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World | See the HeadOn Collision of 2 German Trains From Above | At least 10 people were killed after two trains collided head-on in southern Germany on Tuesday, authorities said, and about 150 others were injured. Aerial scenes of the crash, near Bad Aibling, showed the mangled cars in a wooded area parallel to a line of ambulances and rescue vehicles. Dozens of rescue workers combed the scene throughout the morning, searching for more survivors amid steel and broken glass. "This is the biggest accident we have had in years in this region," police spokesman Stefan Sonntag said, according to the Associated Press. Alexander Dobrindt, Germany's Tranport Minister, said more time was needed to draw a conclusion about what happened "We need to determine immediately whether it was a technical problem or a human mistake." |
World | Nine Police Have Been Killed in Border Post Attacks in Western Burma | Nine policemen were killed Sunday in what appears to have been a coordinated attack on three border posts in western Burma, officially known as Myanmar. Police told the BBC that members of the Rohingya ethnic group, a stateless Muslim minority that lives primarily in Burma's western Arakan state, which borders Bangladesh, carried out the attacks. Several of the assailants were also killed on Sunday, an official in the state's Maungdaw township told the BBC's Burmese service. The attackers were reportedly armed with knives and homemade slingshots. At a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw on Sunday, police general Zaw Win reportedly said the attackers declared that they were Rohingya. Agence France-Presse reported that a senior official in Arakan state, Tin Maung Swe, said the attack was carried out by the Rohingya Solidarity Organization, a small militant group that was active in the 1980s and 1990s. The group has reportedly been dormant in the decades since. The state of Arakan, also known as Rakhine, was the site of deadly intercommunal riots between Buddhists and Muslims that began in 2012. The violence left about 100 people dead, and displaced some 140,000 others, most of them from the persecuted Rohingya minority. BBC, AFP |
World | Turkish Air Strikes Hit Kurdish Targets After Deadly Ankara Bombings | Turkey announced on Sunday that it had killed dozens of Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK rebels in a series of weekend air strikes, only a day after deadly bombings killed over 90 people in the Turkish capital of Ankara. The strikes took place after the Turkish government ignored a cease-fire proposal put forward by the PKK, the BBC reports. UPI reported Turkish officials as saying that Saturday's air strikes had killed 14 rebels in southwestern Turkey, while Sunday's attacks targeted parts of northern Iraq, killing over 35 rebels. Two Turkish soldiers were also reportedly killed in clashes with the PKK in Turkey's Erzurum province on Sunday, according to Hurriyet Daily News. Turkey ended a 2013 cease-fire agreement with the PKK after a July suicide bombing, UPI reports. It started bombarding the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria ISIS targets at the same time. Tension over the government's relationship with the PKK has been building in Turkey ahead of the Nov. 1 general elections, which officials say are still scheduled to take place. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party lost much of its majority in June polls thanks to gains made by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party. Erdogan's government has been accused of restarting the bombing campaign against PKK targets as a result of those election outcomes, UPI says. Saturday's bomb attacks, which officials have blamed on ISIS, struck a pro-Kurdish protest and peace rally calling for an end to Turkish attacks on PKK targets. Demonstrators and mourners have accused the authorities of failing to provide adequate security for the rally. Sunday was the first of three days of mourning for those killed in the Saturday attacks, according to the BBC. UPI |
World | 42 Questions About Brexit That Need Answering | The starter's pistol has fired. British Prime Minister Theresa May has officially triggered "Article 50" of the Lisbon Treaty, initiating a two-year process of negotiations to bring the United Kingdom out of the European Union. When 52 of the British electorate voted to leave the E.U. in June 2016, few realized just what a fiendishly complicated process it would be. After four decades of European integration, the bloc has buried its tendrils deep within every facet of British life from its economy to its legal system. The process of Brexit begins in the shadow of great uncertainties for the United Kingdom, its citizens and its residents. In truth, there are hundreds of unanswered questions about what Brexit will mean to Britain and to Europe. Here are just a few of them, What will it cost the U.K. to leave the E.U.? , 60 billion, if the E.U's senior diplomats get their way. The sum would cover the U.K.'s long-term commitments, such as contributions for pensions and regional development projects that won't be completed until long after Brexit. The U.K. will try to whittle that down by negotiation, and may look to offset at least part of it against its sizable claims on E.U. institutions, such as its 16 stake in the European Investment Bank, worth nearly 40 billion see below. Does Britain have enough negotiators?, Britain hasn't been in charge of its own trade policy for 44 years and there is a global shortage of trade negotiators. An initial review suggested the U.K. Has only about 20 experts in this field against 600 highly experienced negotiators in the E.U. The U.K.'s business department has advertised for 300 negotiators and trade specialists. The fear is that strict pay structures will mean obvious candidates in lucrative roles with top law firms will snub working for the public sector. Where will Brexit negotiations take place?, Almost certainly in Brussels, in the new Europa building. The psychedelic, egg-shaped, eco-friendly home for the European Council and Council of the European Union was designed by Belgian architect Philippe Samyn and brought into use at the beginning of the year. Officials are said to be uncertain about what to do with the U.K. delegation rooms once Brexit happens. How long will they take?, A very long time. Article 50 begins the formal, two-year process of negotiation only on the terms of withdrawal from the European Union. It can only be extended by agreement with all 27 remaining European Union states. The U.K. hopes to have a framework for the post-Brexit relationship with the EU in place by the end of that process, in April 2019, but many believe that will not be settled for many years. Senior European figures say these talks on trade, laws, markets, security and more could take up to a decade, according to former EU ambassador to the U.K. Ivan Rogers. It's highly likely we'll still be talking about Brexit in the mid-20s. Could Queen Elizabeth halt the process? , Theoretically yes, but in reality it would never happen. All bills, including Article 50, need royal assent in other words, the Queen has to formally agree to make the bill into an Act of Parliament law. The Queen is also due to introduce a Great Repeal Bill' in her next Queen's Speech, which will repeal the European Communities Act 1972, ending the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the U.K. and enshrining all existing E.U. law into British law. If the Queen were to refuse to give her assent to either, it would spark a constitutional crisis. The last time a monarch did so was in 1707, so anti-Brexiteers needn't get their hopes up. Is there any way individual Brits could opt to stay in the E.U.?, The idea of associate E.U. membership' has been raised, but it's not likely to go anywhere. Charles Goerens, the European Parliament lawmaker from Luxembourg who came up with the idea, argues this remains a "realistic" aim. This would see Brits who want to work in the bloc granted this status and given a vote in European Parliament elections, while keeping their U.K. passport. British remain campaigners love the idea, but it is likely to be vetoed by May because it will create a two-tier system. Others in the E.U. are far from convinced that it would work. Could Brexit lead to greater xenophobia towards E.U. migrants?, Reported incidents of religiously or racially motivated crimes in England and Wales was up 41 in July just after the referendum on the same no the previous year, according to Home Office figures. Nick Clegg, the pro-E.U. former deputy prime minister, tells TIME "A Spanish woman in my constituency who has lived in England for many, many years who was talking Spanish to her young son had someone, for the first time, tell her you should be going home'. There's a sort of everyday nastiness, much of which is not recorded but has clearly increased very sharply some very nasty people feel that their dark tendencies have been legitimized." The fear is the start of The Article 50 process could see these prejudices unleashed again. What happens to Scotland?, Scotland voted overwhelmingly 62 to 38 to remain in the E.U. and its government is seeking a way to opt out of Brexit. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has paved the way for a second independence referendum not even three years after Scots narrowly rejected secession from the U.K. She argues Brexit means there is a "material change" that justifies another vote. May has refused to yield to Sturgeon's demands for a special deal that would give Scotland continued membership of the E.U.'s Single Market. The Scottish Parliament voted on March 28 to hold a second referendum between Autumn 2018 and Spring 2019, by which time the economic risks of Brexit will be coming into ever sharper focus. What happens to the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland? , After two decades of peace, the fear is that Brexit will create a hard border between a Northern Ireland that is part of the U.K. and a Republic that will remain within the E.U. Britain's exit from the E.U.'s Customs Union has raised the prospect of physical checks on, for example, trucks carrying goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic. However, lawmakers are hopeful that Ireland will be made a special case and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has argued the E.U. does not want any hard border to be put in place. What happens to Gibraltar?, Spain has sought to use Brexit as an excuse to turbocharge its long-term desire to take back The Rock', a peninsular within its borders that has belong to the U.K. since the 18th century. The territory was the most pro-remaining slither voting district, with 96 voting to stay. Spain has suggested a joint sovereignty deal to protect Gibraltar's ties with the E.U. but foreign minister Alfonso Dastis has acknowledged this is unlikely due to Britain's refusal to negotiate. What happens to the Channel Islands?, The most southerly part of the British Isles are self-governing Crown Dependencies and not part of the E.U. However, their key financial services industries do risk losing a degree of access to E.U. markets, making it harder for them to compete with the likes of Ireland and Luxembourg, which have likewise specialized in providing offshore' services to international companies and investors. Jersey's financiers have been advising the British government on how the City of London could continue to serve their European customers. Could cities in Britain opt out of Brexit?, Unlikely, given that it would violate the territorial integrity of the U.K. as well as being impossible to enforce in practice. What to do with an E.U. worker who is allowed to live and work in London, if his or her business suddenly relocated to, for example, Manchester or Edinburgh? Elected mayors, a relatively new feature of political life in the U.K. are trying to develop their own plans, notably in London. Ultimately though, rights of migration and residence are highly likely to be decided at national level. What happens to citizens of the U.K. currently living in the E.U. and vice versa?, The House of Lords has defied the Government, voting for an amendment to the Brexit bill that will protect the rights of E.U. nationals living in the U.K. This is further than May wants to go and the government is likely to overturn this amendment when the bill is voted on next. The Prime Minister is looking to nail down a reciprocal deal for the rights of Brits in Europe before making any full commitment to E.U. citizens, but some lawmakers fear this means both groups will end up as "bargaining chips.", What happens to British pensioners living in the E.U.?, Around 1.2 million Brits are estimated to live in other E.U. member states. Like expats anywhere in the world, they are still entitled to the state pension. What is unclear is whether they will still qualify for increases in payments under what is know as the triple lock' pensions can go up in line each year with whatever is higher of average earnings, inflation, or 2.5. However, the U.K. will have to broker a social security deal with the E.U. to make sure triple lock increases are still allowed, otherwise new ex-pat retirees will see their pensions frozen at their initial rate. Can E.U. citizens allowed to stay after Article 50 expect access to the N.H.S.?, All E.U. citizens in the U.K. have access to the N.H.S. at present, despite a little-known rule that residents who are students or not employed but with plenty of money should have already taken out comprehensive health insurance. The Brexit campaign was partly based on the strain that immigration puts on the N.H.S. so unlimited access particularly for the recently-arrived is clearly at risk under the future arrangements. There are fears that even those who have lived in the U.K. for longer than five years might have to fill in an 85-page application form for permanent residency that will give them this access. Reciprocal access of U.K. citizens to E.U. health care systems could also become more complicated. Will British citizens have to get visas to travel to Europe?, Unlikely, given how much money is at stake in both directions. E.U. citizens spent nearly 7.3 billion pounds visiting the U.K. in 2015, and countries such as Spain and Greece will resist anything that hit their tourism businesses. Still, May's insistence on a hard Brexit theoretically risks the need for visas to even neighboring France. The E.U. has in recent years worked towards abolishing visas rather than introducing them, not least to support its tourism industry. What will happen to the Channel Tunnel?, Trains will keep running from London to Paris and Brussels, but the Eurostar company is expecting Brexit to hit its bottom line. In evidence to Parliament executives said there were "no" benefits for the company to Brexit. Indeed, Eurostar's business case might be undermined through any unforeseen additional costs Brexit could impose. The company has also blamed the economic consequences of the Brexit on a recent reduction of services, but, long-term, the impact is expected to be minimal. What happens to banks in London?, France is trying to woo City of London bankers to Paris. HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said in January that around 1,000 of its staff would move from the British to French capital, while UBS said about a fifth of its 5,000 British staff could go, most likely to Germany's financial centre, Frankfurt. Dublin and Luxembourg are among other centers hoping to take a slice of the U.K.'s huge banking industry, but Britain retains advantages of history and geography and hopes to keep the sector largely intact. What will happen to the U.K. car industry, almost all of which is foreign-owned?, Car manufacturers have warned May that the introduction of tariffs would result in job and sale losses for an industry that is booming, with output at its highest level of production since 1999. Four-fifths of all cars made in the U.K. are exported and over half of those go to the E.U. so Mike Hawes, the chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, warned a deal that is as close to the Single Market as possible is vital. Nissan has announced an expansion of is plant in Sunderland in the North-east of England, but GM's plants in the U.K. look vulnerable after the sale of its European operations to French-based PSA Group. What will happen to Britain's farmers?, Farmers are worried their industry will be hit by a 60 loss of income in the form of E.U. subsidies, a situation that Informa Agribusiness Intelligence has warned could see 90 of farms collapse. U.K. ministers have vowed to maintain subsidies to 2020, a year after Brexit negotiations are completed, but thereafter the focus will be on how trade deals will change the sector. There are fears the U.S. will flood the market with cheap beef treated with hormones that were, in effect, banned by the E.U. while a deal with New Zealand could see sheep farm businesses wrecked by cheap imports. What will happen to Britain's fishing industry?, The House of Lords reported in December that the U.K.'s fishing industry would need continued access to E.U. markets in order to remain viable. The U.K.'s fishing industry strongly disagrees, and is keen on defending exclusive access to U.K. waters. A deal granting access would be controversial, because re-establishing U.K. control of these waters, ceded in the 1970s, was a major aim among more hardened Brexiteers. Will Brexit impact British astronauts?, Probably not. Britain is currently a member of the European Space Agency, so there are fears its departure from the E.U. would deny astronauts like former International Space Station resident Tim Peake from making the journey into orbit. But the space flight program is distinct from the E.U. to the extent that Canada is an associate member. British business minister Jesse Norman has confirmed that the U.K.'s future involvement in the ESA will be "handled separately from E.U. discussions." The E.U. states should be happy with this, given the U.K. is one of the agency's biggest budget contributors. What will happen to European football players playing in the U.K.?, Players from E.U. countries will enjoy the same rights to reside and work in the U.K. as any E.U. citizen. Clubs currently have to apply for work permits for players from outside the European Economic Area REF, and the baseline assumption is that this regime will apply to all non-U.K. players after Brexit. Broadly speaking, permits are easier to get for players who already represent their countries. Applying that principle to E.U. players won't affect top-level recruitment much, but could limit the signing of young players for club academies. Will Scotch Whisky cost more? , Depends where you live. Neither the E.U. nor the U.S. the two biggest export markets for Scottish distillers, impose import tariffs under WTO rules, so there is no direct risk there. Prices may rise in countries with which the E.U. has a free-trade agreement FTA. The 2008 E.U.-Korea FTA, for example, phased out import tariffs on spirits completely cheese-makers weren't so lucky, being limited to quotas of tariff-free imports. Just as important as tariffs are FTA provisions that stop other countries from letting cheap local substitutes be labelled as "Scotch." The U.K. will have to renegotiate tariffs, quotas and brand protection mechanisms in any new deals. Will the U.K. have to regulate its own nuclear industry?, Yes but not because of Brexit. Euratom is a 60-year-old agency designed to develop the E.U.'s nuclear energy market. It is legally distinct from the E.U. so there was shock when the U.K. Government sneaked out news recently that it would leave Euratom, which is thought to help provide a fifth of the country's electricity. Critics say the referendum did not give a mandate for this change, while British regulators, already short of nuclear experts, will have to take over Euratom's regulatory role and replace treaties it has with the likes of the U.S. Will E.U. workers in skill shortage industries, such as fruit picking and construction, be allowed to stay in the U.K.?, Even many Brexiteers believe a system of permits will have to be developed for industries that have relied on, in particular, cheap Eastern European workers since the E.U. was expanded in the early 2000s. The fruit-picking industry is heavily lobbying lawmakers, because 95 of its seasonal workforce are from the E.U. However, there is the prospect they will not want to stay if the pound remains weak against the euro. It could prove more financially rewarding for them to exercise their free movement rights in other wealthy E.U. countries. Is it too risky to take a job in U.K. if you're a Brit right now?, If the job is fairly short-term, no. Article 50 negotiations will last two years, while May's push for a transitional period between the divorce settlement and absolute Brexit should offer a few years of additional clarity and certainty on job rights. Will the U.K. still qualify for European Investment Bank EIB loans?, Not under the current rules, but the Luxembourg-based EIB has said it's willing to change them to keep the ship steady. The EIB is a state-backed development bank that lends chiefly to infrastructure projects and indirectly backs programs for lending to small and medium-sized businesses. The U.K. which has some big infrastructure projects in the offing, is rare among E.U. states for not having a state-backed development bank of its own, and may have to tweak its own rules for similar lending by commercial banks to support credit availability. Will central banks continue to hold sterling as a reserve currency?, The pound's role as a reserve currency is already minimal, and Deutsche Bank said in January that it will become "increasingly irrelevant" as a global reserve currency similar forecasts were made prior to the launch of the euro. Central banks no longer need pounds to cover their countries' trade with the U.K. although Britain's status as a stable, law-based democracy will mean that sterling remains an attractive store of value, at least if it can avoid further depreciation in the foreign exchange market. But a loss of capital inflows would make it much harder to cover the U.K.'s current account deficit, running at nearly 100 billion pounds a year. Could Britain slash taxes on goods and services?, The E.U. runs a common V.A.T. system, so the U.K. will be free to introduce new rates for certain goods and services. This could give Britain a huge competitive advantage over its continental neighbors, given attempts to make practical improvements to V.A.T. for insurers and banks have been caught up in Brussels bureaucracy. In theory, Britain could scrap the levy on many products altogether, but it is the second biggest source of tax revenue so this highly unlikely. What about corporation tax?, The government cut the standard rate of corporate income tax to 19 from 20 in this year's budget, and pre-announced a further cut to 17 in 2020, the lowest among the G20 group of major industrial and emerging economies. The move aims at incentivising business to stay in the U.K. post-Brexit. Theresa May has hinted that the U.K. could cut it even further if the E.U. chose to punish it for Brexit by refusing favorable trade terms, although some have warned that openly engaging in tax competition could be counterproductive, hardening attitudes against Britain in other member states. What happens to British university funding?, May seems to be pushing for U.K. to remain part of the E.U.'s Horizon program, which funds university research projects, through a bespoke arrangement. However, vice-chancellors of British institutions have already reported that they are being kicked off as lead universities on cross-border studies and that leading academics are looking to leave or prospective European lecturers think the U.K. is too risky a place to work. Former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says British academics and universities will struggle while they "haven't got the faintest idea what the status" of the U.K. will ultimately be. Is the U.K. planning to loosen environmental regulations to stay competitive? , This is uncertain. The U.K.'s environmental and climate change standards and policies are embedded in E.U. law, but after Brexit, Britain will no longer take part in agreeing these fixed regulations and would be able to loosen its own. The E.U.'s emissions trading scheme and the U.K.'s own Climate Change Levy are both unpopular with various business sectors, but the more the U.K. loosens such regulations, the more it will expose itself to E.U. countermeasures to stop would be cast as environmental "dumping.", What about labor laws?, Theresa May has promised to maintain E.U. labor laws such as the expansion of discrimination categories in employment law such as age, sexual orientation and religion through the "Great Repeal Bill," which turns all existing E.U. rules into domestic law. The Trade Unions Congress, the body representing the majority of Britain's trade unions, has nonetheless warned that workers rights could be eroded if Britain's follows through on its threat to turn into a low tax and low regulation haven if it does not get a fair deal from the E.U. But it is unclear how the government will go down this route in reality and according to the OECD's employment index, Britain is the least regulated labor market in the E.U. meaning there is already very little in terms to labor laws to be loosened. Is the U.K. likely to loosen food safety standards?, There is a worry among politicians and campaigners that food safety standards will be weakened in the attempt to forge quick trade deals with foreign countries, like the U.S. criticized for their lax regulatory environments. The National Farmers Union is keen for those standards to not be watered down if they leave the E.U. But if other countries with low food safety standards begin to import cheaper produce to the U.K. the NFU is mindful that regulations in the U.K. will have to be changed in order to keep its producers competitive, How will the E.U. and U.K. resolve trade disputes in future?, Today, when British and European companies and governments argue over things like patents, food labelling or the clearing of trades in financial derivatives, the E.U. Court of Justice in Luxembourg is the court of last resort. That will have to change when the U.K. leaves the E.U.'s single market. New trading arrangements need a new legal framework for dispute resolution. The depth and breadth of cross-border trade between the E.U. and U.K. demands a solution that is faster and more specific than the World Trade Organization, but the issue so central to sovereignty concerns at the heart of Brexit, and so fiendishly complex, that a diplomatic and legal miracle will be needed to engineer an arrangement as straightforward as the existing one. Will Britain continue to share national security data with the E.U.?, The security threats to the U.K. from Islamist terror, Russian infiltration or organized crime are to a large degree the same as those facing the E.U. so it's no surprise that Theresa May has already pledged that cooperation on security will be a key part of the future relationship. The U.K. opted in' to a new intelligence-sharing program in November, five months after the referendum. Intelligence-gathering including a unique degree of collaboration with the U.S. is one of the biggest assets that the U.K. brings to the negotiations, and May will hope to get cooperation in matters going well beyond national security in return for sharing its secrets. Will E.U. criminals face extradition from the U.K? , A speculative yes' says Steve Peers, an expert on E.U. law from the University of Essex. The U.K could follow countries, like Norway and Iceland, which are not a part of the E.U. but have created extradition treaties that are "more or less" the same as the European Arrest Warrant EAW which is an E.U.-wide system that makes it easier to extradite people wanted for serious crimes. Leaving the E.U. might also make it easier to deport European criminal defendants who recently moved to the U.K. and committed crimes on British soil. But authorities may face roadblocks deporting criminals who are long-term residents of the U.K. as it could contravene local human rights laws. Will Britain stay in Europol, the E.U.'s law enforcement body?, Probably. It has already opted to stay in Europol since leaving. The U.K.'s police minister Brandon Lewis said "the reality of cross-border crime remains" even if the U.K. is leaving the E.U. It seems May would like to find an accommodation to stay close to Europol. For example, the U.S. is an associate member and does not have to adhere to European Court of Justice rules. Will Britain have to tighten its customs borders?, Undoubtedly, and it might make life difficult for importers. British ports alone will have to hire thousands of extra staff to check products from the E.U. that could previously pass through easily, haulage firms have warned. This red tape is likely to delay E.U. goods entering Britain by a day, a huge problem for a manufacturing industry that relies on the just-in-time' production model of getting parts in and out of factories quickly. |
World | The UK Has Appointed a New Minister for Suicide Prevention | In an effort to overcome stigma and address mental health issues, the U.K. appointed a new minister for suicide prevention on Wednesday, which also marked World Mental Health Day, the New York Times reports. Health minister Jackie Doyle-Price will be charged with ensuring mental health remains a top priority as the National Health Service receives new funding. "We can end the stigma that has forced too many to suffer in silence," Prime Minister Theresa May said while announcing the new position. "We can prevent the tragedy of suicide taking too many lives. And we can give the mental well-being of our children the priority it so profoundly deserves.", While suicide rates have dropped in recent years, about 4,500 people take their own lives annually in England, according to government research. It remains the leading cause of death for men under age 45, the Times reports. "In my time as health minister, I have met many people who have been bereaved by suicide, and their stories of pain and loss will stay with me for a long time," Doyle-Price said in a statement. "It's these people who need to be at the heart of what we do, and I welcome this opportunity to work closely with them, as well as experts, to oversee a cross-government suicide-prevention plan, making sure their views are always heard," she said. May also announced additional funding for the Samaritans' help line, a confidential 24-hour suicide hotline. In January, May also appointed a minister for loneliness to deal with she called "the sad reality of modern life" for too many people. |
World | Why the USUK Relationship Is Less Special than Ever | Almost 70 years to the day since Winston Churchill immortalized the term in his historic Sinews of Peace' address, the "special relationship" between the U.K. and U.S. is looking strained once again. President Barack Obama threw the diplomatic equivalent of shade at British Prime Minister David Cameron in an interview in The Atlantic published this week. In his conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg, Obama laid the blame for the collapse of Libya in the aftermath of dictator Muammar Gaddafi's downfall primarily at Europe's door, saying he had expected his allies to do more to stabilize the situation. Cameron, he said, was "distracted by a range of other things.", The White House hastily put out a statement pronouncing the U.S-U.K. relationship just as special as it had ever been, but the damage was done. The British chattering classes wailed and gnashed their teeth, as they are wont to do whenever the transatlantic bond is called into question. In truth, the concept of the "special relationship" is axiomatic only in Britain, where it has long propped up the country's self-identity as one of the world's great powers, well after the sun had set on its empire. In the U.S. the phrase has been in question in since at least 1970, when TIME said it "does not come even close to carrying the significance that it did in 1946." In the scathing words of one interviewee in an article marking then-U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson's visit to Washington, Britain by then had become a "butterfly content to flutter pathetically on the periphery of the world.", Of course any chaos theoretician worth her salt could tell you that a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can still cause rain to fall in another. Which is another way of saying that, even as a diminished power, Britain has been a useful partner to the U.S. when it comes to raining bombs on the enemies of the West. Whenever the world's sheriff needs a deputy, the British armed forces are usually first to answer the call. But when the world's sheriff wants to talk business, it calls the Germans and then only when it's not hanging out with its new friends in the Asia-Pacific region. In fact, the U.S. has been building special relationships all around the world under Obama, from the Middle East to the Americas. And so, with the oxygen of power becoming ever thinner, the Brits have become increasingly hypersensitive to any perceived snub from the New World. Not long after Obama took office, his then-Press Secretary Robert Gates sparked an outbreak of grumbling by referring to the "special partnership" between the countries making the U.S.-U.K relationship sound less like an unshakeable diplomatic union than a marketing tie-in. Obama's level of commitment to the U.K. has been an open question ever since. This latest affront would seem to provide an answer, of sorts. But it's worth remembering that the term has become shorthand not for the relationship between the countries themselves, but for the kinship shared by their leaders. It may not be a surprise then that Obama would not feel a great connection with Cameron, a son of Etonian privilege whose ideas about government and the economy are significantly more conservative than the American President's. And it's become clear, more than seven years into his time in office, that Obama rarely feels the need to build personal relationships with foreign leaders at allhis new bro Justin Trudeau notwithstanding. The special relationship may then flourish again under future leaders. It's not too much of a stretch, for example, to imagine that a President Donald Trump would find a kindred spirit in another large-haired, verbose former television star London Mayor Boris Johnson, who is currently favored to be Cameron's successor. |
World | Indias Supreme Court Decriminalizes Homosexuality in a Historic Ruling for the LGBTQ Community | A landmark judgment by India's highest court has overturned a colonial-era law that criminalizes consensual gay sex, in a long-fought for victory for the LGBTQ community. The five-judge bench reached a unanimous decision Thursday in the capital New Delhi. Delivering his decision, Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said, "The LGBTQ community has the same fundamental rights as citizens. The identity of a person is very important and we have to vanquish prejudice, embrace inclusion and ensure equal rights." , "History owes an apology to members of the community for the delay in ensuring their rights," Justice Indu Malhotra, another judge in the bench said. The court verdict is a major milestone for LGBTQ-identifying people across the country, where homosexuality remains a social taboo and gay people face endemic discrimination. "Now more people will have the strength to come out," says Tanveen Kaur Randhawa, one of 20 former students of the Indian Institute of Technology who filed one of several petitions in court earlier this year. "When you are treated as a criminal, it is not easy to come out and this step is very important because it ensures that you have the right to be who you are.", India joins 17 Commonwealth nations that have overturned laws criminalizing homosexuality, a legacy left behind in most of these nations by the former British colonial rulers. Homosexuality still remains illegal in 36 Commonwealth countries, including Singapore, Kenya and Sri Lanka. For much of the period before British rule, homosexuality featured prominently in Indian religious texts and sculptures. The law that criminalized it, Section 377, was put in place in 1861 and penalized anyone who "voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal." Although there has not been many prosecutions under this law, members of the LGBTQ community have claimed that it has been used to ostracize and harass them. "A lot of people will now have the strength to approach police, if they are harassed," Anurag Kalia, another petitioner in the case, tells TIME. Referring to incidents where victims of sexual abuse were also charged for sodomy under Section 377, he says, "The fear factor will go away.", The ruling may also help dismantle the stigma attached to HIV and AIDS among gay men as the law impeded many from seeking the medical care they needed. Although a 2017 UNAIDS study showed that new HIV infections in India have decreased by 46 from 2010, experts say more LGBTQ people will now be able to approach doctors and medical services without the fear of discrimination. "Even after a person's infection is identified, they are reluctant to go to government hospitals to take the confirmation test," says Rohit Sarkar, Senior Program Officer at India HIV/AIDS Alliance, a non-governmental organization that works to prevent HIV infections and meet other challenges related to AIDS. "Because there was not only societal discrimination but also discrimination by the law.", In fact, the first challenge to the law was taken by the Naz Foundation, a NGO that works to create awareness of HIVS/AIDS and other sexual health issues. In 2001, they filed a petition challenging the law in the Delhi High Court. "HIV/AIDS has been the entry point to start talks about LGBTQ rights in India," says Sylvester Merchant, another Senior Program Officer at India HIV/AIDS Alliance. "We did not have our own Stonewall and hence, HIV was our starting point," he says, referring to a violent uprising in 1969 by the LGBTQ community in New York City. The movement is thought to have been the starting point of the fight for LGBTQ rights in the U.S. A long legal tussle ensued. New Delhi's High Court decriminalized homosexuality among consenting adults in 2009, only to be later overturned by the country's Supreme Court in 2012, following appeals from religious groups. The top court had then observed that less than 200 people were prosecuted in over 150 years for committing an offense under the section. In 2016, five petitions to overturn the law were filed in the Supreme Court by prominent LGBTQ activists. The petitioners claimed that Section 377 violated their sexual autonomy, privacy and right to equality. Before Thursday's verdict, about a dozen more petitions were filed by other parties arguing to quash the law. While the ruling is welcomed by Indian LGBTQ activists, prominent voices in the community say challenges remain. "The LGBTQ movement in India is very urban-centric," says Samarpan Maiti, a scientist and rights activist who won the title of Mr. Gay India earlier this year. Maiti, who is a brain cancer researcher, says his motivation to sign up for the pageant was simply to create awareness. "I thought this would send a message to people in rural areas as they would likely take the word of a scientist who is living as an openly-gay man.", Maiti has been working with LGBTQ people in underprivileged parts of India. He says spreading awareness to remote areas is a major hurdle as a majority of people in these regions consider homosexuality a disease, or at best, a phase. Maiti recalls how his mother blamed homosexuality on his city life when he came out to his family in 2016. Gaining her acceptance was a process that took a long time, he says. "She never spoke about it and I was the one always bringing it up," he says. " I started showing her movies about the LGBTQ community and our issues and that's how she finally accepted me.", Gaining that kind of societal acceptance will not be a smooth journey either. Petitioners faced strong opposition in court with Christian religious groups arguing against repealing the law. Even though Hindu and Muslim groups decided to stand back and not legally challenge the petition, members from all religious groups have vociferously defended their anti-gay stand in speeches and media appearances. LGBTQ activists say the next step is pushing for marriage equality and property rights, but they will face an ongoing battle to ensure that their new-found right is not taken back from them, as it was in 2012. "We cannot rest on our laurels," says Harish Iyer, a prominent LGBTQ activist, who shot to fame after his mother posted a matrimonial advertisement seeking grooms for her son in 2015. "When love comes out of the closet, hate shall too raise its hood." |
World | Gender Bias Results in 239000 Girls Deaths in India Each Year According to a New Study | Nearly a quarter of a million girls under the age of five die annually in India because of neglect related to gender-based discrimination, according to a new study published in the medical journal the Lancet. At an estimated 239,000 deaths per year, that amounts to about 2.4 million over a decade, not including pre-natal deaths. The preference for a son is widespread in India, sometimes leading to pre-natal termination and, as the new research suggests, post-natal neglect. "Gender-based discrimination towards girls doesn't simply prevent them from being born, it may also precipitate the death of those who are born," Christophe Guilmoto, the study's co-researcher, said in a statement. "Gender equity is not only about rights to education, employment or political representation. It is also about care, vaccination, and nutrition of girls, and ultimately survival.", , The report analyzed excess female under-five deaths across 35 states and territories in 640 districts. The report said that significant excess, or premature, mortality of girls under five was found in 29 out of India's union states and territories. Aside from two, every Indian state or territory contained at least one district with excess mortality. The problem is most severe in the north of India where the country's four largest states are located, the report said, with two-thirds of the total excess deaths of girls under five found in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. |
World | Political Turmoil but Calmer Markets Greet a PostBrexit Britain | Britain confronted the prospect of political chaos Monday morning, three days after the country voted to leave the European Union in a national referendum. The response to Brexit in the U.K. has been chaotic Prime Minister David Cameron announced he would be stepping down the value of the pound tumbled to its lowest in at least three decades and it now appears that the weekend offered no respite, with sterling hitting a fresh low on Monday morning. Cameron's plans for resignation have created a tense power vacuum in the country's ruling Conservative Party, with former mayor of London Boris Johnson, who supported Brexit, tipped as a candidate to replace him. But a far more dramatic fallout is taking place in the opposition Labour Party, whose leader Jeremy Corbyn faces a coup. In the days following the referendum, about half of Corbyn's shadow cabinet have resigned in protest against what they see as his poor performance during the Brexit campaign and his inability to adequately lead. Stephen Kinnock, the son of former Labour leader Neil, told TIME that Corbyn has been unwilling to engage with politicians of opposing views and has been unable to capitalize on the "leadership vacuum" in Westminster. "We need the Conservatives to agree to a cross-party approach to the negotiations on what the U.K.'s new relationship with Europe will be, with the Prime Minister leading and the Labour leader as deputy," he said. "But the whole point is that we need a credible person who is a hard-headed negotiator, and that means compromising with people you don't agree with. Jeremy has spent his entire career in rooms and forums with people who agree with him.", Meanwhile, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, the British government's top Financial Minister, held a press conference early Monday morning in an apparent effort to stabilize the London markets before they opened. Citing positive development statistics, he assured his audience that the country was "prepared for the unexpected and equipped for whatever happens.", "It will not be plain sailing in the days ahead, but let me be clear you should not underestimate our resolve," he said. He went on to advise against implementing Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty the mechanism that would formalize Britain's process of departing from the E.U. until "there is a clear view about what new arrangements" the U.K. could obtain with the rest of Europe. He stressed that during these negotiations, standard E.U. policies on the movement of persons and the exchange of goods and services would remain unchanged. He also conceded that fallout from the Brexit vote "will have an impact on the economy and the public finances," though the Guardian observed on Monday morning that his comments had apparently tempered the early-morning market response. After a sharp falling off on Friday, the FTSE 100 index had recovered somewhat over the weekend, then fell only slightly after opening on Monday. Marcel Thieliant, a senior economist with Capital Economics, a global economic-research firm, tells TIME that he is not particularly anxious about the state of the global economy in the wake of the Brexit aftershock. "We've already seen a rebound in the major Japanese stock index Nikkei, which is encouraging, because it's usually one of the most-hit markets when we have some period of weakness," he says. He also suggests that markets have been overreacting. "The U.K. economy will not do as badly as most have feared," he says, "because at least in the short term, nothing much will change. It will take some time before the country leaves." |
World | Japans Profound Ambivalence Over Nuclear Energy | A few days after residents were first allowed to move back to the Fukushima village of Tamura, Miho Watanabe was finally able to lay on a cheery welcome. The co-manager of a government-built grocery store, she hung up flower displays and colorful banners. Inside, refrigerators hummed, pop music played and the bar code scanner beeped merrily as visitors raided the three short but well-stocked aisles. "It's been extremely hectic to put everything in place," she beamed in her white uniform. "But the smiles on the customers' faces make me happier than I've ever felt in my life.", Despite the outward brio, things aren't so simple. Wary of lingering contamination from the 2011 disaster at the nearby Daiichi nuclear power plantas well as the lack of job opportunities and amenitieshalf of the former residents have simply ignored the official all-clear, which was issued on April 1. On a national level, too, there is a lack of consensus. Produce from Fukushima, even from villages unconnected to the disaster, does not inspire confidence among consumers despite official O.K.s. And nobody can agree on the future of Japan's nuclear-energy sector. In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, the country's 48 reactors were shut down and the energy they generated replaced by imported fossil fuels, which have burned a deep hole in national coffers over the past three years and damaged the country's competitiveness. A sharp drop in Tokyo's stock market on Friday put the Nikkei Stock Average on track for its worst week in three years. Though his predecessor wanted to phase out nuclear power, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sees it as crucial if the world's third largest economy is to be steadied. On Friday, his Cabinet approved an energy strategy that reinforced the future role of nuclear energy, despite significant opposition from the general population. "They want to restart the reactors because of money, but it's irresponsible, Japan is too unsafe to have nuclear power," says activist Kaori Echigo, before taking to a podium in front of the parliament building in Tokyo and leading a crowd in the chanting of anti-nuclear slogans. The crowd at these gatherings, which have been held weekly since the disaster, has dwindled to a few hundred. But the last time a reactor was restarted, in 2012, thousands came onto the streetsas they are likely to do again if Abe goes ahead with his plan. A poll by the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper last month found that 69 of respondents wanted nuclear power to be phased out. That number could rise even higher if Japan makes it through another summer without blackouts. Coping with the peak season for electricity consumption without incident would suggest that fossil fuels, though costly, are doing their job. Even in once staunch pro-nuclear strongholds like Tamura, which thrived on employment from the now shuttered Daiichi plant, there are mixed views. Kenichi Matsumoto, who runs the local tobacco store, remembers the good times. When the plant was built, he says, "there were jobs, a school was opened. Before, the village had only one bike. Now we drive cars." And he says marrying somebody from Tamura was seen locally as a stroke of luck because the Tamura villagers invariably made prosperous partners. But when Watanabe, at the newly opened grocery store, is asked about the future the smile on her face fades. "We still talk a lot about the radiation risk," she says. "It's better around the houses, but still bad in the forest and among the hills.", Spread out through the village are fields covered with black plastic bags, each one filled with contaminated topsoil that has been collected from the surroundings. Watanabe says she feels life is coming back to Tamura when she sees children in the streets, but then remembers that they are only allowed half an hour's outdoor playtime per day because of radiation fears. "I don't want my grandchildren to grow up here," she says. "I don't know which health problems they may get." Even that old saw about marrying somebody from Tamura means nothing now. "I want my grandchildren to get married" Watanabe adds, "and I don't know which suitors would ever come here." |
World | Google Looks to Divert Extremists With AntiRadicalization Ads | Google is experimenting with a program that would direct British users searching for words linked to religious extremism to content designed to counter radicalization, a company executive has said. Anthony House, Google's senior manager for public policy and communications, told British lawmakers in a parliamentary committee hearing about the pilot initiative, which is targeted at reducing the online influence of groups like ISIS, the Guardian reported Tuesday. "We should get the bad stuff down, but it's also extremely important that people are able to find good information, that when people are feeling isolated, that when they go online, they find a community of hope, not a community of harm," House said. Google on Tuesday said House's remarks had been misinterpreted and that it would not be changing or redirecting Search results. Instead, it would allow nonprofits to place ads deterring would-be jihadists on certain searches, "What was referenced is a pilot Google AdWords Grants program that's in the works right now with a handful of eligible nonprofit organizations," spokesman William Fitzgerald told Buzzfeed. "The program will enable NGOs to place counter-radicalization ads against search queries of their choosing.", At least 700 British citizens have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join jihadist organizations, the BBC reports. Guardian |
World | New Delhi Authorities Backtrack on Controversial Exam for Rape Victims | Authorities in the Indian capital, New Delhi, have made a hasty about-face after granting local doctors permission to perform digital vaginal examinations on victims of rape and sexual assault. The permission, which appeared to contradict a medical ban, was made in a circular sent to local hospitals, the BBC reports, and drew a fierce backlash. According to Indian news site Firstpost, the circular described the so-called two-finger test as "essential" and said that forgoing it "would amount to incomplete assessment of the survivor.", New Delhi health minister Satyendra Jain said that criticism of the circular misrepresented authorities' intentions, which were to seek higher conviction rates. The document also stressed that the "informed consent" of the victim should be sought. However, India's Supreme Court ruled that the humiliating and outdated procedure violated a woman's privacy in 2013. It was subsequently banned by the Department of Health Research and the Indian Medical Council in guidelines issued in 2014. Despite that, the test is still performed in some parts of India. Sexual violence, and the harassment of women, have been sensitive topics in India since a brutal 2012 gang rape in Delhi sparked nationwide protests and made headlines around the world. Following criticism of the circular, Jain clarified that digital vaginal examinations "cannot be performed for ascertaining sexual assaults," the BBC said. BBC |
World | Worried About Getting Around London if Ubers Gone Here Are 3 Alternatives | The news that London's transportation agency declined to renew Uber's operating license set off panic Friday as commuters could face the prospect of navigating without one of the city's accessible forms of transport. But there are a few Uber alternatives in London for people who want to get around without their own car. Unfortunately for riders, Lyft is not one of them, as it doesn't operate in London. The Underground, the city's subway system, is of course an option, though the London Tube does have limited service during the late-night hours. And while busses and bicycles are also an option, Uber users might be looking for an alternative closer to the Uber transportation model. With that being said, here are three car-service apps you can use as an alternative to Uber, should the company's appeal to the government fail. Also known as Hailo before a merger last year, MyTaxi connects users to London's iconic black taxicabs, which can be paid for with a credit or debit card through the app rather than with cash. MyTaxi fares are typically more expensive than Uber, but the service has sparked intrigue this month by offering a 50 discount to woo customers back to the famed cabs. The app is available on both iOS and Android. Gett has a pretty similar concept to Uber, but there's no surge pricing in the event of high demand in the surrounding area. Plus, it can be used in other cities throughout the United Kingdom. Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Manchester, Coventry and Newcastle are all among the 19 cities the service operates in. The Gett app is available on both iOS and Android. Addison Lee is a comparable service to Uber that was used for years in London before Uber took over the market. The main difference? Luxury, and by proxy, price. Addison Lee is more of a premium service than a standard Uber or UberX, but it comes with perks like free Wi-Fi and in-car phone chargers. It's also fixed price from the start like Gett, so you won't have to worry about a surge. The app is available on iOS and Android. |
World | Neighboring Iran Warily Watches Turkeys Attempted Coup | As Istanbul and Ankara descended into chaos with an ongoing military coup in Turkey on Friday night, Izmir, the country's third most populous city, was relatively calm. As news of the coup started spreading detachments of heavily armed police showed up at Izmir's international airport, and while some flights still managed to take off, many were cancelled. On the streets of Izmir supporters of both sides were driving and honking their car horns. Coup supporters waved the red national flag of Turkey while supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waved his AKP party's blue flag. In some squares small crowds had gathered and were shouting slogans, and occasionally heated arguments would arise between the supporters of the opposing camps. "Erdogan was crazy,I'm happy he is gone!" a middle aged man shouted from his car. "The Army was right to take over." Others disagreed, a young man shouting back at him. "I hate Erdogan, but he was democratically elected. Our democracy is more valuable." Some mosques were broadcasting the Islamic call to prayers at 130 in the morning in an effort to get Erdogan's supporters onto the streets. In the Izmir airport many of the passengers waiting to find out whether their flights would go ahead were tourists from neighboring Iran, and reports that Tehran had mobilized its air force only increased their anxiety. "We had spent a great week vacationing in Turkey, now I just want to get my family home," said Mehdi, whose 5 a.m. flight to the eastern Iranian city of Mashad had been cancelled. As he tried to find seats on other flights still scheduled to leave for Tehran his 5-year-old daughter was crying and begging him to return to the hotel "where it will be safe.", Read More Turkey Has Become the New Front of ISIS's War on the World, The government in Iran was taking the coup reports seriously, as an immediate session of the Supreme National Security Council had been called by the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. "Iran has mobilized the necessary military and intelligence forces," said Iran's intelligence minister, Mahmoud Alavi on state TV. "We are in complete control of our borders with Turkey.", Iranian media were reporting that army units had been ordered to the Iran-Turkey border and the official news agency IRNA reported that all border crossings with Turkey have been closed and all flights to Turkey cancelled till further notice. Iran has been locked in a regional struggle with Turkey over the civil war in Syria. Iran supports Syrian President Bashar Assad government, while Erdogan supporting the rebels attempting to bring him down. But while a change in the policy of Ankara toward Assad might be welcomed in Tehran, instability in Turkey, a major trading partner for Iran, is also extremely undesirable. As the commotion and noise died down on the streets of Izmir, many capitals around the world were following the events in Turkey with concernmaybe none so much as Tehran. "We are carefully following the events in Turkey," said Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, "We are also very worried about these events," IRNA reported. |
World | Italian Olive Oil Production Threatened by Bacteria Attack | A bacterial outbreak is sweeping across one of Italy's most famous olive regions, infecting an estimated one million trees and putting a major part of Europe's olive production at risk. The bacterium, Xylella fastidious, is threatening to put many families out of business in the southeastern Salento peninsula of Italy the heel' of the Italian boot', which produces some of the country's best olive oils. It causes withering by restricting water flow from a tree's roots to its canopy a tree eventually collapses and dies. The bacterium has destroyed vineyards in northern California costing the grape industry 100 million a year and infects 200 million citrus trees in Brazil but it's presence was only confirmed in Europe for the first time when olive trees began dying rapidly in southern Italy. Italian researchers first notified the European Commission in October 2013 that the pathogen had been detected in the southern parts of the Apulia region in Italy. Some 10 of trees in the area are now thought to be affected, the Times reports. Production has already dropped at farms across the region, but the bacterium is expected to spread even further. A recent E.U. report said "establishment and spread in the E.U. is very likely" and warned of "major risk to the E.U. territory" if the disease spread to other olive producing regions. Italian officials are now trying to quarantine the outbreak by creating a buffer zone across the peninsula. Last week an Italian court suspended the destruction of olive trees but Italy's Agriculture Ministry has appealed the decision. According to the Times, 35,000 trees could soon be uprooted under the government plan. |
World | Greek Elections Risk a Game of Chicken With German and EU Lenders | Last May, during a conference with his left-wing allies in Germany, the leader of Greece's populist Syriza party offered a warning to German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "I regret that I will say it here in Berlin," Alexis Tsipras told his comrades from the German fringe party known as Die Linke The Left. "Merkel, who will listen to it, will be upset. But soon she will have to deal with a government of the Left in Greece.", That message now seems prophetic. Not only is Syriza expected take the most votes in this weekend's Greek parliamentary elections, but the core platform of its leader is set to pose a major challenge for the German Chancellor. Tsipras, the telegenic populist who, at 40, could soon become the first politician from the radical left to take power in Europe in a generation, has pledged to defy his country's creditors, particularly Germany, by rejecting the austerity measures they have imposed on Greece as a condition for the 240-billion-euros 278 billion worth of bailouts it has received since 2010. He has also asked Germany and other European donor nations to forgive a large chunk of Greece's debt. One alternative would be for Greece to abandon the European Union's common currency, the euro, and slam the door behind by declaring some form of bankruptcy. That prospect, known as the Greek exit, or "Grexit," could be calamitous for the stability and long-term prosperity of the E.U. economy, in particular the German locomotive that drives it. For one thing, it would pose the risk of a domino effect, as other debt-laden countries, notably Portugal, Spain and Italy, will start to consider bailing on the Eurozone as well, says Henning vom Stein, the head of the Brussels office for the Bertelsmann Foundation, a leading European think-tank. "It will not end at Greece," he says. "The single market is the engine of the European Union," he adds, and if Greece leaves, the whole thing could start to unravel. For Greece, however, that would also be a disaster. Abandoning the euro would isolate its economy and force it to return to its former currency, the drachma, which would then plunge in value. Even a partial default on its debt would also sever Greece's access to more loans for years to come. "There is no scenario under which an exit would make sense for Greece," says Henning Vpel, a senior economist at the Hamburg Institute of International Economics. So raising the prospect of a Grexit "is not a credible threat," he adds. It is more like the start of a painful negotiation over what to do about the failing Greek economy. What seems clear to all sides is that something has to give. The debt burden of the Greek government is now at 177 of its GDP, the highest in Europe, while the austerity measures imposed on Greece by its European creditors have forced massive budget cuts on everything from medical care to pensions and road maintenance. More than a quarter of the population is now unemployed, and among Greek youth, the jobless rate is close to 60. The resulting social unrest has proven fertile ground for populist parties like Syriza, and the result will be clear in this weekend's elections. Tsipras is already preparing for the day after. In an appeal published this month in the German daily Handelsballt, he asked the German public to help give Greece a "European New Deal" that would release the Greek people from the humiliating conditions of austerity. "Let me be frank," he wrote, "Greece's debt is currently unsustainable and will never be serviced, especially while Greece is being subjected to continuous fiscal water boarding.", There have been signs that Europe is prepared to yield to some of Syriza's demands. The one-trillion euro stimulus program that the European Central Bank ECB announced on Thursday could ultimately, for instance, allow the bank to buy back Greek bonds, giving the struggling economy an infusion of cash and easing its debt load. With that program, "The ECB has made this bargaining solution possible," says Vpel, the Hamburg economist, in an email to TIME. But Europe's wealthier nations are still a long way off from accepting Syriza's core demand a reduction in the principle value of Greek debt. At the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, one of the more recalcitrant voices on this issue was Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb "It will be very difficult for us to forgive any loans," he said during a panel discussion. At the same time, a Grexit would be still more difficult, he added "We need to try to avoid the dirty exit at all costs.", The key question now is how high those costs will be for Europe. Among the more affluent European nations, the rise of Eurosceptic parties, such as the National Front in France and the UKIP in the U.K. suggests that voters are already tired of bailing out their struggling neighbors, says Vpel. So it will be hard for Merkel and her wealthy colleagues to convince their voters that, for the sake of European prosperity and solidarity, Greece needs yet another break. Nor will it be easy for any Greek government to stay the course of austerity without causing a major public backlash. Already violent street protests have become the norm in Athens, often calling for Greece to throw off the strictures of its bailout program and go it alone. "There is quite a serious anti-German sentiment among the Greek population," says Eleni Panagiotarea, a research fellow at the Eliamep think tank in Athens. "They feel they have been marginalized, and they really put the blame on Germany for imposing these very strict and harsh loan conditions.", The Syriza campaign has played on those feelings, painting the country's lenders as the source of Greece's troubles since the global financial crisis began. But after the vote, the left-wing party will still need to compromise with the very institutions it has been demonizing, and the threat of a Grexit will be a useful tool. "They're basically playing a game of chicken," Panagiotarea says of the Syriza party. "Their logic is that these lending institutions will blink first, because they do not want to take the blame for a Grexit.", On that score Syriza is probably right. The winner in a game of chicken is usually the one who has less to lose, and while the Greek economy has nearly reached rock bottom, Germany, like the rest of the E.U. cannot afford to risk an unraveling of the single market on which its economic growth depends. They would sooner preserve it by appeasing at least some of Syriza's demands, or as the Finnish Prime Minister put it in Davos, "at any cost." |
World | Polish Cops Block Treasure Hunters Seeking Nazi Gold Train | Authorities rushed to blockade a stretch of train track in rural Poland after the reported discovery of an abandoned train reignited long-held rumors that a Nazi train, freighted with gold and gems, had supposedly vanished into the hills in the spring of 1945. Dozens of treasure hunters, some equipped with metal detectors, have swarmed into the wooded hills outside of the city of Walbrzych in southwest Poland, the AP reports. Governor Tomasz Smolarz said that police have been deployed to block entry points into the woods and ensure infiltrators do not attempt to walk along the still active train tracks and risk an accident. The gold rush surged after deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski reportedly said that ground-penetrating devices appeared to show the contours of a train in an underground passage. Listen to the most important stories of the day |
World | Iranian Prison Vows to Revisit Case of Marine Veteran Amir Hekmati | Marine veteran Amir Hekmati has quit his hunger strike in Iran's Evin Prison after officials said they would take steps to have his case revisited by Iranian authorities. A spokesman for the Hekmati family declared Tuesday that the 31-year-old had ended the strike he started the week before, reports the Flint Journal. Hekmati, an Arizona native and long-time Michigan resident, was arrested in Iran in August 2011 on allegations of being a spy. His family claims he was simply visiting his grandmother in Tehran. Last week, Hekmati released an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama that he dictated over phone to his family. "It is my hope that after reading this letter you, or anyone who may see this, will help end the nightmare I have been living," the letter stated. "As you are well aware, I have been detained in Evin Prison in Iran for more than three years. I remain confined without a fair trial and no idea or understanding of what is to be my fate.", U.S. officials have been outspoken in their support of Hekmati, and a group of fellow Marine veterans who joined Hekmati's hunger strike have vowed to continue until "Iran does the right thing.", "We welcome their willingness to revisit his case, but the only solution here is to free Amir unconditionally," said Marine veteran Brandon Walker. The Hekmati family's spokesperson voiced their appreciation for those who support his case "The family, particularly Amir's ailing father, is deeply moved by the thousands who have joined the campaign.", Flint Journal |
World | Hungary Reopens Budapest Train Station to Stranded Refugees After Two Days | After a two-day standoff that kept 2,000 migrants out of the Keleti Railway Terminus, Hungarian authorities finally reopened the entrances to Budapest's central train station early Thursday prompting hundreds of them to flood in and throng waiting trains. Complete pandemonium reigned as desperate refugees shoved children through open carriage windows in the hope of gaining passage to Germany, Reuters reported. However, signs in Hungarian announced that all trains to Western Europe had been canceled, while the Hungarian parliament held an unscheduled parliament session to debate solutions to its rapidly escalating role in the European Union's refugee crisis. The rush onto the platforms marked the end of a tense couple of days during which hundreds of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and northern Africa, were stranded in the square outside the railway station after Hungary allowed thousands through on Monday but then decided to stop them from traveling further into Europe. In a repeat of the previous day's events, around 300 migrant protesters continued their cries of "Freedom, freedom!" as they demanded to be let into the Keleti Railway Terminus to board trains for Austria and Germany. Hungarian authorities closed the station to the asylum-seeking refugees on Tuesday despite letting thousands board trains earlier, and evacuated them from the station into the square outside. Hungarians with valid ID and foreigners with passports were allowed to proceed into the station as usual. Many of the hundreds of thousands of migrants that have flooded into Europe after crossing the Mediterranean Sea are making a beeline for countries like Germany, which announced earlier that it would grant asylum to Syrian refugees. The announcement came despite a European Union rule called the Dublin Regulation, which states that refugees must stay in the European country of their initial arrival until their asylum claims are processed. Traveling across Europe without proper documentation is also against E.U. law, a law Hungarian authorities cited as justification for barring the migrants from boarding trains despite many having bought tickets. "A train ticket does not overwrite E.U. rules," government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said. Germany, Italy and France called for a revision of those rules in a joint declaration, saying that there should be a "fair distribution" of migrants across the continent, according to the BBC. As Europe struggles to deal with the sudden influx of migrants fleeing violent conflict and crippling poverty, however, its countries remain divided over a solution. Hungary, which has become a flashpoint for the migrant crisis after the past week's incidents, has responded by erecting a barbed wire fence on its border with Serbia from which many are entering, and may also employ limited use of its army at the border. "The rhetoric of the Hungarian government has demonized certain groups of people in order to generate fear and thus justify security measures, such as the potential intervention of the army at the Hungarian-Serbian border," the group Migration Aid, which has been assisting migrants throughout the summer, said in a statement. Read next Which Word Should You Use Refugee or Migrant? |
World | Myanmar Detained a Team of Journalists for Flying a Drone | The recent arrest of two foreign journalists and two Myanmar citizens after an attempt to fly a drone over the nation's parliament has caused alarm over what appears to be an ever-tightening grip on the media. Singaporean Lau Hon Meng and Malaysian Mok Choy Lin were on assignment for Turkey's state broadcaster, Turkish Radio and Television, when they were detained on Oct. 27. Their translator, local freelance journalist Aung Naing Soe, and driver, Hla Tin, were also detained. All four have been charged under an export and import law, though Myanmar nationals Aung Naing Soe and Hla Tin did not own or operate the drone, according to their lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw. "It may be ridiculous, but it's what happens here," Zaw told TIME, adding that all four are being detained on a 15-day remand while they await a trial. Khin Maung Zaw said no family, friends or legal counselors have been allowed to meet with the detainees since their arrest on Friday. Aung Naing Soe, the local interpreter, is well known in the country for his reporting and photojournalism, which often focuses on domestically controversial topics such as the persecution of Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya minority. He has previously endured death threats as a result of his work and faced new harassment this weekend when a local media outlet dubiously claimed that he had ties with a Rohingya insurgent group. "This is very dangerous for Aung Naing Soe," said Ye Htoo, a family friend. He added that these "obviously false allegations" have spread on social media and could "make more trouble" for Soe and his family. Read more The Story Behind the Most Haunting Images of the Rohingya Crisis, The case also comes amid tensions between Myanmar and Turkey, which escalated in September after Turkish President Tayyip Erdoan accused Myanmar of committing "genocide" against the persecuted Rohingya group. A brutal military crackdown has sent more than 604,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighboring Bangladesh since late August. Journalists in Myanmar have also found themselves increasingly mired in legal troubles amid a backsliding of press freedom that briefly flourished when direct military rule came to an end in 2011. Earlier this year, the Committee to Protect Journalists criticized Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi for failing to reform Myanmar's repressive media environment and continuing to arrest journalists. Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative, tells TIME the ongoing "legal harassment underscores the fast deterioration in press freedom conditions in Myanmar under a nominally elected government and harks to the bad old days of military repression of the media," calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the four arrested Friday. "If Myanmar is sincere about its democratic transition, then authorities must cease and stop this type of petty legal harassment and allow journalists to do their jobs without fear of reprisal," Crispin said. While Myanmar is still in the midst of a dramatic transition from military rule to a hybrid democracy, its new civilian government has retained a cache of antiquated laws that critics say are susceptible to abuse. In late June, three Myanmar journalists were arrested in the country's east, where the government remains at war with ethnic minority rebel groups. The trio, who were eventually acquitted after months in detention, was accused of violating a draconian "unlawful association" law by liaising with insurgents in the course of their reporting. |
World | Exclusive Interview With Narendra Modi We Are Natural Allies | On what he has learned so far about running India The biggest challenge was that I was new to the federal government structures. Different departments tend to work in siloseach department seems to be a government in itself. My effort has been to break these silos down, so that everybody looks at a problem in a collective manner. I see the federal government not as an assembled entity but as an organic entity. On how he sees the U.S. We are natural allies It's not what India can do for the U.S. what the U.S. can do for India The way we should look at it is what India and the U.S. can together do for the world strengthening democratic values all over. On India's sometimes tense relations with China For nearly three decades there has been, by and large, peace and tranquility on the India-China border. Not a single bullet has been fired for over a quarter-century. Both countries are showing great maturity and a commitment to economic cooperation. On the possibility of the Taliban's returning to power in Afghanistan The drawdown of U.S. troops is, of course, an independent decision of the American government, but in the interest of a stable government in Afghanistan, it would be important to hold consultations with the Afghan government to understand their security needs as the U.S. troops draw down. On tackling the threat of terrorism We should not look at terrorism from the nameplateswhich group they belong to, what is their geographical location, who are the victims. These individual groups or names will keep changing. Today you are looking at the Taliban or ISIS tomorrow you might be looking at another name. We should pass the U.N.'s Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. At least it will clearly establish whom you view as a terrorist and whom you don't. We need to delink terrorism from religionto isolate terrorists who use this interchange of arguments between terrorism and religion. Several countries used to see terrorism as a law-and-order situation of individual countries. We should see it as something that is a fight for human values. On whether economic reforms have gone far and fast enough This time last year, nothing seemed to be happening in the government. There seemed to be a complete policy paralysis There was no leadership. My government's coming to power should be viewed in the context of the developments of the 10 years of the last government vs. 10 months of my government The whole world is, once again, excited and enthusiastic about India and the opportunities that India represents. Whether it is the IMF, the World Bank, Moody's or other credit agencies, they are all saying in one voice that India has a great economic future. Read TIME's cover story about Narendra Modi, On whether he would like to have the kind of authoritarian power that China's leader has India is a democracy it is in our DNA. As far as the different political parties are concerned, I firmly believe that they have the maturity and wisdom to make decisions that are in the best interests of the nation. So if you were to ask me whether you need a dictatorship to run India, No, you do not. Whether you need a powerful person who believes in concentrating power, No, you do not. If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values. On India's religious diversity, which some citizens believe is under siege My philosophy, the philosophy of my party and the philosophy of my government is Sabka saath, sabka vikas"Together with all, progress for all." Take everybody together and move toward inclusive growth. Wherever a negative view might have been expressed about a minority religion, we have immediately negated that. So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. The unity and the integrity of the country are the topmost priorities. All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. On what influences him Chokes and tears up. This touches my deepest core. I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life I decided that I would not live for myself but would live for others. ***, Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi Welcome to India, first of all. This is your first visit to India and I am delighted that on your very first visit we have a chance to meet. I hope this opportunity, this visit of yours, will also provide you an occasion to return to India more often. TIME Thank you, we hope so as well. I should start by wishing you a happy anniversary. It is almost one year now in office. So, I am curious about what has surprised you most. You often talked about being an outsider. Now that you are the ultimate insider, what have you seen about the strengths and the opportunities and the obstacles that you face in the program that you are hoping to pursue?, Modi For more than forty years now, I have had an opportunity and chance to travel all across India. There would perhaps be more than 400 districts of India where I have spent a night. So I am fully aware of the strengths of India, I am fully aware of the challenges that we face, I am not unaware of them. What was relatively new to me was the Federal government structures, the systems, the way we operate at the Federal level. That was a part which I was not aware of till I entered the government here. , The biggest challenge I think was that I was new to the Federal government structures. They were new to me, I was new to them, so there was a question of understanding each other's perspective. But within a very short time I have bridged the gap through very focused and concentrated actions. There is now a meeting of minds. I understand them very well, they understand me very well. Because of that, within a very short period of time, we have been able to establish a smooth, seamless working mechanism within the Federal structure. I was Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat for a long period of time. I knew very well what the Central government thought about the States of India and what State governments thought of the Federal government. I wanted to change this thought process, the fundamental thought process as to how the Federal Government and the State governments perceive each other. I wanted the Federal Government and the State Governments to work together for the country. I basically wanted to bring about a complete change in the thinking that Federal government is a giver to the State government, and the State government is a recipient of the largesse from the Federal government. And I think within a very short period of time, I have managed to achieve that objective to a very large extent. I coined a term for that, which I call cooperative Federalism. I took it actually a step further and called it cooperative competitive Federalism. Essentially the concept is that it would encourage different State governments to compete with each other for the growth of the country. What essentially I have tried to do, and I think we have managed to do that, is to convert the country from a single-pillar growth nation to a nation that has 30 pillars of growth these are the 29 States of India and the Federal centre. Similarly, it was my experience after I entered the Federal government that different departments of the Government of India tend to work in silos. Each department seems to work as a Government in itself. The reason for that is that for the last three decades, there has not been a majority government at the Federal level there have essentially been coalition governments, which has had a major impact on the government systems which created silos. My effort has been to ensure that these silos get broken down, that there is a collective thought process which is brought about in the Federal government. And I think we have managed to achieve that in a short period of time wherein everybody thinks together as a collective, everybody works together. And also it has invigorated the administrative system of the Federal government which looks at a problem in a collective manner rather than as individual silos. I see the Federal government not as an assembled entity but as an organic entity so that each one understands the problems of the other and can collectively work together to address those problems. PHOTOS Behind TIME's Cover With Narendra Modi, TIME Moving on to the US, the US-India relationship, President Obama has spoken very highly of you including on the Time 100 very recently. As you go transforming India, transforming the government as you say, how do you think the US should see you as a partner, as an economic competitor? Would "Make in India" for example mean that jobs from the US would come here? So, the debate that we had on the service sector, would that not switch to manufacturing sector? How should the US see you?, Modi I am extremely grateful to President Obama for the thoughtful and generous manner in which he has described me. What he has written in TIME magazine recently, I am also very grateful to him. If I have to describe the India-US relationship in a single word, I will say we are natural allies. I think the relationship between India and US, and the two countries in themselves, have played an enormously important role and continue to play an important role in strengthening democratic values all over the world. What should the India-US relationship be, what India can do for the US, what the US can do for India, I think that is a rather limited point of view to take. I think the way we should look at it is what India and the US can together do for the world. That is the perspective in which we approach our relationship with the United States. Read Barack Obama's tribute to Narendra Modi, TIME You have visited 16 countries already in this year. Who would you say are your other natural allies?, Modi I think this is an expected question from a journalistic point of view! I think each country has its own importance and each relationship has to be viewed in its own perspective. There are several countries of the world with which India has strategic partnerships. There are several other countries with which we have a relationship that is comprehensive in some other respects. There are some which are perhaps born to be there as natural allies, but there are still gaps to be covered in order for us to become natural allies. So I think it is important for us to see each relationship in an overall perspective and also how India approaches that relationship with each country. If you look at the India-US relationship for example, the role that the Indian diaspora has played in the relationship is extremely crucial. Yes, we share democratic values but there is also the great role that the Indian diaspora has played in strengthening the bond of friendship between India and the US, and of course in underscoring the democratic values between the two countries. Also our worldview in addition to our shared democratic values, there are convergences in our worldview on different situations in the world. So, if I were to describe the relationship with other countries, I would say that each relationship of India with other countries has to be seen in a context and a perspective that is different from each other. TIME Prime Minister, you will be visiting China very soon. China is increasingly assertive and influential on the world stage including in the South Asia region. China and India have fought a border war before, and sometimes the relationship, the atmosphere can be tense. With your visit to China and your meeting with China's leaders, what kind of relationship do you want to forge with China? Do you think you can do business with China's leaders? Can India and China ever be friends?, Modi After the India-China war in 1962, in the early 90s, India and China agreed on a framework for peace and tranquillity on the border. Further, since nearly last three decades until this time that we have entered into the 21st century, there is by and large peace and tranquillity on the India-China border. It is not a volatile border. Not a single bullet has been fired for over a quarter of a century now. This essentially goes to prove that both countries have learnt from history. In so far as the India-China relationship is concerned specifically, it is true that there is a long border between India and China and a large part of it is disputed. Still, I think both countries have shown great maturity in the last couple of decades to ensure and commit to economic cooperation which has continued to grow over the last 20 to 30 years to a stage where we currently have an extensive trade, investment and project related engagement between the two countries. Given the current economic situation in the world, we are at a stage where we cooperate with China at the international stage but we also compete with China when it comes to commerce and trade. You referred to the increase in Chinese influence in the region and in the world. I firmly believe that there is not a single country in the world, whether its population is one million or much more, which would not want to increase its influence internationally. I think it is a very natural tendency for the nations to increase their influence in the international space, as they pursue their international relations with different countries. I firmly believe that with due regard to international rules and regulations, and with full respect for human values, I think with these two perspectives in mind each country has the right to increase its presence, its impact and influence internationally for the benefit of the global community. TIME I just wanted to ask a follow-up question. On the eve of your visit to China, would you wish to send a special message to President Xi? Would you like to say something to him on the eve of your visit?, Modi I firmly believe that the relationship between two countries, the India-China relationship as you are referring to, should be such that to communicate with each other there should really not be a need for us to go through a third entity. That is the level of relationship that we currently have. TIME The US is gradually drawing down its forces in Afghanistan. I am wondering whether you worry about the Taliban returning to power, and about the threat from ISIS and how you see that. Modi There are two different perspectives to the question that you asked and I would try and answer each of those two separately. The first refers to the India-Afghanistan relationship. It is well known that India and Afghanistan have enjoyed ancient ties and a very close relationship. People talk of infrastructure development these days. But if you go back in history, you'll see that one of the former kings in the region Sher Shah Suri is the one who built the Kolkata-Kabul Grand Trunk Road. The closeness of the India-Afghanistan relationship is not a new phenomenon. It has existed since time immemorial. And as a close friend, ever since India's Independence, we have done and will continue to do whatever is required to be done to see Afghanistan grow and progress as a close friend. President Ashraf Ghani was here last week. We had a good meeting and extensive discussions. One of the key points of discussions was the roadmap for development and progress in Afghanistan. We have in the past committed extensively to that. In fact, India's assistance to Afghanistan is close to about 2.2 billion dollars for reconstruction and development. We have made further commitments to do whatever is required to be done for Afghanistan's development. And not only have we made commitments, we are also taking concrete and specific steps to implement those commitments. In so far as the drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan is concerned, this is a point on which I had extensive discussions with President Obama when I visited the US in September last year. I mentioned to him that the drawdown of troops is of course an independent decision of the American government, but in the interest of a stable government in Afghanistan, it would be important to hold consultations with the Afghan Government to understand their security needs as the US troops draw down. And I did mention to him that we should all try to meet the security needs of Afghanistan post drawdown of American troops. Rest of course is a decision that is for the US Government to take. But our interest is in ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan and whatever is required to be done for that, we will do that. In so far as the Taliban and the ISIS issue which you referred to is concerned, I firmly believe that there is a need for the international community to undertake a detailed introspection of the overall perspective, the way they have looked at terrorism internationally. Till 1993, for example, there were several countries that did not fully understand the full force of this evil. They used to see it and they used to appreciate it purely as a law and order situation of individual countries rather than as an evil force internationally. If you actually analyze the situation closely, what is needed perhaps is for the countries that believe in human values to come together and fight terrorism. We should not look at terrorism from the nameplates which group they belong to, what are their names, what is their geographical location, who are the victims of terrorismI think we should not see them in individual pieces. We should rather have a comprehensive look at the ideology of terrorism, see it as something that is a fight for human values, as terrorists are fighting against humanity. So, all the countries that believe in human values need to come together and fight this evil force as an ideological force, and look at it comprehensively rather than looking at it as Taliban, ISIS, or individual groups or names. These individual groups or names will keep changing. Today you are looking at the Taliban or ISIS tomorrow you might be looking at another name down the years. So it is important for the countries to go beyond the groups, beyond the individual names, beyond the geographical location they come from, beyond even looking at the victims of the terrorism, and fight terrorism as a unified force and as a collective. TIME So, what would we do differently if that coming together happened, if we looked at this threat more in the way you are describing what would change in the way the threat is addressed?, Modi I think as a first step what the international community can definitely look at is passing the United Nations Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism which has been with the United Nations for the last several years. I think that could be the first step for us to take. At least it will clearly establish who you view as terrorist and who you do not view as terrorist. The definitional aspects of terrorism will get addressed. The second thing which is important to do is not to analyze or look at terrorism from a purely political perspective but also view it from the perspective of the way it attacks human values, as a force against humanity, the point that I made earlier on. If you view terrorism in Syria from one perspective and terrorism outside Syria from another perspective, it can create problems. If you view terrorism in categories such as good terrorism and bad terrorism, that too can create its own challenges. Similarly, if you view Taliban as good Taliban or bad Taliban, that creates its own problems. I think we should not look at these questions individually. We should address this problem in one voice, not in segmented voices something which diffuses the international focus when it comes to the problem of terrorism. I believe that this can be easily done. I think the other thing that we need to undertake as a focused measure is to delink terrorism from religion. When I met President Obama both in September last year and in January this year, in September last year particularly, I did request him to lead the charge in delinking terrorism from religion. I think if we are able to achieve this and if we go down this path, it would at least put an end to the emotional blackmailing which is inherent in this particular concept. It would also help us additionally to isolate the terrorists completely who tend to use this interchange of arguments between terrorism and religion. Another aspect which is important in our collective fight against terrorism is the question relating to the communication technology, the communication methodology that the terrorists use, and the modes of financing. Terrorists are linked to money laundering, dirty money, drug dealing, arms trafficking. We have to ask ourselves, where do terrorists get their weapons from? Where do they get their communication technology from? Where do they get their financing from? These are some of the aspects where I think the entire international community needs to come together and put a complete stop to access to these three key aspects by the terrorists which assist them in terms of easy access to communication, finance and weapons. If we pass the UN Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism and if we take the steps that I have just listed out, it will help the international community, help all of us to isolate those countries that stand in support of terrorism. TIME Prime Minister, you were mentioning about delinking terrorism from religion. You mentioned Taliban, you mentioned ISIS. The other two groups that are creating a lot of headlines worldwide with their activities are Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab in Africa. All of them claim to be doing what they are doing on behalf of Islam. Do you think that the Islamic world, Islam's world leaders should be doing more in their own communities to moderate those who are radicals, to do more on the education front and to cooperate more to fight these?, Modi When the initial question was asked there was reference to Taliban and ISIS. That is why when I framed my reply and I started my response, I basically prefaced it by saying that we have to look beyond individual groups. I did not respond specifically to the Taliban or to ISIS, but I responded to the need for the international community to look at this problem from a larger perspective and not from the individual perspectives of the nameplates or the groups that I referred to. I think terrorism is a thought process. It is a thought process that is a great threat to the international community. I am also not linking it to any particular religion or to the actions of religious leaders. I think it is something that, as I mentioned, the countries that believe in human values need to come together and fight as a collective and not looking at individual groups from the perspective of individual religions. TIME If I could go back to two things that you said earlier, Prime Minister, you said that every country tries to increase its influence, sphere of influence. Sometimes that is obviously not very positive. One was what the US and India can both do together in the world. But one thing that the US is doing right now is trying to counter Russia's influence in Ukraine. Do you support international sanctions against Russia?, Modi This issue was raised in the G20 Summit. President Obama was present there, President Putin was present there, and I presented my viewpoint in the presence of both the Presidents. My view was that there are United Nations guidelines, there are provisions in the United Nations and I think whatever is agreed within the framework of United Nations, the international community should follow it. TIME Another big international issue that is coming up is the Paris Climate Summit later this year. Will India specify a peak for its emission, a cap on its emission?, Modi In the entire world, if you analyse very closely the cultural and the civilizational history of different countries, particularly looking at the lifestyle which they have followed over decades and centuries of their history, you will find that this part of the world, India in particular, has advocated and pursued economic growth in coexistence, in close bonding, with Nature for thousands of years of its history. In this part of the world, in Indian civilization in particular, the principle value is that exploitation of Nature is a crime, and we should only draw from Nature what is absolutely essential for your needs and not exploit it beyond that. If I may, in a somewhat lighter vein, recount a practice that is very common in the Indian cultural frame it is that when you wake up in the morning and get off the bed, you step on to mother earth, causing it pain. What we teach our children is that earth is your mother that provides she's a giver. So, please first ask forgiveness from the mother earth before you step on to it and cause it pain. We also teach in our cultural history that the entire universe is a family. For example, Indian bedtime stories including school books are quite replete with references to the Moon as maternal uncle and Sun as a grandfather. So when we view these aspects purely from the perspective of a family, our association with Nature is much deeper and of a very different kind. Insofar as the question specifically related to COP21 is concerned, I think if you look at the whole world, and the whole issue of climate change, if there is one part of the world which can provide natural leadership on this particular cause, it is this part of the world. Insofar as my specific role and responsibility is concerned, I am acutely conscious and aware of that. In fact, when I was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, my government was probably the fourth State government in the world to establish a Climate Change Department within my particular State. And we closely linked its work to the growth policy that we adopted in the State. In future too, in terms of initiatives that we are going to take, there is going to be a heavy focus on using energy that is environment friendly. For example, we have launched a huge initiative in the field of renewable energy by setting a target for ourselves of 175 GW from renewable sources 100 GW from the solar sector and 75 GW from the wind sector. It is really an immense and huge initiative of my government. I have undertaken another mission mode project that we call Clean Ganga Mission. It is essentially on the re-invigoration of the river Ganges. River Ganges has a flow line of about 2,500 KM. Roughly 40 per cent of India's population is either directly or indirectly linked to this river. It is not merely a Clean Ganga Initiative, not just cleaning of a river it is actually a huge developmental initiative whose primary focus is to undertake development that is environment friendly. In fact and I say this to the entire international community that those who believe in undertaking environment-friendly development in their own countries, I invite them to come and be partners in the cleaning of river Ganges which I think, as I said earlier, is essentially an environment-friendly growth and development model focussed on preservation of environment. I have undertaken these mission-mode environment preservation steps in several layers. One layer, for example, pertains to the saving of energy. We have made it a nation-wide campaign to distribute and to ensure popularity of LED bulbs something which essentially reduces the carbon emission and carbon footprint of energy consumption nationally. For the farmers in India, I have launched an initiative called the Soil Health Card. It is essentially a system through which we inform the farmer of the toxicity in the soil which he is cultivating. The idea is to approach this entire issue in a scientific way and advise the farmer about his next steps in terms of reduced use of chemical fertilizers, in terms of increased use of organic fertilizers so that the fertility of the soil is preserved. Naturally, this reduces the environmental burden of agricultural cultivation within the country. For the Himalayan region of India, I want to convert it into the organic cultivation capital for the entire world. I will talk of another measure which may seem like a small measure but which has a great environmental impact within the country. In India we provide to the households subsidized LPG gas cylinders for cooking. Sometime ago, I requested the rich and the wealthy to give up their gas cylinder subsidy to free up the usage of the cooking gas cylinders. Within a short period of time, about 400,000 families gave up their subsidized gas cylinders. My objective is to pass on the freed-up gas cylinders to the poor families which will help us achieve three objectives. Firstly, they would stop using the forest wood for cooking purposes which will prevent the degradation of the forests. Second, it will reduce carbon emissions because burning of the forest wood has a higher carbon footprint. Third, it will also reduce the health problems which are caused in poor families when they burn forest wood for cooking. So, essentially we try to achieve all the three objectives reduce carbon footprint, reduce forest degradation, yet improve the health of the poor families through this very simple environment friendly measure. Another decision that we have recently announced clubs together two concepts providing rural employment and increasing the green cover in rural areas we have provided a quantum of Rs. 40,000 crore approx. 6.7 billion to afforest the rural land, provide employment in rural areas, leading to conservation of environment. Another measure we have taken is to build Metro mass transportation facilities in 50 cities of India. Similarly, in 500 cities of India, we have started elaborate waste water treatment and solid waste management plans. The idea is to build these facilities through public private partnerships by using global competitive aspects. All these measures which I have described have been taken in the last 10 months with the principle objective of ensuring that our economic growth is environment friendly. The second aspect that I keep pointing out but perhaps international community is still not ready to focus on it or does not focus on it yet, is the need to change our lifestyles. I think the throw-away culture, the culture of disposables, causes a huge burden on the environment. I think recycling, or the re-usage of the resources of the earth, is an important aspect which should be ingrained in our daily lifestyle. I think it is important to change our lifestyles. TIME Prime Minister, you have talked about the economic and development reforms that you have been introducing in India, but there are other benchmarks of progress. President Obama said earlier this year that for India to succeed, it is critical that the nation does not splinter along religious lines. What would you make from President Obama's remarks?, Modi India is a civilization with a history that is thousands of years old. If you analyze the history of India carefully, you will probably not come across a single incident where India has attacked another country. Similarly you will not find any references in our history where we have waged war based on ethnicity or religion. The diversity of India, of our civilization, is actually a thing of beauty, which is something we are extremely proud of. Our philosophy of life, something that we have lived for thousands of years, is also reflected in our constitution. Our constitution has not come out of any abstract insularity. It essentially reflects our own civilizational ethos of equal respect for all religions. As Indian scriptures say, "Truth is one but sages call it by different names". Similarly, Swami Vivekananda, when he travelled to Chicago for the World Congress of Religions, had said that respecting religions is not simply a question of universal tolerance it is a question of believing that all religions are true. So it is a positive approach and aspect that India and Indian civilization take towards religion. If you look at one of the micro minorities of the world, the Parsi community, it has probably flourished the maximum in India. One of our Chiefs of Army Staff has been from the Parsi community. One of our biggest industrialists is from the Parsi community. A Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was from this micro minority community. So for us, the acceptance of all religions is in our blood, it is there in our civilization. It is ingrained in our system to work together, taking all the religions along with us. My philosophy, the philosophy of my party and the philosophy also of my government is, what I call Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas', which essentially means, "Together with all, progress for all". So, the underlying philosophy and the impulse of that particular motto is to take everybody together and move towards inclusive growth. TIME As we are heading to the US political campaign, a lot of America's political leaders are talking about the role that their faith plays and their views of themselves as leaders. Could you talk a little about what your faith of Hinduism means to you as India's leader?, Modi Religion and faith are very personal matters. So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the Constitution of India. In fact, if I look at the definition of Hinduism, the Supreme Court of India has given a beautiful definition it says that Hinduism is not a religion, it is actually a way of life. If one looks at my own belief, I think I have grown up with these values which I mentioned earlier, that religion is a way of life. We also say Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam' the entire world is one family, and respect for all religions. Those are the values I have grown up with. Essentially the crux of Indian philosophy, the Hindu philosophy, is that all should be happy, all should be healthy, all should live life to the fullest. It is not something that is specific to a particular religion, or to a particular sect. It's a philosophy, it's a way of life which encompasses all societies. And Hinduism is a religion with immense depth and vast diversity. For example, the one who does idol worship is a Hindu and one who hates idol worship can also be a Hindu. TIME Mr. Prime minister, some members of your party have said some unkind things about minority religions in India and we do understand that Muslim, Christians, some others have worried about the future of their practicing their faith in India and we are trying to understand that you are saying that under your leadership, they should not be worried?, Modi In so far the Bhartiya Janata Party and my government are concerned, we absolutely do not believe in this type of ideology. And wherever an individual view might have been expressed with regard to a particular minority religion, we have immediately negated that. So far as BJP and my government are concerned, as I mentioned earlier, there is only one holy book of reference, which is the Constitution of India. For us, the unity and the integrity of the country are the top most priorities. All religions and all communities have the same rights and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My Government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed, and religion. So there is no place for imaginary apprehensions with regard to the rights of the minorities in India. TIME Prime Minister, if I could go back to your election last year. A key thing and the most important was the economy that was spoken about. But here on, a lot of investors have begun to ask questions about the pace of reform, is it fast enough? That the economy basically benefitted from falling oil prices What you make of those questions about the pace at which you have reformed and what reforms you are planning as you are going to your second year?, Modi If you were to pick up the news papers for the period March-May 2014 last year and read them, you will actually get the context and key aspects of the context in which we were approaching the elections at that time. One of which was that nothing seemed to be happening in the Government. There seemed to be a complete policy paralysis at that time. Two, corruption had spread throughout the system. Three, there was no leadership it was a weak government at the centre. That was the context and the background in which I was elected. My election, my government's coming into power last year in 2014, should be viewed in the context of the developments over the last ten years in the country before May 2014. So you need to see ten years of the last government versus ten months of my government. You will actually see that, internationally, the whole world is, once again, excited and enthusiastic about India and the opportunities that India represents. Another way to look at it is that, at the start of the 21st century, the term BRIC was coined to represent the four major emerging economies. The assessment was that the BRIC countries will drive international economic growth. Six-seven years before 2014, a view started emerging that I' in the BRIC had perhaps become less relevant or perhaps even a drag on the BRIC grouping. In the last 10 months, the I' has reclaimed its position in the BRICS. Internationally, whether it is the IMF, the World Bank, Moody's or other credit agencies, they are all saying in one voice, that India has a great economic future. It is progressing at a fast pace and has again become a factor of growth and stability in the international economic system. India is now one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The last ten months clearly prove that so far as the expectations of the people are concerned, both in the country and internationally, we are moving very rapidly to fulfil those expectations. I have in my mind a very clear outline of the framework of what we are going to do in the next five years. What we have done in the last one year is precisely as per that plan. And in the next four years, we have step-by-step measures that would unfold as we go along. So far as the reform process in the last eleven months is concerned, it is not simply a question of policy reforms that my government has taken. We have also undertaken focused administrative reforms. To establish i ease of doing business ii making government more accountable iii reforms at the level of technology and governance iv reforms at all layers of the government, whether it's local government or state government or central government. We have essentially taken the reform process to an entirely different level where both the Federal and the state level respond through a policy-based and administrative reform system. The biggest reform since India's independence in the field of taxation that is coming up is the GST and it is our expectation that we would start implementing it from the 2016 fiscal year. Another example is increasing the Foreign Direct Investment cap in the field of insurance to 49. This was stuck for the last 7 8 years and was not making any progress. We ensured that it was passed by the parliament within the first year of our government. TIME Prime Minister, when some people compare China and India's economic development, there are some people who say that China has been much faster and much more successful because it is a one-party state in which the leader of the party can basically dictate his and his Cabinet's policies. India of course is a democracy. You have a mandate in the Lower House of Parliament. You do not have a majority in the Upper House. Things like for example your new Land Acquisitions Law can run into obstacles because of the system that India has. Do you sometimes think that you would love to have President Xi's power to push things through?, Modi India by its very nature is a democracy. It is not just as per our Constitution that we are a democratic country it is in our DNA. In so far as different political parties of India are concerned, I firmly believe that they have the maturity and wisdom to make decisions that are in the best interests of the nation. I firmly believe that for us, democracy and belief in democratic values, are a matter of faith, which are spread across all political parties in the country. It is true that we do not have a majority in the Upper House. Despite that, if you look at the productivity of the Parliament, it has actually been quite an achievement under our government. In Lok Sabha, the Lower House of the Parliament, productivity has been about 124 whereas productivity in the Upper House has been about 107. Overall, it conveys a very positive message of legislative action. In all, about 40 bills have been passed in the Parliament. So if you were to ask me whether you need dictatorship to run India, no, you do not. Whether you need a dictatorial thought to run the country, no, you do not. Whether you need a powerful person who believes in concentrating power at one place, no you do not. If anything is required to take India forward, it is an innate belief in democracy and democratic values. I think that is what is needed and that is what we have. If you were to ask me at a personal level to choose between democratic values on the one hand, and wealth, power, prosperity and fame on the other hand, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democracy and belief in democratic values. TIME One of the aspects, one of the pillars of a democracy is freedom of speech. Earlier this year, the authorities in India banned a documentary about the terrible rape case that took place in December of 2012. Why did the authorities do that and what are to you the limits of free speech? Do you think free speech should have some limits?, Modi There are two different things which are dealt in this question and I will try to address them both. But, first in a somewhat lighter vein, if I could just recount a well-known episode about Galileo. He had propounded the principles of revolution of the earth around the sun but in the societal paradigm at that particular time, those principles were against what was enshrined in the Bible and a decision was taken to imprison Galileo at that time. Now India is a civilization where the principle and philosophy of sacrifice is ingrained as part of our upbringing. If you take that as a background and look at our history, there used to be another great thinker of the time called Charvaka who propounded a theory of extreme hedonism which was contradictory to the Indian ethos. He essentially said that "You do not have to worry about tomorrow, just live, eat, make merry today". But even he with those extreme thoughts, which were totally contradictory to the Indian ethos, was equated to a sage and accommodated and given space to express his views in the Indian society. So in so far as freedom of speech is concerned, there is absolutely not an iota of doubt in terms of our commitment and our belief in that. If you look at the issue related to the telecast of the documentary that you referred, it is not a question of freedom of speech, it is more a legal question. It has two or three aspects. One aspect is that the identity of the rape victim should not be revealed which would have happened if this interview was allowed to be telecast. Two, the case is still sub judice and the telecast which features the interview of the person who is alleged to have committed the crime could have impacted the judicial process. Three, it is also our responsibility to ensure protection of the victim. If we had allowed such a thing to happen, in effect, we would have violated the dignity of the victim. So I do not think it is a question of freedom of speech, it is more a question of law and respecting the victim and the judicial processes in this particular case. In so far as freedom of speech is concerned, as I mentioned earlier, there is absolutely no issue. It is something that we greatly respect as an important aspect of our democratic values. TIME I wonder if I might ask one last question before we turn you over to Peter, who is very eager. We talk a lot about influence and in the Time 100, these are people who we think right now are exerting an enormous influence on the world stage, can you tell us who has influenced you the most?, Modi The question that you have asked actually touches my deepest core. I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor. I decided that I would not live for myself but would live for others and work for them. My experience of growing up in poverty deeply impacted my childhood. Then, at the age of 12 or 13, I started reading the works of Swami Vivekananda. That gave me courage and a vision, it sharpened and deepened my sensitivities and gave me a new perspective and a direction in life. At the age of 15 or 16, I decided to dedicate myself to others and till date I am continuing to follow that decision. |
World | Ordeal of a Dying Child Captures the Tragedy of Syria | In a partially completed apartment complex not far from the Lebanese capital of Beirut, 4-year-old Zacharia Delly, the son of Syrian refugees, lies semi-comatose on a tattered foam mat surrounded by his mother and four siblings. His head is swollen to twice normal size, lashed with angry purple veins made visible by his baldness. One eye, open but unseeing, protrudes grotesquely from a crust of dried blood and pus, displaced by a tumor that startled his family with the rapidity and maliciousness of its growth. His twin sister Sidra gently pulls aside a wool blanket felted with age to expose his skeletal limbs. She strokes his foot and worriedly examines a new gray stain creeping up his shin, the latest manifestation of a vicious cancer that is consuming her brother from the inside out. With her short brown curls, dimpled cheeks and giggles, she is a constant reminder of what Zacharia once was a bright-eyed toddler who loved hugs more than toys and never left his mother's side. That is, before war and disease intersected to cut down a life far before its time. Every tragedy has its if-only moments. Those split-second decisions, looked upon in hindsight that, if taken differently, may have had the power to save a life. For Feryal Delly, a housewife from Homs, Syria, that moment came one day last summer when she was scheduled to take her son Zacharia to his second chemotherapy appointment in Damascus. Zacharia had been diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a common childhood cancer, but the hospital in Homs had been destroyed, so she had to take him to one in Damascus, a two-hour bus ride away. His doctor there was pleased with the first round of chemo and prescribed seven more sessions, two weeks apart. But war stalked Syria, and the road to Damascus was treacherous with checkpoints, both rebel-run and regime. The route was often rocketed, and civilians were frequently detained. Delly's parents urged her to stay home. It would be 20 days before the fighting calmed enough for her to risk the journey again. By then Zacharia had missed two appointments, and the cancer, which started near his kidneys, had begun to spread. Delly is convinced that it was her decision to stay home that day that made all the difference. "I wanted to take him to the hospital, but I was afraid," she says, sobbing. "I failed him.", The three-year war in Syria has taken more than 140,000 lives and driven nearly 9 million from their homes. It has destroyed schools, orphanages and places of worship. But perhaps most egregiously, it has ravaged a government-funded health care system that was once the envy of the Arab world. According to a new report by Save the Children, some 60 of Syria's hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, and half its doctors have fled. Lifesaving medicine is in short supply, and in some cases patients have asked to be knocked out by metal bars rather than go through surgery without anesthesia. The few hospitals still operating in Damascus are all but inaccessible. Once manageable chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer have turned into death sentences. Since the start of the conflict, says the report, 200,000 Syrians have died from chronic illnesses because of a lack of access to treatment and drugs. As a result, thousands of families, including Zacharia's, have fled to Lebanon for the care they could not receive at home. When it became clear that fighting would derail yet another chemotherapy appointment, his family packed for a short trip to Beirut, where they hoped treatment would be easier to find. But the crossing was arduous, and by the time they made it, they had missed the treatment window and tumorous lesions had sprouted on Zacharia's head. Lebanon was hardly the refuge they had anticipated. While the country boasts some of the finest medical institutes in the Middle East, nearly 90 are privately run, and most of those are for profit. One hospital, known for its children's cancer ward, turned Zacharia away because the family couldn't afford the fees. The last photo Delly has of Zacharia standing shows him in front of the hospital's gaily decorated Christmas tree with his arm around his sister. A few days later he collapsed tumors had invaded his spinal column. He would never walk again. Days of frantic searching brought Zacharia's case to the attention of Dr. Elie Bechara, a children's cancer specialist at Beirut's Lebanese Hospital Geitaoui. But the deferred chemotherapy treatments had taken their toll. "There is one golden rule in treating these kinds of cancer delay is not good," he says. "Even a small delay can make a big difference." When Bechara examined Zacharia, his heart nearly broke. His body was so riddled with tumors that only a bone-marrow transplant and experimental immunotherapy, now being tested in the U.S. could make a difference. But the treatment is prohibitively expensive, and the chances of success dismally low. "The only thing we could offer at that point was palliative care" making him as comfortable as possible as cancer wins the war says Bechara. Bechara estimates that Syrians currently occupy 75 of the beds in his hospital. Many can, and do, pay. But Lebanon is likely to play host to hundreds and perhaps thousands more cases like Zacharia's as Syria's health care system nears total collapse. The U.N. body that looks after refugees, UNHCR, has spent tens of millions of dollars treating the Syrian refugees that have already crossed the border. But funds are limited, and as the numbers of refugees flowing into Lebanon increase 1.5 million, more than a third of the Lebanese population, are expected to have registered by the end of the year costs will rise. With such limited resources, UNHCR is forced to choose between funding preventative care that can save thousands of lives and spending thousands of dollars to save one life. "Lebanon is the size of Connecticut," says Ninette Kelley, UNHCR's representative in Lebanon. "Now just imagine what the priorities would be if a million refugees came to Connecticut and needed to use the health care system.", Last year UNHCR covered medical treatment for 41,500 refugees in Lebanon, but each of those cases was judged on specific criteria the cost of the intervention against the chances of a positive outcome. Open-heart surgery, hip replacements and emergency dialysis might make the cut. But Zacharia, with his advanced state of cancer, did not meet the threshold. "People's lives are being saved every day from the treatments we are able to provide. It's just that the need has greatly outstripped the resources," says Kelley. "That is what makes the situation we are in today so difficult." Zacharia, she adds, is the face of a much bigger issue the toll Syria's war is taking on the health care system. "It is tragic that this child, who, but for violence in Syria, would have been able to continue treatment at home and live a long and prosperous life, is cut down at the age of 4. Now his family, who has just lost their home, has to cope with the loss of this tiny child. How brutal is that?", Back in her UNHCR-funded apartment, Delly, the mother, looks on helplessly as Zacharia struggles to breathe. His teeth have been hurting him, and he gnaws his thumb in his sleep. "The doctor in Damascus warned me not to miss an appointment," she says as she attempts to control her sobs. "He said anything might happen to Zacharia he could lose his hearing, his sight, his ability to walk. But what could I do? The road was unsafe, and I could have been taken. What would have happened to my other children then?" Sidra, Zacharia's twin, springs from her brother's side to wipe the tears from her mother's face. Delly's sister Manal attempts to stop a downward spiral of guilt that she appears to have seen a few times before. "Zacharia isn't sick because of you. He is sick because of this horrible war. If there hadn't been war, he wouldn't have missed his treatments and maybe he would have lived another 10 years." Delly nods reluctantly and looks over at Zacharia's heaving chest. As guilty as it makes her feel, as long as she can imagine the scenario where Zacharia got to his chemotherapy in time, she can imagine him alive. Letting go of blaming herself means accepting that he is about to die. "I just want to see him play with his sister one more time," she says. |
World | These 5 Failing Middle Eastern States May Be Unsalvagable | Can outsiderseven one as powerful as the United Statesstabilize the most fragile states in the greater Middle East? A look at five of the region's toughest challengesIraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistansuggests not. True stability requires education, jobs, and an absence of corruption. All are in short supply across these countries, and the earnest efforts of outsiders can only do so much to make a difference. These five sets of facts demonstrate that while some of these countries have shown flashes of progress, none inspires confidence that a bright longer-term future lies ahead. That's something leaders in the developed world must consider when deciding how many troops and taxpayer dollars to devote to the effort. 1. Afghanistan, In some ways, Washington's best shot at bringing stability to the region was in Afghanistan. The U.S. committed to a full-scale military campaign to root out the Taliban there, and on the heels of 9/11, had the popular support to remain in the country long enough to try to help rebuild it. But 14 years of war and 685.6 billion later, critical problems remain unsolved. Education is chief among them. The United Nation Development Programme's Education Index ranks the country 169 out of 187not surprising given that adults in the country have received an average 3.2 years of schooling. The disparity in secondary school enrollment between males 70 percent and females 38 percent remains a serious concern. Afghanistan is also the third most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International, ranking 172 out of a possible 175. Afghanistan still depends on international donorsled by the U.S.to pay for roughly 2/3 of its government's expenditures, according to 2013 IMF figures. Domestic revenue only accounts for 21.2 percent of the government budget. It's hard to be stable when you're relying so heavily on the goodwill of others. Time, UN Development Programme a, UN Development Programme b, Population Reference Bureau, Transparency International, Bloomberg, 2. Iraq , Where is Iraq today? Americans' initial support for the ambitious state-building project that followed the 2003 invasion waned quickly, turning Iraq into a high-wire act for the U.S. military. A Sunni insurgency was temporarily beaten back, and the Iraqi government then pushed U.S. forces to leave. There's no mystery why the country remains unstable. The best-funded, best-equipped terrorist group in history now occupies significant amounts of the country's territory. Oil prices, crucial for state revenue, have fallen dramatically in recent years and are unlikely to rebound soon. Iraq today has an overall unemployment rate of 16 percent when just looking at youth unemployment, that number jumps to 34.1 percent. As of 2011, 96.4 percent of Iraqi families had no healthcare. It's estimated that between 2003 and 2007, half of Iraq's doctors fled the countryand why should they return? Saddam Hussein presided over a notoriously corrupt regime, but his removal from power did not improve the situation much on that front the country is only two spots higher than Afghanistan on the Transparency International Corruption Index, coming in at 170/175. Is there a solution to these problems that involves foreign intervention on a scale and over a time frame that will be acceptable to voters and taxpayers in the country that might intervene?, World Bank a, World Bank b, IRIN, Transparency International, 3. Libya , When Muammar Qaddaffi made it clear he was prepared to slaughter thousands of his own citizens during an uprising in 2011, 14 NATO members sprung to action. Already embroiled in two other wars at the time, the U.S. decided to "lead from behind." Qaddaffi was removed from power, but there has been no stable force to replace him. Today, Libya has two competing governments, and ISIS-inspired militants are knocking on the door. 434,000 Libyans have been forced to flee their homes from violence, with nearly half of those coming in the last year alone. The overall unemployment rate hovers near 20 percent youth unemployment is above 50 percent. GDP growth for the country in 2013 was -13.6 percent, and in 2014 it was an even worse -24 percent. And, of course, corruption remains rampant67 percent of Libyans report paying a bribe to utilities in the last 12 months. If you have to bribe people just to turn the lights on in your home, what hope can you have that life will improve for you and your children?, New York Times, UN, World Bank a, World Bank b, World Bank c, Transparency International, 4. Yemen , By the time the Yemeni civil war began in 2015, the U.S. was more than happy to let the Saudis take the lead in beating back rebels and jihadis. Unfortunately, the change in leadership hasn't yielded much better results. Yemen was already one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. In 2009, 42 percent of the population lived below the poverty line by 2012, that figure was at 54.5 percent. Given the ongoing fighting, it's a safe bet that it's risen since then. Only 58 percent of males and 40 percent of females are enrolled in secondary school. Since March, more than 1 million of the country's 25 million people have been displaced, and it is estimated that more than 75 percent of Yemenis are in "dire" need of aid today. For more than a decade, Yemen relied on oil exports for about 60 percent of government revenues. In the last year alone, the price of oil has plummeted by more than 50 percent, taking a sizeable chunk out of Yemen's budget. World Bank, Population Reference Bureau, The Economist, World Politics Review, 5. Syria , The U.S. tried state-building with popular American support in Afghanistan they tried it without popular American support in Iraq they tried leading from behind in Libya they tried staying out of the fray in Yemen the results were virtually the same across the board. And then there is Syria, a conflict so complicated that the best the U.S. can hope for is that some combination of countries and actors ends up doing what Washington can't do alone. More than 200,000 Syrians have been killed since the war began, 4.18 million Syrians have left the country entirely and another 7.6 million have been displaced internally. In other words, more than half the country's population has been uprooted since the violence began. Secondary school enrollment rates for Syria's remaining youth is at 48 percent, which means that a good portion of those left behind won't have the necessary tools to rebuild the country when and if the violence ends. Add the fact that its economy has already contracted by more than 50 percent since 2011, and Syria is in dire straitsregardless of who emerges from the fray to lead the country. News that the U.S. will put some special forces on the ground in Syria is unlikely to change that, though on Friday an international agreement was reached to at least restart long-delayed peace talks. New York Times, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, BBC, Population Reference Bureau, Chatham House, ***, Governments of the world's great powers don't like to be told that there are problems they can't fix, no matter how ambitious the level of commitment. But before they spend more taxpayer dollars and risk more lives, U.S. and European leaders will have to help voters understand how these investments in a more stable Middle East can reasonably expect to produce a positive result. There is much that outsiders canand shoulddo to help those who need help. These countries and their problems can't simply be ignored. But when weighing what to do and how many costs and risks to accept, citizens and their leaders should begin with realistic expectations of what can be accomplished in a world with so many challenges to manage. |
World | The US and Russia Are Teaming Up to Build the Moons First Space Station | While some may still debate whether the world is in the midst of another Cold War, the Space Race, at least, does not look set for a redux. In fact, Russia and the U.S. have just agreed to work together on building the moon's first space station. Russian space agency Roscosmos announced Wednesday that it was collaborating on a NASA-led project to facilitate scientific missions in the moon's orbit and to its surface. Russia and the U.S. are also developing international standards for space exploration, Agence France-Presse reports. "The partners intend to develop international technical standards which will be used later, in particular to create a space station in lunar orbit," Roscosmos said in a statement cited by the news agency. "Roscosmos and Nasa have already agreed on standards for a docking unit of the future station.", The manned lunar spaceport is reportedly part of NASA's broader plan to send humans to Mars by 2030. NASA says it will serve as a "gateway to deep space and the lunar surface." While the space agency has long made clear its aim of setting up a human colony on the Red Planet, successive U.S. governments have been varied in their appetites for missions to Mars. Read more Farewell to the Cassini Probe, America's Emissary to Saturn, According to AFP, former president George W. Bush wanted to see humans return to the moon by 2020, while Barack Obama instead focused on testing the technology necessary for a Mars trip. With new crewed visits planned to the lunar surface, Trump appears to favor shooting for the moon. |
World | US Sailors and Marines Drank so Much in Iceland They Caused a Beer Shortage at Bars in the Capital | American service members participating in NATO training exercises in the North Atlantic drank so much they caused a beer shortage at bars in Reykjavik during a stopover in Iceland. Nearly 7,000 sailors and Marines were in Iceland after Trident Juncture 18, a NATO training exercise in Norway and the surrounding areas of the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea. Reykjavik, Iceland's capital and largest city, is home to several popular American-themed bars including American Bar, Dillon Whiskey Bar, and a Big Lebowski-themed bar aptly named the Lebowski Bar. According to local blogger Eirkur Jnsson, bar owners at one bar, Sta Svni, had never dealt with such an overwhelming demand for beer and were forced to borrow alcohol from better-stocked bars. The American service members reportedly preferred Icelandic beer over imports. Iceland, population 333,000, is NATO's smallest member and does not have a military. The sailors and Marines came in last Wednesday and were gone by Sunday when the American ships left port. American Bar bartender Ingvar Svendsen, told Stars and Stripes that they were forced to restock their beer supply to accommodate the American service members. "We had to send people out of the bar to our warehouses to bring beer back as quickly as possible," he told the newspaper. "Other bars ran out of beer altogether.", Svendsen added that the Americans were fun to tend to. "The Americans were very polite and friendly, and caused no problems at all," Svendsen said. "It looked like they were having a lot of fun. It was fun for us too, having them here." |
World | Hong Kong Is Bracing Itself for More AntiOccupy Violence | Anti-Occupy groups continued to harass Hong Kong's pro-democracy students at the Mong Kok protest site Saturday morning local time, with reports of fighting as people attempted to stop activists rebuilding an encampment destroyed by a hundreds-strong mob the previous evening. Students chanted "call the police" as scuffles broke out and objects were thrown. Pro-government demonstrators also jeered students as they passed the main Admiralty protest area on Hong Kong Island in a tense procession on Saturday morning. Members of the anti-Occupy movement have adopted blue ribbons as their symbol in opposition to the yellow ribbons of democracy activists. At stake are opposing views of how China's most international city should be governed, with the pro-democracy camp demanding a freely elected leader and the anti-Occupy movement insisting upon loyalty to Beijing, which is only prepared to grant Hong Kong limited political autonomy. Local media reported that 18 were injured and 19 arrested after one of the darkest nights in Hong Kong's political history. Blue-ribbon factions, in what appear to be coordinated attacks, struck at two pro-democracy sites beginning in the mid-afternoon, hitting and kicking students, tearing down banners and destroying tents. Many assailants were masked. Students allege that females were being targeted for sexual assault. Amnesty International issued a statement Friday saying that police had "failed in their duty" to protect women and girls from attackers. "The police inaction tonight is shameful," said Mabel Au, Amnesty's local director. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Hong Kong said both local and foreign journalists were attacked and intimidated, with female journalists threatened with sexual assault. It released a statement saying it was "deeply disturbed" by the reports. There were also reports of attacks on students outside the glitzy Pacific Place mall on Queensway, home to five-star hotels and luxury boutiques. Local criminal syndicates, known as triads, are widely believed to have participated in the violence. Some of those arrested reportedly had triad affiliations. Most members of the blue-ribbon mobs, however, appear to working class, conservative Hong Kongers, who regard the student protests as a threat to economic stability when the ruinously high cost of living makes day-to-day survival difficult for many. "I'm expressing my angerthey are disrupting order" said a woman who identified herself as Liu. The 60-year-old school bus driver had shown up at the Causeway Bay protest site to remonstrate with the students because the Occupy protests had left her out of work. The police have been criticized for not adequately protecting students during last night's violence and for double standards in deciding not to use pepper spray on anti-Occupy mobs. This is in contrast to the pepper spraying of students earlier in the week, whose use of umbrellas to protect themselves gave the democracy movement its nickname the Umbrella Revolution. "I think the police here cannot protect us anymore," said a protester surnamed Fong, who declined to give their first name. The 24-year-old civil servant said last night's violence "told me I cannot be safe in Hong Kong.", Leading student activist, Joshua Wong of the group Scholarism, told local media that "The police clearly have double standards. We are very angry, but we will keep the protests peaceful.", , The lack of an official condemnation of blue-ribbon violence has been conspicuous. The police issued a general appeal to people "to express their views in a peaceful and rational manner," while Chief Secretary Carrie Lam asked for democracy protesters to withdraw from the Mong Kok site after yesterday's clashes. But neither referred specifically to anti-Occupy elements. The government meanwhile issued a hardline statement Friday attacking student demonstrators as "inhumane" and "worse than that of radical social activists," and accusing them of creating "almost complete anarchy.", The harsh wording appears at odds with the widely reported peaceful and well-organized nature of the democracy protests. Proposed talks between students and the government have been canceled in the wake of Friday's attacks. The city remains tense with further rallies planned later Saturday by anti-Occupy groups. Paul Zimmerman, a district councilor who daringly stole the show during official National Day celebrations by unfurling a yellow umbrella in support of the students, called on activists to consolidate protests in the main Admiralty site and avoid further "violence by provocateurs.", "Keep up your presence, but try to give people the street back," he said. Otherwise, he fears "It's all going to be ugly.", With reporting by Elizabeth Barber, Rishi Iyengar and David Stout |
World | 300 Million Children Are Living With Toxic Air Pollution UNICEF Says | Some 300 million children globally live in areas with toxic levels of air pollution that are more than six times higher than guidelines set by the World Health Organization WHO, according to the new report by UNICEF. Using satellite data, the report found that around 2 billion children are exposed to outdoor air pollution caused by dust, vehicle emissions and heavy use of fossil fuels that exceeds WHO's minimum air quality guidelines. It also found that both indoor and outdoor air pollution is one of the leading dangers to young people's health, killing 600,000 annually, and has been directly linked to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. "Air pollution is a major contributing factor in the deaths of around 600,000 children under five every year and it threatens the lives and futures of millions more every day" UNICEF's Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement. "Pollutants don't only harm children's developing lungs they can actually cross the blood-brain barrier and permanently damage their developing brains and, thus, their futures. No society can afford to ignore air pollution.", , , |
World | Russias Zapad Military Drills Seek to Send a Message to the World | The Zapad drills, Russia's premier military exercises, have begun. The primary goal in these quadrennial war games is to prepare Russian troops for a major war by some European estimates, as many as 100,000 could take part in the manoeuvres from Sept. 14-20 with their "presumed opponents" being the U.S. and its allies. But no less important is the message these games seek to send to the world the Russian military, nearly three decades after the fall of the Soviet Union, is once again a force to be feared. Russia's neighbors have gotten the message, and some fear the Russians may have another, more nefarious goal in mind with this year's Zapad Russian for "West". Weeks before the exercises began, Poland warned that they could be used as cover for a Russian invasion. The small Baltic nation of Lithuania, a U.S. ally and NATO member, announced plans to build a fence to stop Russian troops from wandering or sneaking into its territory during the drills. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe, summed up the concerns to Reuters in July "People are worried this is a Trojan horse.", That analogy seems somewhat strained. The Russians, unlike the Trojans, would not have the element of surprise in trying to breach their opponents' defenses during the Zapad drills. The U.S. and European forces have intensified their patrols of the region where the games will be held, and after some tense negotiations, Russia allowed several observers from the NATO alliance to monitor the exercises. But that gesture of transparency has not done much to calm Western concerns. Usually held every four years along the Russian borders with NATO and the European Union, Zapad tends to include a simulated nuclear strike against a European nation. In 2009 the hypothetical target was Poland in 2013 it was Sweden. And depending on how aggressive a signal Russia wants to send, it could choose to forgo the nuclear part of the exercises with this year's target the fictional country of Veishnoriya, supposedly backed by the West and in coalition with two other fake nations of Lubeniya and Vesbasriya. International observers suggest that the invented countries are proxies for the Baltic States and Poland. Another signal that will interest NATO commanders is the size of the force Russia puts in the field. Moscow claims that it will be relatively small about 5,500 Russian personnel and another 7,200 from its ally Belarus, as well as roughly 70 aircraft, 250 tanks, 200 artillery systems and 10 naval ships. By comparison, the drills that NATO held in Eastern Europe in July involved about 25,000 soldiers. , Those numbers are still a fraction of what such drills involved during the Cold War. According to NATO estimates, Soviet war games in Eastern Europe included as many as 150,000 troops during their peak in 1981. The U.S. had roughly twice that many stationed in the region at the time. But both sides are now creeping back toward those levels. In response to the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the U.S. and its NATO allies agreed to station several thousand troops near Russia's border on a rotating basis, mostly to reassure Poland and the Baltic states. Russia responded by stationing more strategic missiles and other forces in Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea where many of the Zapad drills will be held. Still, the country with the most to fear from the exercises might be Russia's partner in the drills Belarus. Since the two nations split after the break up of the Soviet Union, Belarus has struggled to maintain its sovereignty and independence in Russia's shadow, and some Western observers have warned that the Russian troops who come to Belarus for the Zapad games may wind up occupying it. "The great concern is they're not going to leave," General Tony Thomas, the head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, told a security conference in July, adding, "That's not paranoia." NATO's chief Jens Stoltenberg told the BBC that Russia has a history of using "big military exercises as a disguise or a precursor for aggressive military actions against their neighbors.", It would seem a bit paranoid, however, for NATO to expect a Russian attack during these maneuvers. Compared to the U.S, Russia is still a military underdog, and the fact that Belarus is its only partner in these exercises goes to show how Moscow's network of alliances has withered since Soviet times. Much like Russia's broader military strategy, its goal during the Zapad drills is to project more power than the Russian armed forces can actually muster. And judging by the level of alarm in Europe over Russia's latest round of war games, this tactic of intimidation appears to be working just fine. |
World | Syrian Troops Drive ISIS Out of Ancient City of Palmyra | Syrian government forces on Sunday took back Palmyra from ISIS fighters in what the army called a "mortal blow" to the terrorist group, which had claimed control of the ancient town last year. Backed by Russian airstrikes, the combined forces drove ISIS out of the ancient city, killing about 400 ISIS militants in the process, Reuters reports. "This achievement represents a mortal blow to the terrorist organization and lays the foundation for a great collapse in the morale of its mercenaries and the beginning of its defeat," Syrian army leadership said in a statement, according to the news agency. Palmyra has been the site of fierce fighting since ISIS seized it last May and destroyed many relics and historic sites, including the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel, according to the Associated Press. It will now become a "launchpad to expand military operations" against the terrorist organization, the army statement said. The victory comes after U.S. officials announced Friday that American forces killed Haji Imam, a top deputy and finance minister for ISIS, in a raid earlier this month. "Palmyra has been liberated. This is the end of the destruction in Palmyra," Syria's antiquities chief, Mamoun Abdelkarim, told Reuters. "How many times did we cry for Palmyra? How many times did we feel despair? But we did not lose hope." |
World | Scores of Teenage Migrants Were Deliberately Drowned by Smugglers off the Coast of Yemen | As many as 50 Somali and Ethiopian migrants, many of them teenagers, are believed to have been "deliberately drowned" when a human smuggler in charge of a boat forced more than 120 people into the sea off the coast of Yemen, according to the U.N. agency on migration. In a statement released early Thursday, the International Organization on Migration IOM said it had discovered the shallow graves of 29 people on a beach in Shabwa, a Yemeni Governorate along the Arabian Sea, during a routine patrol operation. The organization said survivors of the tragedy, who had been hoping to transit through Yemen to reach other Gulf countries, had hastily buried the dead upon reaching the shore. , IOM medical personnel treated 27 survivors, who were both male and female, while a further 22 people that had been onboard are reportedly still missing. The average age of the passengers was 16, IOM said. "The survivors told our colleagues on the beach that the smuggler pushed them to the sea, when he saw some authority types' near the coast," Laurent de Boeck, the IOM Yemen Chief of Mission said in the statement. They added that they believed the smuggler had returned to Somalia to pick up more migrants. "This is shocking and inhumane," de Boeck said. "The suffering of migrants on this migration route is enormous.", Read more A Group of Tunisian Fishermen Blocked a Racist' Anti-Migrant Boat From Docking, An estimated 55,000 people have left the Horn of Africa for Yemen since January 2017, according to the IOM, in the hopes of finding better economic opportunities in Gulf countries. About a third of those migrants are female, and more than half were under the age of 18 when they left their home countries, the IOM says. |
World | US Says Syria Still Has Several ChemicalWeapons Facilities | The U.S. envoy to the U.N. Samantha Power took to Twitter on Tuesday, claiming Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has at least four chemical-weapons sites. Power said that Sigrid Kaag, the special coordinator of a joint mission to eliminate Syria's declared chemical-weapons program, confirmed that the embattled Syrian regime failed to declare the four facilities. , Kaag told fellow diplomats of the suspect facilities during a briefing at the U.N. on Tuesday. The U.N.'s joint mission to destroy the Assad government's illicit chemical arsenal concluded earlier this summer more than a year after the regime's forces used sarin nerve gas against rebel fighters and civilians in the suburbs of Damascus, killing hundreds, if not thousands, of people. The Assad regime later brokered a deal with Moscow, allowing international authorities to destroy the country's chemical weapons in order to prevent U.S. forces from launching air strikes against forces loyal to the Syrian government. The existence of chemical-weapons facilities within Syria continues to vex foreign governments and analysts alike, who fear that any number of the myriad opposition forces, including ISIS, could one day get their hands on the illicit stockpile. The news follows confirmation from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in September that chlorine-based weapons have been deployed against rebel forces fighting the government in Syria. "The report cites witness accounts indicating helicopters were used in the attacks a capability the opposition lacks. This strongly points to Syrian regime culpability," said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's office in a statement late last month. |
World | The Worlds Next Superpower Announces Itself With an Epic Parade | There are few places in the world better suited for spectacle than the vast expanse of Beijing's Tiananmen Square. On Sept. 3, in a grand military parade marking the 70th anniversary of Japan's official surrender in World War II, 11 phalanxes of People's Liberation Army PLA soldiers strutted through the heart of China, taking what viewers had been told would be exactly 128 steps, each stride a perfect 75 cm. Separately, guards of the national flag measured out 121 paces, each foot forward representing the number of years since 1894, when imperial Japan began to carve up Chinese territory until its defeat in 1945. Above, air-guard formations rendered a perfect 70 in the sky, marking the seven decades since Japan's official surrender in World War II. Fifty-six cannons were rolled out, one for each of China's official ethnic groups. The PLA band and chorus provided the syncopation, a drumbeat of 112 measures per minute. Training for the martial pageantry had been carried out with such dedication that, in the run-up to the parade, the 50 generals who were leading the foot formations lost an average of 11 lb. according to Chinese state media. It was, for the casual observer sitting in Tiananmen Square on Thursday morning, under a flawlessly blue sky, difficult to judge the split-second accuracy of all the goose-stepping in China's largest military parade in nearly half a century. Did each soldier's stride measure exactly 75 cm? Were the tubas tooting in proper time? But the overall effect of 12,000 synchronized troops, 500 pieces of military equipment, some 200 aircraft overhead not to mention nearly 1,000 foreign representatives from 17 countries who had joined the martial pageantry was undeniable once devastated by more than a century of foreign occupation and humiliation, most recently by the Japanese during World War II, China had transformed into a world-class economic, military and marching power. No longer were China's soldiers outfitted in the ragged clothes of the communist guerrillas, or, more likely, that of their rival Nationalists who did the bulk of the fighting against the Japanese. The Kuomintang, or Nationalists, retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the civil war to Chairman Mao Zedong's communist forces. The soldiers were not only sharply uniformed but arranged so that they all appeared the same height. New fighter jets soared ahead, streaming pastel-hued contrails, and the latest in ballistic-missile technology rolled past. Chinese state media said that 84 of the military hardware on display had been unveiled for the parade. "You can never exaggerate the power of a strong military," Chinese military analyst Gao Feng tells TIME. "We Chinese have learned that we must have a strong army to protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity.", Presiding over the martial liturgy was Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chairman of the Central Military Commission and President of China his titles in descending order of importance. Since taking power in Nov. 2012, Xi , whose father was a communist revolutionary hero against the Chinese Nationalists, not the Japanese, has consolidated power rapidly. Perhaps in a sign of his authority, the Sept. 3 military display broke tradition as the first major procession not to take place on Oct. 1, the anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. This was Xi's parade. In his opening speech, Xi vowed to trim the PLA by 300,000 forces in order to make it a meaner, leaner fighting force. China is embroiled in territorial disputes with various neighbors, particularly in the South China Sea. Some of the rest of his words were a pastiche of the various slogans and catchphrases of previous generations of Communist leaders. The homage was personally directed gathered on the Tiananmen rostrum above Chairman Mao's portrait were not only the current members of China's seven-man standing committee, which steers the nation, but also Xi's predecessors Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin, along with former Premiers Wen Jiabao, Zhu Rongji and Li Peng. The appearance of Jiang provoked a gasp from the audience at Tiananmen, not only because he was well enough to attend the parade at 89 years old but also because Xi's massive anticorruption campaign has netted many of Jiang's acolytes. Also surveying the troops, tanks and aircraft were 30 world leaders most from authoritarian nations or states with strong economic and ideological ties to China. Russia's Vladimir Putin, whose country suffered as terribly during World War II as China did, was the most prominent head of state to accept Xi's invitation. As the only other leader from one of the wartime Allied Powers to join the festivities, Putin was honored with the anchor position in a meet-and-greet with Xi. Most Western nations declined to send top-ranked representatives. But the gathered crowds cheered for South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who has brought her country closer to China. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Egypt's Abdul Fattah al-Sisi also attended, along with political sympathizers like Venezuela's Nicols Maduro, who secured lucrative oil loans with Beijing in the run-up to the parade. Perhaps the most notorious VIP was alleged war criminal Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the Sudanese President who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of masterminding genocide. During their meeting in Beijing before the parade, Xi greeting al-Bashir as "an old friend," and China has supplied weapons to Sudan. The U.S. by contrast, sent its ambassador to China, Max Baucus. Chinese state media stressed that the Sept. 3 event initiated this year as a public holiday called the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of Victory of Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and World Anti-Fascist War would help the world "pursue peace." In his speech, Xi proclaimed that "we Chinese love peace," before heading off in a sun-roofed car to inspect the troops. Soon came the procession of tanks, their low rumble echoing a time 26 years ago when a lone protester stood up against a column of tanks before disappearing from history. Then the audience was treated to a march of missiles, including the much hyped Dongfeng East Wind 21-D, a never-before-seen hypersonic ballistic weapon that could target aircraft carriers and potentially force the U.S. Navy to rethink its reliance on such large ships. In the viewing stands at Tiananmen, elderly gentlemen with chests full of medals mixed with young ethnic minorities wearing the distinctive costumes and hats that they are encouraged to wear during official events. Occasional children wandered by, including an 8-year-old girl named Mandy Li. "Today is a day to remember how much we hate the Japanese," she said, as she walked along Tiananmen Square's western perimeter. "Now we will show the world how strong China is." Chinese textbooks emphasize the atrocities committed by Japanese during World War II, and in recent days the airwaves and newspapers have been jammed with tales of imperial Japan's brutality. Japanese invaders killed 2.2 million Chinese soldiers, readers of state media were reminded, and imperial Japanese soldiers even raped and killed new mothers. China estimates that 35 million citizens died or were injured during the war. After the display of military might, the Beijing parade shifted gear to the kind of paean to peace that is more common in some other countries' war remembrances. Exactly 70,000 doves were released in the air, in honor of pacific sentiment, followed by a confetti of multicolored balloons. If the focus on the parade had been more doves and less goose-stepping, then perhaps more nations would have joined in. But as much as Xi may want to play to an international audience, the Sept. 3 show was primarily for the Chinese people. At a time of economic slowdown in China, patriotism may help the Chinese leader unite the masses. "So cool," gasped a Beijing academic in the viewing stand as the so-called "carrier killer" Dongfeng 21-D missile rolled past. "Nobody can boss us around now.", With reporting by Gu Yongqiang / Beijing, Download TIME's mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go, |
World | US Aircraft Resupply Kurdish Fighters Battling ISIS in Kobani | U.S. aircraft delivered weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish forces in the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani who've been battling the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria ISIS for more than a month. American C-130s made multiple airdrops over the embattled city on Sunday and met no resistance from ISIS forces on the ground, according to officials. "These airdrops were conducted in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to degrade and defeat the terrorist group ISIS and the threat they pose to the region and the wider international community," read a statement released by U.S. Central Command late Sunday. During a conference call on Sunday night, a senior administration official confirmed that the White House had given the green light for the operation in order to provide the embattled Kurdish militia forces with the badly needed supplies. "The President determined to take this action now," the official told reporters. To date, coalition aircraft have launched 135 air strikes targeting ISIS forces in Kobani. The aerial onslaught is believed to have helped reverse the battlefield momentum in favor of the Kurdish fighters holed up near the Turkish border. Hundreds of ISIS fighters have been killed as a result of the air raids, thus allowing Kurdish forces to begin pushing the Sunni extremist group outside the city. However, scattered ISIS fighters are believed to be holding out in pockets of Kobani. "ISIS is going to suffer significant losses for its focus on Kobani," said the administration official. The reinforcement of the Kurdish People's Protection Units YPG, as they're known locally, by U.S. aircraft is likely to infuriate officials across the border in Turkey. Ankara has repeatedly refused to allow Kurdish reinforcements to enter Kobani because of the YPG's ties to separatist rebels inside Turkey. |
World | Bali Nine Arrive at Indonesian Execution Island as Jokowi Spurns Clemency Pleas | In the darkness of early morning hours Wednesday, Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were woken by the Kerobokan prison guards in Bali. It took them 10 minutes to wash and dress for the transfer to Nusakambangan, the prison island in Central Java, where death-row prisoners are set to face the firing squads. Chan and Sukumaran, sentenced to death in 2006 for drug trafficking, are among a group of 10 prisoners slated to be executed in Indonesia. Despite numerous and repeated pleas from across the globe to spare them some of whom, like the two Australians, say they have reformed behind bars Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, stands firm on his decision not to pardon drug convicts on death row. On Thursday, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop offered to swap three Indonesian prisoners held in Australia in a last-ditch attempt to save her compatriots. Although no official response has so far been received, Jokowi told al-Jazeera that the foreigners' executions would at least not take place this week. Many, including local rights activists, have criticized Jokowi's blanket rejection of clemency and called on the 53-year-old carpenter's son to consider each case on its own merits. Foreign leaders from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as well as musicians from Black Sabbath and Napalm Death Jokowi is a big heavy-metal fan, have asked him to show mercy. Jokowi announced in December that he wouldn't give clemency to 64 prisoners on death row for drug-related crimes because Indonesia is in a state of "drug emergency." He said 4.5 million people need rehabilitation and 18,000 people die every year because of illegal-drug use a claim that, research analyst Claudia Stoicescu of Harm Reduction International points out, is based on "questionable statistics.", Todung Mulya Lubis, lawyer for Chan and Sukumaran, questions the government's decision to proceed with transferring the pair, known as the Bali Nine duo, to Nusakambangan while they are still waiting for the legal appeal process. "We still have hope, but we realize it's only a miracle that can fulfill it," Todung tells TIME. "They are now in Nusakambangan, and that means it's just a matter of time before the executions, likely to be days.", Other drug convicts awaiting judicial reviews include a Filipina mother of two and a French citizen. Lawyers said Brazilian citizen Rodrigo Gularte should be exempted from the death penalty because he suffers from severe mental illness, but Indonesia's Attorney General H.M. Prasetyo rejected this plea. There are few public figures who openly criticize the death penalty in Indonesia, including Jakarta Governor Basuki T. Purnama, who was Jokowi's deputy. Overall, however, Jokowi enjoys considerable public support for being "tough" on drug traffickers. On Dec. 24, weeks before six drug convicts were executed in January, he visited the headquarters of Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, the two biggest mass Islamic organizations in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, and received official blessing for his death-penalty policy. Between 1999 and 2014, democratic Indonesia executed a total of 27 people, of whom seven were foreigners. In contrast, five of the six people executed on Jan. 18 were foreign citizens, and nine of the 10 set to be put to death this month are non-Indonesians. All of those executed or slated to be executed so far this year are drug convicts, while only seven of the 27 people executed in 1999 to 2014 were drug convicts. "With the focus on narcotics crimes, foreigners are likely to be executed," says Dave McRae, senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute. Under the presidency of Jokowi's predecessor Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia didn't carry out any executions from 2009 to 2012, or in 2014. As Yudhoyono pushed a policy to save Indonesian citizens on death row abroad, he gave clemency to drug convicts, including Schapelle Corby of Australia, a decision that stirred a firestorm of public hostility against foreign drug traffickers. The Jokowi administration has announced 20 executions scheduled for this year that doubles the existing record number in the post-Suharto-dictatorship Indonesia in 2008, 10 prisoners were put to death, including the Bali bombers. "It is ironic," Todung says, "that so many executions happen in democratic Indonesia.", Notably, Jokowi's hard-line stance jars with his repeated pledges to save the lives of Indonesians on death row abroad. On Feb. 27, Ajeng Yulia, a 21-year-old Indonesian, was sentenced to death in Malaysia for drug trafficking. Her case adds to the long list of Indonesian citizens facing execution outside their homeland according to the Foreign Ministry's count on Feb. 24, a total of 229 Indonesians have been sentenced to death overseas, including 131 for drugs cases. Jokowi, however, doesn't appear to register the contradiction between vowing to save the lives of Indonesian citizens abroad while dismissing pleas from foreign governments on behalf of their citizens. "We don't have moral strength when we try to defend our migrant workers who are sentenced to death," Todung says. Instead, Indonesia has stepped up its nationalistic rhetoric. Jokowi shrugged off diplomatic repercussions from countries like Brazil, whose President refused to receive the Indonesian envoy's credentials. "Don't try to interfere," Jokowi said Monday. "This is our legal sovereignty." Armed-forces chief General Moeldoko dispatched four fighter jets to escort Chan and Sukumaran's chartered plane en route to Nusakambangan. Says McRae "This has become a political theater that Indonesian can stare down political pressure." |
World | Bloodcurdling Images of Australian Jihadists Puts Lucky Country on Edge | The phenomenon of Australian jihadists fighting in the Middle East took a disturbing new turn last week when photos of a Caucasian man in mujahedin fatigues holding decapitated heads were posted on Twitter. It follows the uploading last month of a YouTube video by the extremist Sunni group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria ISIS of two men with thick Australian accents calling on Westerners to join their violent quest to create a Muslim caliphate. One of the pair, a teenager from Melbourne identified in the video as Abu Bakr al-Australi, later detonated an explosive belt in a crowded Baghdad marketplace, killing five people and wounding 90 more. He was the second Australian suicide bomber praised by ISIS in recent weeks an estimated 200 Australian jihadists are currently fighting in Syria and Iraq. The figure puts Australia in the unenviable position as the highest foreign per capita contributor to the conflict in the Middle East, and providing the largest contingent of foreign fighters from a developed nation. And there are fears that the worsening conflict in Gaza will only prompt more radical young Muslims to enter the fray. "The government is gravely concerned by the fact that Australian citizens are heading to Iraq and Syria not only to fight but to take leadership roles," Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in parliament last week. She paused before adding, "There's a real danger that these extremists also come back home as trained terrorists and pose a threat to our security.", The man holding the decapitated heads in the Twitter feed turned out to be Khaled Sharrouf, a boxer from Sydney who was jailed for four years in 2005 for his role in planning the most serious terrorist plot Australia has ever seen. Despite his notoriety, Sharrouf managed to flee while on parole in January by using his brother's passport to board a flight from Sydney to Southeast Asia from where he made his way to Syria. The security breakdown has made Canberra redouble efforts to protect the nation from jihadists in the event they return home. Earlier this month, the attorney general's office added ISIS to its list of terrorists organizations, making it a crime for an Australian to join them punishable with up to 25 years imprisonment. On advice from intelligence agencies, the Foreign Ministry has canceled the passports of 40 Australians suspected of extremist links. More than 700 million in additional funding will be injected into customs and border patrol over the next six years. In 2015 the service will be streamlined under a tough new national-security agency named the Australian Border Force. Professor Gary Bouma, acting director of the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Melbourne's Monash University, agrees that returning jihadists pose "a very serious problem, as they will be ideologically energized." But he adds some will have been pacified after witnessing the "hideous gore of battle and the unrighteousness of all sides.", "The first thing that needs to happen is those people need to be reintegrated into society," Bouma says. "That means counseling, getting them a job and ensuring their cultural and social needs are met. It's a much healthier approach than isolating them.", The leader of an Australian Muslim organization who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity says calling foreign combatants in Syria "terrorists" was wrong, as many had gone there to protect family members from President Bashar Assad's repressive regime, which has unleashed torture, mass killings, starvation and chemical weapons upon Syrian civilians. "The idea of them being terrorists just because they go to fight overseas, that is not a fair thing to say," he says. "It's also unreasonable to say just because they fought in Syria that they're going to do the same thing when they come back home. There will always be one or two crazy fanatics among them, but they're a minority. They'd have to be really misguided to try something here.", Another community leader, Samier Dandan, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, has accused the government of double standards by outlawing those who fight in Syria while allowing others, namely members of Australia's Jewish community, to join the Israel Defense Forces IDF. "It's hard when you say something to one side, and they look and say How come we're not being treated the same?' The law should be across everyone," Dandan told the Australian Associated Press. However, Rafael Epstein, author of Prisoner X, a book about an Australian lawyer who fought with the IDF and worked as an operative with Israel's spy agency, Mossad, before going rogue, insists Dandan's comparison is flawed. "What he is saying is someone who fights for Israel will be just as radicalized and have just as many warring skills to pose a security risk to Australia," Epstein says. "But the values under which someone would fight for Israel, a democratic country with the rule of law, are very different to the values someone would fight for under ISIS, and they'd be much closer to Australia's values than ISIS's.", Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott agrees. "The best thing we can do is to ensure that jihadis do not come back to this country," he said last month. Whether that will be enough to maintain Australia's record as one of the few major U.S. military partners in Afghanistan and Iraq to not have suffered a terrorist attack on its own soil remains open for discussion. "U can't stop me and trust me if I wanted to attack aus sic I could have easily," tweeted convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf in a message taunting Australian federal police posted from the battleground in Syria. "I love to slaughter use sic and ALLAH LOVES when u dogs r slaughtered." |
World | Muslims in the Suburbs of Paris Fear a Backlash | With their austere high-rise housing blocks and concrete highway overpasses, the suburbs of Paris feel like a world away from the capital's glittering boulevards, lush green parks and riverside cafs. But the attacks on Friday that left 129 people dead have reverberated from the city's core to its periphery, where residents of the banlieuesor the suburbsare also chilled by the warning by ISIS militants that the attacks are simply the "first of a storm.", The fear of being terrorized also comes with a fear of being scapegoated. French Muslims have found themselves under an uncomfortable spotlight for the second time in just ten months, especially those in the long-neglected banlieues often portrayed as breeding grounds for radical Islam and homegrown terrorism. That picture isn't always accurate. France has seen more of its citizens join ISIS and other jihadist groups than any other European country, but many of those 1,500 foreign fighters came from middle-class, educated families. Nevertheless, at least two of the eight attackers on Friday were French nationals who emerged from the banlieues Omar Ismail Mostefai, who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall, grew up in the southern suburb of Courcouronnes while Samy Amimour, another attacker at the Bataclan, lived in the northeastern suburb of Drancy before he reportedly left for Syria two years ago. Leaders in the banlieues have often sounded the alarm that growing numbers of young Muslims in their communities are drifting towards radical groups who see the French state and its people as an enemy to be destroyed. "We have told the police so many times about the dangers here and they have done nothing. I want to know why," says Jaafar Rebaa, vice-president of the Drancy Mosque, well-known in France because of its famously moderate imam, Hassen Chalghoumi, who supports the country's ban on the burqa and speaks out against the dangers of extremism. Rebaa, who moved to Paris from Tunisia thirty years ago, says that in the past five years he and other Muslim community leaders have alerted local authorities to the presence of numerous "basement mosques" in the neighborhood underground prayer rooms where radical Salafists gather. Rebaa says they lure in disenfranchised youth by offering them not just luxuries like free meal vouchers but also a purpose, something many young people in the banlieues lack. "If these people had jobs or studies, they wouldn't get drawn in, they wouldn't get brainwashed," he says. A lack of opportunities for the young here is nothing new. High-rise cits, housing estates thrown up after the Second World War to house an influx of immigrant workers, like those in Drancy are marked out by the government as "sensitive urban zones," problem areas with high levels of unemployment and relatively low numbers of high-school graduates. That's been the case since before 2005, when riots broke out in the surrounding areas and spread to other parts of the country, and it's the same now in a recent poll, the most common adjectives used to describe the banlieues were "poor", "dangerous," "badly maintained" and "divided by community.", Outside the cit des 4000 estate in La Courneuve, another banlieue just north of Paris, a group of young men are rolling cigarettes and chatting in the soft November sunshine. They were only children when the 2005 riots broke out. The cit des 4000, sometimes nicknamed the Bronx of Paris, became well-known in 2005 after Nicolas Sarkozy made a pledge while running for president to "wash down the housing projects with a hose." Belgium's interior minister Jan Jambon made a similar promise on Sunday to "clean up Molenbeek," a Brussels suburb that also appears to have become an incubator for extremism. I ask if anything has changed in the neighborhoods in the decade since the 2005 riots. "Not much," says Amedou, 20, who is unemployed and dropped out of high school. "They fixed some of the buildings. But there are no jobs, no good schools, nothing to do." His friends nod in agreement, describing the various barriers they face when applying for jobs. Studies have shown that having an ethnically Arab or African name, as well as a zip code signaling that you live in the banlieues, makes it much more difficult to get a job interview. One of the men adds "There's no hope here.", After three gunmen launched attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and a kosher supermarket in January, I visited these banlieues and spoke to many Muslims who feared their community would further stigmatize them. And despite the millions who marched for unity in January, those fears have been proven justified. France's National Observatory Against Islamophobia reported that violence towards Muslims skyrocketed after the Charlie attacks there were three times as many attacks between January and September of this year than for the same period in 2014. The attacks ranged from vandalism on Muslim-owned stores to attacks on mosques. For the first time since the Observatory was established in 2011, it reported the use of grenades and firearms. "The last thing we need right now is more xenophobia here," says Sofiane Bouarif, 19, a soft-spoken French student of Algerian origin, who was born in the suburb of Montreuil. The rise of the extreme right poses a greater threat than ISIS in terms of deepening the fault lines of French society, he says. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Front party is expected to make significant gains in regional elections in December. "What we need is solidarity and unity instead of turning on each other," says Djemoui Bennaceur, 54, who runs a small transportation business in Paris. He moved to the banlieues from Algeria in 1989 and has been actively involved with the Socialist Party in La Courneuve for many years. "We all knew that there might be more terrorist attacks but never on this scale. Yet it's not the first test France has faced and if we do not keep our senses, Daesh will have achieved its goal," he says referring to ISIS by an Arabic acronym considered a pejorative by the group. While Muslim leaders across France and around the world have been quick to denounce ISIS, not everyone in the French Muslim community is eager to risk association by condemnation. "I don't see the attackers as Muslims," says Ibrahim Doucoure, 25, waiting for a streetcar at Porte de la Villette station. He was born and raised by Malian parents in the banlieue of Aubervilliers and now works as an Uber driver in Paris. "They are savages, a tiny minority who stain all the others for whom Islam is only a religion of peace," he says firmly, speaking in the accented slang of the banlieues. "To denounce them as a Muslim suggests there is a link between my faith and what these people are doing.", An elderly man overhears and turns to us, his dark eyes suddenly filling with tears. "If they are committing these acts in the name of Islam, then it is our duty to condemn them as Muslims too," he says softly. "They have sold their soul to hell." |
World | Remains of Germanwings CoPilot Reportedly Identified in Wreckage | Authorities believe they have identified the remains of the Germanwings co-pilot who apparently crashed the plane into the French Alps and killed all 150 people aboard last week, according to a new report. The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, citing unnamed French investigators, reported that remains of co-pilot Andreas Lubitz were identified on Saturday using DNA matching. The 27-year-old Lubitz's remains could yield important clues about the reasons for the crash, including whether he was using drugs or on depression medications, forensic scientists told Der Spiegel. Lubitz was alone the cockpit of the Airbus A320 when the plane struck a mountainside in the French Alps, authorities have said. A French prosecutor said Lubitz intentionally flew the plane into the ground, even as the captain, who was outside the cockpit, banged on the door demanding to be let back in and passengers screamed in terror. In the days since the crash it has emerged that Lubitz had undisclosed mental health issues and also sought treatment for vision problems that may have affected his ability to fly a plane. , Bild am Sonntag |
World | Princess Charlotte Sits on Queen Elizabeths Lap for an Adorable Portrait | Queen Elizabeth II posed for a portrait with her youngest grandchildren and great-grandchildren with the youngest, Princess Charlotte, sitting on her lap. The photo, taken by photographer Annie Liebovitz, is part of the Queen's 90th birthday celebration. The Queen is surrounded by seven of her youngest family members. Children pictured include Mia Tindall, 2, daughter of Zara and Mike Tindall James, Viscount Severn 8, and Lady Louise, 12, the children of The Earl and countess of Wessex Savannah, 5, and Isla Phillips, 4, daughters of the Queen's eldest grandson Peter Phillips Prince George, 2, and Princess Charlotte, 11 months, the son and daughter of Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton, according to US Weekly. |
World | France and Egypt Seek Answers in Disappearance of EgyptAir Jet | Correction appended, May 19, Authorities in France and Egypt were attempting Thursday to piece together the final moments of the EgyptAir plane that vanished over the Mediterranean in the early hours of the morning, with speculation running rampant that the crash could be an act of terrorism. A plane vanishing from radar and falling out of the skyas EgyptAir MS804 did on Thursday morningis extremely unusual, in an age of state-of-the-air radar and aviation technology. But recent plane crashes show that pilot error, bad weather, or deliberate pilot action can also be factors in sudden disappearances. The Airbus A320 crashed into the Mediterranean with 66 passengers on board, late into the Paris-Cairo flight. The plane had left Charles De Gaulle Airport at 1105 p.m. local time on Wednesday night. Egyptian authorities said they received no distress signal from the cockpit before the plane vanished from radar at about 229 a.m. Cairo time. French President Franois Hollande told reporters that "the information we have gathered confirms, alas, that this plane has crashed, and it has disappeared." But with no wreckage yet found, Egyptian civil aviation minister Sherif Fahty declined to use the word "crash," calling the aircraft a "lost plane" during a news conference in Cairo on Thursday afternoon. Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail on Thursday did not rule out a terrorist attack as the cause, however, telling reporters, "We cannot exclude anything at this time or confirm anything." Shortly after noon, Hollande said on television, "We will know the truth.", Read more Here's What We Know So Far About EgyptAir Flight 804, Egypt has been the victim of terrorism in the skies relatively recently. Last October, a Metrojet charter plane filled with Russian tourists crashed into the Sinai Desert shortly after taking off from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, headed to St. Petersburg, Russia. All 224 passengers died in the crash. Investigators quickly speculated that a home-made bomb had been placed aboard the aircraft and in February the Islamic State, or ISIS, claimed responsibility, saying that it had indeed smuggled an explosive device aboard the aircraft. In March, a passenger aboard an EgyptAir plane flying from Alexandria to Cairo hijacked the plane wearing a fake suicide belt, an incident that raised deep concerns among aviation authorities about the anti-terrorist measures in place on EgyptAir flights, and at Egyptian airports. But in France, airport authorities have in recent years conducted routine security investigations on staff members checks that were bulked up in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris in November. Jean-Charles Brisard, chairman of the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism in Paris said a recent investigation had resulted in about 12 airport employees losing their jobs, "because of their links to Islamism and for some of them groups linked to terrorism.", All the security checks in the world cannot guarantee safety, says Grard Feldzer, an aviation consultant and former Air France pilot. "No airport in the world is 100 percent safe," he told TIME. "It is always possible to find a solution to put something in the plane. It might be possible to put a bomb on at Cairo before it started from Cairo." Flight 804 was the plane's fifth trip in 24 hours, in a journey that began in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea in northeast Africa, and included a flight to Carthage in Tunisia, and two stops in Cairo. Technical faults and human errors could also be to blame. In June 2009, an Air France jet crashed into the Atlantic Ocean en route from Paris to Rio de Janeiro, killing all 228 people aboard. It took nearly two years to find the black boxes, and after an extensive probe French aviation investigators finally concluded bad weather had provoked a technical error on the aircraft. The pilots had not been adequately trained to deal with the incident, they said. That doesn't seem to be the case here. On Thursday morning, an Egyptian pilot trainer told France 24 Television that he had trained the two pilots aboard Flight 804, and that they had extensive experience, with about 8,500 flying hours each. "That is quite enough experienced for this aircraft type," Husam Alhami said in an interview from Cairo. "Both of them were very much able to hold an aircraft for the weather, or technical deficiencies," he said. If technical error was to blame, it is not clear why the pilots failed to send a distress signal to nearby air-control towers. Aviation expert Bertrand Vilmer told France 24 on Thursday that aircraft were designed to keep flying for several minutes after being disabled, perhaps by a fire on board or sudden decompression. "The pilots should have time to say something in the mic," he said. There's also the possibility of deliberate pilot action. Suicidal pilots have deliberately caused two major accidents in recent years including one in an EgyptAir flight. A Germanwings plane crashed into the French Alps in March 2015, when the co-pilot Andreas Lubitz slammed it into the mountains, killing 150 people on board. Similarly, an EgyptAir co-pilot deliberately crashed his Boeing 767 into international waters off the coast of Massachusetts in 1999, killing all 231 passengers and crew. After the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board ruled the 1999 crash had been deliberate, Egypt conducted its own investigation, and said the plane had crashed because of a technical error with the aircraft. On the voice recorder from the cockpit, the co-pilot, Gamil Al-Batouti, was heard turning off the engines while the captain was in the toilet, and then saying to himself in Arabic, "I put my faith in Allah." The controversy over the crash lasted years. Correction This article originally misstated the departure point of a hijacked Egyptair flight in March. It was Alexandria, Egypt. |
World | China Has Become the Worlds Biggest Crude Oil Importer for the First Time | China is now the largest importer of crude oil in the world. In April, it surpassed the U.S. which has traditionally held the slot, with imports of 7.4 million barrels per day bpd or 200,000 more than the U.S. according to the Financial Times. The news comes as a surprise because the Chinese economy has been slowing and just this weekend, in an effort to stimulate growth, the People's Bank of China cut interest rates for the third time in 6 months. Over the next few months, the U.S. and China may be in and out of the top spot, but because American imports dropped by about 3 million bpd in the last decade thanks in large part to shale extractions and because China's purchases have boosted seven-fold, the Chinese should be the top crude oil importer on a long term basis. China overtook the United States as the world's top energy consumer in 2010 and is already the number one purchaser of many commodities, such as coal, iron ore and most metals. |
World | UKIP Lawmaker Hospitalized After Altercation with Colleague | A lawmaker for the United Kingdom Independence Party UKIP has been hospitalized after being involved in an altercation with at least one colleague at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. Steven Woolfe, who represents the anti-immigration party as a Member of the European Parliament MEP, was allegedly punched by a fellow UKIP lawmaker at a meeting on Thursday. The BBC, citing anonymous sources, reports that Woolfe had two seizures in hospital and doctors feared that he was bleeding on the brain. The party formerly led by Nigel Farage has been beset by reports of factional infighting. Woolfe had recently announced his intention to stand for the party leadership, following the resignation of Diane James from the position after only 18 days of holding it. He had intended to run in an earlier leadership election, after Farage stepped down as leader in July, but failed to file the proper paperwork in time. He released a statement three hours after the incident, saying "The CT scan has shown that there is no blood clot in the brain. At the moment I am feeling brighter, happier, and smiling as ever.", BBC |
World | Malaysia Airlines Ukraine Crash Rebels Put Bodies in Railcars | The bodies recovered from the downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 will stay in refrigerated train cars in the insurgent-occupied town of Torez until U.N. aviation officials arrive, a top Ukrainian rebel leader said Sunday. The comments from Alexander Borodai, the self-appointed Prime Minister of a pro-Russian "People's Republic" in eastern Ukraine, come after other European officials said rebels had rounded up victims' bodies and put them on railcars bound for an unknown destination. The rebels also said Sunday they will turn over the black boxes from the Boeing 777 to officials from the International Civil Aviation Organization, a U.N. body that oversees global aerospace issues. The aircraft's black boxes were earlier rumored to have been sent to Moscow for examination. Flight 17 is widely believed to have crashed in eastern Ukraine after being shot down Thursday. Both Ukraine's government and the rebel forces have alleged the other was responsible for downing the Boeing 777. A spokeswoman for Ukraine's government said rebels forced emergency teams to give up the bodies recovered at the crash site without revealing where they were taking the corpses. Associated Press journalists had previously reported seeing bodies in bags piled together in the heat on Saturday. Borodai denied that rebel forces were interfering with the crash investigation and said he was disappointed with how long it had taken Malaysian aviation experts to arrive at the scene. The U.S. embassy in Kiev has concluded "that Flight MH17 was likely downed by a SA-11 surface-to-air missile from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine." It said Russia had supplied military equipment to the insurgents, though Russia has denied the claims. AP |
World | Indian Woman Reportedly Burned With Boiling Oil for Not Providing a Dowry | A newlywed Indian woman was reportedly tortured by her in-laws for not bringing a dowry with her to their home, her hands forcibly burned by dipping them in boiling oil. The woman has been admitted to a hospital in Beed, a small town in the western state of Maharashtra, the Press Trust of India news agency reports. "They beat me for not bringing 10,000 rupees 150 from my parents," she told reporters in the hospital. "My husband forcibly put one hand in boiling oil and my sisters-in-law poured boiling oil on my other hand.", Although the outdated practice of dowry money or gifts given to the groom's family by the bride's has somewhat diminished in India, it is still prevalent in much of the country. PTI |
World | Scottish Lawmakers Just Voted to Hold Another Independence Referendum | The Scottish parliament has voted to hold a second referendum on independence from the United Kingdom in late 2018 or 2019. Members of the Scottish Parliament MSPs voted 69 to 59 to back First Minister Nicola Sturgeons independence bid once the terms of the U.K.'s Brexit negotiations have been made clear, Reuters reports. Sturgeon now has the authority to seek permission for a so-called Section 30 order from Britain's Parliament in Westminster, which is needed to pursue a legally-binding referendum in Scotland. She is expected to make a formal request for the order later this week, which is also when Prime Minister Theresa May will formally trigger Article 50, kickstarting the Brexit process. The news comes around two-and-a-half years after Scotland voted no to independence in a referendum in 2014. At the time, the Scottish National Party SNP branded the vote "once-in-a-generation." Sturgeon said circumstances have changed since 2014 as the U.K. voted to leave the European Union last year while Scotland voted strongly to remain. A recent YouGov poll of 1,028 Scottish adults found that 43 thought Scotland should have a second independence referendum, compared to 57 who didn't. |
World | Military Analysts List Indicators to Gauge USNorth Korea Hostilities | President Donald Trump warns the U.S. is "locked and loaded," while Kim Jong Un's regime says it could launch missiles toward U.S. territory in the Pacific as soon as next week. Behind the scenes, however, it's not clear that a major military confrontation is imminent. Trump's sharp rhetoric is belied by the business-as-usual routines of the U.S. Defense Department, which has been on stand-by for a belligerent act from North Korea for decades. Secretary of Defense James Mattis continued with a previously scheduled trip on the West Coast. Speaking to reporters in California on Thursday, he said that while it's his job to be ready with military options, the U.S. is pursuing diplomacy. He praised last weekend's unanimous United Nations resolution tightening sanctions on North Korea and said the U.S. "is gaining diplomatic results, and I want to stay right there, right now." A back-channel used earlier this year to try to free an American held by Pyongyang is still active, according to the Associated Press, though it isn't clear those involved are discussing the current crisis. Trump himself has sent some conflicting signals about what would trigger a U.S. military response. He suggested Friday morning that the U.S. isn't looking to make a pre-emptive strike, saying on Twitter that the military stood ready to act "should North Korea act unwisely." Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon in New Jersey, he said that if Kim utters another "overt threat" or hits U.S. territory or allies he will "regret it fast.", The U.S. military says it is always prepared for conflict on a moment's notice. The motto of U.S. Army's Second Infantry Division, based in South Korea, is "ready to fight tonight.", "There's always some degree of readiness, but in the face of these indications and warnings that North Korea is communicating deliberately, we're going to no doubt have an even higher condition of readiness," said Thomas Karako, a senior fellow at Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. For military analysts, who discount public saber-rattling, there are several indicators to determine whether hostilities could be around the corner, The USS Ronald Reagan, an aircraft carrier with more than 5,000 sailors that departed from its home port in Japan in May, actually returned to port this week "after a scheduled patrol to protect and defend the collective maritime interests of the U.S. and its allies and partners in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region," according to ship's Facebook page. The Reagan had done exercises earlier this year with the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier, which Trump briefly deployed to Korean waters when tensions with Pyongyang ratcheted up earlier this year. The Vinson, however, is now back in San Diego after a training exercise off the California coast. Japan is home to as many as six U.S. Navy vessels capable of defending against ballistic missiles, They are normally based at Yokosuka, on the eastern side of Japan. Just moving those ships toward the Korean peninsula would signal potential action to stop a missile launch is more imminent and would likely be seen as an urgent threat by Pyongyang. Asked about the ships's current locations, the Pentagon said it wouldn't "discuss operational schedules.", Trump on Friday tweeted out a series of photos of long-range B-1B bombers at Andersen Air Force base in Guam, which North Korea has directly threatened. The bombers have long been a key tool in the U.S. arsenal for any renewed conflict in Korea, replacing B-52 stratofortress bombers used in earlier decades. "More aircraft deployments, particularly bombers to Andersen in Guam and perhaps Hickam in Hawaii" would be sign conflict is coming, said Rob Levinson, senior defense analyst with Bloomberg Government. The U.S. also maintains jet fighters, including dozens of F-16s, at locations on the Korean peninsula, such as Kunsan Air Base on the country's west coast, in addition to more than a hundred South Korean jets. Preparations for conflict would also likely involve the departure, on a voluntary or mandatory basis, of family members of U.S. military and diplomatic personnel. Such a move would send a clear signal that the U.S. sees widespread conflict on the horizon, particularly because Seoul, the nation's capital and most populous city, is just 35 miles south of the border separating the two countries. "The canary in the coal mine for this is the surreptitious or overt evacuation of American military family members," said Retired Army Major General Robert Scales, who commanded units in Korea and is the author of "Scales on War The Future of America's Military at Risk." If that happens, "that tells you that things are getting bad," he added in an interview. On the North Korea side, if war were imminent, the government would probably undertake civil defense exercises, including rehearsing measures to open up underground tunnels and get Pyongyang's elite to safer havens, as well as ramped-up, live-fire military drills, Scales said. The evacuation drills haven't been seen in more than five years, he said. And in South Korea, any sign the President Moon Jae-In is mobilizing army reserves would be "very, very serious," said Scales. "Until you see something like this go down, this is all just chatter," Scales said. "You have to see something on the ground to believe that this is serious." |
World | Dubai Will Have Actual PeopleCarrying Drones This Summer Because the Future Is Here | It's traffic-busting technology worthy of cult 1960s cartoon family The Jetsons. The United Arab Emirates city of Dubai is set to become the world's first to allow passenger-carrying drone taxis, according to an announcement Wednesday from the Chinese manufacturer of the vehicles. Chinese media group Caixin says that Guangzhou-based EHang has received an order from Dubai for its 184 model, which can carry one person and a small suitcase with a combined weight of 117 kg. Passengers reportedly do not control the drones but simply select their destination, at which point a command center on the ground pilots the aerial vehicles, which have a peak altitude of 3.5 km, a top speed of 160 km/h, and can travel for 50 km around half an hour on a single charge. The Chinese drones are due to be delivered in July and are said to be part of a grand strategy that aims to see a quarter of all Dubai's traffic become driverless by 2030. "The strategy will help increase traffic efficiency, productivity, reduce traffic congestion and pollution, and save millions of driving hours," Dubai Emir Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum said in an April 2016 Twitter post. According to EHang's website, in the case of malfunction or connection problems the drones are programmed to immediately land in the closest possible safe area. It's not clear exactly how many drones have been ordered, but this doesn't appear to be a publicity stunt test flights are reportedly ongoing across Dubai's skies. |
World | Past Attacks on Commercial Airliners | Ukrainian officials have blamed separatist rebels for shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, possibly mistaking it for a Ukrainian aircraft. The separatists have denied the allegationsand in turn suggested Ukraine was responsible. If the airliner, reported to have 295 people on board and flying at 33,000 feet, was indeed shot down, it would mark the deadliest such incident ever. But it wouldn't be the first time an airliner has been accidently or recklessly shot down. Here are some of those disasters, including one in 2001 that was also linked to Ukraine, 2001, The airliner was flying at roughly 35,000 feet over the Black Sea, en route to Russia from Israel, when it was struck by a Ukrainian missile. Investigators later concluded that Ukrainian air defense forces had fired two missiles during a major military exercise one hit the targeted drone, the other continued 150 more miles and appeared to lock-on to the Siberian Airlines flight. All 78 people aboard were killed. 1988, In the midst of the Iran-Iraq war and with tensions high between the U.S. and Iran, the U.S. Navy said it mistook the Iranian passenger plane, an Airbus 300, for a hostile fighter jet. After issuing several warnings, the missile cruiser Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles, at least one of which struck the Dubai-bound plane at 7,500 feet over the Straight of Hormuz, killing all 290 people on board. 1983, A Soviet interceptor shot down the Boeing 747 en route from New York to Seoul with 269 people aboard, including U.S. Representative Lawrence McDonald. Soviet officials believed that the airliner, which had crossed into Soviet airspace, was on a reconnaissance mission. Everyone on board was killed. 1978, Navigational equipment on the Paris-to-Seoul flight malfunctioned, leading the pilot to fly into Soviet airspace above the Arctic Circle. Soviet forces, believing it to be a reconnaissance flight, fired on the Boeing 707, forcing it to make an emergency landing near the Finnish border, killing two. The Soviet Union later charged the South Korean government 100,000 for its rescue operation, but the bill went unpaid. 1973, The Cairo-bound Boeing 727 was apparently disoriented by poor weather and crossed over Israeli-occupied Sinai, which had been declared a war zone. Amid reports of terrorist plans to use a civilian airliner against Israel, the country scrambled interceptors. The fighter jets issued warning signals that went unheededan investigation later reportedly found that the French pilot believed the jets were Egyptian escortsand then shot it down, killing nearly all of the roughly 115 people on board. 1955, The flight between Vienna and Istanbul en route to Israel strayed into the airspace of Bulgaria, then an Eastern Bloc country. The government scrambled its fighters, which shot down the Lockheed Constellation, killing all 58 passengers and crew on board. Bulgaria later issued a formal apology, saying its pilots had been "too hasty." |
World | A Massive Sinkhole Has Opened in Downtown Ottawa | A massive sinkhole opened in the heart of Ottawa on Wednesday morning, forcing an evacuation of the downtown district just weeks before a coterie of world leaders including President Barack Obama is scheduled to arrive in the Canadian capital for a summit. Canadian media outlets reported that the sinkhole tore across the span of a major thoroughfare afterwards, passersby detected the odor of natural gas in the air. "You could smell it in the area immediately, and people were running away from it, you could tell something was amiss," one man told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. "I caught the hole expanding and the car falling in and the gas just roiling the water, causing the dirt underneath the street to erode and collapse.", CBC |
World | Anthrax May Have Caused the Sudden Death of 100 Hippos | More than 100 hippopotamuses have died over the past week in Bwabwata National Park, in northeast Namibia, leaving authorities scrambling to explain the cause. Agence France-Presse reports that some veterinary experts in the southwestern African country believe the sudden deaths may have been caused by anthrax. "Over 100 hippos died in the past week. The cause of death is unknown but the signs so far show that it could be anthrax," Minister for Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta told AFP. He noted that the death toll could be higher, as crocodiles may have eaten some of the carcasses. Anthrax, a potentially deadly bacterial disease, is known for killing big game, cattle, and sometimes even humans. Animals can contract anthrax spores in soil from grazing in warm arid climates such as the African savannah. "This is a situation that we have seen before," the Ministry's Director of Parks and Wildlife Management Colgar Sikopo told the New Era newspaper. "It happened in Zambia before, and it mainly occurs when the level of the river is low.", A 2004 survey estimated Namibia's hippo population at around 1,300. https//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js, If confirmed, the anthrax outbreak wouldn't be the first, or even the worst, in recent years. More than 2,300 reindeer and a 12-year-old child were killed by anthrax during a heatwave in Siberia in August 2016, while anthrax claimed an estimated 300 hippos in Uganda in 2004. Elephants and hippos were also killed by a 2003-4 outbreak in Namibia's Kasika Conservancy, Sikopo said, but this is the first incident in the 2,422 sq. mi. Bwabwata, one of the country's top tourist attractions. Humans can become exposed to the spores by handling infected animals tissues or pelts or by breathing them in, which is especially deadly, according to the FDA. Infected anthrax spores have also been used by bioterrorists in the recent past. Human deaths from anthrax in the U.S. are extremely rare. In order to curb the spread of the disease, Namibian authorities are focused on preventing human exposure to the virus, both by limiting contact with the dead hippos and by advising locals not to eat them. "We strongly advise that they must not consume this meat," Sikopo said. "We are trying our best to burn every carcass to prevent further spreading of the disease, but also to ensure that no person gets to these animals and starts feeding on the meat." |
World | Has China Reached its Bear Stearns Moment | In Shanghai on Friday, a solar energy equipment maker you've probably never heard of before, Chaori Solar Energy Science Technology, couldn't pay investors interest due on its bonds. In normal times, such an event might not get that much attention. But matters in China's financial industry are far from normal these days. A dangerous build-up of debt and an explosion of risky and poorly regulated shadow banking have raised serious concerns about the health of China's economy. That's why the Chaori default the first ever in China's domestic corporate bond market has sparked fears that the country could be headed for a full-blown economic crisis like the one that slammed Wall Street in 2008. "We believe that the market will have reached the Bear Stearns stage," warned strategist David Cui and his team at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch in a report to investors. The concern of Cui and others is that the Chaori default will be the tip-off point for an unravelling of China's financial system. The default could wake investors and bankers to the realization that companies they thought were safe bets are potentially not, and they could begin to reassess other loans and investments to other corporations. In other words, they might start redefining what is and is not risky. That could then lead to a credit crunch, when nervous bankers become wary of lending money, or lending at affordable interest rates. More bankruptcies could result. That eventually causes the financial markets to lock up and we end up transitioning from a Bear Stearns moment to a Lehman Brothers moment, when the financial sector melts down. "We think the chain reaction will probably start," Cui wrote. "In the U.S. it took about a year to reach the Lehman stage when the market panicked We assess that it may take less time in China.", Such an outcome could be devastating to for China and ripple through the entire global economy. How likely is this scenario? Unfortunately, we can only tell what triggers a financial crisis after the trigger has been pulled. The general feeling among economists is that at least for now the default may not have a big impact. Chaori Solar, after all, is a much small firm than Bear Stearns was, and far less connected to other aspects of the economy. But the Chaori incident could end up having a major effect on the way China's financial sector works. Right now, your access to loans in China depends on who you are, not on how strong your business is. If you're a state-owned enterprise, or a politically connected businessman, you can get credit whenever you want at low rates of interest. If you're an ordinary entrepreneur or small private company, you're stuck scrounging around for cash, often finding it only an exorbitant cost. That means money has been priced incorrectly and heads to the wrong people and companies. Making matters worse is a widespread perception among investors that the government or state-owned banks will always step in and prop up indebted borrowers as they have in the past, further encouraging good money to flow to bad companies. All this has led to all sorts of problems excess capacity, high levels of corporate debt and the emergence of alternative shadow banking on a giant scale. For China to fix its financial system, and lay a strong foundation for future growth, money has to get allocated more intelligently to good businesses that use it wisely. That transition is extremely difficult to achieve and is fraught with risks. Yet it is also inevitable if China is to reach a more advanced stage of development. The fact that the government did not step in and organize a bailout for Chaori is a signal that China's leaders are willing to undertake this important transition. "Allowing Chaori to default will help correct the long-standing and recently growing assumption by investors that the Chinese government will not permit a default," noted Brian Jackson, China economist at IHS Global Insight, Ultimately, then, we could look back at this default not as the trigger to a financial crisis, but a turning point when China started healing a very damaged economic system. The Chaori default could begin the process of changing the country's financial system so money gets to the right companies and investments by encouraging more careful assessment of risk. Yet managing the process will be extremely tricky. China's leaders must somehow allow bankruptcies and wean state enterprises off easy money, all without toppling the system into a crisis. We should all wish them luck. |
World | Pope Francis Sits Down with Ral Castro in Havana | Amid the celebrations and public speeches, the meeting Sunday between Pope Francis and Cuban President Ral Castro seemed staid by comparison. The two leaders met at the Palace of the Revolution, the seat of government in Havana, shortly after 4 p.m. each flanked by deputies and other dignitaries. Standing in front of a dramatic stained glass portrait of the sunthe same backdrop used during Pope Benedict's 2012 visitFrancis called forth the members of his delegation, which included Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino of Havana and former Cuban papal nuncio Giovanni Angelo Becciu. Castro then introduced his smaller delegation, which included Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who is widely expected to replace him in 2018, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, who worked on the recent reconciliation with the United States, and Esteban Lazo, president of the Cuban parliament. After the introductions, the pope and the president left for a one-on-one meeting, while the members of the delegation went into a nearby hall for a separate discussion. Read Next Pope Francis Focuses on the Individual in Cuban Mass |
World | Chinese Woman Sues Education Ministry Over Textbooks Calling Homosexuality a Disorder | A lesbian woman in China has successfully moved to sue the government over textbooks that describe homosexuality as a "psychological disorder," with a court reportedly accepting her case against the country's ministry of education. The 21-year-old woman, who goes by the pseudonym Qui Bai, discovered the textbooks at Guanghzhou's Sun Yat Sen University while looking for information on homosexuality in 2014, the BBC reports. She filed the first of what would be three lawsuits against the ministry soon after, telling Chinese news site Sixth Tone, "I don't want discrimination permeating the school I live in and the materials I use every day.", But she was persuaded to drop the suit and file a complaint with the ministry instead her letters went unanswered. Her second suit in April this year was rejected on the grounds that the ministry's failure to address her complaint did not impede her rights. On Tuesday, Qui's third lawsuit which states, "as a current university student, the plaintiff has a direct interest in the textbook materials" was accepted by the First Intermediate People's Court of Beijing. Although China decriminalized homosexuality in 1997 and removed it from the country's official list of mental disorders in 2001, gay people are still often stigmatized. In another lawsuit filed earlier this week, a 37-year-old man said he was beaten and drugged at a mental hospital as part of forced "conversion therapy" after revealing his sexual orientation to his family and seeking a divorce from his wife. BBC |
World | Four More Hong Kong Lawmakers Ousted In a Blow to Democratic Hopes | A court in Hong Kong has ruled that four pro-democracy lawmakers are to lose their seats in the territory's Legislative Council over the manner in which they took their oaths of office when they were sworn in, a fate that befell two of their colleagues last year. The ruling means that the pro-democracy bloc has lost the power to veto government legislative amendments. Outside the court, a pro-China mob chanted slogans in celebration of the verdict. However, judge Thomas Au said "politics and political arguments" did not feature in his decision. The four lawmakers Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai, Edward Yiu and Leung Kwok-hung were in a meeting of the Legislative Council's finance committee when news of the verdict broke. The committee chair immediately suspended the meeting. Leung a veteran social activist had been an elected legislator since 2004, while the other three entered the chamber last September amid a wave of new political faces taking office in the first major elections since the late 2014 massive pro-democracy protests known as the Umbrella Revolution. Among them, Law was the youngest ever Hong Kong legislator at 23 years old. He first emerged as a leading figure alongside student leader Joshua Wong during the 2014 demonstrations. A statement issued by his party, Demosisto, said that, with a total of six lawmakers ejected to date, "more than 180,000 voters had their voices silenced.", The four legislators disqualified Friday follow the footsteps of their more radical colleagues, independence advocates Sixtus "Baggio" Leung and Yau Wai-ching. The pair's loyalty pledge to the "Hong Kong nation" during their swearing-in last October led to weeks of chaos and political furor that culminated in unprecedented intervention by Beijing. All of their fates were preemptively sealed in November 2016, when China's top legislative body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee NPCSC, interpreted a clause in the territory's constitution in a manner unfavorable to the legislators. The move was widely decried as the most severe infringement by Beijing on Hong Kong's judicial independence and rule of law since the territory came under Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Under the Committee's reading of Article 104, which concerns oath-taking by public office holders, anyone "who intentionally reads out words which do not accord with the wording of the oath prescribed by law, or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn" should be barred from taking their public office. The four lawmakers disqualified today certainly put on their fair share of swearing-in theatrics. Even if they stopped short of calling for independence, their lack of solemnity during their inaugurations gave sufficient pretext for their dismissal to a central government anxious to clamp down on the slightest challenge to its sovereignty over the territory. For a sector of the population increasingly wary of China's increasingly transparent involvement in the territory's internal affairs, the judgment "will confirm their fear that Beijing while the Chinese Communist Party is in charge will never give Hong Kong democracy," says Willy Lam, a longtime China observer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. "The judges, however, can't be blamed because they are duty-bound to follow revisions of the Basic Law.", Both judicial reviews against the separatist pair and the more moderate quartet were brought late last year by the executive branch under the auspices of Leung Chun-ying, the territory's deeply unpopular, fiercely pro-China former Chief Executive. "It would have been appropriate for Leung to approach the new interpretation in a restrained manner, not seeking to reverse the judgment of voters," says Michael Davis, former law professor at the University of Hong Kong. "But he declined to show such restraint, presumably to gain favor with Beijing.", His successor Carrie Lam chosen by 777 voters among a 1,200-strong, largely pro-Beijing electoral college earlier this year stood firm on seeing the case through. "I would not regard something wrong as right for the sake of improving relations with the Legislative Council," she said earlier this month when asked about the matter. "The significance of last November's case was that it showed Beijing's willingness to dictate outcomes to the Hong Kong courts to get rid of politicians that it considered particularly odious," says Alvin Cheung, an affiliated researcher at the New York University's U.S.-Asia Law Institute. "The significance of this case is that it shows the willingness of Hong Kong's Department of Justice to take that precedent and wield it against other political opponents.", The international community should be concerned, adds Davis. "Foreign countries have been asked by China to treat Hong Kong distinctly from the mainland based on Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy," he tells TIME. "To the extent that autonomy is diminished is that treatment still justified?", With by-elections needed by law to fill the total of six vacant seats, Cheung foresees "highly acrimonious campaigning" rife with "widespread allegations of foul play" when the polls are called. There would also be "more pressure on civil servants to disqualify candidates using thinly-disguised political criteria," he says, as well as "minimal, if any, efforts by the Liaison Office Beijing's official presence in the territory to disguise their involvement" in propping up loyalist candidates. "The government may feel that they have the moral high ground in vetting candidates," adds Lam, referring to a declaration statement rolled out ahead of the 2016 polls that resulted in the exclusion of certain separatist candidates. |
World | Europes Economic Woes Require a Japanese Solution | No policymaker, anywhere in the world, wants his or her national economy to be compared to Japan's. That's because the Japanese economy, though still the world's third-largest, has become a sad case-study in the long-term damage that can be inflicted by a financial crisis. It's more than two decades since Japan's financial sector melted down in a gargantuan property and stock market crash, but the economy has never fully recovered. Growth remains sluggish, the corporate sector struggles to compete, and the welfare of the average Japanese household has stagnated. The stark reality facing Europe right now is that its post-crisis economy is looking more and more like Japan's. And if I was Mario Draghi, Angela Merkel or Francois Hollande, that would have me very, very nervous that Europe is facing a Japanese future a painful, multi-decade decline. The anemic growth figures in post-crisis Europe suggest that the region is in the middle of a long-term slump much like post-crisis Japan. Euro zone GDP has contracted in three of the five years from 2009 and 2013, and the International Monetary Fund is forecasting growth of about 1.5 a year through 2019. Compare that to Japan. Between 1992 and 2002, Japan's GDP grew more than 2 only twice, and contracted in two years. What Europe has to avoid is what happened next in Japan There, the "lost decade" of slow growth turned into "lost decades." A self-reinforcing cycle of low growth and meager demand became entrenched, leaving Japan almost entirely dependent on exports in other words, on external demand for even its modest rates of expansion. It is easy to see Europe falling into the same trap. Low growth gives European consumers little incentive to spend, banks to lend, or companies to invest at home. Europe, in fact, has it worse than Japan in certain respects. High unemployment, never much of an issue in Japan, could suppress the spending power of the European middle class for years to come. Europe also can't afford to rely on fiscal spending to pump up growth, as Japan has done. Pressure from bond markets and the euro zone's leaders have forced European governments to scale back fiscal spending even as growth has stumbled. It is hard to see where Europe's growth will come from except for increasing exports, which, in a still-wobbly global economy, is far from a sure thing. This slow-growth trap is showing up in Europe today as low inflation something else that has plagued Japan for years on end. Deflation in Japan acted as a further brake on growth by constraining both consumption and investment. Now there are widespread worries that the euro zone is heading in a similar pattern. Inflation in the euro zone sunk to a mere 0.4 in July, the lowest since the depths of the Great Recession in October 2009. Sadly, Europe and Japan also have something else in common. Their leaders have been far too complacent in tackling these problems. What really killed Japan was a diehard resistance to implementing the reforms that might spur new sources of growth. The economy has remained too tied up in the red tape and protection that stifles innovation and entrepreneurship. And aside from a burst of liberalization under Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in the early 2000s, Japan's policymakers and politicians generally avoided the politically sensitive reforms that might have fixed the economy. Europe, arguably, has been only slightly more active. Though some individual governments have made honorable efforts such as Spain's with its labor-law liberalization for the most part reform has come slowly as in Italy, or has barely begun France. Nor have European leaders continued to pursue the euro zone-wide integration, such as removing remaining barriers to a common market, that could also help spur growth. What all this adds up to is simple If Europe wants to avoid becoming Japan, Europe's leaders will have to avoid the mistakes Japan has made over the past 20 years. That requires a dramatic shift in the current direction of European economy policy. First of all, the European Central Bank ECB has to take a page out of the Bank of Japan's BOJ recent playbook and become much more aggressive in combating deflation. We can debate whether the BOJ's massive and unorthodox stimulus policies are good or bad, but what is beyond argument at this point is that ECB president Draghi is not taking the threat of deflation seriously enough. Inflation is nowhere near the ECB's preferred 2 and Draghi has run monetary policy much too tight. He should consider bringing down interest rates further, if necessary employing the "quantitative easing" used by the U.S. Federal Reserve. But Japan's case also shows that monetary policy alone can't raise growth. The BOJ is currently injecting a torrent of cash into the Japanese economy, but still the economic recovery is weak. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe finally seems to have digested that fact and in recent months has announced some measures aimed at overhauling the structure of the Japanese economy, by, for instance, loosening labor markets, slicing through excessive regulation, and encouraging more women to join the workforce. Abe's efforts may prove too little, too late, but European leaders must still follow in his footsteps by taking on unions, opening protected sectors and dropping barriers to trade and investment in order to enhance competitiveness and create jobs. If Europe fails to act, it is not hard to foresee the region slipping hopelessly into a Japan-like downward spiral. This would prove disastrous for Europe's young people already suffering from incomprehensible levels of youth unemployment and it would deny the world economy yet another pillar of growth. |
World | Donald Trump Jr Met With ProRussia Diplomats to Discuss Syria Report Says | Donald Trump Jr. in October attended a roundtable conference on ending the Syrian civil war that was hosted by a French think tank favoring closer cooperation with Russia and Syrian President Bashar Assad, The Wall Street Journal's Jay Solomon reported on Wednesday. The conference, held at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Paris, centered on urging the U.S. and Russia to "reach accord on the issue of the Syrian crisis," according to Randa Kassis, a leader of a Syrian opposition group and wife of the think tank's founder. The countries' cooperation is more likely under President-elect Donald Trump, Kassis wrote on Facebook earlier this month. Kassis apparently told the state-sponsored Russian news agency Sputnik earlier this month that "Trump's team had realized that it was impossible to reach an agreement between Moscow and Washington" if the U.S. continued to consider Russia an enemy. Business Insider Russia is engaging in elite-level trolling' in Syria and the West is falling for it, Trump Jr.'s presence at the meeting was not reported by Sputnik, but Kassis wrote in the Facebook post that she "succeeded to pass Trump, through the talks with his son, the idea of how we can cooperate together to reach the agreement between Russia and the United States on Syria.", Trump Jr.'s attendance at a roundtable meeting with pro-Russian, Syrian-opposition elements was confirmed by Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump's senior advisers. Business Insider Trump has a lot of catching up to do' The president-elect reportedly had only 2 intelligence briefings since the election, "Don was addressing a roundtable in Paris, and Kassis was present for that talk and at a group dinner for 30 people," Conway told The Journal. "This event featured a number of opinion leaders from all over the world who were interested in the U.S. elections.", Donald Trump has often argued that the U.S. should work more closely with Russia and its ally, Assad, to defeat ISIS in Syria. "I don't like Assad at all, but Assad is killing ISIS," Trump said in October during the second presidential debate. Business Insider It looks like an uphill climb for Trump's climate agenda, And in an interview with The Journal earlier this month, he indicated that he could pull back U.S. support to Syrian rebels fighting the Assad regime, saying "we have no idea" who the rebels really are. Assad, for his part, said in an interview last week that he considers Trump to be "a natural ally" in the fight against terrorism. Assad and his Russian and Iranian allies do not distinguish between non-Islamist rebel groups and jihadist organizations such as ISIS and former Al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra, however. Business Insider Meet Nikki Haley, Trump's pick to be the ambassador to the United Nations, Dozens of Syrian civilians have been killed in the past week by Russian airstrikes on rebel-held eastern Aleppo in a renewed offensive after a three-week halt to the air campaign. They are the kind of attacks that led U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to suspend negotiations with Russia over Syria's future last month, weeks after Russia launched a scorched-earth offensive on Aleppo that targeted hospitals, schools, and rescue workers. Both France and the U.S. have called for a war-crimes investigation into Russian President Vladimir Putin's and Assad's actions in Syria. Business Insider Trump releases Thanksgiving message calling for national unity, Russia has picked out members of the opposition who it would be willing to work with, but these include only rebel figures willing to accept a role for Assad in a political transition a condition deemed unacceptable by many, if not most, of Syria's opposition fighters. |
World | Huge Numbers of Europeans Will Die From Air Pollution in the Next 20 Years | Hundreds of thousands of people in the E.U. perhaps millions, if present trends continue will suffer premature death in the next two decades because of toxic air, a new report says. Tuesday's State of the Environment Report for 2015, from the European Environment Agency EEA blames governments for inaction and says that in 2011 alone the most recent year for which there is a reliable tally over 400,000 Europeans died prematurely from air pollution. Europe's environmental performance also lags behind in areas like urbanization, biodiversity loss, intensive farming and maintenance of inland freshwater systems, the Guardian reports. "Our analysis shows that European policies have successfully tackled many environmental challenges over the years. But it also shows that we continue to harm the natural systems that sustain our prosperity," EEA's executive director Hans Bruyninckx told the Guardian. The Guardian |
World | New Royal Baby Already Under Pressure to Keep UK From Split | Who would choose to be a royal? It's tough enough to live your adult life on displaypart reality star, part monumentand another thing still to still to find yourself as a baby slapped on the bottom and swaddled in constricting expectations. Think of the mantle that awaited Prince George of Cambridge at his birth in July 2013 Even in the womb, he was third in line to the throne, facing the daunting prospect of one day reigning as King of the United Kingdom and 15 other Commonwealth Realms. For George's sibling, the spare rather than the heir, the robes should have been a little looser. But it is the misfortune of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, to suffer from a form of acute morning sickness that precipitated the announcement of her pregnancy Monday, just as happened when she was expecting George. And the accelerated announcement this time around has loaded an extra burden onto the unborn child. This baby is already facing calls to save the union. On Sept. 18. Scotland votes whether to remain in the U.K. or leave. Opinion polls, for months showing a comfortable lead for unionists, have suddenly tightened, with one recent poll showing a lead for supporters of independence. The prospect of such a rupture is sowing panic in Westminster and Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth II is said to be distressed at the prospect of a split, despite assurances from Scotland's First Minister, Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond that an independent Scotland would retain the monarch. The Queen and her advisers know not to take these assurances at face value. After all, stand-alone Scotland might well veer towards Republicanism once it had dealt with more urgent constitutional matters. Moreover, the Queen and the rest of her family believe in the United Kingdom, and see their own role in it as providing a focal point for national unity. The end of the U.K. would pose existential questions for any thoughtful royal. So the sudden revelation today of another royal baby on the way seemed to point to possible salvation. The impending arrival of little George last year created media excitement and some real enthusiasm among segments of the British population. Could George's brother or sister create enough of a feel-good, union-flag-patterned, patriotic buzz to move the polls back away from independence?, That seems unlikely. One reason Scotland's independence movement should never have been underestimated is because Scots are different from other Brits in many ways, not least in being somewhat more resistant to the charms of royalty for a range of historical reasons. Poor unborn baby, already entrusted with a mission you're more than likely not able to carry out. Not until you've at least learned to walk. |
World | Heres Why Stephen Hawking Never Won the Nobel Prize in Physics | Professor Stephen Hawking, who died on Wednesday at the age of 76 at his home in Cambridge, England, was considered by many to be a once-in-a-generation genius. The author of A Brief History of Time, Hawking was a living legend in the field of cosmology. He was most famous for his studies on black holes and relativity, which revolutionized the way we see and study the universe. His work with Sir Roger Penrose on Einstein's general theory of relativity showed that there was an implied beginning to space and time the Big Bang and an end, through black holes. However, for all his fame and impact on theoretical physics, his field's most famous award eluded Hawking throughout his life. So why did one of science's most iconic pioneers never win a Nobel Prize in Physics?, The answer unlike quantum mechanics is relatively straightforward. Theoretical scientific discoveries have to be confirmed by observational data before there's a possibility of winning a Nobel. And it's somewhat difficult to observe a black hole. It takes decades to build the scientific equipment to test theoretical discoveries to put this into context, Einstein's theory of gravitational waves in space, which he first proposed in the 1920s, was only recently proven in 2016. One of Hawking's most important finds was "Hawkings Radiation," the theory that black holes are not completely black after all, but emit radiations that ultimately cause them to disappear. The issue is, the technology needed to observe this radiation will take years and cost millions before Hawking's theory can ever be verified. Hawking never won a Nobel, but as an ambassador for the sciences his influence was profound, as shown by the world leaders and celebrities who took to social media today to pay tribute. See a selection of tributes below. , , , |
World | Former French First Ladys TellAll Book Adds To Hollandes Woes | Revenge is a dish best served cold, as the saying goes, meaning that it takes a cool, level head to deliver just the right sucker punch. That might be the most telling lesson from the scandal that has erupted this past week in France, over the former First Lady Valrie Trierweiler's explosive tell-all book about her life with President Franois Hollande. "Thank You For This Moment" appeared in bookstores last Wednesday, with no forewarning to French officials, and its initial print-run of 200,000 sold out within days, inspiring countless front-page articles about the apparently callous behavior of a never-married president towards the women in his life. Yet there has been equally harsh criticism of Trierweiler, whose stinging words have sounded to many like petty whining, at least when compared with the severe economic crisis Hollande is struggling to fix. To recap if readers need reminding Hollande's domestic life imploded in spectacular fashion last January when the French gossip magazine Closer published photographs of him sneaking out of the sumptuous Napoleonic palace on his motorbike, to spend the night with his alleged lover, the French actress Julie Gayet. Three weeks later hours after TIME interviewed Hollande inside the Elyse Hollande declared his seven-year relationship with Trierweiler over, in a bland 18-word written statement. While the world lapped up the details, inside the palace, the couple spiraled into a private hell that threatened Trierweiler's physical wellbeing, according to the former First Lady. Trierweiler, 49, describes the president frantically trying to prevent her from swallowing a fistful of sleeping pills the morning the news broke. "I swallow what I can. I want to sleep. I don't want to live through the coming hours," Trierweiler recounted to Paris Match magazine, where she has been a longtime staff writer her book was splashed on the magazine's cover last week. "I want to escape. I lose consciousness." Trierweiler then spent a week in the hospital, with officials claiming at the time that she was suffering the effects of extreme stress. Bad as that account is, other parts of Trierweiler's book that take aim at Hollande's battered political standing could be even more damaging for the French leader. Trierweiler casts herself as a working-class woman at sea within the cocooned political elite into which she was thrustand with no empathy from Hollande. She claims the Socialist leader, who won power in 2012 by casting the then-President Nicolas Sarkozy as representing only the rich, was "bored to tears" when dining with her family in their low-income home, preferring, she says, to visit the Gayets' grand chateau in southwestern France. "He campaigned as the enemy of the rich but the truth is that he despises the poor," Trierweiler writes, saying that Hollande mocked the poor as "sans-dents" or toothless, referring to the cost of dental treatment. The claims have put Hollande under withering scrutiny, even from reliably friendly sources. "Who are you Franois Hollande?" asked the weekend front page of the left-leaning Liberation newspaper, which supports the ruling Socialist Party. Inside, its editorial says that the president, most often vilified for being soft-edged and ineffectual, emerges in Trierweiler's book as hard and cynical, adding, "The marshmallow president becomes the flint president.", The new image will not likely help Hollande, who has overseen a worsening economy and rising unemployment. On Sunday the polling agency IFOP released a survey taken on Friday and Saturday after Trierweiler's book came out showing that 65 of Socialist Party voters did not want Hollande to run for reelection in 2017. A separate poll on Friday by TNS-Sofres showed that Hollande's popularity ratings had sunk to 13, the lowest of any French president in about 70 years. And although only five percent of those IFOP surveyed named Hollande's rocky private life as their top criticism of him, some believe Trierweiler's revelations could well be a turn-off for many voters. "He looks like a man who really does not behave well at all," says Colombe Pringle, a long-time observer of Elyse politics, and editorial consultant to the celebrity magazine Point de Vue. His bad behavior, she says, is "not only with his "toothless" remark but also in his daily life with women in general, and with her Trierweiler in particular.", There is one woman to emerge stronger from this latest scandal Marine Le Pen, who heads France's far-right National Front party. This weekend's IFOP poll showed that Le Pen would beat Hollande in a second-round presidential race, if the elections were held todaysomething that no far-right leader has come close to accomplishing in France. Delighted by the result, Le Pen told party members at a rally on Sunday that it "shows there is no longer a glass ceiling that would block our electoral victory." Much could change between now and the next elections, which are two and a half years away, but for now, the upheaval in French politics appears a boost for Hollande's foes. In contrast to Le Pen's buoyant speech, the woman at the heart of the roiling scandalTrierweilerquietly slipped out of France on Saturday, flying to Madagascar with a photographer on an unnamed assignment, according to the conservative Figaro newspaper. Politicians of all stripes have condemned Trierweiler for sullying the office of the president, by revealing prurient details best left unknown. "It is a disgrace for France," Le Pen said of Trierweiler's book. Even from over 5,000 miles away, Trierweiler might be wondering whether her tell-all book will backfire on her, leaving her as isolated as the two-timing president. "It will be very difficult for her to continue leading her life and being a journalist," Pringle says. "I think she will pay a very high price." |
World | Sri Lanka Attempts to Repair Relations With China Amid an Escalating Financial Crisis | Sri Lanka appealed to China this week to partially relax the immense foreign debt owed by the South Asian island nation that has contributed to one of its worst-ever financial crises. "I urge China to put the acrimony of the past behind us and come and help us by adjusting the terms of the loans to make them more viable," Sri Lankan Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post on Sunday. Sri Lanka is chock-full of Chinese investment, with nearly 70 of the country's infrastructure projects funded and built by China thereby leading to a near tripling of its foreign debt over the past five years. However, many of those projects, initiated under Sri Lanka's former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, have been halted much to China's displeasure by the government of his successor Maithripala Sirisena over allegations of widespread corruption. Even as it dispatched a special envoy to liaise with Sirisena's government earlier this month, Beijing remains firm that none of the much-needed foreign direct investment FDI to salvage Sri Lanka's economy will be forthcoming until the impasse over ongoing projects worth billions of dollars is resolved. "We did not create the problem, we inherited it," Karunanayake said about the Chinese projects. "But it has to be fixed all the same.", Whether they created the problem or not, Sirisena's election earlier this year marked a monumental shift in his country's rapidly progressing alliance with China under Rajapaksa, which was being watched with some consternation by Sri Lanka's northern neighbor and South Asian power India. Sirisena and his new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe insisted in a previous interview with TIME that their pledge to enhance cooperation with India and Western powers didn't necessarily represent a shift away from China but a more general nonaligned foreign policy. However, the stark picture painted by its rapidly escalating foreign debt has thrust the Sri LankaChina relationship back into the spotlight and made its mending a priority. "Chinese loans are a big part of our problem," said Karunanayake. "A bulk of the government expenditure goes into servicing them.", His words are thrown into sharp relief through figures cited by Palitha Ekanayake, a former director general of the country's Ministry of Rural Economy. "In 2010, foreign debt was 36 of the GDP gross domestic product," Ekanayake told the Post. "By the end of 2013, it was about 65, and is estimated to rise to 94 this year.", Karunanayake has even gone to the extent of promising "no questions asked" while calling for his compatriots with Swiss bank accounts to move their money back into the country, as he tries to shore up foreign reserves before presenting a crucial budget. Sri Lanka's eagerness to re-engage with China is also illustrated by the fact that Karunanayake's comments coincided with a statement by one of its top defense officials, saying an unofficial suspension of Chinese naval ships docking on Sri Lankan shores another reported allowance by the previous government that caused India greater alarm than any economic activity could potentially be reconsidered. The country's recently appointed Defense Secretary, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, told Reuters on a visit to the Chinese capital that he would give "due consideration" to requests for Chinese ships to stop over. Karunanayake, meanwhile, reiterated the rapidly growing Asian superpower's status as a key stakeholder in Sri Lanka's faltering economy. "We are serious about putting our relationship with China on the right path and mending the pathetic finances we have inherited from a corrupt regime," he said. |
World | Charles Manson Musical Opens in Germany | The former cult leader who is currently serving a life sentence in a California prison is getting the musical treatment in Hamburg, Germany. The play follows Manson's failed musical endeavors and the crimes and killing spree of the Manson "family," as his followers were known. "Charles Manson Summer of Hate The Musical" opened Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times. In 1971, the Manson family was found guilty of killing actress Sharon Tate and four other people at her home in 1969 before murdering a married couple, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, the next day. Manson's apocalyptic race-war worldview, which he shared with his followers, was heavily influenced by the Beatles song "Helter Skelter.", LA Times |
World | Pakistani Military Strikes Back at Taliban Following Peshawar Massacre | The Pakistani military claims to have struck back hard against Taliban militants days after the group launched one the deadliest single-day attacks in their seven-year insurgency against the state. In the two days since Taliban forces indiscriminately murdered more than 140 people, including 132 children, at a school in Peshawar, Pakistani security forces have launched 20 air strikes, killing an estimated 57 terrorists in the process, according to a tweet from military spokesperson Major General Asim Bajwa. The armed forces' representative added that operations are ongoing. Pakistan is currently in its second day of official mourning for the massacre, which sent shock waves through the country and brought renewed scrutiny to the military's past dealings with militants within the country's borders. |
World | At Least 20 Dead After Mali Hotel Attacked by Islamist Gunmen | At least twenty people were killed during a hotel siege by Islamist gunmen in Mali's capital of Bamako on Friday, including 18 guests and two Malian police, the country's interior minister, said. U.N. officials had previously said 27 bodies were discovered. The interior minister added that 17 guests were also injured along with three Malian police officers, the Associated Press reports. Over 100 hostages were taken during the assault, according to multiple reports. In a recorded statement carried by Al-Jazeera, an extremist group that split from al-Qaida's North Africa branch two years ago claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it wanted fighters freed from Mali's prisons and for attacks against northern Malians to stop. At first, 170 guests and staff at the Radisson Blu hotel were held by up to 12 gunmen who arrived in a car with diplomatic license plates. An army spokesman said that two Malians and a French national had been killed. France, Turkey and China have confirmed their nationals were among the hostages, and some U.S. citizens were also present. One of the witnesses said some of the gunmen were speaking English, according to Reuters news agency. After a few hours, security forces moved into the hotel and began battling the gunmen inside. State television reported 80 hostages escaped as the fighting continued, but several hours after the start of the incident, the Rezidor hotel group, which owns the hotel, said that 125 guests and 13 employees were still in the building. Air France confirmed that its 12 crew members were safe after being evacuated from the hotel. A U.S. military spokesperson confirmed to the AP that six U.S. citizens were among those evacuated from the building. France's national gendarme service said "about 40" French special police forces were taking part in the assault on the hotel, according to the AP, and U.S. Africa Command confirmed that American special forces were also assisting. A United Nations spokesman said U.N. "quick-reaction" forces were deployed to the scene. Niek DeGoeij, a Mali representative for Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian relief agency, said a number of his colleagues were initially trapped in their office less than 100 meters from the attack. According to DeGoeij, cellphone service was scrambled by the military but those in the building reached over the internet reported heavy gunfire during the initial raid, and sporadic fire as the day wore on. According to the BBC, a popular Guinean singer Sekouba Bambino was among those able to get out of the hotel. "I woke up with the sounds of gunshots and for me, it was just small bandits who came in the hotel to claim something. After 20 or 30 minutes, I realized these are not just petty criminals," he told reporters. , He later told Reuters that he heard the gunmen speaking English. "I heard them say in English Did you load it?', Let's go.' I wasn't able to see them because in these kinds of situations it's hard," he said. The U.S. Embassy in Bamako issued a warning to citizens in the country on Twitter, saying it was "aware of an ongoing active shooter operation" and telling Americans in the country to seek shelter. , China's Xinhua news agency reported that several Chinese guests were trapped in the hotel while Turkish state media said six Turkish Airlines personnel were among the hostages. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted a message of solidarity to Bamako, , The hotel is considered the most secure in Bamako and is frequented by diplomats and members of international organizations. DeGoeij says Bamako itself is generally an extremely safe city, but with today's hostage crisis becoming the second terrorist attack on the capital city this year, he worries the area's security may be on the wane. "As today's event ends, the big question is whether this is the new normal and whether we're going to see similar attempts on a regular basis from here on out," DeGoeij adds. The African country's northern region was taken over by Islamic extremists after a military coup in 2012. Since then, Mali has seen periodic attacks such as the one this past March, where armed assailants shot five people at a popular Bamako restaurant. France maintains a force of about 1,000 troops in the country, some of whom were said to be involved in the security operation around the hotel. |
World | Osaka Severs Ties With San Francisco Over Comfort Women Memorial | The Japanese city of Osaka terminated its 60-year "sister city" relationship with San Francisco over a statue commemorating women forced into sex labor by Japan during World War II, BBC reports. The statue, which is called "Women's Column of Strength, depicts three young women from Korea, China and the Philippines, standing in a circle. Osaka mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura said the work "destroyed the two sides' relationship of trust.", During World War II, Japan forced thousands of women and girls known euphemistically as comfort women to work as sex slaves in military brothels. Dozens of memorials have been erected throughout South Korea and elsewhere, but San Francisco's commemorative statue is the first to appear in a major U.S. city, the New York Times reports. The subject has long exasperated Japan, which recalled one of its envoys to South Korea over a similar statue. In 2016, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said, "The term sex slaves doesn't match the facts.", In a 10-page letter, mayor Yoshimura detailed his grievances to San Francisco's mayor, London Breed, saying there was a historical disagreement over the matter and that the perpetrators of sexual abuse against women went beyond just Japan. "I am in favor of activities to protect the dignity and human rights of women," he said. "However, if the purpose is to protect the human rights of women, I would suggest that some of the special attention currently being given to Japan's comfort women' issue should be broadened to memorialize all the women who have been sexually assaulted and abused by soldiers of countries in the world.", Yoshimura originally announced his decision to end the sister-city relationship when the statue was erected privately in November in San Francisco's Chinatown district as public property. But the move was delayed following the death of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee in December. On Thursday, Breed said in a statement that one mayor "cannot unilaterally end a relationship that exists between the people of our two cities.", San Francisco and Osaka have been sister cities since October 1957. |
World | Emmanuel Macron Ordered a Really Fancy Set of China and People Are Angry | French President Emmanuel Macron is facing criticism for his spending habits again though this time, it has to do with a fancy set of plates. Macron reportedly ordered a 1,200-piece set of china from Svres Manufacturing, a porcelain factory that creates intricate designs and has been the go-to company for French leaders since the 18th century, according to the New York Times. Svres is heavily subsidized by the state it reportedly receives 4 million from the government and Macron's order "doesn't represent any additional cost," a company spokesperson told the Times. And while it is common for new presidents to order their own sets of serveware for official dinners at the Elyse Palace and other events, Macron's new plates come as he was already slammed for using a private plane to fly 68 miles earlier in the week. The controversy surrounding Macron's new set of China was initially sparked earlier this week by French satirical magazine Le Canard Enchain, which estimated that it would cost 500,000, or about 580,000 far more than earlier reports from the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that the plates would cost about 58,000. Le Canard Enchain said it based its estimate on the fees associated with making the china, which can take up to five hours per plate, according to the Times. "The precise total cost is unknown for the moment, but what is sure is that the final bill will be huge," the satirical weekly newspaper wrote. "The painful bill should reach or even exceed half a million euros, given the current costs of manufacturing them." It estimated the cost per plate was about 400, or 464. The controversy over his plate order comes at a time when Macron is trying to distance himself from being dubbed "president of the rich" even though he is also fielding criticism for a recent video that shows him casually discussing France's welfare system with a team of advisers. "Look, we put truckload of cash into social welfare and people are still poor," he says. "You can't escape it. People are born poor and they stay poor. Those who fall into poverty stay poor they have to be able to get themselves out of it.", Some were quick to point that Macron's plate bill could be seen as "a truckload of cash.", "Macron spends "a truckload of cash" on crockery at the expense of the taxpayer while there are people who don't even have something to put on their plate everyday! Disgusting!," Daniel Lerouge from the opposition Socialist Party wrote on Twitter. But not everyone thought Macron's new China was extravagant. French Magazine Le Point said many would view the President's plate order positively, as "state support for a heritage industry, and a priceless investment." |
World | American ISIS Hostage Im Pretty Scared to Die | An Army Ranger-turned-aid worker held hostage by ISIS militants in Syria admitted to his parents he was "pretty scared to die" but also urged them to "seek refuge and comfort" from his humanitarian work. Abdul-Rahman Kassig who was born Peter but changed his name when he converted to Islam last year wrote in a letter received by his parents on June 2 he was "praying every day" in captivity but was "not angry." He added "I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief.", Excerpts from his heartfelt letter were released in a statement late Sunday by his parents, Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News |
World | India and China Spar for Most Polluted Capital City | A media kerfuffle broke out in India this week over whether New Delhi has finally surpassed Beijing as having worse air quality than the infamous Chinese capital. A report carried by the Hindustan Times, an Indian daily, claimed that New Delhi had "earned the dubious tag of being the world's most polluted city," according to the Environmental Performance Index EPI, a report put out by Yale and Columbia. The Wall Street Journal subsequently reported that the EPI used national statistics in its indexing, and even if it did compile information city by city, New Delhi does not keep reliable enough data to make a direct comparison to Beijing possible. MORE Beijing Chokes on Record Pollution, and Even the Government Admits There's a Problem, I'm just speaking for myself here, but as I look out this morning on a city blanketed by an indistinguishable mix of fog, dust and toxic heavy particles, I find it hard to take great comfort in any win for India in this. Parents may not be sending their kids to school in gas masks yet, but it's not exactly a fine day for a jog. The New York Times' own findings indicate the Indian capital's fine particulate matter has, on average, been worse than Beijing in the first weeks of the year., Wherever New Delhi lands, the EPI did rank India's air quality 174th out of 178 countries measured only Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh came in lower. So one would hope Indian authorities do not interpret this as a pass. A 2012 study showed that pollution levels have been growing faster in Indian cities than in China. If it's not a matter of now, it might simply be a matter of when. MORE India's Air Pollution Is It Worse Than China's? |
World | Three Children Dead in One Weekend Thailands Political Violence Is Officially Out of Control | Thailand's political turmoil took an appalling turn over the weekend with four people killed three of them children. Gunmen jumped from two pickup trucks and opened fire on antigovernment demonstrations in eastern Thailand's Trat province on Saturday, claiming the life of a 5-year-old girl who was apparently waiting by her father's noodle stand. The next day, a grenade attack near Bangkok's Central World shopping mall typically swarming with families, strollers and tourists killed a mother, her 4-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter. The family was not part of the protest but merely shopping nearby, says the distraught father. Another 21 people were injured by the explosion. Embattled Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra denounced the bloodshed on Sunday. The violent incidents are terrorist acts for political gain without any regard for human lives," she told reporters. "The government will not tolerate terrorism and has ordered a full investigation by authorities.", In turn, protest leaders were quick to blame the government for the carnage. "These brutal attacks were the work of the servants of the Thaksin Shinawatra regime," Satit Wongnongtoey, a leading figure in the People's Democratic Reform Committee, the main protest group, said in a statement Sunday. After three months, antigovernment protests aimed at unseating Yingluck and purging Thailand of the influence of her divisive brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin have become increasingly characterized by indiscriminate street violence. Last Tuesday, five people were killed and more than 600 injured in pitched battles as police tried to clear protest sites. At least 18 people have died and many hundreds hurt since the outset of unrest. MORE At Least Five Killed as Thai Police Swoop on Bangkok Protesters, "The situation has become much more volatile, and both sides are much more desperate," says Pavin Chachavalpongpun, associate professor at Kyoto University's Centre for Southeast Asian Studies. A court decision last week effectively blocked security forces from dealing forcefully with protesters and may have been "the last straw" for many government supporters, says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Despite the presence of masked figures with barely concealed weapons sharing the same stage as protest leaders, and grenades hurled at police lines causing horrific injuries, judges ruled that the protesters were acting "peacefully without weapons," and so were "protected according to the Constitution.", According to legal analysts, the nine-point court decision is a clear infringement on the executive and legislative areas of government. "This is the latest in a series of highly politicized court decisions that have been trying to disadvantage the Thaksin forces back to 2006," says Andrew Walker, Southeast Asia expert at Australian National University. "For the first time I'm genuinely fearful about this erupting into widespread conflict.", Yingluck remains popular in the north and northeastern provinces, which have benefited from populist policies initiated by her brother. However, the Shinawatra clan is anathema to royalists and to the middle-class voters of Bangkok and southern provinces. Snap elections called on Feb. 2 were boycotted by the opposition Democrat Party mindful that Thaksin-backed parties have won every election since 2001 and voting could not be held at around 10 of polling stations because of protests. MORE Thai Protesters Disrupted the Elections and Now the Country Is in Total Limbo, "Once you start boycotting elections, rejecting the outcome, vilifying voters, you mobilize and empower extremists on all sides," says Walker. Thida Thavornseth, chairwoman of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, the principal Red Shirt organization of Thaksin supporters, warns of "civil war" if the election result is not honored soon. "We have tried to control Red Shirts to fight according to the law and constitution, but they are very angry," she tells TIME. If Yingluck is forced from office, then there is little doubt that the Red Shirts would march on Bangkok, just like they did in 2010. That demonstration, prompted by the ousting of a pro-Thaksin government by judicial intervention, ended with 90 people killed and more than 2,000 injured in a bloody crackdown. "The opposition movement is extraordinarily naive if they think that the progovernment forces are going to accept the pushing aside of yet another elected government," says Walker. According to Walker, "an endgame" is approaching because Yingluck is running out of legal options to tackle the unrest. Thailand's first female Prime Minister has to appear in court on Feb. 27 to answer charges of abuse of power and maleficence over a botched rice scheme that has cost around 18 billion. Several similar cases are also pending. "Both sides are laying the groundwork for a pretty serious confrontation," says Walker. Thitinan agrees "The growing likelihood of longer-term civil conflict is real indeed.", MORE Thailand Was Never the Land of Smiles, Whatever the Guidebooks May Have Told You |
World | Relics of End of World Plague Excavated in Egypt | A new archaeological discovery in Egypt includes traces of an ancient disease that some in the Roman Empire considered a harbinger of the apocalypse. The discovery was made in Luxor by members of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor, LiveScience reports. Researchers uncovered the remains of bodies covered with lime, presumably used to disinfect the diseased, as well as three kilns in which the lime was made. They also found human remains scattered throughout a site that bears traces of a bonfire likely a place where many disease victims were incinerated. An analysis of pottery remains in the kilns indicates that the findings date from the 3rd century A.D. when a vicious plague claimed the lives of thousands living in the Roman Empire, including at least two emperors. The epidemic, which Carthaginian bishop Cyprian wrote signaled the end of the world, struck around 250 A.D. It is now considered to have significantly contributed to the empire's decline. The disease has been dubbed "the plague of Cyprian," as the bishop wrote extensively about its effects on the human body. The "intestines are shaken with a continual vomiting, and the eyes are on fire with the injected blood," he wrote in Latin in his De mortalitate. Most modern-day scientists believe the deaths were caused by smallpox. |
World | The Bodies of 2 Scandinavian Women Were Found in Morocco | The bodies of two Scandinavian women were found near a village in Morocco's High Atlas Mountains on Monday, Agence France-Presse reports. The women, from Denmark and Norway, had both suffered neck wounds caused by a cutting device, according to a statement from Morocco's interior ministry. The women were found in a remote area about 10 kilometers 6.2 miles from Imli, a settlement that is the starting point for treks up to Mount Toubkal, the highest peak in northern Africa. Neither of the women appear to have been publicly identified. According to the interior ministry, an investigation has been launched into the "criminal act." |
World | Mahathir Mohamads Last Stand Malaysias Aging Strongman Seeks to Unseat His Protg | In a muddy clearing about half the size of a football field, several thousand rice paddy planters and taxi drivers join an elbow-to-elbow scrum, waiting in darkness in Jerlun, a rural village in northwest Malaysia. They snack on fried corn and peanuts, slap away mosquitoes, and use their cellphones to navigate over boggy rivulets. And then, well-after 10 p.m. he arrives. The crowd ululates and the black BMW disappears as supporters cut toward it. When the 92-year-old patriarch of modern Malaysia stiffly alights, he is greeted the chant long live Mahathir. The nation's longest-serving prime minister has returned. After leading Malaysia from 1981 until 2003, Mahathir Mohamad has now stepped out of retirement in a bid to unseat his wayward former protg, current Prime Minister Najib Razak in elections on May 9. As the unlikely leader of the opposition he once oppressed, Mahathir is galvanizing the fight to end his own former party's 61-year monopoly on power. Feared, loathed and venerated, Mahathir was many things during his 22 years as prime minister, but never an apologist. Yet he tells voters in this constituency near the Thai border and not far from his own birthplace that while he does not have much time left, he's come back to correct his biggest mistake appointing scandal-tainted Najib his successor. Mahathir, who has been a titan of Malaysian politics for longer than Najib has been alive, helped install the prodigal son of the nation's second prime minister, shunting aside a previous inheritor, "sleepy" Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, in the process. Read More Could Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad Become the World's Oldest Leader? He Speaks to TIME About What Sparked His Political Comeback, "I have to apologize because it was I who worked so hard to have Najib replace Badawi," he tells his rapt audience at the Jerlun rally. "I thought Najib would follow in the footsteps of his father but unfortunately, Najib has a different philosophy. Najib believes cash is king.", Najib is accused of pilfering over 1 billion from the graft-tainted state investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad 1MDB. While he has denied any wrongdoing, at least 10 countries are investigating the money-laundering case, including the U.S. Justice department. Then U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions called it "kleptocracy at its worst." By Mahathir's count, this scandal derailed the oil-rich nation's rightful transition into fully developed nationhood. A doctor by training, Mahathir spent his career diagnosing Malaysia's ills and prescribing economic fixes. He bootstrapped the nation from an agrarian post-colonial state to a buzzing manufacturing powerhouse exporting semiconductors and commodities. Considered a disciplined economic pioneer, Mahathir buoyed the fortunes of the ethnic Malay majority, oversaw economic expansion of 8 per year and doubled the per capita income to 3,900. The gleaming Petronas Towers, then the world's tallest building, were erected as symbol of the nation's ascendance. But Mahathir also helped entrench the centralized government that Najib exploited. Under Mahathir, critics were jailed without trial, newspapers shuttered and judges sacked. "Mahathir turned the state into a machine for personalized rule," says Chin-Huat Wong, a political scientist with the Penang Institute, a state government think tank. Yet Mahathir's promise of returning Malaysia to its halcyon days has voters energized and even his erstwhile critics lining up behind him hoping for the nation's first transition of power. "Mahathir was a tyrant but he did a lot of good things for Malaysia. At the time, the country was seen on par with South Korea," says Eric Paulsen, an activist and executive director of Malaysian NGO Lawyers for Liberty. Under Mahathir, "life was easier, people had jobs, cost of living was not so tough," says Rosli, a day laborer in Langkawi, where Mahathir is contesting a parliamentary seat. Here on Langkawi, an island paradise tourists flock to for its white sandy beaches and azure sea, allegiances to Mahathir run deep. He engineered its transformation from a backwater to one of Malaysia's tourism magnets a microcosm of the metamorphisis he orchestrated for the nation. In a fishing village overrun with ruling party flags, Asimah not her real name tells TIME it was Mahathir who cleared the jungle, built her neighborhood and provided electricity and running water. As she talks, a construction worker laying sheet-metal roofing yells down, "Mahathir is not just a Langkawi legend, but a Malaysian legend.", Since its inception as a constituency, Langkawi has been a ruling party stronghold. It is ethnic Malay pockets such as this where the opposition will have to force a groundswell shift away from the ruling party. The Malay vote, some 60 of the total, will ultimately determine the election. The presence of Mahathir, an ethnic nationalist whose patronage created the Malay business class, undercuts the ruling United Malays National Organization's UMNO tired threat that an opposition win will mean ending the Malays special privileges and handing the country over to the Chinese commercial class. In light of Mahathir's comeback, even the party's own people are second-guessing their vote. "Mahathir did everything here. It makes it hard to choose how to vote," says an UMNO campaign staffer at a rally for Najib. In stark contrast to the electrified anticipation at Mahathir's rally, the sitting prime minister's arrival at a pop-up market in Langkawi on Friday barely turned heads. "The PM was here? I didn't see him," said one of the stall workers. The election is largely seen as referendum on Najib as much as anything else. Independent polling by the Merdeka Center shows support for the prime minister's party has ebbed among his ethnic Malay bedrock, but he is projected to win the election. Najib has called on Muslim voters to show "wala", or loyalty. Should his Barisan Nasional BN coalition secure another term, he's promised an increase in cash handouts to the poor, a hike in the minimum wage, expansion of affordable housing and a possible revision of taxes. Voters on Langkawi receiving government aid said officials have warned them that supporting the opposition is equivalent to an attempt to "overthrow the regime.", In order to win, the four-party opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan Alliance of Hope, will need to overcome an asymmetric system that Mahathir himself helped devise, and once benefited from. There's the gerrymandering, irregularities with the electoral rolls, the disqualification of six opposition candidates, the de-registration of Mahathir's new party, Bersatu, and the last-minute move to bar his face from campaign posters resulting in billboards and signs with conspicuous holes cut out. And then there's the decision to hold the vote mid-week, which the opposition alleges is a ruse to dampen voter turn-out. "This is one of the dirtiest elections in Malaysia's history," says Ambiga Sreenevasan, a human rights advocate and former chair of Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections. Daim Zainuddin, Malaysia's former finance minister known as the "oracle" for his uncanny election predictions, says, "If the election was free and fair, the opposition Pakatan Harapan would undoubtedly win." A week before the polls, Daim defected from the ruling party and has joined Mahathir on the campaign trail. If Mahathir does win his vendetta and recaptures the post he vacated 15 years ago, he will become the world's oldest head of government. Unlikely to fulfill a five-year term, Mahathir is seen as a placeholder for someone else, though how long he plans on retaining power, and who he would relinquish it to, remain matters of debate. "Well, I'm 93-years-old. How long can I last? " he tells TIME from a seaside bungalow resort in Langkawi. He forecasts a term of "two years, maybe three years.", "Even if I retire after that, I hope to be able to advise the government on how to handle a lot of issues," he adds. In a twist that would do Game of Thrones proud, many see his next-in-line as none other than Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy he groomed only to have him imprisoned for five years on corruption and sodomy charges in 1998. Yet Mahathir and Anwar who is behind bars again on a second sodomy charge have agreed to let their animosities lie. Anwar's own wife now flanks Mahathir as his would-be deputy. Defying critics who say he's too old to be back in politics, Mahathir has taken on a challenging, cross-country campaign schedule. Despite having had two bypass surgeries, he appears more youthful and animated than many of his decades-younger colleagues. In Jerlun, he delivered a scathing and witty rebuke of his opponent without notes or a pause. He commanded the podium with gravitas, standing for the duration of his nearly one hour speech. "With your support, Malaysia can become one of the most advanced countries in the world again," Mahathir told the crowd who weathered through the rain to the end of the speech. Even if he doesn't win, Mahathir's comeback could damage Najib, who is seeking a third term. Under his leadership, the ruling coalition lost the popular vote for the first time in 2013.Few see him as sticking around to lead the party if he fails to turn the tide on Wednesday. Many say this election is Malaysia's best chance to finally break the one-party dominance uninterrupted since independence in 1957. "The country cannot keep going in this direction," says Paulsen, "Or we will become a failed state." |
World | Please Stop Mailing Your Empty Potato Chip Bags Royal Mail Urges British Protestors | The postal service in the United Kingdom has asked members of the public to stop mailing potato chip bags after a social media campaign resulted in a surge of chip packages, causing messy delays. The movement which was launched on Friday, asked activists to post pictures of themselves sending their empty bags back to the manufacturer, Walkers. It's an effort to pressure Britain's largest potato chip brand to stop packaging its products in plastic. The company has a mailing address that allows people in the U.K. to send them letters free of charge, so the campaign's website advertised that it "won't cost a penny" for people to send their chip bags. Protesters were asked to merely put a label with Walkers' address on the packet. , Although Walkers plans to produce plastic-free packaging for the 11 million daily bags of chips the company produces by 2025, campaigners believe this is too long a wait. A petition in conjunction with the campaign, which has over 300,000 signatures, demands the company owned by PepsiCo "change the materials for their packets to one which is recyclable or even more preferably a non-plastic environmentally friendly material.", , U.K. law states that its national mail service must deliver post if it is properly addressed, but the Royal Mail has encouraged those involved to at least use an envelope. |
World | Police Arrest Islamic Militant for the Killing of Bangladeshi Atheist Blogger Nazimuddin Samad | An alleged Islamic militant suspected of murdering Bangladeshi secular blogger Nazimuddin Samad was detained by the country's counterterrorism unit on Sunday night. According to the Dhaka Tribune, police arrested Rashidun Nabi Bhuiyan near a bus station in Dhaka. He appeared in court on Monday afternoon, when judges granted police three days to interrogate him. The Tribune reports that Nabi confessed in court and asked for forgiveness, stating, "Please pardon me. We were misguided.", He is expected to receive either a life sentence or capital punishment if convicted. The police allege that Nabi was a member of Ansarullah Bangla, a terrorist organization implicated in the deaths of several atheist writers, including the Bangladeshi American Avijit Roy. Samad, a master's student at Dhaka's Jagannath University, was on a hit list of 84 atheist bloggers sent to Bangladesh's Interior Ministry with a demand that they be punished. He was killed outside his university last April. Samad's death sparked protests demanding justice and accountability for the deaths of secular activists, writers and bloggers, who have been targeted by Islamic militants since 2013. |
World | Italian Gangs Plot to Steal MotorRacing Legend Ferraris Remains Foiled | The body of auto-racing legend Enzo Ferrari was at the center of an Italian gang's bizarre plot to raise some cash. Police on the Italian island of Sardinia said they had foiled a plot by a criminal gang to steal Ferrari's body and hold it for ransom, Agence France-Presse AFP reports. The discovery was made during another investigation into a large group of drug-and-arms traffickers who were exploring other ways to turn a profit. The group of more than 30 gangsters were arrested by around 300 officers on Tuesday. Police said the gang had already come up with detailed plans to snatch Ferrari's coffin, hide it, and demand money from the family for its safe return. Ferrari, a motor-racing driver who went on to establish the eponymous Formula One team and auto brand, was buried in Modena, in northern Italy, after his death in 1988. According to AFP, his remains are interred behind a marble plate in a large chapel secured with an iron gate. AFP |
World | What to Know About the Catalan Independence Referendum | Spanish authorities are racing to block Catalonia secessionists from carrying out an independence referendum currently scheduled for Oct. 1. So far, officials have seized almost 10 million ballot papers, imposed fines on top Catalan officials, and detained numerous politicians. Catalonia's battle with Madrid over the vote, which both the Spanish constitution court and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy deem illegal, has created the worst political crisis Spain has seen in decades. Here's what to know, Located in the country's north-east corner, Catalonia has an economy larger than that of Portugal, and is one of the most highly industralized regions in Spain. It is separated from southern France by the Pyrenees and has been part of Spain since the 15th century. The bulk of the region's population now lives in Barcelona, Catalonia's capital. There is no one factor to explain the rising independence movement in the region. But experts say the fall-out of the global financial crash in 2008 played an important role. The financial crisis led to rising unemployment and debt in the country, which irked independence supporters who believed Madrid was responsible for the crisis and that Catalonia was paying more taxes to bolster Spain's poorer regions than it was getting in return. The region pays 12 billion more taxes to Madrid each year it gets back, according to Reuters, while Andalusia, Spain's poorest region, receives around 9.5 billion more than it pays in. The tax issue and perceived neglect from Madrid revived secessionist spirit. Facing financial collapse and social unrest in 2012, Catalan's former President Artur Mas endorsed the campaign for independence after Madrid refused to allocate more funds to the region or give it fiscal independence. According to the Catalan Centre for Opinion Studies, more than 30 in the region supported independence in 2011. This year 41.1 were in favor of independence. A July survey found that around half the population believed that they had the right to vote, but only less than half supported a split from Spain. Identity politics also played a role. The semi-autonomous region of 7.5 million which has its own local parliament and accounts for around a fifth of Spain's GDP has its own traditions and a language, Catalan, which was previously banned under the autocratic rule of Francisco Franco in the mid-20th century. No. A pro-independence movement in 2014 held a symbolic vote. Only 37 2.25 million of all eligible voters 5.4 million took part in the Nov. 2014 ballot, voting overwhelmingly towards independence 81. Many opponents, however, boycotted the vote. Former President Mas hailed the poll "a great success," and said that it should pave the way for a formal referendum. Mas has compared the situation to Scotland, which had its own referendum on independence from the U.K. in Sept. 2014. The Scots, however, chose to stay part of Britain. The 2014 vote was non-binding. The Oct. 1 vote, if it goes ahead, could trigger a unilateral declaration of independence. It was also organized by the Catalan government and ratified by its parliament which has been dominated by Catalan separatist parties since 2015. The Spanish constitution court declared that year that the Catalan parliament's proposed plan for a referendum was unconstitutional. The separatists now hold the majority of seats in the regional parliament and there has been an uptick of support among officials and celebrities. Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau said on Sept. 14 that she supported holding the referendum and signalled that the city's residents could vote in the regional's government facilities after arrangements were made to protect municipal employees from prosecution. Pep Guardiola, the manager of soccer club Manchester City, supports the Catalonians' right to vote and told a Barcelona rally in June "We will vote, even if the Spanish state doesn't want it.", Now, Madrid's attempt to clamp-down on the vote risks spiralling out of control tensions ratcheted up in early September when Catalan parliament approved a law to hold the vote , with no minimum voter turnout, while also claiming that the region would declare independence within 48 hours if Catalans voted yes. The Spanish Civil Guard raided the Catalan regional government's office on Sept. 20, confiscated election material and arrested 14 people including the right hand man of the region's vice-president Oriol Junqueras. On the same day, the organization that oversees the registry of websites with the ".cat" domain was raided and websites with information about the referendum were blocked. The detainees were eventually released but around 40,000 took to the streets in Barcelona after the raids on Wednesday. FC Barcelona condemned the crackdown. "FC Barcelona, in remaining faithful to its historic commitment to the defense of the nation, to democracy, to freedom of speech, and to self-determination, condemns any act that may impede the free exercise of these right." the football club said in a statement. , The Spanish government said it would send more officers to Catalonia in a bid to block the vote and on Saturday it was announced that all local and national police forces will be temporarily placed under centralized command. Madrid's finance ministry increased its control of Catalonia's finances so as to prevent public money from being used in campaigning for the vote or logistics. Like today, Rajoy deemed the referendum unconstitutional. This was reiterated by the government in 2014, which said Catalonia would not be allowed to hold the referendum as the country's 1978 constitution states that major questions need to be put to all Spaniards. Both referendums did not call for a minimum number of votes for it to be passed. This means a simple majority with a low turn-out could lead to a declaration of independence on Oct. 1. The legality of both votes are also in question. Mas was barred from office after the 2014 vote and under a 2015 law, Spanish public servants can be suspended for ignoring the constitutional court's rulings. Current Catalan President Carles Puigdemont argues that his position is governed under Catalan regulations, and that it would be unacceptable to suspend him. No one knows yet. Catalan separatists are certain that the illegal plebiscite will happen on Oct. 1, and are playing a cat and mouse game with the police. Local activists told Bloomberg that more than 6,000 ballot boxes have been stashed away in secret locations, which they aim to deploy for this Sunday's vote. Spain's Prime Minister Rajoy could go for the nuclear option, which would be to trigger article 155 of the constitution and suspend Catalonia's autonomy, allowing the central government to take control. Such a move could pour fuel on a secessionist fire already raging after the heavy-handedness of the police raids. Even if the vote goes ahead, few experts believe the region could achieve independence as a unilateral decision, as it won't be recognized by Spain or the E.U. What a yes' vote could do is destabilize Rajoy's minority conservative government, which is reliant on the support of lawmakers from Ciudadanos which was initially started in Catalonia is opposition to secessionists. The ideal situation, writes the European Council on Foreign Relations, is for "substantial reform of the Spanish Constitution, including a further strengthening of Catalonia's self-rule, including an explicit recognition of their character as a Nation, could be entertained. It would require elections, qualified majorities and a nation-wide referendum, perhaps followed by a specific referendum in Catalonia.", But for that to happen, Rajoy and Catalan President Puigdemont will need to step away from the brink. |
World | Kremlin Critics Fear Political Hit List as Putin Drops Out of Sight | Early in the morning on March 9, Alexei Venediktov, one of Russia's most prominent journalists, gathered a backpack full of his belongings, told his son to do the same andfearing for their livesboth of them headed to a Moscow airport to catch a flight to Israel. It was not a bout of paranoia. Venediktov's close friend of many years, the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, had been gunned down near the Kremlin the previous week, and the subsequent twists in the investigation suggested that Venediktov could be next. "We knew that there was a hit list," he tells TIME a few days later, having returned to the capital and resumed working as editor of the radio station Echo of Moscow, one of the last broadcast news outlets where Russians can still hear direct criticism of President Vladimir Putin. Stout and good-humored, with an unruly crown of curly white hair, Venediktov, 59, would not reveal exactly who warned him that he was in danger. There is, perhaps, some clue in the fact that he sits on the Interior Ministry's Social Council, an advisory body to the national police. But it would not take a genius in any case to see the clouds gathering above him. In the past two weeks, various warnings and threats to opposition figures have suggested that Nemtsov's murder could be just the beginning of a broader campaign of political terror. Reports of a hit list of dissidents have been circulating in the Russian press for days. Along with rumors of an unfolding struggle among security factions within the Kremlin, these events have created an atmosphere of fear unlike any the Russian capital has seen in years, at least since Putin's re-election in 2012 inaugurated a broad crackdown on dissent. The President, for his part, has not helped calm the situation by disappearing from public view since March 5, an extremely long period for him to go missing even in the best of times. MORE Why Russia's Probe Into the Nemtsov Murder Does Not Stack Up, And these have hardly been the best of times for Russian opposition figures, and for Venediktov in particular, as the confounding investigation into Nemtsov's killing unfolds. On March 8, authorities charged two men from the predominantly Muslim region of Chechnya with carrying out the murder, allegedly to punish Nemtsov for a verbal slight against Islam. Not only did this shock the victim's alliesNemtsov had never been known to disparage religionbut it set a frightening precedent. Prominent critics of Putin and the Kremlin began to wonder who else among them could be attacked for supposedly offending Muslims. The most obvious target would be Venediktov. In early January, he was branded an enemy of Islam by the Kremlin's loyal governor in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, who styles himself as the guardian of Muslims in Russia and around the world. "Venediktov has turned the Echo of Moscow into the main anti-Islamic mouthpiece," Kadyrov wrote on Jan. 9. "I am firmly convinced that the authorities must call the radio station to order," he wrote on his Instagram account. "Otherwise people will be found who will make Venediktov answer for it.", Such threats from high places were nothing new to Venediktov. In early 2012, Putin himself blew up at the editor during an official dinner, accusing him of "pouring diarrhea on me from morning till night" on his radio programs. Though he says he and Putin talked through those tensions later, Venediktov had by then gotten used to going around with bodyguards, which he had hired after a series of threats from pro-Kremlin activists made him fear for his family. On one occasion in 2009, someone left a log outside the door of his apartment with an ax sticking out of it. "But those were just hooligans," he says in his office at the radio station, looking pale from exhaustion after his precautionary getaway in Israel. "What we're seeing now is totally new, it's demonstrative." The people who killed Nemtsov, he says, seem to have been working from a list of "enemies of the people" slated for extermination. Apart from him and Nemtsov, he says the list included Putin's one-time political nemesis, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon who spent 10 years in prison before being released in 2013 and going into exile in Switzerland. In an apparent warning to Khodorkovsky, his spokeswoman in Moscow, Kulle Pispanen, found a funeral wreath outside the door of her apartment when she returned home on March 11., But Venediktov still refuses to believe that Putin has explicitly ordered some kind of campaign to terrorize his critics. "This is not an errand for a czar," he says. "For him to shut down our radio station is nothing, it's as easy as spitting for him. Who am I to Putin? Who is Nemtsov?", Realistically, neither of them could pose any real threat to a leader with near total control of the mass media in Russia and an approval rating upwards of 80. But ever since last spring, when Putin told a gathering of top officials and lawmakers that there were "national traitors" in their midst, many of the leading figures in the opposition have felt like a bull's-eye had been placed on their backs. "If Putin makes a decision to physically eliminate me, it will not be easy for me to survive, not even in Europe," Khodorkovsky told TIME in an interview this past fall in Berlin. "In his inner circle, there are people who are more and more inclined to the use of force, and we see that they carry out such operations.", Amid the climate of paranoia that has descended on Moscow's political class, the common wisdom among analysts and dissidents is that various factions in Putin's circle have gone to war, competing with each other to prove that they are the most loyal, the most efficient in fulfilling the President's implicit and explicit instructions with regards to "national traitors.", An earlier phase of this struggle seemed clear from the raft of legislation introduced over the past year, as lawmakers tried to outdo each other with ever more severe restrictions on the media, the Internet and the ability of citizens to organize protests and finance social activism. But now, Venediktov says, various branches of Russia's security forces have likewise started openly competing for Putin's attention. As a result, "the state has lost its monopoly on the use of violence, which is an extremely dangerous state of affairs.", MORE Boris Nemtsov and Russia's Breaking Point, The security forces in Chechnya have of late been trying to advertise themselves as the truest of Russian patriots, the ones most willing to "carry out any order in any spot in the world." That's how Kadyrov put it in December, when he put on an exhibition of the army under his command. But such posturing could not avoid a level of friction with Russia's other security hierarchies, says Venediktov, above all the agency known as the FSB, which took over for the KGB after the fall of the Soviet Union. On the night of March 7, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov took the unusual step of going on television to announce the arrest of the two main suspects in Nemtsov's murder. One of them, Zaur Dadaev, turned out to be the deputy commander of an elite counter-terrorism force in Chechnya, and so well respected in his region's security structures that Kadyrov personally praised him as "a real patriot of Russia" immediately after he was charged with killing Nemtsov. But patriot or not, Dadaev was apparently given some rather rough treatment while in the custody of the FSB. According to the Kremlin's own rights watchdog, Dadaev showed signs of torture, including electrocution, when prison monitors visited him on March 10 at the FSB's notorious detention center in Moscow. "He said wires were attached to his toes and electricity shot through them," Andrei Babushkin, who oversees the penitentiary system within the Kremlin Council on Human Rights, said at a news conference in Moscow on Friday. "The injuries he showed us were consistent with this.", The chairman of the council, Mikhail Fedotov, then stated that Putin had been informed of these strange goings on. But he could offer no information as to the President's reaction, as he appears to have gone into hiding. The last photo of him on the Kremlin website is dated March 11, during a meeting with the governor of the Karelia region. Local media, however, were reporting on this meeting as early as March 5, adding to the air of uncertainty around Putin's whereabouts, his health and the firmness of his grip on the various branches of power under his command. "They are all his clans, his creations," Venediktov says, referring to the FSB and the Chechen forces known as Kadyrovites. "Putin does not easily give up his own. He would need a very serious mound of evidence to really go after one of them.", It is not clear whether Putin has seen any such evidence from the FSB against members of the Kadyrov clan. But in one of his last public appearances before dropping out of sight more than a week ago, Putin hinted that he takes the murder of Nemtsov more personally and more seriously than other "politically tinged" crimes, as he put it. "We need to rid Russia of the kind of shame and tragedy that we have just witnessed," he told a gathering of Russian police commanders from around the country on March 4. "I'm talking about the insolent murder of Boris Nemtsov right in the center of the capital.", Judging by the mood in Moscow, however, the fear of such insolence has only grown in the past week as Putin remains unseen. "The atmosphere right now in our country is very dangerous, very threatening," says Nikolai Svanidze, another member of the Kremlin rights council. "It is an atmosphere of growing hatred and aggression," he says. In response, the council has decided to call a meeting at the end of the month to provide the Kremlin with ideas on how to cool these tensions, and hopefully Putin will by then reemerge to receive their advice. But Venediktov isn't sure he wants to wait around for that to happen. "I feel like a hostage here," he says in his office. So it may be best, he says, to follow Putin's lead and disappear for a while, maybe get out of the country again. "Maybe a long vacation," he says. "Until things calm down.", Listen to the most important stories of the day. |
World | Senior alJazeera Reporter Ahmed Mansour Detained in Germany on Egypts Request | Ahmed Mansour, a presenter for al-Jazeera's Arabic-language channel, has been arrested in Berlin at the request of the Egyptian government. The New York Times says it's the first time a Western government has acted to comply with one of Egypt's many extradition requests. An extradition hearing will take place on Monday, according to the BBC. In 2014, Mansour was sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia by an Egyptian court. The 52-year-old Egyptian national was convicted of torturing a lawyer during the 2011 Tahrir Square uprising. He denies the charges. Mansour was arrested at Tegel airport in Berlin as he boarded a flight to Qatar, where his employer is based. Since former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in 2013, al-Jazeera has been critical of the current government, headed by Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the New York Times reports. Protesters gathered outside the facility where Mansour is being held on Sunday to demand his release. "It is quite ludicrous that a country like Germany would enforce and support such a request made by a dictatorial regime like the one we have in Egypt," Mansour said in a video he recorded while in the Berlin prison. |
World | Moscow Poster Says Smoking Kills More People Than Obama | A poster has appeared in Moscow provocatively claiming that "Smoking kills more people than Obama, although he kills lots and lots of people," accompanied by a picture of the American president smoking. It continues, "Don't smoke, don't be like Obama.", No one immediately took credit for the poster, which was framed inside a bus shelter, the Guardian reports. Russia's only liberal member of Parliament, Dmitry Gudkov, said it was "disgusting and embarrassing that this is appearing on the streets of the Russian capital" in a post on Facebook. , The poster appears after a string of accusations from Russians that the U.S. president is responsible for mass killings, including a video appeal to the U.N. and a banner hung across from the U.S. embassy calling Obama a "killer.", The Guardian |
World | International Community Asked to Take 180000 Syrian Refugees | The international community should step up its response to the Syria crisis by accepting 180,000 refugees. That's the message from an appeal launched Monday by group of more than 30 humanitarian organizations. The appeal comes ahead of a U.N. pledging conference in Geneva on Dec. 9, AFP reports. More than 3.2 million refugees who fled Syria in the past three years are registered in neighboring countries but the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR expects that number to grow to more than 3.6 million by the end of 2015. So far the Gulf states, Russia and China have failed to take a single refugee from Syria and the U.N is calling on these countries to help. Amnesty International has slammed the global community's response to the crisis, calling it "shocking.", "The shortfall in the number of resettlement places for refugees offered by the international community is truly shocking. Nearly 380,000 people have been identified as in need of resettlement by the U.N. refugee agency, yet just a tiny fraction of these people have been offered sanctuary abroad," said Sherif Elsayed-Ali, head of refugee and migrants' rights at Amnesty International. Turkey and Lebanon each host more than a million refugees but the strain of the crisis is affecting infrastructure and public services. And border restrictions imposed in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have left many refugees trapped in Syria. "Next week's pledging conference must be used to turn the tide around. It is time for world governments to take the courageous steps needed to share the responsibility for this crisis and help avert further suffering," said Sherif Elsayed-Ali. AFP |
World | Israel Increasingly Goes Public With Airstrikes on Iranian Targets in Syria | JERUSALEM Israel on Monday claimed responsibility for a series of airstrikes on Iranian military targets in Syria, drifting further away from its longstanding policy of playing down or covering up its military activities in the war-torn country. For years, Israel has remained largely silent about its attacks against Iran and its Shiite proxies operating in neighboring Syria. But in recent weeks, military and political leaders have become increasingly outspoken about these activities. This policy appears to be aimed at sending a message to key players in Syria, including President Bashar Assad and Russia, that Iran's continued presence there risks triggering even tougher and potentially destabilizing Israeli action. "Whoever tries to harm us, we will harm them. Whoever threatens to destroy us will bear the full responsibility," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday. But it also risks heating up the atmosphere between the bitter enemies. Iran's air force chief, for instance, said his forces are "ready for a fight.", Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, and as Syria's civil war winds down, it has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iranian troops who have been fighting alongside Assad's forces to maintain a permanent presence in postwar Syria. While Israel has largely stayed out of the fighting in Syria, it has carried out scores of airstrikes on suspected Iranian arms shipments to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is also fighting alongside Assad's troops. With few exceptions, Israel has maintained a policy of ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying the airstrikes. That changed earlier this month when Israel's outgoing military chief, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, told the New York Times that Israel had struck "thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or asking for credit" as part of his showdown with Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force. Days later, Netanyahu acknowledged striking "hundreds" of Iranian and Hezbollah targets. In the latest violence, the Israeli military announced Monday that it had struck a series of Iranian targets, including munition storage facilities, an intelligence site and a military training camp, in response to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier. Israel said the missile, fired by Iranian forces in Syria, was intercepted over a ski resort on the Golan Heights and that there were no injuries. The Iranian launch followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near the Damascus International Airport. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday's pre-dawn strikes lasted for nearly an hour and were the most intense Israeli attacks since May. It said 11 were killed. The Russian military said four Syrian troops were among those killed. There were no further details on the casualties or their nationalities. Speaking to reporters, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the Israeli use of ambiguity hadn't changed. He said that the Iranian missile strike, aimed at Israeli civilian areas, was a special case that required a public and powerful response, and that Israel had reacted similarly to previous Iranian provocations in February and May. He also said that Israel had sent warnings to Syria ahead of the attack to refrain from attacking Israeli warplanes, but that Syria ignored those warnings and fired anti-aircraft missiles. He said Israel responded by destroying Syrian anti-aircraft batteries. Others, however, said the shift in Israeli policy is clear. Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief and defense minister, said the military had no choice but to comment after Netanyahu took credit publicly for the strikes. He accused Netanyahu, who is running for re-election while facing the threat of indictment in a series of corruption scandals, of playing politics with the country's security. "Unfortunately everything is connected to his political survival," Yaalon told Israel's Army Radio. "What does the publication give us? Can someone tell me what the benefit is, besides politics?", But military analyst Yoel Guzansky said Israel has bigger concerns. He said Israel hopes to "stir a debate" in Iran and perhaps turn public opinion against the leadership's "adventures" in Syria at a time of economic hardship. He said Israel also wants its foes to know that the promised withdrawal from Syria by American forces will have no effect on its policies. "The Iranians are persistent. We have to be persistent too," said Guzansky, a senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. Israel also may be sending a message to Russia, which has supported Assad and is poised to take a prominent role in postwar Syria, that its tolerance of Iran could threaten those interests. Israel's relations with Russia have been tense since Syrian anti-aircraft fire aimed at Israeli warplanes accidentally shot down a Russian plane in September. Israeli Cabinet Minister Yuval Steinitz, a close ally of Netanyahu, warned that Assad himself could be at risk if he continues to allow the Iranians to attack. "Sir, if you allow the Iranians to attack Israel from Syria, if there is a war or the outbreak of conflict one way or the other on the border with Israel, you, too, will be targeted," he told Israel Radio. In New York, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the Golan Heights spoke to the Israeli military and Syrian authorities "to de-escalate the situation.", But the Israeli threats and attacks drew angry responses from Iran and its allies. The chief of Iran's air force, Gen. Aziz Nassirzadeh, said his forces are "impatient and ready for a fight against the Zionist regime to wipe it off the Earth," according to a news website affiliated with Iran's state television. "The conditions are getting closer to war every day and a war might break out on several fronts," added an official from the Iranian-led "Axis of Resistance" made up of Syria, Lebanon's Hezbollah and other armed groups in the region. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. In Syria, lawmaker Najdat Anzour said the Israeli airstrikes were meant to keep up the pressure on Syria and to save the Israeli leader from his domestic troubles. "Netanyahu is under pressure at home and trying to find himself an outlet," he said. |
World | Panama Opens a Frank GehryDesigned Biodiversity Museum | Panama has opened a biodiversity museum designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, his first project in Latin America. The Biomuseo a hodgepodge of bright-colored metal canopies swopping over the eight galleries inside presents a tour of the Central American nation's rich, diverse ecosystems, the BBC reports. The building itself "was designed to tell the story of how the isthmus of Panama rose from the sea, uniting two continents, separating a vast ocean in two, and changing the planet's biodiversity forever," the museum's website says. Gehry's other high-profile works include the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The BBC reports that the project has been beset by budget overruns and delays since work began on it in 1999. |
World | Chinese Intelligence Official Charged With Stealing US Aviation Secrets | A Chinese national who allegedly conspired to steal trade secrets from an Ohio aviation company has been extradited to the U.S. according to the Justice Department. Xu Yanjun targeted U.S. and European aerospace companies on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security, according to an indictment charging him with economic espionage and other crimes. Xu, who used multiple aliases, is a deputy division director within China's intelligence and security agency, the U.S. alleges. The charges come as the Trump administration takes a harder line on China, with Vice President Mike Pence last week challenging the country's economic practices. The arrest of Xu and his extradition represent the first time the U.S. has been able to bring a Chinese intelligence officer to America to be prosecuted for economic espionage, said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security. Xu was extradited from Belgium, where he was arrested on April 1. One of the companies allegedly targeted by Xu was GE Aviation, a unit of General Electric Co. Demers said its assistance was crucial to the investigation. Lawyers for Xu didn't immediately respond to email messages seeking comment. An email seeking comment on the indictment from the Chinese Embassy wasn't immediately returned. The indictment, filed in federal court in Cincinnati, lays out Xu's alleged efforts to steal technology from an unidentified Ohio-based aviation company. Xu worked with a conspirator, unnamed in the indictment, who contacted an engineer of the firm last year and offered to pay for a trip to China so the employee could talk about his work in connection with an event sponsored by a science and technology association, according to prosecutors. The employee traveled to China in June 2017 and gave a presentation at a public university in Nanjing, they said. The employee's talk included details about engines that were designed and produced by his company. In reality, the employee, who was paid 3,500 by Xu for the trip, was revealing information to the Chinese government, according to prosecutors. "These charges are significant," Demers told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. "The threat of insiders in companies being either pressured or co-opted by Chinese intelligence officials and others is very real.", Xu, who was using the alias Qu Hui, continued to court the employee and received additional information including proprietary data involving the company's fan blades, according to prosecutors. The employee, under Xu's directions, downloaded company materials and traveled to Belgium in April to pass that data to Xu, the indictment alleges. |
World | Man Who Smuggled 38 Turtles in His Pants Banned From Owning Them | A Canadian man who was caught trying to smuggle 38 turtles into the country in 2014 has been banned from owning them for 10 years. Dong Yan of Windsor, Ontario, carried the turtles in plastic bags taped to his legs and tried to enter Canada through the Niagara border crossing, Reuters reported. He was convicted on Feb. 17 and given two years of probation, a fine of about 2,600 and 50 hours of community service in addition to the ban. He was also ordered to write a letter about the experience. |
World | The Violent Death of a Progressive Rio Politician Has Prompted Mass Mourning and Protests in Brazil | The murder of Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco this week drew thousands of mourners into city streets across Brazil, many believing the popular advocate for Brazil's poorest was assassinated. Franco, 38, and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were killed Wednesday night when two men in a car fired nine shots into her vehicle, according to the Associated Press. Franco's press secretary also suffered minor injuries but survived, according to Reuters. Rio's chief of public security promised a "full investigation," the Guardian reports. Franco's death came weeks after Brazil's president Michel Temer gave the military sweeping security powers in Rio's sprawling favela, where gang violence is rife. At least 13 political candidates were slain in the lead-up to 2016's city council polls when Franco was elected, according to Reuters. Franco, a popular local LGBTQ and human rights activist, grew up in one of Rio's largest favelas, and rose to political prominence by denouncing economic inequality and police brutality. She was the only black female representative and one of seven women on the 51-seat city council, according to the New York Times. Redes da Mar, a non-profit group based in Franco's neighborhood, described her death as "an irreparable loss." |
World | The Soldier Who Shot Somalias YoungestEver Minister Has Been Sentenced to Death | A military court in Somalia has sentenced a soldier to death by firing squad over the fatal shooting of Abas Abdullahi Sheikh Siraji, the country's 31-year-old minister of public works. The BBC reports that the soldier, whose lawyers said the shooting was an accident, can appeal the ruling. The officer reportedly mistook Siraji for an Islamic militant before shooting him inside his car in the capital Mogadishu in early May. Siraji became Somalia's youngest parliamentarian in 2016. Popular among Somali youth, he set another record for the East African nation when he was sworn in as its youngest-ever cabinet member in April this year. Considered a "rising star" in Somalia's politics, Siraji grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya and later returned to his home country to begin a life of public service. His sudden death caused shock and anger in the politically fragile country, particularly among his youthful support base. Read More Rising Star' of Somalia's Government Has Been Shot Dead By Security Forces, Somalia has been wracked by civil strife since 1991. Amid the many challenges of democratization and development, the government is also battling the Islamic militant group al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaeda. BBC |
World | New Zealand Is Battling Its Worst Forest Fire in More Than 60 Years | A massive bushfire has churned through more than 5,600 acres on New Zealand's South Island in what is believed to be the country's worst forest fire since 1955, BBC reports. A state of emergency was declared on Feb. 6, two days after the Pigeon Valley Fire began near the city of Nelson. As of Monday, the blaze was still scorching the island's arid countryside, but as firefighting conditions improved, around 3,000 evacuated residents were allowed to return home. Local MP Nick Smith described the region as a "tinderbox" and said 70,000 residents in the fire's range remain "on edge.", Twenty-three helicopters and two planes have reportedly been deployed to combat the blaze in the nation's largest aerial firefight on record, according to the New Zealand Herald. Fire chiefs have warned that the flames could continue until March. The bushfire follows a heatwave that saw some areas of New Zealand sweating out 90F days last month. The New Zealand Drought Index reports "extremely dry" conditions in the Nelson area, which has reportedly been parched since November 2018. Local emergency workers have warned residents over the dry conditions, noting that "one spark could be enough" to set off disaster. To assist fire-hit families, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a 20,000 New Zealand dollar 13,500 relief fund last week. , "While I'm immensely relieved there's been no loss of life and want to thank all of those involved in tackling this immense fire, it's clear there are going to be some difficult times ahead until we get the fire fully under control and people back to their homes," she said. |
World | Chinese Authorities Crack Down on Streaming to Create a Cleaner Cyberspace | China's media oversight body has ordered three major online companies to halt some of their multi-media streaming services, the government's latest move to tighten controls on an already restricted Internet. Agence France-Presse reports that Sina Weibo the country's Twitter-like microblogging site with more than 340 million users as well as news site iFeng.com and entertainment site ACFUN, were informed they lacked permits required by the body to run audio-visual streams. An announcement by China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television said the sites hosted "many politically-related programs that do not conform with state rules," and authorities are trying to "create a cleaner cyberspace," according to AFP. Earlier this month another regulator, the Beijing Cyberspace Administration, ordered internet companies to terminate social media accounts that cater to "the public's vulgar taste" and disseminate celebrity gossip, AFP reports. Willy Lam, a professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong's centre for China studies, tells TIME that Beijing has steadily tightened the screws on expression ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's 19th Congress, due to be held around October. Lam says that Chinese President Xi Jinping "wants stability above all else in this sensitive period," but that ultimately censorship could backfire. "The more control of the media there is, the more ordinary Chinese tend to believe in speculation and innuendo," he says. , AFP |
World | Baby Born on an Airplane Given 1 Million Miles as a Birthday Present | A baby girl is having an exciting first week on the planet. After being born on an airplane during a flight from Dubai to Manila on Sunday, Philippine airline Cebu Pacific gave the baby one million air miles, the Guardian reports. The mother, who was not due for another five weeks, went into labor about four hours into the flight, according to the Guardian. Crew members found two nurses among the passengers to help with the delivery. , The flight stopped in Hyderabad, India, the airline told the Guardian, so the mother could get medical assistance for her premature baby, named Haven. The stop added about nine hours to the trip, according to another passenger, Missy Berberabe Umandal, who posted about the incident on Facebook. But Umandal had "no complaints" and called the birth the "highlight" of her trip to Dubai. "Everyone in that plane was blessed," Umandal wrote. Cebu Pacific told the Guardian that baby Haven's one million GetGo points won't expire and can be shared with her family. |
World | Bollywood Star Salman Khan Has Been Convicted of Poaching Protected Antelopes | Indian actor Salman Khan was found guilty of wildlife poaching and sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday in a decades-long case that has seen the Bollywood superstar dodge multiple prior charges. An Indian court in Jodhpur convicted Khan of killing two blackbucks, a protected species also called Indian antelopes, while shooting a film in India's western Rajasthan state in 1998, the BBC reports. Khan, who was taken into custody Thursday, was also fined 10,000 Indian rupees 154. Four other actors who starred in the film with Khan and were also charged in the incident have been acquitted. Khan, 52, who pleaded not guilty, can appeal the case to a higher court. If the appeal is accepted, he could be granted bail or even have his sentence overturned. The ruling is not the actor's first run-in with the law. In December 2015, Khan was cleared in a 2002 hit-and-run case in which a homeless man died. He had also been acquitted in three previous cases related to poaching and possession of firearms, according to the BBC. |