Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Six In The Morning Wednesday February 8

These are the alarming parallels between the views of Steve Bannon and those held by Islamist jihadists

The enemy for Bannon is secularism. This, he believes, is responsible for progressively diluting pure Christian ideals with all sorts of modern and postmodern ideologies


At the time of Trump’s unexpected election victory, there was much speculation over who would really run the US Government, given the incoming President’s notorious lack of patience and attention to detail. Now that question has been answered: this White House is Steve Bannon’s. 
The one element that unites every executive order and every speech the President has given since assuming office is the Bannon world view. So if we are to understand the trajectory of this new American administration, we need to invest some time in trying to understand Bannon, his outlook, and where he plans to take us next.


Up to 13,000 secretly hanged in Syrian jail, says Amnesty

Thousands of other opponents of Assad died from torture and starvation at Saydnaya prison, witness reports suggest

As many as 13,000 opponents of Bashar al-Assad were secretly hanged in one of Syria’s most infamous prisons in the first five years of the country’s civil war as part of an extermination policy ordered by the highest levels of the Syrian government, according to Amnesty International.
Many thousands more people held in Saydnaya prison died through torture and starvation, Amnesty said, and the bodies were dumped in two mass graves on the outskirts of Damascus between midnight and dawn most Tuesday mornings for at least five years.

White House lists 'underreported' attacks - including Berlin, Paris, and Orlando

The White House has released a list of 78 terror attacks that US President Donald Trump claims have been "underreported." It includes events such as the deadly truck assault at a Berlin Christmas market in December 2016.

The White House late on Monday issued a list of terror attacks over a 28-month period from September 2014 to December 2016, with US President Donald Trump saying that media had failed to cover them properly. 
The release of the list came after Trump continued to accuse the media of deliberately manipulating the news, saying that the press had been minimizing coverage of terror attacks and playing down the threat posed by the so-called "Islamic State" (IS). He stated that the "very, very dishonest press" had "their reasons" for not reporting what he referred to as a "genocide" at the hands of the terrorist group.
The list, which - according to the top US political website "The Hill" - was made available to journalists, details cities, months, years, targets, and attackers. However, the document fails to explain why the White House had assessed these events to be underreported, and how they were all supposedly linked to IS.


Exclusive: Cameroonian prisoners smuggle out footage of horrific jail conditions


The main prison in Yaoundé, Cameroon is “overpopulated, filthy and rife with corruption and abuse”, according to an inmate who contacted FRANCE 24's The Observers from behind bars. This man secretly filmed, with the help of some of his inmates, the overcrowded cells and “revolting” conditions in which he and other prisoners are forced to live. 

Several of them worked together to secretly document the conditions in “Kosovo”, the nickname for Units 8 and 9 of Yaoundé’s main prison. From behind bars, they sent videos (filmed on January 21 and 30, 2017) to FRANCE 24, asking to remain anonymous. For security reasons, we have given a fake name to our Observer, who has been an inmate there for close to a decade. 

The footage was recorded in units that are, for the most part, occupied by inmates who have been convicted of aggravated theft. Most of these men are from low-income backgrounds and, within the prison, they are known as “ground-sleepers” because most don’t have the means to pay for a bed. 


Explosive, stinky star death captured by Hubble telescope

By Madison Park, CNN

The Hubble Telescope captured the spectacular death of a star -- an event that has rarely been seen by astronomers.
The dying star, known as a red giant, in its final stages blows out its outer layers, leaving clouds of gas and dust, which is called a planetary nebula.
    NASA and the European Space Agency released the photo of the Calabash Nebula. The gas, seen in yellow, was ejected as fast as 621,371 miles per hour, according to the ESA.
    Astronomers rarely get to see this kind transition because it occurs "within the blink of an eye -- in astronomical terms," the ESA said.

    Getting organized on Asia’s drug trade

    Rising affluence in the region revitalized the narcotics trade and the gangs who reap enormous profits from it. Police forces are lagging behind

    By RODERIC BROADHURST

    The immense demand for amphetamine-type stimulants (or ATS, such as crystal methamphetamine and ecstasy), opiates and new psychoactive substances among the increasingly wealthy urban residents of East Asia — and beyond — has revitalized organized crime in the region. In turn, Asian criminal entrepreneurs engage in an industrial global business exporting precursor chemicals and importing opiates from the golden triangle or Afghanistan and cocaine via Africa from South America, often for re-export to the US and valuable markets in Europe, and Australia.
    Australian police working with Chinese authorities in Sydney seized 720 liters of liquid methamphetamine in February 2016. It was the largest bust on record, with a street value of A$900 million (US$674 million). The methamphetamine was originally shipped from southern China concealed in thousands of gel pads inserted into push-up bras and art supplies.




    No comments:

    Translate