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.
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