Category: International Affairs,

Daphne Caruana Galizia: Maltese journalist’s family presses on after prime minister resigns

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

One of the most important levers they pulled was a visit, by all three brothers, to Strasbourg, the seat of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in northeast France, where they petitioned that international organization — devoted to human rights — to investigate their mother’s death.

The result was the appointment of a special rapporteur, the Netherlands’ Pieter Omtzigt, who told me about his initial meeting with the brothers.
 
…But when Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat, made the surprise announcement Sunday that he would resign in connection with the government’s mishandling of the case, there was little jubilation in the family.

…But that relief is mixed with dissatisfaction that the prime minister says he’ll stay in office for another month, allowing him to manipulate and cover up — or so the family fears.

…The family, understandably, is not yet satisfied — but for press advocates around the world, the developments are stunningly positive, because they suggest a rare accountability taking shape.

“This is an incredible moment and achievement,” said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Daphne Caruana Galizia: Maltese journalist’s family presses on after prime minister resigns – The Washington Post

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Maltese Premier Promises Resignation Amid Firestorm Over Journalist’s Killing

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The investigative journalist had been known widely in Malta for her dogged pursuit of government corruption — quite a bit of which she unearthed by carefully perusing the massive Panama Papers leak, which has revealed a slew of inappropriate financial moves by politicians around the world.

Maltese Premier Promises Resignation Amid Firestorm Over Journalist’s Killing : NPR

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To Make Sense of Lebanon’s Protests, Follow the Garbage

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Middle East,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Religion,Leave a comment

The government’s inability to provide basic services, including 24-hour electricity and garbage collection, is rooted in an agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war nearly 30 years ago. The deal divided power between the nation’s 18 recognized religious sects, effectively institutionalizing corruption, with each group able to dole out government jobs, contracts, favors and social services to its followers.

…The perpetual garbage crisis is only the most pungent example. It last exploded into public view in 2015, when the country’s political elite squabbled over a lucrative waste-management contract as mountains of uncollected trash fouled the streets of Beirut. A wave of protests ensued.

The stopgap solution was to build two new landfills. Three years after they opened, the landfills have only relocated the garbage crisis to the coast, and they are fast threatening to hit capacity.

…Employees dumped trash and toxic waste directly into the Mediterranean.

…Mr. Khoury’s company was dumping trash into the landfill without sorting it, despite a contractual requirement that recyclables be separated and hazardous material be removed.

Moreover, she found, the landfill’s breakwaters in the Mediterranean were not keeping the trash out of the water. Garbage and the toxic liquid oozing from it were going straight into the sea.

…For several years, the government has promoted incineration as a long-term solution, despite objections from environmentalists and scientists.

In June, the environment minister, Fadi Jreissati, told The Daily Star, a local newspaper, that he did not think Lebanon was “qualified” to regulate the incinerators.

…A major reason that Lebanon does not produce enough electricity for its four million people, experts say, is the powerful lobby of generator owners, whose machines provide power during daily blackouts, as well as the $1.2 billion-a-year diesel industry that fuels them.

..Hospitals, roads, schools and other projects are distributed to favored contractors according to sectarian quotas that ensure every group benefits, regardless of necessity.

To Make Sense of Lebanon’s Protests, Follow the Garbage – The New York Times

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Ukraine Condemns Apple For Changing Map To Show Crimea As Part Of Russia

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Europe,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Ukraine on Wednesday criticized Apple for changing its location-based apps to show Crimea as part of Russia, implying that the company “doesn’t give a damn” about its pain, as U.S. tech companies face criticism for complying with controversial local laws in order to keep doing business in those countries.

Ukraine Condemns Apple For Changing Map To Show Crimea As Part Of Russia

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That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

On By peanutgallerynhIn Central Northern Asia and The Caucasus,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

[The] goal was two-fold: Grow an audience in part through heartwarming, inspiring messages, and use that following to spread messages promoting division, distrust, and doubt.

…This tweet didn’t seek to anger conservative Christians or to provoke Trump supporters. She wasn’t even talking to them. Melanie’s 20,000 followers, painstakingly built, weren’t from #MAGA America (Russia has other accounts targeting them). Rather, Melanie’s audience was made up of educated, urban, left-wing Americans harboring a touch of self-righteousness. She wasn’t selling her audience a candidate or a position — she was selling an emotion. Melanie was selling disgust. The Russians know that, in political warfare, disgust is a more powerful tool than anger. Anger drives people to the polls; disgust drives countries apart.

…Professional disinformation isn’t spread by the account you disagree with — quite the opposite. Effective disinformation is embedded in an account you agree with. The professionals don’t push you away, they pull you toward them. While tweeting uplifting messages about Warrick Dunn’s real-life charity work, Tyra, and several accounts we associated with her, also distributed messages consistent with past Russian disinformation. Importantly, they highlighted issues of race and gender inequality. A tweet about Brock Turner’s Stanford rape case received 15,000 likes. Another about police targeting black citizens in Las Vegas was liked more than 100,000 times. Here is what makes disinformation so difficult to discuss: while these tweets point to valid issues of concern — issues that have been central to important social movements like Black Lives Matter and #MeToo — they are framed to serve Russia’s interests in undermining Americans’ trust in our institutions.

…They attacked moderate politicians as a method of bolstering more polarizing candidates.

…Russia strategically employed social media to build support on the right for Trump and lower voter turnout on the left for Clinton. …Russia’s goals are to further widen existing divisions in the American public and decrease our faith and trust in institutions that help maintain a strong democracy.

…Their work was never just about elections. Rather, the [Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA)] encourages us to vilify our neighbor and amplify our differences because, if we grow incapable of compromising, there can be no meaningful democracy. Russia has dug in for a long campaign. So far, we’re helping them win.

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It – Rolling Stone

Mmmhmmmn.

Hoard of golden treasure stumbled upon by metal detectorist revealed to be most important Anglo-Saxon find in history

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Britain’s most spectacular Anglo-Saxon treasures may well have been captured on a series of Dark Age battlefields – during bitter conflicts between rival English kingdoms.

…The hoard was made up of golden fittings from up to 150 swords, gold and garnet elements of a very high status seax (fighting knife), a spectacular gilded silver helmet, an impressive 30cm-long golden cross, a beautiful gold and garnet pectoral cross, a probable bishop’s headdress – and parts of what is likely to have been a portable battlefield shrine or reliquary.

…The ecclesiastical treasures and secular/military items appear to have been treated in a potentially disrespectful way before they were buried. They had been broken and/or folded and deliberately bent out of shape. 

…Given the probable mid-seventh century date of the burial of the treasure, it is therefore possible that it was war booty captured by the pagan Mercian king, Penda, from armies led by Christians, such as the East Anglians. 

One possible explanation is that the treasure was ritually buried as a Mercian pagan war trophy – perhaps even as a thanks offering to a pagan deity for delivering victory.

Hoard of golden treasure stumbled upon by metal detectorist revealed to be most important Anglo-Saxon find in history | The Independent

Wild.

A Trump administration strategy led to the child migrant backup crisis at the border

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

…“This will strain bed capacity,” authorities wrote in a discussion paper in February 2018.

..According to current and former government officials, and emails and memos detailing the Trump administration’s strategy, it is clear they knew that without enough beds in government shelters, children would languish in Border Patrol stations not equipped to care for them.

…[Policies also] made it harder for adult relatives of unaccompanied minors to secure the children’s release from U.S. custody. Enhanced vetting of sponsors — including fingerprints and other paperwork — and the sharing of that information between child welfare and immigration authorities slowed down the release of children and exposed the sponsors to deportation.

…The contractors tasked with carrying out the background checks and fingerprinting were overwhelmed, according to current and former HHS officials.

…The approach caused thousands of unaccompanied minors to be stranded in U.S. custody and exacerbated the appearance of a crisis on the southern border — a major element underlying the administration’s public request for billions of dollars in additional funding from Congress.

…A few months after the policy was implemented, HHS officials determined that it was not improving child safety. They concluded that the added vetting was redundant and needlessly extended the time children remained in custody.

…The administration also developed and rolled out its family separation policy in the spring of 2018, part of its “zero tolerance” approach at the border. The months-long initiative, which separated thousands of children from their parents, compounded the need for shelter space.

A Trump administration strategy led to the child migrant backup crisis at the border – The Washington Post

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Hong Kong voters deliver landslide victory for pro-democracy campaigners

On By peanutgallerynhIn East Asia,Leave a comment

There will be few immediate political consequences in Hong Kong because the councils have limited powers, only a small budget and a mandate restricted to hyper-local issues such as parks, bus stops and waste collection.

But the pro-democratic landslide was a defiant rebuke to the government’s frequent argument that its hardline policies had the support of a “silent majority”, who had been cowed by protester violence. In a peaceful vote, the city’s people came out against them.

It will also give Communist party chiefs in Beijing – who have backed the government as it dug into confrontation with demonstrators – cause to reconsider their approach. Hong Kong’s protests are perhaps the biggest challenge to China’s autocratic president, Xi Jinping, since he took power in 2012.

Hong Kong voters deliver landslide victory for pro-democracy campaigners | World news | The Guardian

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Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Modern Parenting,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Advocates also report that some asylum seekers in the Western District of Texas who have given birth in USMS custody were forced to hand over their newborns to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Reuniting with their newborn hinges on their release from federal custody, and whether they can access legal help to navigate the child welfare system.

…Dr. Shelly said she doesn’t know if the U.S. citizen newborns of detained parents are eventually adopted or whether detained patients are deported without regaining custody of their babies. The OB-GYN is also unsure if foster parents have any obligation to remain in communication with parents remanded to USMS custody.

According to USMS, the onus for child care placement is on the detained parent, though it appears as if asylum seekers who give birth in USMS custody don’t have many choices at all.

…U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could release these women shortly after they are first apprehended, and then refer them to organizations like Annunciation House that can offer support as they pursue asylum and prepare to give birth. But that’s not what happens.

Trump Administration Separates Some Migrant Mothers From Their Newborns Before Returning Them to Detention – Rewire.News

Jeezus….

Greenland Is Not For Sale. But It Has The Rare Earth Minerals America Wants

On By peanutgallerynhIn International Affairs,Leave a comment

Greenland holds rare earth minerals America wants — but which it largely relies on China to get.

…The U.S. was once the world’s top producer of rare earths. Now China is. China also has most of the world’s capacity to process the elements. The Trump administration has labeled rare earth elements essential to national defense, and Washington is working to bolster the national industry.

Greenland Is Not For Sale. But It Has The Rare Earth Minerals America Wants : NPR

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Samoa Measles Outbreak: Government Closes Schools, Requires Vaccinations

On By peanutgallerynhIn Modern Parenting,, Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

A state of emergency was declared Friday by acting Prime Minister and Minister of Health Faimalotoa Kika Stowers-Ah Kau. The proclamation legally mandates that all Samoan citizens receive an MMR vaccination and bans minors from public gatherings.

Of the 716 cases reported, over 100 affected individuals have been hospitalized.

….Parents were “neglecting their responsibilities”[emphasis peanut gallery] by not vaccinating their children, Naseri said. According to officials, most of the deaths in the recent epidemic are unvaccinated children under two years old.

Samoa Measles Outbreak: Government Closes Schools, Requires Vaccinations : NPR

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