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Friday, March 31, 2017
U.N. special envoy warns against military operation on Yemen port
U.N. special envoy warns against military operation on Yemen port
"We as the United Nations are advocating that no military operations should be undertaken in Hodeidah," he said.
WORLD NEWS | Fri Mar 31, 2017 | 2:54pm EDT
U.N. special envoy warns against military operation on Yemen
port
Yara Bayoumy
The United Nations does not advocate a military operation in
and around Yemen's Hodeidah port where more than 70 percent of Yemen's food
imports and humanitarian aid is delivered, the U.N. special envoy to Yemen said
on Friday.
Yemen has been divided by two years of civil war that pits
the Iran-allied Houthi group against a Western-backed Sunni Arab coalition led
by Saudi Arabia that is carrying out air strikes. At least 10,000 people have
been killed in the fighting.
The Red Sea port near the Bab al-Mandab strait is under the
control of Yemen's armed Houthi movement. The Bab al-Mandab is a waterway
through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily.
Retired Pakistani general to command Saudi-based force
Retired Pakistani general to command Saudi-based force
30 March 2017 | http://www.janes.com/article/
Pakistan's defence minister, Khawaja Mohammad Asif, has confirmed
that General (rtd) Raheel Sharif has been appointed as the commander of
a Saudi Arabia-based multinational force.http://www.janes.com/article/69160/retired-pakistani-general-to-command-saudi-based-force
Does the Road to Tehran really lie through Sana‘a?
http://lobelog.com/does-the-
The Washington Post reports that “The Pentagon is looking to increase support for Saudi Arabia’s two-year-old war against Houthi rebels in Yemen[. …] The Pentagon views increased support for the Saudi-led coalition as one way of potentially pushing back against Iran’s influence in Yemen, as well as shoring up ties with an ally that felt neglected by the previous administration.”
The policy is apparently not completely decided. “The Trump administration has yet to make a final decision and Defense Department officials are locked in a debate over the issue with the White House, with some senior aides to Trump favoring confronting Iran elsewhere, one advisor said.” However, the Secretary of Defense’s subordinate commander, CENTCOM chief Army Gen. Joseph Votel told Congress this week that “there are vital U.S. interests at stake” in Yemen, which is both vague and remarkable–military doctrine used to define “Vital Ground” as “Ground of such importance that it must be retained or controlled for the success of the mission.” The current DoD Dictionary no longer has such an entry, but it does raise the question of what the U.S.’s mission in Yemen is.
In terms of economics, Yemen and the Bab al-Mandab / Straits of Perim are a key choke-point on the normal East – West trade route via the Suez Canal. Yet the World did not stop turning while the Suez Canal was closed in the 1960s and 1970s. Shipping went via South Africa (and, increasingly, can now go via the Northern Sea Route.)http://lobelog.com/does-the-road-to-tehran-really-lie-through-sanaa/#more-38649
Does the Road to Tehran really lie through Sana‘a?
by James SpencerThe Washington Post reports that “The Pentagon is looking to increase support for Saudi Arabia’s two-year-old war against Houthi rebels in Yemen[. …] The Pentagon views increased support for the Saudi-led coalition as one way of potentially pushing back against Iran’s influence in Yemen, as well as shoring up ties with an ally that felt neglected by the previous administration.”
The policy is apparently not completely decided. “The Trump administration has yet to make a final decision and Defense Department officials are locked in a debate over the issue with the White House, with some senior aides to Trump favoring confronting Iran elsewhere, one advisor said.” However, the Secretary of Defense’s subordinate commander, CENTCOM chief Army Gen. Joseph Votel told Congress this week that “there are vital U.S. interests at stake” in Yemen, which is both vague and remarkable–military doctrine used to define “Vital Ground” as “Ground of such importance that it must be retained or controlled for the success of the mission.” The current DoD Dictionary no longer has such an entry, but it does raise the question of what the U.S.’s mission in Yemen is.
In terms of economics, Yemen and the Bab al-Mandab / Straits of Perim are a key choke-point on the normal East – West trade route via the Suez Canal. Yet the World did not stop turning while the Suez Canal was closed in the 1960s and 1970s. Shipping went via South Africa (and, increasingly, can now go via the Northern Sea Route.)http://lobelog.com/does-the-road-to-tehran-really-lie-through-sanaa/#more-38649
Mosul and the Limits of State Capacity
Mosul and the Limits of State Capacity
Parliament’s professional, albeit passionate, debate over the airstrikes on March 28 suggests the coalition will hold. Not only did Minister of Defense Irfan al-Hayali defend Abadi’s reliance on the U.S.-led international coalition, so did Minister of Interior Qasim al-Araji, a senior figure in the pro-Iran Badr Organization. While the killing of civilians in Mosul, Iraq’s largest Sunni-majority city, is quite sensitive, both Sunni and Shia MPs praised the courage of nation’s security forces—although some argued for a tactical change to reduce reliance on heavy artillery criticized for imprecision, including improvised rocket-assisted munitions (IRAMs).
Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs
Inside Alabama’s Auto Jobs Boom: Cheap Wages, Little Training, Crushed Limbs
Peter Waldman | Bloomberg Businessweek | March 24, 2017 | 36 minutes (9,000 words)
A powerful in-depth look at the human costs of bringing auto parts
factory jobs to Alabama — with inadequate training for employees and
unreasonable expectations for output. “American consumers are not going
to want to buy cars stained with the blood of American workers.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-03-23/inside-alabama-s-auto-jobs-boom-cheap-wages-little-training-crushed-limbs?mc_cid=496472ef0b&mc_eid=9528811089
Canadians Adopted Refugee Families for a Year. Then Came ‘Month 13.’
Canadians Adopted Refugee Families for a Year. Then Came ‘Month 13.’
Catrin Einhorn and Jodi Kantor | The New York Times | March 25, 2017 | 17 minutes (4,443 words)
It’s a year-long commitment to privately sponsor a Syrian refugee family
in Canada, where sponsorship includes funding and helping the family
navigate Canadian culture and society. Sponsors assist newcomers with
daily tasks of living, including grocery shopping, banking, getting
jobs, learning English, and ferrying families to appointments and
activities. In the fourth and final installment of Refugees Welcome— The New York Times’
year-long series on Syrian refugees in Canada — Jodi Kantor and Catrin
Einhorn profile the Hajj family and members of their sponsorship group,
reporting on what happens at month 13 — the point at which the
sponsorship agreement officially ends.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/world/americas/canada-syrian-refugees.html?mc_cid=496472ef0b&mc_eid=9528811089
Devin Nunes And Washington's Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma
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Guest Post by Uri Avnery: University of Terror
University of Terror
SOME DAYS ago, a man committed an act of terrorism in the center of London, a city I love.
He ran over several
persons on Westminster Bridge, stabbed a policeman to death and
approached the doors of Parliament, where he was shot dead. All this in
the shadow of the tower of Big Ben, an irresistible photographic target.
It was an
electrifying world-wide news item. Within minutes, Daesh was blamed. But
then the truth came out: the terrorist was a British citizen, a Muslim
convert born in England. From early youth he had committed a string of
petty crimes. He had been in and out of prison several times.
So how did this
individual, of all people, become a religious zealot, a Shahid – a
witness to the truth of Allah, who sacrificed his life for the greatness
of Islam? How had he become the perpetrator of an act that shook Europe
and the world?
BEFORE TRYING to answer this mystifying question, one remark about the effectiveness of "terrorism".
As the term implies, it is a matter of spreading fear. It is a method of achieving a political end by making people afraid.
But why are people
so afraid of terrorists? This has always puzzled me, even when as a boy I
belonged to an organization that was labeled by our British overlords
as "terrorist".
I don't know how
many people died in road accidents in the United Kingdom in the same
month as the Westminster killing. I surmise that the number was vastly
larger. Yet people do not greatly fear road accidents. They do not
refrain from walking out into the street. Dangerous drivers are not held
in preventive detention.
Yet a very small
number of "terrorists" suffices to create a climate of fear throughout
entire countries, entire continents, even the entire globe.
Great Britain should
be the last place in the world to succumb to this totally irrational
fear. In 1940, this small island stood against the colossus of
Nazi-conquered Europe. I remember a stirring poster that was pasted to
the walls in Palestine. It showed the head of Winston Churchill with the
slogan: "Alright Then, Alone!"
Could a lone terrorist with a car and a knife frighten such a country into submission?
To me this sounds
crazy, but this is only a side remark. My purpose here is to throw light
on an institution few people think about: prison.
THE WESTMINSTER
terrorist attack raises a simple question: how did a petty criminal
become a shahid who attracts world-wide attention?
There are many
theories, many of them raised by experts vastly more competent than I.
Religious experts. Cultural experts. Islamist experts. Criminologists.
My own answer is very simple: it's prison that did it.
LETS MOVE as far away from Britain and religion as possible. Let's come back to Israel and our local crime scene.
We often hear of major crimes being committed by people who started as juvenile delinquents.
How does an ordinary person become a chief of organized crime? Where does he study?
Well, in the same place as a British jihadist. Or an Israeli Muslim jihadist, for that matter.
A boy has trouble at
home. Perhaps his father regularly beats up his beloved mother. Perhaps
his mother is a prostitute. Perhaps he is a dumb pupil and his comrades
despise him. Any one of a hundred reasons.
At 14, the boy is
caught stealing. After being warned and released by the police, he
steals again. He is sent to prison. In prison, the most respected
criminals adopt him, perhaps even sexually. He is sent to prison again
and again, and slowly he rises in the invisible prison hierarchy.
He is respected by his fellow prisoners, he has authority. Prison becomes his world, he knows the rules. He feels good.
When he is released,
he returns to being a nobody. Correction personnel treat him as an
object. He longs to go back to his world, the place where he is known
and respected. He is not sent to prison because he has committed a
crime. He commits a crime in order to be sent to prison.
So he commits a
crime, more serious than all before. He becomes a crime boss himself.
When he returns to prison, even the chief warder treats him as an old
acquaintance.
Throughout the
years, prison has acted for this person as a university, a University of
Crime. It is there that he learned all the tricks of the trade, until
he himself becomes a professor.
The little Muslim
thief sent to prison may meet there an incarcerated Muslim preacher, who
convinces him that he is not a despised criminal but one of the few
selected by Allah to destroy the infidels
ALL THIS is old
stuff. I am not revealing anything new. Every inmate, criminologist,
senior police officer, chief prison warder or correction psychologist
knows it, far better than I.
If so, how come nobody does anything about it? Why does prison function today as it did centuries ago?
I suspect the simple answer is: Nobody knows what to do instead.
The British once had a good answer: they sent all criminals, even petty thieves, to Australia. If they did not hang them first.
But in modern times,
even these remedies were abandoned. Australia is now a strong nation,
that sends hapless refugees to remote Pacific islands.
The United States,
the world's foremost power, with some of the best universities, keeps
millions of its citizens in prison, where they turn into hardened
criminals.
Israeli prisons are
bursting with inmates, many of them "terrorists" sent there without
trial. This is euphemistically called "preventive detention" – an
oxymoron if ever there was one.
If one asks a police
officer about the logic of this entire system, he shrugs his shoulder
and answers – the Jewish way – with another question: What else can you
do with them?
So for year after
year, century after century, society has sent its criminals to Crime
University, where they learn to become better and more professional
criminals. Tuition with full board, all expenses paid by the state.
And, of course, a
huge army of prison personnel, policemen and women, experts and
academics depend on this system for their livelihood. Everybody happy.
Prison is not only
counterproductive. It is also inhuman. It turns human beings into zoo
animals. (And these should be liberated, too.)
CURIOUSLY ENOUGH, I was never in prison, though I came close to it several times.
As I have recounted
elsewhere, the chief of Israel's political police (sorry, I mean
"security agency") once proposed to the Prime Minister to put me in
"administrative detention", without involving a judge, as a foreign spy.
This was only prevented by Menachem Begin, the leader of the
opposition, who refused his assent.
Another time was
after my meeting with Yasser Arafat during the siege of Beirut, when the
government officially requested the attorney general to investigate me
for treason. The attorney, a nice person, decided I had committed no
crime. I did not illegally cross any border, since I was invited to
occupied East Beirut by the Israeli army as a newspaper editor. Also,
there was no suspicion that I had the intention of harming the security
of the state.
So I have no
personal experience of prison so far. But the absurdity of the entire
situation has occupied my mind for many years. I made several speeches
about it in the Knesset.
To no avail. No one knows of an alternative.
My late wife,
Rachel, was a teacher. She always refused to move up from the second
grade (age 8). She maintained that at that age the character of a human
being is already fully formed. After that, nothing can be done.
If so, perhaps all efforts should be concentrated on a very early age.
I am sure that
somewhere experiments with other answers are being carried out. Perhaps
in Scandinavia. Or on the island of Fiji.
Isn’t it about time?
Why the United Arab Emirates Is Building a Space Program From Scratch
Why the United Arab Emirates Is Building a Space Program From Scratch
http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2017/03/why_the_united_arab_emirates_is_building_a_space_program.html
U.S., Turkey Set on a Collision Course
U.S., Turkey Set on a Collision Course
American support for Kurdish forces in Syria is a major flashpoint between the NATO allies
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-turkey-set-on-a-collision-course-1490866201
A “New Sheriff in Town” Is Kicking Up Her Heels
A “New Sheriff in Town” Is Kicking Up Her Heels
by James M. WallNikki Haley, the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, (right) was greeted as a rock star at this year’s AIPAC Washington Conference.
The former governor of South Carolina wowed the crowd of 19,000, in an on-stage interview in which she bragged that she blocked the appointment of former Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to a high UN position, solely because he is a Palestinian.
She followed up by bragging that she had persuaded the UN secretary general to withdraw a report which described Israeli policies as apartheid.
The longest and loudest AIPAC crowd roar came when she “brought the house down“ by proclaiming “the days of Israel-bashing at the United Nations are over.” https://wallwritings.me/2017/03/30/a-new-sheriff-in-town-is-kicking-up-her-heels/
Apple iCloud hack threat gets worse: Here's what we've learned
Apple iCloud hack threat gets worse: Here's what we've learned
Hackers
are threatening to remotely wipe an unknown number of iPhones, iPads,
and Macs unless Apple pays a ransom. The picture is becoming clearer.
This is what you need to know.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/icloud-accounts-breach-gets-bigger-here-is-what-we-know/?loc=newsletter_large_thumb_related&ftag=TRE5575fdc&bhid=25151283725937532891160407260705
CLIMATE SCIENCE Putin says climate change not manmade
Putin says climate change not manmade
Moscow (AFP) March 30, 2017 -
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday
said climate change was not caused by human activity, as the White
House announced that President Donald Trump would decide by May on
continued US participation in the landmark Paris Agreement limiting
global carbon emissions.
One day after visiting the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic,
Putin claimed that icebergs had been melting for decad ...
more http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Putin_says_climate_change_not_manmade_999.html
Extreme weather events linked to climate change impact on the jet stream
Extreme weather events linked to climate change impact on the jet stream
University Park PA (SPX) Mar 30, 2017 -
Unprecedented summer warmth and flooding, forest fires, drought and
torrential rain - extreme weather events are occurring more and more
often, but now an international team of climate scientists has found a
connection between many extreme weather events and the impact climate
change is having on the jet stream.
"We came as close as one can to demonstrating a direct link between
climate ch ...
more http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Extreme_weather_events_linked_to_climate_change_impact_on_the_jet_stream_999.html
The Week With IPS 3/31/2017
2017/3/31
Click here for the online version of this IPS newsletter
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Journalism in Nicaragua under Siege
José Adán Silva
During the 161st session of the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR), an empty chair across from the OAS Special Rapporteur
for Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanzas, sums up the Nicaraguan
government’s relationship with this issue in the country: absence.
At the Mar. 15-22 meeting ...
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Autism in Bangladesh: Reducing Discrimination Through Innovation
Saima Wazed Hossain
Within the last 5 years, thanks to political support and national
education, autism awareness in Bangladesh has grown immensely. Due to a
lack of funds and resources, providing full comprehensive evidence based
services for those in need is not yet possible, but with a continuation
of our current ...
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How a Devastating Hurricane Led to St. Vincent’s First Sustainability School
Kenton X. Chance
In the 1980s, an institution for troubled Danish youth and a vocational
school for Vincentians was built in Richmond Vale, an agricultural
district on the northwestern tip of St. Vincent.
It was hoped that spending time at Richmond Vale Academy would help the
Danish youth to see the world from a ...
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Can the SDGs be financed?
Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Investment in the least developed countries (LDCs) will need to rise by
at least 11 per cent annually through 2030, a little more than the 8.9
per cent between 2010 and 2015, in order for them to achieve the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The United Nations’ World Economic
Situation and ...
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France Hosts Major Exhibition on Jamaican Music
A. D. McKenzie
It’s one of those movie-like spring days in Paris, where blue skies and
brilliant sunshine lift spirits after a long, wet, grey winter. Many
people are outdoors trying to catch the rays, but Jamaican artist Danny
Coxson is not among them. He’s inside a museum in a northeastern
neighbourhood of the ...
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The Challenge Ahead: Harnessing Gene Editing to Sustainable Agriculture
Nteranya Sanginga
The role of genetic engineering in agriculture and food has generated
enormous interest and controversies, with large-scale embrace by some
nations and wholesale bans by others.
Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of
Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Courtesy of ...
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How to Stir up a Refugee Crisis in Five Steps, Trump Style
Madeleine Penman
The sight of one of the most infamous borders on earth – roughly 1,000
kilometers of porous metal fence dividing lives, hopes and dreams
between the USA and Mexico, is undoubtedly overwhelming, but not in the
way we expected it to be.
While it has been one of the most talked about issues ...
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Sri Lanka’s Small Tea Farmers Turn Sustainable Land Managers
Stella Paul
As the mercury rises higher, Kamakandalagi Leelavathi delves deeper into
the lush green mass of the tea bushes. The past few afternoons there
have been thunderstorms. So the 55-year-old tea picker in Uda Houpe tea
garden of Sri Lanka’s Hatton region is rushing to complete her day’s
task before the ...
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Syrian Regime Survives on Russian Arms & UN Vetoes
Thalif Deen
As the devastating civil war in Syria entered its seventh year last
week, President Bashar al-Assad has continued to survive--- despite
faltering efforts by the United States and the UN Security Council
(UNSC) to rein him in, or impose sanctions on his beleaguered regime.
Assad, who did his ...
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Costa Rican Town Fears That the Sea Will Steal Its Shiny New Face
Diego Arguedas Ortiz
Two years have gone by since the new government initiative which
subsidises community works changed the face with which the coastal town
of Cienaguita, on Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast, looks out to the sea.
In place of a battered path between the beach and the first houses, the
investment ...
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Caribbean Faces Forecast for Prolonged Drought
Desmond Brown
The Caribbean Drought & Precipitation Monitoring Network (CDPMN) is
warning countries in the region that the same abnormal climate
conditions they have experienced over the last few years, which resulted
in some of the worst drought in two decades, could continue this year.
Several Caribbean ...
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UN to Investigate Violations Against Rohingya
Tharanga Yakupitiyage
A top UN human rights group has decided to investigate human rights
abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
The UN Human Rights Council agreed to send an international fact-finding
mission to investigate alleged killings, torture, and rape by security
forces against Myanmar’s Rohingya ...
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Slaves
Baher Kamal
For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were
the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest
chapters in human history. Slavery is, nevertheless, far from being just
a chapter of the past—it still there, with estimated 21 million victims
of forced labour ...
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Trinidad Pushes for Shift to Cleaner Fuel
Jewel Fraser
The Trinidad and Tobago government has invested about 74 million dollars
in the first phase of a 295-million-dollar project to encourage more
drivers to use Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), described by experts here
as a preliminary step in the country’s transition to using more
sustainable forms of ...
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A Carbon Law to Protect the Climate
Stephen Leahy
The Carbon Law says human carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions must be reduced
by half each decade starting in 2020. By following this “law” humanity
can achieve net-zero CO2 emissions by mid-century to protect the global
climate for current and future generations.
A “carbon law” is a new concept ...
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Under Fire, Journalism Explores Self-Preservation
A. D. McKenzie
With widespread attacks on professional journalists and the rise of a
fake-news industry, media experts agree that journalism is increasingly
under fire. But how can the press fight back and ensure its survival?
Judging by the stubbornly defiant tone at a one-day colloquium held at
UNESCO’s ...
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