Canadian visa program may lure tech workers blocked by Trump

YOU'RE LOSS OUR GAIN TRUMP MAKES HEAD HUNTING EVEN EASIER

"NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK" AMERICA PROVERB
TORONTO/OTTAWA (Reuters) - A fast-track visa program that Canada launched in 2017 has attracted a growing number of tech workers, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown is set to further boost intake once COVID-19 restrictions ease, lawyers say.

FILE PHOTO: Marco Mendicino poses with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after being sworn-in as Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship during the presentation of Trudeau's new cabinet, at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada November 20, 2019. REUTERS/Blair Gable

The number of successful applicants to Canada’s Global Skills Strategy (GSS) program rose five-fold over its first three years, with more than 23,000 workers approved under the top five tech categories, data provided to Reuters by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) shows.

More than 2,300 applications for those same top five tech roles were approved from January to March 2020, ahead of the COVID-19 shutdowns that led to border closures and a sharp drop in immigration. The program boasts a two-week processing time.

Immigration lawyers told Reuters they were broadly in favor of the program, which some described as transparent and consistent, and an example of how Canada has been able to take advantage of Trump’s immigration stance since he entered the White House in 2017.

“There are employers who have non-U.S. employees in the U.S. who are definitely looking seriously at Canada,” said Kyle Hyndman, a partner with McCrea Immigration Law in Vancouver, who was contacted this week by a “major” company about bringing employees to Canada.

On Monday, Trump issued a presidential proclamation that temporarily blocks foreign workers from entering the United States on certain visas, which a Trump administration official said would create 525,000 jobs for U.S. workers.


“The fact that people started contacting me pretty much the next day is perhaps a suggestion that there are going to be more people interested,” Hyndman said.

U.S. technology companies including Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc, Facebook Inc and Netflix Inc have in recent years expanded their Canadian operations, although most companies declined to comment on their GSS usage or how Trump’s recent announcement will impact their hiring plans.

Tobi Lutke, the chief executive officer of Canadian e-commerce company Shopify, was quick to tout the Canada’s attraction following Trump’s immigration move.

The program “has made it possible to hire top talent beyond our borders,” said Sandeep Anand, senior lead on the global mobility team at Shopify, adding that it has helped relocate employees to Canada.

The majority of approved applicants to the fast-track visa program were computer programmers and interactive media developers, followed by information systems analysts and consultants, the IRCC data shows.

Indian citizens accounted for 62.1% of successful applicants to the fast-track program, followed by Chinese citizens. Nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens also have seen their applications approved.


The GSS data only covers the period up to March of this year, just before broader immigration in Canada fell off a cliff due to border closures to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. Lawyers, however, don’t expect it to last.

Betsy Kane, one of the founding partners of Capelle Kane Immigration Lawyers in Ottawa, said the program is going to see a surge of applications.

“Whenever one door shuts, the other door is sought.”


Reporting by Moira Warburton in Toronto and Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Denny Thomas and Paul Simao

Dead dolphins wash up on France's shores in record numbers
CANCALE, France (Reuters) - Dead dolphins are washing up on France’s Atlantic coast in such high numbers that local populations of the mammals are at risk, marine biologists say.

The overwhelming majority drowned in the nets of fishing trawlers. Post mortems often show fractures, broken tails and flippers and deep incisions cut into their skin by the nets. Some have been mutilated as fishermen release their bodies.

“We’re reaching mortality rates that threaten the survival of the dolphin population in the Bay of Gascony,” said Morgane Perri, a marine biologist in Brittany, western France.

“For the last three years, we’ve seen more than 1,000 deaths (dolphins and porpoises) over a four-month period each winter.”

Common dolphins are the hardest hit. Scientists believe those found on beaches represent a small fraction of the total number dying in fishing nets off the coast of France. The real number is likely to be five to 10 times higher, they estimate.

Dolphins have for decades been caught in fishing nets in the Atlantic waters off western Europe. But marine scientists say the spike in numbers in recent years is a result of shifting fishing practices, and in particular the fishing vessels that trawl in pairs for sea bass.


French law requires fishermen to declare all cetacean by-catch. But Perri said this rarely happened.

The National Committee of Maritime Fishermen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The slow reproduction rates of dolphins, which are mammals and need to surface in order to breathe, means they are particularly vulnerable to sharp falls in numbers, according to the Pelagis Observatory in La Rochelle.

Population models show numbers are stable, said Helene Peltier, a researcher at the observatory. “But once you see the decline, it’s too late.”


Activist group Sea Shepherd wants trawlers to be banned from fishing in sea bass spawning grounds and better monitoring of fisheries. Acoustic ‘pingers’ designed to repel dolphins are also being trialled on some fishing boats.

“There is no single miracle solution,” Peltier said.

In West Bank, Israeli settler leaders complicate annexation plan

ITAMAR, West Bank (Reuters) - Jewish settler leaders who resist the creation of a Palestinian state are complicating Israel’s plans to annex scores of settlements in the occupied West Bank under U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace blueprint.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet is due next month to discuss the annexation plan, under which Israel would apply sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank - in areas where most of its about 130 settlements are located.

The plan is opposed by the Palestinians, who seek a state in all of the West Bank, as well as in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as a capital. Most world powers agree.

The plan also faces resistance from settler leaders who oppose Trump’s calls for a future Palestinian state that would envelop at least 15 Jewish settlements - despite U.S. guarantees of protection for, and access to, the future “enclaves”.

“We’re talking about strangling a community,” said Hananel Elkayam, mayor of Itamar settlement, one of the 15 named in the plan.

In misgivings echoed in the other 14, Elkayam predicted residents would be unable to commute to jobs through territory that would be in a new Palestinian state, would by denied construction and would be at greater risk of attack than now.

“I would tell (Trump): Thanks very much for the plan, thanks very much for the great affection for the Jewish people (but) we’ll set our own destiny,” Elkayam said.

KEEPING DOOR TO DIPLOMACY OPEN

U.S. officials will this week discuss whether to give Israel the green light for annexation moves seen by the Palestinians and many other countries as illegal land-grabs.

Israel’s West Bank settlements were built by successive governments on land captured in a 1967 war. More than 400,000 Israelis now live there, with another 200,000 in East Jerusalem, which was also taken in 1967.

A Direct Poll survey last week found 56.8% of settlers support the Trump plan, more than the Israeli average.

Elkayam and other settler leaders say that backing is for annexation - on condition that plans for Palestinian statehood are scrapped.

Israeli and U.S. officials want to be seen as keeping a door open to diplomacy. Where that door might lead worries Yochai Damri, head of a regional council that includes four of the 15 listed settlements.

Damri sees Palestinian statehood becoming more likely if the Republican president is defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in November’s U.S. election, and if, or when, Netanyahu is succeeded by centrist Benny Gantz, the Israeli premier’s partner in a fragile unity government.

The Trump plan says residents of the future enclaves can stay put “unless they choose otherwise”. Damri and other settlers hear in that a hint that they should quit to make way for Palestinian territorial contiguity.


Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Timothy Heritage

Kremlin dismisses Japan's objection to geological survey in Okhotsk Sea
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday it had a sovereign right to carry out work in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia’s far eastern coast after a Japanese official objected to Moscow conducting a geological survey there.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described Russia’s survey as unacceptable and in conflict with Tokyo’s position on four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, the Japan Times cited him as saying.

“Russia has a sovereign right to carry out any research on its territory,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a conference call on Friday.

The geological survey in the Sea of Okhotsk, near the disputed islands, began on June 18 and is set to last for three months, Russian news agencies reported.

Japan calls the four Russian-held islands, off its main northern island of Hokkaido, the Northern Territories. Known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles, the islands were seized by Soviet forces in the closing days of World War Two.

The territorial issue has blighted relations between Russia and Japan for decades and has prevented them from signing a formal peace treaty ending World War Two.

Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Gareth Jones

Outgoing U.S. ambassador to Germany defends troop withdrawal plan


FILE PHOTO: Richard Grenell U.S. Ambassador to Germany attends the "Rally for Equal Rights at the United Nations (Protesting Anti-Israeli Bias)" aside of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States is planning to withdraw troops from Germany because Americans are against “paying too much” for other countries’ security, the outgoing U.S. ambassador said late on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. military to remove 9,500 troops from Germany, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.


The move would reduce the U.S. contingent to 25,000.

Richard Grenell, who resigned as U.S. ambassador to Germany on June 1, told Bild Live late on Wednesday: “American taxpayers no longer feel like paying too much for the defence of other countries.”


“There will still be 25,000 soldiers in Germany, that’s no small number,” he added, according to a German translation of his remarks.

The troop move is the latest twist in relations between Berlin and Washington that have often been strained during Trump’s presidency. Trump has pressed Germany to raise defence spending and accused Berlin of being a “captive” of Russia due to its partial reliance on Russian energy.

Trump’s decision to cut U.S. troop levels in Germany blindsided a number of senior national security officials, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the Pentagon had yet to receive a formal order to carry it out, Reuters has learned.


Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Tom Brown

Full text of Philonise Floyd's statement to U.S. Congress

(Reuters) - Here is the text of the prepared testimony to a U.S. congressional hearing on Wednesday of Philonise Floyd, whose brother George Floyd’s death under the knee of a white police officer roused worldwide protests against racial injustice:


George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd is joined by civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump during a recess in the hearing on the House Judiciary Committee on Policing Practices and Law Enforcement Accountability at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, U.S. June 10, 2020. Michael Reynolds/Pool via REUTERS

“Chairman Jerrold Nadler and members of the Committee:

“Thank you for the invitation to be here today to talk about my big brother, George. The world knows him as George, but I called him Perry. Yesterday, we laid him to rest. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I’m the big brother now. So it was my job to comfort our brothers and sisters, Perry’s kids, and everyone who loved him. And that’s a lot of people. I have to be the strong one now, because it’s what George would have done.

“And me being the big brother now is why I’m here today. To do what Perry always did for us – to take care of the family and others. I couldn’t take care of George the day he was killed, but maybe by speaking with you today, I can help make sure that his death isn’t in vain. To make sure that he is more than another face on a T-shirt. More than another name on a list that won’t stop growing.


“George always made sacrifices for his family. And he made sacrifices for complete strangers. He gave the little that he had to help others. He was our gentle giant. I was reminded of that when I watched the video of his murder. He was mild mannered; he didn’t fight back. He listened to the officers. He called them ‘sir.’ The men who took his life, who suffocated him for eight minutes and 46 seconds. He still called them ‘sir’ as he begged for his life.

“I can’t tell you the kind of pain you feel when you watch something like that. When you watch your big brother, who you’ve looked up to your whole life, die. Die begging for your mom.

“I’m tired. I’m tired of the pain I’m feeling now and I’m tired of the pain I feel every time another black person is killed for no reason. I’m here today to ask you to make it stop. Stop the pain. Stop us from being tired. George’s calls for help were ignored. Please listen to the call I’m making to you now, to the calls of our family, and to the calls ringing out in the streets across the world. People of all backgrounds, genders and race have come together to demand change. Honor them, honor George, and make the necessary changes that make law enforcement the solution – and not the problem. Hold them accountable when they do something wrong. Teach them what it means to treat people with empathy and respect. Teach them what necessary force is. Teach them that deadly force should be used rarely and only when life is at risk.

“George wasn’t hurting anyone that day. He didn’t deserve to die over twenty dollars. I am asking you, is that what a black man’s life is worth? Twenty dollars? This is 2020. Enough is enough. The people marching in the streets are telling you enough is enough. Be the leaders that this country, this world, needs. Do the right thing.


“The people elected you to speak for them, to make positive change. George’s name means something. You have the opportunity here to make your names mean something, too.

“If his death ends up changing the world for the better. And I think it will. I think it has. Then he died as he lived. It is on you to make sure his death isn’t in vain. I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye to Perry while he was here. I was robbed of that. But, I know he’s looking down on us now. Perry, look at what you did, big brother. You’re changing the world. Thank you for everything. For taking care of us when you were on Earth, and for taking care of all of us now. I hope you found mama and can rest in peace and power.”


Compiled by Scott Malone

Kremlin dismisses Japan's objection to geological survey in Okhotsk Sea
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Friday it had a sovereign right to carry out work in the Sea of Okhotsk off Russia’s far eastern coast after a Japanese official objected to Moscow conducting a geological survey there.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga described Russia’s survey as unacceptable and in conflict with Tokyo’s position on four Russian-held islands claimed by Japan, the Japan Times cited him as saying.

“Russia has a sovereign right to carry out any research on its territory,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a conference call on Friday.

The geological survey in the Sea of Okhotsk, near the disputed islands, began on June 18 and is set to last for three months, Russian news agencies reported.

Japan calls the four Russian-held islands, off its main northern island of Hokkaido, the Northern Territories. Known in Russia as the Southern Kuriles, the islands were seized by Soviet forces in the closing days of World War Two.

The territorial issue has blighted relations between Russia and Japan for decades and has prevented them from signing a formal peace treaty ending World War Two.

Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Gareth Jones

Coronavirus lockdowns increase poaching in Asia, Africa

By ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and MICHAEL CASEY

June 21, 2020

1 of 11
This November 2014 photo provided by the Wildlife Trust of India shows a leopard caught in a trap in a forest in Karnataka, India. Authorities in India are concerned a 2020 spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive. (WTI via AP)


NEW DELHI (AP) — A camera trap photo of an injured tigress and a forensic examination of its carcass revealed why the creature died: a poacher’s wire snare punctured its windpipe and sapped its strength as the wound festered for days.

Snares like this one set in southern India’s dense forest have become increasingly common amid the coronavirus pandemic, as people left jobless turn to wildlife to make money and feed their families.

Authorities in India are concerned this spike in poaching not only could kill more endangered tigers and leopards but also species these carnivores depend upon to survive.

“It is risky to poach, but if pushed to the brink, some could think that these are risks worth taking,” said Mayukh Chatterjee, a wildlife biologist with the non-profit Wildlife Trust of India.

Since the country announced its lockdown, at least four tigers and six leopards have been killed by poachers, Wildlife Protection Society of India said. But there also were numerous other poaching casualities — gazelles in grasslands, foot-long giant squirrels in forests, wild boars and birds such as peacocks and purple morhens.

In many parts of the developing world, coronavirus lockdowns have sparked concern about increased illegal hunting that’s fueled by food shortages and a decline in law enforcement in some wildlife protection areas. At the same time, border closures and travel restrictions slowed illegal trade in certain high-value species.

One of the biggest disruptions involves the endangered pangolin. Often caught in parts of Africa and Asia, the anteater-like animals are smuggled mostly to China and Southeast Asia, where their meat is considered a delicacy and scales are used in traditional medicine.

In April, the Wildlife Justice Commission reported traders were stockpiling pangolin scales in several Southeast Asia countries awaiting an end to the pandemic.

Rhino horn is being stockpiled in Mozambique, the report said, and ivory traders in Southeast Asia are struggling to sell the stockpiles amassed since China’s 2017 ban on trade in ivory products. The pandemic compounded their plight because many Chinese customers were unable to travel to ivory markets in Cambodia, Laos and other countries.

“They are desperate to get it off their hands. Nobody wants to be stuck with that product,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence for the commission.

The illegal trade in pangolins continued “unabated” within Africa but international trade has been disrupted by port closures, said Ray Jansen, chairman of the African Pangolin Working Group.

“We have witnessed some trade via air while major ship routes are still closed but we expect a flood of trade once shipping avenues reopen again,” Jansen said.

Fears that organized poaching in Africa would spike largely have not materialized — partly because ranger patrols have continued in many national parks and reserves.

Emma Stokes, director of the Central Africa Program of the Wildlife Conservation Society, said patrolling national parks in several African countries has been designated essential work.

But she as heard about increased hunting of animals outside parks. “We are expecting to see an increase in bushmeat hunting for food – duikers, antelopes and monkeys,” she said.

Jansen also said bushmeat poaching was soaring, especially in parts of southern Africa. “Rural people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,” he said.

There are also signs of increased poaching in parts of Asia.

A greater one-horned rhino was gunned down May 9 in India’s Kaziranga National Park -- the first case in over a year. Three people, suspected to be a part of an international poaching ring, were arrested on June 1 with automatic rifles and ammunition, said Uttam Saikia, a wildlife warden.

As in other parts of the world, poachers in Kaziranga pay poor families paltry sums of money to help them. With families losing work from the lockdown, “they will definitely take advantage of this,” warned Saikia.

In neighboring Nepal, where the virus has ravaged important income from migrants and tourists, the first month of lockdown saw more forest-related crimes, including poaching and illegal logging, than the previous 11 months, according to a review by the government and World Wildlife Fund or WWF.

For many migrants returning to villages after losing jobs, forests were the “easiest source” of sustenance, said Shiv Raj Bhatta, director of programs at WWF Nepal.

In Southeast Asia, the Wildlife Conservation Society documented in April the poisoning in Cambodia of three critically endangered giant ibises for the wading bird’s meat. More than 100 painted stork chicks were also poached in late March in Cambodia at the largest waterbird colony in Southeast Asia.

“Suddenly rural people have little to turn to but natural resources and we’re already seeing a spike in poaching,” said Colin Poole, the group’s regional director for the Greater Mekong.

Heartened by closure of wildlife markets in China over concerns about a possible link between the trade and the coronavirus, several conservation groups are calling for governments to put measures in place to avoid future pandemics. Among them is a global ban on commercial sale of wild birds and mammals destined for the dinner table.

Others say an international treaty, known as CITES, which regulates the trade in endangered plants and animals, should be expanded to incorporate public health concerns. They point out that some commonly traded species, such as horseshoe bats, often carry viruses but are currently not subject to trade restrictions under CITES.

“That is a big gap in the framework,” said John Scanlon, former Secretary-General of CITES now with African Parks. ”We may find that there may be certain animals that should be listed and not be traded or traded under strict conditions and certain markets that ought to be closed.”
___
Casey reported from Boston. Associated Press writer Christina Larson contributed from Washington.

On Twitter follow Ghosal: @aniruddhg1 and Casey:@mcasey1
___


The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

A cash cliff spells trouble for U.S. unemployed, and everyone else
Jonnelle Marte, Ann Saphir

(Reuters) - Judith Ramirez is bracing for July. That’s when the hotel housekeeper and her electrician husband - who have both been out of work for three months - expect their combined unemployment benefits to drop by more than half, and their deferred $1,500 monthly mortgage payment on their Honolulu home to come due.


Judith and Jose Ramirez, a housekeeper and an electrician who were both temporarily laid off from their jobs at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel due to the business downturn caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, pose with their daughters Mary Amber, 1, and Mary Ashley, 5, outside their home in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. April 29, 2020. REUTERS/Marco Garcia
It’s a cash cliff millions of Americans face this summer as the emergency benefits — which lifted U.S. consumer incomes by a record 10.8% in April — expire. The loss of that safety net looms in the weeks ahead, well before a sustained recovery is likely to take hold from the sudden and deep recession brought on by the novel coronavirus. Personal income dropped 4.2% in May, data Friday showed.

The $600 supplement Congress added to weekly unemployment benefits is due to expire July 31.

Without new support, recipients face a substantial loss of income - particularly devastating for those like the Ramirez family who worked in hard-hit sectors like hospitality where new jobs are scarce. During high unemployment and a still-raging pandemic, the end of enhanced jobless benefits could drag on consumer spending, set off a wave of missed rent and mortgage payments and translate to a slower recovery, economists said.

That’s a great concern for Rachel Finchum, 55, who lost her job at a Nashville-based T-shirt printing company after 18 years. She has sought forbearance on her mortgage but is worried about what will happen when the government programs run out.


“I’m very scared to think I may not be able to make my bills,” Finchum said. “With my future so uncertain, I have a house payment and bills based on 18 years of what I was making.”
BENEFITS LIFTED SPENDING

As the novel coronavirus pandemic exploded in March and local authorities shut down large parts of the U.S. economy, the Trump administration and Congress softened the blow by moving quickly to roll out a patchwork of emergency aid.

The centerpiece: stimulus checks for most households and more generous unemployment benefits for tens of millions of newly jobless Americans.

The combined cash aid provided $3 in support for every $1 in lost income in April, Oxford Economics’ Gregory Daco estimated. And until it expires on July 31, the extra $600 weekly unemployment payment on average makes up for income lost due to unemployment and reduced hours, he said.


Indeed about two-thirds people eligible for unemployment benefits can collect more in benefits than they earned while working, researchers from the University of Chicago found.

For low-wage workers like Ramirez, the help was particularly critical. Households across the board slashed spending as coronavirus-related restrictions began in March. But after the government began issuing stimulus checks, lower-income households resumed spending much faster than higher income households, with much of the cash going to basics like utilities and groceries, said Michael Stepner of Harvard University’s Opportunity Insights.

Outlays by low-income households are now only about 3% below pre-crisis levels, versus minus 13% for high-income households.


When the extra benefits run out, jobless benefits will revert to their typical pre-pandemic levels, low by design to encourage people to look hard for work. In 15 states, the maximum unemployment benefit would replace less than half of the median earnings for a worker with a high school diploma, according to Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist for the RAND Corporation.

That may pressure some people short on cash to risk their health to take a low-paying job at a restaurant or delivery company, which may expose them to the virus, said Julia Coronado, president of MacroPolicy Perspectives and a former Federal Reserve economist. “That’s a very terrible choice for our policymakers to be telling people they need to make,” she said.


Slideshow (13 Images)

And with unemployment expected to stay high and businesses in some sectors unable to open, many won’t be able to find even those jobs, she said.

The drop-off in support is also a problem for the economy as a whole, reducing GDP by 2.5% in the second half of 2020, estimated Jason Furman, a Harvard professor who ran the Council of Economic Advisors under President Barack Obama.

Congress may consider at least a partial extension of the benefits, but the uncertainty is making some families cautious about their spending, said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics.

“Lower-income households are worried that the pandemic will re-intensify and disrupt their incomes further,” said Zandi. “They are also unsure of how much - if any - more help is coming from Washington D.C.”

Ramirez, 40, spent a month chasing down her unemployment benefits after she stopped working in late March. When the payments finally started arriving, Ramirez banked them to build a cushion.

Knowing that the benefits are going to be reduced dramatically and unsure of when they’ll get back to work, Ramirez and her husband are living frugally. To save money on groceries, they wake up at 5 a.m. about once a week to get in line at a nearby food bank.


Ramirez will likely have reduced hours if she gets her job back in August, her manager told her. The hotel that employed her husband is still shut down.

“We need to have a backup,” said Ramirez, whose daughters are ages 1 and 5. “I have children to feed.”

For Finchum in Nashville, there is no prospect of a return to her old job. Her employers were nearing retirement so decided to close the business down when the pandemic struck.

“The stimulus package has been a life saver,” she said.

SOME Scientists can't find the G-spot either!

SOME  Doctors say there's no evidence the elusive zone actually exists

SOME Doctors say there's no proof of a region that could create powerful orgasms 

TELL THAT TO PORN STAR CYTHEREA 

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg

Medics from Istanbul said evidence for its presence was ‘scant, insufficient and weak’ 

WHAT IS SCANT INSUFFICIENT AND WEAK IS THEIR RESEARCH ON ONLY 17 WOMEN 

By STEPHEN ADAMS MEDICAL EDITOR FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY

PUBLISHED: 27 June 2020

It has proved frustratingly elusive for more than 70 years, but scientists say they have finally worked out why men can’t find the ‘G-spot’ – it isn’t there.

Doctors say there’s no proof women have a small, super-sensitive region that could create particularly powerful orgasms when aroused.

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg, who first suggested the existence of a dense network of nerve endings in the 1950s. But a new study of 17 middle-aged women has found no evidence of such a spot, but ‘a fairly even distribution’ of nerves instead.

SOME Doctors say there’s no proof women have a small, super-sensitive region that could create particularly powerful orgasms when aroused (file photo

Writing in the International Urogynaecology Journal, a team of medics from Istanbul said the ‘anatomical evidence for the presence of the G spot’ was ‘scant, insufficient and weak’.

lthough Dr Gräfenberg – who also invented the IUD coil contraceptive – suggested the existence of the zone, he was too modest to name it after himself.

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The expression was coined by American sexologists in the 1980s and quickly gained popularity – as well as spawning a new way of marketing sex toys and treatments.

Even though it had been discussed for decades, the first evidence for the existence of the G-spot came just eight years ago, following the examination of a single 83-year-old woman. The man who published that discovery subsequently invented a procedure dubbed a ‘G-spotplasty’ intended to increase sexual satisfaction, despite scepticism from some colleagues.

The erogenous zone was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Gräfenberg, who first suggested the existence of a dense network of nerve endings in the 1950s

Although G-spot therapies have become a multi-million dollar business, Devan Stahl, from Michigan State University, has said there is ‘virtually no evidence that these therapies work outside a placebo effect’.

And those who believe the G-spot is a myth say the notion makes women feel needlessly insecure. A survey for Cosmopolitan magazine found half of women feel inadequate or frustrated feeling others can orgasm in a way they can’t.

It also found that 22 per cent of men said finding the woman’s G-spot is the number one goal of sex.

Since the 2012 report, several other studies have failed to produce conclusive evidence a single G-spot exists.

Barry Komisaruk from Rutgers University in New Jersey, who led one study, said: ‘It’s not like pushing an elevator button or a light switch. It’s not a single thing.’

Australia and New Zealand to jointly host Women’s Fifa World Cup 2023
 TPE admin June 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:

-Stadium Australia, Sydney (the final), capacity: 70,000
-Sydney Football Stadium, capacity: 42,512
-Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, capacity: 30,052
-Brisbane Stadium, capacity: 52,263
-Perth Rectangular Stadium, capacity: 22,225
-Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide, capacity: 18,435
-Newcastle Stadium, capacity: 25,945
-York Park, Launceston, Tasmania, capacity: 22,065

And five stadiums in New Zealand:

-Eden Park, Auckland (opening game), capacity: 48,276
-Wellington Stadium, capacity: 39,000
-Christchurch Stadium, capacity: 22,556
-Waikato Stadium, Hamilton, capacity: 25,111
-Dunedin Stadium, capacity: 28,744

INDIA
Karnataka farmer walks 15km to repay loan amount 

of 4 cents

 TPE admin June 27, 2020


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

 TPE admin June 25, 2020


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

 TPE admin June 26, 2020


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.

Just yesterday thunderstorms and lightning killed over 110 people in India’s Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

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

THE ONLY REASON THESE TWO WOULD BE HERE
TPE admin dateJune 27, 2020


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

Post authorBy TPE admin
Post dateJune 29, 2020


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.

Link to the disturbing video here.

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.

RELATED COVERAGE
U.S. official: Iran's arrest warrant for President Trump is 'propaganda stunt'

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

Published on June 29, 2020 By Matthew Chapman

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

Published June 29, 2020 By Tom Boggioni

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.”

‘Abdicating its moral responsibility,’ US Supreme Court paves way for resumption in federal executions

SO MUCH FOR BEING PRO-LIFE
June 29, 2020 By Common Dreams


“The death penalty has no place in a just society,” said Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for federal executions to resume following a 17-year pause. It denied to hear a challenge from death row prisoners over the Trump administration’s lethal injection protocol.

“At a moment when people around the country are demanding justice, equality, and accountability, clearing the way for federal executions is a mistake,” tweeted the ACLU.

The order (pdf) from the high court indicates that liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have heard the challenge.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr last year directed the Bureau of Prisons to resume capital punishment, with pentobarbital as the sole drug for the lethal injections.

The death penalty has no place in a just society.
Congress must act now and pass my bill to outlaw its use at the federal level and require re-sentencing of those currently on death row. https://t.co/Q5hODJUcWE
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) June 29, 2020

Author and anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean said court’s decision “means that the federal government will likely execute four people using an untested lethal injection protocol during a global pandemic without any real oversight from the Supreme Court. All of this is against the wishes of at least one victim’s family.”

.@TheJusticeDept says that it is pursuing justice for victims’ families by pushing to execute Danny Lee. That could not be further from the truth. The victims’ family is begging the government to NOT execute Danny Lee. The DOJ’s statements are not truthful. pic.twitter.com/se6SH8ZZl5

— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) June 29, 2020

Three federal executions are currently scheduled for July and one for August. All the state-sanctioned killings are scheduled to take place at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The high court’s decision doesn’t mark the end of the road for the inmates’ legal challenges, as they’re “separately asking a federal judge in Washington to impose a new delay on their executions over other legal issues that have yet to be resolved,” as the Associated Press reported.

The last federal execution took place in 2003. And, according to California Innocence Project director Justin Brooks, it should be the last.

“The Supreme Court must eventually rise above the fear driven politics in the USA and bring us in line with the rest of the civilized world when it comes to the #DeathPenalty,” Brooks tweeted. “It is a human rights violation.”

South Pole warming three times faster than rest of Earth: study

HEAT DEATH AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

Published on June 29, 2020 By Agence France-Presse

The South Pole has warmed three times faster than the rest of the planet in the last 30 years due to warmer tropical ocean temperatures, new research showed Monday.

Antarctica’s temperature varies widely according to season and region, and for years it had been thought that the South Pole had stayed cool even as the continent heated up.

Researchers in New Zealand, Britain and the United States analyzed 60 years of weather station data and used computer modeling to show what was causing the accelerated warming.

They found that warmer ocean temperatures in the western Pacific had over the decades lowered atmospheric pressure over the Weddell Sea in the southern Atlanti

This in turn had increased the flow of warm air directly over the South Pole — warming it by more than 1.83C (about 3.3F) since 1989.

Authors of the research said the natural warming trend was likely boosted by manmade greenhouse gas emissions and could be masking the heating effect of carbon pollution over the South Pole.

“While temperatures were known to be warming across West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula during the 20th century, the South Pole was cooling,” said Kyle Clem, a researcher at Victoria University of Wellington, and lead study author.

“It was suspected that this part of Antarctica… might be immune to/isolated from warming. We found this is not the case any more,” he told AFP.

The data showed that the South Pole — the most remote spot on Earth — was now warming at a rate of around 0.6C (1.1F) a decade, compared with around 0.2C (1.4F) for the rest of the planet.

The authors of the study, published in the Nature Climate Change journal, attributed the change to a phenomenon known as the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO).

The IPO cycle lasts roughly 15-30 years, and alternates between a “positive” state — in which the tropical Pacific is hotter and the northern Pacific is colder than average — and a “negative” state where the temperature anomaly is reversed.

The IPO flipped to a negative cycle at the start of the century, driving greater convection and more pressure extremes at high latitudes, leading to a strong flow of warmer air right over the South Pole.

Clem said that the 1.83C (3.3F) level of warming exceeded 99.99 percent of all modeled 30-year warming trends.

“While the warming was just within the natural variability of climate models, it was highly likely human activity had contributed,” he said.

© 2020 AFP

Trump’s new USAID appointee outed for rants about the US as a ‘homo-empire’ and claim ‘women shouldn’t be in office’

Published on June 29, 2020 By Sarah K. Burris



CNN.com’s KFILE has outed Merritt Corrigan, President Donald Trump’s new nominee for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for racist, sexist and homophobic statements in the past.

The aim of the USAID is supposed to be an independent agency from the federal government, but it trains U.S. foreign service workers who run assistance programs dealing with global poverty, disaster relief, and other socioeconomic relief issues in the developing world. It’s for that reason that appointing someone known for racism, sexism and homophobia probably isn’t a good look for the Trump White House.

The 2019 and 2020 tweets from at least 400 previously unreported Tweets in Corrigan’s feed have been deleted, but not before the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine could capture them

“Mass deportations when?,” Corrigan tweeted in October 2019, with a 2010 article quoting German Chancellor Angela Merkel saying German multiculturalism failed.

“Our homo-empire couldn’t tolerate even one commercial enterprise not in full submission to the tyrannical LGBT agenda,” Corrigan also wrote on Twitter before she was hired by the Hungarian embassy in Washington.

Things got worse when she started talking about women.

“This sick statement by [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren, which glibly mocks a real crisis happening in our society, is exactly why women shouldn’t be in office. They will always advocate for themselves at the expense of men, and revel in it,” Corrigan also tweeted in October 2019.

Corrigan went on to lash out at conservative radio host Michael Knowles when he shared a photo of himself with a drag queen.

“Right wing gatekeepers have made it abundantly clear that their allegiance is to Satan and those who carry out his agenda of appalling sexual perversion over those who question the liberal status quo,” she tweeted.

“Western women are slowly waking up to the lies of feminism and the organized effort to push us toward an empty life of isolation and childlessness,” she also tweeted that month.

She even went so far as to argue that it was cruel and wrong to “empower” girls and tell them that they are “equal” to men, in November 2019 tweets.

First daughter Ivanka Trump has worked to foster women entrepreneurs around the world with a program she calls We-Fi, short for the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative. Corrigan seems to personally oppose such a program.

Ivanka has also appeared at an international conference focusing in Berlin on building leadership among women and girls. She got a warm reception until she tried to claim her father cared about the success of women.

After 2019 reports that conditions have improved in Somalia’s humanitarian crisis, Corrigan went off on immigrants, “Great, can we send the 70,000+ Somalis in Minnesota back then?”

She then said, “Immigration is the hostile governing elite’s preferred agent of chaos,” later that same month.

USAID’s mission statement says that all LGBTQ people have a right “to live with dignity, free from discrimination, persecution, and violence.” USAID’s commitment to women and girls seems to also fly in the face of Corrigan’s tweets.

“Investing in gender equality and women’s empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformational scale,” USAID says. “For societies to thrive, women and girls, men and boys must have equal access to education, healthcare, and technology. They must have equal control of resources, lands, and markets. And they must have equal rights and opportunities as peace-builders and leaders.”

Read more shocking tweets at CNN.com from Merritt Corrigan.