It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, June 29, 2020
Australia and New Zealand to jointly host Women’s Fifa World Cup 2023 TPE adminJune 26, 2020
Australia and New Zealand will host the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Fifa has announced.
The joint bid got the nod ahead of Colombia, which was the only other rival in the running after Brazil and Japan dropped out of the race earlier in June.
The 2023 version will be the first in the women’s game to feature 32 sides – up from the current 24.
The competition is scheduled to take place from July to August 2023.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino said: “The bidding process was highly competitive. We would like to thank both of the bidders for their remarkable work. It was really, really well prepared.”
The Australia and New Zealand bid received 22 of the 35 votes cast by the Fifa Council members, with Colombia getting 13 votes. Football Association chairman Greg Clarke voted for Colombia as did the other eight Uefa members.
Infantino said he was “surprised” by Uefa members voting for Colombia, despite the lower score in Fifa’s technical evaluation of each bid. Colombia received a score of 2.8 out of 5.0, while Australia and New Zealand was marked 4.1
“These (technical bid) reports have to mean something,” said Infantino.
Uefa said its members voted for Colombia as it “represented a strategic opportunity for the development of women’s football in South America”.
Infantino also suggested the women’s tournament could be staged every two years and is keen for South America and Africa to stage it.
Infantino also announced a funding boost for the sport.
“We have decided to award $1bn (£805m) to the development of women’s football in the coming four years,” he said.
“We experienced last year in France a fantastic Women’s World Cup. It broke all records. It brought women’s football to a truly global stage.”
Joint Bid:
The joint bid from Australia and New Zealand promised “an unprecedented level of investment” in the tournament.
This will be the first World Cup hosted across two of football’s continental confederations (Australia are in the Asia confederation, while New Zealand are part of Oceania).
Chris Nikou, president of Football Federation Australia (FFA) said the forthcoming competition will be “ground-breaking”.
He added: “Not only will it be the first ever co-confederation hosted Fifa World Cup and the first ever Fifa Women’s World Cup in the Asia-Pacific region, but we will unlock the huge potential for growth in women’s football in the Asia-Pacific region.”
The president of New Zealand Football, Johanna Wood, said: “We believe we have been given a treasure, and we will look after that treasure.
“We will work towards putting women’s football even more front and centre on the world stage.”
The countries have proposed to stage matches at up to eight grounds in Australia:
A farmer in the hilly Shimoga district of Karnataka was made to walk 15 kilometres to repay a loan amount due – a mere 3 rupee 46 paise (USD$ 0.046 or 4 cents).
Amade Lakshminarayana, an areca grower from Baruve village in the deep forests of the Western Ghats got a call from the Canara Bank branch at a nearby small town, Nittur, asking him to rush immediately to repay the loan amount.
They gave him no further details.
A panicked Lakshminarayana walked 15 kilometres to reach the bank as there is no bus services due to lockdown.
When he reached the Bank, the officials told him that his due amount was a paltry 3 rupee 46 paise. The shocked farmer immediately paid the amount to clear the loan.
According to him, he had taken Rs 35,000 agriculture loan from the bank. Out of that Rs 32,000 was waived off by the government and he had repaid remaining Rs 3,000 a few months ago.
“When the bank called me to rush urgently. I panicked. There is no bus service due to lockdown. I don’t have any vehicle, not even a bicycle. I reached the bank by foot to clear my outstanding amount of paltry Rs 3 and 46 paisa. The bank’s inhuman act has hurt me”, he said.
Local Canara Bank manager L Pingva said that auditing was underway in the branch and to renew his loan he had to clear the outstanding amount of Rs 3 and 46 paisa. They also needed his signature, he added.
This news has gone viral inviting widespread condemnation by one and all. They feel that there was no need for the bank to force him to walk 15 kilometres whatever may be the reason
Justin Trudeau takes son out for ice cream as Canada eases pandemic restrictions
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his son out for ice cream on Wednesday in his first family outing since Canada started easing out of its pandemic lockdown.
It was also Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day in Quebec province.
Wearing masks, the Canadian leader and his six-year-old son Hadrien were cheered at Chocolats Favoris in Gatineau, Quebec.
According to a pool report, Trudeau said the shop tapped into a federal emergency wage subsidy and business loan in order to weather the pandemic, and “avoid being frozen out of the frozen treat market.”
Hadrien is said to have bounced with excitement, settling on a vanilla cone with a cookie topping while dad bought a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for himself.
Father and son then headed out to the patio, where they doffed their masks to eat their cones.
Canada’s provinces and territories declared states of emergency mid-March, closing schools and non-essential businesses in response to the pandemic.
New record set for Earth’s longest lightning in both distance and duration
A single lightning flash stretched more than 700 kilometres across Brazil last year – equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington DC – has created a new world record for the longest reported distance of lightning, the UN’s weather agency has announced.
A World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) committee of experts said two new world records for the longest reported distance and the longest reported duration for a single lightning flash were set in Brazil and Argentina. The new records for extreme lightning bursts, or ‘megaflashes’, during 2019, are more than double the size and duration of the previous record flashes.
A lightning flash that developed continuously over northern Argentina on March 4, 2019 lasted a whopping 16.73 seconds.
A second flash stretched more than 700 kilometres (400 miles) across southern Brazil on October 31 last year. This was equivalent to the distance between Boston and Washington in the US, or between London and Basel in Switzerland. The previous megaflash distance record was 321 km (199.5 miles) in June 2007 across the US state of Oklahoma, and the previous continuous duration record was 7.74 seconds, reached in August 2012 in southern France.
The new record-breaking strikes, captured by the American Geophysical Union ahead of International Lightning Safety Day on June 28, were recorded by equipment carried on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, and their orbiting counterparts from Europe and China.
The records were described by Professor Randall Cerveny, chief rapporteur of Weather and Climate Extremes for WMO, as “extraordinary.”
“Environmental extremes are living measurements of what nature is capable of, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments,” he said.
“It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves.”
Cerveny said the technology could help scientists better understand the whole science of lightning, and potentially save lives: “This will provide valuable information for establishing limits to the scale of lightning – including megaflashes – for engineering, safety and scientific concerns.”
The WMO reiterated the dangers of lightning, and the many lives it claims every year. Lightning flashes have led to major loss of life.
In 1975, 21 people in Zimbabwe were killed when a single flash hit the hut in which they were sheltering, and 469 people were killed in Dronka, Egypt in 1994, when lightning tragically struck a set of oil tanks, causing burning oil to flood the town. The official advice from the agency is to follow the 30-30 rule: if the time between flash and thunder is less than 30 seconds, stay inside, and wait 30 minutes after the last observed flash, to resume outdoor activities.
Egyptian belly-dancer sentenced to 3 years in jail for spreading indecency on TikTok TPE admin June 29, 2020
An Egyptian belly-dancer, Sama el-Masry, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,500) on Saturday for inciting debauchery and immorality as part of a crackdown on social media postings.
El-Masry was arrested in April during an investigation into videos and photos on social media, including the popular video-sharing platform TikTok, that the public prosecution described as sexually suggestive.
The dancer, 42, denied the accusations, saying the content was stolen and shared from her phone without consent.
Cairo’s Misdemeanours Economic Court on Saturday said she had violated family principles and values in Egypt as well as establishing, managing and using sites and accounts on social media with the aim of committing “immorality”.
“There is a huge difference between freedom and debauchery,” said John Talaat, a member of parliament who asked for legal action against el-Masry and other female TikTok participants.
Talaat told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that el-Masry and the other female social media influencers were destroying family values and traditions, activities that were banned by the law and the constitution.
El-Masry said she would appeal.
Several women in Egypt have previously been accused of “inciting debauchery” by challenging the country’s conservative social norms, including actress Rania Youssef after critics took against her choice of dress for the Cairo Film Festival in 2018.
In 2018 Egypt adopted a cyber crime law that grants the government full authority to censor the internet and exercise communication surveillance.
The law carries penalties of imprisonment of 2 years minimum and a fine of up to 300,000 Egyptian pounds.
A group of female TikTok and Instagram influencers and YouTubers have been arrested by the Egyptian authorities in recent months on charges of promoting debauchery and prostitution on social media.
Talaat said those influencers were expected to face the same prison terms as el-Masry as they had committed the same crime.
The Egyptian government was not available for immediate comment.
Entessar el-Saeed, a women rights lawyer and head of the Cairo Center for Development and Law, said women are the only category targeted by the authorities according to this law.
“Our conservative society is struggling with technological changes which have created a completely different environment and mindsets,” she said.
Kylie Jenner and Cardi B come under fire for failing to pay Bangladesh workers amid coronavirus pandemic
US reality TV star Kylie Jenner and Rapper Cardi B have faced huge criticisms on social media for reportedly refusing to pay workers in Bangladesh.
The Global Brand Group, responsible for their clothing line even cancelled its ongoing orders and cut workers in both Los Angeles and Bangladesh, reports Showbiz Cheatsheet.
The decision has affected as many as 50,000 workers, most of whom are women and are ineligible to receive government assistance, the report added.
Kylie’s fans commented on her instagram posts demanding that she pay the factory workers from her own pocket, if necessary.
Even though the 22-year old was recently stripped of her billionaire title, she is still worth a staggering $900 million and can more than afford to pay workers for the work that they have completed, the report further mentioned.
The reality TV star has 182.3 million followers on Instagram.
One fan on instagram wrote: “How about not exploiting foreign workers and honouring your contracts during a GLOBAL EPIDEMIC?!”
“Rather than launching and showcasing ur products pls #payup Bangladesh for the garments product. You guys are showcasing the world ur luxury but cheap. You are not even paying the workers’ wages, sick,” another fan wrote.
The situation became worse when Kylie started deleting her Instagram comments which mentioned to pay the dues of the workers.
Following the deletion of posts, fans took to her sister American model Kendall Jenner’s Instagram page to vent their anger.
A petition “#PayUp” campaign has been created by fans of Cardi B and Kylie exposing multi-million dollar brands, with over 78,000 signatories demanding a fair pay for the workers.
Petitioners also demanded that the workers be hired back on contracts which would prevent them from being exploited, reports The Express Tribune.
The Global Brand Group has been quick to jump to its defence, according to Popbuzz.
The brand’s CEO Rick Darling said: “Given the unpredictability of the situation, our retail partners have cancelled orders, and existing inventory and product in production may have no sell-through.”
He made the comment after it was discovered that workers were not being paid for garments that had already been made in February and March.
“Consequently, we have no choice but to make the difficult decision to cancel all S/S 2020 orders from all suppliers (without liability),” he added.
But both Cardi B, who is worth $24 million, and Kylie who is worth $900 million, are yet to comment on the matter, the report concluded.
HEY HEY USA 'No excuse' for countries that fail in contact tracing, WHO's Tedros says Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA (Reuters) - Tracing contacts of people with coronavirus infections is the most important step in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, and countries that are failing to do so have no excuse, the World Health Organization chief said on Monday.
“Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a briefing.
“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is that this is not even close to being over,” he said. “Most people remain susceptible, the virus still has a lot of room to move.”
Countries such as South Korea had managed to contain the disease by tracking down the contacts of those carrying infection, Tedros said. This was possible even under extreme conditions, as the WHO itself had shown by halting an outbreak of Ebola in eastern Congo, tracing 25,000 contacts a day in a remote area where some 20 armed groups were fighting, he added.
“No excuse for contact tracing. If any country is saying contact tracing is difficult, it is a lame excuse.”
TEAM TO INVESTIGATE ORIGINS IN CHINA
In a move sought by the WHO’s biggest critic, the United States, Tedros announced that a team would be sent to China next week to investigate the origins of the outbreak.
“We can fight the virus better when we know everything about the virus, including how it started,” Tedros said. “We will be sending a team next week to China to prepare for that.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have both said the disease could have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, although they have presented no evidence of this, and China denies it. Scientists say the virus emerged in nature.
Trump has announced plans to quit the WHO, which he says is too close to China. He has repeatedly emphasised the Chinese origins of the virus, calling it “Kung Flu” at two rallies this month, a term the White House had previously described as unacceptable and which Asian-American groups say is racist.
FILE PHOTO - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Asked about Trump’s use of the term, the director of the WHO’s emergencies program, Mike Ryan, called for an “international discourse that is based on mutual respect”.
“Many people around the world have used unfortunate language in this response,” he said.
Ryan said there had been tremendous progress towards finding a vaccine, but there was no guarantee of success. In the meantime countries must use the strategies available, such as social distancing and contact tracing.
“Many, many countries through applying a comprehensive strategy have reached a very low level of virus transmission in their countries but always have to remain vigilant in case there are clusters or small outbreaks.”
Reporting by Michael Shields, Emma Farge and Stephanie Nebehay; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood BOOHOOBROTEDROS
THE RUSTIC LIFE Locals cheer as monkey hanged from tree
In a shocking case of human brutality, a monkey was hanged to death from a tree in Khammam district of Telangana. The police have held three in connection with the case.
The incident, which happened in Ammapalem village of Khammam district, came to light after a video of it went viral on social media, creating uproar over the brutality against an animal.
The video showed the monkey struggling while the animal was hanged from a tree. Locals who gathered and witnessed the incident can be heard cheering. Some dogs are seen trying to intervene.
The incident took plant in Ammapalem village under Vemsoor block of Khammam district when a troop of monkeys entered the area.
Irritated with their presence in the area, one of the accused caught one of the monkeys after fell in a water tubewell.
One of the accused then decided to hang a monkey as a “lesson” for the other monkeys that had entered the area.
The forest officials have picked-up three villagers for their involvement in the case. An investigation has been initiated.
Iran issues warrant for Trump over killing of top general (Reuters) - Iran has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday, according to the Fars news agency. The United States and Interpol both dismissed the idea of acting on such a warrant.
The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.
Alqasimehr said the warrants had been issued on charges of murder and terrorist action. He said Iran had asked Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking the arrest of Trump and the other individuals the Islamic Republic accuses of taking part in the killing of Soleimani.
Alqasimehr said the group included other U.S. military and civilian officials but did not provide further details.
U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook said the warrant was a “propaganda stunt” at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.
“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue red notices ... (of) a political nature,” he said.
“This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability ... It is a propaganda stunt that no-one takes seriously.”
Interpol said in a statement that its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.
“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat,” it added, “... Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”
Alqasimehr said Iran would continue to pursue the matter after Trump left office.
The killing of Soleimani brought the United States and Iran to the brink of armed conflict after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American targets in Iraq several days later.
Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Additional reporting by Lisa Barrington in Dubai and Richard Lough in Paris; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Iran issues arrest warrant against Donald Trump for killing top general Qassem Soleimani
Post authorBy TPE admin Post dateJune 29, 2020 Iran has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump and 35 others over the killing of top general Qassem Soleimani and has asked Interpol for help, Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said on Monday.
The United States and Interpol both dismissed the idea of acting on such a warrant.
The United States killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, with a drone strike in Iraq on Jan. 3. Washington accused Soleimani of masterminding attacks by Iranian-aligned militias on U.S. forces in the region.
Alqasimehr said the warrants had been issued on charges of murder and terrorist action. He said Iran had asked Interpol to issue a “red notice” seeking the arrest of Trump and the other individuals the Islamic Republic accuses of taking part in the killing of Soleimani.
Alqasimehr said the group included other U.S. military and civilian officials but did not provide further details.
U.S. Iran envoy Brian Hook said the warrant was a “propaganda stunt” at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.
“Our assessment is that Interpol does not intervene and issue red notices … (of) a political nature,” he said.
“This is a political nature. This has nothing to do with national security, international peace or promoting stability … It is a propaganda stunt that no-one takes seriously.”
Interpol said in a statement that its constitution forbade it to undertake “any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character”.
“Therefore, if or when any such requests were to be sent to the General Secretariat,” it added, “… Interpol would not consider requests of this nature.”
Alqasimehr said Iran would continue to pursue the matter after Trump left office.
The killing of Soleimani brought the United States and Iran to the brink of armed conflict after Iran retaliated by firing missiles at American targets in Iraq several days later.
UPDATED Trump received Presidential Daily Briefing on Russian bounty plot: report
On Monday, CNN reported that President Donald Trump received a presidential daily briefing in the spring including the intelligence assessment that Russia was putting bounties on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
“That assessment, the source said, was backed up by ‘several pieces of information’ that supported the view that there was an effort by the Russian intelligence unit — the GRU — to pay bounties to kill US soldiers, including interrogation of Taliban detainees and electronic eavesdropping,” reported Barbara Starr. “The source said there was some other information that did not corroborate this view but said, nonetheless, ‘This was a big deal. When it’s about US troops you go after it 100%, with everything you got.'”
This report contradicts the claim by the White House that the president was not made aware of this intelligence — a claim that even Republicans have demanded clarification on. Pentagon officials were ‘pounding on the door’ to get Trump to do something about Russia’s assassination bounty: WaPo’s Ignatius
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” longtime political columnist David Ignatius said that his own follow-up on the New York Times’ explosive report that Donald Trump’s administration was well aware that the Russians were offering a bounty for the death of U.S. military members revealed that Pentagon officials have been “pounding on the door” and trying to get Donald Trump to do something about it.
Speaking with host Joe Scarborough, Ignatius said he was stunned by the report from the Times and started looking into the details himself for confirmation.
“Based on my reporting trying to confirm the New York Times’ excellent story it’s clear in late March you had senior U.S commanders, senior civilian intelligence officials, in effect pounding on the door of the White House saying we need to do something about this, we need to come to a conclusion about what damage the Russian program is doing, we need to reassess our programs in Afghanistan and they couldn’t get an answer,” he reported. “To this day there’s not an answer, there’s not a real response. Was this because the president was briefed and did nothing or because he wasn’t briefed because people were afraid to give him bad news and kept it to themselves? I don’t know.”
“But it almost doesn’t matter in terms of the breakdown in terms of the way the government is supposed to work,” he continued. “In some ways, it’s almost worse the department didn’t tell him, ‘Mr. President while you’re encouraging Russia to rejoin the G8, we should mention Russia is putting bounties on the heads of American soldiers.’ If they didn’t tell him that, it’s a stunner.”
“I think people are steamed up about it, there’s nothing that would make American commanders angrier other than the idea that their soldiers had targets on their back because of the actions of somebody that the president was still speaking of as a prospective ally,” he added.
Watch below:
Appearing on MSNBC on Monday morning, former Republican National Committee head Michael Steele claimed he had no doubt that Donald Trump was aware that Russia was paying out bounties for the killings of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. Speaking with “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, the former RNC head was asked if Donald Trump thinks Americans are “stupid” for telling them he was out of the loop on the intelligence reports. “I will take up that challenge and say they did brief him,” Steele replied. “I do not believe that something as important and severe as this was left untold to the president of the United States.” “What I think is disturbing is his reaction to it once he was told — the fact that there has been nothing done,” he continued. “There has been no rebuke officially from the United States and the fact that the White House, even over the course of the president’s tweets still has not denied the underlying intelligence that this is, in fact, what happened and this is, in fact, what we do know and the reality is.” “This is a bounty placed on the heads of American soldiers, you are the commander in chief, alright?” he continued. “So this isn’t about politics. This is about what you do as a leader of men and women in uniform who now find out that you are okay with a bounty on their head by your — by our adversary. So this is what he’s going to have to account for — he can’t spin this out. There may be some Republicans who will run to his defense, that will be curious to watch.”
