Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Donald Trump Receives The Endorsement of the Campaign From North Korea: Kim Jong-un
Donald Trump once again showing just how "huge" and "amazing" that he is has gotten the all important dictator endorsement from North Korea and Kim Jong-un. How important is this? So important, because it helps solidify Donald Trump's inclusion in the dictators of the month club. Now if can just get Bad Vlad to endorse it'll be smooth sailing all the way to November.
State media outlet welcomes Republican candidate’s ‘far-sighted’ policies and suggestion that he will withdraw troops from Seoul
State media outlet welcomes Republican candidate’s ‘far-sighted’ policies and suggestion that he will withdraw troops from Seoul
North Korean state media has praised US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, describing him as a “wise politician” and “far-sighted candidate” who could help unify the Korean peninsula.
An editorial in DPRK Today, an official media outlet, welcomed the Republican presidential candidate’s proposal to hold direct talks with Kim Jong-un, saying he could help bring about Pyongyang’s “Yankee go home” policy.
“There are many positive aspects to Trump’s ‘inflammatory policies’,” wrote Han Yong-mook, who described himself as a Chinese North Korean scholar.
“Trump said he will not get involved in the war between the South and the North, isn’t this fortunate from North Korea’ perspective?”
Six In The Morning Tuesday May 31
France labour dispute: Hollande digs in as rail strike looms
President Francois Hollande of France has insisted that a controversial labour reform will not be withdrawn as strike action looms on the railways.
"The bill will not be withdrawn," he told a newspaper. "The text assures the best performance for businesses and offers new rights to employees."
Protesters clashed with police last week during marches against the bill, which makes hiring and firing easier.
France will host the Euro 2016 football championships next week.
Tourism chiefs in Paris have warned that the unrest is putting off visitors to one of the world's top destinations.
"The scenes of guerrilla-type action in the middle of Paris, beamed around the world, reinforce the feeling of fear and misunderstanding," the tourist board said.
The capital's reputation as a safe destination was already dented by November's deadly attack by militants from the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group, who killed 130 people in gun and bomb attacks.
Isis digs in against attack on Iraq's second city while brutally punishing those who rebel against them
In the first of a four-part series on the war against Isis, Patrick Cockburn reports that while the jihadists face battles on multiple fronts, civilians who have fled from Mosul speak of a ruthless group who will defend the city at all costs
In the last few days somebody has been painting the initial letter of the Arabic word for “resistance” – muqawama – on walls in Mosul. Some fifteen Isis members have been assassinated by a group calling itself Ketaib Mosul that is evidently well informed about whom it targets.
There are repeated airstrikes by the US-led Coalition on Isis personnel and facilities and there has long been an expectation among the estimated 1.5 million people still in Mosul that there would be an assault on the city by the Iraqi army, Kurdish Peshmerga and Sunni tribal militias backed by the massive firepower of Coalition aircraft and drones.
Exclusive: Boko Haram victim tells DW of captivity near Chibok girls
Christina Ijabla was held kidnapped by Boko Haram for two years. She's told DW about life in an Islamist militant prison camp and how she had seen the elusive Chibok girls, whose seizure sparked international outrage.
DW: Christina Ijabla - you were kidnapped around two years ago when Madagali, your home town in northeastern Nigeria, was overrun by Boko Haram fighters. What can you remember about the day you were abducted?
Christina Ijabla: I remember hearing gunfire and everybody started to run away. It was chaos, everybody was left to fend for themselves. Suddenly five men appeared, blocking our way. They asked why we were running away. We told them that we were trying to get away from the fighting. Then they said simply: you are not going anywhere. We pleaded with them to let us go, but they showed no mercy. They then took us to a house in Madagali where we were held as prisoners.
China's propaganda arms push soft power in Australian media deals
May 31, 2016 - 5:40PMPhilip Wen
China correspondent for Fairfax Media
Even in the context of China's tightly-controlled media, the adulatory tone and blanket coverage afforded to President Xi Jinping's February tour of the headquarters of the three main state-run news organisations was unusual.
The highly stage-managed visits hammered home Mr Xi's demands. The media must pledge fealty to the Communist Party, and it exists, first and foremost, as a propaganda tool for the state. So too, must Chinese media find ways to more effectively to broadcast the party's voice to the world, or in his words: "properly tell the China story".
"[We] must strengthen the building of our international communication capacity, increasing our international discourse power and focussing the proper telling of China's story … working to build flagship external propaganda media that have rather strong reputations internationally," he said.
Trapped between debt and humiliation: The story of a Pakistani migrant
TAIMUR ALI AHMAD
“When I spoke with my parents, tears rolled down my face. I was wondering what to tell them…”
These are the words of a migrant worker who, like thousands of others, has to leave his home in Pakistan and seek work elsewhere, carrying the weight of the expectations of his family and community.
He finds himself trapped between the reality of being a migrant worker, and the life of debt and humiliation that awaits him if he returns, unsuccessful in his endeavours.
Recent figures have suggested that agriculture production in Pakistan actually decreased by 0.9 per cent, while cotton output plummeted by 27 per cent. Behind these macro figures are the stories of the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Pakistani peasants.
Kenya covers up military massacre
Updated 0409 GMT (1209 HKT) May 31, 2016
On January 15, a massive blast shattered the dawn calm at El Adde military base. A suicide bomber had detonated a truck loaded with explosives, the cue for hundreds of fighters clad in camouflage gear to attack.
The raid lasted the entire day; thousands upon thousands of bullets fired by some 300 Al-Shabaab militants in a brutal assault on Kenyan soldiers stationed in Somalia to fight the terrorist group.
By the time the sun set, as many as 141 Kenyan soldiers were dead -- some shot at point-blank range. That figure would make what happened at El Adde Kenya's largest military defeat since its independence in 1963.
But in the months since, there has been no national day of mourning, no roll call of honor, and no explanation.
The only clues to what happened are contained in a propaganda video made by Al-Shabaab itself.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Afghanistan: No Country for Women
In war-torn Afghanistan it is not the Taliban that poses the greatest threat to women - it is their own families.
Thirteen years after the fall of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan continue to suffer oppression and abuse.
Research by Global Rights estimates that almost nine out of 10 Afghan women face physical, sexual or psychological violence, or are forced into marriage.
In the majority of cases the abuse is committed by the people they love and trust the most - their families.
While shelters are trying to provide protection and legal help to some, many women return to abusive homes because there is no alternative. Unable to escape their circumstances, some are turning to drastic measures like self-immolation to end their suffering.
Six In The Morning Monday May 30
Iraq troops in 'final assault' on Islamic State in Falluja
The Iraqi army says it has begun an operation to storm Falluja, a bastion of so-called Islamic State (IS).
It comes a week after the government launched a concerted effort to retake the city, which has been held by the jihadists since 2014.
An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped inside, with only a few hundred families escaping so far.
The UN says there are reports of people starving to death there, and of being killed for refusing to fight for IS.
State forces including members of an elite counter-terrorism unit are moving into the city on several fronts, an official statement said.
IS fighters are reportedly putting up resistance with suicide and car bombings.
The Soweto uprising: share your experiences, pictures and perspectives
Forty years ago apartheid police killed hundreds of children protesting in the Johannesburg township. Were you there? We want your help telling this story
Wednesday 16 June 1976 was a day that would change South Africa, when some 10,000 black children and teenagers took to the streets of Soweto to protest against being forced to study in Afrikaans, the language of their white oppressors.
As apartheid police responded to the march with force, the protest turned violent. By the end of the day, around 176 young people had been killed and thousands more injured when police fired live ammunition into the crowd.
Thirteen-year-old Hector Pieterson was one of the first to die. A photograph of his limp body being carried by a fellow student, flanked by his sister Antoinette Sithole, has come to immortalise this bleak day in South African history.
Great Barrier Reef: Bleaching kills a third of coral in reef's northern sections
The damage is part of a massive bleaching event that has been impacting reefs around the world for the past two years
Mass bleaching has killed more than a third of the coral in the northern and central parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, though corals to the south have escaped with little damage, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers who conducted months of aerial and underwater surveys of the 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) reef off Australia's east coast found that around 35 percent of the coral in the northern and central sections of the reef are dead or dying, said Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland state. And some parts of the reef had lost more than half of the coral to bleaching.
The extent of the damage, which has occurred in just the past couple of months, has serious implications, Mr Hughes said.
African ‘legal soap opera’ nears end as Chadian ex-dictator faces verdict
A Senegalese court on Monday is set to rule in the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his 1982-1990 rule marking a historic end to a decades-long quest for justice.
The ruling will mark the first time in the world that the courts of one country will prosecute the former ruler of another country.
The trial in exile of Habré – once dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet” – has been a long quest for justice for the victims and the families of victims of the 73-year-old former Chadian dictator.
More than 90 witnesses have testified in the trial, which began in July last year. Habré is accused of having presided over 40,000 political murders and widespread torture in his Central African homeland. A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission singled out the brutal police force under the former rebel leader-turned-president for some of the worst atrocities during Habré’s reign.
The Jerusalem bookseller targeted by Israel
Stripped of their rights, the last wall of Palestinian resistance is culture, says owner of a Jerusalem bookshop.
Urvashi Sarkar
On Jerusalem's busy Salah Eddin Street, where cafes, grocery stores, money exchange centres and jewellery shops proliferate the landscape, a prominent board at number 22 announces itself as the Educational Bookshop.
Shortly ahead, across the road, is another bookstore and cafe, also titled the Educational Bookshop. Both belong to the Jerusalem-based Muna family; the first sells Arabic books and stationery while the latter sells English books. "The bookshop started with one bookseller: my father. Now we are six brothers who read, recommend and sell books," said Mahmoud Muna, manager of the English bookshop.
Upon entering the English bookstore, a shelf stocked with books by noted Palestinian academic Edward Said catches the eye. The presence of Said at the entrance is significant since it was his family who originally owned the Arabic bookshop.
Fresh photo of missing Japanese journalist emerges
AFP
A fresh photo of a Japanese journalist who went missing in Syria last year has emerged online, showing the heavily bearded man holding a sign saying this is his "last chance".
The photo, which received widespread coverage in Japanese media Monday, shows freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who has been missing for almost a year, wearing an orange shirt, his hair and beard grown long.
He is seen holding a piece of paper with a handwritten message in Japanese that says: "Please help. This is the last chance. Jumpei Yasuda."
Japanese public broadcaster NHK and other media showed the photo.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the man shown in the image is likely Yasuda.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Decoding your Facebook newsfeed
Social media platform or news gatekeeper? Plus, one journalist's challenges reporting on the drone war in Pakistan.
Decoding your Facebook newsfeed
The world's largest social media network is also one of the biggest news platforms - so allegations of a bias towards liberal news issues has triggered a lot of scrutiny, both from outside and from within. This week we unpick how Facebook delivers the news to you and why it matters.
Many journalists and writers have been tracking the Facebook story and its implications.
Six In The Morning Sunday May 29
UN: Over 700 refugees feared drowned off Italy
UN refugee agency says hundreds of refugees may have died in three shipwrecks south of Italy in recent days.
The UN refugee agency says over 700 refugees may have drowned in three Mediterranean Sea shipwrecks south of Italy in the last few days.
Carlotta Sami, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, told The Associated Press news agency by phone on Sunday that an estimated 100 people were missing from a smugglers' boat that capsized on Wednesday.
She said about 550 others were missing from a boat that capsized on Thursday morning.
Refugees said that boat, which was carrying about 670 people, didn not have an engine and was being towed by another smuggling boat before it capsized.
Poor polls, scandal, a cussed rival … how it’s all going wrong for Hillary Clinton
She was expected to be the clear frontrunner for the presidency. But after a terrible week, Hillary Clinton is still trading blows with Bernie Sanders as the Donald Trump menace grows
The week that Donald Trump finally sealed the Republican presidential nomination ought to have been a triumphant one for Hillary Clinton. With a final few delegates nudging him past the official finishing line on Thursday, here at last was the candidate that Democrats always dreamed of running against: unpopular, undisciplined and ostensibly unelectable in November’s general election.
Yet in the Alice in Wonderland world of American politics in 2016, nothing is what it seems. Clinton supporters would instead have to stomach six impossible things before the week was out.
The first was the sight of the former secretary of state falling behind her Republican opponent in an average of national opinion polls. Though by a wafer-thin – and probably temporary – margin, the breaching of this symbolic threshold could yet become self-fulfilling if it normalises the once unthinkable prospect of a Trump-themed White House.
Rojda Felat: The feminist taking on Isis
'We are not weak any more. Women are playing a vital role in leading and managing the society'
A Kurdish woman who has been fighting extremists for three years is spearheading the assault on Isis’ self-declared Syrian capital, Raqqa.
Rojda Felat is the joint commander of an offensive by Kurdish and Syrian rebels on the city - which has been the de-facto capital of the so-called Islamic State since 2014.
In her thirties, she heads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) made up of around 15,000 Kurdish and Arab fighters, who receive training and support from the US-led coalition. Their aim is to “liberate Syrians from Isis oppression”.
“The Raqqa Liberation Brigade and Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) forces will accompany SFD during the campaign,” Commander Felat said in a statement.
Australian police break up clash between nationalists and anti-racism group
Latest update : 2016-05-29
Australian police used pepper spray to break up clashes between right-wing nationalists and anti-racism protesters on the streets of Melbourne on Saturday as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said eliminating racism was still a “work in progress”.
The United Patriots Front (UPF) organised a “Stop the Far Left” rally while anti-racism protesters marched under the banner “Moreland says No to Racism”, in reference to a Melbourne district.
Fears of young Australian Muslims being inspired by militants such as Islamic State and travelling to fight in Iraq and Syria have underpinned support for right-wing groups like UPF and Reclaim Australia.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott made blocking migrants trying to reach Australia by boat a key plank of his victorious election campaign in 2013.
Racist ad row: Chinese company blames foreign media
Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics says sorry for harm caused by foreign media's "over-amplification" of ad.
A Chinese detergent maker has blamed foreign media for whipping up controversy over an ad in which a black man "washed" by its product was transformed into an Asian man.
Shanghai Leishang Cosmetics apologised and said it strongly condemned racial discrimination but it pointed the finger at news reports for overblowing the ad, which first appeared on Chinese social media in March.
The company pulled it, though, after the clip went viral this week and drew both outrage and scores of media reports outside the country.
France's socialist president is taking a very not socialist approach to fixing the unemployment crisis
Updated by Tara Golshan
While not a shocking statement — striking is seemingly as synonymous with French culture as the stereotypical image of a cigarette-wielding Frenchman in stripes and a beret — these strikes, over a proposal to reform the nation's labor laws, have brought France to a near standstill.
In a country where nuclear power production runs 75 percent of the electricity, nearly 16 of the 18 plants are said to be affected by the strikes, the BBC reported. 40 percent of the country's gas stations have almost depleted their fuel supply because of strikes at six of France's eight major oil refineries. Roads and highways and tunnels have been blocked; there are no newspapers on the stands as printers and distributers have ceased production. And the labor unions are showing no sign of backing down.
It's a fight over labor laws — and one that isn't remotely new.
Saturday, May 28, 2016
China and India's problem with black people (video)
Blatant racism in China 'can leave you completely and utterly dumbfounded
Just minutes before his birthday, Masonda Ketanda Olivier was beaten to death. The Congolese national was confronted by a mob of men late at night last Friday in New Delhi and killed. Police said the incident was a dispute over the hiring of an autorickshaw; Olivier's friend, an Ivorian national, said it was a clear hate crime, with racial epithets repeatedly invoked.
On the same day, on the other side of the Himalayas, an ad for a Chinese laundry detergent went viral.
It is shockingly racist: The video, which you can watch above, shows a fetching Chinese woman lure a paint-stained, lascivious African man toward her. She briefly toys with him before shoving a detergent capsule into his mouth and him into the machine. Out emerges a fresh-faced Chinese man, looking sparkling white and clean.
Six In The Morning Saturday May 28
Fallujah: 50,000 Iraqis trapped by assault on ISIL
Conditions rapidly deteriorate as city completely surrounded by Iraqi government forces and militias, aid groups say.
More than 50,000 people were trapped in Fallujah as an offensive to push the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from the Iraqi city intensified.
Hundreds of people fled on Friday as humanitarian conditions rapidly deteriorated with Iraqi forces continuing to surround the city, determined to flush out the ISIL fighters inside.
The United Nations said nearly 800 people had escaped over the past week, but most of those from the outskirts of the city, where ISIL control was weaker.
"The situation inside Fallujah is getting critical by the day," Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Iraq director, said.
Protesters clash with police outside Donald Trump rally in San Diego
Trump denies California is experiencing a drought as hundreds of riot police are deployed to deal with demonstrator
Police in riot gear fired pepper-balls and beanbags at protesters outside a Donald Trump rally in San Diego, California, on Friday evening as unrest inspired by the presumptive Republican nominee continues to simmer.
Earlier in the day in Fresno, Trump denied that there was a major drought affecting the state, saying instead that when he becomes president he will “start opening up the water.”
“There is no drought,” he said.
Trump accused state officials of denying water to farmers so they can send it out to sea “to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”
“We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane. It is ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” Trump said.
El Salvador - where women are jailed for 40 years for the 'crime' of having a miscarriage
Exclusive interview: Maria Teresa Rivera was released after spending five years in jail
Maria Teresa Rivera was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the “crime” of suffering a miscarriage. And yet in El Salvador, a nation with perhaps the most draconian situation in the world for reproductive rights, she is one of the lucky ones.
Earlier this month, in a ruling that gave hearts to activists around the world, the conviction of Ms Rivera - accused of seeking to abort her child and convicted of murder - was overturned when a judge decided there was insufficient evidence. Having spent five wretched years in a filthy, overcrowded jail, during which time she received no visits from her family, she was finally reunited with her child, Oscar.
“I am happy that I am with my son,” she told The Independent, smiling as she hugged him. “But I am fearful because not all of society agrees with what happened.”
Fighting hunger, food waste in Argentina with free-service fridges
OBSERVERS
Several restaurant owners in the Argentine city of Tucumán were frustrated by having to throw away kilos of edible food every day, especially when they saw people digging in trash cans to collect the discarded food. In February they set up a free-service refrigerator on the sidewalk and let people leave and take what they want as a way to fight food waste.
People in cities in Germany and Spain first tried out these free-service fridges several years ago, but the concept is new in Argentina, where 16 million tonnes of food are thrown away each year, according to the agricultural ministry.
"Around 60 people get food from our fridge every day"
Luis Manuel Pondal owns three restaurants in Tucumán. He and his associate Fernando Rios Kissner set up the first "communal fridge" in the town in February.
For years, we threw out large quantities of food, including food that our customers left on their plates. One day, when we were finishing work and leaving for the night around 1am, we saw a man and his son outside our restaurant. The man lifted his son into the dumpster and the kid was digging for food. It really shocked us, thinking about how they were living off food that we had thrown away just a few minutes before.
Outrage in multi-ethnic Malaysia as government backs Islamic law
May 28, 2016 - 4:12PMPraveen Menon
Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Najib Razak's government has thrown its support behind an Islamic penal code that includes amputations and stoning, shocking some of his allies and stoking fears of further strains in the multi-ethnic country. Mr Najib sought to ease tensions with his allies on Friday, saying the bill was "misunderstood".
Critics believe the scandal-tainted prime minister is using 'hudud', the Islamic law, to shore up the backing of Muslim Malay voters and fend off attacks on his leadership ahead of critical by-elections next month and a general election in 2018.
The law's submission to parliament brought criticism from leaders across the political spectrum, including allies of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, who represent the ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
"It's not hudud, but what we refer to as enhanced punishment," Mr Najib told a news conference after meeting leaders of his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party.
A war hero who was a stranger in his own land
By John Blake, CNN
Jesse Leroy Brown was hurtling over the North Korean countryside in his Corsair fighter 17 miles behind enemy lines when he discovered that he was in trouble.
"Jesse, something's wrong," one of the men in his squadron radioed him. "You're bleeding fuel."
It was the beginning of the Korean War, but Brown was already battle-tested. For years, his own people had tried to destroy him. Now he was in another conflict, part of a six-man squadron dispatched to defend a U.S. Marine division encircled by 100,000 Chinese troops at the Chosin Reservoir. The Marines appeared so doomed that newspapers back home dubbed them the "Lost Legion."
Brown had been flying low over a remote hillside looking for targets when ground fire ruptured his fuel line. He scanned the icy slopes for a place to crash land because he was too low to bail out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Comments
88