Saturday, September 30, 2017
Dagny Carlsson: Life Begins at 100
The world's oldest blogger reveals how it's possible to transform your life and find happiness at 100 years of age.
For dynamic Swedish centenarian Dagny Carlsson, life hasn't always been easy.
Growing up, she dreamed of being a teacher but was sent to work in a factory. She was mistreated first by her mother and later by her first husband, who was a jealous alcoholic. Dagny found love with her second husband who died when she was in her 90s.
By the time she turned 100 years old, Dagny had been to more funerals than she could even count. When it seemed like her life was almost over she bought a computer, taught herself how to use it and started a blog.
Six In The Morning Saturday September 30
Price out as HHS secretary after private plane scandal
By Kevin Liptak and Miranda Green, CNN
Tom Price, the embattled health and human services secretary, resigned Friday in the midst of a scandal over his use of private planes, a storm that enraged President Donald Trump and undercut his promise to bring accountability to Washington.
Price's departure came as he's being investigated by the department's inspector general for using private jets for multiple government business trips, even to fly distances often as short as from Washington to Philadelphia. The cost for the trips ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The scandal infuriated Trump, who viewed the controversy as a needless distraction from his agenda. Over the course of the week, Trump fumed to aides about Price's flights, which he deemed "stupid," according to multiple sources. Instead of moving past the storm, Price's offer to reimburse the government for only a fraction of the flights' costs enraged Trump further.
Xi curbs disloyalty as Communist party expels former rising star
Politburo member Sun Zhengcai, once a contender for top leadership, expelled for ‘serious discipline violations’
China’s Communist party has expelled from its ranks a former contender for a top leadership post for “serious discipline violations” before a major congress due to consolidate President Xi Jinping’s power.
Politburo member Sun Zhengcai was also dismissed from public office after the political bureau of the party’s central committee approved an investigative report, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The party accused Sun of abusing his position, receiving money and gifts in return for seeking benefits for others and trading power for sex. He was also accused of nepotism, sloth and leaking confidential party information and betraying party principles.
“Sun Zhengcai’s major problem was not corruption or womanising but failure to profess full loyalty to Xi Jinping,” said China expert Willy Lam, noting that the investigation was concluded unusually fast compared to similar cases.
Fayrouz Saad could be America's first Muslim woman in Congress
Exclusive: This progressive millennial wants to replace a two-term Republican
Fayrouz Saad had just started university when two planes struck the World Trade Centre on 11 September, 2001.
The child of immigrants and a practising Muslim, Ms Saad grew up in the heavily Arab-American city of Dearborn, Michigan. Up to that point, she said, she hadn’t personally experienced much harassment or discrimination. But her parents, who had immigrated from Lebanon some 30 years earlier, were concerned.
"That day, my parents came and picked me up and they took me home, because they were worried about anti-Arab and anti-Muslim backlash happening on campus,” Ms Saad told The Independent.
Catalonia, Madrid ramp up rhetoric ahead of contested independence referendum
Independence supporters have started occupying designated polling places ahead of Sunday's vote. Spain's government, which has sent thousands of police to the region, insists the referendum will not take place.
Supporters of Catalan independence on Friday evening and Saturday morning occupied polling stations, setting the scene for possible confrontations with police.
Catalonia's government said it had set up hundreds of polling stations across the northeastern region ahead of Sunday's vote, despite Madrid declaring the vote illegal.
"Everything is prepared at the more than 2,000 voting points so they have ballot boxes and voting slips, and have everything people need to express their opinion," Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont told Reuters news agency.
Spain's central government, bolstered by a Constitutional Court ruling declaring the referendum invalid, has vowed to block the unauthorized poll.
Saudis party into the night… Is the country opening up?
Videos taken during Saudi National Day, a Saudi public holiday celebrated on September 23, show young Saudi men and women dancing to blaring pop music. The footage captures a rare moment of freedom in this ultra-conservative society, but doesn’t hide the new wave of repression launched by the regime’s new strongman.
Saudi Arabia turned into one big party last weekend in celebrations to mark the 87th anniversary of the country’s founding. The Saudi General Authority for Entertainment put on a panoply of events ranging from free concerts and performances to laser shows and more in 17 different cities across the country. The Authority for Entertainment is a new official body created as part of Vision 2030 — a programme of reforms that aims to diversify the Saudi economy, which is heavily dependent on petrol.The man behind Vision 2030 is Mohamed Ben Salman, often called "MBS". MBS is the Deputy Prime Minister, a member of the royal family and one of the Kingdom’s strongmen.
Saudi Arabia turned into one big party last weekend in celebrations to mark the 87th anniversary of the country’s founding. The Saudi General Authority for Entertainment put on a panoply of events ranging from free concerts and performances to laser shows and more in 17 different cities across the country. The Authority for Entertainment is a new official body created as part of Vision 2030 — a programme of reforms that aims to diversify the Saudi economy, which is heavily dependent on petrol.The man behind Vision 2030 is Mohamed Ben Salman, often called "MBS". MBS is the Deputy Prime Minister, a member of the royal family and one of the Kingdom’s strongmen.
Koike’s energized challenge exposes risk of Abe’s snap poll decision
BY LINDA SIEG
REUTERS
A fast-growing challenge by Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, often floated as the nation’s first possible female prime minister, to Shinzo Abe’s ruling bloc has highlighted the risk of his gamble on a snap poll as she tries to replicate a historic defeat of his party.
Abe called the Oct. 22 election in the hope his improved ratings and a struggling opposition would help his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition keep its majority in the Lower House, where it now holds a two-thirds supermajority.
But Abe’s bet now looks increasingly shaky, given growing support for Koike’s fledgling Kibo no To (Party of Hope) — launched this week — and the opposition Democratic Party’s move to have its candidates leave the party and run on her ticket.
Friday, September 29, 2017
Can Iraq's Kurdish region be an independent state?
The Kurds in Iraq have voted in a referendum with hopes of getting their own homeland.
The Kurdish referendum in Iraq has been a long time coming. It finally happened on Monday, after years of campaigning.
The Kurds living in northern Iraq have been pushing for independence since the end of World War I.
In 2005, an overwhelming majority said they wanted a referendum. But it did not happen.
Now they have finally voted for secession in an official poll. But will that actually translate to independence for the Iraqi Kurds?
Six In The Morning Friday September 29
UN Security Council finally losing patience with Myanmar
Updated 0231 GMT (1031 HKT) September 29, 2017
In the past four weeks over half a million Rohingya Muslims have been forced to flee Myanmar to escape an orchestrated campaign of violence described by the UN as "ethnic cleansing."
But it wasn't until Thursday that the UN Security Council held its first public meeting on the situation in more than eight years.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council that the current outbreak of violence has "spiraled into the world's fastest-developing refugee emergency, a humanitarian and human rights nightmare."
"We've received bone-chilling accounts from those who fled, mainly women, children and the elderly," he said.
Record forest fires in Brazil linked to deforestation and other human activity
September saw more fires than any month on record, as experts say uptick is due to expansion of agriculture and reduction of oversight and surveillance
Brazil has seen more forest fires in September than in any single month since records began, and authorities have warned that 2017 could surpass the worst year on record if action is not taken soon.
Experts say that the blazes are almost exclusively due to human activity, and they attribute the uptick to the expansion of agriculture and a reduction of oversight and surveillance. Lower than average rainfall in this year’s dry season is also an exacerbating factor.
The National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has detected 106,000 fires destroying natural vegetation so far this month – the highest number in a single month since records began in 1998, said Alberto Setzer, coordinator of INPE’s fire monitoring satellite program.
North Korea-US war now 'a real possibility', warns influential Rusi think tank
There is a growing risk action could be taken by Donald Trump to 'resolve' the issue 'sooner rather than later'
A war between North Korea and the US is now a “real possibility”, and would likely result in thousands of people being killed or injured, a respected defence think tank has warned.
War between the two countries would likely involve a full scale invasion of North Korea, and combat would be neither “surgical nor short”, the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) said in a report.
In the event of an attack by either country, the UK would only have a few hours “at most” to decide how to respond, it adds.
IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi 'resurfaces' in audio clip
News of Baghdadi's death would seem to have been greatly exaggerated, if a new recording proves genuine. A purported recording of IS leader issues renewed calls for violence from his followers.
An outlet of the so-called "Islamic State" on Thursday released an audio recording purportedly of Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
In June Russia had claimed that Baghdadi was most likely dead following an aistrike outside Raqqa. That was one of several claims that the preacher had died.
In the new 46-minute recording Baghdadi calls on his followers around the world to wage attacks against the West and to keep fighting in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
Students with sugar daddies: ‘It was a money-making scheme’
OBSERVERS
An advertising campaign that targets female students by exhorting them to “Improve your lifestyle – go out with a sugar daddy” has triggered a fierce debate in Belgium this week. A photo of one of the huge adverts for ‘sugar daddy’ website RichMeetBeautiful began to circulate on Facebook on Monday, September 25. Our Observer is a former ‘sugar baby’, who explained why the ‘sugaring’ lifestyle might appeal to students.
"No, this isn't a (bad) joke. This poster is indeed on display outside the university," wrote François Dubuisson as he posted the photo of the controversial advert, which was towed around university campuses in the Belgian capital, Brussels, this week. "Not only does it reach the heights of crass sexism, but it champions student prostitution," he added. The billboard advertises RichMeetBeautiful, a website launched in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland in August 2017 that bills itself as a dating website for ‘sugar daddy dating’.
‘Sugaring’ sites, as they are sometimes known, are dating sites with a difference. Sugar daddies are typically older, wealthy men, possibly married and with children, who pay to go out with a younger woman – a sugar baby. The relationships are often sexual in nature. RichMeetBeautiful says that the perks for a sugar baby include exotic travel, shopping sprees, and finding a mentor, while sugar daddies are told that they will get “respect and admiration” from an “eager protégée” who will make them “feel ten years younger and alive again”.
Japan is having an election next month. Here’s why it matters.
The future of Japanese pacifism is at stake.
Updated by
Japan’s government has just announced plans for a snap election ostensibly about the country’s economic policy. The true stakes, however, are far higher: There is a real possibility that this election will erode Japan’s post-World War II commitment to pacifism — and see a US ally in one of the most unstable parts of the world build up its military.
The country wasn’t supposed to have another parliamentary election until 2018. But on Monday, the center-right Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that elections would be held early, on October 22 — less than a month from now.
This kind of surprise election might seem weird to Americans, who are used to campaign seasons that span the course of years, rather than weeks. But it’s something that happens with some frequency in both Japan and other parliamentary democracies like Great Britain, where prime ministers are empowered to call a new election if they believe it to be in the nation’s interest (or in their own).
Thursday, September 28, 2017
My Own Private Bollywood (video)
What does it take to make a Bollywood movie? A personal journey into the fascinating world of Indian film.
Gautam Singh grew up in a remote village in the Indian state of Jharkhand. He was fascinated by the art of movies and wanted to become a filmmaker ever since a travelling cinema group passed through his isolated village when he was 10 years old.
The nearest movie theatre was 50km away from his village and there were no buses around, so Singh would skip school and walk almost a day to watch a film and then come back.
Like every aspiring Indian filmmaker before him, he eventually moved to Mumbai to try to make a name for himself. After sleeping in cramped rooms with seven other people and getting small gigs as a video editor, he finally decided that documentary filmmaking was his preferred style of storytelling.
Six In The Morning Thursday September 28
PUERTO RICAN DEBT HOLDERS RESPOND TO CATASTROPHIC HURRICANE BY OFFERING PUERTO RICO MORE DEBT
David Dayen
PUERTO RICO, FACING absolute devastation after Hurricane Maria barreled through last week, desperately needs immediate funding to restore critical infrastructure, particularly its hobbled electric grid. The entire island — home to over 3.5 million American citizens, roughly equivalent to the state of Connecticut — lost power, and satellite imagery shows how little electricity has come back. This affects not only electricity and telecommunications service but access to clean water, as many pumping stations run on the same grid.
A group of bondholders, who own a portion of Puerto Rico’s massive $72 billion debt, has proposed what they are calling relief — but in the form of a loan. So they’re offering a territory mired in debt the chance to take on more debt.
Outcry as Azerbaijan police launch crackdown on LGBT community
At least 60 people have been imprisoned or fined after a spate of raids in the capital, Baku
Authorities in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, have begun a vicious crackdown on the city’s LGBT community, according to activists in the country. Reports suggest that over the past 10 days dozens of gay and trans people have been arrested. One person the Guardian contacted said he had been beaten in police custody.
Homosexuality is legal in the oil-rich, post-Soviet country, but a survey released last year by a rights organisation ranked Azerbaijan as the worst of 49 European countries in which to be gay.
“There have been previous crackdowns on LGBT people, but this one is much bigger, with systematic and widespread raids,” said Samed Rahimli, a Baku-based lawyer who is helping coordinate legal defences for those who have been detained.
Kurdistan referendum: Iraq cuts off all foreign flights to Kurdish capital Irbil
Baghdad, furious with the overwhelming 'yes' result of this week's Kurdish independence vote, steps up attempts to isolate Kurdish Regional Government
All international flights to and from Irbil in the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq are to be suspended from Friday, an airport official has said.
The order from Iraq's central government adds to pressure to cancel the results of this week's independence referendum, in which 93 per cent voted to split from Baghdad.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi does not recognise Monday's independence vote, which it says is an unconstitutional attempt by the Kurds to exert greater control over the country's oil revenues and disputed territory such as Kirkuk.
Media-savvy Tokyo Mayor Yuriko Koike eyes Japan's top job in snap election
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike is a media-savvy political veteran who has charmed her way through Japan's male-dominated political world and now played a wild card that threatens to reshape national politics.
The charismatic former television anchorwoman has launched a new party that aspires to offer an alternative to the long-governing Liberal Democratic Party and its leader Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in upcoming snap elections.
Displaying a knack for political theatre, she announced she would lead the new "Party of Hope" in a surprise news conference just hours before Abe himself declared snap polls -- pulling the rug from under the premier's feet.
And the telegenic 65-year-old also knows how to hog the media limelight -- just minutes before her news conference, she was being pictured alongside images of a baby panda, recently named in a Tokyo zoo.
UN: 'Egregious' sexual violence reports emerge from Rohingya
The head of the UN's migration agency said he's "shocked and concerned" about reports of sexual and gender-based violence among new Rohingya arrivals in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
The International Organization for Migration's Director-General William Lacy Swing made the comments on Wednesday as Rohingya refugees who escaped a military crackdown in Myanmar accused the army of raping women and girls.
Myanmar's government denies the claims, but has refused to allow international observers to investigate.
IOM is coordinating the humanitarian response amid an exodus of an estimated 480,000 people who have reached Cox's Bazar since August 25.
The 21st floor
Warning: This article contains content that some readers may find distressing
The fire at Grenfell Tower in west London on 14 June killed scores of people and left the block a charred ruin. It stands as a reminder of one of the most tragic days in modern British history.
Each floor of the tower tells a story - about London and its inhabitants, about immigration and gentrification, about lives lived and tragically lost. It was a microcosm of life in the capital.
Like most of Grenfell, the 21st floor housed four two-bedroom flats and two one-bedroom flats arranged around a central hallway, with the lifts on one side and the staircase on the other.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Shinzo Abe Dissolves Parliament For General Election
Shinzo Abe in a totally cynical move dissolved the Diet Japan's lower house of parliament in an effort to retain power. While Donald Trump is well known for his racism, misogyny, nativism and xenophobia Shinzo Abe keeps any public pronouncements concerning these issues rather prosaic. Shinzo Abe is a member of Nippon Kaigi an organization which denies Japanese Imperial army war crimes during World War II, seeks to return the emperor to the position and power held prior to the war, historical revisionists and are xenophobic.
His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was a member of Tojo's wartime cabinet imprisoned for a brief time released and went on to become Prime Minister of Japan. This is the person Shinzo Abe admires most.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the House of Representatives at the Sept. 28 outset of an extraordinary Diet session for a snap general election.
His grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was a member of Tojo's wartime cabinet imprisoned for a brief time released and went on to become Prime Minister of Japan. This is the person Shinzo Abe admires most.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the House of Representatives at the Sept. 28 outset of an extraordinary Diet session for a snap general election.
At an extraordinary Cabinet meeting later in the day, the government approved a schedule under which official campaigning will kick off on Oct. 10 for an Oct. 22 election. The previous lower house poll was in December 2014.
Abe, also leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), is set to campaign on using a portion of new revenue from a scheduled consumption tax hike to make preschool education free, and proposals to revise the Constitution.
Saudi Design Queens
Two young Saudi women host a design event that is pushing boundaries of art and tradition.
Design, the arts and females leading innovation in the cultural field are not things you might associate with Saudi Arabia.
Enter young entrepreneur Basma Bouzo and interior designer Wadha Rashed.
Basma is the co-founder of Saudi Design Week, an event that seeks to foster local talent and create opportunities for designers. She has brought in Wadha to manage the installation of the event.
But running the fair is fraught with challenges in a kingdom steeped in religious patriarchal traditions.
Six In The Morning Thursday September 27
Saudi Arabia driving ban on women to be lifted
Saudi Arabia's King Salman has issued a decree allowing women to drive for the first time, to the joy of activists.
The Gulf kingdom is the only country in the world that bans women from driving.
Until now, only men were allowed licences and women who drove in public risked being arrested and fined.
Praise for the move has been pouring in from inside the Saudi kingdom, as well as around the world. US President Donald Trump said it was a "positive step" towards promoting women's rights.
Campaigner Sahar Nassif told the BBC from Jeddah that she was "very, very excited - jumping up and down and laughing".
"I'm going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it's going to be black and yellow!"
Thousands of Qatar World Cup workers ‘subjected to life-threatening heat’
• Human Rights Watch says hundreds of workers dying every year
• Statutory work breaks in summer midday hours not sufficient
• Statutory work breaks in summer midday hours not sufficient
Many thousands of migrant workers on construction sites in Qatar, including those building stadiums for the 2022 World Cup, are being subjected to potentially life-threatening heat and humidity, according to new research on the extreme summer conditions in the Gulf. Hundreds of workers are dying every year, the campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said in a strong statement, but they claim that the Qatar authorities have refused to make necessary information public or adequately investigate the deaths, which could be caused by labouring in the region’s fierce climate.
HRW argues that millions of workers are in jeopardy, including those in the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – because statutory work breaks imposed during summer midday hours do not protect them sufficiently. An analysis of the weather in Doha last summer has also shown that workers on World Cup construction projects were in danger, despite the more advanced system used by the tournament organiser, Humidex, which measures safety levels of heat and humidity.
Ukraine ammunition depot explosion: 24,000 people evacuated after Kalynivka blasts
Prime Minister says 'external factors' behind blasts
Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated after massive explosions and a blaze at a military ammunition depot in central Ukraine.
Ukranian emergency services said the blasts occurred at a military base near Kalynivka in the Vynnytsya region, 270km (168 miles) west of Kiev.
One person was injured, it said.
More than 30,000 people have been bussed out of the area by authorities. The electricity and gas supply has also been switched off.
Iraq warns Kurds as they claim victory in independence vote
A day after a disputed referendum by Iraqi Kurds, Turkey and Iraq have staged military drills near the region as Ankara threatens sanctions. The Kurdish leader has said an overwhelming majority backed independence.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi issued an ultimatum to leaders of the autonomous region of Kurdistan on Tuesday, asking them to place their two international airports under the control of the central government or face a flight ban as soon as Friday.
Al-Abadi made the demand a day after the Kurdish independence referendum, which he called a "historic and strategic mistake by the Kurdish leadership."
Exclusive: 'We are not terrorists,' says Rohingya guerilla commander
Nearly half a million people have fled violence in Burma in recent weeks, as global furore mounts over authorities’ treatment of Rohingya Muslims. Now for the first time, a Rohingya guerilla leader speaks to FRANCE 24 about taking up arms.
In late August, insurgents from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) staged a series of coordinated deadly attacks against Burmese authorities. In conversation with FRANCE 24, one of the Rohingya guerilla group’s commanders sheds light on ARSA amid accusations it is linked to hardline Islamic extremists.
“We are not terrorists, we are not Islamic State group and we are not a Bangladeshi terrorist organisation,” says local ARSA commander Armen. “We don’t want help from Al Qaeda. We want donations from sovereign states.”
No gas. No food. No power. Puerto Ricans fear their future
Updated 0143 GMT (0943 HKT) September 27, 2017
Power is out. Food is short. There's not enough water to drink, let alone wash. A week after Hurricane Maria smashed Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, the situation is not much better. In many ways, it's getting worse.
Hospitals that should be saving people are instead unable to provide care.
At the Canovanas Medical Center, doctors face a lack of supplies. Dr. Norbert Seda said they were running out of fuel for the generator and had only two or three days of medicine and supplies left.
While residents were prepared for the storm's arrival and mercifully few were killed directly by the hurricane, the need for medical treatment is getting greater.
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