Man jailed for abducting and raping NSW schoolgirl

A man who abducted an 11-year-old girl and subjected her to a horrific five-hour sexual assault ordeal has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars.

A man who abducted an 11-year-old girl as she walked to school and repeatedly raped her at three separate locations during a horrific five-hour ordeal has been jailed for 23 years and six months.

Newcastle District Court judge Roy Ellis on Tuesday was in no doubt the victim had been “unbelievably terrified” of Brett David Hill who made numerous threats to injure and kill her if she did not do what he wanted.

Judge Ellis said Hill’s criminality was extremely high and he had shown no sympathy, empathy or compassion for the girl during the prolonged attack.

The judge said 11-year-old girls were entitled to walk safely to school without being attacked.

A psychological report revealed the girl was now extremely cautious about her surroundings and had suicidal thoughts because she feels worthless.

Hill, a father of three, was jailed for a total of 23 years and six months with a minimum term of 17 years.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/crime/nsw-schoolgirl-to-confront-rapist-in-court/news-story/4179c2f36a4cd444fb494e828221f624

TITS Please

House committee increases funding for security at synagogues

The House Appropriations Committee is increasing its security grants for non-profits by 50% to $90 million.

WASHINGTON - The House Appropriations Committee voted to increase the amount of money it gives for nonprofit security grants by 50% for the 2020 fiscal year, raising the funding from $60 million to $90 million. The House is expected to hold a floor vote on the measure on Tuesday as a part of the national security appropriations minibus of 2020 appropriations bills.

The money can be used to increase funding for security in synagogues and other houses of worship, day schools and non-profit organizations. The bill allocates $2.9 billion for state and local grants, including $560 million for the State Homeland Security Grant Program and $10 million for targeted violence and terrorism prevention grants.

According to the Orthodox Union, the new funding would help protect these institutions against terror attacks. The Orthodox Union Advocacy Center has been advocating for the past year to increase funding for the grant program from the current $60 million to $90 million. The OU mentioned in a press release a long list of representatives who supported the move, indicating strong bipartisan support.

"The NSGP provides grants of up to $100,000 apiece to nonprofits at risk of terrorist attacks so they may improve building security by acquiring and installing items ranging from fences, lighting and video surveillance to metal detectors and blast-resistant doors, locks, and windows," the OU said in a statement. "Funding may also be used to train staff and pay for contracted security personnel. Since 2005, Congress has allocated $329 million for the grants, which are administered by the Department of Homeland Security."

Orthodox Union President Mark (Moishe) Bane said, "The many attacks on our Jewish communal institutions highlight the tremendous need for additional measures to keep our community safe. We have a responsibility to protect people whether at prayer, at school and in other potentially vulnerable places. The Orthodox Union is committed to doing everything we can to keep our community safe."

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/House-committee-increases-funding-for-security-at-synagogues-611161

>>7532301

kek

ebot strikes the newfag

California coastal waters rising in acidity at alarming rate, study finds

Waters off the California coast are acidifying twice as fast as the global average, scientists found, threatening major fisheries and sounding the alarm that the ocean can absorb only so much more of the world’s carbon emissions.

A new study led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also made an unexpected connection between acidification and a climate cycle known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation — the same shifting forces that other scientists say have a played a big role in the higher and faster rates of sea level rise hitting California in recent years.

El Niño and La Niña cycles, researchers found, also add stress to these extreme changes in the ocean’s chemistry.

These findings come at a time when record amounts of emissions have already exacerbated the stress on the marine environment. When carbon dioxide mixes with seawater, it undergoes chemical reactions that increase the water’s acidity.

Across the globe, coral reefs are dying, oysters and clams are struggling to build their shells, and fish seem to be losing their sense of smell and direction. Harmful algal blooms are getting more toxic — and occurring more frequently. Researchers are barely keeping up with these new issues while still trying to understand what’s happening under the sea.

Scientists call it the other major, but less talked about, CO2 problem.

The ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth’s surface and has long been the unsung hero of climate change. It has absorbed more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide released by humans since the Industrial Revolution, and about 90% of the resulting heat — helping the air we breathe at the expense of a souring sea.

Here in California’s coastal backyard, some of the nation’s most economically valuable fisheries are also the most vulnerable. Scientists for years have worried that the West Coast would face some of the earliest, most severe changes in ocean carbon chemistry.

Many have noted how West Coast waters seemed to acidify faster, but there was little historical data to turn to. Ocean acidification has become a field of research only in recent decades, so information has been limited to what scientists have since started monitoring and discovering.

This study, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience, came up with a creative way to confirm these greater rates of acidification. Researchers collected and analyzed a specific type of shell on the seafloor — and used these data to reconstruct a 100-year history of acidification along the West Coast.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-16/ocean-acidification-california

>>7532337

>Holy Spirit….Lord Jesus….Heavenly Father

>

>Please reach into this girl's heart and transform it out of darkness. Help her to see herself just as you see her. If it be according to Your Will, please turn her ordeal and pain into the fine instruments of spiritual warfare befitting a soldier in Your Army.

>

Amen

>>7532349

>Fukushima related?

Possibly but also volcanic activity under the ocean can cause this but hey it could be pollution, plastics………………………

Norway Detects Radioactive Leak From Sunken Soviet Sub, Sees 'No Danger to People or Fish'

The Komsomolets sank 7 April 1989, after catching fire southwest of Bjørnøya in the Norwegian Sea. During the heroic attempts to extinguish the fire and save the reactor, and the ensuing ordeal in icy waters, 42 lives were lost, in one of the biggest tragedies in the history of the Soviet Navy.

The wrecked Soviet nuclear submarine Komsomolets is still leaking radioactive waste, 30 years after it sank southwest of Bjørnøya, a new report by the Norwegian Maritime Research Institute has confirmed.

This summer, the Institute of Marine Research, joined by their Russian colleagues and the Directorate of Radiation and Nuclear Safety (DSA), conducted direct research on the Komsomolets using a remotely controlled mini-sub, for the first time in thirty years.

Using the Ægir 6000 mini-sub, researchers took water and bottom sediment samples from depths of up to 1,700 meters. The simple conclusion is that the wreck is still leaking radioactivity since the Komsomolets is regarded as the only known possible source in Norwegian waters. The expedition also allowed the researchers to see the wreck with their own eyes, as the freshest pictures were from a Russian expedition in 2007.

While the highest level of radioactive caesium was measured at 800,000 higher than the norm in the Norwegian sea, samples taken a few meters above the pipe where the leakage was detected indicated an unmeasurable amount of radioactive caesium.

“We also took samples a few meters above this pipe. There, we did not find any detectable levels of radioactive caesium, as we did in the pipe itself, DSA researcher Justin Gwynn said.

"Based on our observations, the releases of 137Cs from the Komsomolets to the marine environment appear to vary in amount and duration", the report said.

According to research leader Hilse Elise Heldal, the detected radioactivity neither surprising, since previous Russian research also documented leaks, nor alarming, since the emissions are quantitatively insignificant.

“What we have found during the expedition, has very little significance for Norwegian fish and seafood. The levels in the Norwegian Sea are generally very low, and the pollution from the Komsomolets is quickly diluted, as deep as the wreck lies”, Heldal explained, which led the national broadcaster NRK to conclude that there is “no danger to either people or fish”.

This is in line with previous estimates of possible emissions from the nuclear-powered submarine, which saw no significant danger to fisheries in the Barents Sea. First, there are few fish at 1,700 metres deep. Second, the huge mass of water coupled with deep-sea currents will cause a rapid thinning of radioactivity. Still, both the Marine Research Institute and the DSA emphasised a persistent need for surveillance of the submarine's wreckage.

“Good documentation is needed of the levels in seawater, seabed and not least in fish and seafood”, Heldal said.

The Komsomolets caught fire on 7 April 1989, southwest of Bjørnøya in the Norwegian Sea. In the ensuing drama, during which the crew valiantly managed to shutter the reactor, 42 Soviet seamen perished.

The Komsomolets rests at a depth of 1,700 metres with a nuclear reactor and two torpedoes.

https://sputniknews.com/environment/201912171077595002-norway-detects-radioactive-leak-from-sunken-soviet-sub-sees-no-danger-to-people-or-fish/

Australian bishops’ Conference secretary: Catholics can become Freemasons ‘with no penalty’

Remnant on a Queensland priest who publicly admits to having been a Freemason for more than a decade. While that is shocking enough, the most disturbing part of this story was that the priest claims to have a letter from the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, giving permission for Catholics to become Masons. This permission was said to be based on the erroneous conclusion that 'Australian' Freemasonry is somehow different from any other form of Freemasonry.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has exchanged private correspondence with officials from the Freemasons in recent years. Fr. Costigan's writings do not accurately reflect the contents of that private correspondence nor any policy of the Conference.

As will become clear, that statement might be technically true, but in no way explains the reality of the correspondence's contents.

Hiding in plain sight

Multiple phone calls and emails to archdioceses over several months rendered little fruit — only independent Catholic news sites and the Freemasons themselves seemed interested in Fr. Costigan's conflicting loyalties. However, a careless social media post led to the discovery of the letter online, along with the letter from the Freemasons which originally sparked the ACBC's response.

That letter was written by the former Grand Master of Northern Territory/South Australia, Stephen Michalak to Fr. Stephen Hackett, the ACBC Secretary, in 2016. In it, Mr. Michalak sought to clarify the Catholic Church's position on its members becoming Freemasons.

Mr. Michalak is himself a Catholic, as were the Grand Masters of Queensland and Western Australia at that time. In his letter, Mr. Michalak expounds on the supposed virtues of Masonry, while also admitting that the Church maintains its ban on Catholics being members. He speaks of his 'long-standing friendship' with a former Vicar-General of Adelaide, who advised him to contact then Vicar-General, Fr. Philip Marshall.

Fr. Marshall advised him to obtain the agreement of all of the Australian Grand Masters before contacting the Church, and suggested to Michalak that he then write to the ACBC 'seeking pastoral resolution to the present challenges as well as outlining a pathway for Catholics who are Freemasons to full participation in the sacramental life of the Church.'

Mr Michalak concluded his letter by stating his hope that Roman Catholic Freemasons will eventually be allowed to receive the sacraments without being in a state of sin.

Fr. Hackett's response

The response from Fr Hackett is dated July 2017, exactly one year after Mr Michalak sent his enquiry. This time was needed, he writes, in order to consult with the Bishops Commission for Canon Law, the Bishops Commission for Doctrine and Morals and the Bishops Conference itself.

Without any explanation other than an acknowledgement of Mr Michalak's glowing report of Masonry, Fr. Hackett expresses his satisfaction that 'Australian' Freemasonry' is not hostile to Catholicism. However, if this is truly the case, then it is reasonable to ask why this assessment has never been made public or revealed to be the official stance of the ACBC — even though, as Fr. Hackett alleges below, the Bishops Conference came to that conclusion in 1984. Surely, if a thorough investigation involving multiple apparati of the ACBC and which took a year to complete had actually taken place, then it would behoove the Secretary to publicly disclose this fact, and to allow the mysterious 1984 directive to be promulgated.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/australian-bishops-respond-to-priest-claiming-catholics-can-be-freemasons

>>7532433

No remorse just excuses, monster