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anonymous

How Sweden is preparing for Russia to hack its election - BBC News - 0 views

  • Russia has been repeatedly accused of interfering in recent elections. But Sweden is determined it won't fall victim to any such meddling - with millions of leaflets being distributed and propaganda-spotting lessons for students.
  • With a new prime minister and parliament to be elected in September, Sweden is already working hard to make sure its polls are free from any meddling.
  • A nationwide education programme has been launched to teach high school students about propaganda and a leaflet distributed to 4.7 million homes includes tips on spotting such misinformation.
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  • Cyber-security is being improved across government and work is under way to raise awareness of the risks of hacking and disinformation.
  • Other countries have warned Russia against election meddling, with UK Prime Minister Theresa May arguing that it was trying to "undermine free societies" by "planting fake stories".
anonymous

Catholic Church joins sex abuse compensation scheme - BBC News - 0 views

  • The Catholic Church has confirmed it will be part of a national redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse in Australia.The nation recently held a five-year inquiry into sexual abuse in the country's institutions.Among harrowing stories, it heard that 7% of Australia's Catholic priests abused children between 1950 and 2010.
  • Mr Turnbull has previously said that survivors could receive payments of A$150,000 (£85,000; $110,000) each.
  • The inquiry made more than 400 recommendations, including calling on the Catholic Church to overhaul its celibacy rules.It also called on priests to face prosecution if they did not report sexual abuse disclosed to them during confession, a move the Church has strongly resisted.
anonymous

Italy government: Leaders talk amid political crisis - BBC News - 0 views

  • Reports suggest PM-designate Carlo Cottarelli may be stepping back from forming a technocratic government.
  • The two big winners in that election - Five Star and The League - attempted to join forces on Sunday but abandoned efforts after President Sergio Matarella vetoed their choice of finance minister.
  • Impeachment of three previous Italian presidents has been attempted but failed. Impeachment is approved by a simple majority of both houses of parliament, but the final decision rests with the constitutional court.
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  • His choice for prime minister, Mr Cottarelli, an ex-IMF economist, appears to have failed to secure support from major political parties and may not even bother to be sworn in.
  • He appears to have suspended his own efforts to form an interim administration and could instead be giving Five Star and The League a second chance, says BBC Rome Correspondent James Reynolds.
  • Investors are once again worried about the stability of the eurozone should Eurosceptic parties form the next government.
  • The costs of servicing Italy's debt have risen, but the BBC World Service economics correspondent, Andrew Walker, says we are not yet near the levels of financial stress that were evident in the peak of the eurozone financial crisis in 2011-12.
anniina03

Coronavirus: US overtakes China with most cases - BBC News - 0 views

  • The US now has more confirmed cases of coronavirus than any other country, with more than 86,000 positive tests.
  • Asked about the latest figures at a White House briefing on Thursday afternoon, President Trump said it was "a tribute to the amount of testing that we're doing". Vice-President Mike Pence said coronavirus tests were now available in all 50 states and more than 552,000 tests had been conducted nationwide.
  • Mr Trump has set a much-criticised goal of Easter Sunday, 12 April, for reopening the country. That plan seemed to gather impetus on Thursday as it emerged an unprecedented 3.3 million Americans have been laid off because of the virus. Media playback is unsupported on your device
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  • In a letter to state governors on Thursday, Mr Trump said his team plans to release federal social distancing guidelines that may advise some regions to loosen restrictions.
  • He said the "new guidelines" would create low, medium and high risk zones that would allow the government to advise on "maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place".
  • On 16 March, he set a 15-day period to slow down the spread of Covid-19 by urging all Americans to drastically scale back their public interactions. But those guidelines were voluntary and did not amount to a national order.
nrashkind

Coronavirus: Things will get worse, PM warns in letter to Britons - BBC News - 0 views

  • The prime minister has warned the coronavirus crisis "will get worse before it gets better", in a letter being sent to every UK household.
  • Boris Johnson, who is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid-19, says stricter restrictions could be put in place if necessary.
  • Britons will also get a leaflet detailing government rules on leaving the house and health information.
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  • It follows criticism over the clarity of government advice to date.
  • The number of people who have died with coronavirus in the UK has now reached 1,019, with a further 260 deaths announced on Saturday.
  • There are now 17,089 confirmed cases in the UK.
  • In the letter being sent to 30 million households at an anticipated cost of £5.8m, Mr Johnson writes: "From the start, we have sought to put in the right measures at the right time.
  • In his letter, Mr Johnson describes the pandemic as a "moment of national emergency", urging the public to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives.
  • He also praises the work of doctors, nurses and other carers as well as well as the hundreds of thousands of people who have volunteered to help the most vulnerable.
  • Meanwhile, new powers, including fines of up to £5,000, to enforce guidelines on people staying at home and businesses staying closed came into force in Northern Ireland on Saturday evening.
  • The maximum fine will be reserved for businesses but individuals could face a fine of up to £960 if they do not comply.
  • Business Secretary Alok Sharma also announced insolvency rules would be changed to allow firms greater flexibility as they faced the coronavirus crisis.
  • He said a range of measures to boost the supply of personal protective equipment, such as face masks, to protect frontline NHS staff, were also being introduced.
  • Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack, is self-isolating after he developed coronavirus symptoms. He is said to be experiencing mild symptoms but has not been tested for Covid-19
malonema1

Marawi siege: US special forces aiding Philippine army - BBC News - 0 views

  • Militants have been under siege since rampaging through the southern city on 23 May. The latest fighting has claimed the lives of 13 Philippine marines.
  • undreds of militants, who have been flying the black flag of so-called Islamic State and are led by the self-styled IS emir of the southern Philippines, Isnilon Hapilon, and the Maute brothers Omar and Abdullah, are still holed up in the city.
  • The latest casualties bring the number of Philippine troops killed in the fighting to 58.
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  • At least 138 militants and 20 civilians have also been killed, the government says.The BBC's Jonathan Head says there are several reports that the Maute brothers, who lead the Maute group, are among the dead, with intercepted communications from jihadist groups suggesting this.
  • Marawi is on the southern island of Mindanao, which has a significant Muslim population in the majority Catholic country and has seen a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency.
  • The US has had a small logistical military presence in the Philippines, although a programme to advise the Philippine army on fighting the Abu Sayyaf militant group was discontinued in 2015.
  • But he had what the White House described as a "very friendly" phone call with President Donald Trump in April, and has since said his differences with the US were with President Barack Obama's administration.
  • "The world of terrorism inside the city is growing smaller by the day," he said.Officials say that foreign nationals are among the militants in Marawi, with the list of countries and territories including Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Yemen, India and Chechnya.
runlai_jiang

North Korea: South proposes Olympics delegation talks - BBC News - 0 views

  • South Korea has offered high-level talks with North Korea next Tuesday to discuss its possible participation in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
  • Kim Jong-un, said earlier he was considering sending a team to Pyeongchang in South Korea for the Games in February.
  • South Korea's president said he saw the offer as a "groundbreaking chance" to improve relations.
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  • Referring to the possible North-South dialogue he tweeted: "Perhaps that is good news, perhaps not - we will see."
  • If the two countries do meet, Hyung Eun Kim from the BBC's Korean service says, they are expected to talk logistics:What route the North might take into the host countryWhether the athletes would come with a cheer-leading squadWhether the two countries would issue a joint declaration
  • in December 2015 in the Kaesong joint industrial zone, ended without any agreement and the agenda was not made public.
  • South Korea proposed two bilateral meetings: one focusing on military talks and another that would reunite families separated by the war. Neither happened and instead the North continued to test-fire missiles.
  • It raises intriguing possibilities in the wake of a year where the drift has been entirely negative: Pyongyang making significant strides in its nuclear and missile programmes Growing external pressure to isolate North Korea Genuine fears that the Trump administration might be on the path to a new conflict on the Korean peninsula
  • North Korea has participated in the Olympics before, but not in South Korea. It boycotted the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
  • Korean Air Flight 858 exploded over the Andaman Sea, killing more than 100 people. A North Korean spy later said Pyongyang had ordered her to plant it to create chaos in South Korea.
  • Pyeongchang, approximately 180km (110 miles) east of Seoul, will host both the Winter Olympics in February and the Winter Paralympics in March.
xaviermcelderry

The state of the climate in 2021 - BBC Future - 0 views

  • The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reached record levels in 2020, hitting 417 parts per million in May. The last time CO2 levels exceeded 400 parts per million was around four million years ago, during the Pliocene era, when global temperatures were 2-4C warmer and sea levels were 10-25 metres (33-82 feet) higher than they are now.
  • The past decade was the hottest on record. The year 2020 was more than 1.2C hotter than the average year in the 19th Century. In Europe it was the hottest year ever, while globally 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest. Record temperatures, including 2016, usually coincide with an El Niño event (a large band of warm water that forms in the Pacific Ocean every few years), which results in large-scale warming of ocean surface temperatures. But 2020 was unusual because the world experienced a La Niña event (the reverse of El Niño, with a cooler band of water forming). In other words, without La Niña bringing global temperatures down, 2020 would have been even hotter.
  • Nowhere is that increase in heat more keenly felt than in the Arctic. In June 2020, the temperature reached 38C in eastern Siberia, the hottest ever recorded within the Arctic Circle. The heatwave accelerated the melting of sea ice in the East Siberian and Laptev seas and delayed the usual Arctic freeze by almost two months
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  • The World Economic Forum launched a campaign this year to plant one trillion trees to absorb carbon. While planting trees might help cancel out the last 10 years of CO2 emissions, it cannot solve the climate crisis on its own, according to Waring.
kaylynfreeman

The Uighurs and the Chinese state: A long history of discord - BBC News - 0 views

  • China is facing global political criticism over its alleged persecution of the Uighurs - a Muslim minority group which lives mostly in the Xinjiang province in northwestern China.
  • China is facing global political criticism over its alleged persecution of the Uighurs - a Muslim minority group which lives mostly in the Xinjiang province in northwestern China.
  • It is believed that the Chinese government has detained up to a million Uighurs over the past few years in what the state defines as "re-education camps". The government is now also accused of a programme of forced sterilisation against Uighur women.
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  • China initially denied the existence of the camps, before claiming they were a necessary measure against separatist violence in Xinjiang.
  • In July 2020, the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of "gross and egregious" human rights abuses against the Uighurs. The reports of forced sterilisation and wider persecution of the ethnic group were "reminiscent of something not seen for a long time", he said.
  • The Chinese government says the measures are necessary to combat separatist violence in the region, but it is accused of exaggerating the threat in order to justify repression of the Uighurs. Many prominent members of the ethnic minority have been imprisoned or sought asylum abroad after being accused of terrorism
  • In 2017, President Xi Jinping issued a directive that "religions in China must be Chinese in orientation" and "adapt themselves to socialist society". The directive led to a fresh crackdown on religious practice that particularly affected the Uighurs.
  • Xinjiang is now covered by a pervasive network of surveillance, including police, checkpoints, and cameras that scan everything from number plates to individual faces.
  • The Uighurs are a mostly Muslim Turkic ethnicity who regard themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. The majority live in Xinjiang, where they number about 11 million people.
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brookegoodman

Coronavirus: Lockdown easing in England 'modest' - Jenrick - BBC News - 0 views

  • The government is taking "modest" steps in easing lockdown restrictions, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has said.
  • Meanwhile, the UK has exceeded its target to increase coronavirus testing capacity to 200,000 a day by the end of May.
  • Speaking at the daily coronavirus briefing, he confirmed the updated guidance on shielding which will mean that people who have been advised to stay home since the lockdown began will now be able to go outside either with members of their household or to meet someone from another household.
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  • On Saturday, Professor John Edmunds, a member of Sage - the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies which advises the government - said the levels of coronavirus were still "very high", adding that it was a "political decision" to ease measures.
  • In Wales, people from two different households will be able to meet each other outdoors from Monday.
  • And Phil Anderson, head of policy at the MS Society, said people would "rightly want to hear a lot more about the scientific evidence showing this will be safe for them".
  • Widespread testing forms a central part of the government's strategy to control the virus, as it aims to ease blanket lockdown in favour of more targeted measures.
  • The UK's R value - the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to, on average - is currently between 0.7 and 0.9.
lilyrashkind

The puzzle of America's record Covid hospital rate - BBC News - 0 views

  • That's not the case in the US, however, where the number of patients with the coronavirus currently in hospital has reached record numbers.
  • According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, 145,982 people were in hospital with the virus on 11 January, surpassing a previous record set in January 2021
  • Experts point to several reasons why the rate of Covid patients in hospital is higher in North America than in most other parts of the world.Professor David Larsen, an epidemiologist and global health expert at Syracuse University in New York, told the BBC that the US population is markedly different from that of both Europe and South Africa.
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  • The various peaks represent times in which each nation was hit by a new Covid wave, including the initial outbreak and influx of hospital patients, last winter's surge or the summer spike caused by the Delta variant.
  • Hospitals around the US have reported that the spike in infected patients has exacerbated pressure on facilities already strained by the pandemic.Dr Juan Reyes, the director of hospital medicine at George Washington University in Washington DC - which is among the US cities with the highest per capita hospital admissions rate - said that this surge "has been a lot more challenging" than previous ones.
  • In South Africa - where the Omicron variant was first detected in November - researchers found that those infected with Omicron are less likely to be sent to hospital and more likely to recover quickly.
  • Let's begin with this chart comparing how many people in several countries have been in hospital with Covid-19 during the pandemic. It's adjusted to account for population size and represents a ratio of the number of infected hospital patients per million inhabitants.
  • "The seasonality is also different," he said. "Omicron's surge through South Africa was during their summer,
  • Just over 63% of the US population is fully vaccinated, much lower than in the UK (71%) as well as Italy and France (both 75%). In Canada, almost 79% of the population is fully protected.
  • "incongruent" public health policy when it comes to Covid-19."In other words, there isn't a single unified method in how we're going to do things across the board," he said. "It's more regional than national, and because of that you have gaps. The consequences of that are people getting hospitalised."
  • the true figure is hard to determine."We don't know how much Delta there is," she told the BBC. "What the US has started to do is look at the number of new infections and sequences. Omicron is 95% of new infections, but we don't know how much Delta we still have around."
  • In many countries, researchers believe that the Omicron variant has begun to subside, possibly signalling the end of the increase in hospital patients with Covid.
  • "It still could make for a miserable winter," Dr Gandhi said. "I think that for the next month, life is going to be really hard in schools and hospitals
Javier E

Ukraine war: Germany's conundrum over its ties with Russia - BBC News - 0 views

  • Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, many German politicians have publicly admitted they got Vladimir Putin wrong. Even German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has apologised, saying it was a mistake to use trade and energy to build bridges with Moscow.
  • "It's a bitter acknowledgement that for 30 years we emphasised dialogue and co-operation with Russia," says Nils Schmid, foreign affairs spokesperson for Mr Steinmeier's party, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). "Now we have to recognise this has not worked. That's why we have entered a new era for European security."
  • That new era was dubbed "Zeitenwende" - literally meaning a turning point - by Germany's SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a now-famous speech in the German parliament a few days after the invasion.
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  • It means scrapping rules about weapons exports, a huge boost in defence spending and an end to Russian energy imports. A Russian gas pipeline to Germany called Nord Stream 2 has already been suspended.
  • "For the foreseeable future, co-operation with Russia will not occur. It will be more about containment and deterrence and, if needed, defence against Russia," Mr Schmid tells me.
  • Unexpectedly hawkish words for a party that until seven weeks ago believed Germany's historical guilt and moral duty to make up for Nazi crimes meant peace with Russia at all costs.
  • Even Germany's view of its own history is changing.
  • Until the invasion mainstream opinion was that German reunification was thanks to dialogue with Moscow by another SPD chancellor, Willy Brandt. But now the debate has shifted, with reminders that Mr Brandt's diplomacy was backed up by strong deterrence, including a West German defence budget of 3% of GDP.
  • The issue of German historical war guilt has also become more nuanced. Before the invasion the government argued against weapon deliveries to Ukraine because of Nazi crimes against Russia.
  • "Under Putin, official Russian policy tried to monopolise the memory of the Second World War for the bilateral German-Russian relationship," explains Mr Schmid. This blinded parts of German society to the suffering of Ukrainians during he war, he adds.
  • Now there is a greater awareness of Ukraine's traumas under the Nazis.
  • Berlin's rhetoric has shifted dramatically. But some ask whether actions are following fast enough. Certainly warm words of support are not enough for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. He has criticised Germany's continued reliance on Russian oil and gas.
  • Olaf Scholz has to keep his party onside, govern in a three-way coalition and overturn Germany's guilt-laden pacifist identity overnight.
  • certainly German politicians and commentators interpret the failed visit as a sign of Ukraine's distrust in the German president, who as foreign minister under Angela Merkel spent years trying to achieve peace by engaging with Russia.
  • "Our partners look at us, and say: OK, you do a Zeitenwende but what are you practically doing?" she says. "On sanctions we are timid and on weapons delivery, we are reluctant. So, rightly, they wonder what that Zeitenwende is about, and given that Germany is a big economic, military, political power in the middle of Europe, whatever we do makes a difference, in good ways and bad."
  • "This is a dilemma that Germany has created itself," argues political scientist Liana Fix, head of the Körber Foundation. "That's obviously difficult to accept for other countries, who are willing to go ahead with an embargo and have done their homework on energy diversification."
  • Ironically, it's a Green Party politician, Economy Minister Robert Habeck, from a party that for years has been calling for energy independence from Russia, who is having to solve this dilemma.
  • On military support for Ukraine, Berlin says it is prepared to send whatever weapons Kyiv needs. But there are allegations that some ministries are getting tied up in bureaucracy. Here, too, it is a Green politician, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is pushing the governing coalition to go faster. She has called for heavy weaponry, such as tanks or fighter jets, for Ukraine.
  • In a BBC interview last week, Mr Zelensky called payments for Russian energy "blood money". And a planned visit to Kyiv by President Steinmeier was cancelled at the last minute.
  • But even his allies say the chancellor should at least communicate better what's going on
  • Meanwhile, it feels like many individual Germans are going through their own Zeitenwende. Ariane Bemmer, a columnist for the Tagesspiegel newspaper, has written about reassessing her own feelings towards Russia. "I definitely got it wrong, it's like losing a friend,"
  • Like many in the former West Germany in the 1980s, she was wary of US-style cutthroat capitalism. She bought a book called Ami Go Home - she never read it, but felt it would look good on her bookshelf - and was intrigued by the reforms in Russia.
  • "In America you had Ronald Reagan as a president, which was a shock for us. We thought: what will he do, this crazy actor with his cowboy boots? Will he set the world on fire? Russia was a place where all the good changes were, perestroika, freedom, wind of change," she says.
  • Few in Germany think that now. In one recent poll, 55% of Germans said Berlin should send heavy weapons, such as tanks and fighter jets, to Ukraine to fight against Russia.
  • For Ariane, and many other Germans, any lingering Russophile romanticism vanished for good the day Putin's tanks rolled over Ukraine's border.
peterconnelly

Drought-stricken US warned of looming 'dead pool' - BBC News - 0 views

  • Sitting on the Arizona-Nevada border near Las Vegas, Lake Mead - formed by the creation of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River - is the largest reservoir in the United States and provides water to 25 million people across three states and Mexico. Here, the stunning scale of a drought in the American west has been laid plain for all to see.
  • Californians have been told to conserve water at home or risk mandated water restrictions as a severe drought on the West Coast is expected to get worse during the summer months.
  • People have been told to limit outdoor watering and take shorter showers. In Los Angeles, many are being asked to cut their water use by 35%. The restrictions come after California recorded the driest start to the year on record.
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  • Farmers are already feeling the pain. About 75% of the water from Lake Mead goes to agriculture.
  • "With climate change, it seems like the dominoes are beginning to fall," Nasa hydrologist JT Reager told the BBC.
  • the western United States is now entering one of the worst droughts ever seen.
  • For many living in California's agricultural heartland, the wells have already started to run dry and they can't afford to dig a deeper well. Charities deliver bottled water and large tanks of non-potable water for washing.
  • Many farmers argued that it's time for another massive infrastructure project like the Hoover Dam, which was built in the 1930s, so that more rainwater can be stored instead of being let to end up back in the ocean.
  • Dams are controversial and typically opposed by environmentalists - but with the drought now so severe, even California's Democratic leadership - largely aligned with environmental groups - have proposed rethinking some of the state's shelved dam projects.
  • Kat George, a manager at Source, was in California's Central Valley where the company is installing hydro-panels on 1,000 homes so people can have clean drinking water.
julia rhodes

BBC News - Saudi religious police boss condemns Twitter users - 0 views

  • The head of Saudi Arabia's religious police has warned citizens against using Twitter, which is rising in popularity among Saudis.
  • anyone using social media sites - and especially Twitter - "has lost this world and his afterlife".
  • His remarks reflect Riyadh's concern that Saudis use Twitter to discuss sensitive political and other issues.
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  • warn that Twitter was a threat to national unity,
  • Many Saudis have seized on Twitter as the most immediate and effective way to open little windows into a traditionally opaque society.
  • A number of web activists have been detained, including at least one for the alleged apostasy, a charge that could carry the death penalty.
  • Billionaire businessman Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, who presents himself as a reformist, has described attempts to restrict social media as a losing battle.
redavistinnell

Migrant crisis: Thousands stranded at Balkan borders - BBC News - 0 views

  • Migrant crisis: Thousands stranded at Balkan borders
  • Several hundred, including young children and babies, spent the night in the open at Croatia's border with Slovenia.
  • Hundreds of thousands of migrants, many from Syria, Africa and Afghanistan, have been making their way from Turkey to the Balkans in recent months, in a bid to reach Germany, Sweden and other EU states.
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  • On the Croatia-Slovenia border, 500 people spent the night in the open at Trnovec. A further 1,800-2,000 slept on a train held on the Croatian side of the border. Officials told them they could stay temporarily in Croatia or try to make their own way into Slovenia.
  • Authorities and aid agencies seemed completely unprepared. There were no tents or shelter of any kind for the migrants - who included a large number of young children and babies.
  • "The Republic of Croatia is not listening to any of our requests," he said. "This is totally unacceptable. We cannot by ourselves prevent the arrival of migrants."Croatia's Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic rejected the accusation and said the Slovenes kept changing the numbers of migrants they were willing to take in.
  • The International Migration Organization said on Monday that arrivals to Greece from Turkey were continuing at a rate of about 5,000 a day.
  • More than 600,000 people, most of them Syrians, have reached Europe so far this year compared with just over 200,000 for the whole of 2014Germany has said it expects 800,000 asylum seekers this year, but it is believed the number could be as high as 1.5 million.
katyshannon

Philippines' Typhoon Koppu brings severe floods - BBC News - 0 views

  • Heavy rain and floods are affecting dozens of villages, after Typhoon Koppu swept through the northern Philippines.The slow-moving weather system has killed at least two people and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
  • Koppu has now been downgraded to a severe tropical storm by the Japanese Meteorological Agency, which is responsible for naming and tracking it.However, the Philippines' own weather agency, which calls the weather system Lando, is still characterising it as a typhoon.
  • Despite weakening, Koppu is expected to keep dumping rain on the country for a considerable time to come. Some forecasts suggest it may not be until Wednesday that it moves past the Philippines and on to Taiwan.
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  • Unlike previous tropical cyclones, the threat from typhoon Koppu is not so much from the wind but from the massive amount of rain. More than a metre of rainfall is forecast in just a few days in Luzon province. That is double what London gets in an entire year. In the south of Luzon, it has brought severe flooding with whole villages under water. But perhaps more dangerous are massive landslides. The fear is that with the ground heavy and saturated with water, whole hillsides could collapse.
  • Typhoon Koppu made landfall near the town of Casiguran on the main island of Luzon on Sunday morning, bringing winds of close to 200km/h (124mph) and cutting power to vast areas.
  • A teenager was killed by a fallen tree in Manila which also injured four others. A concrete wall also collapsed in the town of Subic, northwest of Manila, killing a 62-year-old woman, officials said.
  • dawn on Monday, wind speeds were down to 150 km/h (93 mph) in the northern town of Santiago, according to the state weather service.But floodwaters are preventing even military vehicles reaching many of the worst-hit villages, and rescuers report a shortage of boats."We haven't reached many areas. About 60% to 70% of our town is flooded, some as deep as three metres," said Henry Velarde, vice mayor of Jaen, a town in Nueva Ecija province."There are about 20,000 residents in isolated areas that need food and water."
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    Philippines' Typhoon Koppu flooding endangers thousands
nataliedepaulo1

Mosul battle: IS 'loses hundreds of fighters' - US generals - BBC News - 0 views

  • Hundreds of Islamic State militants are thought to have been killed since Iraqi forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul last week, the US military says.
  • "This relentless campaign of strikes has removed hundreds of fighters, weapons, and key leaders from the battlefield in front of the Iraqi advance," he added.
  • IS has previously used chemical weapons in attacks on Iraqi and coalition forces, and there are fears that it might do so again inside Mosul, where more than a million civilians live.
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    This article details the current situation with ISIS in Mosul.
anonymous

Syria rebels 'in push to break Aleppo siege' - BBC News - 0 views

  • Rebels in Syria have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of east Aleppo.
  • In response, Russia's defence ministry said it had asked permission from President Vladimir Putin to resume air strikes against the rebels after a 10-day pause, Russian media report.
  • Russia suspended its air campaign on 18 October to allow evacuations of sick and wounded people but few have heeded the call to leave.
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  • The attacks are so far coming from rebels outside Aleppo but it is understood that rebels inside the city will join the offensive.
  • The Syrian government said it had repelled offensives on several fronts around Aleppo by both rebel groups and militants from so-called Islamic State (IS).
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    Syrian rebels have announced a big offensive aimed at breaking the government siege of rebel-held east Aleppo. A UK-based monitoring group said rebels had fired "hundreds" of missiles into western Aleppo, killing at least 15 civilians. They are also reported to have targeted al-Nayrab military airport to the east.
anonymous

US election: Why does the US have such low voter turnout? - BBC News - 1 views

  • After a long campaign, it's less than two weeks before millions of Americans cast their votes. But turnout could be as low as 50%. Why do so few people vote?
  • urnout has been on a historic downward trend in recent years - with the exception of President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign, said David Becker, the executive director of the Center for the Election Innovation and Research.
  • Among OECD countries, the US ranked 31 of 34 for percentage of voting-age population.
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  • "The burden has always been on the voter to find out how to register and get themselves registered," Mr Becker said.
  • Other states have passed more stringent voter ID laws, which some critics say make it more difficult for minorities to cast a ballot.
  • Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia now work with ERIC, which Mr Becker helped create, and somewhere between 10 and 20 million people will have been contacted to register by this fall.
  • The historical lack of enthusiasm for voting in the US has been heightened in this year's bitter presidential election - which has seen gruelling months of mudslinging and a rise in hateful invective - leaving some voters no other option than to tune it out.
  • "I don't want to know what the other person's not going to do. I want to know what you are going to do."
redavistinnell

Spain urged not to allow refuelling of Russian warships - BBC News - 0 views

  • Spain urged not to allow refuelling of Russian warships
  • The Spanish government is now reviewing the permit for refuelling at its enclave of Ceuta in north Africa.
  • Nato expressed concern that the ships could be used to help bomb civilians in Aleppo, but said the final decision on resupply rested with Spain.
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  • Nato's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that warships could be used to target civilians in Syria.
  • "The concern is that the Kuznetsov carrier group can be used as a platform for increased airstrikes against civilians in Aleppo."
  • "for each nation to decide whether these ships can get supplies and fuelling and be fuelled in different harbours along the route towards the eastern Mediterranean."
  • The British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, said: "We'd be extremely concerned that any Nato member should consider assisting a Russian carrier group that might end up bombing Syrian civilians."
  • Led by Russia's only aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the naval group includes a nuclear-powered battle cruiser, two anti-submarine warships and four support vessels, probably escorted by submarines. The battle group carries do
  • Some 2,700 people have been killed or injured since the Russian-backed Syrian offensive started last month, according to activists.
  • About 250,000 civilians who live in Aleppo have been trapped by the fighting.
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