Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Hungary: Orban's media manipulation exposed
If the polls are to be believed, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban could win his third, consecutive election this April. Should that happen, the media there will have played a large part.
Since coming to power for the second time in 2010, the Orban government has devoted considerable energy and resources to restructuring the domestic media landscape in its favour.
According to the investigative journalism outlet Atlatszo.hu, allies of the prime minister and his Fidesz party have been buying up numerous, private Hungarian media outlets since 2010. Men like former Hollywood producer Andy Vajna and old school friend Lorinc Meszaros are among a group of 14 Orban allies who have collectively bought 20 television channels, 11 radio stations and close to 500 online and print organisations.
Six In The Morning Wednesday February 28
Kushner’s overseas contacts raise concerns as foreign officials seek leverage
By Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey
As attacks in the Syrian enclave continued during first truce attempt, a second try to evacuate the injured begins.
A SHIFT IN THOUGHT
By Shane Harris, Carol D. Leonnig, Greg Jaffe and Josh Dawsey
Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.
Among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage were the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the current and former officials said.
It is unclear if any of those countries acted on the discussions, but Kushner’s contacts with certain foreign government officials have raised concerns inside the White House and are a reason he has been unable to obtain a permanent security clearance, the officials said.
Ce*sored! China bans letter N (briefly) from internet as Xi Jinping extends grip on power
Amid fallout from the decision to allow Xi to be president for life, censors also crack down on letters, phrases and George Orwell’s Animal Farm
It is the 14th letter in the English alphabet and, in Scrabble, the springboard for more than 600 8-letter words.
But for the Communist party of China it is also a subversive and intolerable character that was this week banished from the internet as Chinese censors battled to silence criticism of Xi Jinping’s bid to set himself up as ruler for life.
The contravening consonant was perhaps the most unusual victim of a crackdown targeting words, phrases and even solitary letters censors feared might be used to attack Beijing’s controversial decision to abolish constitutional term limits for China’s president.North Korea is supplying chemical weapons to Syria: UN experts
Amid an investigation that the Assad regime has been using chemical weapons, a panel of UN weapons experts has now linked North Korean chemical weapons supplies to Syria. This may have been going on for decades, it says.
UN weapons experts have found that North Korea has been supplying Syria with items used in manufacturing chemical weapons, according to an unpublished report released to US media.
The report seen by The New York Times and The Associated Press claims to provide "substantial new evidence" of North Korea exporting material used in Syrian ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs as far back as 2008. It is also alleges that North Korean missile technicians traveled to Syria and were observed working at known chemical weapons and missile facilities inside the country.
Apart from violating UN sanctions, the experts reportedly describe the arrangement as a source of much needed cash for North Korea's nuclear missile program; for the Syrians, it would enable them to maintain their chemical weapons arsenal.
Second Russia truce attempt in Eastern Ghouta comes into effect
As attacks in the Syrian enclave continued during first truce attempt, a second try to evacuate the injured begins.
A second attempt at implementing a ceasefire in Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta has begun after Russia's partial truce failed to stop an ongoing onslaught in the area.
Wednesday's attempt to provide residents with a five-hour "humanitarian pause" to evacuate the injured out of the Damascus suburb is also meant to allow humanitarian convoys to deliver food and medicine to the besieged enclave.
Called by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the truce from 9am-2pm (7:00-12:00 GMT) on Tuesday proved to be futile as aerial bombardment and artillery fire killed at least four civilians, and injured dozens more.
For Indians rethinking college abroad, home has new degree of possibility
A SHIFT IN THOUGHT
A new US administration, red tape, and the high costs have discouraged some applicants from abroad. But in India, many university students say they see a growing sense of opportunity right here, for their college years and beyond.
When a study last fall showed the number of new foreign students arriving in the United States dipped slightly in 2016 – the first time in years – some analysts attributed the decline to the “Trump effect.”
The nationalistic and anti-foreigner undertones of then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had weakened the international draw of the Made-in-America college education, experts said.
“We like to say that ‘things are in the air,’ and that’s the situation here,” says Sheikh Safwan, a sophomore at Ashoka University who thought seriously about heading to the United States himself. “There’s just this growing perception of uncertainty about the US, that it’s turning inward and that Trump’s direction is to discourage foreigners and put Americans first.”
Brazil called up the military to control violence in Rio de Janeiro. Since then, it's only gotten worse
“Shots fired in Fazendinha and Zona do Medo, in Complexo do Alemão (16:25).”
“Police operation in the São Joaquim neighborhood in Itaboraí ended with one dead this morning.”
“Shots fired in the Cação neighborhood in Itaguaí (13:45).”
“Shots fired in Vila Kennedy, nearby Barão. (6:30).”
Just 10 days after Brazilian President Michel Temer signed a decree handing the military control of public security in Rio de Janeiro, notifications like these continue to fill the screens of smartphones across the surrounding state, informing those who have downloaded the Crossfire app (Fogo Cruzado in Portuguese) of when and where shootouts and gunshots are heard. Most live in Rio’s innumerable favelas, where police—and now military—operations have become an everyday occurrence.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Why ships used this camouflage in World War I
Dazzle camouflage was a surprisingly effective defense against torpedoes. In this episode of Vox Almanac, Phil Edwards explains why. World War I ships faced a unique problem. The u-boat was a new threat at the time, and its torpedoes were deadly. That led artist Norman Wilkinson to come up with dazzle camouflage (sometimes called “razzle dazzle camouflage”). The idea was to confuse u-boats about a ship’s course, rather than try to conceal its presence. In doing so, dazzle camouflage could keep torpedoes from hitting the boat — and that and other strategies proved a boon in World War I.
Will a visit by Nobel laureates help Rohingya Muslims?
Three Nobel Peace Prize winners visit a refugee camp in Bangladesh to hear of their suffering.
Myanmar's leader has been widely criticised for turning a deaf ear to global condemnation of her response to the Rohingya crisis. Now Aung San Suu Kyi faces a new warning from three women - who like her - are Nobel Peace Prize winners.
"Wake up or face prosecution for genocide" is their message. Irish peace campaigner Mairead Maguire, Tawakkol Karman from Yemen, and Iranian Shirin Ebadi are in Bangladesh.
They are touring Rohingya refugee camps to assess their needs, particularly women who says soldiers from Myanmar raped and tortured them.
But how does the visit help the Muslim minority? And is it embarrassing for Myanmar's own Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi?
Six In The Morning Tuesday February 27
‘Don’t struggle if you’re raped’
People smuggler gives chilling warning to undercover CNN reporter
By Nima Elbagir, with Lillian Leposo and Hassan John
In a lurid pink hotel room in Edo State, southern Nigeria, a trafficker is arranging to smuggle us across the continent to Libya -- and ultimately Europe.
Fluorescent lights flicker intermittently inside the hotel, which doubles as a brothel and serves as the headquarters of tonight's operation.
We are posing as would-be migrants attempting to reach Italy with the help of our "pusherman" -- one of an army of brokers who work alongside smugglers on the Nigerian end of the migrant route from Africa to Europe.
Russia's 'humanitarian pause' comes into effect in eastern Ghouta
First daily truce in rebel-held Syrian enclave follows days of artillery attacks and airstrikes
A five-hour truce has begun in the Syrian rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta to allow people to escape the area being targeted in a fierce offensive by Syria’s Moscow-backed government.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the daily “humanitarian pause” in fighting from 9am to 2pm (7am to 12pm GMT) to let civilians leave the area, where government bombardment has killed hundreds since 18 February.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had been largely calm in eastern Ghouta since midnight, though four rockets had hit the town of Douma on Tuesday morning.
Microbes can lie dormant for decades under Earth's surface – and could be doing the same on Mars
Freak rains have exposed bugs that could indicate there's life on Mars.
Scientists have found microbes that have been lying dormant in the soil for decades. Without water, they have entered into something like an incredibly deep sleep – until rains came and woke them back up.
The bugs had been living in the driest part of South America's Atacama desert. But the same principle could apply on Mars, leading scientists to suggest that similar basic life could be hiding within its surface.
Kashmir journalist Kamran Yusuf faces life imprisonment
India's anti-terror agency says photojournalist is a stone-pelter but media watchdogs say charges are fabricated.by Rifat Fareed
On the morning of September 4 last year, Kamran Yusuf left his home in Kashmir's Pulwama for work, carrying his backpacks and cameras, but the photojournalist never returned, his family says.
The following day, his family came to know through news channels that Yusuf, who has been working as a photographer in the small town known for its apple orchards, was arrested by Indian security forces and sent to New Delhi, the Indian capital.
Syria conflict: Women 'sexually exploited in return for aid'
Women in Syria have been sexually exploited by men delivering aid on behalf of the UN and international charities, the BBC has learned.
Aid workers said the men would trade food and lifts for sexual favours.
Despite warnings about the abuse three years ago, a new report shows it is continuing in the south of the country.
UN agencies and charities said they had zero tolerance of exploitation and were not aware of any cases of abuse by partner organisations in the region.
In Pre-Dawn Raid, Israel Arrests Badly Wounded Cousin of Ahed Tamimi, Jailed Protest Icon
EARLY MONDAY MORNING, Israeli forces detained a teenage Palestinian boy who has been missing part of his skull since December, when he was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier during a protest against the occupation of his West Bank village.
The boy, Mohammed Tamimi, 15, was one of 10 Palestinian residents of the village of Nabi Saleh arrested in a pre-dawn raid. Tamimi’s 17-year-old cousin, Ahed, has been in an Israeli military prison since December, when she was filmed slapping an Israeli soldier outside her family home about an hour after Mohammed was shot.
Mohammed was arrested in the middle of the night, and taken away for interrogation, despite the fact that his medical condition has been widely reported on in the Israeli press, and his head remains badly deformed.
Monday, February 26, 2018
Private Bone Spurs Would've Gone After Florida Shooter Without A Gun
That's right people Private Bone Spurs the who man received five deferments from service in Vietnam due to bone spurs in his foot. As which foot that was, he's unable to remember. A man who once said in an interview that avoiding catching stds was his own private Vietnam. Yes, that guy, known as Donald Trump would've gone into Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school without a weapon and confronted the shooter who was carrying an AR-15 the civilian equivalent of an M16. You know, the assault rifle formerly used by the U.S. Army.
Private Bone Spurs has some kind of magical or superpower how else could one explain the utter stupidity of that pronouncement.,
Trump was referring to criticism against law enforcement officials, including an armed guard at the school who failed to swiftly respond to the gun massacre in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month.
Donald Trump a leader? That's like saying Baghdad Bob always tells the truth while lying out of his ass.
Private Bone Spurs has some kind of magical or superpower how else could one explain the utter stupidity of that pronouncement.,
President Donald Trump on Monday suggested that he would have personally fought off the school shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School even while not armed, despite the fact that he previously deferred military service due to bone spurs in his foot.
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too,” he said during a White House event with the nation’s governors.
When later asked to clarify Trump’s comments, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed that he didn’t actually mean that he would “run in” to the school.
“I think he was just stating that as a leader, he would have stepped in and hopefully been able to help,” she said.
Robo Doc and Iraq's Amputees
How a world-renowned Australian surgeon returned to his birthplace in Iraq, to help amputees to walk again.
Munjed al-Muderis was a young doctor in Iraq when he was forced to flee Saddam Hussein's brutality. He became detainee number 982 in one of Australia's toughest detention centres - not a good start to his new life in a new country.
Seventeen years later, he's a proud Australian citizen and world leader in the field of osseointegration - a pioneering prosthetic limb surgery.
Six In The Morning Monday February 26
North Korea willing to start direct talks with US, says South Korea
Announcement comes as controversial North Korean general mobbed on visit to Winter Olympics
North Korea has said it is willing to start direct talks with the US, with the move coming as a high-level delegation from Pyongyang, headed by a controversial general, arrived for the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.
Pyongyang also said the relationship between the two Koreas and US-North Korean ties should advance in tandem, according to South Korea’s presidential Blue House. The announcement on Sunday comes after president Moon Jae-in met the head of the North Korean delegation, Kim Yong-chol, vice-chair of the ruling Workers’ party’s central committee.
The eight-person team from North Korea includes officials responsible for its nuclear programme and, in a rare move, diplomats in charge of US issues.
Iraq sentences 16 Turkish women to death over IS ties
Despite condemnation from rights groups, Iraq has been fast-tracking trials for women who were involved in "Islamic State's" reign of terror. The women have one month to appeal their sentences.
A court in Iraq sentenced 16 Turkish women to death on Sunday after they were found guilty of belonging to the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group. Baghdad is in the midst of a huge push to bring hundreds of foreign women to trial after IS strongholds in the country crumbled last year.
Some of the women, between the ages of 20 and 50, were accompanied by young children.
The women told the court that they had entered Iraq illegally to be with their husbands who had left to join IS, which at the time was gaining significant ground in Iraq and Syria. One woman told the judge that she had actively taken part in the fighting.
The technocrat and the Europhobe: Siena race is test of Italy's future
Siena, home of the world's oldest bank, has been left-wing terrain since the fall of Mussolini. But as Italy heads to the polls, the bank’s tribulations have bolstered a right-wing economist who plans to oust the finance minister and ditch the euro.
A week from Italy's March 4 general election, the woes of a bank founded back in 1472 are high on the minds of voters in this picturesque town, nestled in the rolling hills of Tuscany. On paper, Siena is a safe seat for the ruling Democratic Party (PD), located at the heart of a “red” region that has voted communist for decades and is now governed by the centre-left. But many here are furious at the way politicians have run the city’s more than five-century-old bank into the ground.
President, or Emperor? Xi Jinping pushes China back to one-man rule
Updated 0852 GMT (1652 HKT) February 26, 2018
The announcement Sunday that China will drop term limits on the presidency clears the way for Xi Jinping to rule the country indefinitely.
However, analysts warned that what initially seems like a demonstration of absolute power could actually be a sign of weakness, with Xi apparently unwillingly to allow the rise of a potential political rival.
This could lead to future instability in the world's most populous country as wannabe successors jockey for power within a Communist Party (CCP) completely dominated by the 64-year-old Xi.
And his absolute authority will also leave him vulnerable to absolute blame in the instance of an economic shock or foreign policy crisis.
Black History Month: The black game changers of US sport
From Muhammad Ali to Serena Williams, we examine the African American athletes who have challenged the racial barriers.by Saba Aziz
Nearly two years ago, National Football League (NFL) player Colin Kaepernick sparked a wave of protests in the US against racial injustice when he refused to stand during the pre-game US national anthem.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback silently took a knee during the Star-Spangled Banner to condemn police brutality, including the killings of unarmed African Americans.
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of colour," the biracial athlete from Wisconsin, said at the time.
Florida school shooting: NRA 'doesn't back any ban'
The US National Rifle Association (NRA) has said it does not support any gun ban following a shooting in a Florida school that left 17 people dead.
The NRA's comments appear to go against President Donald Trump's proposals to tighten gun controls.
Since the 14 February attack on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School the NRA has become a target of a campaign for tougher gun laws.
On Sunday, some students returned to the school for the first time.
Accompanied by their parents, they were back for what the authorities in Parkland described as "orientation". A variety of support services were available at the campus.
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Why Ukraine is trapped in endless conflict
Arrested, banned, exiled: Egypt's dissenting voices
With presidential elections due next month, dissent has all but disappeared in Sisi's Egypt. Plus, Hungary's media.
Egypt's dissenting voices
There have been more arrests in Egypt's current election campaign than manifestos; candidates are dropping like flies.
For example, Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh decided not to run against President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, but was arrested anyway upon his return to Cairo after doing an interview in London. It's not just what he said, denouncing Egypt's crackdown on dissent, but where he said it - on Al Jazeera Mubasher, which is network non grata in Egypt.
Istanbul is also on Cairo's radar these days, because of the opposition channels that beam out of there and into Egypt, Mekameleen and Al Sharq. They are probably the reason travel restrictions have been placed on Egyptian journalists trying to go there.
When it comes to the media, the Sisi government has its bases covered; they don't have to worry about how they are being covered.
Six In The Morning Sunday February 25
IONA CRAIG WON A POLK AWARD FOR HER INVESTIGATION OF A SEAL TEAM RAID THAT KILLED WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN YEMEN. HERE’S HOW SHE DID IT.
Peter Maass
A LITTLE MORE than a year ago, on January 29, 2017, Iona Craig was at the tail end of a month-long reporting trip to Yemen. On that day, special operators from the U.S. Navy’s SEAL Team 6 launched a surprise raid in a remote part of Yemen, apparently trying to capture or kill an Al Qaeda leader. This was the first covert assault of the Trump era, and the White House, which was not challenged in the U.S. media, hailed it as “highly successful.”
Except it wasn’t.
Craig, who was based in Yemen from 2010-2015 and had continued to make reporting trips to the country since a civil war broke out, quickly learned from local media that the raid killed civilians. As she began planning for an arduous and risky journey to the site of the assault, local sheikhs she knew from her previous work in the country told her that the U.S. was getting the story wrong. A large number of women and children had been killed, and the targeted village did not appear to have had a standing Al Qaeda presence.
Can a tourist ban save DiCaprio’s coral paradise from destruction?
South-east Asian idylls – from Philippine islands to the Thai bay made famous in The Beach – plan to turn tourists away so that devastated coral reefs have some time to recover. Will it be enough?
Our Thai tour guide, Spicey, takes a drag on her cigarette and gestures sadly towards the beach. “The problem with people is that they are too greedy. They see a beautiful place and they want it. They take, take, take from nature. And then they destroy it.”
The golden sands of Maya Bay where Spicey stands are some of the most famous in the world. This once-idyllic cove, on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh, was the paradise location of The Beach, Danny Boyle’s 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It was then pushed by tourism officials in advertising campaigns to entice more wealthy visitors to Thailand.
But mass tourism has since taken a vast toll on the fragile coral reefs here: 80% of the coral around the bay has been destroyed, the result of millions of boats dropping anchor on it, tourists treading on and picking it, or poisoning by rubbish and suncream.
North Korea's Winter Olympics cheerleaders 'forced into sex slavery'
Dancers and singers forced to strip at Central Politburo parties, claims former soldier
The North Korean cheerleaders at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are used as sex slaves by top politicians, a defector has claimed.
Lee So-yeon, a 42-year-old former military musician who fled to South Korea in 2008, said dancers and singers were forced to strip and provide sexual services at parties held every day for the country’s Central Politburo.
Members of the decision-making committee include North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and the President Kim Yong-nam.
The Palm Oil Problem
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