November 29, 2019

Pain For German Car Industry As Daimler Axes 10,000 Jobs

November 29, 2019 4:41 pm

Luxury automaker Daimler said Friday it would scrap at least 10,000 jobs worldwide, the latest in a wave of layoffs to hit the stuttering German car industry as it battles with a costly switch to electric.

The Mercedes-Benz maker said it wanted to save 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in staff costs by the end of 2022 as it joins rivals in investing huge sums in the greener, smarter cars of the future.

“The total number worldwide will be in the five-digits,” Daimler personnel chief Wilfried Porth said in a conference call about the job cull.

He declined to give …

Terror Returns To London Bridge In ‘Black Friday’ Attack

November 29, 2019 4:41 pm

A man wearing a suspected hoax explosive device was shot dead by armed officers on London Bridge on Friday after what police said was a terrorist stabbing spree, reviving memories of another horrific attack two years ago that killed eight.

Footage on Twitter filmed by eyewitnesses showed a scrum of people tackling a man on the ground before specialist armed officers arrived and shot him dead as he tried to get up.

It is not known how many people were injured in the stabbing spree before the shooting but London Mayor Sadiq Khan said several people were “seriously” hurt.

Khan …

Lagos

Drone Project Aims To Put Floating Lagos Slum On Map

November 29, 2019 4:40 pm

John Eromosele records the coordinates of a bustling canal on his smartphone from aboard a dug-out canoe navigating the floating slum of Makoko in Nigerian megacity Lagos.

The waterway is “like a boulevard, there’s always traffic here,” the computer coding specialist laughed as other boats jostled for space between rows of wooden houses on stilts.

Officially Makoko does not exist.

Its estimated 300,000 inhabitants — no one knows for sure how many — and their ramshackle homes do not appear on any city development plans or maps.

A South Africa-based NGO, Code for Africa, wants to change that.

It wants

…

Zimbabwe Facing ‘Man-Made’ Starvation, UN Expert Warns

November 29, 2019 4:39 pm

Zimbabwe is facing “man-made” starvation with 60 percent of the people failing to meet basic food needs, a UN special envoy said Thursday after touring the southern African country.

Hilal Elver, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, ranked Zimbabwe among the four top countries facing severe food shortages outside nations in conflict zones.

“The people of Zimbabwe are slowly getting to a point of suffering a man-made starvation,” she told a news conference in Harare, adding that eight million people would be affected by the end of the year.

“Today, Zimbabwe counts amongst the four highest food insecure states,” …

K-Pop Star Jailed For 6 Years For Gang Rape, Spycam Crimes

November 29, 2019 4:39 pm

South Korean singer-songwriter Jung Joon-young was convicted Friday of gang rape and distributing videos of the assaults and other sexual encounters, and was jailed for six years in a scandal that has rocked K-pop.

Jung and Choi Jong-hoon, a former member of boy band FT Island, were found guilty of gang-raping two different victims on two occasions in 2016.

Separately, 30-year-old Jung was also convicted of filming himself having sex with other women without their knowledge and sharing the footage without their consent.

It is the highest-profile example of an epidemic of spycam crimes in South Korea, which have prompted …

Revised Data Shows Deforestation In Brazil Amazon

November 29, 2019 4:36 pm

Brazil on Thursday released revised statistics showing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest surpassed 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) in the year to July 2019, the highest in more than a decade.

The National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said last week that satellite data showed 9,762 square kilometers were cleared of trees in the 12-month period, an increase of 29.5 percent.

This week’s revised statistics released by the INPE show the increase was even greater than thought: a 43 percent jump in deforestation in the world’s largest rainforest, for a total loss of 10,100 square kilometers in the 12 …

No Industry For Women: Bollywood #MeToo Accused At Work

November 29, 2019 4:35 pm

A year after Bollywood followed Hollywood by naming male predators accused of sexual harassment, many women say they have suffered while alleged perpetrators are back in the limelight.

In the US, #MeToo triggered the downfall of powerbrokers including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, and Brett Ratner. Victims were hailed as trailblazers for speaking out, and millions of dollars were raised to support their cases.

In Bollywood, women have faced a backlash, campaigners say.

When singer Sona Mohapatra accused composer Anu Malik of sexual misconduct she was told to vacate her judge’s seat on TV talent show, “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa”.…

Hong Kong Set For Fresh Weekend Protests

November 29, 2019 4:34 pm

Hong Kong police on Friday ended their two-week siege of a university campus that became a battleground with pro-democracy protesters, as activists vowed to hold fresh rallies and strikes in the coming days.

Renewed calls to hit the streets came after Beijing and city leader Carrie Lam refused further political concessions despite a landslide victory for pro-democracy parties in local elections last weekend.

Sunday’s district council polls delivered a stinging rebuke to the financial hub’s pro-Beijing establishment and undermined their argument that a silent majority were tired of the nearly six months of increasingly violent protests.

AFP /Hong Kong
…

BMW To Build Electric Mini In China

November 29, 2019 4:33 pm

Luxury German carmaker BMW on Friday said it would build fully electric models of its Mini cars at a new plant in China, as it kicked off a joint venture with Chinese partner Great Wall Motor.

Some 160,000 cars a year are set to roll off the assembly line at the planned factory in the city of Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu province, which will eventually employ 3,000 people.

Construction of the plant is slated to last from 2020 to 2022, BMW said in a statement.

Both partners are together investing 650 million euros ($715 million) in the project.

Alongside BMW’s all-electric …

Iran

Iraqis Shatter Taboos In Rage At Iran, But Bloodshed Follow

November 29, 2019 4:32 pm

By torching Tehran’s consulates and slapping their muddy shoes against photographs of top Iranian officials, Iraqi protesters have shattered a taboo on public criticism of their influential eastern neighbour.

But even as it faces red-hot rage in the streets, Tehran has consolidated its influence within Iraq’s political class and among armed actors, analysts tell AFP.

In the latest expression of fury, protesters crowded around the Iranian consulate — already emptied of diplomats — in Iraq’s shrine city of Najaf late Wednesday.

Shouting “Iran out, Iran out”, they set fire to tyres and other items before storming the consulate itself.…

Antartica

Antarctica Tourism: The Quest For Earth’s Extremes

November 29, 2019 4:30 pm

The swimsuit-clad tourists leap into the icy water, gasping at the shock, and startling a gaggle of penguins.

They are spectators at the end of the world, luxury visitors experiencing a vulnerable ecosystem close-up.

And their very presence might accelerate its demise.

Antarctica, a vast territory belonging to no one nation, is a continent of extremes: the coldest place on Earth, the windiest, the driest, the most desolate and the most inhospitable.

Now, it’s also a choice destination for tourists.

AFP / Johan ORDONEZThe water temperature is around three degrees Celsius (37.4 F)

All around Half Moon Island, off

…
Iraq

Iraq PM Says Will Resign After Bloody Protests

November 29, 2019 4:28 pm

Iraq’s embattled premier announced Friday he would resign in keeping with the wishes of the country’s top cleric, as renewed violence added to a soaring death toll in two months of anti-government protests.

Adel Abdel Mahdi’s written statement was greeted with cheers and blaring music across Baghdad’s iconic Tahrir Square, where demonstrators have massed since early October against a ruling class deemed corrupt and in hock to foreign powers.

“I will submit to the esteemed parliament a formal letter requesting my resignation from the premiership,” Abdel Mahdi wrote, hours after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani used his weekly sermon to urge …

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