BAGHDAD (Reuters)—At least 20,000 children remain inside besieged Falluja, the Islamic State's stronghold near Baghdad, facing the risk of forced recruitment in the fighting and separation from their families, the United Nations' children's agency said on Wednesday.

"We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of extreme violence," UNICEF Representative in Iraq Peter Hawkins said in a statement.

"Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting" inside the besieged city, and "separation from their families" if they manage to leave, he added.

Backed by Shi'ite militias and air strikes from the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi armed forces launched on May 23 an offensive to recapture Falluja, 50 kms (32 miles) west of Baghdad.

The assault on Falluja has begun what is expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against Islamic State (ISIS).

Falluja was the first Iraqi city that fell under control of the ultra-hardline Sunni militants, in January 2014.

About 50,000 civilians remain in the city, according to the United Nations.

Iraqi security forces operating in Falluja separate systematically men and boys over 12 from the families to probe possible links with Islamic State.

"UNICEF calls on all parties to protect children inside Falluja, provide safe passage to those wishing to leave the city and grant safe and secure environment to civilians who fled Falluja," Hawkins said.

(Newsweek)

By Matt Agorist

In a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford praised the 40 million Americans who’ve served in the military since the revolutionary war. He also noted that 5,000 soldiers have been tragically killed in military action beyond US borders since America’s war on terror was launched after 9/11.

Thousands of families grieve daily for their fallen loved ones and the war machine that sent them to an early grave shows no signs of slowing.

These fallen military men and women, we are told, died fighting for our freedom.

The terrorists hate our freedom, George W. Bush famously said after 9/11. And, if this was true, they certainly have little reason to hate us now, as Freedom in America has plummeted since that fateful September day.

For the last 15 years, America has fallen across the board in indices rating the world’s countries by levels of freedom.

Americans are under constant surveillance, our every move under a microscope by government goons, “protecting us” from “terrorists.” We are under the constant threat of violence from the state for possessing a plant, or having a tail light out, or simply walking down the street.

Americans are constantly paranoid of those blue and red lights popping up in the rearview mirror that most always end in extortion and could very well end with a visit to the hospital, being locked in a cage, or worse.

In the Land of the Free, police killed more people in just one month of this year than the United Kingdom has in the entire 20th century.

In the Land of the Free, police kill at more than 70 times the rate of other first world nations.

In the Land of the Free, we are told to “fear the terrorists” but US police kill 58 times more people than all terrorist activity against US civilians since 9-11!

What’s more, while the death of 5,000 soldiers is most assuredly tragic, that number pales in comparison to the number of US citizens killed by police — many of whom are also soldiers.

Simple math would show us that since 9/11, at the FBI’s rate, police killed more than 7,000 people. However, that number is even higher now that places like Killed By Police, Cop Crisis, and the Counted exist and detail every public killing by American police.

Using the most recent numbers from 2013 to the present, and remaining conservative by using the FBI’s ‘loosely’ contrived number of 500 per year before then, the death toll reaches a whopping 8,296.

In the Land of the Free, citizens are killed by public servants at nearly twice the rate of soldiers deployed to war.

But these people are criminals, right? They deserve to be killed, right? Wrong.

While many of the citizens who’ve been killed by police in the last 15 years may have had it coming, all of them deserved due process. Not too mention, many of those killed simply came across the wrong cop while engaging in non-violent victimless ‘crimes’ like ingesting an illegal plant. What’s more, some of these victims are innocent children like 6-year-old Jeremy Mardis of Louisiana.

There is no doubt that criminals exist and present a danger to others. However, when the number of people killed by their own government vastly surpasses the number of people who died fighting for that government in foreign wars — something needs to be said.

Some will say that since the US is much larger in population than the UK, that is why American cops kill more. But this is a farce.

To expose this farce, we can compare the US with communist China.

China, whose population is 4 and 1/2 times the size of the United States, recorded 12 killings by law enforcement officers in 2014.

Law enforcement in the United States killed 92 times more citizens in the same period.

So why are police in the US so much more likely to kill than all of these other first world countries?

We will not pretend that cops in the US kill 70 times more people than other first world countries for one simple reason. However, part of the multifaceted situation which has led to the trigger-happiness of American cops is their training.

This excessive violence has gotten so bad that American police chiefs are being sent to Scottland to learn steps to change this deadly paradigm. A former hostage negotiator with the Boston police department, Chuck Wexler brought a team of cops across the pond in a last stitch effort to curb killer cops and his story was documented by Sky News.

According to Sky News:

As the two sets of police officers met, Mr Wexler described how if confronted by a suspect holding a rock an American officer would pull out his gun.

“You’re going to kill someone for throwing a rock. That’s what you’re gonna do,” said Mr Wexler.

“How would society over here think about you shooting someone with a rock? They would not accept it.”

The senior American officers, from forces such as the NYPD and LAPD, watched demonstrations at Police Scotland training centres.

Sky News cameras joined them as they went out on patrol in Glasgow, and watched as unarmed police dealt with a variety of potentially violent situations.

What the report showed is that cops in Scotland know how to avoid confrontation. Instead of immediately resorting to deadly violence, the Scottish cop will step back, use protective shields, or move behind a car for protection.

What the report also found is that American police have a knack for verbally escalating situations too.

Sergeant Jim Young trains hundreds of Scottish police recruits every year.

“The American style of policing, it’s very authoritative,” he said.

“There’s a difference of going in, straight up at this level, whereby you’re ordering people, you’re shouting at them. You can’t go anywhere after that.

“But if you start down low you can adjust your communications to suit.”

Basically, what this experience is showing is that American police are aggressive both verbally and physically — and it’s deadly.

The good news is that there are cops out there that know this and they are taking action, like the chiefs going to Scotland, to correct it.

“It’s about time that we step up and this is our chance,” said Mr. Wexler. “It’s a crisis but it’s also our chance to do the right thing.”

Below is this eye-opening video of American cops learning to be less violent. This training cannot happen soon enough as America is already on track to kill another 1,000 citizens in 2016.

It took millions of years for apes to evolve into humans. It may take only a century for humans to change again.

Genetic engineering, which for decades never quite lived up to its promise, is being transformed thanks to a new tool called Crispr. Scientists can use it to manipulate the genes of any living creature with astonishing ease. Its initial applications have been to target genetic disease, modify foods, and develop new drugs. What comes next is up to us.

Crispr (which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is the subject of the next installment of Bloomberg’s new animated web series Sooner Than You Think, which examines some of the biggest advances in human history that haven’t happened just yet.

Progress in genetic research has been coming swiftly. The number of U.S. patent applications citing Crispr technology jumped from four to more than 230 between 2012 and 2015. This year is already on track to double that figure. Almost every genetics lab in the world is converting to Crispr because it's cheap, precise, and easy to use.

To be clear, a lot of breathtaking applications—fighting cancer, eliminating HIV, growing replacement organs—are still limited to petri dishes and lab mice. And the most profound possibility—reversing the diseases that come with aging—may still be decades away.

For the moment, Crispr represents the democratization of a powerful technology. Even before its arrival, the cost of genetic engineering had been falling at a rate that puts Moore's law to shame. Now, for just a few hundred dollars, weekend hobbyists can begin tinkering with DNA. Graduate students are producing thesis projects that would have once been considered career-defining work.

Genetic engineering is a foundational science—on par with electricity, antibiotics, rocketry, and the Internet. When scientists get their hands on new tools such as these, especially ones with clear consumer applications, the transformation from science fiction to everyday reality can happen in an instant.

(bloomberg)