'I cried for a year': Families split by the Korean War get rare chance to reunite
Updated 0548 GMT (1348 HKT) August 19, 2018
Lee Keum-seom hasn't held her son in 68 years.
The last time she saw him, Sang Chol was four years old, and together with her husband and their daughter, they were headed south, fleeing the fighting during the early days of the Korean War.
In the mass of hundreds of thousands of others trying to escape, Lee and her daughter lost sight of her husband and Sang Chol.
They continued south, becoming part of the flood of refugees who crossed what became the Demilitarized Zone. Only later did she discover that her husband and son remained on the other side of the divide, in North Korea.
'We proved them wrong': the women shaking up the Trump opposition
A refugee, a Native American, a transgender woman – these primary winners are changing the face of the progressive left
It has been a summer of political firsts in the US as a historically diverse field of candidates run for office, largely invigorated by dissatisfaction with Donald Trump’s presidency.
Across the country Democratic women are running for office – and winning primaries – in record numbers. Meanwhile, barrier-breaking candidates have become a feature of the primary election season for not just women, but LGBT, religious minority, and candidates of color as well. Here are some of the faces looking to make political representation more representative this November:
Venezuela: How the most oil rich nation on earth was brought to the brink of collapse
This is what happens when an economy and a society disintegrates due to economic mismanagement and populist folly
Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, took a highly risky decision this week. Not debasing the currency. Not rigging an election. Not ordering the arrest of opponents. He’s done all that already and survived.
No. What Maduro did was to announce plans to rein in fuel subsidies. “Gasoline must be sold at an international price, to stop smuggling to Colombia and the Caribbean,” he explained in a televised address.
Normally, ending such distorting subsidies is precisely what economists would recommend. But in a country like Venezuela it’s a political gamble with the highest possible stakes.
Hot HeadsErdogan-Trump Tiff Endangers Turkish Economy and NATO
The Turkish economy is collapsing and President Erdogan is engaged in a bitter battle with U.S. President Donald Trump. NATO could turn out to be the loser, while Moscow is the primary beneficiary.
Berat Albayrak is one of Turkey's most powerful men, but on the stage at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul last Friday, he clearly felt uncomfortable. As Turkey's finance minister, he had called in CEOs and bankers to present his plan for preventing a currency collapse and a further worsening of his country's economy as it slides into the abyss. He had to say something, he needed to be encouraging and come up with a plan. But instead, he struggled helplessly to find the right words, clearly nervous.
He then clicked through a PowerPoint presentation reminiscent of the kind of work a first-year economics student might produce. "It was weird," says the CEO of a Turkish company.
Calais NGOs accuse police of intimidating volunteers
Eight different organisations that assist migrants in the French port cities of Calais and Dunkirk published a report on August 8 denouncing the police violence and intimidation that they have experienced. The president of one of these organisations told the France 24 Observers about the frequent altercations between police and volunteers, which the activists sometimes manage to catch on camera.
The associations reported 646 incidents, including both verbal and physical abuse and threats by police, between November 1, 2017 and July 1, 2018. The report included testimonies from 33 different volunteers.
The organisations said that they had already tried to file complaints with the IGPN (the French body tasked with policing the police), but that, each time, their complaints had been shelved.
A Himalayan Mess: Growing garbage pile a threat to mountain ecosystem
Indians are getting adventurous. But as more of them take to trekking, the trash they invariably leave behind on the mountains spells disaster for the environment
Updated: Aug 19, 2018 11:20 ISTKumKum Dasgupta
Hindustan Times
Monica Solomon, a 40-year-old New Delhi-based data analyst, and seasoned trekker, was aghast. Standing on a green-top knoll with the majestic Dhauladhar mountain ranges in the background, Solomon surveyed the trash bags in front of her, and remarked regretfully: “Did I trek eight kilometres for this?”
On the opposite side of the mound on which Solomon was standing, there were 60 white and yellow sacks full of trash: beer bottles and cans, plastic plates and cups, chocolate wrappers, juice and chips packets. This booty – all non-biodegradable items left by trekkers – had been collected by volunteers of Waste Warriors (WW), a Dharamshala-based NGO, from the campsite located at 10,000 feet, and the rocky and winding, forested trail that leads to it, in just two days.
No comments:
Post a Comment