Fugging hell: tired of mockery, Austrian village changes name

 thegaurdian - Residents of an Austrian village will ring in the new year under a new name – Fugging – after ridicule of their signposts, especially on social media, became too much to bear.

They finally grew weary of Fucking, its current name, which some experts say dates back to the 11th century.

Minutes from a municipal council meeting published on Thursday showed that the village of about 100 people, 350km (215 miles) west of Vienna, will be named Fugging from 1 January 2021.

Increasing numbers of English-speaking tourists have made a point of stopping in to snap pictures of themselves by the signpost at the entrance to the village, sometimes striking lascivious poses for social media.

Some have reportedly even stolen the signposts, leading the local authorities to use theft-resistant concrete when putting up replacements.

Finally, a majority of the villagers decided they had had enough.

“I can confirm that the village is being renamed,” said Andrea Holzner, the mayor of Tarsdorf, the municipality to which the village belongs.

“I really don’t want to say anything more – we’ve had enough media frenzy about this in the past,” she told the regional daily Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (OOeN).

According to the Austrian daily Die Presse, the villagers, known as Fuckingers, “have had enough of visitors and their bad jokes”.

But not everybody seems happy about the impending change.

Ethiopia’s military chief calls WHO head Tedros a criminal supporting a rebel region

Washingtonpost.com -  World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has received his share of criticism from world leaders, most famously from President Trump, but now his own country of Ethiopia is attacking him.

In a televised address Wednesday night, Ethiopia’s army chief of staff, Gen. Berhanu Jula, called Tedros a criminal and said he should step down from his position as director general of the WHO for seeking to procure weapons for the Tigray region, where the Ethiopian military is fighting local forces.

“He has worked in neighboring countries to condemn the war. He has worked for them to get weapons,” Berhanu said. He offered no evidence to support his accusations.

Tedros rejected the claims. “There have been reports suggesting I am taking sides in this situation,” he said in a statement Thursday. “This is not true, and I want to say that I am on only one side, and that is the side of peace.”

While Tedros is better known as one of the public faces of the international effort to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the world, he is also a high-ranking member of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the political party that rules Tigray and is now in open conflict with Ethiopia’s central government.

“This man is a member of that group, and he has been doing everything to support them,” Berhanu said.

ContinueReading

Capitalism Will Ruin the Earth By 2050, Scientists Say

Vice.com- A spate of new scientific research starkly lays out the choice humankind faces in coming decades: 

By 2050, we could retain high levels of GDP, at the price of a world wracked by minerals and materials shortages, catastrophic climate change, and a stuttering clean energy transition —paving the way for a slowly crumbling civilization. 

Or, we could ditch the GDP fetish and enter a world of abundance, with energy consumption safely contained within planetary boundaries, and high-tech economies that support jobs, health and education for everyone without costing the earth. ContinueReading

India's deadly mountain-top showdown with China could lead to more military activity at sea

BusinessInsider.com - Clashes in June between India and China high in the western Himalayas saw the first deadly encounter between their forces there in four decades. Both sides appear to be disengaging, and India's northern border, parts of which are in dispute with Pakistan and China, will remain a point of focus for its military.

But India's southern maritime approaches, where increasing Chinese naval activity was already a concern, may gain even more attention from New Delhi in the wake of those clashes.

"On the military side, I think we have to stay on guard. The situation is very fragile, even tenuous," former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, also former Indian ambassador to China and the US, said at an Asia Society Policy Institute event this week.

"Diplomatically, [India has to] keep our channels open with China, but at the same time, obviously, seek possibilities of closer convergence with friends and partners in the Indo-Pacific."

Kazakhstan denies Chinese report that the country is dealing with an outbreak of pneumonia deadlier than coronavirus

- Officials in Kazakhstan are denying claims from Chinese officials that an unknown pneumonia with a mortality rate much higher than the coronavirus is sweeping through the country.

The Chinese embassy in Kazakhstan on Thursday warned Chinese citizens in the country that cases of the alleged unidentified pneumonia have been increasing across the Central Asian nation since June, according to CNN.

“That mortality rate of that disease is far higher than COVID-19 and Kazakhstan authorities are conducting a comparative study of the virus and there is no clear definition yet.”

The Chinese embassy said the cases were concentrated in regions of Atyrau, Aktobe and Shymkent, which together have nearly 500 new cases and more than 30 who are critically ill. The embassy warned Chinese residents to limit how much they go outside, avoid crowded public areas and wear masks.

On Friday, Kazakhstan’s health ministry in a statement denied the outbreak was new or unknown, acknowledging only the presence of “viral pneumonias of unspecified etiology.”

“The Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan officially declares that this information IS NOT CONSISTENT WITH REALITY,” the statement read. The statement included an image that branded a story about the embassy’s warning as “FAKE NEWS.”

Hours later the embassy reportedly edited its message, removing the words “new pneumonia” and “unknown.”

Kazakhstan said China had misinterpreted its statistics, characterizing suspected, but unconfirmed, coronavirus deaths as being the result of an unknown pneumonia.

The ministry said the “unspecified” pneumonia classification followed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines “for the registration of pneumonia when the coronavirus infection is diagnosed clinically or epidemiologically but is not confirmed by laboratory testing,” CNN reports.

The health ministry said Minister Alekey Tsoy discussed a number of pneumonia cases across the country during a briefing Thursday. The cases included different types of bacterial, fungal and viral pneumonia, including some of “unspecified etiology.”

Tsoy said registered cases of pneumonia in the country increased by 300 percent in June compared to the same time in 2019. Related deaths rose by 129 percent from 274 in June 2019 to 628 last month, CNN reports.

A spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday the country is looking into the situation.

“China hopes to work together with Kazakhstan to fight the epidemic and to safeguard the two countries public health security,” the spokesperson said according to CNN.

The report comes as Kazakhstan has confirmed more than 54,000 coronavirus cases and 264 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The country recently implemented nationwide lockdown orders following a rise in cases. ContinueReading

N. Macedonia becomes NATO’s 30th member

BRUSSELS — North Macedonia on Friday officially became the 30th member of the NATO military alliance.

“North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family, a family of 30 nations and almost 1 billion people. A family based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.

North Macedonia’s flag will be raised alongside those of the other 29 member countries at NATO headquarters in Brussels and two other commands simultaneously on Monday.

Given the impact of the coronavirus around the world, Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski said “we cannot rejoice and mark the event as it should (be marked)… But, this is a historic success that after three decades of independence, finally confirms Macedonian security and guarantees our future. Congratulations to all of you! We deserve it!”

US and Taliban sign historic agreement

- Washington (CNN) After a week-long "reduction in violence," the US and Taliban signed a historic agreement Saturday which sets into motion the potential of a full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and could pave the way to ending America's longest-fought war.

The agreement was signed in Doha, Qatar, by US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad -- the chief US negotiator in the talks with the Taliban -- and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar -- the Taliban's chief negotiator. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo witnessed the signing.

The "Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan" outlines a series of commitments from the US and the Taliban related to troop levels, counterterrorism, and the intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about "a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire."

"This is a hopeful moment, but it's only the beginning," Pompeo said at a news conference in the Qatari capital Saturday. "There's a great deal of hard work ahead on the diplomatic front."

The Taliban "will start intra-Afghan negotiations with Afghan sides on March 10, 2020," according to the text of the agreement.
The agreement lays out a 14-month timetable for the withdrawal of "all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel."
An initial drawdown to 8,600 troops would occur within the first 135 days, according to the agreement. US officials have stressed that any downsizing of US troop presence would be "conditions based."

UK cash system is 'at risk of collapse'

- The UK’s cash system will collapse without urgent legislation to protect it, according to a new study.

Panel members behind the Access to Cash Review, which published its final report a year ago, said action is needed to protect cash for as long as people need it.

They say that in the 12 months since their last review, significant issues within the country’s cash infrastructure remain.

The review was set up by ATM network provider Link to help understand how consumers use cash and how their requirements to access physical money will change over the next five to 15 years.

It previously predicted that society would be at the point of being "virtually cashless" by 2035, with fewer than one-in-10 transactions being made in cash.

But trade association UK Finance now expects the UK to hit this point within the next decade.

Panel members also pointed to figures showing that, over the past year, 13% of free-to-use UK ATMs have closed, as lower levels of cash use have made them economically unviable. About 25% of ATMs now charge people to withdraw their cash.

They also warn that the Post Office's cash access service is under serious threat.

Barclays recently reversed plans to stop customers accessing cash withdrawal services from post offices following a backlash.

Various initiatives have been set up by the industry to help maintain people's access to cash, including cashback initiatives at local shops and a "request an ATM" service.

But the panel said it believes the only way to manage the cash system is for the government to legislate and give regulators the tools that they need to protect cash access.

Russian government resigns as Putin proposes reforms that could extend his grip on power

Moscow, Russia (CNN)The entire Russian government is resigning, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced Wednesday, after Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping reforms that could extend his decades-long grip on power beyond the end of his presidency.

Putin thanked members of the government for their work but added that "not everything worked out." Putin added that in the near future he would meet with each member of the cabinet. The mass resignation includes Medvedev.

The surprise announcement came after Putin proposed constitutional amendments that would strengthen the powers of the prime minister and parliament at the expense of the presidency.
Taking power from the presidency and handing it to parliament could signal a power shift that has been long speculated about in Russia.

Putin's critics have suggested that he is considering various scenarios to retain control of the country after his presidential term ends in 2024, including the option of becoming prime minister with extended powers. Similarly, in 2008 Putin swapped places with the prime minister to circumvent the constitutional provision banning the same person from serving two consecutive terms.

Beijing’s man lost by a shocking landslide in Taiwan’s presidential election

- Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected today (Jan. 11), in a miraculous turnaround of fortunes thanks in no small part to China’s consistent threats.

Tsai won over 8 million votes, or 57% of the vote share, the biggest election victory since Taiwan held its first presidential election in 1996. Her main challenger, the Kuomintang party’s Han Kuo-yu, won 5.4 million votes. Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also retained its majority in the legislative election.

Though the polls showed Tsai was the favorite to win, her large margin of victory was unexpected. A result made more shocking following the drubbing her party received in local elections a little over a year ago. In November 2018, the independence-leaning DPP lost seven of the 13 cities and counties it had held to the China-friendly Kuomintang. The result was seen as a rebuke of Tsai’s economic and social policies.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has repeatedly threatened to use military might to force unification of the territories. Taiwan has never been under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. After Tsai was first elected in 2016, Beijing broke off ties with Taipei and attempted to restrict Taiwan’s economy through coercive measures, including limiting the number of Chinese tourists allowed to travel to the island. Han, currently the mayor of the southern city of Kaohsiung, promised a reset of relations with China if he was elected. He promised that warmer cross-strait relations would deliver a better economy to Taiwan.

Sultan Qaboos, Quiet Peacemaker Who Built Oman, Dies at 79

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman, who over nearly five decades in power transformed his Persian Gulf kingdom from an isolated enclave into a developed nation known for brokering quiet talks between global foes, has died, the Omani government announced on Saturday. He was 79.

His death was announced by the official Oman News Agency. The announcement did not mention the cause, but Qaboos had been receiving treatment in Europe for cancer since at least 2014.

Qaboos’s decades as an absolute monarch who used oil wealth to pull his country from poverty made him a towering figure at home, with roads, a port, a university, a sports stadium and other facilities bearing his name. Internationally, as the longest-serving leader in the Arab world, he used Oman’s place in a turbulent region, next to one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to become a discreet but essential diplomatic player.

In a region rife with sectarianism, political divides and foreign interference, the soft-spoken, diminutive Qaboos championed a foreign policy of independence and nonalignment. He became a rare leader who maintained ties with a wide range of powers that hated one another, including Iran, Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. 

Update: Oman’s new ruler vows to uphold late sultan’s peaceful policy

Trying To Form The World's Newest Country, Bougainville Has A Road Ahead

- "The people have spoken," says Albert Punghau, an official in Bougainville, speaking about the region's referendum on independence from Papua New Guinea.

After nearly three weeks of voting and counting, the results announced on Dec. 11 showed residents of the South Pacific island group overwhelmingly voted to break away from Papua New Guinea and form their own nation.

The referendum asked Bougainvilleans if they wanted greater autonomy or full independence. Nearly 98% of voters chose independence, with 87.4% voter turnout, according to the referendum commission.

After the results, "We all shouted and cheered and erupted as if there was thunder," Punghau, Bougainville's minister of peace agreement implementation, tells NPR.

He adds that he and his colleagues sang the regional anthem through tears. The school assembly hall where they gathered, in Bougainville's interim capital of Buka Town, was filled with "joy and happiness," he says.

Now, hard work begins. The referendum is nonbinding. Bougainville, with nearly 250,000 residents, does not automatically become an independent country. Its government has to negotiate the terms of separation from Papua New Guinea, whose Parliament would then have to approve the agreement. The process could take months or even years.

Meanwhile, Australia, New Zealand, China and the United States are closely watching as this Pacific island region has become the latest battleground for diplomatic influence between the West and China.

Hong Kong's embattled leader withdraws bill that sparked months of unrest; protesters say 'too little, too late'

abcnews.com - Almost three months into Hong Kong’s worst political crisis since its return to Chinese control, the city’s embattled leader Carrie Lam agreed to formally withdraw the extradition bill that drove millions of people to the streets in protest some 13 weeks ago.

In a pre-taped televised address, a weary-looking Lam addressed the city from behind a desk and said the government will formally withdraw the bill “to fully allay public concerns.”

“Incidents over these past two months have shocked and saddened Hong Kong people,” Lam said it her video statement. “We are all very anxious about Hong Kong, our home. We all hope to find a way out of the current impasse and unsettling times.”

While Lam suspended work on the bill, which would have allowed suspected criminals to be extradited to mainland China, days after massive crowds of mostly young people held their first demonstration, the measure was never fully taken off the table and its withdrawal has remained a key demand of the protests.

In Kashmir Move, Critics Say, Modi Is Trying to Make India a Hindu Nation

NEW DELHI — To India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, eliminating the autonomy of Kashmir, a disputed, predominantly Muslim territory, was an administrative move, something his ministers had presented as simply a long-overdue “reorganization.”

But to Mr. Modi’s critics, the decision was an attack at the heart of India’s secular identity and a historic blow to a democracy that celebrates itself as one of the most free and stable in the developing world.

There is little doubt that Kashmir needed fixing. It is one of the bloodiest, most stubborn flash points in South Asia, a complicated, disputed mountainous territory that several times has driven India and Pakistan to war.

Both nations wield nuclear weapons and claim parts of Kashmir. For decades, their prickliness has kept the region trapped in a low-intensity conflict, leaving it depressed, full of rundown villages and the backdrop to a quixotic battle between a few hundred young militants and tens of thousands of Indian troops. ContinueReading

'Guatemala has not been good': Trump threatens tariffs, fees on migrant cash

WASHINGTON/GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he is considering a “ban,” tariffs and remittance fees after Guatemala decided not to ink a safe third country agreement that would have required the poor Central American country to take in more asylum seekers.

“Guatemala ... has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go,” Trump tweeted.

“Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’ Tariffs, Remittance Fees, or all of the above. Guatemala has not been good,” Trump wrote.

In response, Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales blamed the country’s top court and political opponents for undermining his close ties to the United States.

Morales was due to sign a deal with Trump last week that would have made the country act as an asylum buffer zone to reduce immigration to the United States.

Instead he canceled the planned summit with Trump at the White House after the country’s Constitutional Court ruled he could not ink such an agreement without prior approval from Congress, which is on a summer recess.

Migrant remittances accounted for 11% of Guatemalan GDP in 2017, according to the IMF, a total of $8.2 billion. The United States is Guatemala’s main trading partner, with bilateral trade of some $4.7 billion through May this year, Central Bank data shows.

“The Constitutional Court, without any understanding and without the right to interfere in foreign relations, wrongly took a stance against the national interest,” Morales said in a statement posted on Facebook.

In the past the Morales government has clashed with the court, which it considers aligned with the opposition. The case against the third safe country deal was brought by several former foreign ministers, the country’s rights ombudsman and a former presidential candidate.

Morales called the politicians “petty” and said they were attacking the country’s governability.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boris Johnson to be next prime minister of U.K., replacing Theresa May amid Brexit turmoil

DRAMA!

London -- Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has been chosen by his party to become Britain's next prime minister. He will replace Theresa May, who was forced to resign amid a bitter feud in the U.K. -- and within both her and Johnson's Conservative Party -- over Britain's exit from the European Union.

As CBS News correspondent Charlie D'Agata reports, the new leader of America's closest ally is one of Great Britain's most prominent figures, and probably a familiar face to many Americans.

By a quirk of British politics, Johnson was not elected by the general public but instead chosen to lead by about 160,000 registered Conservative Party members. He won with 92,153 votes to rival Jeremy Hunt's 46,656 -- a margin of almost two to one.

The new prime minister will officially take office on Wednesday, when May formally resigns the post. Johnson thanked his opponent in the leadership contest, Hunt, and May in remarks to gathered party members in London after the results of the election were announced on Tuesday.

Anti-graft crusader sworn in as Slovakia's first female president

Bratislava (Reuters) - Anti-corruption campaigner Zuzana Caputova was sworn in as Slovakia’s first female president on Saturday, vowing to fight impunity and champion justice in a country shaken by a journalist’s murder last year.

The killing of Jan Kuciak, who investigated high-level graft cases, and his fiancé at their home last February sparked mass street protests and hit the approval ratings of the governing leftist party Smer.

Smer is still the most popular party but Caputova’s victory in the March presidential vote boosted the opposition liberal alliance Progressive Slovakia/Together, which backed her and aims to unseat the ruling party in a 2020 general election.

The pro-European coalition already won the EU Parliament election last month.

In her inauguration speech, Caputova, 45, said state officials that had proven incapable of stamping out corruption should lose their jobs and vowed to make the justice system work fairly for everyone.

“Under the constitution, people are free and equal in dignity and in rights, meaning nobody is that irrelevant to have their rights compromised, nor is anyone that powerful to stand above the law.”

“Too many people feel that this is not quite the reality in our country. The feeling of injustice has grown and has demonstrated itself in calls for change and decency but also in anger over ‘the system’,” she said in a nod to the rise to anti-system and far-right parties.

Post-apartheid South Africa is the world’s most unequal country

JOHANNESBURG — Perhaps nowhere in today’s South Africa is the country’s inequality on more dramatic display than in the neighboring Johannesburg suburbs of Sandton and Alexandra.

With its gleaming high-rises and lush estates, Sandton is known as Africa’s richest square mile. Alexandra, a onetime home to Nelson Mandela, is a squalid, cramped and crime-infested black township. Many of its residents stream into Sandton every day on a bridge over a highway to work in upscale shops or homes.

Angry protests flared in Alexandra last month, stoked in part by campaigning for Wednesday’s national election but mostly by the frustration that South Africa should look far different than the country of haves and have-nots that it has become. Many voters believe the ruling African National Congress has lost its way since Mandela won the first post-apartheid presidential election in 1994, and that belief threatens the ANC’s absolute majority grip on power.

The ANC has been shaken by widespread allegations of corruption that saw former President Jacob Zuma forced out a year ago, and many South Africans feel the party can no longer coast on its legacy of fighting the brutal system of apartheid.

Unemployment in the country of 56 million people soars past 25 percent. There are tire-burning protests almost every day over the lack of basic services like working toilets in mostly black neighborhoods. Whites still hold much of the wealth and private levers of power, while blacks trim their lawns and clean their homes.

“We find virtually no whites living below the middle class,” Fazila Farouk and Murray Leibbrandt with the Southern Africa Labor and Development Research Unit wrote last year. “Whites have, in fact, comfortably improved their economic status in post-apartheid South Africa because our economy channels such a big share of national income to the top 10 percent.”

Half of South Africans are in households with per capita income of 1,149 rand ($90) or less a month, they wrote, with little chance to change their fortunes despite working hard as maids or security guards.

“Put bluntly, they’re stuck,” Farouk and Leibbrandt concluded. ContinueReading

Ukraine election: Voters to choose between comedian and president

BBC - Ukrainians will head to the polls on Sunday in a run-off election to pick the country's next president.

Voters face a stark choice between incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and television comedian, and political newcomer, Volodymyr Zelensky.

The celebrity is favourite in the polls, having dominated the first round of voting three weeks ago when 39 candidates were on the ticket.

Poll stations will open 08:00 local (05:00 GMT) and close 12 hours later.

A court in the capital, Kiev, has rejected a lawsuit calling for Mr Zelensky to be barred from standing.

A man had complained that the distribution of free tickets for a presidential debate by Volodymyr Zelensky's candidacy amounted to bribery.

On Friday the two candidates appeared at Kiev's Olympic stadium to debate for the first time.

The televised event was their first face-off after an usual campaign where Mr Zelensky has primarily used social media to communicate with the voting public.

The winner of Sunday's vote will be elected for a five-year term as president.

The position holds significant powers over the security, defense and foreign policy of the country.

Brexit: UK and EU agree delay to 31 October

BBC - European Union leaders have granted the UK a six-month extension to Brexit, after late-night talks in Brussels.

The new deadline - 31 October - averts the prospect of the UK having to leave the EU without a deal on Friday, as MPs are still deadlocked over a deal.

European Council President Donald Tusk said his "message to British friends" was "please do not waste this time".

Theresa May, who had wanted a shorter delay, said the UK would still aim to leave the EU as soon as possible.

The UK must now hold European elections in May, or leave on 1 June without a deal.

The prime minister will later make a statement on the Brussels summit to the House of Commons, while talks with the Labour Party, aimed at reaching consensus on how to handle Brexit, are set to continue.

Mrs May tweeted: "The choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear. So we must now press on at pace with our efforts to reach a consensus on a deal that is in the national interest."

So far, MPs have rejected the withdrawal agreement Mrs May reached with other European leaders last year and they have voted against leaving the EU without a deal.

The EU has ruled out any renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement.

Before the summit, Mrs May had told leaders she wanted to move the UK's exit date from this Friday to 30 June, with the option of leaving earlier if Parliament ratified her agreement.