Friday, June 9, 2017

Six In The Morning Friday June 9


Election results live: Theresa May has 'no intention of resigning' despite hung parliament

SNP’s Angus Robertson and Alex Salmond, and Lib Dems’ Nick Clegg out, but it’s a bad night for Theresa May as Tories fall short and Labour makes gains

Theresa May hopes to cling on as Britain’s prime minister despite failing to secure a parliamentary majority after the snap general election resulted in a surge of support for Labour.
Senior Conservatives confirmed that Theresa May has no intention of resigning, and is instead working to form a government – most likely by making a pact with Northern Ireland’s DUP, which has 10 MPs. “We won the most seats and the most votes,” one Tory source said.
The DUP is socially conservative and enthusiastically pro-Brexit - and could also press for a boost to public spending in Northern Ireland. Party sources said they were in regular contact with the Conservatives.
May has the right to remain in office and try to assemble a working government – but she is under intense pressure from senior colleagues, many of whom blame her for a botched manifesto launch and a wobbly campaign.
The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, says Labour wants to form a minority government.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Neil he said: “If we can form a minority government, I think we can have a stable government. We would be able to produce a Queen’s speech and budget based upon our manifesto, which I think could command majority support in parliament, not through deals or coalitions but policy by policy. That would prevent another election.
“We are not looking for a coalition or deals.”


Malaysia's Health Ministry forced to rethink 'homophobic' sex education video competition after LGBT uproar

Health Ministry contest encouraging students to submit their own sexual health advisory clips hit by outcry over anti-gay and transgender guidelines

Malaysia’s Health Ministry has amended a sex education video competition for teenagers, dropping guidelines for a section on how to “prevent” homosexuality and transgenderism, officials said on Wednesday.
The move follows criticism by activists who said it could fan hatred and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The contest had originally required participants to submit video clips for one of three categories: sexual and reproductive health, cybersex and “gender identity disorder”.

Plastic bottles turned into eco-bricks at Philippines hostels



Ziggie Gonzales

 From discarded plastic bottles… to newly constructed shower stalls! A chain of eco-hostels in the Philippines has created a strong building material out of the discarded plastic found on their paradisiacal beaches.

Ziggie Gonzales is one of the co-founders of the Circle Hostel chain, three hostels located in Zambales, La Union, and Baler in the Philippines. The hostels are near surf spots and have a strong beach vibe, and Gonzales and the rest of the team are passionate about surfing in unpolluted waters. 

Gonzales had seen the idea of stuffing plastic bottles with rubbish online, and decided to use it in his own environment. Using rubbish found on beaches and in the water, he started stuffing plastic bottles. He then used these solidly packed bottles to create eco-bricks as a way of upcycling plastics rather than letting them leak back into the environment. In 2016, Gonzales launched The Plastic Solution, an environmental initiative that hopes to encourage individuals and businesses to put this process into action.


Myanmar protest for journalistic freedom underway

Fired-up journalists displaying 'Freedom of the Press' armbands rally in the rain in opposition of a telecommunications law, possibly foreshadowing a larger public awareness movement. 

Shoon Naing
Reuters

Myanmar journalists sporting "Freedom of the Press" armbands gathered on Thursday to campaign against a law they say curbs free speech, at the start of a trial of two journalists who the Army is suing for defamation over a satirical article.
The rally by more than 100 reporters in the rain outside a court in Yangon was the first significant show of opposition to the telecommunications law, introduced in 2013, that bans the use of the telecoms network to "extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence, or intimidate."
Despite pressure from human rights monitors and Western diplomats, the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, which took power amid high hopes for democratic reform in 2016, after decades of hardline military rule, has retained the law.

US anti-fascists take on alt-right fight squads


Antifa groups and alt-right activists have increasingly clashed with one another in cities and towns across the US.


A group of black-clad anarchists surround a far-right activist, pushing him from their protest area and dousing him in silly string. The anti-fascist demonstrators had gathered in Portland in the United States to counter an alt-right rally.
"Nazis go home," they yell in videos of the incident on Sunday.

Other anti-fascists - or Antifa - set ablaze a blue, black and white version of the US flag that signifies support for the police in a gesture against police brutality.

Columns of police in riot gear, supported by officers from the Department of Homeland Security, stand between the alt-right rally-goers and the Antifa counter-protesters, and although there are only minor skirmishes between them, clashes between the police and Antifa result in the arrest of at least 14 people.


NEWLY THREATENED BY TERROR, IRAN’S COLD CONFLICT WITH SAUDI ARABIA COULD ESCALATE




June 9 2017

IN THE EARLY hours of June 7, a group of six people — five men and one woman — launched coordinated terrorist attacks against two sites in Tehran, hitting the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Witnesses at the Parliament described attackers who were armed with assault rifles and wearing suicide vests, randomly targeting bystanders on a Wednesday morning. By the time that security forces were able to neutralize the attackers, at least 12 civilians lay dead, with another 42 reported wounded. The atrocity was claimed almost immediately by the Islamic State, in an online statement that also included video footage taken from the scene of the attacks.
While the Middle East has been ravaged by over a decade of terrorist attacks from ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other terrorists groups, Iran has largely escaped deadly incidents like the one that struck Tehran on Wednesday. In a statement responding to the incident, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps suggested that “mercenaries” working on behalf of Saudi Arabia and the United States were responsible, vowing to take revenge.








No comments:

Translate