ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS --- AP

OH DEAR MORE BAD CHRISTIANS IN THE NEWS

Cries of abuse in Catholic Church start to be heard in Japan
Their public denunciation is all the more remarkable, given Catholics make up less than 0.5% of Japan’s population.
TOKYO (AP) — During Pope Francis’ recent visit to Japan, Harumi Suzuki stood where his motorcade passed by holding a sign that read: “I am a survivor.” Katsumi Takenaka stood at another...

Did Italian priest father two African sons, and walk away?
NAIROBI (AP) — Steven Lacchin grew up a fatherless boy, but he knew some very basic facts about the man who was his father. He knew Lacchin, the name on his Kenyan birth certificate, was his...
The Associated Press story appeared on the front page of Nairobi’s foremost newspaper, telling the tale of a 16-year-old Kenyan woman, an Italian missionary priest and the man who was on a quest to prove that he was their son. One reader took special interest: Another Kenyan man who was the son of the same priest, according to his birth certificate. Would genetic tests show that they were brothers?
 AP Exclusive: China tightens up on info after Xinjiang leaks
The Xinjiang regional government in China’s far west is deleting data, destroying documents, tightening controls on information and has held high-level meetings in response to leaks of classified...
Top officials deliberated how to respond to the leaks in meetings at the Chinese Communist Party’s regional headquarters in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, some of the people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of fears of retribution against themselves, family members and the government workers.The Xinjiang regional government in China’s far west is deleting data, destroying documents, tightening controls on information and has held high-level meetings in response to leaks of classified...

Reparations mark new front for US colleges tied to slavery
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The promise of reparations to atone for historical ties to slavery has opened new territory in a reckoning at U.S. colleges, which until now have responded with monuments,...

Few Americans support reparations, but as colleges confront their historical ties to slavery, some are vowing to provide funding to benefit the descendants of slaves who played a role in the institutions’ success.


US finally giving boot to official foot measurement

WASHINGTON (AP) — Change is afoot for the official measuring stick used to size up big places in America. The reason? There are actually two different definitions of the 12-inch measurement...
 The U.S. foot “sounds very patriotic, very American,” he said in a webinar. “Then there’s the word ‘international foot,’ which sounds kind of new world order, U.N.-sanctioned, maybe with a whiff of socialism.”
`Safer opioid’ has sparked a crisis in vulnerable countries
KAPURTHALA, India (AP) — Reports rolled in with escalating urgency — pills seized by the truckload, pills swallowed by schoolchildren, pills in the pockets of dead terrorists. 
The pharmaceutical company that made the opioid tramadol billed it as low risk. International authorities allowed the drug to move around the world unregulated. Now it is at the root of what the United Nations calls “the other opioid crisis,” tearing through much of the developing world.

COMMENT Chuck Dawson

I was on max dosage for 10 yrs. Then one day I ran out and had severe withdrawals. I slowly weaned myself off it as well as Lyrica. I have lots more pain now but withdrawals, none. Medical marijuana is a huge help.

10

Detroit tops list of hard-to-count cities ahead of census
DETROIT (AP) — When the U.S. Census Bureau starts counting people next year in Detroit, obstacles are bound to arise: The city has tens of thousands of vacant houses, sparse internet access and...
“There is nothing more important, no higher priority, than reaching the hard to count,” Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham told lawmakers last summer. An Associated Press analysis finds that Detroit tops the list of cities that will be hardest to count in the 2020 census. Nationwide, about a quarter of the population lives in hard-to-count neighborhoods.

Sold to China as a bride, she came home on brink of death
MAZAIKEWALE, Pakistan (AP) — Sold by her family as a bride to a Chinese man, Samiya David spent only two months in China. When she returned to Pakistan, the once robust woman was nearly...
The suspicious death of a Pakistani woman adds to growing evidence of mistreatment and abuses inflicted on hundreds of women and girls from the country who have been trafficked to China as brides.


THE DOWNLOADING OF HOMECARE FOR THE ELDERLY TO THE FAMILY 
More Americans are dying at home rather than in hospitals
For the first time since the early 1900s, more Americans are dying at home rather than in hospitals, a trend that reflects more hospice care and progress toward the kind of end that most people...
Statistics suggest progress is being made toward the kind of end of life that most people say they want, with minimal medical intervention.

Rescuers describe horror of New Zealand's silent eruption
WHAKATANE, New Zealand (AP) — The eruption was so silent that Lillani Hopkins didn't hear it over the hum of the boat’s engines. She didn't turn around until her dad whacked her. 

A rescuer in New Zealand has described the harrowing time she spent helping those badly burned in the White Island volcano eruption. Fourteen people are believed dead. Thirty others remain hospitalized, with 25 in critical condition.

Parisians dodge strikes by logging on to share rides, bikes
ARGENTEUIL, France (AP) — Adrien Lachevre and Nailat Msoili live a few kilometers (miles) apart in Paris' northwest suburbs, but their paths had never crossed until Lachevre picked Msoili up in...

Amid a general strike stretching across France, many commuters have turned to technology - carpool aps, shared bikes and electric scooters - to get by.


Already pressured by the mining and forestry industry, and other development that encroach on grazing land, Sami herding communities fear climate change could mean the end of their traditional lifestyle. 
https://www.facebook.com/APNews/videos/798507890589334/


THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS JUST PREVENTABLE INCIDENTS
WITH COPS THEIR INABILITY TO SHOOT EFFECTIVELY MEANS
THEY EMPTY THEIR GUNS WHICH ENDANGERS BYSTANDERS
WITH THEIR HANDGUN THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO DISABLE
THEIR PREY WITH A SHOT TO THE LEG OR SHOULDER SO
AS NOT TO KILL BUT TO PUT DOWN WITH AN INJURY
Accidental shootings by police expose training shortfalls
SEATTLE (AP) — When an Iowa mother tried to take her child from her husband during an argument on a snowy sidewalk in 2015, an officer stepped in to stop the scuffle, but he accidentally fired his...
Accidental shootings by police happen at agencies large and small across the U.S. and sometimes have deadly consequences. Experts blame inadequate training. 

http://apne.ws/Mut15wn

AP Interview: Warren says voters are ready for female ticket

“I think we’ve got a path to victory, and I think the energy and enthusiasm of women is really what’s going to carry us across the finish line with a good margin.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Elizabeth Warren said Sunday she believes Americans are ready for a presidential ticket with two women at the top, rejecting concerns from some Democrats that a woman can't...

Uber weighs next steps after jarring sex assault report
NEW YORK (AP) — A day after Uber revealed that more than 3,000 riders and drivers were sexually assaulted last year while using its service, attention is turning to what's next for the...
Critics say Uber should be doing more, particularly with background checks, to weed out potentially dangerous drivers. Unlike many taxi companies, Uber and its main U.S. rival, Lyft, do not check drivers’ fingerprints against a national database.

Palestinians in Bethlehem look beyond religious tourism
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — For decades, the people of Bethlehem have watched tour buses drive up to the Church of the Nativity, disgorge their passengers for a few hours at the traditional...
Alternative Bethlehem: A new form of tourism is taking root in the Palestinian city that's so long focused only on Christmas, promoting traditional guesthouses, the local cuisine and the British artist Banksy's work.

“It recognizes artists whose body of work has resonated over the years.”Ronstadt, `Sesame Street' receive Kennedy Center Honors
WASHINGTON (AP) — Actress Sally Field, singer Linda Ronstadt and the disco-funk band Earth Wind and Fire shared the spotlight Sunday night as part of the latest group of recipients of the Kennedy...

As the decade draws to a close, it's clear that we're looking at TV differently.
How streaming, diversity, #MeToo shaped TV decade of change
LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Game of Thrones” was both an unprecedented achievement and old-school role model in the TV decade that’s rolling its final credits. Installments of the elaborately...


In the Golden Globe TV nominations, the broadcast networks were completely shut out for what is believed to be the first time.
Broadcast TV shut out of Globe nods, Netflix edges HBO
NEW YORK (AP) — The Golden Globe TV nominations were most striking not for what they included, but what they didn't: The traditional broadcast networks were completely shut out in all 55...

                                         --- 30 ---

in

RED BETWEEN THE LINES --- WASHINGTON POST---JBS MEAT PACKING EXPOSE

CONCENTRATION IN THE MEATPACKING INDUSTRY BEGAN AT THE END OF THE SEVENTIES AND CONTINUED THROUGH THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES AS CONCENTRATION MOVED TO MONOPOLY THE MEAT PACKING INDUSTRY ALSO BEGAN A FULL SCALE ASSAULT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS, CREATING TWO TIER WAGES WHICH THEY ATTACKED THE UFCW WITH, USE OF FOREIGN TEMPORARY WORKERS AND IN MANY CASES THE UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS WERE USED AFTER THE RONALD REAGAN'S ASSAULT ON UNIONS LEFT THE MEATPACKING INDUSTRY ABLE TO NOW BRING IN UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS AS TEMP WORKERS.

BUT THE UFCW FOUGHT BACK IN CANADA AND THE USA. THEY ORGANIZED THOSE WORKERS IN CARGILL PLANTS, EVEN IF IT TOOKS DECADES OF STRUGGLE AS IT DID IN ALBERTA WITH THE UFCW ORGANIZING THEIR
PLANT IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA, WITH WORKERS FROM ECUADOR, SOMALIA,
ETHIOPIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES IN AN ALL WHITE MORMON TOWN.

I WROTE OF THE EARLY CONSOLIDATION AND THE CONCENTRATION OF THE MEATPACKING INDUSTRY IN CANADA DURING THE UFCW MEAT PACKERS STRIKE OF 1978 AND WE PUBLISHED A SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE MELIORIST THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE STUDENT PAPER AND HAD IT DISTRIBUTED TO EVERY HOUSEHOLD IN THE CITY VIA THE POST OFFICE.

THIS STORY OF CONSOLIDATION AND MONOPOLY CAPITALISM IN THE MEATPACKING INDUSTRY IS THE SAME STORY IT HAS BEEN FOR FORTY YEARS

JBS IN CANADA

A NUMBER OF YEARS BACK JBS BOUGHT A FAILED AND CONTAMINATED MEATPACKING HOUSE IN LETHBRIDGE. AFTER IT WAS CLOSED FOR AN E-COLI OUTBREAK IT HAD CREATED BY FAILED SELF REGULATION OF CLEANING AND DISINFECTION PROCEDURES VITAL TO FOOD SAFETY. IT WAS A MAJOR SCANDAL ACROSS CANADA. AND JBS SWOOPED IN AS A ANGEL INVESTOR TO SAVE THE DAY BUT OF COURSE IT WAS IN FACT THE VULTURE CAPITALISM AT WORK ONCE AGAIN FOR A MULTINATIONAL FOOD MONOPOLY.

#JBS COMPETES IN CANADA WITH MAPLE LEAF FOODS IN A MEAT PACKING FOOD INDUSTRY DUOPOLY

This foreign meat company got U.S. tax money. 

Now it wants to conquer America.

President Trump delivers remarks in support of farmers and ranchers at the White House in May. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


By Kimberly Kindy Washington Post

November 7, 2019

This story has been updated.Two men in cowboy hats stood behind President Trump in May as he announced a $16 billion agricultural bailout. Trump said the financial relief from his trade war with China would help American farmers, reinforcing an earlier tweet when the president said the funds would help “great Patriot Farmers.”

But not all beneficiaries of the taxpayer-funded program are American farmers or patriots. JBS, a Brazilian company that is the largest meat producer in the world, has received $78 million in government pork contracts funded with the bailout funds — more than any other U.S. pork producer.

JBS’s winning hand in securing a quarter of all of the pork bailout contracts is one example of the power a small number of multinational meat companies now hold in the United States. JBS has become a major player in the United States even as it faces price-fixing and other investigations from the federal government.

The company’s explosive growth through acquisitions over the past decade has been a dominant factor in the consolidation of the meat industry by multinational companies.

A dozen years ago, JBS did not own a single U.S. meat plant. Today, JBS and three other food companies control about 85 percent of beef production. JBS and Tyson Foods control about 40 percent of the poultry market. And JBS and three other companies control nearly 70 percent of the pork market.

JBS and the large multinational meat companies, including Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods and Cargill, use their size and global presence to create efficiencies that enable them to produce a variety of quality foods at a lower price. But many agricultural economists and food marketing analysts say when so few companies control the market, they can drive smaller operators out of business, reducing competition and sometimes raising prices for consumers.

[Trump farm bailout money will go to Brazilian-owned meatpacking firm, USDA says]

Such consolidation has been condemned by eight Democratic presidential candidates, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) being the most outspoken. She’s pledged to break up the larger food and meat companies because the companies can use their “economic power to spend unlimited sums of money electing and manipulating politicians” and because they are “leaving family farmers with fewer choices, thinner margins and less independence.”

The candidates have other concerns, including threats to the availability and affordability of the nation’s food supply. Large food companies have in the past reduced supply to drive up the price of their products. The Justice Department is investigating whether JBS and other poultry companies illegally coordinated to do just that.

JBS said in a written statement that its American subsidiary, JBS USA, is a vital part of the agricultural economy. The company employs more than 60,000 people in the United States and buys from more than 11,000 U.S. farmers and ranchers. JBS and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue say the bailout funds JBS received are helping American farmers because the company buys its hogs from them.

“This is no different than people buying Volkswagens or other foreign autos where their executives may have been guilty of some issue along the way,” Perdue said in a statement. “They still buy the cars.”

JBS CEO Gilberto Tomazoni told analysts in August that JBS is “at the best moment in its history.” He said an upcoming stock offering in the United States will allow the company to continue to expand; JBS says expansion efforts “will better position the company to sustainably meet evolving customer and consumer expectations.”

However, U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) recently challenged whether JBS’s entry into the U.S. market should have been allowed.

USDA pilot program fails to stop contaminated meat

Corruption scandals have engulfed JBS in Brazil, the senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and company officials have “admitted criminal conduct to secure loans that were used for investment in the United States.” They’ve asked for a review of the purchases.

JBS said it received all “necessary regulatory approvals from the . . . antitrust authorities, including the Department of Justice” before purchasing each of the companies. 

Small farmers and cattlemen are glad some politicians are listening. They say the federal government’s bailout — and JBS’s share of it — are reminiscent of the bank bailouts during the Great Recession. Even though many of the banks were under investigation by the federal government, they still received federal money.

“I think it’s one of those situations where it’s too big to fail,” said Greg Gunthorp, who runs his family hog farm in Indiana. “We are talking about a company that has shown it doesn’t play by the rules.”

Buying spree

JBS purchased its first U.S. meat plants in 2007, using Brazilian bank loans the owners secured illegally, court records show. In a plea deal, brothers Joesley and Wesley Batista told prosecutors how they bribed bank and government officials to receive low-interest loans.

The bank loans and other funding allowed JBS to consolidate five U.S. companies — which produced pork, poultry and beef — into a single company, JBS USA.

In 2007, JBS bought pork and beef producer Swift and Co. In 2008, it purchased the beef operations of Smithfield Foods. In 2009, it acquired poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride. In 2015, JBS bought Cargill’s pork division. And in 2017, the company purchased poultry producer GNP Co.

“JBS used their ill-gotten gains to dominate the meat market,” said Joe Maxwell, a fourth-generation hog farmer and executive director of the Organization for Competitive Markets, a nonprofit group that fights income disparities in U.S. agricultural markets. The loans, Maxwell said, “allowed them to become the big dogs almost overnight.”

JBS said it did not rebut the plea deal but said it also raised capital by selling company stock.

The bailout payments underscore JBS’s advantage over smaller domestic competitors. Some of its pork plants kill more than 1,000 pigs an hour, enabling JBS to operate off a slimmer profit margin and underbid other companies for the bailout contracts.

JBS is also able to shift production to avoid high tariffs. While U.S. pork exported to China faces a 72 percent tariff, pork from JBS plants in Brazil faces only a 10 to 12 percent tariff.

JBS increased production where tariffs were lower, benefiting twice from the Chinese trade war — first by collecting the bailout money and then by increasing pork production at its plants outside the United States, which JBS announced this year.

How beef demand is accelerating the Amazon’s deforestation and climate peril

JBS has grown and thrived despite multiple federal inquiries. The Agriculture Department said JBS underpaid family farmers and ranchers last year at three slaughterhouses in Colorado, Nebraska and Texas by claiming the cattle weighed less than they did. Domestic cattle owners say they lost millions of dollars.

USDA fined JBS $79,000.

Cattle producers said the fine was an insult to small ranchers. “That’s pennies to them,” said Steve Krajicek, an independent cattle producer who sells to JBS. “They make in excess of $1 million a day at the Nebraska plants. It’s not even enough for them to blink an eye or to reconsider how they are doing business.”

JBS said a software change caused an error in paying sellers and those who were underpaid were later reimbursed.

JBS’s growth has not been slowed by heftier fines for worker safety violations — about $20 million over the past decade, according to records from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

A Washington Post analysis of OSHA data from 2015 to 2018 shows that JBS has the highest rate of serious worker injuries — including those involving amputation and hospitalization — among meat companies in the United States, and the second highest rate of serious injuries among all companies in the United States.

The Post used federal data on the number of serious worker injuries and the number of employees to determine the injury rates. JBS disagreed with The Post’s methodology and said JBS was better than the industry average in other safety metrics using federal data, such as time lost because of injury.

Consumer concerns

Consolidation can lead to benefits for consumers. Trey Malone, an agricultural economist at Michigan State University, said consolidation has led to lower prices and an explosion of new food products. A grocery store in 1995 had about 8,000 options on average. Now, it’s more than 45,000.

“As companies get larger, you get economies of scale. The cost of production per unit decreases,” Malone said. “Companies increasingly compete at quality levels, offering hormone-free meat, Angus beef. They create new products. From a consumer perspective, you have higher quality meat and cheaper meat products.”

But the small number of major players increases the possibility that companies could collude to increase prices, Malone and other economists say. A lawsuit filed in 2016 by a food service firm in New York alleges that JBS-owned Pilgrim’s Pride and other poultry companies intentionally destroyed flocks of breeder hens to reduce the poultry supply.

The coordinated effort resulted in a 50 percent increase in the wholesale price of broiler chickens, the lawsuit claims. The civil suit is on hold as the Justice Department investigates.

JBS denied the accusations in the lawsuit. Lawyers for Pilgrim’s Pride and other poultry companies filed a motion to dismiss the case in January.

JBS said concentration in the meat industry has been “fairly static” since the mid-1990s. Analysts point to data showing the market has become more concentrated; they say companies with plants and processing facilities around the world increasingly dominate.

“This is a consumer disaster because of the amount of power, money and political clout that these companies hold,” said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor who studies the food industry. “If you own everything, you get to set the rules, you get to set the price, because there is no real competition.”

[Inspector General wants to know if USDA concealed worker safety data]

With a few large operators, meat contamination can pose a greater threat because their products end up on plates across the nation. Retail giants Costco, Walmart and Sysco all sell JBS products.

For example, in 2018, JBS ordered the largest recall of ground beef in U.S. history, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 12 million pounds of beef contaminated with a virulent strain of salmonella in 30 states sickened 403 people, of whom 117 were hospitalized. Less than 2 percent of the meat was recovered.

“They can cause a major food safety disaster,” said Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist for Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group. “These plants are bigger, turn out product faster and the federal government has deregulated them, giving plant owners more control over safety inspections.”

JBS said it quickly responded by issuing the recall. The company said it was working with “internal and external food safety experts” to “ensure the safety of our products.”

Rancher complaints

Small cattle ranchers launched a social media campaign in October at a rally called “Stop the Stealin’ ” to protest the power JBS and other large beef processors have over setting prices for cattle. Ranchers said they are being underpaid by about $200 a head. JBS said it offers competitive prices for cattle.

About 400 cattlemen and women attended the rally in Nebraska — some riding on horseback. Younger ranchers downloaded the Twitter app onto the smartphones of the older ranchers, teaching them how to tweet their protests directly to Trump.

“Stop packer collusion!!” tweeted Casey Perman, a small rancher in South Dakota. “Time to help the little guy like you promised . . . #FairCattleMarkets @realDonaldTrump.”

The ranchers and some Democratic members of Congress say the concentrated power of these companies gives them too much leverage over federal regulators. “These multinational corporations are taking over the food supply and federal government has been complicit in this; USDA has been complicit in this,” said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.).

Since entering the U.S. market in 2007, JBS has spent more than $7.7 million on lobbying, records show, making it the fourth-largest spender in the meat processing industry. It’s also won more than $900 million in government meat contracts, second only to the U.S.-based Tyson Foods, according to a Post analysis of government records.

The company’s reach into the federal government includes the successful recruitment of a top regulator. JBS created a new position — global head of food safety and quality assurance — in 2017, giving the post to a former top food-safety regulator at USDA named Al Almanza.

At USDA, Almanza was viewed by small farmers and food safety groups as an advocate for the big producers; he led efforts to deregulate poultry, pork and beef inspections sought by JBS and other large companies. Three days after leaving USDA, Almanza started at JBS.

In a statement, JBS said Almanza “strongly disagrees with any notion that he had any interest in maximizing industry profits over safeguarding public health during his career of public service.”

Maxwell’s group is also focusing on Perdue and the bailout money he has awarded to JBS. The small ranchers’ campaign is circulating a political cartoon of Perdue and JBS’s Wesley Batista in bed together with Perdue throwing wads of bailout cash into the air.

Andrew Ba Tran and Alice Crites contributed to this report.

ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS--- AFP




Thousands take part in a demonstration of the "Sardine Movement", formed to oppose Italy's far-right League party, in Rome.
The youth-driven "Sardine Movement" has become a symbol of protest against Salvini, leader of the League party. ✊
u.afp.com/JyRs







Tensions between the French government and unions opposed to pension reforms mount as a crippling transport strike enters its 11th day.
Read story: http://u.afp.com/JyzA


Superman's very first cape and Bilbo Baggins' pipe are each forecast to raise $100,000-$200,000 at a blockbuster auction of rare Hollywood memorabilia.
Also going under the hammer at Julien's Auctions will be the "most important collection" of Star Trek memorabilia ever auctioned, organizers say, including a jacket worn by Captain Kirk in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan."
Read story: http://u.afp.com/JyEk

Obsessed Star Wars fans have started camping outside Hollywood's Chinese Theatre, more than a week before the film opens.

Full story: http://u.afp.com/Jy78

#StarWars

Sudan's former president Omar al-Bashir was sentenced to two years detention in a correctional center for corruption in the first of several cases against the ousted autocrat.
The deposed leader admitted to having received a total of $90 million from Saudi leaders and the trial centered on the $25 million received from Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyDZ



With Evo Morales gone, the coca farmers of Los Yungas, a region in Bolivia, are urging the new government to support them against lowering the price of of their "holy leaf" crop.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyDS



Algeria's unpopular presidential election was meant to reset the country's politics after months of crisis -- but it exposed a rigid system determined to perpetuate itself, analysts say.
"You get the impression of two parallel Algerias: a ruling class which congratulates itself on organising elections and a populace that holds protests," said Maghreb expert and historian Karima Direche.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyRV





Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon in November surged by 104 percent compared to the same month in 2018, according to Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, which provides official data on deforestation.
The 217 square miles deforested that month represent the highest number for any November since 2015.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyRK




Make 2020 a year of action.
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg urged young people during a "Fridays for Future" rally in Italy to seize the next decade to fight climate change, and chastised world leaders for acting "as if there is no tomorrow"
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyL4



Protests in India against a new citizenship law that opponents say is anti-Muslim spread to other regions on Friday, a day after two people were shot dead by police in the northeast of the country -- the epicenter of days of demonstrations.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/JyuF







Supporters of Algeria's newly-elected president Abdelmadjid Tebboune celebrate his election victory at his campaign HQ in the capital Algiers.
Tebboune won the widely unpopular poll without the need for a second-round runoff, the electoral commission said.
Read more: http://u.afp.com/Jy2d



AI 'completes' symphony.
A few notes scribbled in his notebook are all that German composer Ludwig van Beethoven left of his Tenth Symphony before his death in 1827.
Now, a team of musicologists and programmers is racing to complete a version of the piece using artificial intelligence, ahead of the 250th anniversary of his birth next year.
Full story: http://u.afp.com/Jy8m



Five years ago this week, Washington and Havana surprised the world when they agreed to reopen diplomatic ties severed in 1961, but relations have since slid downhill as if on a fresh layer of Cold War ice.
Read story: http://u.afp.com/Jyzx

THAT AWKWARD MOMENT 

OBAMA DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ITS NOT ALL ABOUT HIM 

AND THE POLITE THING IS TO JOIN HANDS IN SOLIDARITY

This is a fat innkeeper worm (Urechis unicinctus).
Thousands of marine worms like this - dubbed "penis fish" for their shape and color - appeared this week on a California beach after a strong winter storm exposed them.
The worms covered Drakes Beach, 50 miles north of San Francisco. 

Read more about these mysterious creatures here 👉 http://u.afp.com/JyRx

After at least three years in darkness, the face of Argentina's Eva Peron is again lit, this time projected onto the side of the Social Development ministry, just days into President Alberto Fernández's first term.

https://www.facebook.com/AFPnewsenglish/videos/2510545919269244/

A hairdresser in Belgrade declares war on lice, opening up a salon that specialises in removing the insects the old-fashioned way, with combs rather than chemicals

https://www.facebook.com/AFPnewsenglish/videos/866618507086123/

After more than six months of protests in Hong Kong, some local residents are not in the mood to celebrate Christmas.

Add caption

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                                                                         ---30---

RED BETWEEN THE LINES WORLD REVOLUTION 2019

Among many key events of 2019, was an explosion of demonstrations across the world as people demanded an overhaul of entrenched political systems and action on climate change.

https://www.facebook.com/AFPnewsenglish/photos/a.163022200402458/2775232082514777