Tuesday, July 23, 2019
Singapore seizes elephant ivory and pangolin scales in record $48m haul
(BBC) - Singapore authorities have seized 8.8 tonnes (8,800kg) of elephant ivory, its largest seizure to date.
Authorities estimate that the tusks, valued at $12.9m (£10.4m), have come from nearly 300 African elephants.
Some 11.9 tonnes of pangolin scales valued at $35.7m were also seized. It is believed to have belonged to about 2,000 of the mammals.
The illegal cargo was found in containers after a tip-off from China's customs department.
Authorities discovered the animal parts on Sunday after they inspected a shipment from the Democratic Republic of Congo that was passing through Singapore on its way to Vietnam.
The containers were falsely declared to contain timber.
"Upon inspection, sacks containing pangolin scales and elephant ivory were found in one of the containers," the National Parks Board said in a statement.
The seized pangolin scales and elephant ivory will be destroyed.
It is not the first time such illegal goods have been found in Singapore. The country has seized a total of 37.5 tonnes of pangolin scales since April this year.
"Singapore has always been inadvertently implicated in the global ivory trade for two reasons: its global connectivity, as well as the presence of a small domestic market where pre-1990s ivory can be legally sold," Kim Stengert, chief communications officer for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Singapore, told Reuters.
Ivory is used for ornaments and in traditional medicine in Asia. Pangolin scales are also in high demand in Asia for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
The pangolin is said to be the most widely trafficked mammal in the world.
Under Singapore's Endangered Species Act, the maximum penalty for illegally importing, exporting and re-exporting wildlife is a fine of up to S$500,000 ($370,000; £295,000) and/or two years imprisonment. 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.
“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.
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.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
Illinois Legalizes Marijuana
ILLINOIS ON TUESDAY officially became the 11th U.S. state to legalize recreational marijuana.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into a law a bill that legalizes the possession, purchase and sale of cannabis and allows for the expungement of low-level cannabis convictions. The law will take effect Jan. 1.
"I'm so proud that our state is leading with equity and justice in its approach to cannabis legalization and its regulatory framework," Pritzker tweeted. "Signing this bill into law won't undo the injustices of the past or make whole the lives that were interrupted. We can't turn back the clock – but we can turn the page."
Illinois is the first state to legalize recreational marijuana sales through legislation, a process that has proved tricky even in states with Democrat-controlled statehouses that have been more receptive to changing drug laws. Legalization efforts in New York and New Jersey fizzed this year despite support from top lawmakers.
The measure passed the Illinois legislature late last month, just hours before the end of the year's legislative session.
It allows residents over the age of 21 to possess 30 grams of marijuana and sets up a regulated retail scheme. It also contains provisions aimed at helping cannabis start-ups owned by residents of areas disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition and those with marijuana convictions.
Prtizker, a Democrat, campaigned on the issue and his election boosted an existing effort for legalization in the state.
Saturday, June 15, 2019
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.
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.
Saturday, June 1, 2019
U.S. measles cases reach highest level in 27 years
nbcnews.com - The number of measles cases reported in the U.S. this year has now reached a level not seen in 27 years, causing concern among public health officials that the country could soon lose its measles elimination status.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that there have been 971 cases of measles reported in the first five months of 2019. That surpasses the 963 cases for the entire year in 1992.
By far, the greatest number of measles cases this year has been reported in two areas of New York: Rockland County and New York City. The CDC said that those outbreaks have been ongoing for nearly eight months.
And if they continue through the summer and fall, officials said, the country could lose an important public health victory: its status as a nation that has eliminated measles. The U.S. officially made that declaration in 2000, which meant there was no longer sustained local transmission of the disease.
"It’s like turning back the clock," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
However, Schaffner said that the current outbreaks could be stopped quickly with swift action.
"If every unvaccinated child in the U.S. were vaccinated today, Friday, May 31," Schaffner told NBC News, "the outbreak would be over across the country by June 15."
But thanks to a vocal anti-vaccine contingent, that's easier said than done. ContinueReading
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
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.
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
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