • De bad wud minister done bring een two more shipment a cement in de last month. Dey say dat when de port people see all small bag a cement going to a certain company, dey know who de cement belong to.

SCHEME UNITY Strikes Again

Spokesman Editor
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In our editorial of Friday 10 March 2017 (Vol 59 No 41) we warned you, the people of St. Kitts and Nevis, that ‘Democracy Dies In Darkness’. We issued that warning, and reminder, because of the growing tendency of those in government to indulge in all manner of practices while trying to conceal them from your scrutiny, as well as their constant attempts to control the press and tell you, the people, who and what you should listen to, and who and what you should NOT listen to at all.

At the risk of seeming repetitious, we reproduce one of the several warnings which we gave to you back then: “At this time one of the many concerns which weighs most heavily on the minds of our people is the naked attempts being made to silence all opposition in this nation. People are now being told what they should listen to and what they should not. Information is being artlessly withheld from the press, by the very same persons who previously shouted most loudly that we need ‘freedom of information act’.”

We clinched those aspects of our warnings with the caution that “The attempts to silence our people and the press is a most vicious and dangerous attack on one of the pillars of our democracy.”

Today that is still the case, but it has worsened and become even more worrying.

Earlier in this week our Comrade Leader found himself constrained to alert the nation to the fact that a matter with far reaching consequences had been undertaken by the government and was being deliberately withheld from the public.

What has come to light is the fact that His Excellency The Governor General issued a special proclamation sometime during the third week in the month of May, in which he had vested in members of the Defence Force the powers of the police.

There are any number of things wrong with the whole matter, none the least of which is the manner in which those in the government have gone about it.

This Clueless Government!

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By: Thinking Citizen

We, the people of this country, have noticed that the longer the Team Unity government stays in power, the worse becomes the situation regarding Crime and Violence.

We notice also that as the situation gets worse and worse, the tendency is for Team Unity to blame Dr. Douglas and the past Labour Party government and to put forward all sorts of silly childish and incredible reasons for Team Unity’s failure to stem the rising tide of Crime and Violence.

What excuse can Team Unity really make for its incapacity to deal effectively with the Crime and Violence situation? The only excuse that Team Unity can make is that Team Unity is helpless, hopeless and clueless.

We all remember that while in the state of opposition, Team Unity said that Commissioner of Police Walwyn, Prime Minister Douglas and the entire Labour Party government are unable to deal with the problem of Crime and Violence for they do not know what to do. Team Unity knows what to do and will bring Crime and Violence under control.

Team Unity is now in government for over two (2) years and crime and violence have skyrocketed faster than ever. This has caused Team Unity to panic and to run hither thither and yon trying to find every incredible excuse with which to fool the people.

The latest excuses that Team Unity is giving the people is that the present level of Crime and Violence was not reached overnight but took some twenty (20) years to reach where it is today.

That is simply not true. Crime and Violence had their beginning shortly after the general elections of 1966 when the subversive elements in St. Kitts and Nevis began to smuggle in arms and ammunitions in preparation for invasion of June 1967.

So we suffered from the terrorist attack of 10th June 1967. This was followed years later by the murder of Police Officer Jude Matthew and by the son of Sydney Morris and the son’s girlfriend. There was an era under PAM that was so violent that is caused St. Kitts to earn the unenviable title “Devil’s Island”.

I will not even talk about the disappearance of Ambassador Dr. William Herbert. All I would say is that Dr. Douglas became Prime Minister in 1995 and brought a new name and a new beginning to the island of St. Kitts.

The members of Team Unity have so lost track of reality that they are counting as twenty (20) years the period from 10th June 1967 to 15th February 2015.

Unlike the members of Team Unity when Dr. Douglas took over as Prime Minister in 1995, he neither grumbled nor complained but set to work to cleanse the name of St. Kitts from “Devil’s Island”.

So the situation in St. Kitts/Nevis is that we have a government in power that has not been able to provide much of what it promised the people while it was in opposition.

THE STRAYED SHEEP

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By: Rev Bertram Charles

Scripture: 1 Peter 2: Verse 25

Peter compares men and women to sheep, not for their good qualities and attributes but for their foolishness, stupidity and prone of going astray from the shepherd; going away from the fold and going away from green pastures of blessings and prosperity.  The errant and lost sheep only return when the shepherd goes looking and searching for them, finds them and brings them back to the fold.

Comparatively, natural human beings are like silly sheep; they go astray from God, are alienated from God, deviate from the rule of His Word, stray from the straight, narrow and right way; they walk in crooked paths which lead to destruction and death. They never return of themselves, or of their own will, might or strength. They only return to the sheepfold by the powerful and effective Grace unto the great and good Shepherd.  They have turned everyone to his or her own way  that is an evil one;  a dark and slippery one; a crooked one that ends in ruin.  Yet this is a destructive path of their own choice and approval in which they have pleasure and delight in doing.  They become addicted to their ruinous ways, turn their faces from God  and set their hearts toward their own ways that seem right to them but the end are the ways of death.  “There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”  (Prov. 14: 12)

The hearts of men and women are so deeply set on these destructive and deadly ways that nothing but the Grace of God can turn them from their wicked ways and lead them in the paths of righteousness, mercy, peace and eternal life.

When the sheep return to the fold, the Shepherd restores and comforts His sheep; He cares, feeds, protects,  shelters and will never leave or forsake them even when they graze through the valley of the shadow of death.

Crime, Gangs, Violence & The Future Of Our Young People –  Part (2)

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By: Earle Clarke, 06/07/ 2017:

“Being in a minority, even a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth and, if you cling to the truth even against the whole world, you were never mad!” George    Orwell, 1984:

Dear reader, I continue with the conversation concerning our Education system. We have to change from this system which was imposed upon us and invent one which will invoke pride and joy in our young people and one which will teach them about our heroes, transcending politics, telling us the truth about the struggles waged for us to be able enjoy the privileges we enjoy today, for it was not always like how it is. There were fierce struggles, enormous and sometimes grave sacrifices and grim, agonizing and gruelling determination by our heroes. We have to be honest with our youths and tell them the true story, the true history without warping that history.

How can our young people walk tall, how can they avoid the pitfalls of modern day existence if they are not infused with the historical spine and backbone to keep them erect with pride and admiration so that they can tread the straight and narrow pathway of life? How many of our young people know about the heroic struggle of the Working Class 1935 Buckley’s Riots which swept across the whole of the West Indies up to South America and to Mother Africa? Little 68 square miled St. Kitts with a population of less than fifty thousand persons armed only with sticks and machetes but fortified with an impregnable fortress of determination for change the horrific conditions under which they existed, brought about Meaningful Social Changes to the suffering, oppressed, exploited, degraded, dehumanized working class peoples of Great Britain’s (England) colonies and this is not taught in our schools and do you know why?

The answer is simple! It was a Black working class uprising which challenged the authority of the white oligarchs of the day whose rights there was none to dispute, thereby upsetting their privileged way of life, upsetting the apple cart, threatening their security! We, the Black illiterate people of the land rose up against the deplorable conditions under which we lived and toiled; we had the guts, the balls, the gumption to tell Massa that enough was enough and demand that we be treated like the human beings we were created to be!

Massa would never big us up with a HIGH FIVE, for challenging his authority over us, for making him quake in his boots? Since he did not praise our HEROIC EFFORT when he ruled over us, now that we are so-called Independent, we should re-write our BRAVE HISTORY; we should be infusing this knowledge of our history within the deep recesses of the minds of our young people from birth; the history of their forebears must enthuse them with pride and dignity in themselves, destroying the myth that they are an inferior class of people; they are not! They are the descendants; they are the off springs, of courageous warriors who fought for their rights against the odds which were stacked against them. They should be impregnated with the knowledge that the blood of these fearless freedom fighters course through their veins.

They in turn, should now be willing to sacrifice their lives so that their off springs of many generations to come, would enjoy a better and a higher standard of living than they ever enjoyed. But how many of us know about this historical happening, eh? I must be fair in my presentation of this historical event and pay tribute to Lord Moyne who was sent out to the islands to investigate the CAUSE of this Uprising. He was gravely touched by the horrific social conditions which abounded when he visited St. Kitts. He must have been a man of conscience, who shuddered when confronted with the sub-human, animal like and deplorable conditions which existed then and which he personally witnessed, to have written such a compelling report for change in the living conditions of the masses.

We could well understand the reason for not instilling this history in us by our Massa’s for they were greatly incensed that Lord Moyne would make recommendations for them to treat us better than the cattle which pulled the sugar cane carts. When Lord Moyne submitted his report to Mother England under whose rule we were subjugated, they dilly dallied with it, unwilling and afraid to release it for publication, for fear that it would fall into the hands of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party, for, here was Hitler screaming his lungs out about the Supremacy of the Aryan race (Nazi white or Caucasian and not Jewish)

Follow Sound Teaching

Spokesman Editor
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By: Alson B H Percival (Venerable Dr.)

The Apostle Paul in Romans 8:12-25 continues his series of studies that began in chapter 5 on the function of grace.   Paul agonized on the fate of Israel in the outworking of God’s grace. So, while the verses for this lesson are part of a beautiful conclusion to a positive portion of the letter, they also come before and anticipate the troubled and troubling reflection that Paul presents in chapters 9-11.

Paul in addressing the community of believers in Rome v. 11 offered a theological observation in the form of an “if” and a” then” statement (“If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then the One who raised Christ from the dead will make also your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Having addressed the Romans in that manner, the Apostle began the verses of our text v. 12 by building on the declaration from v.11 with a statement that itself opens with the words “So then” or “Then, therefore.”

Whereas in last week’s text 8:1-11 Paul uses the theme of Christian life as being life in the Spirit, in this weeks’ Scripture 8:12-17 he uses the implicit comparison of “sonship” which is hard to detect in the New Revised Standard Version;  and “childhood” is used to amplify and take the place of sonship. This is how the Good News Bible puts it, So then, my friends, we have an obligation, but it is not to live as our human nature wants us to.  For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.  Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.  For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! My Father!”  God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children.  Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share His glory. (vv 12-17) All is done however to reflect on the significance of our relationship to God.

When Paul tells the Romans–men and women alike–that they will become “sons of God,” he made a statement about legal standing. He as it was constructed and understood the ancient world. In the patriarchal culture of oldness, normally a son or sons were the heirs to the goods of the father of the family. The oldest son received a double share of the goods, while other sons received lesser portions. Women were “married off” and not normally the focus of inheritance. Therefore, when Paul declares that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God”, he spoke concerning becoming related to God in such a manner that all Christians have an inheritance from God, which is in itself an inheritance with Christ.

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