Azerbaijan’s president urges US to reconsider its stance on Israel’s capital
▻https://jam-news.net/?p=75698
During his speech at a special summit held by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Azerbaijani President Illham Aliyev condemned the US’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Pourtant un des plus fidèles alliés – et clients – d’Israël.
Ethiopia : Confronting urban hardship
The traditional image of refugees in sprawling rural settlements and camps no long accurately depicts the reality of today’s refugee situation. With more than half of the world’s refugees living in cities and urban areas, the refugee experience itself has changed in many ways. The life of a forced migrant in an urban environment is often one invisibility and simultaneous exposure. Urban refugees and asylum seekers constantly face protection risks and are often denied access to basic services, exposing them to unique social vulnerabilities.
Ethiopia, which hosts over 830,000 displaced individuals, is experiencing a rise in numbers of urban refugees. Crises in neighbouring countries such as South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, and Yemen have contributed to these rising numbers. In fact, according to the UNHCR, there are over 20,000 urban refugees in the capital city of Addis Ababa, most of them from Eritrea.
Urban refugees residing in Addis Ababa and all over the world face alternative challenges to those living in camps where basic amenities such as food, water, and shelter are often available. High priced city living, limited access to social and economic services, lack of skills training, employment opportunities, and insufficient support contributes to the poor living conditions of the urban refugee experience.
In response to these harsh circumstances, JRS started the first and only urban Refugee Community Centre (RCC) in Addis Ababa in 1996. The RCC responds to the unmet needs of urban refugees and asylum seekers with a range of services and support. The vocational skills training, day care service, English language courses, psychosocial services, sports and recreation, music therapy, and emergency food and material assistance offered by RCC helps displaced persons heal, learn, and thrive in their new environments.
The RCC project provides educational support to the Somali community residing in Addis Ababa, because illiteracy is widespread among many Somali refugees. The English and computer classes, and sports activities and community services offered by JRS help many refugees improve their living situations. These educational courses and social integration programs are relevant to everyday life, as many urban refugees are unable to obtain these resources on their own. “Even if there is no money that can be given, JRS talks to us and makes us feel good despite the hardships,” said a refugee woman at the centre.
During the 2016 Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, Ethiopia made pledges to address the socio-economic needs of refugees and host communities. Accordingly, the pledges will amend Ethiopia’s national law to expand the out-of-camp policy and issue work permits to refugees. JRS RCC is adapting its projects in response to the changing context, especially those activities that involve language, business, and occupational skills trainings to facilitate and empower refugee participation.
“What’s really nice about the project is that it’s the only community space for refugees. There are some people who have been coming to the centre since childhood. There’s also a great relationship there between us (JRS) and the people we serve. This trust and transparency isn’t seen with many other organisations,” says Liana Tepperman, Director of Programs at JRS/USA.
The effectiveness of the services provided by JRS are recognized by urban refugee stakeholders, including UNHCR who recently helped fund the opening of a new urban Child Protection Centre in July 2017. Several prominent individuals like the UN General Assembly President, and officials from the European Union and US government have made visits to the RCC. They encouraged JRS to continue to take a strong leadership role in urban refugee discussions and actions, as there is still more change to be made.
▻https://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/ethiopia-confronting-urban-hardship
#Ethiopie #urban_refugees #réfugiés_urbains #réfugiés #asile #migrations
After a dozen Gaza rockets in a week, Israel is being backed into a corner -
Frequent rocket fire from Gaza would disturb the feeling of security and would put pressure on Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman to act more resolutely
Amos Harel Dec 13, 2017
read more: ▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.828581
Since the evening of December 6, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced American recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, eight rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into the Negev region. At least three other rockets were fired from Gaza but fell inside Palestinian territory. This is the largest number of rockets fired at Israel since the end of Operation Protective Edge, the war that Israel fought with Hamas and its allies during the summer of 2014.
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Israeli intelligence agencies attribute most of the rocket fire, if not all of it, to extremist Salafi factions that operate beyond Hamas’ direction. Israel has also identified preliminary steps taken by Hamas over the past few days to rein in the rocket fire, including the arrest of members of these organizations. In the past, the Hamas government in Gaza has known how to make the rules of the game that it has established with Israel clear to these smaller groups – and has adopted a harsh enforcement policy when it has understood that the rocket fire was endangering the stability of its rule in Gaza.
This time, either the message was not received or was not properly understood. It appears that in Gaza Trump’s declaration was seen as an opportunity to let off steam and attack Israeli civilian population centers. The stage of the large demonstrations by Palestinians protesting Trump’s declaration is slowly coming to an end, without leaving much of an impression on the international community, or on Trump either.
>> Three reasons we aren’t seeing a third intifada | Analysis
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Now there is a shift to a different approach involving firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, a period during which one “lone wolf” terrorist attack also occurred, involving the stabbing by a Palestinian at the Jerusalem central bus station of a security guard, who was seriously wounded.
The site in the Israeli border town of Sderot where a rocket fired from Gaza fell on Dec. 8, 2017.Eliyahu Hershovitz
The Israeli response to the rocket fire from Gaza has been rather restrained so far. As has been its custom in the past, Israel has said that it views Hamas as the party responsible for violence coming from its territory – and has exacted a price from it by bombing Hamas positions and command headquarters. But the Israeli attacks have generally been carried out when the targets were empty, and the attacks have been planned in such a way as to limit the damage. In one case, last Friday, a member of the Hamas military wing was killed, and the Hamas leadership felt Israel had gone too far. For now, it seems that the Israeli leadership does not want to rock the boat to too great an extent in Gaza.
The Israeli government’s problem is that it does not fully control of the situation. Continued rocket fire and “red alert” rocket sirens will exact a psychological price from the Israeli residents in the region near the Gaza border, who have enjoyed a relatively long period of quiet and a major influx of new residents, as a result of a building boom and government tax breaks for the region following Operation Protective Edge. The traumatic experiences of Protective Edge and other previous periods, during military operations in Gaza and between them, are still remembered quite well in Sderot, Ashkelon and the nearby collective moshavim and kibbutzim communities.
Iron Dome anti-missile batteries intercepted two of the rockets fired over the past few days – and missed one rocket, which fell in a populated area in Sderot but did not cause any injuries. The Israel army made a change recently in how it calculates the area where the rockets are projected to fall (known as the “polygon”), thereby only requiring that alarms sound in a very small and more focused area, and limiting the disruption to local routines in border communities near Gaza. Nevertheless, rocket fire every day, or every other day, would disturb the feeling of security that had been restored with difficulty and would create pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to act more resolutely. The distance could be short from that to another round of violence.
The latest tensions are occurring against the backdrop of the Israeli army’s announcement Sunday that it had successfully destroyed another attack tunnel dug well inside Israeli territory that was discovered along the border with Gaza, the second in less than two months. It appears, however, that Hamas’ actions are influenced first and foremost by another factor, its reconciliation agreement with the Palestinian Authority. So far the commitments included in the agreement have not been carried out. That’s the case when it comes to the opening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and the resumption of funding for Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
As far as Hamas is concerned, the bad news is coming from almost all directions: Trump’s announcement, the Israeli army’s success in locating attack tunnels and the difficulties with Palestinian reconciliation. If Hamas cannot deliver the goods to Gaza’s residents, who have been waiting with bated breath for a measure of improvement in their economic situation and freedom of movement, Hamas could well find itself dragged once again into an escalation with Israel – as it has acted in the past.
This is the main worry keeping Israel’s senior defense officials and political leadership busy at the moment, and it explains the relatively restrained Israeli response – restraint that could end if the frequent rocket fire continues, and certainly if the rockets inflict casualties.
Egyptian Chronicles: Al-Rawda Mosque Carnage : Two weeks later
▻https://egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com/2017/12/al-rawda-mosque-carnage-two-weeks-later.html#more
Al-Rawda Mosque Carnage : Two weeks later
Last Friday, head of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohamed El-Tayeb led Friday prayers at North Sinai’s El-Rawda Mosque just one week after the horrifying massacre it witnessed where not less than 311 people were killed according to official statements in Egypt’s worst terrorist attack.
The week before President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi renewed his orders to the Egyptian armed forces and police force during the official celebration of Prophet Mohamed “PBUH” to use “brute force” or “utmost force” to restore order within three months in the Egyptian Northern East governorate.
The Egyptian Mainstream Media passed over that horrifying massacre as you know life goes on and we should not ask too many questions as terrorism is having its last days in North Sinai.
I had too many questions and I could not find them in the mainstream media as usual.
I can not travel to North Sinai except if I have security permits and unfortunately I could not travel to Ismailia to meet with the injured either as I have been battling flu. Yet, thank God for telephones despite it is not perfect.
In the past week, I managed to speak with locals from both Bir Al-Abd city as well Al-Rawda village through telephone calls.
Their answers and information did not only reveal something I did not know then about the worst massacre in the history of Egypt but also about the situation in general in North Sinai governorate after nearly four years of war against terrorism.
The Black Friday
On Friday 24 November, the People of Bir Al-Abd began to feel that there was something wrong with that 35 km away small village as news came that militants cut the International highway between their city and Al-Rawda.
The news came that afternoon about how there was a bombing inside the village’s mosque during Friday prayers and the injured were transferred to the Bir Al-Abd hospital as there is no medical facility in there.
Les personnes transgenres ne pourront plus être recrutées dans l’armée américaine
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/ameriques/article/2017/08/26/trump-ordonne-au-pentagone-de-ne-plus-recruter-de-personnes-transgenres_5176
Le président américain Donald Trump a signé vendredi 25 août un document ordonnant au Pentagone de ne plus recruter de personnes transgenres
Pentagon : transgender people can enlist in the military starting January 1 - Vox
▻https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/12/11/16763178/trump-transgender-military-ban
The Pentagon said it will let openly transgender people enlist in the military starting on January 1, according to the Associated Press.
This is not because, as some people responding to the news on social media assumed, the Pentagon is unilaterally defying President Donald Trump’s order to ban trans people from the military. It’s because Trump’s order has been blocked, albeit through preliminary injunctions so far, in court battles.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ruled against the ban and last month told the military that it must allow trans people to enlist starting in January. Then, on Monday, Kollar-Kotelly rejected the federal government’s request to delay her order.
German Foreign Ministry rejects additional winter aid for refugees on Greek islands
▻http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2017/12/11/greece-turkey-germany-refugees-migrants
The German Foreign Ministry has made it clear that it will not provide additional winter assistance to refugees on the Aegean islands. In a related question from German newspapers, the foreign ministry replied that “responsibility for accommodating and feeding refugees falls under the jurisdiction of each country.”
According to dpa, the Foreign Ministry recalled that Berlin recently funded the installation of 135 heated containers for a total of 800 people in two camps in the Thessaloniki region and that the EU has allocated up to now 1.4 billion euros to tackle the refugee crisis in Greece.
Meanwhile, there is media report that Greece has persuaded Turkey to accept migrant returns from the mainland in order to reduce critical overcrowding in its refugee camps.
The Kathimerini daily said the agreement came during a strained two-day state visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week, during which he angered his hosts with talk of revising borders and complaints about Greece’s treatment of its Muslim minority.
The deal is in addition to Turkey’s existing agreement to take back migrants from Aegean island camps, under the terms of an EU-Turkey pact.
Economy—Not Trump Policies—Behind Falling Border Apprehensions
Immigration figures released this week show the lowest number of people trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally in decades. Meanwhile, deportations of people living illegally in the United States are up significantly.
So are President Donald Trump’s immigration policies working or is there more behind the numbers?
Ev Meade, director of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute, said the decline in apprehensions is part of a trend that began 17 years ago.
“It’s not something that has to do with this presidential administration over the last year, nor does it really have to do with the previous presidential administration,” Meade said. “It’s driven by larger social forces, not by the politics of the moment.”
For the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, Border Patrol agents detained 303,916 people for trying to enter the U.S. illegally at the southern border this past fiscal year, the fewest since 1971, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement also deported 81,603 people in fiscal 2017, a 37 percent increase from the previous year.
#statistiques #chiffres #murs #Etats-Unis #frontières #asile #migrations #réfugiés
Avec ce commentaire de Reece Jones sur twitter :
The decline in apprehensions at the border is part of a long term trend, not a one-time Trump effect (and # of apprehensions does not equal # of crossings)
Why Is There No “Saudi-Gate”?
▻http://jacobinmag.com/2017/11/trump-russia-bush-saudi-arabia
Imagine if Russia — instead of doing what it has been accused of doing last year — had funded and facilitated an attack on US soil that killed thousands of Americans. Then imagine that US policymakers, rather than punish the Kremlin by cutting diplomatic ties, imposing sanctions, seeking legal recourse, or all of the above, covered up its involvement in the attack and continued to treat it as a loyal ally.
Imagine if the president who presided over that attack had decades of intimate personal and financial ties to members of the Russian elite and subsequently spirited dozens of Russian nationals out of the country before law enforcement could interrogate them.
Imagine if, despite full knowledge of the Kremlin’s once and ongoing anti-American activities, successive presidents heaped praise on Russia’s authoritarian government, sold it weapons, and made regular pilgrimages to wine and dine with its leaders.
Imagine if an army of Russian lobbyists operated on Capitol Hill to ensure Washington’s pro-Kremlin line, eventually pressuring American leadership into actively assisting it in carrying out one of this decade’s worst war crimes.
Imagine if, at the end of all this, Donald Trump ran for president on an explicitly anti-Russia line, only to shamelessly reverse himself once elected, embrace the Russian leadership, and pursue policies that benefited them even more enthusiastically than his predecessors had.
It’s a pretty scary thought.
Thankfully, in the real world, none of this applies to Russia. It does, however, perfectly describe Saudi Arabia.
Bahrain faith group visits Israel amid Jerusalem tensions
▻https://apnews.com/bba695f5b71546ba907d78e1b03dd1a0
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An interfaith group from Bahrain is visiting Israel amid turmoil there over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital, angering some in the island nation who support the Palestinians.
The group’s trip comes after two U.S.-based rabbis have said that Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa thinks that the longtime boycott of Israel by Arab countries should end.
While organizers repeatedly described the trip as nonpolitical and unrelated to its government’s policies, the timing comes as Bahrain increasingly looks like the test case for other Gulf Arab nations in seeing what could happen if they recognize #Israel.
Donald Trump, visionary of the (single) state - Opinion - Israel News | Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.827925
Theodor Trump, the visionary of the single state. Without Herzl’s beard or Basel, the site of the First Zionist Congress, Donald Trump may become the founder of democracy in Israel-Palestine. Just as his vulgarity and sexism boosted the #MeToo movement, his blatant bias toward Zionism and the occupation might create a backlash that could effect the only remaining conceivable solution. Sometimes you need a defiant bully to shake things up. Trump’s the guy. We should thank this dangerous man: He tore off the disguise and put an end to the masquerade.
Trump told the world the truth: The United States is not an honest broker, it never was and never will be. It is the greatest collaborator with the Israeli occupation, supporting, arming and funding it. It wants the occupation to continue. It never recoiled from it and of course did nothing to end it. Before Trump, it also mocked the world: the an endless “peace process” that never led (and was not intended to lead) to anything but the perpetuation of the occupation; countless purportedly balanced “peace plans” that America never tried to implement; countless purportedly neutral brokers, a majority of them Zionist Jews; and after all that, the appearance of an impartial peacemaker.
Trump came and put a stop to it. In deciding to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and only of Israel, he left no room for doubt: America is with the occupation, with Israel and only with Israel. Of course that’s its right, and the right of its president — most Israelis are surely happy about it — but it won’t bring about peace or relative justice.
Trump also conducted the sad funeral of the two-state solution, after its long decline into death. Now the heir must be found. In his horrifically one-sided announcement, Trump declared that there aren’t two nations with equal rights in this land of two nations. There is one nation with one capital and all the rights, and another, inferior nation with no rights. That other nation is not deserving of a state if it is not deserving of a capital in Jerusalem. That other nation must now recognize its situation and adjust its goals to the reality declared by Trump.
The first to do so was Saeb Erekat, the veteran Palestinian negotiator. He said, fine, one state. The Palestinian Authority will have to go with it. It will no longer be able to talk about a two-state solution. It needs to start fighting for the obvious: equal rights for all. One person, one vote. One democratic state for two peoples. That’s the only remaining option other than apartheid. More than 700,000 Jewish settlers, including in East Jerusalem, were already there, and now America is officially behind them. The occupier received another prize, while the occupied received another blow.
The European Union will also have to adjust to reality and understand that winter is coming. Up to now, the EU has been in America’s shadow, its faithful servant when it comes to Middle East policy. Other than a few insignificant symbolic steps, it hasn’t pursued a policy in keeping with public sentiment in Western Europe, most of which is opposed to the occupation.
Perhaps Trump’s extremism will shake the EU out of its complacency and spur it to more courageous and, most important, more independent positions. And maybe Europe will also stop invoking the two-state mantra now that a few of its heads of state have recognized that it’s no longer viable. Perhaps Europe will take the lead in a new dialogue about equal rights for all.
And whom do we have to thank? The president of the United States. When the only genuine democracy in the Middle East is finally established, one day in the distant future, he should be invited. This American ultranationalist, who would have nothing to do with morality or justice or international law or human rights or minorities or Palestinians, should be made an honorary citizen of the new, just state.
Trump’s Jerusalem declaration gives Abbas a chance to shake things up
Unfortunately, however, change is something that the Palestinian leadership has forgotten how to accomplish
Amira Hass Dec 09, 2017 10:08 AM
▻https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.827682
The American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is an opportunity for the Palestinian leadership to cast off old and fossilized modes of thinking and action that have rendered these leaders incapable of change.
Will this opportunity be used to undertake an internal process of democratization, first of all to restore relations between an unelected Palestinian elite that has been in power for several decades and the public (not only in the West Bank and in Gaza but in the Palestinian diaspora as well)? The hope is that it will be used to effect change. The concern is that it won’t happen.
When the Palestinian leadership recovers from the shock delivered by the symbolic change in American policy — symbolic, but with explosive potential — it will say that this is a pan-Muslim, a pan-Arab or perhaps a European problem. The leadership would be correct in saying so, of course. The leaders will say that Palestinians are the weakest link in the chain and that they can’t deal with the pyromaniac in the White House on their own.
It might also put another way. The change in the American position enables Palestinian leaders, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, to effect change that will show their people that they haven’t embraced the diplomatic course that depends on economic and security coordination with Israel only to further their own immediate personal and financial interests — and those of entourages close to Fatah and Palestine Liberation Organization leadership.
“Personal advancement” has been one of the prevalent explanations for the fact that Abbas has stubbornly evaded the holding of elections, and that, within his Fatah faction, elections have been fixed and dictated from above to an extent that is not openly discussed. For the same reason it is argued that Abbas has been avoiding making changes to his cabinet that would allow it to represent the spectrum of political organizations and not just his own.
After recovering from the shock, Abbas and his people will say, and rightly so, that the change in the American position does not necessarily reflect a failure of the Palestinian diplomatic course but rather the incompetence of reasonable factions within the Republican Party in the United States.
After all, President Trump lashed out at all Muslims, including those in countries whose governments are considered U.S. allies, in addition to assailing the Vatican and Europe. Palestinian leaders will be able to say that Trump’s daring, in breaking with international convention, is not confined to one field.
Just recently, he and the economic and Evangelistic right-wing that he serves and represents chalked up two major victories: an increase in benefits to big business through corporate tax cuts and a Supreme Court ruling that allowed the immediate enforcement of a ban on the entry of citizens from six Muslim countries. As a result, Abbas and his associates will say, there is no connection between the internal Palestinian situation and the international community’s attempts to deal with Trump’s policies.
The diplomatic course — involving symbolic international recognition of a Palestinian state — was paved slowly, and included several encouraging achievements such as acceptance into international institutions and the signing of international conventions. But then it was blocked in its tracks by the United States. The diplomatic course angered Israel, but it is exhausted by now, without having changed the reality on the ground: limited autonomy for the Palestinian Authority, split among disconnected enclaves, while absolving Israel of responsibility despite its being the occupying power. Western countries still confer their seal of approval to an unelected and unloved Palestinian leadership as a result of its commitment to restrain the public and maintain quiet vis-à-vis Israel, and for its willingness to pretend that there is still an ongoing “process” leading to a state. The risks that Trump’s move entail will only buttress Europe’s demand that Abbas and his security forces continue to restrain the Palestinian public in exchange for their continued acceptance as the legitimate leadership.
The United States, a very generous donor to the UN Relief and Works Agency and to the Palestinian security forces, accepted the reality of enclaves long before Trump’s arrival. That was the message behind its financing the upgrading of rural roads, as a substitute to wide and fast highways, but in the process, Israel has blocked access from Palestinian towns and villages for the convenience of West Bank Jewish settlers.
European countries are not absolved, however, from their own responsibility for abetting the reality of the enclaves, through their donations that somewhat moderate the chronic financial crisis caused by Israeli restrictions. But these countries have tried and are trying to help Palestinians remain on their land, taking steps that have not been completed to boycott products from the settlements while declaring that Area C (which is under full Israeli control) is part of the Palestinian state. They are at least aware of their negative role in subsidizing the occupation.
They certainly won’t stop subsidizing it now — through humanitarian assistance to Palestinians — amid a growing sense of an impending explosion. This too will enhance the logic of maintaining the Abbas government as it is now.
The call by Abbas’ Fatah party for three days of rage over the Jerusalem issue with no internal systemic changes is a risky gamble. It endangers the lives and health of hundreds of Palestinian young people, exposing them to mass arrest, and all for nothing. Mainly, however, it might demonstrate that the Palestinian public doesn’t heed calls issued by Fatah and the Palestinian Authority since it doesn’t trust them. The public will instead act at a time and in an manner that suits it.
Instead of hounding anyone who criticizes him on Facebook and silencing critics through an internet law, Abbas and people around him could now take several initial steps to refresh the political system that they have built under the auspices of the Oslo accords. It’s hard to imagine how such a process would look like, as a result of the prolonged ossification of PLO and Palestinian Authority institutions. In any event, it requires the inclusion and active involvement of wide sectors of the population in the thinking and doing phases, something that Fatah and PLO leaders have long forgotten how to do.
Human rights advisor to President Kh.Battulga defends proposal to reinstate death penalty | The UB Post
▻http://theubpost.mn/2017/12/10/human-rights-advisor-to-president-kh-battulga-defends-proposal-to-reinstat
G.Uyanga, former Member of Parliament and Civil Society and Human Rights advisor to President Kh.Battulga, sat down with Unuudur to defend Kh.Battulga’s proposal to reinstate capital punishment.
The President’s wish to reinstate the death penalty has been the subject of much debate and division in Mongolia. As an advisor to the President, what is your stance on the death penalty?
People expressing their opinions on a controversial topic and taking sides is one thing. For us, finding a solution is what’s important. The President has proposed his solution.
First of all, President Kh.Battulga has made it clear that at no point during his term as President will he pardon any individuals convicted of heinous crimes against children. There are many convicted criminals who ask for pardons from the President. From 2014 until November 2017, the President’s Office received more than 400 requests for pardons, 22 of which were granted. Starting from now, those who have committed horrible crimes will not be considered for pardons. This is one solution.
Second, the President has proposed to reinstate the death penalty. In order to reinstate capital punishment, Parliament needs to legislate it. Whether it does or not is up to Parliament.
Pour cette « conseillère sur les droits humains »,
– la #peine_de_mort n’est de toutes façons pas abolie légalement,
– elle n’est que suspendue sur décision – inconstitutionnelle, d’après elle – du précédent président
– le fait que la #Mongolie ait adhéré au Deuxième protocole facultatif se rapportant au Pacte international relatif aux droits civils et politiques, visant à abolir la peine de mort de l’ONU n’est pas vraiment gênant
– les sondages sont pour le recours à la peine de mort, voire massivement pour chez les juristes
– la principale – et unique motivation – est la punition de crimes sexuels sur des enfants
In 2016 alone, more than 298 children aged two to seven had become victims of sexual abuse. We do not know how many similar cases go unreported. This is a horrific statistic for Mongolians. The most recent decision by the President was based on research and designed to reverse what the previous President enacted based on emotion. It would be irrational to conclude that President Kh.Battulga’s decision was driven by emotion or overreaction. The reality of the situation demands this type of action.
NB : la population de la Mongolie est de 3 millions d’habitants en 2016. Le chiffre comparable pour la France semble être autour de 5500 par an, soit, pour une population 20 fois plus nombreuse, un taux comparable. Et il est, bien sûr, difficile de comparer les sous-déclarations dans les deux pays…
données (assez anciennes)
rapport ONED 2004
▻http://www.protection-enfance.org/Agressions.php
Universalis, données 2000
▻https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/pedophilie/5-donnees-statistiques-du-phenomene-en-france
Florida rally cheers when Republican predicts Trump’s Jerusalem embassy decision may usher in Armageddon
▻https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/florida-rally-cheers-when-republican-predicts-trumps-jerusalem-embassy-dec
A conservative politician at President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Pensacola, Florida suggested that the president’s controversial decision to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem may usher in the biblical end times.
Republican state Senator Doug Broxson represents the Florida Panhandle in the legislature and gave an introductory speech welcoming President Trump to Florida.
“Now, I don’t know about you, but when I heard about Jerusalem — where the King of Kings [applause] where our soon coming King is coming back to Jerusalem, it is because President Trump declared Jerusalem to be capital of Israel,” Sen. Broxson predicted.
Destruction Of Black Wealth During The Obama Presidency – People’s Policy Project
▻http://peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/12/07/destruction-of-black-wealth-during-the-obama-presidency
The paper finds that while President #Obama had wide discretion and appropriated funds to relieve homeowners caught in the economic crisis, the policy design his administration chose for his housing program was a disaster. Instead of helping homeowners, at every turn the administration was obsessed with protecting the financial system — and so homeowners were left to drown.
As a result, the percentage of black homeowners who were underwater on their mortgage exploded 20-fold from 2007 to 2013.
The Panama Canal Is Now a Major Problem for U.S. Shale - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/u-s-shale-has-a-panama-canal-problem-that-s-got-no-easy-fix
Just as the Panama Canal was unveiling a new, fatter set of locks, U.S. shale drillers were readying their very first exports of liquefied natural gas. While the wide-body tankers that transport LNG would’ve had no chance of squeaking through the original steel locks built a century ago, they could easily traverse the bigger channel and shave 11 days off the trip to primary markets in Asia.
But 17 months in, it’s not quite working out as planned. Only a single LNG tanker has a guaranteed passage each day. The natural-gas industry blames the Panama Canal Authority for holdups, and the canal authority blames the industry for being lackadaisical about transit timetables.
[…]
What rankles LNG companies is that they’ve been awarded just the single reserved slot, with the rest going to container ships that carry consumer goods from sneakers to refrigerators. One position isn’t sufficient now and will be wholly inadequate once all the new export terminals under construction go on line, said Octavio Simoes, president of Sempra LNG & Midstream, at a conference in October. He caused a ruckus when he warned that canal holdups could crimp sales and cost traders serious money.
Jorge Quijano, chief executive officer of the canal authority, fired back, saying there are no plans to boost reservations for LNG tankers — and suggested there won’t be until they prove themselves worthy.
“We can focus on giving them a second slot when they start to behave with a more contract-like pattern with their suppliers and buyers,” Quijano said from his office in Panama City. With container ships, “if they request a transit tomorrow, they’ll be there tomorrow.” LNG tankers, he said, “are a maybe.”
Putin Blesses Multibillion-Dollar Bet on Russia Competing in LNG - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-08/putin-blesses-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-russia-competing-in-lng
As Russia’s President Vladimir Putin oversees the official start of a $27 billion liquefied natural gas plant in the snow-covered tundra of northern Siberia, his mind may wander to its biggest competitor more than 3,000 miles away in Qatar.
While the two regions may have vastly different climates, Putin is determined to make Russia’s Arctic competitive in the fuel that turned Qatar into the richest nation per capita. On Friday, he witnessed the loading of the first icebreaking tanker from the Yamal LNG plant, built on time despite the harsh climate and in defiance of U.S. sanctions targeting its biggest shareholder.
Operator Novatek PJSC earlier this week announced the start of production at Yamal LNG, in which Total SA, China National Petroleum Corp. and China’s Silk Road Fund also hold stakes. The operator of the world’s coldest LNG plant has been under U.S. sanctions imposed three years ago as Russia’s relations with the U.S. soured.
“This is for sure a complicated project,” Putin said at a ceremony attended by the project partners and the energy minister of Saudi Arabia. “But those who started this project took a risk, and the risk was justified, and they succeeded.”
Russia Wins in Arctic After U.S. Fails to Kill Giant Gas Project - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-14/russia-dreams-big-as-u-s-fails-to-kill-27-billion-gas-project
Building the $27 billion Yamal liquefied natural gas project meant shipping more than 5 million tons of materials to construct a forest of concrete and steel 600 kilometers north of the Arctic circle, where temperatures can drop to -50 degrees celsius and the sun disappears for two months straight.
Yet those challenges weren’t as tough as the U.S. sanctions imposed in 2014, forcing a complete refinancing just as construction was about to start. Jacques de Boisseson, head of the Moscow office of French energy giant Total SA, which has a 20 percent stake in Yamal LNG, said there were “various moments” when he thought the project may never happen.
Jerusalem A poisoned gift - Haaretz Editorial -
Violating the status quo in Jerusalem, like expanding the settlement enterprise, is moving Israel further from the only possible solution, the two-state solution
Haaretz Editorial Dec 08, 2017
read more: ▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/1.827619
U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital could have been joyful news for Israel. But it’s no coincidence that Israel is the only country in the world whose capital hasn’t been recognized by the international community. Jerusalem’s status remains a core issue in the negotiations for a final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
In this sense, disrupting the status quo in the world’s most explosive city is a poisoned gift to the Israeli and Arab peace camp. It’s hard to understand how such a move fits with Trump’s declarations about his desire to bring about peace in the region, a feat his predecessors in the White House failed to achieve.
Trump boasted that he didn’t follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who did not change U.S. policy toward Jerusalem. But previous administrations’ refusal to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital did not stem from hostility to Israel or excessive sympathy for the Muslims. These administrations heeded the advice of the National Security Council and Israeli defense officials, who warned that a policy change regarding Jerusalem would sabotage the peace process.
The decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital plays into the hands of radical Arab groups, which don’t miss an opportunity to portray the two-state solution as deception, and portray the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states that recognize Israel, as collaborators with the enemies of Islam.
’My Only Friend Is My Conscience’: Face to Face With El Salvador’s Cold Killer | by Jonathan Blitzer | NYR Daily | The New York Review of Books
▻http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/12/07/my-only-friend-is-my-conscience-face-to-face-with-el-salvadors-cold-killer
I was due to fly to El Salvador the next night, because I wanted to confront Ochoa about the theft. While I was packing my bags in New York, the Salvadoran police began rounding up the culprits. Within hours, four were in custody, and several others had gone into hiding. The names of the officers appeared on television sets across El Salvador, listed by rank on the local news. These were aged and haggard men, geriatric fugitives. Two of them had been arrested before, in 1991, but were released from prison after the passage of the amnesty law.
Around the time that the Jesuit priests were killed, Ochoa had retired from military service and was working as the head of the state electric company, a privileged civilian post, and his name was circulating among officials at the State Department and CIA as a possible presidential candidate. He wasn’t personally implicated in the Jesuit killings, but he was friendly with another colonel who’d been found guilty of orchestrating the murders. Several months after the assassinations, Ochoa appeared on 60 Minutes saying that his friend was acting on someone else’s orders. This was farther than even the friend was willing to go—he had known enough to stay quiet. But Ochoa, who felt unencumbered by institutional allegiances, declared that “it was all planned beforehand,” implying that a group of military and political leaders had organized the crime. This flummoxed the Salvadoran government, which had no choice but to issue a string of denials.
Soon, there was talk in political circles of sacking Ochoa and forcing him to “wallow in the assembly, where he could talk to his heart’s content,” as one US Embassy cable summarized. (It is a mark of the times that a spot in congress was considered a demotion, a posting far from the action.) Ultimately, American officials cautioned their Salvadoran counterparts against making a martyr out of Ochoa. It was a lesson that would never be fully learned. In 2012, the left-wing president of El Salvador, reacting to another of Ochoa’s typically incendiary public comments, tried to remove him from contention for congress by reactivating his military status and conscripting him back into service. Ochoa coasted to reelection.
How to Launder $1 Billion of Iranian Oil - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-08/how-to-launder-1-billion-of-iranian-oil
It wasn’t until he appeared in court on Nov. 29 that the full story surfaced. The FBI had removed him from jail to protect him from threats, keeping him under guard at an undisclosed location. By then, Zarrab had secretly pleaded guilty to all the charges against him and agreed to help the U.S. government. As part of his deal, prosecutors offered him and his family witness protection.
Over more than a week on the witness stand, Zarrab spun a stunning tale of corruption and double-dealing that reached the highest levels of the Turkish government, all the way up to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The case has further soured Washington and Ankara’s already strained relationship, revealing how America’s longtime ally may have helped Iran undermine sanctions even as Turkey received millions of dollars in U.S. aid. Nine people have been charged, including Turkey’s former economy minister and past chief executive officer of Halkbank, a major Turkish bank owned by the government. Of them, only one—a senior Halkbank executive named Mehmet Hakan Atilla, Zarrab’s former co-defendant—is on trial. The others have all avoided U.S. arrest.
In court, Zarrab laid out how he paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to Turkish government officials and banking executives to win their assistance—and cover—for the money laundering operation. He dropped a bombshell on his second day of testimony, when he implicated Erdogan as part of the scheme, saying he was told Turkey’s president gave orders that two Turkish banks be included in the plot.
Briefing With Acting Assistant Secretary David M. Satterfield
Special Briefing David M. Satterfield,Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Press Briefing Room, Washington, DC,
December 7, 2017
▻http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2017/12/276349.htm
(...) QUESTION: My name is Said Arikat. I just want to follow up on East Jerusalem because it is really – it’s not clear at all. Not in my mind. So what happens to the Palestinian population of East Jerusalem? Do they now become automatically Israeli citizens, would have full rights, and so on? What happens to 300,000 Palestinians?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: Said, the President’s proclamation yesterday, his decision, have no impact on those issues. He is recognizing a practical reality. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. And all of the other aspects – boundaries of sovereignty – we’re not taking a position. It’s for the sides to resolve.
QUESTION: So if you’ll just bear with me for a second. So why not say West Jerusalem? I mean, the Russians have done that. It did not cause any problem and so on. Or why don’t you say that this part, East Jerusalem, as been negotiated as you yourself have been involved for so many years, this portion is designated to become the capital of the Palestinian state?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: Said, the President’s decision speaks for itself. There are many words that are in his statement, in his remarks; there are words that aren’t. We recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. He didn’t go beyond that, and I’m not going to go beyond that.
QUESTION: Can you – can you share with us —
MS NAUERT: We need to move on (inaudible).
QUESTION: — just one last thing?
MS NAUERT: Said, (inaudible).
QUESTION: Could you share with us, sir —
MS NAUERT: Said, (inaudible).
QUESTION: — one national security interest of the United States that this recognition has served? Can you identify one national security interest of the United States that this recognition has identified?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: The President is committed to advancing a peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. In his view upon reflection, this step, he believes, assists in that process. Full stop.
MS NAUERT: Nick, go right ahead.
QUESTION: Can you explain that further, because —
QUESTION: Can I just ask, Mr. —
QUESTION: — that’s exactly what we’re trying to – or what I’m trying to figure out is —
MS NAUERT: Nick, go right ahead. Hold on, Dave.
QUESTION: Can you – just to Matt’s point, can you explain why a decision-making process needs to be made about maps and things like that, and consular services? I mean, you said yourself, the President declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Why does there need to be a further decision-making process on those other issues?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: It’s a very simple answer, and it’s wholly technical. What phrasing do you place upon government-issued maps? There are different word choices that can be used. To be clear, there will be a decision made. When the decision is made, you’ll have it and you’ll have the maps.
QUESTION: And can you just explain why now? Why did he make this decision now?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: Because December 4th was the trigger date for the next waiver required under the Jerusalem Act of ’95. That was the proximate timing issue. Full stop.
QUESTION: So there was no strategic – this – it was solely based on —
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: The President had to make a decision. He did. But he’s —
QUESTION: Why didn’t he do it on the 4th?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: That’s the legal requirement of the act. Every six months —
QUESTION: No, but he —
QUESTION: But he didn’t.
QUESTION: But he didn’t.
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: — a waiver has to be issued.
QUESTION: He didn’t do it on the 4th. He did it on the 6th.
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: We believe – and I believe the White House has spoken to this – technically, we were in compliance. We’ll leave it to the Hill on whether 48 hours constituted a problem or not. But the 4th was the trigger date.
QUESTION: Wow. I wish my editors had your sense of deadline. (Laughter.)
QUESTION: Michelle with CNN. Thanks. Can you just say how – how this furthers the peace process?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: The President believes taking this issue – that is the fact of U.S. recognition, acknowledgement of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – an issue that’s been pending out there since ’95, since the act was initially passed – was appropriate to make and that it helps in the process to no longer have that issue, which is the U.S. acknowledgement of the simple fact that Jerusalem is the location of the supreme court, the Knesset, the president and the prime minister’s residences, that that is a useful clearing of an issue that has been part of, grown as part of, this process for many decades.
QUESTION: So it’s setting us up for what? To – if you’re saying that that gets that out of the way and it’s been a reality, how does that set the stage?
AMBASSADOR SATTERFIELD: The President and his peace team have been engaged, as you all know, for many months now in discussions with the two parties, with regional states, with other key actors, to try to advance a peace. This is not an easy process; it’s a difficult one. But he believes this step assists in that process. I am not going to elaborate on that further.
(...)
QUESTION: Et une autre question. Considérez-vous les parties de Jérusalem-Est occupées par Israël en 1967 comme des territoires occupés?
AMBASSADEUR SATTERFIELD: La décision du Président est de reconnaître Jérusalem comme la capitale de l’Etat d’Israël. Le Président a déclaré que cette décision ne touche pas aux questions de frontières, de souveraineté ou de frontières géographiques. Arrêt complet.
QUESTION: Donc, il est encore territoire occupé, à votre avis?
AMBASSADEUR SATTERFIELD: J’ai déclaré ce que la décision du président fait et ne fait pas.(...)
Trump, Israel and the Art of the Giveaway - The New York Times
►https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/06/opinion/trump-foreign-policy-giveaway.html
Thomas Friedman sur Trump et Jérusalem : un cadeau qu’il aurait fallu mieux négocier.
Trump is susceptible to such giveaways, not only because he is ignorant, but because he does not see himself as the president of the United States. He sees himself as the president of his base. And because that’s the only support he has left, he feels the need to keep feeding his base by fulfilling crude, ill-conceived promises he threw out to them during the campaign. Today, again, he put another one of those promises ahead of United States’ national interest.
An American withdrawal from peace - Haaretz Editorial
It’s true that his predecessors also didn’t impose a settlement, but at least since the 2000 Camp David summit they mediated between the parties
Haaretz Editorial Dec 07, 2017
read more: ▻https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/1.827389
U.S. President Donald Trump has given a valuable political gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who’s strugging amid the corruption investigations against him and is trying to maintain the stability of his governing coalition, which is being led by the Habayit Hayehudi party headed by Naftali Bennett.
In his White House address Wednesday, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – a declaration that all his predecessors had avoided since the state was established in 1948. In the same breath, he diluted the American commitment to the two-state solution, which he conditioned on the agreement of the parties. More importantly, Trump promised that the United States wouldn’t present a position on the contentious issues between Israel and the Palestinians, above all the borders of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem.
Trump awarded Netanyahu an unprecedented diplomatic achievement, even as he postponed fulfillment of his campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. At the same time, he calmed Netanyahu’s fears about presenting an American diktat for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that might have unraveled the prime minister’s coalition, which rejects the two-state solution or any gesture toward the Palestinians. It’s no wonder that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded with great disappointment to Trump’s remarks and called for an international front against the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Why evangelicals are ’ecstatic’ about Trump’s Jerusalem move
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/06/politics/american-evangelicals-jerusalem/index.html
Johnnie Moore, the de facto spokesman for Trump’s informal group of evangelical advisers, said Jerusalem’s status was a key part of the President’s outreach to evangelical voters.
“This issue was — to many — second only to concerns about the judiciary among the President’s core evangelical supporters. President Trump has — yet again — demonstrated to his evangelical supporters that he will do what he says he will do,” Moore said.
Paula White, a Florida megachurch pastor who is close to Trump, likewise said the President has fulfilled a campaign promise.
“Once again, President Trump has shown the world what I have always known — he is a leader who is willing to do what is right however loud the voices are of the skeptics and the critics. Evangelicals are ecstatic, for Israel is to us a sacred place and the Jewish people are our dearest friends.”