WRONG TARGET | Gabriela urges Duterte team to help stop bullying after criticism of rape joke

The women’s group Gabriela has sought the help of the campaign team of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte to end a cyber campaign against the organization that followed its criticism of the presidential candidate’s joke on the rape of an Australian missionary who died during a hostage crisis in 1989.

Video footage of part of Duterte’s April 12 speech during a rally at the Amoranto stadium, he recalled how he was angered on hearing of Hamill’s multiple rape and then quipped, “Pero napakaganda. Dapat, ang mayor muna ang mauna (But she really was beautiful. The mayor should have been first).”

The joke has earned the tough talking Duterte widespread criticism here and abroad, including from the Australian and American ambassadors, but has apparently done nothing to dampen his popularity.

In an open letter addressed to Duterte’s campaign team, through his spokesman Peter Tiu Lavina, Gabriela vice chair Gert Ranjo-Libang said: “Numerous individuals and groups claiming to be Duterte supporters are waging a cyber campaign to discredit Gabriela and Gabriela Women’s Party. We are now subjected to cyber bullying by spreading malicious and incorrect facts about our organization.”

She also noted that the campaign appeared to be partly “orchestrated because the content and graphics are the same.”

Ranjo-Libang said the bashing has affected their ability to respond to the many requests for assistance from women seeking its help.

In particular, she said the inbox of Gabriela’s Facebook page, “which is meant to receive requests for help, is now flooded with spam messages. This keeps us from immediately responding to people who are expecting our support.”

“These actions of persons and groups who purport to support Mayor Duterte’s candidacy, deny victims who seek our urgent assistance,” she stressed.

The attacks on Gabriela appear to have spiked following the appearance of Valentina Berden, one of the elderly farmers who were arrested and charged over the violent April 1 dispersal of protesters in Kidapawan City, before the Senate committee on justice and human rights.

Source: WRONG TARGET | Gabriela urges Duterte team to help stop bullying after criticism of rape joke

Ikea repeats safety warning after falling furniture kills another child | Business | The Guardian

Ikea has repeated safety warnings to customers about its Malm budget furniture range after a third child was crushed to death when a chest of drawers fell on him.

The Swedish company was forced to issue advice about the range – available online and in stores across the world including the UK and US – in July last year after two children were killed in separate incidents in 2014.

In the latest tragedy, 22-month-old Ted McGee managed to tip a wooden chest of drawers on to himself at his home in Minnesota in February.

His mother said she put him down for a nap and was checking on him every 20 minutes until she found his bed empty and assumed he was hiding – only to find him under the chest.

Ikea said the self-assembly chest was not fixed to the wall and issued another safety warning to parents.

Source: Ikea repeats safety warning after falling furniture kills child | Business | The Guardian

Rockefeller family charity to withdraw all investments in fossil fuel companies | Environment | The Guardian

A charitable fund of the Rockefeller family – who are sitting on a multibillion-dollar oil fortune – has said it will withdraw all its investments from fossil fuel companies.

The Rockefeller Family Fund, a charity set up in 1967 by descendants of John D Rockefeller, said on Wednesday that it would divest from all fossil fuel holdings “as quickly as possible”.

The fund, which was founded by Martha, John, Laurance, Nelson and David Rockefeller, singled out ExxonMobil for particular attention describing the world’s largest oil company as “morally reprehensible”.

John D Rockefeller, who was the richest person in US history when he died in 1937, made his fortune from Standard Oil a precursor of ExxonMobil.

“There is no sane rationale for companies to continue to explore for new sources of hydrocarbons,” the RFF, which has relatively small total holdings of $130m (£92m), said in a statement. “We must keep most of the already discovered reserves in the ground if there is any hope for human and natural ecosystems to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.

“We would be remiss if we failed to focus on what we believe to be the morally reprehensible conduct on the part of ExxonMobil. Evidence appears to suggest that the company worked since the 1980s to confuse the public about climate change’s march, while simultaneously spending millions to fortify its own infrastructure against climate change’s destructive consequences and track new exploration opportunities as the Arctic’s ice receded.”

Source: Rockefeller family charity to withdraw all investments in fossil fuel companies | Environment | The Guardian

Social workers charged with child abuse in death of Palmdale boy | abc7.com

PALMDALE, Calif. (KABC) —

Four social workers were charged with child abuse and falsifying public records in the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy in 2013.

Gabriel Fernandez died two years ago in May. Prosecutors said he was the victim of repeated abuse.

The boy’s mother, 31-year-old Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, and her former boyfriend, 35-year-old Isauro Aguirre, have both been charged with capital murder in Gabriel’s death.

MORE: Death penalty will be sought against ex-couple in Palmdale boy’s death

“Social workers play a vital role in society. We entrust them to protect our children from harm,” District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. “When their negligence is so great as to become criminal, young lives are put at risk.”

Source: Social workers charged with child abuse in death of Palmdale boy | abc7.com

Angela Wrightson murder: How Facebook cost the media the right to report the case

The jury in the trial of two girls convicted of murdering a vulnerable woman heard graphic evidence of how they tortured and beat her to death. But the crime sparked such abusive comments on Facebook that a judge feared the girls could not have a fair hearing. He scrapped the case and ordered a retrial for the following year – leading to a seven-month fight by the media to be allowed to report on it. This is what happened.

It was a case in which one of the most senior judges in the country saw parallels with the murder of two-year-old James Bulger.

Two schoolgirls were on Tuesday convicted of the murder of Hartlepool woman Angela Wrightson after a second trial. The pair, who cannot be named, are due to be sentenced later on Thursday.

• Live coverage from the sentencing hearing

Jurors heard how the girls battered and tortured Ms Wrightson to death in an attack lasting many hours in December 2014.

They also heard the girls were obsessed with their phones and social media, even taking a selfie of themselves with their victim.

Social media was a key theme in the case – it played an important role in the girls’ lives and also had a major effect on the media’s coverage of their trial.

Image copyright Getty Images

Details of the attack that were reported at the original trial in July 2015 sparked a series of “vile” comments posted by people on Facebook pages, including those of a number of media organisations.

Those comments were described by the prosecution as a “virtual lynching mob”.

The case was being overseen by Sir Henry Globe QC, an experienced High Court judge who served as a junior prosecutor in the case of James Bulger’s murderers Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.

On the third day of the trial, Mr Justice Globe was alerted to what he called “an avalanche of prejudicial comment”. In total more than 500 comments were presented to him by police.

Late on Friday 3 July, he effectively ordered the media to remove every comment about the trial from any news article and social media post.

His order also asked the media to “remove all links from [their] websites to other websites, including social media sites” – a ruling that effectively meant the BBC had to remove all reports of the trial. Either that, or disable every hyperlink on the site.

Finally, it required the media to “refrain from issuing or forwarding tweets relating to the trial”.

The BBC appealed against the order on the principle of open justice in British courts, and the fact that many modern web browsers allow instant sharing to social media.

Source: Angela Wrightson murder: How the media fought to report the case – BBC News