Social Issues

Saudi Arabia executed 47 people for terrorism on Saturday, including a prominent Shi’ite Muslim cleric. The execution of Nimr al-Nimr has caused outrage among the kingdom’s critics, saying the cleric’s death aims to “set the region on fire.” The men, 45 Saudis, an Egyptian and a man from Chad, were reportedly killed behind closed doors in prisons across the country RT reports: Nimr, along with six others, were accused of orchestrating anti-government protests between 2011 and 2013 in which 20 people died.

Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,

The decline of middle class capital is partly self-inflicted.

Conventional explorations of why the middle class is shrinking focus on economic issues such as the decline of unions and manufacturing, the increasing premiums paid to the highest-paid workers and the rising costs of higher education and healthcare.

An Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) survey, which questioned more than 300 primary and secondary school teachers in Scottish schools, found there had been a 51 percent rise in the number of children going to school hungry. Teachers have claimed that crippling government austerity measures are forcing schoolchildren in Scotland to go hungry, steal food from their peers and develop mental health issues. The Scottish government has described the survey’s findings as “shocking”, saying that no child should go to school hungry.

The Blackcock Inn pub in South Wales has found itself accused of racist language due to its name. The pub has served customers in Llanfihangel Talyllyn in the Brecon Beacons, under the name since 1840,but facebook banned its page after a complaint from a member of the public. The establishment did not have a particularly large reach on the social media site with approximately 450 friends, but that hasn’t stopped members being offended and making claims of racism against the watering hole.

Scientists have discovered that Irish DNA originateD in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The DNA of ancient occupants of Ireland has given researchers a breakthrough clue into the history of the Celtic population. The study was led by Queens University Belfast and Trinity College Dublin where scientists sequenced the first ancient human genomes from Ireland, shedding light on the genesis of Celtic populations. Details of the work, by geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen’s University Belfast are published in the journal PNAS.