Saturday, November 30, 2019
How poor people survive in the USA
Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can happen very quickly. Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.
Six In The Morning Saturday 30 November 2019
After another K-pop death, the spotlight returns to pressures of an industry built on perfection
Updated 0024 GMT (0824 HKT) December 1, 2019
In an industry where stars face immense pressure to portray themselves as the immaculate image of happiness, K-pop duo Goo Hara and Sulli appeared to be different.
Toward the end of their lives, the close friends were honest about who they were. They didn't try to adopt a persona as a perfect lover or sister. They spoke their minds. They were fallible.
Goo's death on Sunday, six weeks after Sulli's apparent suicide, left many fans angry and confused -- and reignited conversations about the issues of cyberbullying, gender violence and especially the mental well-being of celebrities living in South Korea's intense K-pop bubble.
Iraq risks breakup as tribes take on Iran’s militias in ‘blood feud’
Unrest spreads after security forces fire on protesters and anger at Tehran’s influence increasesThe inside story of Trump's alleged bribery of Ukraine
Public testimony in the impeachment hearings has painted a vivid picture of a president fixated on one thing: his own political gain over the fortunes of an ally
by Lauren Gambino in Washington and Tom McCarthy in New York
Darkness had settled over Kyiv on the evening of 24 April when Marie Yovanovitch, then US ambassador to Ukraine, was summoned from an event she was hosting at her home to answer an urgent phone call from Washington.
The reception was to honor Kateryna Handzyuk, a young anti-corruption activist who died last year from an acid attack. Though the ambassador and the activist had never met, they shared a mission: trying to end a culture of corruption that has persisted for decades in the former Soviet republic.
“Kateryna paid the ultimate price for her fearlessness in fighting against corruption and for her determined efforts to build a democratic Ukraine,” Yovanovitch said that evening, before presenting the Women of Courage award to Handzyuk’s father, Victor.
Yovanovitch – who had spent 33 years in the US foreign service, serving six presidents, and who was viewed by colleagues and superiors as an exemplary public servant – left her guests to answer the call at around 10pm. It was Carol Perez, the director general of the state department.
‘Quid pro quo’
The abrupt removal of an American ambassador raised the curtain on an extraordinary abuse-of-power drama threatening to unravel the Trump presidency. In private depositions and five nationally televised public hearings as part of the House of Representatives’ impeachment investigation, Trump administration officials past and present described Yovanovitch’s ousting and the events that followed as shocking, “deeply troubling” and a “nightmare scenario”.
In stark detail, they chronicled a concerted effort by the president and his allies to pressure on Ukraine to open investigations into Joe Biden, the former vice-president and a key political rival for Trump and a baseless and debunked conspiracy theory promoted by Russia that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 US election. The demands amounted to, in the words of one witness, a “domestic political errand” that diverged from US policy goals and benefited Washington’s adversary, Moscow.
‘America’s mayor’
For months beginning in late 2018, Giuliani worked contacts in Ukraine, trying to get what his client – the president – wanted.
Once regarded as “America’s mayor” and now better recognized as the president’s henchman, Giuliani has insisted that his work was to defend Trump’s reputation and clear up rumors about 2016 election tampering. But witnesses said he had “more insidious” intentions: manufacturing smears against Biden.
With the help of his Soviet-born associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, Giuliani made contact with the Ukrainian general prosecutor at the time, Yuriy Lutsenko, and his predecessor, Viktor Shokin. Both had complicated relationships with Yovanovitch, and Lutsenko in particular “vowed revenge” on the ambassador, according to testimony.
Read the rest Here.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Japan: Where Gods Aren't Gods and Worshipers Aren't Religious
Have you ever wondered about all the gates (torii) you see around Japan? They are entrances to the sacred ground of Shinto shrines (jinja). While some might see Japan's traditional practices of Shinto as a religion, and their various kami as gods, it's not quite as simple as that.
Six In The Morning Friday 29 November 2019
London Bridge attack suspect had been jailed for terrorism
- Police shoot dead suspect wearing fake suicide vest
- Two people killed in attack, three others injured
- Passersby praised as heroes after wrestling man to ground
The man who killed two people and injured three others in a terror attack near London Bridge was wearing a tag, having been released partway through a prison sentence he was serving for a previous offence of supporting terrorist violence.
The Guardian understands the authorities believe the attacker to have connections to other terrorist suspects. Friday’s attack, which is understood to have started at a conference on rehabilitating offenders in Fishmongers’ Hall, was brought to an end after the man was wrestled to the ground by passersby and then shot dead by police.
The suspect, who police say was wearing a fake suicide vest, was killed after police were called to a stabbing incident at the venue, which is near the bridge, shortly before 2pm. It is believed he had been invited to attend the conference.
‘When they come, they will kill you’: Ethnic cleansing is already a reality in Turkey’s Syrian safe zone
Turkey’s invasion into northern Syria has caused a demographic shift that many fear will become permanent, reports Richard Hall
The brutal killings were not hidden, nor were they meant to be. From the very beginning of Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, the fighters it sent across the border to carry out the mission have proudly documented their own war crimes.
Videos posted online by soldiers of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) – showing summary executions, mutilation of corpses, threats against Kurds and widespread looting – have struck terror into the tens of thousands who find themselves in the path of the offensive.
The ethnic dimension to many of the crimes has resulted in a mass exodus of Kurds and religious minorities from these once diverse borderlands.
Singer Jung Joon-young given 6 years for gang rape, voyeur videos
Former FT Island member Choi Jong-hoon gets 5 years
By Lee Suh-yoon
K-pop singers Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon were sentenced to six years and five years in jail, respectively, Friday, after being found guilty on charges of rape and distributing videos of their crimes.
The sentences followed the nation's worst scandal of sex-related crimes by celebrities, which involved drugging and sexually assaulting women at the Burning Sun nightclub, that came to light earlier this year
"The accused, famous entertainment figures, committed sex crimes including the gang rape of a woman who was defenseless at the time. They also shared the events on KakaoTalk mobile messages, using women as tools for sexual gratification," Judge Kang Seong-su of the Seoul Central District Court said in reading the verdict.
The sentences followed the nation's worst scandal of sex-related crimes by celebrities, which involved drugging and sexually assaulting women at the Burning Sun nightclub, that came to light earlier this year
"The accused, famous entertainment figures, committed sex crimes including the gang rape of a woman who was defenseless at the time. They also shared the events on KakaoTalk mobile messages, using women as tools for sexual gratification," Judge Kang Seong-su of the Seoul Central District Court said in reading the verdict.
Borneo is burning
How the world’s demand for palm oil is driving deforestation in Indonesia
By Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson, Tom Booth and Masrur Jamaluddin, CNN
Deep within the jungles of Indonesian Borneo, illegal fires rage, creating apocalyptic red skies and smoke that has spread as far as Malaysia and Singapore.
People are choking. Animals are dying.
This is no ordinary fire. It was lit for you.
Farmers are clearing land the fastest way they know how to cash in on growing demand for palm oil, which is used in half of all supermarket products, from chocolate to shampoo.
Daphne Caruana Galizia: Malta suspect will not get immunity
Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has said a suspect in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia will not be granted immunity to reveal what he knows about the case.
Businessman Yorgen Fenech had requested a presidential pardon in exchange for information.
Caruana Galizia, a prominent anti-corruption blogger, was killed by a car bomb in 2017.
Mr Muscat is under increasing pressure to resign over the case.
Trump has turned the suburbs into a GOP disaster zone. Does that doom his reelection?
NOV. 29, 2019
For decades, there was an unvaried rhythm to life in America’s suburbs: Carpool in the morning, watch sports on weekends, barbecue in the summer, vote Republican in November.
Then came President Trump.
The orderly subdivisions and kid-friendly communities that ring the nation’s cities have become a deathtrap for Republicans, as college-educated and upper-income women flee the party in droves, costing the GOP its House majority and sapping the party’s strength in state capitals and local governments nationwide.
What You Need To Know From The Recent Findings Of 7 Big Climate Reports
It is, in a word, “bleak.”
Alexander C. Kaufman
There isn’t just an emissions gap. There’s a production gap, too. That’s what this first-of-its-kind analysis by scientists at six organizations, including the United Nations Environment Programme, found last week. Projections to extract new fossil fuel reserves in China, the United States, Russia, India, Australia, Indonesia, Canada, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom exceed the limits to keep warming within 2 degrees Celsius by 50%. That figure surges to 120% when modeled for 1.5 degrees Celsius.
While the oceans continue to rise: See Venice and Miami the mango moron and his Republican enablers continue to act like there's nothing to see here. America's Republican party is the only major political in the world who deny that climate change is occurring. With that denial, they've convinced their most loyal supporters that putting your head up your fat ass and denying that climate change is happening allowing them to live in a bubble of abject ignorance.
Alexander C. Kaufman
The world is rapidly accelerating toward climate catastrophe, our financial institutions have their foot on the gas and pinning our hopes on Chinese leadership to desperately wrench the steering wheel away from the guardrail looks increasingly foolish.
But, hey! At least a growing percentage of Americans recognize that the federal government should do more about climate change.
1. Global temperatures are on pace to rise as much as 3.2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century ― more than double what scientists project to be a safe range that remotely resembles our world today.
That came from the United Nations’ latest grim assessment of the so-called emissions gap between the amount of planet-heating gases countries agreed to cut and where the current projections are headed. The Paris Agreement aimed to cap average temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels; a U.N. report last year determined that the pact’s more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming would likely cost hundreds of millions of lives and about $54 trillion in today’s dollars. Global temperatures are already a little over 1 degree Celsius compared with the period before the advent of industrial fossil-fuel use.
To keep warming within 1.5 degrees (about 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the world will need to cut emission 7.6% every year from 2020 to 2030, the report published Monday found.
“The summary findings are bleak,” the assessment stated.
2. The top 10 fossil-fuel-producing countries are on track to extract 120% more oil, gas and coal than would be consistent with 1.5 degrees of warming.
While the oceans continue to rise: See Venice and Miami the mango moron and his Republican enablers continue to act like there's nothing to see here. America's Republican party is the only major political in the world who deny that climate change is occurring. With that denial, they've convinced their most loyal supporters that putting your head up your fat ass and denying that climate change is happening allowing them to live in a bubble of abject ignorance.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Amazon Burning: Death and Destruction in Brazil's Rainforest
We investigate what is at the heart of the Amazon burning and meet the people risking their lives to defend the land.
Brazil has seen a dramatic increase in the number of fires in the Amazon with more than 80,000 fires so far this year alone.
This past summer, the world watched in horror as images of flames engulfing swaths of land in the world's largest rainforest came out, leading to global calls for boycotts over President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the crisis.
The fires have come as deforestation has risen over the past years and is increasing even more as the Brazilian government weakens environmental regulations.
Six In The Morning Thursday 28 November 2019
Trump visits US troops in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving
President Donald Trump has made an unannounced visit to American troops in Afghanistan and said the US and the Taliban have been engaged in talks.
"The Taliban wants to make a deal," Mr Trump told troops at Bagram airbase on his first trip to the country, where he also met Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.
The visit for Thanksgiving comes after a prisoner swap with the Taliban aimed at resuming peace negotiations.
Mr Trump also said the US was "substantially" reducing troop numbers.
Some 13,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan 18 years after the US intervention to oust the Taliban following the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Tories threaten Channel 4 after ice sculpture takes PM's place in debate
Conservatives say they could review channel’s broadcasting remit if they win election
The Conservatives are threatening to review Channel 4’s broadcasting remit if they win the general election after the channel decided to replace Boris Johnson with a melting ice sculpture during its climate change debate.
A Tory source confirmed that the party would review Channel 4’s public service broadcasting obligations if Johnson is returned to Downing Street next month. Under the proposal, first reported by BuzzFeed News, they would “look at whether its remit should be better focused so it is serving the public in the best way possible”.
Channel 4’s licence runs until the end of 2024, meaning it would need renewing under any new government if the next parliament lasts a full five years. While the media regulator Ofcom is tasked with reviewing the channel’s output, Channel 4 is state-owned and its existence is underpinned by legislation that could be altered by parliament.
Slovakia set to pass law forcing women to view images of embryo or foetus before abortion
The country's parliament will consider the law
Jon StoneEurope Correspondent
Slovakian woman seeking an abortion would be forced to view pictures of their embryo or foetus under plans for a new law being considered by the country's parliament.
The draft law, to be voted on on Friday, would also require women to listen to the "foetal heartbeat" where technically possible before they could proceed with a termination.
The law, which would be the first of its kind in Europe, would also ban "advertising" of abortions and impose steep fines on those who disseminate it.
Sudan approves law to 'dismantle' former regime, seize property: state TV
Sudanese transitional authorities approved a law late on Thursday to "dismantle" the regime of former president Omar al-Bashir, responding to a key demand of protest movement that helped overthrow him in April, state TV reported.
The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), which spearheaded the protests against Bashir, welcomed the law, saying it included the dissolution of the former ruling party and the confiscation of its funds and property.
"It is an important step on the path to building a democratic civilian state," the group said in a statement.
Implementation of the law will be a crucial test of how far transitional authorities are willing or able to go to overturn nearly three decades of rule by Bashir, who took power in a 1989 coup.
'Bloodbath': Dozens of protesters killed as army deploys south
More than 230 wounded as security forces open fire on demonstrators in Nasiriya a day after Iran consulate was torched.by Arwa Ibrahim
At least 25 people were killed after security forces opened fire with live ammunition and tear gas canisters to disperse anti-government protesters in the southern city of Nasiriya, medical sources and witnesses said.
Authorities in the capital, Baghdad, dispatched troops to "restore order" in southern Iraq, which has seen massive protests for weeks, the military said in a statement on Thursday.
The Iraqi goverment fired the new military commander after the outbreak of deadly violence.
No. of Muslims, mosques on the rise in Japan amid some misconceptions, prejudice
Recent years have seen increasing numbers of students and workers coming to Japan from Islamic nations, and mosques are being established in regions across the country.According to an investigation by Hirofumi Tanada, a professor of Asian social theory at Waseda University's Faculty of Human Sciences, at the end of 2018 there were 105 mosques in 36 of Japan's 47 prefectures. Rather than just being places for worship, they serve a number of community functions, including offering a chance for followers to socialize and for education. But as more mosques are established, questions over how they can successfully coexist with Japanese society have emerged.
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