Month: April 2019

Every Saturday morning begins for Antonio Contreras and his sister Andreina Teran with a trek down the winding stairs that separate the tightly packed brick homes in their working class neighbourhood of Cotiza in northern Caracas in search of the nearest working tap.

Water in this neighbourhood, once loyal to Hugo Chavez and his "Bolivarian revolution" that swept Venzuela 20 years ago, was cut off long ago as infrastructure and the economy spectacularly collapsed.

“The tap in here is just like a decoration now,” said Contreras, breathing heavily after the hike back up the hill and stairs for what would be the second of three trips today alone. 

Despite widespread suffering, food shortages and…

Dramatic footage of an enraged hippopotamus mauling a Kenyan fisherman for nearly ten minutes has highlighted the increasingly tenuous future of one of the country’s most famous lakes. 

Mathew Wanjiuku made a desperate attempt to save his life by sheltering under a fallen tree as he was repeatedly savaged by the beast after becoming trapped knee-deep in the waters of Lake Naivasha, a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Rift Valley.

“Mathew was grabbed by the head and rattled,” Federico Genovese, a professional Italian photographer who recorded Mr Wanjiuku’s ordeal, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail and The Sun, two British tabloid newspapers.

“Stamping its feet and swinging its head vigorously, the hippo appeared to be trying to trample its victim.”

Mr Wanjiuku survived his ordeal last month but others, before and since, have been less fortunate. Another fishermen was killed and two other badly hurt in separate incidents on the lake over the weekend. A Chinese tourist was among several people who died in hippo attacks on Naivasha last year. 

Hippos are the deadliest wild mammal in Africa, killing an estimated 500 people a year. Many attacks happen on land when humans inadvertently come between hippos and water, causing the beasts to panic. Hippos can also become aggressive in water if they are separated from their young.

Surrounded by volcanic hills, Lake Naivasha is a major tourist draw because of its large hippo and bird populations. 

But its 200 hippos have grown more aggressive of late because growing human encroachment, mainly from fishermen, flower farmers and tourist hotels, has reduced their offshore habitat.

The problem has been compounded by rising lake levels, which have reduced the amount of grazing land available for the hippos. Kenyan authorities have come under criticism after unveiling a plan last year to reduce riparian land available for wildlife still further.

As a result, hippos are being forced to graze in areas they once avoided, such as on the lawns of tourist hotels or in areas where fishermen wade out to catch crayfish, leading to a sharp rise in attacks on humans

A former Israeli general running for prime minister allegedly used stolen Palestinian footage for a series of campaign ads in which he boasted of sending parts of Gaza “back to the Stone Age” during the 2014 war. 

Benny Gantz was the head of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) during the 2014 conflict but has now entered politics and is running against Benjamin Netanyahu in April’s elections. 

The 59-year-old has said little about his political positions so far but released a series of videos burnishing his military credentials. 

One boasts of killing 1,364 Palestinian terrorists during the war, while another says that under Mr Gantz’s command “parts of Gaza were sent back to the Stone Age.” The videos make no mention of the 1,462 civilians killed during the conflict, according to a UN count.  

A third video features drone footage showing the scale of destruction in Gaza after the war. The footage was shot by Media Town, a Palestinian film company based in Gaza, and the group said Mr Gantz’s campaign had stolen the footage and used it without permission.  

“These stolen images were used to boast about the murder and destruction Gantz committed in Gaza,” said Ashraf Mashharawi, the chief executive of Media Town. “It is inhuman to destroy people’s lives and then say you are proud of it.”

Mr Gantz’s campaign video:

Media Town’s original footage:

He said his company had made a formal complaint to Youtube over copyright infringement but that Mr Gantz’s video remained up. Mr Gantz’s campaign declined to comment on where it got the drone footage from. 

Mr Mashharawi said his firm had been the first to use drone video to chart the damage in Gaza after the 2014 war. He said Media Town had sold the footage to the BBC but under a license that would not allow it to be sold on without permission.   

Mr Gantz has said little in public since launching his Israel Resilience Party last month, but his videos suggest he plans to run towards the centre as an experienced military leader who is prepared to try for peace talks with the Palestinians. 

“It’s not shameful to be striving for peace,” he says in one video, which shows past Israeli leaders meeting with the king of Jordan and the president of Egypt, the only two Arab countries with which Israel has diplomatic relations.   

“In another 25 years do we still want to be sending our children to fight? No,” Mr Gantz said. “I can’t accept that there will be a entire generation here without hope,” he said. “It can be different here.”

Polls show Mr Gantz tied for second place with the centrist Yesh Atid party and winning around 13 seats in the Israeli parliament. Mr Netanyahu’s Likud Party will win around 30 seats, according to current polling.  

Mr Gantz will formally launch his campaign this week with a major speech on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, an minister from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud released a video boasting that he had been endorsed by Elor Azaria, an Israeli soldier who spent nine months in prison for executing a wounded Palestinian attacker. 

The teenage soldier became a polarizing figure after he was filmed killing the incapacitated Palestinian, who had earlier stabbed an Israeli soldier. 

Many Israelis, along with the military leadership, were horrified by the killing but Azaria became a folk hero to some on the Right, who said it was wrong to jail the soldier for killing a terrorist even if he was unarmed.    

Yaron Mazuz, a deputy environment minister, released a video where he sat next to a smiling Azaria and shook his hand. 

In the world of Italian film, he enjoys a reputation roughly equivalent to that of Benny Hill. But that did not stop an Italian actor renowned for starring in a series of low-cost, ribald comedies involving scantily-clad women, improbable plots and slap-stick humour, from being appointed to a prestigious Unesco commission this week.

The populist coalition’s decision to appoint Lino Banfi to a body that is supposed to promote the cultural and scientific work of the Paris-based organisation was greeted with disbelief and derision by opposition politicians.

“This is how the coalition takes the mickey out of Italians in 2019,” said Maurizio Martina, the head of the centre-Left Democratic Party.

Italy has 54 World Heritage sites – more than any other country – and the work of Unesco is taken seriously.

Even the diminutive Mr Banfi, 82, whose films include The Night Nurse and Sex on the Brain, was surprised to have been selected for the Italian National Commission, which promotes Unesco’s work.

“At first I thought it was a joke,” said the actor, whose films were as popular in Italy during the 1970s as the Carry On movies were in Britain.

He was hand-picked by Luigi Di Maio, who is deputy prime minister and the head of the Five Star Movement, which is allied with the hard-Right League in the government.

Critics said the appointment represented a streak of anti-intellectualism in the populist parties, which have been widely condemned for peddling anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.

“Enough with all these people with multiple degrees, I’ll bring a smile,” said Mr Banfi, in reference to the university academics, film directors and former politicians who make up the commission.

“I may not have a degree, but film is part of the world of culture. I’m now going to immerse myself in study so that I can understand what Unesco does.”

He said he planned to propose his hometown, Canosa di Puglia in the southern region of Puglia, for World Heritage status.

Among its rich heritage, he claimed, were “Egyptian tombs”.

When it was pointed out that the ancient Egyptians had left no trace of their civilisation anywhere in Italy, he replied: “Well, in any case, it’s a beautiful place.”

It was no coincidence that Mr Di Maio announced the unexpected appointment at an event where he unveiled one of his party’s signature policies – the provision of a minimum guaranteed wage for millions of poor Italians.

The “citizens’ wage” has proved particularly popular in Italy’s depressed, low income south.

Mr Di Maio is a southerner – his family come from near Naples – and so is Mr Banfi, whose hometown is in the heel of the Italian boot.

Shoring up its base in the south has become a priority for Five Star as it watches with alarm the rising popularity of The League, led by hardline interior minister Matteo Salvini.

The League won just 17 per cent of the vote in last year’s general election but Mr Salvini has managed to double that to around 34 per cent, while Five Star has seen its support drop from 33 per cent at the election to around 27 per cent.

The appointment exposed, once again, differences between the two parties in the coalition, strange bed partners who have squabbled over a wide range of issues since coming to power last June, from asylum seekers to infrastructure projects.

Mr Salvini said that if he had had his way he would have opted for someone like Andrea Bocelli, the internationally acclaimed opera singer.

The German transport minister has clashed with environmentalists after he dismissed calls for a speed limit on the country’s motorways as “against all common sense”.

Andreas Scheuer’s comments came after a government commission set up by his own ministry recommended a national speed limit of 130kmh (81mph) on German autobahns and higher fuel taxes to limit harmful pollution.

Mr Scheuer described the proposals as “completely exaggerated, unrealistic mind games”.

“We want to inspire and inspire citizens withe the opportunities of future mobility. Demands that provoke anger, annoyance and stress or endanger our prosperity, will not become reality and I reject them,” said the minister, who is a member of Angela Merkel’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Germany is one of the last countries in the world not to impose a national speed limit. Just over half of the country’s 8,000 miles of motorway remain unrestricted, and it is not uncommon to encounter cars driving at speeds in excess of 150mph.

Unrestricted motorways have become something of a national symbol in the country that invented the car, and attempts to impose a limit are as fiercely resisted by certain sections of German society as gun control is in the US.

But Germany is divided over the issue and environmentalists lashed out at Mr Scheuer’s comments.

“The derogatory remarks made by Andreas Scheuer clearly show that the transport minister doesn’t care about road safety or climate protection,” Jürgen Resch, head of the activist group German Environmental Aid (DUH), said.

DUH is the organisation behind lawsuits which have forced several German cities to introduce bans on older diesel cars against local authorities’ wishes, and the group recently called for a national speed limit of 120kmp (74mph).

The diesel bans have been deeply unpopular with motorists, who say they are being made to pay for the mistakes of the car industry, and Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) has increasingly sought to take on the environmentalist group in recent months.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new CDU leader and Mrs Merkel’s anointed successor, accused DUH of carrying on a “crusade” against diesel and damaging the German car industry earlier this month.

At the CDU party conference in December, there were calls for DUH to be stripped of chairtable status.

Mr Resch on Monday accused the party of being beholden to the German car industry. “The CDU — which is clearly the Christian Diesel Union — is now the party of the car industry,” he told Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Donald Trump has denied a military aircraft for the most senior Democrat in the House of Representatives shortly before she was due to embark on a series of overseas trips.

The US president hit back at Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, a day after she told him to delay his State of the Union address until after the government shutdown was over. 

Mrs Pelosi sent a letter to the president on Wednesday demanding that he either push back the January 29 speech or simply submit a written version of what he wanted to say to Congress.

"Due to the Shutdown, I am sorry to inform you that your trip to Brussels, Egypt and Afghanistan has been postponed," Mr Trump wrote in a retaliatory letter on Thursday.

"In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I’m sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate."

"We will reschedule this seven-day excursion when the Shutdown is over."

Mrs Pelosi, a 78-year-old congresswoman from California, has been at loggerheads with Mr Trump, 72, throughout the shutdown, trading barbs and attempting to pin the blame on each other’s party. 

Mrs Pelosi cited security concerns over her calls for Mr Trump to delay his speech, saying that the Secret Service and Homeland Security – which both help keep the event safe – had been partly “hamstrung” by the lack of funding. 

The State of the Union address is one of the most prominent Washington events of the calendar, seeing a president speak to almost every member of the capital’s political elite. 

Every congressmen and senator is invited to the speech, delivered in the House, as well as Supreme Court judges, members of the president’s cabinet and foreign ambassadors. 

Security is extremely tight, with the roads around the US Capitol closed off in the hours before the speech.

Mrs Pelosi wrote in her letter: “Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government reopens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has reopened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to Congress on January 29.”

The move was an apparent attempt to force focus of the shutdown, the longest in US history, back onto Mr Trump while also denying the president a prominent stage from which to chastise Democrats over the impasse.

Some 800,000 federal government workers are affected, with around half working for free and the other half sent home without pay.  A quarter of the government is impacted. 

The US president has insisted he will sign no spending bill that would reopen government unless it includes $5.7 billion for construction of his Mexico border wall – a key campaign pledge.   

The Democrats, who hold the majority in the House, have refused to give Mr Trump his $5.7 billion and insist they will not talk about immigration reform until the government is back open. 

But while the nation’s two most powerful leaders appeared to be engaged in a game of Constitutional one-upmanship, some lawmakers were unimpressed.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham tweeted: "One sophomoric response does not deserve another."

Two employees of a precious metals company were robbed of nearly £580,000 in cash on a street in Tokyo on Saturday, underlining the risks associated with Japanese firms’ obsession with doing business in cash. 

The two men, who have not been named but are aged 27 and 29, were transporting a bag containing the cash when they were allegedly attacked shortly before 2 pm by three men on a street in the Roppongi district of the city. 

The two men sustained minor injuries but were able to call police, who have launched an investigation and are searching for the three suspects. 

The two men were taking the money to a nearby office to purchase precious metals, Kyodo news reported, but their decision to walk through Tokyo with 80 million yen in bank notes has raised eyebrows after a number of similar robberies in recent years. 

In July 2016, a car carrying gold bars valued at 750 million yen (£5.43 million) was stopped in the city of Hakata, in southern Japan, by two men dressed as police officers. After threatening the couriers, the robbers loaded the gold into another car and drove away. 

Six men were arrested the following year and charged with one of Japan’s largest robberies, although companies that deal in large amounts of cash and precious metals do not appear to have learned their lesson. 

In December 2017, three men attacked an employees of a gold trading company on a street in Fukuoka City, in southern Japan, and relieved him of 364 million yen (£2.64 million) in cash that he had just withdrawn from a local bank. 

Suspicion for the heists has inevitably fallen on Japan’s notorious “yakuza” underworld groups, which have traditionally avoided robberies as a way of raising funds and instead focused on illegal gambling, the sex industry and protection. A nationwide crackdown on their actions, however, has encouraged some “yakuza” groups to diversify their operations. 

Police will also be closely examining anyone who had advance knowledge of Saturday’s transaction as the precision with which the robbery was carried out strongly suggests the thieves were aware that the two employees were carrying a large amount of cash.