Latest News, News Headlines, Amazon Coupons, Amazon Offers

Latest News, News Headlines, Amazon Coupons, Amazon Offers


Top Stories Today

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 07:49 AM PDT

Top Stories Today


What Famous Rooms In Paintings Look Like In Real Life, And More Of The Week's Coolest Design

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:01 PM PDT

A cafe made out of cardboard, a house with a roof that's literally a pool and other coolest design of the week.

Alex Jones's Sandy Hook Deposition Video Has Been Obtained And, Whew, Does He Look Bad

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:21 PM PDT

"Like I told you, most of this stuff I can't even remember."

Scandinavia May Not Be The Happiest Place On Earth After All

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 06:53 AM PDT

A recent study shows people living in parts of southern Europe have a higher mental well-being than those living in the north.

Learn To Play The Guitar (For Real) With Fender Play

Posted: 18 Jan 2019 04:45 AM PST

Get your first two weeks free, plus unlimited 10% off Fender gear.

Subway Magician Casually Bends The Fabric Of Reality

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:57 AM PDT

This guy on the New York City subway makes a free-floating rubber band dance in the air, and turns our brains to rubber, in turn.

Hiding Out In The Wikipedia Page Of A Horror Movie

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 06:53 AM PDT

Besides the fact that I'm a busy woman on the go who simply doesn't have time to be overcome with anxiety about being haunted by a demonically possessed doll, and also an enormous wuss who hates witnessing bodily harm of any kind — why am I, and possibly you, doing this?

The Wild Work Diary Of Robin Arzón, Peloton's VP Of Fitness Programming

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 06:03 AM PDT

Arzón, who hydrates three different ways by 8 am, is essential to the start-up's $4 billion valuation.

The On-The-Court/Over-The-Air Reactions To This Three Pointer Are ~ NeXt LeVeL ~

Posted: 27 Mar 2019 11:28 AM PDT

When Lance Stephenson almost knocks a guy off his feet and then drains a big bad three, all rules go out the window.

This Week's Best Memes, Ranked

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:39 AM PDT

It's an internet fight and only the funniest meme will emerge victorious. This week's challengers? St Louis Style, Pregnant Mom, #AvengeTheFallen and more.

This Amazing Smart Speaker Will Teach You Chinese

Posted: 08 Jan 2019 04:48 AM PST

No books, no vocabulary lists, no flash cards. Just speak.

This Russian Shotgun Drone Is Beyond Terrifying

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:57 PM PDT

A Russian defense contractor just received the patent for this flying, shotgun-wielding beast. Great.

How Sovereign Citizens Helped Swindle $1 Billion From The Government They Disavow

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:01 PM PDT

Fraud is to them what cross-burning is to white supremacists: an expression of belief.

Drowning The Culture In Sameness

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:45 PM PDT

Flooding (v.): Unleashing a mass torrent of the same stories by the same storytellers at the same time, making it almost impossible for anyone but the same select few to rise to the surface.

Learn How To Teach English Abroad With This Certification Course

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 06:03 AM PDT

If you want to make a tremendous impact and travel the world, check out this TEFL Master Certification Course: from planning lessons to managing a classroom, this course prepares you to teach English as a foreign language and learn your TEFL certification. Use coupon code MADNESS15 for an extra 15% off the sale price.

The Share Of Americans Not Having Sex Has Reached A Record High

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:01 PM PDT

Among the 23 percent of adults — or nearly one in four — who spent the year in a celibate state, a much larger than expected number of them were twentysomething men.

Apple Cancels AirPower Charging Pad, Citing Inability To Meet Its High Standards For Hardware

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:57 PM PDT

"After much effort, we've concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled."

Today's Hero Is A Turkish Shopkeeper Who Resuscitated A Suffocating Stray Puppy

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:45 PM PDT

Omer Yilmaz, a shop-keeper, revived a stray puppy who had a piece of food lodged in his throat. He first applied a cardiac massage and later used mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive the young one.

The Inside Story Of How The Ricketts Family Schemed And Feuded Their Way To Owning The Chicago Cubs

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:45 PM PDT

The documents and emails come from the inbox of Joe Ricketts, founder of TD Ameritrade and billionaire patriarch of the Ricketts family.

Activists Wear Swamp Creature Masks To Trump Nominee's Hearing, And The Pictures Are Priceless

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:57 AM PDT

Regardless of your view of the politics, the pictures are... very good.

Why Everyone Hates The Vessel

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:47 AM PDT

The centerpiece of New York's massive new Hudson Yards development has drawn relentless criticism.

Glasses Always Sliding Down? Here's How To Fix It

Posted: 21 Mar 2019 04:19 AM PDT

It's not tacky, just good manners. Nerdwax keeps your glasses on your face. Stop them from sliding down your nose.

Siegfried & Roy's Animal Handler Breaks Silence on Mauling, Alleges Cover-Up

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:57 PM PDT

Chris Lawrence was onstage when a white tiger viciously attacked Roy Horn in 2003 during their Las Vegas show. Now, after a 15-year battle with PTSD, Lawrence is finally ready to discuss the human error that triggered the incident.

Ranking Juices By How Healthy They Are

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:15 AM PDT

Surprise! Most juices are less fix-all tonics, more sugar-overdose fructose bombs.

Uber Driver Has An, Um, Very Texan Solution To Traffic Congestion

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:57 AM PDT

"Everything's legal in Texas, man."

Are We Living In A Golden Age Of '90s Period Films?

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:01 PM PDT

From "Captain Marvel" to "Mid90s," new movies are obsessed with the warm glow of the Clinton era.

The How And Why Of Swearing In TV Series

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:57 PM PDT

How do TV series use swear words? And what are their functions?

A Real-Life Superhero Made A Cinematic Video Of *That* Ant-Man Vs. Thanos Theory

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:01 PM PDT

YouTube's HELLO THERE took the — ahem — "Thanus" theory and made it real with a bit of movie magic. Good luck getting the idea out of your head now.

What The 2020 Presidential Candidates' Logos Tell Us, Explained By Design Experts

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:47 AM PDT

The 2020 campaigns are using bright, bold design and poppy colors. Here's why.

What I Learned About Racism As The Only Chinese Person At A 'Chinese' Festival

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:15 AM PDT

Every Thursday before Ash Wednesday, the city is transformed into "Bavarian China," and its inhabitants become "Chinese," dressing up in "traditional" clothing and wearing yellowface makeup.

The 50 Best 'Slaughterhouse-Five' Covers From Around The World

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:39 AM PDT

Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," or "The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death," turns 50 this week.

Kayaking Down A Waterfall Does Not Go As Planned For This Man

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 12:12 PM PDT

Ah, yes the back barrel double roll total wipeout.

Idiotic Train Surfers Insist On Dodging 3,000-Volt Cables

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:27 AM PDT

These Capetown cruisers don't realize that adrenaline is short-lived, and that's especially true if you end up dead.

This Documentary Is A Journey Into The Belly Of An Underground Opal Mine

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 02:47 PM PDT

Coober Pedy, Australia is so remote and reaches such extreme temperatures that the majority of the population live and work underground.

Well-Intentioned Birthday Surprise Nearly Sets The House On Fire

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:45 AM PDT

Two surprises, one good and one not so good.

This 1.6-Pound Clock Looks Like Somebody Stole It From The Cockpit Of A WWII B-17

Posted: 26 Mar 2019 02:02 PM PDT

This analog beast has no smart features, just a dial and two hands, and a good dose of attitude.

Don't Sleep In Your Car. Sleep On Top Of It With This Tent

Posted: 25 Mar 2019 05:57 AM PDT

Haul your gear and have a place to sleep when you make camp with this roof top tent.

Brace Yourselves, The Rain Is On Its Way

Posted: 20 Mar 2019 04:46 AM PDT

As winter turns to spring, you're going to want a water resistant jacket. This one's guaranteed to keep you dry on your next run — and it fits in your pocket.

Latest World News, World News, Current Affairs, Daily Current Affairs

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 04:16 AM PDT

Latest World News, World News, Current Affairs, Daily Current Affairs


U.S. Military Test One-Use Delivery Drones

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:00 AM PDT



Sputnik: The Expendables: US Military Test One-Use Delivery Drones (VIDEO)

An innovation company based in California has announced it successfully concluded a series of flight tests for delivery drone with the US Marine Corps.

The unmanned aircraft were tried by the US military to see if they can transport heavy supplies over long distances, and to be thrown away after each use.

Logistic Gliders Inc. (LGI) tested two of their gliders, made of cheap plywood, the LG-1K model (can carry about 300kg) and the LG-2K model (700kg)

Read more ....

WNU Editor: At a cost of a few hundred dollars each, I can see these drones being widely used.

Here Are 6 Of NATO's Worst Crises In 70 Years

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:00 PM PDT

A Polish army PT-91 tank during NATO exercise Silver Arrow 2017 in Latvia. Ints Kalnins/Reuters

Business Insider: These are 6 of NATO's worst crises in 70 years as the world's most powerful military alliance

* During the Cold War, NATO effectively defended Western Europe with US nuclear weapons.
* Twelve countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, and NATO has since grown to 29 countries, including former Soviet states bordering Russia, which has angered Moscow.
* Here are six occasions, from the building of the Berlin Wall to the September 11 attacks, that NATO faced a crisis.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a pact launched 70 years ago in the ashes of World War II to face Stalin's Soviet threat and bind Western Europe and the US together, is the world's foremost military alliance.

The success of its deterrent power can be seen in a simple reality: NATO's first combat mission only came after the Soviet Union's collapse.

During the Cold War, NATO effectively defended Western Europe with US nuclear weapons, as NATO's office of the historian notes.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: A reminder that the Cold War was not a pleasant experience for all who had to live under it.

Tweets For Today

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:00 PM PDT











Picture Of The Day

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:00 PM PDT

Fighters from the Kurdish Women's Protection units (YPJ) participate in a military parade on 27 March 2019, celebrating the total elimination of the Daesh group's (banned in Russia) last bastion in eastern Syria, in the northwestern city of Hasakah, in the province of the same name. © AFP 2019 / Delil Souleiman

WNU Editor: The above picture is from this photo-gallery .... This Week in Pictures: 23 - 29 March (Spuntik).

Life In Venezuela Has Returned To The Middle Ages

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:51 PM PDT



AFP: Venezuela returns to 'Middle Ages' during power outages

Caracas (AFP) - Walking for hours, making oil lamps, bearing water. For Venezuelans today, suffering under a new nationwide blackout that has lasted days, it's like being thrown back to life centuries ago.

El Avila, a mountain that towers over Caracas, has become a place where families gather with buckets and jugs to fill up with water, wash dishes and scrub clothes. The taps in their homes are dry from lack of electricity to the city's water pumps.

"We're forced to get water from sources that obviously aren't completely hygienic. But it's enough for washing or doing the dishes," said one resident, Manuel Almeida.

Because of the long lines of people, the activity can take hours of waiting.

Elsewhere, locals make use of cracked water pipes. But they still need to boil the water, or otherwise purify it.

"We're going to bed without washing ourselves," said one man, Pedro Jose, a 30-year-old living in a poorer neighborhood in the west of the capital.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The above video is from two weeks ago, but it still applies today. As for the current blackout, it is still continuing .... Caracas and other cities hit by new blackout – Venezuela crisis (TRT).

ISIS Leader Planned His Escape Years Before The Fall Of The Islamic

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:43 PM PDT

An image grab from a July 5, 2014 propaganda video allegedly shows the leader of the Islamic State jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, addressing Muslim worshipers at a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. Photo: AFP / Al-Furqan Media

Asia Times: ISIS prepped Baghdadi escape years before defeat

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his top leadership are likely in the impenetrable Syrian desert, long prepped for territorial setbacks

Long before the fall of his physical empire, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, was hunkered down with his top command and most loyal fighters, most likely in the impenetrable Syrian desert region known as the Badia.

"Certainly he is still alive, he did not participate in any battle and was not close to any battlefield," said Hisham al-Hashemi, a Baghdad-based terrorism expert.

"The ISIS security detail that guards Baghdadi knows that keeping the Caliph alive is more important than maintaining the Caliphate," he told Asia Times.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: My gut tells me that he is hiding in western Iraq.

Remembering 'The Great Escape'

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:00 PM PDT



Stars and Stripes: US troops in Europe celebrate 75th anniversary of the Great Escape

American soldiers joined their Polish counterparts in Zagan, Poland, for two days of festivities over the weekend commemorating the 75th anniversary of the daring escape from a prisoner-of-war camp located there during World War II.

Though 73 of the 76 men were recaptured after fleeing Stalag Luft III through 334 feet of tunnels on that late March 1944 night, the event has come to be known as the Great Escape and was hailed for causing the Wehrmacht to expend manpower hunting down the escapees.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Great movie.

Tonight's Movie Is 'The Enemy Below'

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:00 PM PDT



From Wikipedia: The Enemy Below is a 1957 DeLuxe Color war film in CinemaScope, which tells the story of the battle between an American destroyer escort and a German U-boat during World War II. The movie stars Robert Mitchum and Curt Jürgens as the American and German commanding officers, respectively, and was directed and produced by Dick Powell. The film was based on a novel by Denys Rayner, a British naval officer involved in anti-submarine warfare throughout the Battle of the Atlantic.

Read more ....

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 29, 2019

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:00 PM PDT



Andrew Roth, The Guardian: Ukraine election: will voter anger propel TV comic to presidency?

Actor Vladimir Zelenskiy is tapping into the protest vote as favourite in Sunday's vote

Ukraine goes to the polls on Sunday with a comic who plays the president on his own TV show the favourite to become the next president in a protest vote against the country's leaders.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an actor with no prior political experience, is likely to win the first round with a lead of up to 10% in some polls. Behind him are Petro Poroshenko, the current president who made a fortune from his confectionery empire, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister who has decried corruption and promised to boost pensions and cut heating bills. If no candidate wins a majority, the top two will face each other in a runoff later in April.

Read more ....

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- March 29, 2019

Crisis-hit Ukraine desperate for savior in presidential election -- Roman Goncharenko, DW

How To Watch (And Understand) Ukraine's Presidential Election -- Christopher Miller, RFE

Russia Enjoys the Show in Tight Ukrainian Election -- Evan Gershkovich, Moscow Times

Quit Harping on U.S. Aid to Israel -- James Kirchick, The Atlantic

The Islamic State Was a Sham -- Daniel R. DePetris, National Interest

Algerian protesters reject military's gambit to maintain power -- Simon Speakman Cordall, Al-Monitor

Escalating the US Air War in Afghanistan Isn't Working -- Bonnie Kristian, Defense One

Thailand election: Full vote count in but no winner yet -- BBC

China's Twenty-First Century Difficulties -- Leland Lazarus & John Brunetti, National Interest

In China, Yet Another Course Correction -- Phillip Orchard, Geopolitical Futures

Pakistan Doesn't Want Modi to Win -- Fahd Humayun, Foreign Policy

The Guardian view on Theresa May's defeat: three strikes and out -- Guardian editorial

The Kosovo War in Retrospect -- James Goldgeier and Gorana Grgić, War On The Rocks

NATO is the obstacle to improving Russian-Western relations -- Ruslan Pukhov, DEfense News  

Venezuela leadership duel galvanized by US, Russia rivalry -- AFP

World News Briefs -- March 29, 2019 (Evening Edition)

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:17 PM PDT



Euronews: Final day of campaigning in Ukraine elections

Politicians in Ukraine will be finishing their electoral campaigns today, ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

There are a total of 39 candidates on the ballot paper, but comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy leads the latest polls.

If no candidates win a majority of the votes, a second vote between the top two will take place.

Read more ....

MIDDLE EAST

Iraqi leader says there's 'consensus' on US troops presence.

Saudi Arabia says Syrian opposition must unite before any dialogue with government.

A 'tragic life' for the displaced in Syria's Al-Hol camp.

Turkey rejects US pressure over Russian S-400 missile deal.

Erdogan fights to hold Turkey's cities in bitter election battle.

US calls for probe into Yemen hospital bombing.

Hamas backs Egypt proposal for calm on Israel border: officials.

Palestinians urge large turnout for Great March of Return year anniversary.

ASIA

Trump says N.Korea suffering, doesn't need new sanctions.

Two weeks before India starts voting, Modi predicts easy victory.

Pakistan PM's remarks on Afghan peace process stir diplomatic row.

South Korea's Moon to meet Trump over stalled North Korea talks.

China thanks Kazakhstan for 'support' of Xinjiang crackdown.

Vietnam GDP growth hit by swine flu, weakened exports.

20,000 attend memorial for victims of New Zealand mosque attack.

Bangladesh fire in high-rise office building kills 25 people.

AFRICA

At least three dead in gunfight in Comoros after opposition moves to unseat president.

Burundi begins mass release of prisoners.

Loyalist calls for president to quit fail to end Algeria protests.

Tunisia detains UN Libya arms embargo official.

Congo president allows senators to take office, ending feud with predecessor's camp.

Nigeria court revokes bail for missing separatist leader.

UN food agency launches appeal for Mozambique relief funds.

Cyclone-hit Mozambique fears cholera epidemic.

Trump to host Egypt's Sisi on April 9.

Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah released from jail after five years.

EUROPE

France blocks US trade talks, angering EU: diplomats.

No-deal Brexit fears rise as parliament sinks May's deal.

UK faces new Brexit crisis after lawmakers reject May's deal.

MPs reject May's EU withdrawal agreement. The Latest: UK lawmakers vote "No" on May's Brexit deal.

EU Commission says no-deal Brexit on April 12 'likely'.

Ukraine minister: President and rival both bribing voters.

Separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine divides young voters.

Italy coalition in bitter row over sexual violence law.

Germany declines to recognize Juan Guaido's Berlin emissary.

Berlin police carry out massive raids against organized crime.

Kosovo bans ALL gambling for a decade after two casino workers were murdered in a week.

AMERICAS

Mueller report to be released by mid-April: attorney general.

Trump threatens to close border with Mexico 'next week'.

Fired-up Trump pushes 'no collusion' angle in Russia report. Trump blasts ongoing Dem investigations: 'Ridiculous bulls---'.

Mexico braces for new caravan of Central American migrants.

Trump says will probably talk to Russia's Putin about Venezuela.

Bolton: Russia, others sending troops to Venezuela is 'direct threat' to region's security.

Venezuela crisis: Guaidó banned from office for 15 years.

Google is an unlikely messenger between Trump and Cuba, insider says.

Homelessness rises in Argentina's capital amid crisis.

Mexico raises alert level after Popocatepetl volcano eruption.

TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR

US-led coalition: 1,257 civilians killed in airstrikes against ISIS.

UN Security Council binding resolution makes terror financing a serious crime.

'Life was better under ISIS': Inside the terror group's devastated former stronghold of Mosul where conditions are so bad some desperate locals want the extremists to RETURN.

ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS

Markets Right Now: Stocks up broadly; Lyft soars 8.7 percent.

Ride-hailing company Lyft rises in Wall Street premiere.

US, China set to resume 'candid' trade talks in Washington.

Huawei sales top $100bn despite US-led pressure.

Investigators 'believe Ethiopian 737 Max's anti-stall system activated'. Boeing Ethiopia crash probe 'finds anti-stall device activated'.

GOP senator demands info on Google's work in China.

Oil prices on track to see one of best quarters in decade.

One Million March For Algerian President Bouteflika's Removal

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:04 PM PDT



Reuters: Hundreds of thousands march against Algeria's Bouteflika

ALGIERS (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Algiers on Friday to demand the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the biggest demonstration since unrest erupted six weeks ago.

In at least one location, a Reuters correspondent saw police opening fire with tear gas and rubber bullets, and chasing and beating demonstrators, after youths hurled stones at them.

The turnout came days after the military called for the aging leader's removal to end a growing political crisis. State television showed protests in several other cities.

Read more ....

More News On Growing Protests In Algeria

Algerians march against president, political system -- AP
Algeria: Hundreds of thousands march for President Bouteflika's removal -- BBC
Huge rallies as Algerians seek departure of Bouteflika, old guard -- Al Jazeera
Hundreds of thousands march against Algeria's Bouteflika -- Reuters
Mass protests in Algeria as Bouteflika clings to power -- DW
A million protesters call for Algerian president to step down -- FOX News
Algeria: The final days? Military signals end of Bouteflika era -- France 24

White House Warns Russia That Sending Military Personnel To Venezuela Threatens International Peace

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 01:45 PM PDT



Reuters: White House warns Russia over troops in Venezuela, threatens sanctions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Friday warned Russia and other countries backing President Nicolas Maduro against sending troops and military equipment to Venezuela, saying the United States would view such actions as a "direct threat" to the region's security.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been given a list of options to respond to Russia's growing presence in Venezuela in support of Maduro, including new sanctions, said Elliott Abrams, the U.S. special representative for Venezuela.

"We have options and it would be a mistake for the Russians to think they have a free hand here. They don't," Abrams told reporters at the State Department.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this week said "Russia has to get out" of Venezuela and said "all options" were open to force Russia to do so after two Russian air force planes carrying nearly 100 military personnel landed outside Caracas.

Read more ....

More News On The White House Warning Russia That Sending Military Personnel To Venezuela Threatens International Peace

White House tells Russia that sending troops and military equipment to Venezuela to prop up Maduro is a 'direct threat to international peace' after special forces land in Caracas -- Daily Mail
US condemns Russia troop deployment to troubled Venezuela -- AP
U.S. Raises Likelihood of Venezuela Intervention -- US News and World Report
White House warns Russia against sending troops to Venezuela -- The Hill
US warns Russia, others against sending troops to Venezuela -- Al Jazeera
US says Russians in Venezuela to fix missile system -- AFP

America Prepares For War In Space

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 01:37 PM PDT

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

Warrior Maven: How America is Revving Up Preparations for Massive Space War

Six Trends Guide America's Future in Space

Staying ahead of space trends – from satellite manufacture to new launch options – is daunting. Six trends – at least – are at work. To what exact end they vector is unclear, but watching is important. These trends will affect American investment in space, national security, our modern standards of living, and our wider economy.

First, heavy satellites are getting heavier, as more capability is attached to each satellite. Capabilities are commercial to national security, communications to climate prediction, crisis response to territorial protection, real-time analysis to event anticipation.

Heavier satellites tend to raise launch costs and can be expensive to design and build, but may reduce ground-station costs. While heavy satellites represent only a narrow slice of the market, this trend reinforces continued (but very expensive) interest in heavy lift. Additionally, a renewed emphasis on man-rated heavy launch capability only ups this ante.

Read more ....

WNU Editor:The U.S. has been preparing for a war in space for a long time .... The U.S. Is Gearing Up For Space War (April 21, 2017).

President Trump Talked About Using Nuclear Football On North Korea During Puerto Rico Visit In 2017

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:43 AM PDT



CNN: Sources to CNN: During Puerto Rico visit, Trump talked about using nuclear football on North Korea

He was there to survey the path of destruction left by Hurricane Maria. But when President Donald Trump visited Puerto Rico in October 2017, the island's dire predicament was hardly the only topic on his mind.

People familiar with the visit said the President was distracted by other matters -- including his then-devolving war of words with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un -- as he toured devastated neighborhoods and took an aerial tour of the damage.

At one point, Trump pointed to the "nuclear football" -- a briefcase always in the President's vicinity that can be used to authorize a nuclear attack -- and claimed he could use it on Kim whenever he felt.

"This is what I have for Kim," he said, according to three people familiar who witnessed the remark.

Read more ....

WNU Editor:  This is CNN's interpretation. But the nuclear football is always near the President, and I am sure President Trump has commented on it numerous times in the past two years.

U.S. Report: Afghan Forces Could Desert Without U.S. Air Support, Cash And Troops

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:41 AM PDT

U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan meets with Afghan commandos at Camp Commando, Afghanistan, Feb. 11, 2019. (Lisa Ferdinando/DoD)

Military Times: Afghan forces could turn guns on Kabul without US air support, cash and troops, among other warnings

Afghanistan remains dependent on the U.S.-led coalition to combat insurgencies, pay Afghan troops, maintain oversight of corruption and generally just prevent the country from devolving into chaos.

That doesn't bode well for the peace negotiations currently underway between U.S. and Taliban diplomatic teams.

A new series of warnings were introduced by John F. Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, ahead of the release of SIGAR's 2019 "High-Risk List" report.

SIGAR has made two previous High-Risk List reports, Sopko said, but this one is unique due to the ongoing peace negotiations to end America's longest war.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: This report is probably accurate. We may also be repeating history. The Soviet installed Afghan government in the 1980s collapsed within two years once the spigot was cut, with the Afghan military either deserting and/or joining the enemy.

Chinese Analyst Calls For 'Tougher' Action Against The U.S. In The South China Sea

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:49 AM PDT

In 2013, China embarked on a massive land reclamation project, expanding seven reefs in the Spratlys into large artificial islands. Photo: People's Daily

Liu Zhen, SCMP: 'Time for tougher deterrence from China' as US steps up patrols in South China Sea

* Chinese analyst says American forces should have to think twice before going 'too far' with their activities in the contested waters

China should reinforce "deterrence facilities" in the South China Sea as the United States and its allies mount a bigger challenge in the contested waters, a prominent Chinese specialist said.

"Tension in the South China Sea will rise in the coming year so we must deploy some defensive facilities that are able to overawe American warships entering nearby waters," said Wu Shicun, head of the government-affiliated National Institute for South China Sea Studies.

On the sidelines of the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan on Friday, Wu said the US would step up what it called freedom of navigation operations in the area with more frequent and wider-ranging manoeuvres this year.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: In the meantime China is publicly telling everyone that they are going to expand their presence in the South China Sea .... China envisions an 'island city' in South China Sea (Asia Times).

Did India Shoot Down Its Own Mi-17 Helicopter in Kashmir During Last Month's India-Pakistan Air Clash?

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:39 AM PDT

An Indian soldier next to the wreckage of Indian Air Force's helicopter in Kashmir February 27, 2019 © Reuters/Danish Ismail

IBTimes: Did India's own missile shoot down Mi17 helicopter in Budgam crash?

Investigations are on whether the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems were turned on that could have averted the Budgam helicopter crash.

A court of inquiry has been set up to ascertain whether an Indian missile shot down the Mi17 helicopter in Budgam district in Jammu and Kashmir on February 27 killing six Indian Air Force personnel and a civilian. The Mi17 helicopter was hovering over Kashmir skies when India and Pakistan were locked in an aerial stand-off had crashed minutes after the Pakistan jets crossed over the Line of Control into the Indian territory to target military bases.

Read more ....

More News On Reports That India Shot Down Its Own Mi-17 Helicopter in Kashmir During Last Month's India-Pakistan Air Clash

Budgam: Indian missile fired before Mi17 V5 chopper crash -- Economic Times
Did India Shoot Down Its Own Mi-17 Helicopter in Kashmir During India-Pakistan Air Clash? -- Eurasian Times
India may have shot down its own helicopter in Kashmir thinking it was Pakistan's -- Samaa TV
Indian Missile Mistakenly Hit its Own Chopper in Conflict with Pakistan - Report -- Sputnik
India blew up its own helicopter while trying to target Pakistani jets, killing 7 – report -- RT

U.K. Prime Minister May Loses Brexit Vote By 344 To 286

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 09:30 AM PDT



Daily Mail: May loses Brexit vote by 344 to 286: PM hints at an election by saying 'I fear we are reaching the limits of the process' after failing to pass her deal despite Brexiteer climbdown

* Theresa May's deal faced a make-or-break vote and will warn not to vote for it would be a 'betrayal' of public
* Her withdrawal agreement received 286 votes from MPs but 344 were against it - a deficit of 58 votes
* 34 Tory rebels - 28 Brexiteers and six remainers - while only five Labour MPs sided with the PM in Commons
* Boris Johnson had thrown his weight behind the deal - but hardcore Brexiteers say no to 'surrender' to EU
* Prime Minister could be forced to call a General Election as early as next week as UK heads for softer Brexit

Theresa May's Brexit is in tatters today - and Tory rebels are already calling on her to quit - after her deal was defeated by 58 votes in the Commons.

The Prime Minister has now hinted she will consider collapsing Parliament and calling a general election after the 'grave' result and said: 'I fear we are reaching the limits of the process in this House.'

Britain will now not leave the EU on May 22 and Mrs May is expected to beg Brussels for a longer Article 50 extension to avoid a No Deal Brexit on April 12.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: In such a normal situation the U.K. should get ready for a hard Brexit. But the problem is that a majority of MPs are against Brexit, and I am also sure they are not going to lay the groundwork to respect the decision that U.K. voters made to leave the European Union. So what is next? I predict one of two things. A indefinite delay, or an election where the next government will either continue with the process of Brexit (which I doubt), or terminate it and disregard the results of the referendum (which I expect).

More News On The U.K. Prime Minister May Losing The Brexit Vote By 344 To 286

May hints at possible need for election, saying MPs 'reaching limits' of Brexit process - live news -- The Guardian
Live: Reaction as Brexit vote -- BBC
Brexit: UK Parliament votes against withdrawal deal — live updates -- DW
Live: British MPs reject PM Theresa May's Brexit deal for third time -- France24
Brexit: MPs reject May's EU withdrawal agreement -- BBC
MPs reject Theresa May's Brexit deal by 58 votes -- The Guardian
Parliament sinks May's Brexit deal again, EU braces for no-deal exit -- Reuters
UK lawmakers reject government's Brexit deal -- AP
UK Parliament has dealt May's Brexit plan a fatal blow -- CNN
Furious Theresa May blasts John Bercow for wrecking her Brexit withdrawal agreement by blocking all amendments before MPs rejected it for a third time -- Daily Mail

World News Briefs -- March 29, 2019

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 03:02 PM PDT

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May speaks in the Parliament in London, Britain, March 29, 2019 in this screen grab taken from video. Reuters TV via REUTERS

Reuters: Parliament sinks May's Brexit deal again, EU braces for no-deal exit

LONDON (Reuters) - Lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal for a third time on Friday, sounding its probable death knell and leaving Britain's withdrawal from the European Union in turmoil on the very day it was supposed to leave the bloc.

The decision to reject a stripped-down version of May's divorce deal has left it totally unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the EU, and plunges the three-year Brexit crisis to a deeper level of uncertainty.

Read more ....

MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Arabia says Syrian opposition must unite before any dialogue with government.

A 'tragic life' for the displaced in Syria's Al-Hol camp.

Turkey rejects US pressure over Russian S-400 missile deal.

Erdogan fights to hold Turkey's cities in bitter election battle.

US calls for probe into Yemen hospital bombing.

Hamas backs Egypt proposal for calm on Israel border: officials.

Palestinians urge large turnout for Great March of Return year anniversary.

ASIA

Two weeks before India starts voting, Modi predicts easy victory.

Pakistan PM's remarks on Afghan peace process stir diplomatic row.

South Korea's Moon to meet Trump over stalled North Korea talks.

China thanks Kazakhstan for 'support' of Xinjiang crackdown.

Vietnam GDP growth hit by swine flu, weakened exports.

20,000 attend memorial for victims of New Zealand mosque attack.

Bangladesh fire in high-rise office building kills 25 people.

AFRICA

Loyalist calls for president to quit fail to end Algeria protests.

Tunisia detains UN Libya arms embargo official.

Congo president allows senators to take office, ending feud with predecessor's camp.

Nigeria court revokes bail for missing separatist leader.

Cyclone-hit Mozambique fears cholera epidemic.

Trump to host Egypt's Sisi on April 9.

Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah released from jail after five years.

EUROPE

MPs reject May's EU withdrawal agreement. The Latest: UK lawmakers vote "No" on May's Brexit deal.

EU Commission says no-deal Brexit on April 12 'likely'.

Ukraine minister: President and rival both bribing voters.

Separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine divides young voters.

Italy coalition in bitter row over sexual violence law.

Germany declines to recognize Juan Guaido's Berlin emissary.

Berlin police carry out massive raids against organized crime.

Kosovo bans ALL gambling for a decade after two casino workers were murdered in a week.

AMERICAS

Fired-up Trump pushes 'no collusion' angle in Russia report. Trump blasts ongoing Dem investigations: 'Ridiculous bulls---'.

Mexico braces for new caravan of Central American migrants.

Bolton: Russia, others sending troops to Venezuela is 'direct threat' to region's security.

Venezuela crisis: Guaidó banned from office for 15 years.

Google is an unlikely messenger between Trump and Cuba, insider says.

Homelessness rises in Argentina's capital amid crisis.

Mexico raises alert level after Popocatepetl volcano eruption.

TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR

US-led coalition: 1,257 civilians killed in airstrikes against ISIS.

UN Security Council binding resolution makes terror financing a serious crime.

'Life was better under ISIS': Inside the terror group's devastated former stronghold of Mosul where conditions are so bad some desperate locals want the extremists to RETURN.

ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS

US, China set to resume 'candid' trade talks in Washington.

Huawei sales top $100bn despite US-led pressure.

Investigators 'believe Ethiopian 737 Max's anti-stall system activated'. Boeing Ethiopia crash probe 'finds anti-stall device activated'.

GOP senator demands info on Google's work in China.

Oil prices on track to see one of best quarters in decade.

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- March 29, 2019

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:41 AM PDT

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un smiles as he visits Sohae Space Center in Cholsan County,North Pyongan province for the testing of a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 9, 2016. REUTERS/KCNA

CBS/AFP: North Korea "almost" done rebuilding key rocket test site month after Trump-Kim summit, South says

Seoul -- North Korea has almost completed rebuilding a long-range rocket site it had promised to close, South Korean lawmakers told reporters on Friday after a closed-door meeting with intelligence officials in Seoul. The claim comes a month after a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in February ended without an agreement, deepening a gap between the two on how to achieve Mr. Trump's stated goal of "complete denuclearization."

Shortly after the end of the Hanoi summit, a series of satellite images emerged suggesting increased activity at the North's Sohae rocket site, triggering international alarm that the nuclear-armed state might be preparing a long-range or space launch.

Read more ....

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- March 29, 2019

US military increases security at S. Korea bases due to potential threat -- Stars and Stripes

US says it won't rule out nuclear first strike, because allies wouldn't trust it otherwise -- RT

Air Force grounds B-1 bomber fleet to inspect ejection seats -- Air Force Times

Ellsworth AFB named first base for B-21 bomber -- UPI

US military space force: what do we know so far? -- Airforce Technology

Sierra Nevada nabs $317M for AC-130 Precision Strike Package -- UPI

Refuel the Truman—It's the Law! -- Captain Talbot Manvel, U.S. Navy (Retired), US Naval Institute

A new scout helicopter will replace half the Army's Apache fleet -- Task & Purpose/National Interest

Don't Panic About Apaches: Army Not Junking Gunships -- Breaking Defense

US Army picks 2 drones to test as Shadow replacement -- Defense News

New Adjustable Army Tank Round Destroys Tanks, Bunkers, Concrete Walls, Soldiers -- Warrior Maven

If GPS goes out, the Army now has a requirement for that -- C4ISRNet

All the Ways the US Military's Infrastructure Crisis Is Getting Worse -- Defense One

Pentagon surveying sites for new border wall segments: report -- The Hill

When will Trump nominate a permanent defense secretary? -- Military Times

Defense boss Shanahan opens 2nd review of Niger ambush that killed 4 US soldiers -- FOX News

Shanahan's efforts to reopen Niger probe surprise military officials -- CNN

We need Turkey to buy the Patriot: Pentagon chief -- Hurriyet Daily News/Reuters

Senate bill would make Turkey choose between US fighter jets, Russian air defense -- The Hill

Ankara, Moscow negotiating timeframe for S-400 deliveries to Turkey -- TASS

US Naval Institute Publishes Scenario of Possible Military Conflict With Turkey -- Sputnik

Young Officers Are Hungry to Learn Strategy. Will the U.S. Military Listen to Them? -- Steven Metz, WPR

More Iraq and Afghanistan troops survived critical injuries as wars went on -- Stars and Stripes

'We got zero notice': Army resumes Cold War-era snap deployments to Europe -- Stars and Stripes

This new Army unit could help the US win the next Cold War -- Army Times

NATO keeps Jens Stoltenberg as its chief until 2022 -- AP

Germany extends ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia -- DW

NATO foots bill for massive US combat depot in Poland -- Defense News

Pompeo wants NATO to take 'actions' to help Ukraine -- Stars and Stripes

Russian Navy keeping an eye on NATO warships in Black Sea -- TASS

Russia to keep military in Venezuela despite U.S. criticism -- UPI

Russia's Fifth-Generation Su-57 Jet Already Has Export Permit - Source -- Sputnik

China Building Long-Range Cruise Missile Launched From Ship Container -- Washington Free Beacon

Report: Japan increased protection of U.S. military assets after 2016 -- UPI

Indian Missile Mistakenly Hit its Own Chopper in Conflict with Pakistan - Report -- Sputnik

South Korea Leader Moon Jae-in To Meet President Trump For Talks On North Korea

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:19 AM PDT

U.S. President Donald Trump holds a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S., September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

USA Today: After Trump-Kim summit, South Korea leader Moon Jae-in to visit White House for talks on North Korea nukes

WASHINGTON – The prospects of renewed nuclear talks between the United States and North Korea will be on the table next month when the president of South Korea visits the White House.

President Donald Trump will meet with South Korea counterpart Moon Jae-in on April 11 to discuss trade, military cooperation, and North Korea's nuclear weapons program, the White House said late Thursday.

"The alliance between the United States and the Republic of Korea remains the linchpin of peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region," said a White House statement on the meeting.

Read more ....

More News On South Korea Leader Moon Jae-in To Meet President Trump In April For Talks On North Korea

South Korea's Moon to meet Trump over stalled North Korea talks -- Reuters
S. Korean leader to meet with Trump in US on nuke diplomacy -- ABC News/AP
Trump to host South Korean leader at White House summit on nuclear diplomacy -- Politico
South Korean President Moon Jae-in to meet with Trump in Washington -- NBC
Trump to meet with South Korea's Moon in April, White House says -- FOX News
Trump and Moon to meet in Washington amid North Korea impasse -- CNN
South Korean Leader to Meet With Trump, Hoping to Salvage His Role as Mediator -- The New York Times
Moon to meet Trump on April 11 -- Korea Herald

U.S. Strategic Command Wants To Deploy Lower Yield Nuclear Weapons

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:48 AM PDT

One of two Trident II D5 missiles tested June 2 by the U.S. Navy. Photo: U.S. Navy

USNI News: STRATCOM Commander Wants to Put Low Yield Nuclear Missiles on U.S. Submarines

CAPITOL HILL – If the U.S. opts to develop low-yield nuclear missiles, expect the Navy to deploy these weapons as part of the nation's undersea nuclear deterrent, the commander of U.S. Strategic Command told lawmakers Thursday.

If developed, the U.S. low-yield nuclear weapons would fall within limits set by the New START nuclear arms treaty, Air Force Gen. John Hyten, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, told the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee. New START, signed in 2010 by the U.S. and the Russian Federation, caps the number of nuclear warheads each nation deploys.

"We'll actually remove big weapons from the submarines and put small ones in," Hyten said. "We're going to have still the same number weapons, they just going to give us a smaller yield. But we think that smaller yield actually gives us a better chance to deter our primary adversary."

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I fail to see how deploying a lower yield nuclear weapon will have a greater deterrence on the other side. I know Russian doctrine when it comes to nuclear weapons is to throw everything at the other side and to completely obliterate the opponent. And as to the threat of being confronted by a "lower yield" nuclear weapon. To the Kremlin and the Russian military it will make no difference. A nuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon. Whether it is a 10 kiloton weapon, 100 kiloton weapon, or a 1 megaton one, the counter response will be the same.

World News, World News Updates, World News Headlines, Latest World News, Current Affairs

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 03:03 AM PDT

World News, World News Updates, World News Headlines, Latest World News, Current Affairs


Captain Feared For His Life As Rescued Migrants Hijacked Ship Taking Them Back to Libya

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 02:41 PM PDT

(VALLETTA, Malta) — African migrants who hijacked an oil tanker after it rescued them in the Mediterranean Sea seized metal objects and began smashing the ship and threatening crew members after they realized they were being returned to Libya, the ship’s captain said Friday.

Nader el-Hiblu, the 42-year-old Libyan captain of the El Hiblu 1 ship, said he and five other crew members feared they could be killed during the “horror” that played out at sea this week. He said the threats by rioting migrants forced him to agree to their demand that he take them to Europe, not back to Libya.

“They attacked the cockpit, heavily beating on the doors and the windows and they threatened to smash the boat,” Hiblu said in an exclusive account given Friday to The Associated Press. He spoke by phone from the ship, which is now docked in Valletta, the capital of Malta.

“They went nuts and they were screaming and shouting ‘Go back! Go back! Go back!'” he said.

For years, the Mediterranean Sea has been a place of drama and death as desperate people from Africa and the Middle East board unseaworthy smuggling boats with dreams of a better life in Europe. Last year, 2,299 people died in the sea trying to head to Europe, and the dangerous journey has also killed 311 people so far this year.

The migrants revolted against heading back to lawless Libya, where aid groups say migrants are beaten, raped and tortured on a regular basis in detention camps. Some aid groups called the migrants actions “self-defense” against Europe’s inhumane migration policies.

Now, there are fears that some merchant ship captains might become reluctant to save migrants from sinking boats in the future if they fear they could lose control of their ships.

El-Hiblu said the drama began Tuesday afternoon when his tanker was traveling from Istanbul to Libya. He was contacted by a military aircraft flying above — though he isn’t sure if it was Maltese or Italian — alerting him of a boat with people who needed help.

He then approached the boat, which he said was carrying 98 men, women and children.

“I took the people in the boat and there were six who refused to jump in, fearing that I take them back to Libya,” he said. “They refused to come with me and they fled while the plane was going after them.”

The aircraft then contacted him with a second location and he went there, but lost contact with the plane and the boats, he said.

He then directed his ship to Libya, saying the migrants believed they were headed to Europe and “were relaxed and happy and did nothing throughout the journey.”

At 6 a.m. Wednesday, el-Hiblu alerted Libyan port authorities that he was nearing the coast and requested assistance from coast guards or naval forces, aware that the migrants would become upset at realizing they were returning to Libya.

But help didn’t come. When the Libyan capital of Tripoli came into view, about 25 of the male migrants began their attack, he said.

“They all brought heavy metal tools and started to beat and smash the ship and threatened that they would leave the ship in pieces” if the vessel continued to Libya, he said. “It was horror. I didn’t care much about the boat, but the crew members.”

El-Hiblu called the port in Libya again and told them the crew was heading north toward Europe, saying: “they are going to kill me and kill us if we return. We are leaving.”

Libyan Coast Guard Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ayoub Gassim said when Libyan coast guards learned about the hijacking, they sent two boats in “hot pursuit” over a distance of 60 nautical miles (110 kilometers), but said the tanker was faster than their boats.

El-Hiblu insists, however, that the Libyan coast guard could have reached his tanker had authorities wanted to.

As the tanker moved north, news started spreading it was heading either toward Malta or the Italian island of Lampedusa. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has a strong anti-migrant stance, said Italy would not accept them.

At first, Malta also insisted it would not accept the vessel in its waters.

But on Thursday morning, the Maltese armed forces stormed the vessel and detained five men suspected of leading the hijacking, taking them away in handcuffs when the ship docked in Valletta, the capital.

El-Hiblu was incensed, however, after a Maltese security officer gave him a rough treatment, ordering him to take off his clothes for a body search and confiscating his phone. He said he was detained him for a couple of hours in a cell in a police station near the port, under suspicions that he was a human trafficker.

“This filthy country treated me in a very disrespectable way after rescuing 98 people. They dealt with me as a criminal and accused me of illegal migration,” he said angrily.

Maltese officials would not comment on the tanker hijacking case as they carried out an investigation. It was also impossible to speak to any of the migrants who had been on the ship to hear their side of the story.

Pope Francis Issues New Vatican Legislation Requiring Immediate Reporting of Sex Abuse

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:45 AM PDT

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis on Friday issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for Vatican personnel and diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors, a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church worldwide.

The mandatory reporting provision, while limited in scope, marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary, acting after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year and The Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.

While the new norms only cover Vatican City State, affiliated institutions and the diplomatic corps, they were still symbolically significant and were welcomed by a former seminarian whose case helped spark the reform.

“I see this as something positive,” Kamil Jarzembowski told the AP.

The law for the first time provides an explicit Vatican definition for “vulnerable people” who are entitled to the same protections as minors under church law. The Vatican amended its canon law covering sex abuse to include “vulnerable adults” in 2010, but never defined it.

According to the new Vatican definition, a vulnerable person is anyone who is sick or suffering from a physical or psychiatric deficiency, isn’t able to exercise personal freedom even on occasion and has a limited capacity to understand or resist the crime.

The issue of whether adult seminarians, religious sisters or other adults who are emotionally or financially dependent on clergy can be considered “vulnerable people” has come to the fore in the wake of the scandal over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a once high-ranking American cleric accused of molesting seminarians, and revelations of priests and bishops sexually preying on nuns.

The new law covers all personnel who live and work in the Vatican, the 44-hectare (110-acre) city state in the center of Rome, as well as the Holy See’s vast diplomatic corps.

The Vatican’s own ambassadors have figured in some of the most scandalous cases of sex abuse in recent years, with papal representatives accused of groping, distributing child pornography and sexually abusing minors in their far-flung posts.

The law now requires any Vatican public official who learns of an allegation of abuse to report it to Vatican prosecutors “without delay.” Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to 5,000 euros ($5,615) or, in the case of a Vatican gendarme, up to six months of prison.

The mandatory reporting provision is significant, since the Holy See for decades has justified not having a binding reporting policy for the universal church by arguing that accused clergy could be unfairly persecuted in places where Catholics are a threatened minority. Since that is not a risk in the Vatican, it is now law.

“With this document the Vatican wants to send a message that it takes these crimes seriously, wants to prosecute them, to avoid cover up, and also to create an atmosphere that prevents these crimes from happening in the first place,” said Ulrich Rhode, a canon law professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University.

Many of the law’s provisions answer longstanding complaints about how victims are treated by the church, while also ensuring that the accused are entitled to a defense and efforts to restore their reputations if the claim is not substantiated.

The legislation requires that victims be welcomed, listened to and provided with medical, psychological and legal assistance, and sets the statute of limitations at 20 years past the victim’s 18th birthday.

They must be kept apprised of the investigation, a significant point given that victims are usually kept in the dark about canonical sex abuse investigations due to the pontifical secrecy imposed.

Victims and their families are to be protected from any retaliation, a measure that answers longstanding problem faced by victims or their supporters, including Jarzembowski, who reported abuse at the Vatican youth seminary only to be kicked out the following year.

Mimicking some provisions in place in the U.S. church, the provision requires background checks for Vatican staff and volunteers working with minors and calls for safe environment training for all Vatican personnel.

The guidelines rule out corporal punishment for children and require parental consent for any photographs to be taken of their children.

In a statement accompanying the new law, the Vatican’s editorial director, Andrea Tornielli, said while very few children actually live in the Vatican City State, Francis decided to make the legislation and accompanying guidelines a model.

Last year, the AP reported that Vatican City had no policy to protect children, even though the Holy See required such policies in Catholic dioceses around the globe and had told the U.N. in 2013 that such a policy was in the works for the city state.

The absence of clear-cut policy became evident following revelations that Jarzembowski, then a teenage seminarian in the Vatican’s youth seminary had, in 2012, accused one of the older boys of sexually molesting his roommate.

Nothing came of it. Vatican police, who have jurisdiction over the territory, weren’t called in to investigate. A series of bishops and cardinals said they investigated, but no one ever interviewed the alleged victim.

On Friday, Jarzembowski told the AP the law answered many of the loopholes into which his case fell, particularly its explicit recognition that the pre-seminary falls under Vatican jurisdiction.

“Before, there was a situation where a group of kids were there, in the Vatican City State, but they were seemingly in a legal limbo,” he said.

He praised the mandatory reporting requirement, noting that in all survivor advocacy groups “the first thing that they do is say there must be the obligation to report to public authorities.”

U.K. Rejects Brexit Deal for 3rd Time, Leaving the Plan for Exiting the E.U. in Tatters

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:55 AM PDT

(LONDON) — U.K. lawmakers on Friday rejected the government’s divorce agreement with the European Union for a third time, leaving Britain just two weeks to decide between a long delay to Brexit and an abrupt no-deal departure from the bloc.

The House of Commons voted 286-344 against the withdrawal agreement struck between Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU, rebuffing her plea to “put aside self and party” and “accept the responsibility given to us by the British people” to deliver Brexit.

Amid business warnings that a no-deal Brexit could mean crippling tariffs, border gridlock and shortages of goods, a visibly frustrated May said the vote had “grave” implications.

“The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on 12 April — in just 14 days’ time,” she said. “This is not enough time to agree, legislate for and ratify a deal, and yet the House has been clear it will not permit leaving without a deal. And so we will have to agree an alternative way forward.”

Had the deal been passed, Britain would have left the EU on May 22.

The EU said the rejection of the divorce terms made a no-deal Brexit “a likely scenario” and called an emergency summit for April 10 to decide what to do next.

An EU Commission official said the 27 remaining EU nations were “fully prepared for a no-deal scenario at midnight 12th of April” — Britain’s deadline to chart a new course.

Almost three years after Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU, and two years after it set its departure date for March 29, 2019, British politicians remain deadlocked over Brexit. Like the country as a whole, they are split between those who want a clean break, those who want to retain close ties with the bloc, and those who want to overturn the decision to leave.

Last week, to prevent Britain from crashing out, granted an extension to May 22 had the divorce deal been approved by Friday — or to April 12 if rejected.

The 58-vote margin of defeat for the deal Friday was narrower than in previous votes in January and March, but it still leaves the government’s blueprint for exiting the bloc in tatters.

May’s deal was voted down even after the prime minister sacrificed her job in exchange for Brexit, promising to quit if lawmakers approved the agreement and let Britain leave the EU on schedule. With the deal’s rejection, she will face pressure to step aside and let a new Conservative leader take over negotiations with the EU.

The government had also warned pro-Brexit politicians that rejecting May’s deal could see Brexit delayed indefinitely.

May’s arguments moved some previously resistant Brexit-backers to support the deal. Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson — a likely contender to replace May as Conservative Party leader — tweeted that rejecting it risked “being forced to accept an even worse version of Brexit or losing Brexit altogether.”

But the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, with 10 seats in the House of Commons, refused to back the agreement because it treats Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the U.K.

Parliament voted on the legally binding, 585-page withdrawal agreement that May struck with the EU late last year, setting out the terms of Britain’s departure — but not on a shorter declaration on future ties that was also part of the accord between the two sides.

Removing the political declaration from the Brexit vote altered the deal enough to overcome a parliamentary ban against asking lawmakers the same question over and over again.

May also hoped severing the link between the two parts of the deal would blunt opposition. That gamble failed to pay off, as opposition lawmakers said if amounted to voting for a “blind Brexit” with no idea what would happen next.

With May’s deal as good as dead, lawmakers who favor a “soft Brexit” plan to hold votes Monday in an attempt to find a plan with majority support.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said Parliament had a “responsibility to find a majority for a better deal for all the people of this country.”

Business groups, who have been sounding the alarm for months about the damage a no-deal Brexit could do, urged lawmakers to avert disaster.

“All eyes are now on Monday to discover what Parliament is for,” said Josh Hardie, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry. “The U.K.’s reputation, people’s jobs and livelihoods are at stake. No deal is two weeks away.”

If lawmakers back a new proposal, Britain would need to seek a new delay to Brexit from the bloc to implement it.

The EU has indicated it could grant Britain an extension of up to a year if it plans to change course and tack toward a softer departure. That would, however, require the U.K. to participate in elections for the European Parliament in late May — something both the bloc and the British government have sought to avoid.

The political morass has left Britons on both sides of the debate frustrated and angry. Some Brexit supporters, who had planned to be celebrating Friday, were protesting instead.

Thousands converged on Parliament Square as lawmakers voted inside, waving Union Jack flags and singing, “Bye-Bye EU.”

Retired charity worker Mandy Childs, one of a band of hard-core Brexit supporters walking across England to London under the slogan “Leave Means Leave,” said she felt “heartbroken.”

“We were told over a 100 times by a British prime minister that we would be leaving on the 29th of March, 2019,” she said.

“To do that, promise the British people that and then say ‘Actually, no, we need to just put it back’ — absolute betrayal. And how dare she?”

Mexico Is Bracing for Yet Another Central American Migrant Caravan

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:44 AM PDT

(MEXICO CITY) — Mexico is bracing for the possible arrival of the “mother of all caravans,” even as doubts arise over whether the group of Central American migrants will be all that big.

Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero has said a caravan of migrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala could be forming.

“We have information that a new caravan is forming in Honduras, that they’re calling ‘the mother of all caravans,’ and they are thinking it could have more than 20,000 people,” Sanchez Cordero said Wednesday.

But a WhatsApp group calling for people to gather Saturday in El Salvador to set off for Guatemala only has about 206 members.

Activist Irineo Mujica, who has accompanied several caravans in Mexico, said reports about “the mother of all caravans” were false, claiming “this is information that (U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen) Nielsen is using to create fear.”

His group, Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said in a statement there was no evidence the new caravan would be that large, noting “there has never been a caravan of the size that Sanchez Cordero mentioned.” Indeed, past caravans hit very serious logistical hurdles at 7,000-strong.

He and others suspect the administration of President Donald Trump may be trying to fan fears of a big caravan to turn the U.S. national agenda back to the immigration issue.

Honduran activist Bartolo Fuentes, who accompanied a large caravan last year, dismissed the new reports as “part of the U.S. government’s plans, something made up to justify their actions.”

Later Thursday, Honduras’ deputy foreign minister, Nelly Jerez, denied that a “mother of all caravans” was forming in her country.

“There is no indication of such a caravan,” Jerez said. “This type of information promotes that people leave the country.”

A caravan of about 2,500 Central Americans and Cubans is currently making its way through Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas. The largest of last year’s caravans in Mexico contained about 7,000 people at its peak, though some estimates ran as high as 10,000 at some points.

Mexico appears to be both tiring of the caravans and eager not to anger the United States. It has stopped granting migrants humanitarian visas at the border, and towns along the well-traveled route to Mexico City sometimes no longer allow caravans to spend the night.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Thursday that Mexico is doing its part to fight immigrant smuggling.

“We are going to do everything we can to help. We don’t in any way want a confrontation with the U.S. government,” he said. “It is legitimate that they are displeased and they voice these concerns.”

Sanchez Cordero has pledged to form a police line of “containment” around Mexico’s narrow Tehuantepec Isthmus to stop migrants from continuing north to the U.S. border.

The containment belt would consist of federal police and immigration agents, but such highway blockades and checkpoints have not stopped large and determined groups of migrants in the past.

The Mysterious Case of Garfield Phones Washing Up on French Beaches Since the ’80s Has Been Solved

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:17 AM PDT

For 35 years, toy Garfield phones the color of macaroni and cheese have inexplicably washed up onto the beaches along the coastal waters of Brittany, France, and now we finally know why.

It appears they all came to Marine Nature Park from a shipping container that washed up into a cave after a storm.

On Friday, five members of Ar Viltansoù and journalists from FranceInfo visited the cave to discover the origins of the onslaught.

“I saw Garfield and container pieces all over the cave. But the bulk of the phones are already gone, the sea has done its job for thirty years. We arrive after the battle,” the president of the local beach cleanup association, Viltansoù Simonin-Le Meur, said according to Le Monde.

As it happens, the mind-boggling phenomenon of the lasagna-loving cat phones making their way to the French coast for years started at the height of the comic strip star’s popularity in the mid-80s when people were warming up to Jim Davis’s cartoon creation.

The random parts of the phone from his smug chubby face to the number dial pads people used to punch to the coiled lines just kept on coming, which is almost too strange to be true.

FRED TANNEAU—AFP/Getty Images‘Garfield’ phones are displayed on the beach on March 28, 2019 in Plouarzel, western France. (Photo by Fred TANNEAU / AFP) (Photo credit should read FRED TANNEAU/AFP/Getty Images)

As many as 200 Garfield’s sea-faring parts were discovered strewn across France’s beaches just last year, according to FranceInfo.

The environmental activist group Ar Vilantsou didn’t give up on finding the source.

They even made Garfield the kid-friendly face of the mission to clean up the ocean pollution in the area.

Recently, a farmer got in touch with the organization to say that he discovered that a metal shipping container with a massive stash of the orange Garfield telephone cargo was tucked away in the deepest recesses of a cave after a storm back in the ’80s.

Check out what people found in the video below.

The landline phone, like the titular cat, is a notorious sleepyhead so it only opened its “eyes” when its user picked up the receiver, and it remains a novelty item to this day.

Both Ar Viltansou and local officials told the BBC that they’re going to continue to collect these phones.

Ukraine Goes to the Polls on Sunday. Can Its Next President End the Frozen War With Russia?

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:53 AM PDT

Relations between Russia and Ukraine can perhaps be best described as somewhere between a war and a cold war. Before 2014, the Ukrainian government wanted a strategic partnership with Russia. Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 changed all that. Now, with Ukraine’s presidential elections approaching on March 31, ties with Russia are a key concern.

In April of this year, the two countries entered their sixth year of what is now a smoldering conflict in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas. Ukraine demands that the Kremlin return Crimea and the occupied areas of Donbas. And from the Kremlin’s point of view, Ukraine’s government is illegitimate, run by a fascist junta. “Russia would consider ceasing fighting its war on the Ukrainian flank — but only if it drew Kiev closer,” said Gleb Pavlovsky, former Kremlin adviser. Meanwhile “Ukraine dreams of liberating itself from Russia.”

Ukraine has accused Russia of waging a disinformation war to create social unrest; the population’s attitudes toward Russia has hardened over the past five years, with about two-thirds of the population viewing Russia as an aggressor. “Ukrainians want peace, but the price of this varies. Right now, it is impossible for Ukraine to have relations with Russia without being a traitor,” Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament tells TIME.

A peace resolution is in the Kremlin’s hands, says Anna Korbut, a fellow from the London-based think tank Chatham House, “but it’s up to Ukraine to define its red lines.”

But political analysts say Russia is not interested in ending the war. Control over Ukraine is part of Putin’s legitimacy, says Alexander Motyl, a political scientist at Rutgers University.“ He dare not admit he’s been defeated or admit he’s weak. It could jeopardize his grip on power at home,” Motyl says.

A new president in Ukraine could change a great deal. And the outcome remains difficult to predict, with polls indicating that the none of the three front-runners — the incumbent Petro Poroshenko, the political veteran Yulia Tymoshenko and the comedian-turned-politician Volodymyr Zelensky — are on a clear path to victory. Here’s what to know about how each of them might impact Ukraine-Russia relations.

Petro Poroshenko

John Lamparski – Getty ImagesUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko visits Fox News on February 20, 2019 in New York City.

A Poroshenko presidency is the most ‘comfortable’ and ‘convenient’ choice for the Kremlin, says Leschenko. “He’s predictable. They know his strengths and weaknesses.” There is “little hope of the status quo changing” if Poroshenko is re-elected, says Mikhail Minakov, Principal Investigator at a research center, the Kennan Institute and editor-in-chief of Focus Ukraine, the institute’s Ukraine focused blog. “The low intensity conflict will go on and reforms will continue to be faked, while the social pressure for economic reforms will intensify,” said Minakov.

Many Ukrainians feel that Poroshenko, 53, failed to live up to the promises he made when he became president in May 2014: to improve standards of living, ensure economic growth, strengthen rule of law and end the war. Now, he no longer gives a time frame for ceasefire and the Kremlin said it refuses to talk with Ukraine until there is a change in leadership.

Despite Poroshenko vowing to demolish the system of crony capitalism that flourished under Viktor Yanukovych and his predecessor, the culture of impunity surrounding corrupt elites continues to thrive. It remains the biggest challenge to reforming the country. Ordinary Ukrainians are stuck at a monthly average wage of $350 and one in six Ukrainians of working age migrate to Europe to work either temporarily or full time. And according to the Razumkov Center, 76 percent of Ukrainians think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

Yulia Tymoshenko

NurPhoto via Getty ImagesPresidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko talks to the media during a press conference in Kiev, Ukraine, March 7, 2019. (Photo by Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The politically fierce Tymoshenko presents herself as someone who can bring Russia back to the negotiating table, says Korbut, the Chatham House analyst.

Once the hero of a 2004 popular uprising against election fraud, nicknamed the “gas princess” for her 2009 gas deal with Russia, and imprisoned for two and half years by Yanukovych, Tymoshenko has a strong political reputation. She served as Prime Minister for eight months in 2005, and just over 2 years between 2007 and 2010. Until recently, the 58-year-old was leading in the polls.

She recently proposed a new format of negotiations, the ‘Budapest Plus’ — for ending the war in Donbas and returning Crimea to Ukraine — by holding talks with leaders from the U.S., France, Germany, the E.U., China and Russia. Korbut says the talks could give Russia the chance to make concessions without looking weak, including indirectly allowing Russia to exit Donbas while saving face.

But Tymoshenko’s “price for peace,” says the Minakov of the Kenan Institute, could mean forgetting about membership of the E.U. and NATO. And in Ukraine, the dream of E.U. membership remains strong, with at least half the population in favor.

Volodymyr Zelensky

Aleksandr Gusev/Pacific Press -LightRocket via Getty Images Volodymyr Zelensky is pictured on March 13, 2019.

The fresh-faced Zelensky, 41, appeals to many Ukrainians who are tired of the political class. But with his political experience confined to playing the president in a popular TV show and his stance on Russia unclear, many analysts fear he could enter into an agreement that favors Russia more than Ukraine. During a televised interview late last year, Zelensky said: “I’ll ask what Russia wants and what Ukraine wants and we’ll meet in the middle.” The comment prompted criticism, with some denouncing his views on Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Many Ukrainians find Zelensky’s statements alarming. “What concessions can he offer from Ukraine? Is it that he will give up Crimea? Which of Ukraine’s red lines is he willing to overstep?” Korbut asks. “It’s hard to imagine what any potential president can offer to satisfy Russia’s appetite without sparking resistance in Ukraine.”

“Moscow will only be satisfied with Zelensky, since his victory will inevitably be associated with even greater destabilization and regrouping within the Ukrainian elites. This is beneficial to the Kremlin,” says Irina Busygina, a professor at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.

What does Russia want?

The Kremlin wants to make an example out of Ukraine to Russians watching at home. Busygina says Moscow wants to show that “color revolutions” only lead to “chaos and collapse,” and that choosing to be part of Europe is “fatal.” Against this backdrop, Russia’s current course would look safe and stable.

Proving Russia’s greatness has never been more important for Putin. His approval ratings have recently dropped to a 13 year-low of 64 percent amid increasing frustrations over inflation, falling wages and a reduction in social welfare, according to the Levada Center, a Moscow-based independent polling agency. It marks a steep decline from his approval ratings of 89 percent following the annexation of Crimea. In July 2018, 40 percent of respondents said the government was going in the wrong direction, up from 14 percent in May 2014.

As long as Putinism is alive, Russia will try to control Ukraine, says Russian political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky. He calls it a “ideological, quasi-religious issue for Putin.” But most Ukrainians are unwilling to sacrifice their government’s independence.

For now, the countries are at a stalemate. Putin seems determined not to make any deals that would enhance Ukraine’s sovereignty, and Ukraine won’t make any deal to diminish sovereignty. That means the only way to end the stalemate would be if Ukraine’s next president chooses to redefine the red lines.

George Clooney Calls for Boycott of Sultan of Brunei’s Hotels Over Anti-Gay Stoning Law

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:10 AM PDT

George Clooney has called for a boycott of nine hotels connected to the ruler of Brunei, where gay sex will be punishable by death starting April 3.

In an op-ed written for Deadline Hollywood, Clooney spoke out against Brunei’s harsh law, which permits death by stoning for gay sex and adultery. Clooney writes the Sultan of Brunei owns “nine of the most exclusive hotels in the world,” and implores people to stop staying at the properties in protest.

Sharing that he has previously stayed at many of the hotels owned by the Sultan of Brunei because he did not know about their connection, Clooney wrote, “They’re nice hotels. The people who work there are kind and helpful and have no part in the ownership of these properties.”

“But let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery,” he continues.

Brunei had already made homosexuality illegal, but those caught were previously punished with prison time. The nation introduced Sharia law in 2014, sparking a boycott of the Beverly Hills Hotel and and Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, which are owned by the Sultan. The harsh punishment for homosexuality comes as Brunei continues to implement Sharia law.

A view of the grounds of the Beverly Hil
Ben Martin—The LIFE Images Collection/GettyA view of the grounds of the Beverly Hills Hotel. (Photo by Ben Martin/Getty Images)

Along with the Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air, the hotels with ties to the Sultan of Brunei span across the world, including The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane and Coworth Park in the U.K.; Le Meurice and Hotel Plaza Athenee in Paris; Hotel Eden in Rome; and Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan.

Clooney notes in his piece that a renewed boycott on the hotels would “have little effect” on Brunei’s death penalty for gay sex. But he asks the public to stop funding the “murder of innocent citizens.”

“I’ve learned over years of dealing with murderous regimes that you can’t shame them,” he writes. “But you can shame the banks, the financiers and the institutions that do business with them and choose to look the other way.”

Anti-Stall System Switched on Before Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Crash: Report

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:33 AM PDT

The stall-prevention system on a Boeing Co. 737 Max jet automatically switched on before the plane crashed in Ethiopia this month, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing initial findings from the plane’s flight data.

The conclusion was relayed at a briefing at the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday and is the strongest indication yet that the same system malfunctioned in both the Ethiopian Airlines flight and the Lion Air disaster in Indonesia in October, the newspaper said.

A preliminary report from Ethiopian authorities is expected within days, though the preliminary conclusions — based on analysis of the aircraft’s black boxes — could still change, the people briefed on the matter told the Wall Street Journal. A representative for Boeing said the company was unable to comment on the investigation.

The U.S. planemaker, working with regulators, has spent months refining the 737 Max’s software since data from the Lion Air crash indicated the stall-avoidance system had repeatedly tipped the nose down before pilots lost control. Boeing was close to a software fix when the Ethiopian Airlines jet went down on March 10.

Air-crash experts have been using flight-data and cockpit-voice recordings recovered from the Ethiopian Airlines wreckage to piece together events leading up to the tragedy, which killed all 157 people on board. Parallels with the loss of an identical Lion Air plane led to a global grounding of the Max model and have given the probe added urgency.

The Ethiopian investigation has focused on the anti-stall system, which in the case of the Lion Air crash exerted more and more force until the crew lost control. The software had kicked in on the same aircraft the day before, when an off-duty pilot riding in the cockpit was able to save the plane by helping to cut the power to the rogue system.

The feature, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, was designed to keep the Max from climbing too steeply and stalling. The U.S. Transportation Department has begun an inquiry into how it was approved as part of the Max’s certification in 2017, while the Justice Department is using a grand jury to gather information.

Officials from the two departments and the Federal Bureau of Investigation began digging into a range of matters related to MCAS within weeks of the Lion Air loss, Bloomberg has reported.

There’s no explanation of the MCAS — nor the steps needed to counter it — in the Max’s U.S. and European pilot manuals. Boeing reasoned that crews were already drilled to counter similar behavior by the 737’s horizontal stabilizer, running through a checklist to flip two center-console switches. The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed the U.S. company’s analysis and agreed.

With Boeing’s best-selling model out of action and its future in the balance, establishing the cause of the Ethiopian tragedy has become critical.

Read: U.S. Said to Have Probed Boeing 737 Max, Pilot Manuals Last Year

Boeing has said its planned software update and further pilot training guidelines for the Max will address concerns. The planemaker will stop charging for a safety feature called the disagree light, activated if a plane’s sensors — which can trigger the MCAS — are at odds.

‘No Help Is Coming.’ How Devastating Floods Are Fueling Sexual Violence and the Spread of HIV in Malawi

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 04:08 AM PDT

When Eliza Jasi saw enormous floods sweeping their way through her village in southern Malawi on March 8th, she had one thought: not again.

Malawi, a small, landlocked country in south-east Africa, home to 18.6 million people, has been hit by devastating floods in recent weeks. In early March, following unusually heavy rains, the Shire river in southern Malawi overflowed, sweeping away crops, homes—and people. More than 800,000 people have been affected and at least 59 people have died. (The toll is expected to rise.) On March 9, Malawian President Mutharika declared a state of disaster. On March 15, Cyclone Idai hit Malawi along with Zimbabwe and Mozambique, one of the worst climate-related disasters to hit the southern hemisphere.

Villages are now completely submerged under water and Nsanje, the most southern district of Malawi has been the most severely affected. Although the government deployed its Defense Force, roads are flooded—preventing aid and rescue vehicles from getting to the worst-affected areas.

This is the third major flood that 35-year-old Jasi has endured. In Malawi, violent floods are becoming increasingly frequent and volatile, exacerbated by the effects of climate change. Rising temperatures and atmospheric moisture are thought to increase the frequency and severity of floods. According to the United States Agency for International Development, Malawians are particularly affected by climate change because of their reliance on subsistence farming; 80% of Malawians work as farmers. According to the International Monetary Fund, Malawi is the fourth poorest country in the world with 50.7 % of people live under the poverty line and 25% live in extreme poverty.

Women in Malawi are disportionately affected by climate change. Because women are expected to provide food, water, and firewood for their families, droughts have resulted in women walking longer distances to get these resources, increasing the time spent on unpaid household work. The Guardian reports that climate change is also resulting in increased poverty, which is exacerbating the prevalence of early marriages.

Malawi floods
William Martin Sofia Thom sitting with her children in front of her collapsing home. She realizes she is living in a flash flood prone area but says she does not have the money to move to higher grounds.

During environmental disasters — when people are sent to live in camps — women tend to suffer most, in part because of high rates of sexual violence in the camps.

Jasi is one of them. During the 2012 floods, one of her six children died. When Jasi sought refuge in an aid camp, there was no shelter and little food. Scared of losing another child, she was forced into prostitution to provide for her family and ended up contracting HIV. According to UNAIDS, one million people in Malawi were living with HIV in 2016, increasing the likelihood of women contracting HIV through these transactions.

After the water levels went down, Jasi had to rebuild her home and started regrowing crops that had been swept away. Three years later, another flood hit, displacing more than 230,000 people. Once again, she lost her crops and her home was destroyed. Her husband died shortly after. Now, in 2019, Jasi finds herself in the same predicament: her home and crops have been destroyed and she is once more living in a camp that is unable to provide basic necessities.

Christina Wholy, 45, agrees. Her home was destroyed on March 8 and when she arrived at the Ngabu evacuation camp in Nsanje with her husband and children, she discovered there was not enough food, no soap or sanitary products, few toilets and no place for people to sleep. “I’m worried no help is coming,” she says. According to Relief Web, Ngabu camp is overcrowded, housing over 1000 families.

Women are especially affected by the lack of food as they are expected to provide and care for their children. “We do not have freedom,” Wholy says.

The poor living conditions means many men choose to leave the camp. As Winard Ngano, a man living in the Bangula camp puts it: “Men are so desperate. They do not have food to feed the family.” According to Ngano, many men start relationships with women in nearby communities in the hopes of finding food and shelter.

Some women, however, say their husbands are leaving the camp over frustrations with the sleeping arrangements in the camp. Families do not have their own individual tents to share, because of a lack of supplies. Instead, men and women are separated, sleeping in different parts of the camp. Aid organizations use this model around the world in the hope of preventing sexual violence. Esther Moyo, a Program Officer for the international NGO ActionAid says this model often results in men leaving their wives.

During the floods in 2015, for instance, “the men were complaining that their conjugal rights were being violated,” Moyo says. Men subsequently abandoned their wives, embarking on relationships with women in nearby communities.

“Things turned sour when he noticed that the tents could not accommodate a family,” says one woman affected by the 2015 floods who asked to stay anonymous for fear of retaliation from her husband. “My husband fled. To date, he is nowhere to be found. So that’s where the marriage ended. He couldn’t stand to see his wife sleeping separately from him.”

As a result of the difficult conditions within the camp, many displaced people say they wish they have sought shelter elsewhere. “I wish I had just stayed back at home,” Wholy says. “There is no food here and the situation is more tense. I do not know what the future holds.”

But returning home is not an option for those whose homes have been swept away. For years, the government has been encouraging citizens to settle away from the Shire River, the countries largest river running out of Lake Malawi to Mozambique, that is prone to flooding. Yet according to Moyo from ActionAid, the government has not provided adequate land for people to move to nor have they ensured that land rights are secured. As a result, many families will likely return to the disaster prone areas once the flooding has dissipated.

Jasi will be among them, a lack of money giving her few options to move elsewhere. And so, she has no other choice but to await the next cycle of flooding.

Reporting for this story was made possible with support from The GroundTruth Project where Melissa Godin and William Martin are Film Fellows.

World News Updates, World News, Current Affairs, Daily Current Affairs, World News Updates

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 02:05 AM PDT

World News Updates, World News, Current Affairs, Daily Current Affairs, World News Updates


White House drops Brexit BOMBSHELL - Trump ‘very eager’ to start trade talks with UK

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:00 PM PDT



DONALD TRUMP is "standing there waiting" for the UK complete Brexit so he can manage a trade deal, a prominent official has claimed.

Justin Trudeau BOMBSHELL: Ex-minister reveals MORE damaging revelations as scandal deepens

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:43 PM PDT



CRISIS-STRICKEN Justin Trudeau faces the axe after bombshell documents by a former cabinet minister were released amid the SNC-Lavalin Group storm.

EU BLOW: The TWO countries that will 'NEVER join the bloc as life outside is BETTER'

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:01 PM PDT



TWO countries both claimed that they will never join the EU, as their lives outside the bloc are significantly better off, unearthed reports claim.

MH370 SHOCK: What pilot who ‘MADE CONTACT with doomed jet’ claims he heard

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 05:01 PM PDT



MALAYSIA Airlines flight MH370 made contact with another jet flying in the same airspace, according to a pilot's claims, a documentary revealed.

DELUDED? Ocasio-Cortez 'encouraged' despite Senate rejection of 'socialist' Green New Deal

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 10:05 PM PDT



US REPRESENTATIVE Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was "very encouraged" by the Senate, despite suffering a humbling defeat for her 'Green New Deal'.

Melania Trump SAVAGED for meeting wife of Venezuela’s opposition leader - ‘Shameful’

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 08:14 PM PDT



MELANIA TRUMP's recent meeting with the wife of Venezuela's self-proclaimed interim President has been met with mixed reactions online.

Trump crisis: 60 percent of women will NOT vote for President in 2020 poll reveals

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 07:37 PM PDT



DONALD TRUMP is facing backlash as 60 percent of female voters say they would "definitely not" vote for the President in the 2020 election, according to a recent poll.

South China Sea WARNING: China must use ‘tougher deterrence’ as US row intensifies

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 06:36 PM PDT



CHINA must use "tougher deterrence" against the US as the sparring nations' row over the disputed South China Sea intensifies, a prominent analyst has warned.

RADICAL US Presidential hopeful uses RADIO CHIP inserted in his hand to operate his phone

Posted: 29 Mar 2019 11:00 PM PDT



A US politician who is considering a 2020 presidential bid has a radio chip inserted into his hand, which allows him to operate functions on his phone and open programmed doors.

Melania Trump reveals greatest gift to give to children meeting wife of Venezuela's Guaidó

Posted: 28 Mar 2019 05:08 PM PDT



MELANIA TRUMP met with the wife of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó this week in a meeting to help bolster support for his government, according to sources.

Dowry death: man gets life imprisonment

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:07 AM PDT

Dowry death: man gets life imprisonment
Akula Rajendra Prasad killed his wife, son and wife's grandmother in 2015

Source: TH

Launch of AP unit of ‘Let’s Vote’ today

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:07 AM PDT

Launch of AP unit of 'Let's Vote' today
The Andhra Pradesh chapter of Let's Vote, is being launched in the city on Saturday. The non-profit body has been working to spread voter awareness am

Source: TH

Be polite with passengers, RTC crew instructed

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:07 AM PDT

Be polite with passengers, RTC crew instructed
Training held for drivers and conductors

Source: TH

Anxious vigil for the magic word

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:07 AM PDT

Anxious vigil for the magic word
Every drop counts on island starved for water

Source: TH

Bollywood celebrates Filmfare Middle East magazine’s first anniversary in Muscat

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:06 AM PDT

Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone to come together for Luv Ranjan’s next?

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone to come together for Luv Ranjan's next?


Source: TIE

Jammu: Car explodes in Banihal, investigation underway

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Jammu: Car explodes in Banihal, investigation underway


Source: TIE

Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP minister Anil Sharma not to campaign against son fighting on Congress ticket

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP minister Anil Sharma not to campaign against son fighting on Congress ticket


Source: TIE

India further extends deadline to impose high import duties on US products till May 2

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

India further extends deadline to impose high import duties on US products till May 2


Source: TIE

Reclaiming the Rebellion

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Reclaiming the Rebellion


Source: TIE

Punjab University seminar: ‘Over 15,000 farmer suicides in last 10 years’

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Punjab University seminar: 'Over 15,000 farmer suicides in last 10 years'


Source: TIE

IDBI recruitment 2019: Apply for 944 assistant manager, SO and executive posts

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

IDBI recruitment 2019: Apply for 944 assistant manager, SO and executive posts


Source: TIE

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Amit Shah holds road show before filing nomination for Gandhinagar seat

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Lok Sabha elections 2019: Amit Shah holds road show before filing nomination for Gandhinagar seat


Source: TIE

Sponsored | Things you must do for your parents if you are staying away

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Sponsored | Things you must do for your parents if you are staying away


Source: TIE

The Kapil Sharma Show preview: Celebrating old times with Asha Parekh, Helen and Waheeda Rehman

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

The Kapil Sharma Show preview: Celebrating old times with Asha Parekh, Helen and Waheeda Rehman


Source: TIE

Aeolian Style Sea-bass Fillet Recipe by Chef Agostino D’Angelo

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Aeolian Style Sea-bass Fillet Recipe by Chef Agostino D'Angelo


Source: TIE

IPL 2019: Sluggish Feroz Shah Kotla not good news for viewers, players

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

IPL 2019: Sluggish Feroz Shah Kotla not good news for viewers, players


Source: TIE

Swept away by demonetisation, this women’s collective struggles to find its feet

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Swept away by demonetisation, this women's collective struggles to find its feet


Source: TIE

Facebook considers restricting some live video after NZ attack

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Facebook considers restricting some live video after NZ attack


Source: TIE

Video of Holi celebration at a university in Pakistan is winning hearts online

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

Video of Holi celebration at a university in Pakistan is winning hearts online


Source: TIE

The Silence trailer: Stanley Tucci starrer is reminiscent of A Quiet Place

Posted: 30 Mar 2019 12:05 AM PDT

The Silence trailer: Stanley Tucci starrer is reminiscent of A Quiet Place


Source: TIE

0 comments :

Post a Comment