#dem a-t'ief it

[merelygifted]

The arrest comes after a string of vehicle and property thefts in the area

[100yearoldcomics]

March 12, 1922 The Captain and the Kids by Rudolph Dirks

[ID: Fritz runs up to der Captain, frantically pointing behind himself. Hans rummagges thorugh the pantry. /end] CaptIN: Vot? A boiglar in diss house? HansL Eeeny-meeny, miney-mon, catch a boiglar by der toe!

[ID: Der Captain puts on his police uniform and startles the robber. In the other room, Hans places a crab into a bucket and shows Fritz. /end] Captain: Hey mister, you can't break in a policeman's house like dot!! Burglar: Huh? Hans: It's a shame to crab der act, but in der long run, maybe it comes cheapest? Fritz: Why?

[ID: As the burglar threatens der Captain, the Kids get to mischief. From an open window above it, Hans grabs the burglar's sack filled with family valuables. Fritz holds up a crab with a pair of tongs. /end] Captain: Who, vot, I ain't a real officer? Sure I am! See dot billy? Vell, sport. Only chenuine police coppers carry dem! Burglar: Aw, quit yet kidding, you ain't a cop. Let's see yer war club a jiffy kid, I'll bet it's made o' paper! Fritz: Hurry Hans, diss crab iss getting crabby!

[ID: Hans, having ripped five holes in the sack and placed the crabs inside, ties it shut while the burglar and der Captain chat. /end] Captain: You bet it ain't, sport! Dot's selected hickory und made to match hard heads. Vun svipe und bing! Down comes McGinty!! Burglar: Honest now, no kidding? Let's see it. I use ter be a lumber jack in a brick yard! Hans: Haw! Vunce a goat, alvays a goat iss der Cap! Fritz: Yup!

[ID: The burglar, holding der Captain's baton, stands behind der Cap, who has taken his police cap off. The burglar examines Cap's shiny bald pate. The Kids stifle laughter in the window. /end] Captain: Sure it matches der noodle! Didn't I said "hard heads"? You know sport, dey don't hire no officers mit heads of blubber! Burglar: You never kin tell. I've met 'em wid just plain bone und no meat! Hans: Dot's der Cap! Fritz: Tvice right!

[ID: The burglar knocks der Captain out with a blow from his own nightstick, cracking it in half with the force. The Kids look on in surprise. The crab sticks its pincers out of the holes in the burglar's sack. /end] Burglar: Much obliged! Well, there's one thing, kid, I'll say you're a good loser!! Hans: Ooh. Fritz: Vot a vallop!

[ID: Der Captain lies dazed on the ground. The burglar stifles a giggle while hoisting his sack up onto his shoulder. The crab's pincers search about. The Kids watch happily from the window. Der Inspector peeks through a curtained doorway and stumbles upon the whole scene. /end] Captain: Tweet, tweet. Tvinkle tvinkle liddle star. Burglar: Smack! So long boh, having no card, I'll have to leave you a finger print! Inspector: ?

[ID: As the crabs begin pinching the burglar about his face and arms, der Inspector bursts forth with a revolver. The Kids look shocked. /end] Burglar: OWIE! Inspector: Hand dem ofer t'ief! Oder I blow full der head mit bullets!!

[ID: The burglar shakes loose his sack and empties it - several crabs fall out, to the surprise of der Inspector. Der Captain wakes from his daze. The Kids laugh uproariously. /end] Burglar: You bet! Here, help yer self, I'm licked!! Inspector: Himmel crabbers! Captain: ?

[ID: The burglar, confused, climbs out the window, directly into an open bear trap the Kids set up. They wait around the corner of the house for the criminal, each holding one of his would-be bounties. Fritz holds a pitcher, Hans an ornamental clock. /end] Burglar: Holy halibut! How in thuh name o'crime did them pinchers git in de swag? Fritz: Hay foot, straw foot. Hans: Hep!

[ID: The bear trap clamps down on the burglar's left shin. The Kids laugh. /end] Burglar: WOW! Fritz: ♫ Der spring it sprung, chust as he sprang ♫

[ID: The scene inside. Der Captain, just woken up, grabs a large club and pulls up his sleeve to give the burglar a good walloping. Der Inspector sits on the floor, clutching his foot in pain. Mama stands over him, shocked. Outside the window, the burglar cries out in pain. Hans escorts der Captain outside to him while Fritz carries the valuables back into the house. /end] Hans: Yup, ve got him mit oudt, Cap! Captain: Good! Und now, you doity loafer, chust vatch vot a clubbing I handle you on der noodle!! Burglar: Owie! Inspector: Ow! Mama: Hey, vot's all diss rumpus in my house?

[brooklynislandgirl]

20. Do you enjoy wearing lingerie or seeing your partner wear it? {Non-random Inquiries for Beth}

Spicy and Sweet || Accepting

Maybe the first time she noticed was when Anakin volunteered to help her fold the laundry. One of those nebulous mornings where the world seems poised for something, holding its collective breath between the heavy rainstorm the night before and a lag in the equally thick mist before it starts again. Though he says nothing about the way his body must ache...anyone passing more than a curious glance could see the fine webbing of lines at the corners of his eyes and the bruise-coloured shadows beneath. The way his mouth pulled to one side as he worried the inside of his lip between his teeth in place of soft-voiced curses. The whiteness of his knuckles as nerves involuntarily twitched in response to pain stimuli both within and without. He’d cradled a cup of coffee for nearly thirty minutes while his hand leeched the heat from it at breakfast and he’d been unusually, thoughtfully quiet. A vacantness as still as too empty houses long after the occupants have moved away. And because she knows Anakin, she doesn’t offer him the Key, though they both know she could. Though they both know if he really had to, he wouldn't need it.

What she's offered in it's place was a mother's touch. Not just any of a dozen of her tender and loving caresses, but The Mother's. Taking the pain away as effectively as any medication he could crawl into without the dangers of stomach-turning relapse, without that way he kind of dozes off mid-sentence sometimes, head lolling down toward his chest. Things that always seem to close up her throat in instinctive panic. She is grateful to be able to mitigate some of the hazards of his choices, though she can't fix the root cause. But after the agony had dulled down enough for him to come out from under it, he curled up on the couch with her and plucked one of her camisoles from the willow basket.

Were Anakin anyone else, Beth would have been more than tempted to snatch the satin right out of his hold. Fires of embarrassment would have immolated her from the inside out. It is an intimate piece of clothing. The lilac colour and the french lace is sometimes the only thing that lies between her skin and the rest of the world, it's one of the few things that makes her feel feminine. Beautiful. Not in the typical draw-the-eye-to-her-somewhat-physically-lacking-charms that is always at the centre of what is sexually attractive. No, it is the colour that doesn't wash her out until she's some anaemic paper-white thing. More so it doesn't make her feel alien; too big eyes set in an odd rounded triangle of a head. Mouth too full. Nose too small.  Too short and too thin but with limbs, fingers, and toes too long. Like one of those grey kind everyone swears crashed in Roswell and are now locked up in Area 51. In it Beth feels comfortable in her own skin as she isn't anywhere else.

So to watch those long fingers of his tracing the scalloped edges of the lacing, twisting the sleek fabric across his knuckles, hearing his palms drag across the shadow-and-light of it maybe translates to what he might... This is where Beth catches herself and swans her neck until the heat in her face diminishes. Keeps her own hands busy by taking up a different item and starts to fold it more out of muscle memory than any conscious thought. She doesn't want to make him uncomfortable. She more than knows how it is to be the object of someone else's focus when that intensity of scrutiny makes you want to crawl out of your own skin, so she only watches him from the corner of her lashes. The fascination though lies almost entirely in the synthesis of time-dilated raccoon washing and the more sensual moulding of clay. She can't explain it any better than that to herself, the appeal of it all especially paired with the intimate nature of the camisole. Were that she could capture the feeling and save it for a moment when she doesn't particularly feel much of anything at all, which happens more often than it not. And maybe too it's paired the subtle music playing in the background, Holy Wine. Or maybe it's the unspoken feelings rising up that she hasn't exactly figured out. Why she has them, what they mean, if she's projecting things or seeing something that isn't reciprocal and therefore makes everything that much more impossible to explore. And now she's so lost that it almost feels painful.

She places the linen shift on the table and decides to maybe choose something utilitarian to distract herself with. No one has ever had romantic notions about scrubs before, at least not that she's aware of, especially ones that are that kind of pastel-Pepto Bismal pink with multicoloured cartoon sharks. The quietude doesn't sit well with her though, and by the time she's gotten through another set of scrubs ~solid colours, no nonsense~ she feels the need to fill the space between them with something. Some part of her sits back behind the green glass of her eyes, horrified by the first thing that comes to mind. Wants to compose an apology before the first few words come spilling out of her. "Long long time ago," she begins, pulling a small netted bag containing socks to be paired and folded into her lap, "dere was dis guy, right? His name Julius de Medici. He was a' Italian aristocrat disowned from his family f' bein' a' alchemist. Or mebbe some oddah reason. And dere was dis girl. Her name was Mia di Napoli ~which means she came from Naples.  An' dat's also in Italy. Mia was very poor. An....Orphan, like you."

She almost sounds apologetic at that moment and when she spares him an actual glance, there's a wealth of empathy there, and a dislike of the particularly emphasised word. She knows that Anakin knows he's both those things, doesn't need to be reminded of the fact, especially not when the weather's like this. At the same time, she doesn't exactly mean it in it's dictionary sense. When she says Orphan like that, she means someone not belonging to a proper Tradition, someone who has typically Awakened and educated on their own by trial and error, surviving beyond those first few months. To be truthful, she has a special place in her heart for them, doesn't look down on Orphans the way most others do. To have such a catastrophic thing happen with no guidance, no explanation, able to rely on only your own enlightenment? That takes courage and intelligence. More than even the most vaunted Masters could muster on their own.

"Anyway, Mia work as a t'ief an' a prostitute. Now, as you can imagine, dere must have been so many rumour going on at da time about how dey met, how dey decided to join forces as it were, but da trut' is... dey accomplished some kine unheard of. See Julius an Mia undertook a alchemical ritual dat fuse dem into a single bein'.  Some Awakened accuse de Medici of resortin' t' Infernalism to achieve dis ritual, but as far as I know, it was nevah done before or repeated aftah. Some say... da reality of it is dat da ritual was preformed wi' da aid of da Psychopomps... dey were spirits back den, from deep in da Umbra... da kine...alien in deir own way. Not a lot written about dem, well...if ya not one of da Hermetics. Or dem Dreamspeakers... but ya know kinda gettin' inta da weeds here.

"So anyway, da resultin' individual, bot' kane and wahine at da same time, took da name Heylel Teomim. Dat's Hebrew for "twins of da mornin' star". Now, da infusion of two souls was nevah quite  perfect; Teomim's appearance was constantly in flux, an' when speakin' in da first person, he tended t' alternate between "I" an' "We" even in da same sentence. Now, dey....we...use he/him pronouns but mos'ly because even now... It's an advantage among our kine...t' be...masculine presentin'. You can see how it chafes a lot of dat...aren't. Verbena, especially, lotta dem Dream Speakers. Oh...an' dere's been inflammatory speeches in official Councils by females in da Sons of Ether. Dey been tryin' for at least a hundred years or more now...t' change it back to when it was da Electrodyne Engineers, or t' da Society of Ether, on da grounds dat it makes it more gender neutral an' welcomin'. An' because da ladies... well. Dey bring up a good point dat a lot of deir creations ~robots an' oddah experiments~ eiddah don't match a single gender or any gender, an' I fine dat real interestin'. I wish dem luck.  But again... weeds.

"...Many people regard Teomim as unusually attractive an' highly charismatic, but also find some kine slightly... off... dat kept dem from gettin' closer. Teomim, for all dey eloquence an' brilliance, was prone t' arrogance: saw demself as a perfect being, or at least as closer t' perfection dan anyone else could come. An' mebbe let dis invariably colour interactions wi' anyone who nevah share da same opinion. Which you can imagine was more like as not." She smiles a little thinly now, as if the telling of the story makes her tired, or maybe it's finding the right way of spinning it. But seems entirely unaware of it. This is typical of historical lessons from Beth. Rather than offering events and dates and places she's certain Anakin's never heard of before, she filters it through her own view. Adding thoughtful commentary or asides that yes, while they could be tangential, also tried to exude a kind of humanity to the information. And while names and places might not be familiar to him, she never talked down to him, left room for him to ask any questions he might have. Her patience was limitless in this regard. Probably because no one ever really offered her the same courtesy. That kind of gate-keeping was full of hubris, and it rubbed her the wrong way so terribly that she'd be damned if she made Anakin feel those same things.

"Eventually, dere was da Grand Convocation dat lasted like a whole decade where lots of stuff happened such as da creation of Horizon. You know how... my green house is like da Tardis? Bigger on da inside? Well, dat's because a lot of it sits in a little bubble of it's own reality. An' dat's why...when we do our magick...it's safe dere. T'ink of it kinda like... a mystical laboratory, with precautions an' safety features for any kind of accident or mishap. And dat protects you an' me from da forces of Paradox. An' Horizon is li'dat, too. Except instead of a little bubble... it's... well, I dunno. I nevah actually seen it, but it is our ~Da Traditions'~ most important, biggest stronghold. An' it exists entirely in da spirit world.

"Teomim took part in it as a representative of da Solificati, ancient alchemists dat...I'm gonna be honest, I don' know lots about. He was chosen t' join da First Cabal... which had members of different Traditions, an' was an experiment t' see if all us different kine could work togeddah. Not only dat, but somehow he got chosen to lead it, too. It's said dat charisma of his help smooth ovah many of the group's conflicts, at least in the beginning. He made specially close friends wit' da Hermetic Louis Du Monte, an' Akrites Salonikas, who was the representative of da Seers of Chronos...who eventually became known now-a-days as da Cult of Ecstasy. On da oddah hand, dere was Walking Hawk, the Dreamspeaker, who believe Teomim's existence was some kine unnatural. Dey nevah made friends wi' each oddah.  

"As da story goes, Teomim's strongest ally was Eloine. Chosen an' Beloved of da Verbena. About her...well. She grew up in Ireland, only child of a family descended from Queen Boadicea, an' of course, da Wyck. She became an accomplish witch at a young age, an' came to da Grand Convocation wi' her parents an' Lady Nightshade, our first Elder, of whom she was a close friend. She was said to be incredibly beautiful an' incredibly kind, but dat her penchant for dancin' ...skyclad.. scandalise quite a lot of da more conservative folk who wen go. Still, her spirit captivated many many. For dat reason, she was named to da First Cabal, an' because she seemed to embody da values for which we Verbena stood above all oddah.

"All da stories say it was nevah love at firs' sight, but dat it was da greatest of dem. Love, I mean. So much so dat dey have twin keiki togeddah right around da time dat Teomim...." It starts with a single falter of voice that crushes her into silence. A dark thought or memory maybe that weaves its way across her features until it draws some insubstantial veil across her, enshrouding her with a palpable kind of discomfort. It has nothing to do with Anakin at all, at some point she'd stopped looking at him entirely to focus on a sight past the moisture-soaked windows. But when all of her came to a kind of unnatural stillness the very vibe of the room changed. Glacially slow, she began to collect her things back in the basket, all but what he had in his hands, and with a furrowed brow, she got to her feet. "But old history...no maddah when.... is all.." Another one of those nebulous hand waves of hers before she takes that basket and leaves the room. Leaves whatever it was he had in his hands.

Leaves Anakin.

~*~

Maybe the idea stayed with her far longer than she expected.

It wasn't often any more that she left the house without him in some kind of tow, whether forging ahead with his long limbs creating space for her to pad along behind or beside, or Anakin sometimes drifting along happy or hapless in her own wake, wrist tethered firmly in the circle of her fingers; never too tight, never too lose, but simply in that Beth way of hers. It was too easy for something to catch her magpie eye and of course she would have to drag him toward it, asking endless questions or making up her own stories. It was easy to see her love for the city in all of its various aspects, particularly his 'blue' Dog in the park whose name she can never remember. Her solo forays take her to less than usual places. Her questions not asked of him were more softly posed. It wasn't really embarrassment tendriling down to consume her in the face of amused sales people but more like trying to keep a secret. As if she were loud enough he'd somehow overhear her across miles. Then of course there was the absolutely ridiculous in hindsight task of bring it in the house bit by bit, smuggled under various guises so as to try and keep a secret, which Beth was typically not very good at. Not in the context of the mission. Eventually though, she's pleased with her procurements. Colour and style, an artistic eye lent to the choosing rather than relying on her off-kilter sensibilities toward self-titillation. She would be lying if she said she can't wait, assuming he's game for it at all. That's the thing though, isn't it? It's not just about sensuality. It's not just about a certain unspoken tension that sometimes charges the air like that moment just before a lightning strike. It's an offering to allow him to be vulnerable. To make choices that he might not give a thought to any other time out of fear, out of a sense of shyness. If nothing else, it's opening the door for him. Let him know that no matter what the subject, she will always be a safe place to explore his feelings about it free of judgement or weirdness. For him to know that she will always have his best interests at heart. And with all of that, she has to understand that maybe things aren't so very black and white between them either. More and more of late, she knows her feelings have been shifting. She tries to tell herself it's just a by-product of their closeness, that hushed intimacy between them that has grown from seed to sprout and thrives despite all the reasons it shouldn't. She also knows that she is an absolutely terrible liar. Somewhere along the way, she's chosen Anakin.

And the only problem going forward if she doesn't want to think about the parables of the First Cabal...or their age difference...or the fact that this could, from the outside, be seen as her manipulating him because of the imbalance of power in all the ways that count... is that she doesn't really know if Anakin is just being friendly. If he's found it a little too easy to use her as a stop-gap for his need to connect and always feeling a little out of place in the world.  The worst of her fears that creep up on her late at night when sleep is a stranger that refuses to approach is that maybe, just maybe... she's seeing things that aren't there, that he somehow has felt her loneliness and knows just how to shape it to his advantage.

And that's not really even a condemnation of Anakin himself but the very real sense that she's never been any good for anyone. That she possesses no inherent value in and of herself. If she were him, she certainly wouldn't choose her. Not like that, anyway.

It almost makes her second, third and ninth guess herself.

~*~ It doesn't come up until the next time the day dawns much like the first. Grey and recalcitrant. When appointments are cancelled and the city holds her breath waiting to see if the storm brewing in the gulf is going to make landfall. She can feel his tension so thick that she can almost choke on it from two floors away. She wants to ease that in anyway she can, and distraction usually always works on her. So she takes her time in setting the stage, so to speak. A soft Indie playlist on the blue-tooth speakers strategically arranged around her room, mostly because it seems like a very Iron and Wine or Lumineers kind of afternoon, but also because the low beats and more often than not acoustic instrumentals blend with the rain lashing against her storm-windows in a very holistic way. She adds a few drops of lei-flower oil to the diffusers to add a touch of warmth where it didn't exist before. Mixes well with the freshly laid fire in the hearth grate and with the candles that add a soft glow. Rather than presenting him with the array of satins, laces, and silks, still in boxes, she gathers them and drapes them strategically on and behind the folding screen in the corner. Pulls it out a little more from where it normally sits because he is a great deal larger than himself and might want a bit of room to move in. If he wants to.

That's again the biggest part of it all. The option to choose or not choose as it pleases him. "Ani?" She is only as loud as she needs to be from the bottom of the attic stairs. "'Ano'i... can ya come f' my room? I...ah...I got some kine wan ya f' see."

[merelygifted]

200-foot radio tower stolen in Alabama - Boing Boing

An Alabama station was "in disbelief" after equipment was stolen last week, reports NBC News, but they couldn't be broadcasting their emotions because among the vanished gear was its 200-foot radio tower.

"What do you mean it's gone," NBC News quotes WJLX manager Brett Elmore, who admits to them he used "more colorful language" in describing the problem.

WJLX notified the Federal Communications Commission that its AM station was silent. The station was hoping to continue broadcasting its program through FM radio in the meantime.

"We requested a temporary authority to keep the FM translator on until we get the AM back on the air," Elmore said on Thursday. "But unfortunately, this morning, I was notified the FCC denied our request to stay on air on the FM side, so actually, we're about to go power down the transmitter."  ...

[merelygifted]

A combination of factors allowed the politician to fall through the cracks and seize one of the country’s most prestigious jobs.

Good riddance to a phony who has lied to everybody, including the people who elected him.

[merelygifted]

hey, george, if that's actually your name, don't let the door....

[merelygifted]

"No matter how many times he tells his fans it's not a crime, that doesn't change the written law that says in writing that it's a federal crime."

You mean merkin von bankrupt can't change a law just by thinking about it?

🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

Everyone still buying into von bankrupt's BS is so dense, they're liable to become black holes any second!

[merelygifted]

Colorado fishermen cited for poaching 460 pounds of salmon in Northern Michigan - mlive.com

State conservation officers cited a group of Colorado fishermen for illegally taking more than 460 pounds of salmon in Northern Michigan, then donated the fish to local families.

State Department of Natural Resources conservation officers were on Manistee River fish patrol near the Tippy Dam when an angler notified them about a group downriver that was “using illegal methods and equipment” to take fish.

Officers Josiah Killingbeck and Scott MacNeill then went to observe the group. They confirmed the angler’s report.  ...

[merelygifted]

Sri Lanka: 50 injured as protesters try to storm president’s house amid economic crisis | Sri Lanka | The Guardian

Nearly 50 people were injured after authorities used teargas and water cannon to drive back a crowd that stormed the home of Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, amid anger over the government’s handling of the nation’s deepening economic crisis.

The crisis, the worst in living memory, has caused massive discontent, with people unable to find gas for cooking, medicines, fuel and basic items of food such as milk powder because the country has run out of foreign currency to pay for imported goods.

A crowd of hundreds of people chanted for Rajapaksa and the entire cabinet to resign over his handling of the crisis. Videos circulating on social media showed the protesters shouting “lunatic go home”.

The Rajapaksa family rule the island. The finance minister, prime minister and agriculture minister are the president’s brothers. His nephew is sports minister.

The security forces fired teargas and water cannon to disperse the crowd. Near the presidents’ home in Mirihana, the demonstrators set fire to an army bus and police vehicle.

The violence prompted an overnight curfew, which was lifted on Friday, and the arrests of 45 people. Nearly 50 people, including some journalists, were injured and taken to hospital.

Official sources told AFP that Rajapaksa was not at home during the protest, which was the first to target the president after diesel shortages had sparked demonstrations elsewhere on the island.

The economic meltdown has left the city’s roads eerily empty as fuel pumps run dry. If residents can find petrol, the price has risen from 128 rupees a litre to 300 rupees.

With no air conditioners or fans, people are sweltering during the 10-12 hour power cuts. The government does not have the money to pay for the fuel needed by the power plants.

People with serious medical conditions are struggling to find medicines and hospitals have cancelled operations as they have no diesel to operate the generators that act as back-up during blackouts.

To save electricity, the government has switched off street lighting. Mobile phones have been affected because the standby generators used at the phone base stations have run out of diesel.

“We make sure we charge our phones during the hours we have electricity but the internet is very patchy because the towers aren’t working properly. Supermarkets are shut as they have no electricity for lighting or the freezer compartments and we are paying two to three times the normal price for basic food items,” tourism official Zainoor Adnan told the Guardian before the WhatsApp connection failed.  ...

[merelygifted]

Sri Lanka declares emergency after violent protests over economic crisis | Reuters

They shouldn’t declare an emergency, the evil family that’s misgoverned, fucked over, and stolen from Sri Lanka’s people all this time should GTFO, so democratic elections can be held!

[merelygifted]

Sri Lanka faces medical emergency as economic crisis hits drug supplies | Sri Lanka | The Guardian

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has deteriorated into a medical crisis, with the top medical union declaring a national health emergency over a life-threatening shortage of drugs.

On Tuesday the country’s most powerful trade union, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA), called a meeting and declared a medical crisis as doctors and hospitals reported a widespread lack of medicine.

The south Asian country is in the grip of the worst financial crisis in its history, with record inflation leading to shortages of fuel and food, and crippling hours-long power blackouts imposed. A state of emergency has been declared after mass protests erupted across the country calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down. On Monday Rajapaska’s entire cabinet resigned, and his ruling government has lost its parliamentary majority after a mass wave of defections.

Sri Lanka’s lack of foreign currency reserves has had a devastating impact on the availability of medicine. More than 85% of pharmaceutical products in the country are imported, and these are paid for in US dollars. If dollars are not available then drugs cannot be bought. The Sri Lanka Chamber of Pharmaceutical Industry warned last month that 5% of drugs were out of stock and the problem was likely to worsen.

The GMOA accused the government of jeopardising Sri Lanka’s renowned universal healthcare system, which gives all citizens access to free state healthcare. “Both the government and health ministry have failed to prevent a complete breakdown of the medical system,” it said.

Gotabhaya Ranasinghe, a cardiologist at the national hospital of Sri Lanka in Colombo, said hospitals were running out of medicines, and many lives were at stake.

“There are important heart medications, medicines for blood pressure, heart attacks, all are running out. I have heard that many cancer drugs are also not available any more, so it is a very worrying situation,” he said.

“People can already visibly see the impact of the food crisis and the fuel crisis but the medical crisis is only just beginning. As a doctor it feels terrible to know that I can’t prescribe medicines and so a patient’s life is put in danger. I don’t think the politicians fully understand the impact.”  ...

Anyone incapable of understanding that does not belong in government!

[merelygifted]

Sri Lanka president declares public emergency after protests against economic crisis | Sri Lanka | The Guardian

Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has declared a nationwide public emergency, following violent protests over the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Rajapaksa said in a government gazette notification late on Friday that he took the decision in the interests of public security, the protection of public order and the maintenance of supplies and essential services.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with police and military on Thursday outside Rajapaksa’s residence in a suburb of the capital, Colombo.

Police arrested 53 people and imposed a curfew in and around Colombo on Friday to contain sporadic protests that have broken out over shortages of essential items, including fuel and other goods.

The Indian Ocean island nation of 22 million people faces rolling blackouts for up to 13 hours a day as the government scrambles to secure foreign exchange to pay for fuel imports.

The country’s lucrative tourism industry and foreign workers’ remittances have been sapped by the pandemic, and public finances were hit further by deep tax cuts promised by Rajapaksa during his 2019 election campaign.

Ordinary Sri Lankans are also dealing with shortages and soaring inflation, after the country steeply devalued its currency last month ahead of talks with the International Monetary Fund for a loan programme.

An alliance of 11 political parties has urged Rajapaksa to dissolve the cabinet and form a government with all parties to deal with the crisis, local media said, in a nation where both India and China are competing to build influence.  ...

[merelygifted]

‘They took our clothes’: Ukrainians returning to looted homes | Ukraine | The Guardian

hen Russian soldiers left the village of Novyi Bykiv after a month of occupation, Natalia Samson returned to her house to find they had stolen her perfumes, jewellery, some wine, a scooter, a novelty cushion and a collection of old coins.

A few days later she ventured into the village school, where she works as the deputy headteacher, and discovered the Russians had taken most of the computers, the projectors and other electronic equipment.

In the headteacher’s office, an opened pair of scissors had been inserted into a plasma screen that was left behind, apparently in an attempt to ensure that what could not be stolen was instead destroyed.

“People saw them simply loading everything on to Ural trucks, everything they could get their hands on,” said Samson, shaking her head in disbelief. A dozen houses on the village’s main street had been looted, as well as all the shops. Other villagers reported losing washing machines, food, laptops and even a sofa.

Over the past week, during reporting from numerous places where Russian troops had occupied Ukrainian territory, the Guardian has collected evidence that suggests looting by Russian forces was not merely a case of a few wayward soldiers, but a systematic part of Russian military behaviour, across multiple towns and villages.

Reports of looting have prompted widespread outrage among Ukrainians, as well as among Russians opposed to the war.

“Those who fight like this are not regular army, but rabble,” wrote Vladimir Pastukhov, a liberal Russian political scientist who is a columnist for Novaya Gazeta. “Even in the Soviet and Nazi armies, looting was fought as much as possible, albeit not always successfully. In the Russian army … it is a form of additional motivation of the personnel.”  ...

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Angela Rayner says dealings with firm linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone need same scrutiny as Owen Paterson’s lobbying for Covid test contracts

Labour has accused ministers of a potential cover-up over a PPE contract with a company linked to Tory peer Michelle Mone, after the health department refused to release documents connected to the deal, citing commercial sensitivities.

The row comes days after the National Crime Agency (NCA) searched Mone’s home as part of a potential fraud investigation into the company, PPE Medpro, which won more than £200m in government contracts without public tender.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, wrote to the government in January to seek the release of correspondence and records connected to the deal, as happened over a testing contract won by another company, Randox, after lobbying by the then Tory MP Owen Paterson.

In the letter, Rayner noted that Medpro won the two contracts via a “VIP lane” for politically connected companies after Mone contacted two ministers in May 2020 to say she could source PPE.

“I would ask now that the government takes the same approach as it has to the contract with Randox, which was a similar matter of controversy, and commits now to place all correspondence and records relating to the award in the library of the house [of Commons] for parliamentary scrutiny,” Rayner wrote.  ...

The 25m medical gowns supplied by the company were never used after officials rejected them after an inspection, with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) seeking to recover money from PPE Medpro through mediation. PPE Medpro has maintained that it complied with the terms of its gowns contract and is entitled to keep the money it was paid.

In a statement, Rayner said the government’s refusal to release the documents “reeks of a cover-up”.

She said: “The fact that Medpro is in mediation for providing useless PPE is no excuse for failing to be transparent with the public – in fact it only strengthens the need for clarity about how this eye-watering waste was allowed to happen.

“The government have shown complete disregard for working people by wasting taxpayers’ money on dodgy contracts.”

On Wednesday, the NCA searched several properties associated with Medpro in the Isle of Man and London, including the Isle of Man office building where PPE Medpro is registered and the mansion where Lady Mone lives with her husband, the business magnate Douglas Barrowman.  ...

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