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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines: Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Radioactive lunar soil (AP) New measurements from a Chinese-German team analyzing data from the Chang’e 4 lander on the far side of the moon finds that the lunar surface is radioactive as all heck, with astronauts getting 200 to 1,000 times more radiation on the moon than experienced on Earth, or about five to 10 times the amount absorbed by passengers on a trans-Atlantic flight. This is not a problem for a quick visit, but if the objective is to land astronauts and have them settle in for a bit, they could sustain sufficient damage to cause health problems down the line.

Coronavirus pandemic on the brink of a grim new milestone: 1 million dead (Washington Post) The covid-19 death toll is on the brink of hitting 1 million. That’s as many as live in San Jose, Calif.; Volgograd, Russia; or Qom, Iran. It is a disease that peppers grieving families with indignities—no funerals, hurried burials, barely a chance to mourn. It is a pandemic that has divided countries from within, yet unites the world in common anguish and loss. In the United States, a son in Sacramento can only listen to a description of his mother’s burial in New Jersey via his daughter, the only relative permitted to attend. The dead are poor—in an Indian village, a man’s family borrows a wooden cart that a neighbor used to sell fish and carries his body to his funeral pyre. And the dead are workers—in Brazil, a man who works in a meatpacking plant does everything he can think of to protect himself, yet he brings the bug home and now his wife is dead. Across the oceans and into the biggest cities and the tiniest villages, the coronavirus has torn apart families, left children hungry, evaporated jobs and wrecked economies.

As Covid-19 Closes Schools, the World’s Children Go to Work (NYT) Every morning in front of the Devaraj Urs public housing apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city of Tumakuru, India, a swarm of children pours into the street. They are not going to school. Instead of backpacks or books, each child carries a filthy plastic sack. These children, from 6 to 14 years old, have been sent by their parents to rummage through garbage dumps littered with broken glass and concrete shards in search of recyclable plastic. In many parts of the developing world, school closures put children on the streets. Families are desperate for money. Children are an easy source of cheap labor. While the United States and other developed countries debate the effectiveness of online schooling, hundreds of millions of children in poorer countries lack computers or the internet and have no schooling at all. United Nations officials estimate that at least 24 million children will drop out and that millions could be sucked into work.

Trump’s tax revelation could tarnish image that fueled rise (AP) The bombshell revelations that President Donald Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for office and paid no income taxes at all in many others threaten to undercut a pillar of his appeal among blue-collar voters and provide a new opening for his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, on the eve of the first presidential debate. Trump has worked for decades to build an image of himself as a hugely successful businessman—even choosing “mogul” as his Secret Service code name. But The New York Times on Sunday revealed that he paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he won the presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. He paid no income taxes whatsoever in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely because he reported losing more money than he made, according to the Times, which obtained years’ worth of tax return data that the president had long fought to keep private. At this point in the race, with voting already underway in many states and so few voters still undecided, it is unclear whether any new discoveries about Trump would make any difference. Trump’s support over the years has remained remarkably consistent, polls over the course of his presidency have found.

Ransomware Attacks Take On New Urgency Ahead of Vote (NYT) A Texas company that sells software that cities and states use to display results on election night was hit by ransomware last week, the latest of nearly a thousand such attacks over the past year against small towns, big cities and the contractors who run their voting systems. But the attack on Tyler Technologies, which continued on Friday night with efforts by outsiders to log into its clients’ systems around the country, was particularly rattling less than 40 days before the election. While Tyler does not actually tally votes, it is used by election officials to aggregate and report them in at least 20 places around the country—making it exactly the kind of soft target that the Department of Homeland Security, the F.B.I. and United States Cyber Command worry could be struck by anyone trying to sow chaos and uncertainty on election night.

Massacre in Mexican bar leaves 11 people dead (Reuters) A massacre in a bar left 11 people dead on Sunday, Mexican authorities said, as the country grapples with a record homicide rate despite the government’s pledge to stop gang violence. The attorney general’s office of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato said the bodies of seven men and four women were found in the bar in the early hours of Sunday morning in the city of Jaral del Progreso. Guanajuato, a major carmaking hub, has become a recurring scene of criminal violence in Mexico, ravaged by a turf war between the local Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Backers turn on Britain’s PM (AFP) Boris Johnson, called dejected and dogmatic even by his partisans, is enduring a torrid time in his tumultuous premiership, and worse may lie ahead. The coronavirus pandemic is testing all world leaders. But Britain has suffered more than any other country in Europe, and now the prime minister faces a revolt by Conservative colleagues who accuse him of governing by diktat. If the Covid-19 crisis has dictated the need for emergency policies on the hoof, the government has had plenty of time to prepare for life outside the European Union. But there too, an air of mutiny hangs over parliament after Johnson picked a Brexit fight with Brussels that puts Britain on the wrong side of international law. “Conservative MPs didn’t elect Boris Johnson as their leader because they thought he’d make a great prime minister,” Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP. “They elected him as their leader because they were desperate to win an election,” he said. “There’s probably always a hope that someone will grow into the job. There’s some alarm that hasn’t happened.”

Britain is part of 'arc of instability' around the EU, chairman says (Reuters) Brexit Britain is part of an “arc of instability” that has emerged around the European Union, the bloc’s chairman said on Monday, ranking London’s decision to leave the EU along with threats from Turkey, Russia, Libya and Syria. “An arc of instability has developed all around us,” European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs EU summits, said in an online address for the Bruegel think-tank. “The truth is, the British face a dilemma. What model of society do they want??” Britain left the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, on Jan. 31 after 47 years of partnership to the huge regret of EU leaders who now insist that London accept the economic consequences of looser ties. The process of negotiating a new trade relationship and finding Britain’s new place in the world is proving complicated and has revealed divisions within political parties, society and the government itself.

India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reaches 6 million cases (AP) India’s confirmed coronavirus tally reached 6 million cases on Monday, keeping the country second to the United States in number of reported cases since the pandemic began. New infections in India are currently being reported faster than anywhere else in the world. The world’s second-most populous country is expected to become the pandemic’s worst-hit country in coming weeks, surpassing the U.S., where more than 7.1 million infections have been reported. Yet even as infections mount, India has the highest number of recovered patients in the world. More than 5 million people have recovered from COVID-19 in India and the country’s recovery rate stands at 82%, according to the Health Ministry.

Fighting Flares Between Azerbaijan and Armenia (NYT) Fighting that was reported to be fierce broke out on Sunday between Azerbaijan and Armenia and quickly escalated, with the two sides claiming action with artillery, helicopter and tanks along a disputed border. The military action centered on the breakaway province of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian separatist enclave in Azerbaijan. Ethnic tensions and historical grievances in the mountainous area north of Turkey and Iran have made kindling for conflict for decades. The fighting on Sunday, however, was reportedly more severe than the typical periodic border skirmishes, and both governments used military language describing the events as war. By early afternoon, Azerbaijan said its forces had advanced to capture seven villages and had surrounded an unspecified number of Armenian troops it was threatening to kill if they did not surrender. Armenia claimed it was holding fast and had destroyed Azerbaijani tanks and helicopters. Nikol Pashinyan, the Armenian prime minister, declared a state of emergency and mobilized the country’s male population. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose country has long been at odds with Armenia, strongly backed Azerbaijan. Russia, on the other hand, is a long-standing ally of Armenia, and it has supplied the country with enormous supplies of arms since the end of its war with Azerbaijan in 1994.

Rabbis ponder COVID-19 queries of ultra-Orthodox Jewish life (AP) Must an observant Jew who has lost his sense of taste and smell because of COVID-19 recite blessings for food and drink? Can one bend the metal nosepiece of a surgical face mask on the Sabbath? May one participate in communal prayers held in a courtyard from a nearby balcony? Months into the coronavirus pandemic, ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel are addressing questions like these as their legions of followers seek advice on how to maintain proper Jewish observance under the restrictions of the outbreak. Social distancing and nationwide lockdowns have become a reality around the globe in 2020, but for religious Jews they can further complicate rites and customs that form the fabric of daily life in Orthodox communities. Many of these customs are performed in groups and public gatherings, making it especially challenging for the religious public to maintain its lifestyle. One religious publisher in Jerusalem released a book in July with over 600 pages of guidance from 46 prominent rabbis. Topics range from socially distanced circumcisions (allowed) to Passover Seders over Zoom (forbidden) to praying with a quorum from a balcony (it’s complicated).

#headlines #news

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allthecanadianpolitics · 6 years

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 10, 2018 Bella Bella, Haíɫzaqv Territory CANADA MISSES OPPORTUNITY FOR RECONCILIATION, OCEAN PROTECTION IN ITS CONTRACT DECISION ON EMERGENCY TOWING Heiltsuk Nation is disappointed in the federal government’s decision to award Atlantic Towing Limited a three year contract for two emergency towing vessels. In April, Heiltsuk Horizon Maritime Services Limited, a partnership between Heiltsuk Nation and Horizon Maritime Services Limited, submitted a bid to the federal government to supply the two vessels requested under the Oceans Protection Plan. “Of course no matter the circumstances, we would be disappointed not to receive the contract; however, we could understand if the contract was going to another state of the art proposal offering enhanced marine protection capabilities comparable to our own bid – one that also meaningfully involved the participation of other Indigenous peoples,” said chief councilor Marilyn Slett. “Unfortunately, that is not the case here. Canada has decided to maintain the status quo and spend over $65 million on aging vessels from an east coast company with minimal experience in Pacific waters.” “We were shocked to learn that the aboriginal participation component of the bid accounted for less than 1% of the decision,” said hereditary chief Harvey Humchitt. “In an age of supposed reconciliation, the federal government should be embarrassed that they would give such little weight to the involvement of Indigenous peoples.” Shortcomings in the bid solicitation process go beyond the final outcome; there was a lack of Indigenous consultation and collaboration throughout the process, from design to granting the award. “Even after signing reconciliation framework agreements, Canada has still chosen not to involve First Nations in the planning of initiatives concerning marine protection of our territories. I’m sure that involving First Nations in the decision-making would have resulted in a stronger emergency towing program,” stated Humchitt. “We, as a coastal First Nation, bear the risks from shipping traffic in the Pacific, and it’s time that the federal government does more than pay lip service to the importance of its relationship with Indigenous peoples,” said Slett. “As far as we’re concerned, Canada’s reconciliation process with Heiltsuk is on thin ice. We need to start seeing tangible results for ocean protection and respect for Heiltsuk’s leadership role in protecting and managing our waters.” For more information, please contact: Marilyn Slett 250-957-7721

#Heiltsuk Nation #first nations #Justin Trudeau #British Columbia #Canada #cdnpoli #canadian politics #canadian #canadian news

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elcorreodetorreon · 5 years

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Rusia. News from Ambassador Yakovenko regarding Salisbury Incident and lack of response from UK

23 February 2019

Moscow: 16:09

London: 13:09

Consular queries:

+44 (0) 203 668 7474

[email protected]

356 days have passed since the Salisbury incident - no credible information or response from the British authorities 348 days have passed since the death of Nikolay Glushkov on British soil - no credible information or response from the British authorities

PRESS RELEASES AND NEWS

22.02.2019

Russia 2019-2025: 5G country (by Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko).

Despite the attention that foreign policy enjoys in the media headlines, Russian domestic social and economic development enjoys the top priority for my compatriots. That was also the main theme of President Putin’s Address to the Federal Assembly. Serious progress has been made in this area in the recent decade according to the long-term national objectives that we have set for ourselves. Massive financial resources, accumulated by virtue of the nation’s creativity, talents and hard work, are concentrated on development goals. Just a few examples:

Extra $1 bn has been earmarked for the social benefits within the new home loans system in 2019-2021, which will be used by as many as 600,000 families. In the same period approximately $1.35 bn is to be directed for support measures for families having a third and subsequent children. By the end of 2021 additional 270,000 places will be created in nurseries, both state-owned and private, with over $2.2 bn allocated for this purpose from national and local budgets over a three-year period.

In the healthcare sector 1590 outpatient clinics and paramedic stations are to be built or renovated in 2019-2020, with the focus on IT technologies making healthcare more accessible even in the most remote regions.

New green technologies will gradually replace oil and diesel fuel with gas and electricity in city transport as well as private cars. By 2025 industrial pollution will be reduced by at least 20%.

Plans are in place to create a cultural-educational regional network, with major hubs operating in Kaliningrad, Kemerovo, Vladivostok and Sevastopol. By combining access to the funds of our leading museums and theatres with extensive educational capacities, they will become the genuine cultural magnets.

For a country as large as Russia, communications are vital. In 2019-2025 60 airports are to be built, expanded or upgraded, including new ones in Khabarovsk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The traffic capacity of the Baikal-Amur and Trans-Siberian railway lines will nearly double. 5G network is already being installed and in a few years it should cover the whole territory of Russia.

The expenses will be significant, of course, but we are prepared for it. First and foremost, they constitute investments in the better life of our citizens. And we can afford it. Despite all these ambitious projects, our budget shows steady surplus. The GDP growth is predicted to exceed 3% in 2021 and surpass the world’s annual rates afterwards. Quite ambitious for today’s Europe.

Being a sovereign and steadily developing state, Russia is ready for cooperation with all countries. This is the essence of our foreign policy.

Alexander Yakovenko

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Court of St.James’s

LATEST EVENTS

23.02.2019 - Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at the UN Security Council Meeting on CAR

We would like to thank Special Representative P.Onanga-Anyanga, African Union Commissioner S.Chergui, European External Action Service Managing Director for Africa K.Vervaeke, Permanent Representative of Morocco O.Hilale and Representative of Côte d'Ivoire G.Hipeau for their briefings. Let me express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Parfait Onanga-Anyanga for his work as Head of MINUSCA. Parfait, you have proven to be the man who would not lose temper even in a critical situation. Your contribution to stabilization in CAR can hardly be overestimated. We hope that your expertise and experience will be in demand in the UN system. We wish you every success in your future endeavors. Mm. President,

21.02.2019 - Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning placing Sergey and Yulia Skripal on a missing person list

Question: How would you comment on the media reports suggesting that Sergey Skripal’s mother has officially requested Russian law enforcement agencies to record her son and granddaughter as missing and initiate a missing person investigation? According to the British side, the UK agencies have not received any official notice from the Russian authorities with regard to placing the Skripals on a missing person list. Answer: We fully understand the natural concern of Elena Skripal with what has happened to her relatives. The situation is exacerbated by a lack of access to the Russian citizens in violation of international law and the bilateral 1965 Consular Convention. In this case we are unable to officially state that Sergey and Yulia are still alive. We are disturbed by the recent media leaks concerning the worsening health of Sergey Skripal, whose track has been lost since the incident on 4 March 2018. As for Yulia, she was seen only once in May 2018 in a video address which was obviously pre-written by the British secret services. All this indicates that both our nationals are being isolated.

20.02.2019 - Comment by the Information and Press Department on the 5th anniversary of the state coup in Ukraine and its consequences

Following the 2014 state coup, which the United States and several other countries openly supported, Ukraine has been falling ever deeper into political chaos, corruption, lawlessness and aggressive nationalism. Over the past five years, Ukraine has been engulfed in violence and crimes committed on political and ideological grounds. Most of these crimes were not followed by appropriate legal action. The case of the snipers who shot people on Maidan has not been objectively investigated, and the tragedy in Odessa in May 2014 has not been solved. Contrary to their declarations of commitment to democracy and human rights and freedoms, the Ukrainian authorities are actually hunting down those whose views differ from the official position. Many independent Ukrainian media outlets and journalists, including editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine Kirill Vyshinsky, have been victimised and persecuted.

19.02.2019 - INF TREATY: FACT SHEET

- Full name: Treaty Between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America on the Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Missiles. - Signed in Washington on 8 December 1987 by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. Entered into force on 1 June 1988. - Required destruction of ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of between 500 and 5500 kilometers, their launchers and associated support structures and support equipment, thus promoting stability and predictability, as well as playing a major role in reformatting the geopolitical landscape in Europe and interstate relations between the key players in this region. - Contained detailed rules on the procedure of missiles elimination and inspections.

19.02.2019 - Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks and answers to media questions at the Munich Security Conference, Munich, February 16, 2019

First of all, Wolfgang (Ischinger), thank you for your presentation and your kind words. There is yet another reason why I address [this conference] more often than anyone else: this is because you have kept your post for so long. Today, the situation on the European continent and generally in the Euro-Atlantic region is, certainly, extremely tense. There appear ever more new rifts and the old ones grow deeper. I think that under these circumstances, it is relevant and even timely to turn to the European Home idea, no matter how strange this may sound in the current situation. Many great modern day politicians realised the need for pooling the potentials of absolutely all European states. Let me mention Charles de Gaulle, who put forward the concept of Greater Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals, a peaceful Europe without divides or bloc confrontations, which, in his opinion, made Europe “artificial and barren.” Chancellor Helmut Kohl and President Francois Mitterrand also spoke about the importance of the broadest possible partnership with Russia in the name of stability and security.

17.02.2019 - Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning the appearance of the Russian flag on the Salisbury Cathedral

Question: How would you comment on the reports by the British media that on Sunday morning someone hoisted a Russian flag on the scaffolding around the Salisbury Cathedral? Answer: We saw these reports, but we do not have any official information on them. If the reports of hoisting a Russian flag are true, then it all looks to us like a well-staged provocation.

16.02.2019 - Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning the interview by Dawn Sturgess's parents

Question: The Guardian has published an interview with the parents of the British citizen Dawn Sturgess, who died in July last year allegedly from “Novichok” poisoning. They put the blame for the non-transparent investigation on the UK government. How would you comment on their statements? Answer: We have studied carefully the interview and fully agree with Dawn Sturgess's family. Numerous questions regarding the tragedy in Amesbury remain unanswered, the British authorities continue to conceal the circumstances of that incident. We fully understand the fair indignation Dawn Sturgess's relatives feel.

14.02.2019 - Embassy Press Officer’s reply to a media question concerning recent appeals of the British officials to impose new sanctions against Russia

Question: How would you comment on the recent statements by the British officials calling upon their European partners to impose new sanctions against Russia over the incident in the Kerch Strait last year? Answer: We have not been surprised with such an active UK’s approach. Those statements have clearly shown the anti-Russian essence of the current Conservative government’s policy. British officials are doing their utmost to avoid conducting a normal intergovernmental dialogue with Russia, while using only the language of ultimatums and sanctions.

13.02.2019 - Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at the UN Security Council Briefing on Ukraine

Mr. President, Above all, let me thank today’s briefers: Mr. M.Jenča, Mm. U.Müller, Mr. E.Apakan and Mr. M.Sajdik. We have initiated this meeting in order to discuss the course of implementation of “Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements” – the most important document for the settlement of Ukraine’s internal crisis. It was signed 4 years ago, on 12 February 2015 by the representatives of OSCE, Ukraine, Russia, DPR and LPR.

11.02.2019 - Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Kosovo

Thank you, Mr. President, Above all, we would like to thank our colleagues from Equatorial Guinea for their principal position and for inclusion of a meeting on Kosovo in the Council’s agenda for February in order to discuss the situation in the Province and the report by Secretary-General of 31 January on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1244. We welcome the participation of Mr. Ivica Dačić, First Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia. Distinguished Minister, we share the profound concerns about the situation in Kosovo that you talked about.

all messages 2012 @ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia

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xtruss · 3 years

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The Special Relationship

The Afghanistan debacle has weakened ties between Britain and America

It strengthens the case for Boris Johnson’s government to work more closely with the European Union

— The Economist | August 28, 2021 Edition

Ever since Winston Churchill, British prime ministers have boasted of their special relationship with American presidents. Yet this supposedly sunny partnership has experienced its fair share of clouds. The past few weeks have seen a big one, after Joe Biden unilaterally announced that all American troops would leave Afghanistan by August 31st, opening the way to a lightning conquest of most of the country by the Taliban. The chaos that followed at Kabul airport as thousands of frightened Afghans tried desperately to escape has shocked the world—and led even the British to ask if the transatlantic relationship is still working.

This is certainly another unsettled moment. But it is worth remembering that the relationship has survived storms before, from the Suez crisis in 1956, through Harold Wilson’s refusal to enter the Vietnam war, to Richard Nixon’s decision to abandon the gold standard in 1971. Even when relations were warm, there were rows. Margaret Thatcher was infuriated by Ronald Reagan’s unilateral invasion in 1983 of Grenada, a member of the British Commonwealth. Tony Blair was angered by George Bush’s refusal to sign up to climate-change targets. More recently the relationship between Donald Trump and Theresa May was icy, especially when he criticised her Brexit plans. America’s habit of failing to consult even close allies before big decisions dates back decades, not weeks.

Although some Tories privately wanted a Trump re-election last year, Mrs May’s successor, Boris Johnson, must have hoped for better things with Mr Biden. He received the new president’s first phone call to a foreign leader, and in June welcomed him on his first overseas trip. Yet there were signs that the two are not soulmates. When a bbc man asked Mr Biden for comment on the campaign trail, his instant response was “I’m Irish!” He plainly disapproves of Brexit. He has little interest in a trade deal with the British (or anyone else). And his priorities as president are overwhelmingly domestic, not international.

All this helps explain some of the vitriol hurled at Mr Biden over the past couple of weeks for his hasty and shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan. Unnamed government sources were quoted calling him gaga, or worse, and comparing him unfavourably with Mr Trump. On August 24th, when Mr Johnson as g7 president called an emergency meeting of the group’s leaders, Mr Biden flatly rejected his allies’ request for an extension of the August 31st deadline to pull out all troops. The race is now on to evacuate as many people as possible, even while accepting that thousands with strong claims to protection from America and its allies will be left to face the Taliban’s vengeance.

Behind the headlines, diplomats on both sides insist that relations are still close. Mr Biden is said to have spoken to Mr Johnson more than to any other world leader. Sir Simon Fraser, a former head of the Foreign Office now at Flint Global, says structural co-operation in intelligence, security and military matters remains as deep as ever. Britain spends more on defence than any of America’s other European allies and has dispatched its new aircraft-carrier, Queen Elizabeth, to the South China Sea, where America now spies its most important strategic interests. And Mr Biden should be far more helpful than his predecessor at the climate-change summit in Glasgow in November.

Yet changes in America over the past 20 years have inevitably downgraded the transatlantic link. It is over a decade since Barack Obama ostentatiously “pivoted” from Europe to Asia. Mr Biden may have proclaimed that “America is back” after the Trump years, but he shares his predecessor’s preoccupation with Asia and the rise of China. America’s appetite for military engagement abroad has been reduced by experience not just in Afghanistan, but in Iraq. Its interest in places of most concern to its European allies, such as the Balkans or north Africa, has hugely diminished.

The real concern for Britain is that more clouds may lie ahead. The biggest may be Northern Ireland, which provoked tension in June. The Biden administration supports the Northern Ireland protocol struck between Britain and the European Union, which avoids a hard border in Ireland that might threaten the peace process by, in effect, keeping the province in the single market. Averse to the border controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland that this necessitates, Mr Johnson’s government is demanding a wholesale rewrite and threatening to suspend the protocol if the eu refuses. Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, notes that support for the peace process is unusually bipartisan in America. If Mr Johnson is seen as threatening it, the reaction in Washington will be fierce.

The American administration has accepted the reality of Brexit, but still wants Britain to repair its battered relationship with its nearest neighbours. As Sophia Gaston of the British Foreign Policy Group, another think-tank, puts it, geography matters in foreign and security policy just as much as in trade. And that strengthens the case for the Johnson government to do more to engage with the eu.

The eu has offered just such a close relationship in foreign and security policy, only to be spurned. A recent British government review of foreign and security policy talked up relations with France and Germany, but largely left out the eu. Yet it is not really possible to forge closer bilateral relations only with individual eu members, because they are building a common policy in Brussels. A more adept British government would seek closer links with both America and the eu; as Karin von Hippel, director of the rusi think-tank, suggests, it is always possible to dance with several different partners.

Peter Ricketts, another former head of the Foreign Office, notes in his recent book, “Hard Choices”, that Britain has fallen a long way from the early 1940s, when one of his predecessors drafted the Atlantic Charter that became the basis for the American-sponsored post-war international order. He is now a keen advocate of closer co-operation with the eu, not least because the Afghanistan debacle underscores the case for it. Sadly, the government’s ideological opposition probably means it will not happen. ■

— This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Yet another squabble"

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javionxander25 · 3 years

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Now You See Gemma Chan

Moving between blockbusters and indie hits, Gemma Chan has kept one foot in stardom and one in anonymity. But this year, she's going famous full time.

BY ,ALICE WIGNALL 06/01/2021

When is a celebrity not a celebrity? When you’re Gemma Chan, of course – or so says Gemma Chan. ‘I don’t think of myself like that at all,’ she says. ‘My life is fairly low-key.’ What, because you don’t drive a gold Cadillac? She laughs. ‘I don’t live in a mansion, I don’t have an assistant,’ she says. ‘All that kind of stuff.’ Beauty Truths With Gemma Chan by Elle UK Previous VideoPlayNext VideoUnmute Current Time 0:39 / Duration 6:34 Loaded: 25.84% Fullscreen CLICK TO UNMUTE I remain unconvinced, and mount my counterargument, ticking off the evidence on my fingers: one, a starring role in an enormous movie franchise (Sersi in Eternals, part of the world-conquering juggernaut that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, due for release in late 2020 but Covid-delayed until late 2021); two, a new contract with L’Oréal Paris as an international spokesperson; and, three, another recently announced UK ambassador role with Unicef. Guaranteed blockbuster, cosmetics contract, high-profile charity patron: this is the star-making Big Three; the trifecta of global fame. Come on, I say. This year, your face is going to be everywhere. ‘Er, yeah,’ she says, looking genuinely quite alarmed. MARCIN KEMPSKI Chan's path to this point has been one of steady progress, rather than precipitous acceleration, which is maybe why she finds it hard to contemplate the quantum leap her career is about to take. At 38, and with more than a decade and a half of experience behind her, she’s done it all: BBC bit parts (including Doctor Who and Sherlock) and a breakout TV role in Channel 4’s Humans; high-brow theatre and big-budget films (in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and, indeed, a previous Marvel movie, as the sniper Minn-Erva in Captain Marvel. The two characters are unrelated but, as she points out, ‘I was painted blue for that whole job, so it’s not like I’m very recognisable’), but nothing on a scale likely to upend her life. The closest she’s come to that so far is her performance as Astrid in 2018’s surprise smash hit Crazy Rich Asians, which made $238.5m against a budget of $30m and became the top-earning romantic comedy of the Noughties. ‘[Because] Crazy Rich Asians did so well internationally, I definitely felt a shift at that time,’ Chan says. ‘Like, on the Captain Marvel press tour, not being able to walk through [Singapore] airport. Then again, things have settled and the slight craziness of that time has gone away. I do feel like I can – touch wood – go about my life normally now.’ MARCIN KEMPSKI The biggest impact, she says, was professional: ‘Before Crazy Rich Asians, I wasn’t being considered for lead roles in feature films. There [is] a very select group of actors in that pool and I wouldn’t even get an audition, I wasn’t in that conversation. Whereas now... I’m being talked about for certain things and then you may meet the director, or you at least get to have your shot. So that feels a bit different.’ Her most recent project is certainly the kind of job you can imagine being fought over in casting rooms around the world: hey, how would you like to get on a luxury cruise liner with acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh and a killer cast including, oh, I don’t know, Meryl Streep and make an intelligent comedy drama about betrayal, responsibility and enduring love? Who wouldn’t? But Chan was the one who was picked for Let Them All Talk, which was filmed on board the Queen Mary 2 as it crossed the Atlantic from New York to Southampton. It tells the story of a lionised novelist, played by Streep on magisterial form, en route to collect a prestigious writing award in England, accompanied by two old friends and her nephew. Chan is her recently promoted literary agent, who has also bought a ticket for the crossing, in the hope that she can clandestinely find out what her secretive client’s much-anticipated next book is about. I wasn’t being considered for lead roles in feature films ‘Obviously I jumped at the chance,’ says Chan. ‘It was a dream project.’ Though not a stress-free one: ‘A lot of the dialogue was improvised,’ says Chan. ‘There’s a scene, a lunch in New York with Meryl, which was actually the first scene that I shot. So I arrived on set and the restaurant was full of 200 extras; you could hear a pin drop. I went in and sat down, then Meryl came in and sat down, and we just had to improvise a scene. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a clenched bum! I was petrified. There I am, with possibly the greatest actress of all time, and... “Action!”’ There is an alternate timeline, of course, in which Chan genuinely isn’t famous. If she’d followed the path that her early years suggested, her current life would be, if not stress-free, less likely to include head-to-heads with multi-time Oscar winners. MARCIN KEMPSKI Raised in Kent to Chinese parents, she attended an academically selective school before studying law at Oxford. She also played violin to a high standard and swam competitively at a national level. All in all, the perfect image of a relentless high-achiever, bound for success in a stable career – until she took a post-graduation gap year swerve into acting, at first with evening classes, then a full-time course. Even now – when the gamble has decisively paid off – she sounds tentative when discussing her original ambitions to act. She did some am-dram at school, ‘but never thought, I could do this for a job.’ Embarking on her acting studies, the idea of a career was there, but ‘at the back of my mind’. That might be because this period of Chan’s life was fraught: her parents were alarmed that she declined a training contract with a prestigious London law firm, and thought she was making a mistake. Perhaps she still finds it hard to unequivocally state that the path she chose is not one they initially approved of. ‘The key for both of them and therefore for myself, and my sister, was the importance of education,’ she says. ‘It allowed my father to have a completely different life to his father, mother and some of his brothers and sisters. Both of my parents are immigrants who came from very humble backgrounds,’ she adds. ‘They definitely instilled in me a work ethic from a young age and a sense of, “The world doesn’t owe you a living, you have to make your own way.” At one point in my dad’s childhood, he was homeless. My amah, his mum, raised six kids on her own. They had absolutely nothing, they lived in a shack on a hillside in Hong Kong. I’m one generation away from that.’ You can sense the shadow of the lawyer she could have been when she talks, and almost hear the weighing up of pros and cons she has done to determine what steps to take. Of L’Oréal Paris, she says: ‘I have been a little bit cautious when it comes to brand partnerships and things like that. I wanted to wait till it felt like it was right. [I chose] L’Oréal because the brand stands for uplifting women and empowerment and they have a strong philanthropic side to what they do, such as their partnership with The Prince’s Trust.’ MARCIN KEMPSKI She talks about carefully considering joining the Marvel universe, knowing it could mean giving over a share of the next 10 years of her life (‘You’re not signing up for one film, because they have additional films and spin-offs and they cover themselves’). She chooses her words with utmost caution when talking about Eternals: ‘Marvel is pretty strict about these kinds of things and I’ve got an non-disclosure agreement like that,’ she says, miming a massive wodge of a legal document. She insists that alongside this diligence there’s a flip side to her personality: ‘I have a slightly rebellious nature. I wasn’t always the best behaved and, yeah, I do work hard but I’m also quite chaotic. Hopefully I’ve found a bit of balance but when I was younger I was like, “I’ll leave it as late as I can, then I’ll pull an all-nighter.” That’s kind of the person I was.’ It’s impossible to tell if this ‘rebellious’ streak would register on most people’s radars, or if it was only noticeable in the context of her own – or her family’s – high standards. I suspect you’d have to know her very well to find out, and she’s far too protective of her private life to make peeking through the veil a possibility. Despite – or perhaps because of – two long-term relationships with high-profile men (she dated comedian Jack Whitehall from 2011 to 2017, and has been in a relationship with actor Dominic Cooper since 2018), she doesn’t discuss her personal life. It’s not exactly a state secret – she makes mention of ‘my partner’ when talking about what she did in the first lockdown (volunteering pretty much full-time for her friend Lulu Dillon’s charity, Cook 19, delivering meals to London hospitals) and Cooper makes the odd appearance on her Instagram account – but she’s certainly not going to give rolling updates on her romantic life. Anything I share could become a story on a slow news day ‘Over 10 years, you learn the importance of privacy, what you choose to share and what you don’t. When you start out, you don’t even know what is important to keep for yourself – I didn’t anyway – whereas now I think there are certain things that I absolutely know, “That’s mine and it’s private.” For me, my comfort level is to have a clear distinction between what is for me and what I’m happy to talk about.’ I ask if she’s had any bad experiences with the press. ‘Nothing too horrendous, but some experiences of not having my wits about me. I’m aware now that anything I say could become a clickbait headline – well, on a slow news day.’ MARCIN KEMPSKI (As if to prove her point, in the week that we talk, Jack Whitehall makes headlines in multiple news outlets in the UK – and, indeed, around the world – for making an off-hand comment in an episode of his Netflix show that he ‘could have got married’ to Chan, but he ‘f*cked up my chance of that’. And, given that this was midway through a global pandemic, it wasn’t even a particularly slow news day.) What she's happy to share on her social media – in fact, what makes up the bulk of her feeds – are her thoughts on a range of social and political subjects, from domestic abuse campaigns, to equal access to education, to Black Lives Matter, to protesting against anti-Asian racism. Which doesn’t always go down well: ‘Every time you say anything political, if it’s in the most uncontroversial way, you’ll be criticised for it; you need to be prepared for that. Every time I post something [like that], I lose followers, so it’s probably not the best business sense...’. But she’s not going to stop: ‘I want to highlight things that are important to me but without preaching. I’m still working it out, how to be an advocate in the most effective way.’ MARCIN KEMPSKI I ask if she feels hopeful about the future, given the myriad challenges she mentions. She pauses. ‘I’ve definitely struggled and felt hopeless,’ she says. ‘I think most of us have realised how powerless we are in terms of the day-to- day governing of our [country]. There no longer seems to be any accountability; there’s a lack of shame. Things that a minister or an advisor would have resigned for 10 years ago, now there are no repercussions. That’s incredibly frustrating, especially when people’s lives are at stake. But, I do have hope – mainly because of the next generation. They’re more politically aware than I was, more involved. Often in the media the most boorish voices seem to monopolise headlines, but actually there are decent people who want to make things better for their fellow humans. There are more of them than youmight think. During the pandemic, obviously it was a terrible time, but there were things that sprung up on a local community level of people trying to help each other. That was encouraging.’ Every time you say anything political, you’ll be criticised for it And, of course, last year Black Lives Matter protests pushed questions about race and identity to the forefront as never before. How does Chan feel about her own role in increasing representation as a British Asian? ‘I get moments where I think, I wish we didn’t have to talk about race anymore. In the same way I wish we didn’t have to talk about why it’s unusual to have a female lead. Why is it still the exception? Why is it still so unusual to have half of the human race being centred in these stories? It seems ridiculous to still be flagging that as a talking point.’ She talks about a structure that actor Riz Ahmed has described: on tier one, a minority actor will play stereotypical, reductive roles. On tier two, your race is still prominent, but the character is nuanced and well-rounded. ‘And the holy grail is tier three, where you’re just viewed as a human. But, while we’re still working towards that goal of much more equal representation, it’s going to be something that we have to be more consciously aware of, and it is going to be part of the conversation.’ It’s a classic Gemma Chan answer. I can feel the burn of her frustration, and I see how she’s thought through her best approach. She’s got a goal, and she knows how to get there. MARCIN KEMPSKI As for her own goals – well, there’s a packed schedule ahead: when we talk, she’s about to join Florence Pugh and Chris Pine for director Olivia Wilde’s follow-up to Booksmart, Don’t Worry Darling. Then, when the pandemic allows, there are the delayed back-to-back shoots for Crazy Rich Asians 2 and 3, not to mention the release of Eternals. She’s also set up a production company, which is working on a range of projects focusing on ‘women whose stories haven’t been given their due, who are these unsung heroes of history’. She loves producing (‘You get a bit more control’), so much so that one day it might be all she does. ‘There may be a point where I want to take a step back from the acting side and, if the producing is established by then, that would be great.’ Hmm, I think. The thing about being globally famous is that once you are, it’s kind of hard to stop. But if anyone can manage blockbusters one month, normal life the next, it’s someone with a big brain, a ton of experience and her eye on the prize. Someone a bit like Gemma Chan. So, when is a celebrity not a celebrity? We might be about to find out. Gemma is an international spokesperson for L’Oréal Paris and the face of Revitalift Filler Day Cream. ELLE's February 2021 issue hits newsstands on January 7 2021.

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zoehodgkins25 · 3 years

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Now You See Gemma Chan

Moving between blockbusters and indie hits, Gemma Chan has kept one foot in stardom and one in anonymity. But this year, she's going famous full time.

BY ,ALICE WIGNALL 06/01/2021

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onlinedigitalstore2 · 3 years

Text

Now You See Gemma Chan

Moving between blockbusters and indie hits, Gemma Chan has kept one foot in stardom and one in anonymity. But this year, she's going famous full time.

BY ,ALICE WIGNALL 06/01/2021

from Online Digital Store https://www.online-digitalstore.com/post/now-you-see-gemma-chan

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cathygeha · 4 years

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LONGLIST REVEALED FOR UK’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS CRIME WRITING PRIZE

THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2020

Harrogate, 7 May 2020: Today, the longlist of the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime novel award is unveiled with literary legends and dynamic debuts in contention for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year…

Now in its 16th year, the most coveted prize in crime fiction, presented by Harrogate International Festivals, received a record number of submissions and this highly anticipated longlist of 18 titles – 10 of which by women – represents crime writing at its best: celebrating four former winners, a Booker Prize contender, and the fresh new voices taking the genre by storm.

The line-up of returning champions is led by Scottish supernova Denise Mina, vying to become the first author to complete a hat trick with the deeply unsettling thriller Conviction. Mina is joined by fellow Glaswegian bestseller Chris Brookmyre and his psychological suspense Fallen Angel, ‘Queen of Crime’ Val McDermid’s latest masterful Tony Hill and Carol Jordan investigation, How the Dead Speak, and Lee Child CBE, with the final Jack Reacher, Blue Moon, before sharing authorship with his brother Andrew.

The longlist also features several previously nominated authors hoping to go one step further and claim the trophy with Mick Herron securing a fifth pick for his much-lauded Slough House series with Joe Country and a nod for Abir Mukherjee’s new Wyndham & Banerjee instalment, Smoke and Ashes, and fan favourite Vera and Shetland author Ann Cleeves returns with The Long Call, marking the launch of a new North Devon series. Further Theakston alumni in the running include Adrian McKinty with his electrifying thriller The Chain, Helen Fitzgerald and the darkly comic Worst Case Scenario, and outback noir from Jane Harper in The Lost Man.

Rising stars of the genre are celebrated with three debuts on the list. Oyinkan Braithwaite, who was spotlighted in the Festival’s highly respected ‘New Blood’ panel in 2019, has been recognised for her Booker longlisted My Sister the Serial Killer. Harriet Tyce is in contention for her electrifying domestic noir Blood Orange that draws on her own experience as a criminal barrister, and Laura Shepherd-Robinson for the deeply atmospheric Blood & Sugar, bringing the 1780s Deptford Docks to life.

Established voices joining the Theakston ranks for the first time include Jane Casey and her latest Maeve Kerrigan instalment Cruel Acts, Alex North with his chilling police procedural The Whisper Man, Louise Doughty, who is longlisted for the eerily unnerving Platform Seven, Will Carver with the mesmerising thriller Nothing Important Happened Today; and Val McDermid’s 2018 New Blood selection: Will Dean and his eagerly awaited follow-up to Dark Pines, the stunning Scandi noir Red Snow.

The full longlist for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020 is:

- My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books)

- Fallen Angel by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown Book Group, Abacus)

- Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver (Orenda Books)

- Cruel Acts by Jane Casey (HarperCollins, Harper Fiction)

- Blue Moon by Lee Child (Transworld, Bantam)

- The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan, Macmillan/Pan)

- Red Snow by Will Dean (Oneworld, Point Blank)

- Platform Seven by Louise Doughty (Faber & Faber)

- Worst Case Scenario by Helen Fitzgerald (Orenda Books)

- The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

- Joe Country by Mick Herron (John Murray Press)

- How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

- The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Orion Publishing Group, Orion Fiction)

- Conviction by Denise Mina (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

- Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

- The Whisper Man by Alex North (Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph)

- Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Headline Publishing Group, Wildfire)

- Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce (Pan Macmillan, Mantle/Pan)

Executive director of T&R Theakston, Simon Theakston, said: “Year on year, I’m astounded and delighted by how this exceptional genre continues to excel – we were deluged with record submissions and these 18 impressive titles demonstrate the quality and power of contemporary crime fiction. From the familiar faces to the new voices, we are immensely proud of this year's longlist and raise a virtual glass of Old Peculier to all the authors, and what will be another fierce contest for this much-wanted award.”

The award is run by Harrogate International Festivals in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith and the Express, and is open to full length crime novels published in paperback from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2019 by UK and Irish authors.

The longlist was selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, and representatives from T&R Theakston Ltd, the Express, and WHSmith.

The 18 titles will be promoted in a dedicated online campaign from WHSmith, digital promotional materials will be made available for independent bookstores, and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival’s online community – You’re Booked – will raise a virtual glass to the titles and authors through interviews, features and a variety of further interactive content, as well as giving the opportunity to see a selection of events from the Festival’s extensive archive. This forms part of the Harrogate International Festival virtual season of events, which presents a raft of live music, specially commissioned performances, literary events and interviews to bring a free festival experience to your own digital doorstep.

The public are now invited to vote for a shortlist of six titles on www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com, which will be announced on 8 June.

The winner of this pre-eminent prize has historically been awarded on the opening evening of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival as part of Harrogate International Festival Summer Season, which this year was cancelled, with much sadness, due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This year, the winner will be revealed at a virtual awards ceremony on 31 July, and will receive £3,000, and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakston Old Peculier.

About Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year

Launched in 2005, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is the most prestigious crime novel prize in the country and is a much-coveted accolade recognising the very best crime writing of the year.

Previous winners include Mark Billingham, Val McDermid, Belinda Bauer, Denise Mina, Lee Child, Clare Mackintosh and last year’s champion Steve Cavanagh, who was awarded the trophy for the fifth book in his Eddie Flynn crime thriller series, Thirteen.

The 2020 award is run by Harrogate International Festivals in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith and the Express. It is open to full length crime novels published in paperback from 1 May 2019 to 30 April 2020 by UK and Irish authors.

The longlist of 18 titles is selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, and representatives from T&R Theakston Ltd, the Express, and WHSmith. The shortlist and winner are selected the academy, alongside a public vote, with the winner receiving £3,000, and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakston Old Peculier.

The award forms part of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, staged by Harrogate International Festivals in the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, and is traditionally awarded on the opening evening of the festival.

TITLE & AUTHOR INFORMATION: Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2020

VOTE NOW: https://harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com/

My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books)

My Sister, the Serial Killer is a blackly comic novel about how blood is thicker - and more difficult to get out of the carpet - than water...

Oyinkan Braithwaite is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University. Following her degree, she worked as an assistant editor at Kachifo and has been freelancing as a writer and editor since. She has had short stories published in anthologies and has also self published work. In 2014, she was shortlisted as a top ten spoken word artist in the Eko Poetry Slam.

Fallen Angel by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown Book Group, Abacus)

ONE FAMILY, TWO HOLIDAYS, ONE DEVASTATING SECRET. The new nanny Amanda, the Temple family seem to have it all: the former actress; the famous professor; their three successful grown-up children. But like any family, beneath the smiles and hugs there lurks far darker emotions. Sixteen years earlier, little Niamh Temple died while they were on holiday in Portugal. Now, as Amanda joins the family for a reunion at their seaside villa, she begins to suspect one of them might be hiding something terrible... And suspicion is a dangerous thing.

Chris Brookmyre was a journalist before becoming a full-time novelist with the publication of his award-winning debut Quite Ugly One Morning, which established him as one of Britain's leading crime novelists. His 2016 novel Black Widow won both the McIlvanney Prize and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. Brookmyre's novels novels have sold more than two million copies in the UK alone.

Nothing Important Happened Today by Will Carver (Orenda Books)

Nine suicides. One Cult. No leader. Nine people arrive one night on Chelsea Bridge. They’ve never met. But at the same time, they run, and leap to their deaths. Each of them received a letter in the post that morning, a pre-written suicide note, and a page containing only four words: Nothing important happened today. That is how they knew they had been chosen to become a part of the People Of Choice: A mysterious suicide cult whose members have no knowledge of one another. Thirty-two people on that train witness the event. Two of them will be next. By the morning, People Of Choice are appearing around the globe; it becomes a movement. A social media page that has lain dormant for four years suddenly has thousands of followers. The police are under pressure to find a link between the cult members, to locate a leader that does not seem to exist. How do you stop a cult when nobody knows they are a member?

Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Good Samaritans was book of the year in The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.

Cruel Acts by Jane Casey (HarperCollins, Harper Fiction)

Guilty? A year ago, Leo Stone was convicted of murdering two women and sentenced to life in prison. Now he’s been freed on a technicality, and he’s protesting his innocence. Not guilty? DS Maeve Kerrigan and DI Josh Derwent are determined to put Stone back behind bars where he belongs, but the more Maeve digs, the less convinced she is that he did it. The wrong decision could be deadly… Then another woman disappears in similar circumstances. Is there a copycat killer, or have they been wrong about Stone from the start? From award-winning author Jane Casey comes a powerful Maeve Kerrigan crime thriller, a Sunday Times bestseller and winner of the 2019 Irish Independent crime fiction book of the year.

Jane Casey has written ten crime novels for adults and three for teenagers. A former editor, she is married to a criminal barrister who ensures her writing is realistic and as accurate as possible. This authenticity has made her novels international bestsellers and critical successes. The Maeve Kerrigan series has been nominated for many awards: in 2015 Jane won the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know and Irish Crime Novel of the Year for After the Fire. In 2019, Cruel Acts was chosen as Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. It was a Sunday Times bestseller. Born in Dublin, Jane now lives in southwest London with her husband and two children.

Blue Moon by Lee Child (Transworld, Bantam)

Jack Reacher is back in a brand new white-knuckle read from Lee Child. It's a random universe, but once in a blue moon things turn out just right. In a nameless city, two rival criminal gangs are competing for control. But they hadn't counted on Jack Reacher arriving on their patch. Reacher is trained to notice things. He's on a Greyhound bus, watching an elderly man sleeping in his seat, with a fat envelope of cash hanging out of his pocket. Another passenger is watching too... hoping to get rich quick. As the mugger makes his move, Reacher steps in. The old man is grateful, yet he turns down Reacher's offer to help him home. He's vulnerable, scared, and clearly in big, big trouble. What hold could the gangs have on the old guy? Will Reacher be in time to stop bad things happening? The odds are better with Reacher involved. That's for damn sure.

Lee Child is one of the world's leading thriller writers. He was born in Coventry, raised in Birmingham, and now lives in New York. It is said one of his novels featuring his hero Jack Reacher is sold somewhere in the world every nine seconds. His books consistently achieve the number-one slot on bestseller lists around the world and have sold over one hundred million copies. Two blockbusting Jack Reacher movies have been made so far. He is the recipient of many awards, most recently Author of the Year at the 2019 British Book Awards. He was appointed CBE in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours.

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves (Pan Macmillan, Macmillan/Pan)

In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father's funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too. Now he's back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose. A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew's new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. Finding the killer is Venn's only focus, and his team's investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.

Ann Cleeves is the author of over thirty critically acclaimed novels, and she is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez who can now be found on television in ITV's Vera and BBC One's Shetland. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide. Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook, and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann is also a passionate champion for libraries and was a National Libraries Day Ambassador in 2016. Ann lives in North Tyneside near where the Vera books are set.

Red Snow by Will Dean (Oneworld, Point Blank)

Tuva Moodyson returns in a new thriller from the bestselling author of Dark Pines Winner of the Amazon Publishing Readers' Independent Voice Award TWO BODIES One suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? TWO COINS Black Grimberg liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to trend as local people stock up on ammunition. TWO WEEKS TO CATCH A KILLER Tuva Moodyson, deaf reporter at the local paper, has two weeks to track down the killer before she leaves town for good, but will the Ferryman let her go?

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden, where he built a wooden house in a boggy clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it's from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball's Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker Prize and named a Telegraph book of the year. Red Snow is the second in the Tuva Moodyson series.

Platform Seven by Louise Doughty (Faber & Faber)

Platform Seven at 4am: Peterborough Railway Station is deserted. The man crossing the covered walkway on this freezing November morning is confident he's alone. As he sits on the metal bench at the far end of the platform it is clear his choice is strategic - he's as far away from the night staff as he can get. What the man doesn't realise is that he has company. Lisa Evans knows what he has decided. She knows what he is about to do as she tries and fails to stop him walking to the platform edge. Two deaths on Platform Seven. Two fatalities in eighteen months - surely they're connected? No one is more desperate to understand what connects them than Lisa Evans herself. After all, she was the first of the two to die.

Louise Doughty is the bestselling author of nine novels, most recently Platform Seven. Her previous novel was the top 5 bestseller Apple Tree Yard, which was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club, shortlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards Crime & Thriller of the Year and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, longlisted for the Guardian's Not the Booker Prize, and translated into over twenty languages. Her other novels include Whatever You Love, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She has won awards for radio drama and short stories, along with publishing one work of non-fiction, A Novel in a Year, based on her hugely popular newspaper column. She is a critic and cultural commentator for UK and international newspapers and broadcasts regularly for the BBC. She lives in London.

Worst Case Scenario by Helen Fitzgerald (Orenda Books)

Mary Shields is a moody, acerbic probation offer, dealing with some of Glasgow’s worst cases, and her job is on the line. Liam Macdowall was imprisoned for murdering his wife, and he’s published a series of letters to the dead woman, in a book that makes him an unlikely hero – and a poster boy for Men’s Rights activists. Liam is released on licence into Mary’s care, but things are far from simple. Mary develops a poisonous obsession with Liam and his world, and when her son and Liam’s daughter form a relationship, Mary will stop at nothing to impose her own brand of justice … with devastating consequences.

Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and is now a major drama for BBC1. Ash Mountain is the second title published with Orenda Books, after Worst Case Scenario. Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia. She now lives in Glasgow with her husband.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

He had started to remove his clothes as logic had deserted him, and his skin was cracked. Whatever had been going through Cameron's mind when he was alive, he didn't look peaceful in death. Two brothers meet at the remote border of their vast cattle properties under the unrelenting sun of the outback. In an isolated part of Australia, they are each other's nearest neighbour, their homes hours apart. They are at the stockman's grave, a landmark so old that no one can remember who is buried there. But today, the scant shadow it casts was the last hope for their middle brother, Cameron. The Bright family's quiet existence is thrown into grief and anguish. Something had been troubling Cameron. Did he choose to walk to his death? Because if he didn't, the isolation of the outback leaves few suspects...

Jane Harper is the author of the international bestsellers The Dry, Force of Nature and The Lost Man. Her books are published in more than 36 territories worldwide, and The Dry is being made into a major film starring Eric Bana. Jane has won numerous top awards including the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel, the British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Book of the Year, the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year and the Australian Indie Awards Book of the Year. Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK and now lives in Melbourne.

Joe Country by Mick Herron (John Murray Press)

In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process. And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score. This time, they're heading into joe country. And they're not all coming home.

Mick Herron's six Slough House novels have been shortlisted for eight CWA Daggers, winning twice, and shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year three times. The first, Slow Horses, was picked as one of the best twenty spy novels of all time by the Daily Telegraph, while the most recent, Joe Country, was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. Mick Herron was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid (Little, Brown Book Group, Little, Brown)

We are all creatures of habit. Even murderers...' When human remains are discovered in the grounds of an old convent, it quickly becomes clear that someone has been using the site as their personal burial ground. But with the convent abandoned long ago and bodies dating back many years, could this be the work of more than one obsessive killer? The investigation throws up more questions as the evidence mounts but, after their last disastrous case, Tony Hill and Carol Jordan can only watch from afar. As they deal with the consequences, someone with a terrifying routine is biding their time - and both Tony and Carol find themselves closer to the edge than they have ever been before...

Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over sixteen million copies. She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime, and was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Val has served as a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize, and was Chair of the Wellcome Book Prize in 2017. She is the recipient of six honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

The Chain by Adrian McKinty (Orion Publishing Group, Orion Fiction)

YOUR PHONE RINGS. A STRANGER HAS KIDNAPPED YOUR CHILD. TO FREE THEM YOU MUST ABDUCT SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILD. YOUR CHILD WILL BE RELEASED WHEN YOUR VICTIM'S PARENTS KIDNAP ANOTHER CHILD. IF ANY OF THESE THINGS DON'T HAPPEN: YOUR CHILD WILL BE KILLED. VICTIM. SURVIVOR. ABDUCTOR. CRIMINAL. YOU WILL BECOME EACH ONE. YOU ARE NOW PART OF THE CHAIN.

Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s. His father was a boilermaker and ship's engineer and his mother a secretary. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship to study philosophy before emigrating to the United States to become a high school English teacher. His books have won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award and have been translated into over 20 languages. Adrian is a reviewer and critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Irish Times and The Guardian. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Conviction by Denise Mina (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

It's just a normal morning when Anna's husband announces that he's leaving her for her best friend and taking their two daughters with him. With her safe, comfortable world shattered, Anna distracts herself with someone else's story: a true-crime podcast. That is until she recognises the name of one of the victims and becomes convinced that only she knows what really happened. With nothing left to lose, she throws herself into investigating the case. But little does she know, Anna's past and present lives are about to collide, sending everything she has worked so hard to achieve into freefall.

Denise Mina is the author of the Garnethill trilogy, the Paddy Meehan series and the Alex Morrow series. She has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award twice and was inducted into the Crime Writers' Association Hall of Fame in 2014. The Long Drop won the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2017 and the Gordon Burn Prize. Conviction is the co-winner of the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2019 and it was selected for Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine Book Club. Denise has also written plays and graphic novels, and presented television and radio programmes. She lives and works in Glasgow.

Smoke and Ashes by Abir Mukherjee (VINTAGE, Harvill Secker)

India, 1921. Captain Sam Wyndham is battling a serious addiction to opium that he must keep secret from his superiors in the Calcutta police force. But Wyndham finds himself in a tight spot when he stumbles across a corpse in an opium den. When he then comes across a second body bearing the same injuries, Wyndham is convinced that there's a deranged killer on the loose. However, revealing his presence in the opium den could cost him his career. As Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-not' Banerjee set out to solve the two murders, Wyndham must tread carefully, keeping his personal demons secret, before someone else turns up dead...

Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of crime novels set in Raj-era India. His debut, A Rising Man, won the CWA Endeavour Dagger for best historical crime novel of 2017, was a Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, and Waterstones' Thriller of the Month. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing, was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of 2018, and was featured on ITV as a Zoe Ball Book Club pick. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in London with his wife and two sons.

The Whisper Man by Alex North (Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph)

You'll hear the whispers. And then you'll hear the screams... Still devastated after the loss of his wife, Tom Kennedy and his young son Jake move to the sleepy village of Featherbank, looking for a fresh start. But Featherbank has a dark past. Fifteen years ago a twisted serial killer abducted and murdered five young boys. Until he was finally caught, the killer was known as 'The Whisper Man'. Of course, an old crime need not trouble Tom and Jake as they try to settle in to their new home. Except that now another young boy has gone missing, stirring up rumours that the original killer was always known to have an accomplice. And then Jake begins acting strangely. He says he hears a whispering at his window...

Alex North was born in Leeds, where he now lives with his wife and son. He studied Philosophy at Leeds University, and prior to becoming a writer he worked there in their sociology department.

Blood & Sugar by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Headline Publishing Group, Wildfire)

June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock, horribly tortured and branded with a slaver's mark. Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham, a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career, is visited by the sister of an old friend. Her brother, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He'd said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing... To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend's investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy Tad had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family's happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him. And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford .

Laura Shepherd-Robinson was born in Bristol in 1976. She has a BSc in Politics from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics. Laura worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing at City University. She lives in London with her husband, Adrian. Blood & Sugar is her first novel.

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce (Pan Macmillan, Mantle/Pan)

Alison has it all. A doting husband, adorable daughter, and a career on the rise - she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But all is never as it seems... "Just one more night. Then I'll end it." Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. "I did it. I killed him. I should be locked up." Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband - she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. "I'm watching you. I know what you're doing." But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything...

Harriet Tyce grew up in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University before doing a law conversion course at City University. She practised as a criminal barrister in London for nearly a decade, and subsequently did an MA in Creative Writing - Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She lives in north London. Her first novel, Blood Orange, published in 2019 to huge critical acclaim and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

#Harrogate Theakston Crime Award 2020 #Midas PR #Theakston Award

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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Royal Orchid Plus Launches Triple Miles Promotion

Thai Airways celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, and as part of the celebrations is offering Royal Orchid Plus (ROP) members the chance to earn triple miles. The promotion is available to all members who make reservations and issue tickets via Thai Airways' website between 1 and 2 May 2020 for travel between 1 December 2020 and 31 March 2021.

The triple mileage promotion is available for on both international and domestic Thai Airways and Thai Smile flights. Thai Airways and Thai Smile are not currently operating any scheduled services. Thai Airways is expected to resume international flights on 30 June / 1 July while Thai Smile is hoping to resume domestic flights on 1 June 2020. See also: Thai AirAsia to Resume Domestic Flights on 1 May, Thai Lion Air to Resume Domestic Flights on 1 May and Bangkok Airways to Resume Samui Flights on 15 May. See latest Travel News, Interviews, Podcasts and other news regarding: COVID19, FFP, Thai Airways, Thai Smile, ROP, Royal Orchid Plus. Headlines: IHG Signs Resort in Saipan Airbus Develops A330 and A350 Cargo Solution for Airlines Air Canada Launches CleanCare+ Second Boeing 777X Begins Flight Tests Bombardier to Resume Aircraft Manufacturing in Canada Hamad Int. Airport Reports Q1 2020 Increase in Cargo Universal Postal Union Warns of Air Capacity Shortage Australia's Loyal Wingman Prototype Begins Ground Tests Aviation: Global Passenger Volumes Return to Levels Last Seen in 2006 Passenger Numbers of Asia Pacific Airlines Down 72.9% in March AirAsia Resumes Domestic Flights in Malaysia; Philippines and Thailand Next Royal Orchid Plus Launches Triple Miles Promotion Etihad Airways' Special Flights to Include Dublin and New York JFK Virgin Atlantic to Deliver Over 43 Million PPE Items to UK in Next Three Months ICAO Establishes COVID19 Aviation Recovery Task Force Martin Nüsseler Joins Deutsche Regional Aircraft as CTO Bangkok Airways to Resume Samui Flights Not Enough Air Cargo Capacity to Meet Demand Virgin Atlantic to Operate 90+ Cargo-Only Flights Per Week in May Singapore Hotel Association Partners STR IATA's 76th AGM to Take Place in Amsterdam 23-24 November Air Astana to Resume Flights Between Almaty and Nur-Sultan British Airways CEO Warns of Significant Changes to Come Hong Kong Airport Employs Latest Technology in Fight Against COVID19 COVID19: Airlines in Asia Pacific to See Largest Drop in Revenue Philippine Airlines to Operate Two Repatriation Flights from New York Boeing South Carolina to Resume 787 Operations Simone Broekhaar Joins Patina Maldives Fari Islands as DOSM American Airlines to Offer Wipes / Gels and Face Masks to Passengers Domestic Travel to Lead Recovery Followed by Regional and Long-Haul Services Sebastian Mikosz to Join IATA as SVP - Member and External Relations Thai AirAsia to Resume Domestic Flights 1 May Marco Den Ouden Joins Patina Maldives Fari Islands as GM Thai Airways Operates Repatriation Flights from Sydney and Auckland Air Canada to Operate Modified Dash 8-400 Aircraft for Cargo Virgin Atlantic to Launch Cargo-Only Flights to Tel Aviv, Israel British Airways Increases Cargo-Only Flights from China WTTC Estimates 100+ Million Job Losses in Travel & Tourism Sector Thai Lion Air to Resume Domestic Flights on 1 May Air New Zealand Delays New York Launch to Late-2021 Etihad to Provide Air Freight Assistance to Australian Exporters Austrian Airlines Predicts Demand of Pre-COVID19 Levels in 2023 Anantara Launches Stay With Peace of Mind Programme Executive Leadership Team Changes at CWT CAE Signs Deal for 10,000 COVID19 Ventilators; Recalls Staff in Canada Delta to Use Overhead Bins of Widebody Aircraft for Cargo Marriott Establishes Global Cleanliness Council Hong Kong's Daily Visitor Arrivals Below 100 at Beginning of April 1.2 Billion Fewer International Air Travellers by September 2020 PAL to Operate Special Flight to London on 24 April CWT Awarded Platinum Status by EcoVadis Emirates Increases Inflight and Airport Safety Measures SAS Extends Status Level of EuroBonus Members for 12 Months Delta Looking to Raise US$ 3 Billion Vietnam Airlines Repatriates 300 People from Japan IATA: Airlines Around the World Struggling to Survive Air Canada to Suspend Scheduled Flights to USA Qatar Airways Staff to Defer Portion of Basic Salary United Airlines Looking to Raise Over US$1 Billion Through Public Offering Korean Air Providing Protective Gowns and Goggles to Cabin Crew Crown Group Unveils Plans for Mixed-Use Development in Los Angeles Airbus Achieves Fully Automatic Refuelling Contacts Vietnam Airlines Upgrades Flight Pass with Optiontown Cathay Pacific to Operate 3% of Normal Capacity in April and May Passengers Numbers at Hong Kong Int. Airport Down 91% in March Vietnam Airlines and Jetstar Pacific Increase Flights Between Hanoi and Saigon IATA and ICS Call on Governments to Facilitate Ship Crew Changes Hahn Air Restructures Departments Etihad Hoping to Resume Scheduled Passenger Flights from 1 May Vietjet to Increase Passenger and Cargo Flights in Vietnam United Airlines Expects Demand to Remain Suppressed in 2020 and Likely 2021 MTCO Launches Mekong Heroes Finnair Using Airbus A350s for Cargo-Only Flights to Asia Deliveroo Launches Rider Academy in Hong Kong IATA Offering Free Access to Online Training Courses Vietnam Airlines Operates UK Repatriation Flight IHG to Take Over Four Seasons Hotel in Shanghai, China IATA: Airline Industry's Outlook Grows Darker by the Day Finnair and Juneyao Air to Strengthen Partnership Qatar Airways Signs US$ 850m Financing Deal with Standard Chartered Flight Centre Secures AU$900 Million in Additional Funding F-15QA Fighter Jet Completes Maiden Flight Philippine Airlines to Operate Melbourne - Manila Flight on 19 April Number of Flights Operated by Asia Pacific Airlines Down 93% American Airlines Extends AAdvantage Status Air New Zealand Extends Significantly Reduced Network to 30 June SunExpress Launches Cargo-Only Flights Etihad to Operate Special Flights to Brussels, Dublin, London, Tokyo and Zurich Malaysia Airlines Operates Repatriation Flights to Egypt, Indonesia and NZ Thai Airways Extends Validity of ROP Mileage Farah C. Jaber Appointed Cluster GM of Two Avani Resorts in Thailand China Airlines Postpones Launch of Flights to Cebu and Chiang Mai Ten Accor Hotels in Bangkok Renting Rooms as Offices Delta Blocks Middle Seats; Pauses Automatic Advance Upgrades Boeing Delivers First Set of Reusable 3D-Printed Face Shields Air Canada Reconfigures Cabins of B777s for Additional Cargo Capacity Japan and Singapore Retain Top Two Spots in Henley Passport Index Elbit Systems to Upgrade Hermes 900 UAS for Two Latin American Customers SKYE Suites Fast Tracks Opening of Third Hotel in Australia Thailand Grants Automatic Visa Extensions to Foreign Tourists American Airlines Expanding Cargo Operations Sunway Resort Donates Amenity Kits to COVID19 Hospital in Malaysia Delta Cargo Adds Large Shipments to DASH Door-to-Door Service Etihad Cargo to Expand Network with Five New Routes Airbnb Expands Frontline Stays Initiative to Thailand Airbus to Cut Aircraft Production by a Third Vietnam Airlines Reduces Danang Flights AirAsia Philippines Cancels All Flights Until 30 April Avani+ Khao Lak Appoints GM and DOSM HD Videos and Interviews Podcasts from HD Video Interviews Travel Trade Shows in 2019, 2020 and 2021 High-Res Picture Galleries Travel News Asia - Latest Travel Industry News Read the full article

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faithfulnews · 4 years

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Catastrophe in the Philippines: typhoons and volcanoes

Philippines (MNN) – The Philippines are reeling after the one-two-punch of typhoons and then the sucker punch from a volcanic eruption.

Typhoon Kammuri nearing the Philippines on December 2 (Image courtesy NASA, MODIS / LANCE Rapid Response )

First, Typhoon Tisoy (Kammuri, the international name) struck at the beginning of December, making landfall as the equivalent of a Category 4 Atlantic Hurricane. The storm affected 7,364, but damage estimates are running in excess of $67 million.

Typhoon Phanfone passing through the Philippines on Christmas Day. (Image courtesy NASA)

That was followed three weeks later by Typhoon Ursula (Phanphone, the international name), which made landfall on Christmas Eve as a Category 1 hurricane. Compassion identified the affected as 604 beneficiaries and seven Child Development Centers (CDCs). Ursula ripped apart houses, businesses, churches, roads, and government buildings, killing at least 50. What's more, this storm affected almost the same areas hit by Tisoy: Visayas and Luzon, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Biliran, Aklan, Oriental Mindoro, Iloilo, and Antique.

Impact on Compassion in the Philippines

For safety reasons, Compassion decided to halt many of its operations during the final weeks of December. Compassion spokesman Mark Pitoc, speaking to MNN from the Philippines, says, "It was tough in the first days, because some of our partnership facilitators, their houses were ruined. But it's because of the love for these children that brought us to reach out (to) those children that we are taking care of." As for the storms' survivors, Pitoc says, "Some of them were relocated, but already returned to their houses, electricity has been restored. It's just that some areas were flooded, their houses were ruined, and even their livelihood was devastated. But little by little, everything (the infrastructure) has been restored now."

Another disaster

Then on January 12, the Taal Volcano erupted (37 miles south of the capital city of Manila), spewing tons of ash and lava. Over the last five days, seismologists recorded more than 300 earthquakes in the area. "According to the government, it's still in level four alert—(it) means that the volcano is still active. We received some reports that five cities and municipalities in Batangas where the volcano is located were forced evacuation." The difficulty is in knowing when people can return home. Taal is notoriously temperamental; it's the second most active volcano in the Philippines, with 34 recorded historical eruptions. Experts warn future volcano eruptions could cause tsunami. The volcano could rumble for days, but not blow. It could also explode magma and lava tomorrow. There's no way to tell for sure, which makes the waiting interminable.

A cup of cold water in Jesus' name

(Photo courtesy Compassion International)

Pitoc says while they don't have church partners in Batanga, nearest the volcano, they are mobilizing a response. "We bought some items like diapers, clothes, towels, sanitary napkins, all the stuff that they need. We already bought it." That shipment will go out in the next couple of days. A church pastor serving in Batanga with Asian Access says the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches opened its training center to the evacuees until authorities send the 'all-clear.' The triple disasters are particularly difficult from which to recover, although the Filipinos are resilient. In the aftermath, pray:

For children and family members who have been injured or displaced.

For those who have lost loved ones, that God would comfort them.

For church staff and emergency workers as they reach out to those affected by these disasters.

(Headline photo courtesy Mike Gonzalez/Wikipedia/CC)

Go to the article

#churches #compassion-international #gospel #natural-disaster #philippines

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lucvanspace · 5 years

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Paula Scher

Paula Scher is a popular contemporary American graphic designer. She has worked relentlessly to revolutionise the graphic designing industry with her overzealous determination and creative work for over four decades. Her iconic images found their way into the American mainstream in which she became one of the most famous typographers to ever lived. Besides this, she is also a painter and an art educator, who became the first female to be offered the principal position at Pentagram in 1990s. She is passionate about typograhy and it is a career for her in which she stated in one interview on her recent Netflix special “Typography is my crack.”

On October 6, 1948, Paula Scher was born in Virginia and grew up in Philadelphia and Washington DC. Her father was a photogrammetric engineer for the US Geological Survey who invented a device that ensured the distortion-free aerial photography. That encouraged Paula to create hand-printed maps. She attended the Tyler School of Art, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts, in 1970. Later she moved to New York City beginning her professional career as a layout artist. She worked in that field for Random House’s children’s book division.

Using statistics and numbers as a means of creative outlet and analysis she began to work on large scale works, something she still practices today, from political, to absurd. For example; she uses newspaper headlines and the number of counties within a state to fill in a section of a map. A wordsmith the the brush, on a computer, and by hand.

Subsequently, she landed a job in the advertisement and promotion department of the CBS Records. Two years later she joined a competing label, Atlantic Records, as an art director. There she designed her first cover for an album. After acquiring some cover designing experience, she returned to CBS Records and worked there for eight years producing over 150 album covers annually. Her contributions included reviving historical typefaces and design styles. In fact, she earned four Grammy nominations for her inspiring designs.

In 1982, she resigned from CBS to explore graphic designing on her own. Based on Art deco and Russian constructivism, she developed a typographic solution. The solution employed outmoded typefaces into her designs. Her typography was influenced by Russian constructivism and without imitating its style she only made use of its ‘vocabulary of form’. In 1984, she teamed up with editorial designer, Tyler Koppel, to establish their firm, ‘Koppel & Scher’. The partnership sustained for seven years during which she developed corporate identities, book jackets, advertisement and packaging. She also designed the iconic Swatch poster modelled after Swiss designer “Herbert Matters” work during this time.

As the recession claimed many firms and companies stability, Koppel & Scher also suffered the consequences. Koppel left the firm for the position of Creative Director at Esquire magazine, while Scher joined Pentagram, in 1991. In its New York branch, she consulted the design studio as a partner and eventually worked her up to the post of principal. Moreover, she expanded her area of expertise from designing to teaching as she accepted a teaching position at the School of Visual Arts. In addition to teaching at SVA for over two decades, she taught intermittently at prestigious art institutions including Yale University, Tyler School of Art and Cooper Union.

Furthermore, Scher is credited with the new identity creation of The Public Theater. Her promotional graphic system for the program became highly influential in theatrical promotion. The technique she employed to attract a more diverse crowd’s attention involved the ‘juxtaposition of street typography’ and graffiti. Paula Scher is undeniably an internationally recognized celebrity, who is awarded more than 300 awards by several international associations, AIGA, the Package Design Council and The Type Directors Club. Her collection of work is showcased at New York MoMA, the Museum für Gestaltung and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She has had a Netflix special made about her, her success, and where she is now and it proves inspiring to watch.

Some of her other works:

Windows 8 Branding – Created in 2012

New York Philharrmonic Logo – Designed in 2009

The Metropolitan Opera Logo – Designed in 2006

Citibank Logo – Designed in 1998

The Public Theater Logo – in 1994

Tiffany & Co. Logo

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getmybuzzup · 5 years

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Palace Resorts – the company that sets the standard in five-star, all-inclusive resort accommodations – in partnership with the Jamaica Tourist Board and Atlantic Records is pleased to announce, “Paradise in Paradise,” an exclusive performance with Bazzi, at Moon Palace Jamaica. The Chart-topping and multi-platinum R&B/Pop sensation, known for his massive hits like “Mine” and “Beautiful” feat. Camila Cabello will celebrate the release of his new single “Paradise” with an intimate and private show at the AAA Four Diamond-rated resort in Ocho Rios, Jamaica on August 19, 2019, at 8 pm. The concert is complimentary for guests staying at the resort.

Photo Credit: Badboi, Palace Resorts

Bazzi, one of the biggest breakout artists of 2018, catapulted into mega-status with his massive hit “Mine.” The track, now certified three-times platinum, climbed to #1 at Pop Radio and top 3 at Rhythmic. Bazzi solidified his spot as one of music’s most promising newcomers with his follow-up hit “Beautiful,” collaborating with chart-topping singer/songwriter Camila Cabello. Both tracks are featured on Bazzi’s breakthrough debut album, ‘COSMIC,’ which has been streamed more than three billion times. Written predominantly by Bazzi and co-produced by Grammy-nominated Rice N’ Peas and Bazzi, ‘COSMIC’ has received ecstatic critical applause, with Billboard praising its “slinky, R&B-infused pop” and Playboy hailing the collection as “genre-bending.” “Bazzi’s ‘COSMIC’ seems primed to linger near the top of the albums chart for quite a while,” wrote Stereogum, while USA Today echoed, “Bazzi’s career is just getting started.”

Bazzi supported his back-to-back hits with performances on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The 92nd Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, The TODAY Show, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards – as a “Best New Artist” nominee. Bazzi has spent much of the past year on THE COSMIC TOUR, including a sold-out headline run, a special guest role on Camila Cabello’s sold out “Never Be The Same” North American tour, and support on the European leg of Justin Timberlake’s blockbuster “Man Of The Woods Tour.” This year, Bazzi has stepped up his game with a lauded debut at Coachella, a collaboration with Belgian DJ Netsky and rap legend Lil Wayne, the release of his critically acclaimed track “Focus” feat. 21 Savage, an appearance on Tyga’s new album, and his current radio single “Paradise,” which has already reached over 140 million streams since April. Bazzi recently performed “Paradise” at The 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards.

“As a brand that prides itself in bringing unforgettable experiences to its guests, we couldn’t be more excited to close out the summer with a chart-topping artist such as Bazzi. Since opening, Moon Palace Jamaica has hosted a diverse lineup of artists that has included well-known artists like Shaggy, Omi and MAGIC!” said Gibran Chapur, Executive Vice President of Palace Resorts. “We couldn’t be prouder to partner up with the Jamaica Tourist Board & Atlantic Records, to bring this unique experience to our guests.”

This exclusive performance, taking place at Moon Palace Jamaica is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Bazzi fans to see him live in an intimate setting, with picturesque views of Ocho Rios. Performing a few of his popular hits, guests will be privy to see Bazzi perform, as part of the all-inclusive concept. In addition, Bazzi will host a special meet & greet for VIP guests of the resort.

There couldn’t be a more perfect location to celebrate “Paradise” than in Jamaica. Ocho Rios is the center of Jamaica’s most popular attractions including Dunn’s River Falls, Mystic Mountain, and Dolphin Cove. Moon Palace Jamaica and its prime location in Ocho Rios make for the ideal vacation in paradise!

Moon Palace Jamaica is Palace Resorts’ first property outside of Mexico and Jamaica’s most luxurious all-inclusive resort. The family-friendly property offers guests the opportunity to experience 17-acres of ivory sand on the longest stretch of private beach in Ocho Rios. The resort features the only FlowRider® Double wave simulator in Jamaica, lavish swimming pools, a kid’s water park, multiple dining destinations and bars, a gourmet corridor, an ultra-chic nightclub, NOIR, and signature AWE Spa®, the largest spa in Jamaica. The resort also offers an array of off-site activities such as kayaking, paddle boarding, or even taking a scenic catamaran ride through the clear waters of Ocho Rios. Guests have access to complimentary Wi-Fi, 24-hour room service, CHI products, and unlimited long-distance calls to the United States. Moon Palace Jamaica is on track to becoming one of the Caribbean’s top entertainment destinations with world-class performances.

Moon Palace Jamaica all-inclusive accommodations start at $361 per person, per night, based on double occupancy. Guests who book a stay of five nights or more are privy to the most valuable vacation promotion on record – $1,500 Resort Credit, which can be used on spa and beauty salon treatments, golf outings, romantic dinners, wedding packages and off-site excursions and tours. To reserve your stay for “Paradise in Paradise” please visit https://jamaica.moonpalace.com/en.

About Palace Resorts

With ten oceanfront resorts overlooking sparkling turquoise waters, Palace Resorts sets the highest standards for five-star all-inclusive vacations in Mexico and Jamaica. Offering luxurious and spacious accommodations accentuated by signature in-room double whirlpool tubs, nightly entertainment, the Caribbean & Mexico’s most extravagant spas, a premier Jack Nicklaus signature golf course, Palace Resorts sets the stage for a truly exceptional experience for travelers. The unparalleled level of service and comfort found at each property makes Palace Resorts a leading provider of world-class resort vacations. For more information, visit www.palaceresorts.com.

About Jamaica Tourist Board

The Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), founded in 1955, is Jamaica’s national tourism agency based in the capital city of Kingston. JTB offices are also located in Montego Bay, Miami, Toronto, and London. Representative offices are located in Berlin, Barcelona, Rome, Amsterdam, and Mumbai. TripAdvisor® ranked Jamaica as the #1 Caribbean Destination and #14 Best Destination in the World in 2019. Also, this year, the International Council of the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) named Jamaica the Destination of the Year and TravAlliance Media named JTB Best Tourism Board, and Jamaica as Best Culinary Destination, Best Wedding Destination, and Best Honeymoon Destination. Additionally, the JTB has been declared the Caribbean’s Leading Tourist Board by the World Travel Awards (WTA) for thirteen consecutive years between 2006 and 2019. Jamaica also earned the WTA’s award for the Caribbean’s Leading Destination, Leading Cruise Destination and Leading Meetings & Conference Centre 2018 for the Montego Bay Convention Centre. Jamaica is home to some of the world’s best accommodations, attractions, and service providers that have won several awards throughout the years. For details on upcoming special events, attractions and accommodations in Jamaica go to the JTB’s Web-site at www.visitjamaica.com or call the Jamaica Tourist Board at 1-800-JAMAICA (1-800-526-2422). Follow the JTB on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. View the JTB blog at www.islandbuzzjamaica.com.

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BAZZI, PERFORMS “PARADISE IN PARADISE” AT MOON PALACE JAMAICA [PHOTOS] Palace Resorts - the company that sets the standard in five-star, all-inclusive resort accommodations – in partnership with the

#Bazzi #Camila Cabello #jamaica #MOON PALACE #Ocho Rios #PARADISE IN PARADISE #Performs #r&b

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warninggraphiccontent · 5 years

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31 May 2019

Have I Got Views For You

Alongside three Peston Geek of the Week badges we can now add an appearance on Have I Got News For You for IfG charts. Ian Hislop seemed surprised by the appearance of 'A graph on a comedy show' - he should check out the open (data) mic night vibe of a Whitehall Monitor launch or a Data Bites event...

The most up-to-date version of that chart, and our other resignation charts, is here - and thanks too to BBC News for including a number of our charts in their summary of Theresa May's premiership, the beginning of the end of which began as this newsletter went out last week.

The end of May is likely by the end of July, once the Tory party leadership contest is complete. Having overtaken Gordon Brown this week in terms of time served, May will boot the Duke of Wellington out of the way shortly, followed by Neville Chamberlain, before falling short of Jim Callaghan.

Her resignation speech highlighted two data-based initiatives as successes: the race disparity audit (which we welcomed at the time, and which the women and equalities select committee applauded while demanding better data) and the publication of gender pay gap data. There have been a few other open/data initiatives of note, such as the Home Office crime map, which Paul reminded me of during this event. But May's premiership - if it is remembered for anything other than Brexit - will be remembered as an object lesson in opacity and secrecy, hindered by her closed style of governing and decision-making, on everything from Brexit to the disastrous dementia tax announcement. Ben Worthy's 2017 piece and 2018 piece on these issues are still well worth reading. It should prompt politicians to consider a more open style of leadership in the 21st century, as an opportunity as well as an obligation. But it probably won't.

Political support for the open government agenda has undoubtedly weakened, to a concerning degree. The UK finally published its Open Government Partnership National Action Plan this week, many, many months late. (Full disclosure: I'm a member of the Open Government Network steering group in the UK.) Thanks are due to the civil servants who got it over the line. But Tim's take on the 'lamentable' state of open government and his disappointment with the Plan is required reading (see also Mor's pre-publication pessimism). We can rightly blame the political situation and political disinterest for a lot of the problems; we *can* find positives in the plan (the contracting commitments are in line with our recommendations, amongst others). But there is a need for some civil society soul-searching. What are we trying to achieve from and through open government? Are we trying to bring together too many disparate areas, interests and groups under one heading? Are we after big, headline-grabbing initiatives or smaller, more practical business-as-usual steps (and did we get either)? Where do we go next?

This is a more optimistic development. Though the less said about Justin Trudeau's session at the Open Government Summit in Ottawa, the better, by the sound of it...

This side of the Atlantic, we've had the European elections to contend with. Putting the politics to one side (*knowing look to camera*) it's a great opportunity to compare how different outlets treat the same data - see the many, many links below. The fact the elections were somewhat unexpected in the UK may have been a blessing - rather than money wasted on thoughtless 3D graphics we got simple, succinct storytelling. (Though I do wonder whether we could think even more deeply, and, well...) There may be some more to come from us on this, too - keep an eye on our explainer, Aron and Lee.

I've rambled on far too long. In part, that's compensation for what will be a very short W:GC next week, if it appears at all: after hosting our third Data Bites on Tuesday night (come! or livestream! and put Wednesday 3 July in your diary for the next one!), I'm heading to Berlin for a conference and then preparing for the Orwell Foundation's Barbican residency.

And if you've not had enough of me, you can keep track of the IfG's future technology in government project here, and you might even hear me if you tune into Radio 5 Live this morning...

Gavin

Today's links:

Graphic content

D'Hondt you want me baby?

European Election 2019: UK results in maps and charts (BBC News - includes this one)

European election latest results 2019: across the UK (The Guardian)

GB - final results (Europe Elects)

Thread: change in leave/remain areas (Will Jennings)

My Euro-election post-vote poll: most Tory switchers say they will stay with their new party (Lord Ashcroft)

2016 referendum vs 2019 election (Ross Atkin, via Lee)

UK’s European election results: four key findings* (FT - more here from John Burn-Murdoch, via Lee)

If the results were translated into GE constituencies... (Peston, by Chris Hanretty - more here)

Two-party share (Aron for IfG)

Context (Johnny for IfG)

D'Hondt you want me? Oh

EU election results 2019: across Europe (The Guardian)

European elections 2019: Live results (FT)

European Elections (Politico)

European Parliament Elections 2019 (Bloomberg)

European Election 2019: Results in maps and charts (BBC News)

Europa von links nach rechts (Zeit Online)

So hat Europa gewählt (WAZ)

Elections européennes 2019 : les résultats en sièges, pays par pays, et la future composition du Parlement (Le Monde)

Elections européennes 2019 : les résultats par département rapportés à la population (Le Monde)

Flow of votes: Italy (via Leonardo Carella)

Centrist liberals gained the most power in the EU Parliament* (The Economist)

Don't you want me baby? Don't you want me? (No)

Charting Theresa May's premiership (IfG)

May overtakes Brown (me for IfG)

Theresa May: Premiership in six charts (BBC News)

May and Corbyn are now the most unpopular PM and opposition leader duo of all time* (Telegraph)

How the competition to succeed Theresa May has played out over the past year, based on the implied probabilities of betting odds (Alasdair)

Liberal Democrat leadership contests – how do they work? (IfG)

Elections

Westminster needs to pay attention to the European election results – in Northern Ireland (IfG)

India general election 2019: What happened? (BBC News)

Are Blowout Presidential Elections A Thing Of The Past? (FiveThirtyEight)

Energy

The power switch: tracking Britain's record coal-free run (The Guardian)

Temperature change visualized in 10 different ways (Antti Lipponen)

Maps

Migration flows in the European Union (via Alberto Cairo)

Neighborhood Disparities in Investment Flows in Chicago (Urban Institute)

Help us name your neighbourhood (UK Parliament)

Children

Child mortality is an everyday tragedy of enormous scale that rarely makes the headlines (Our World in Data)

Today at @TheEconomist we published a new data-driven IG Story with a lot of data and a bit of gamification (Francesco Zaffarano)

Sport and leisure

Six? The ICC Cricket World Cup (Simon Beaumont)

Monaco Grand Prix 2019: 60-Second Animated Recap* (The Upshot)

SCALING EVEREST* (Washington Post)

How English clubs re-conquered European football* (The Economist)

Critique

WHAT CHARTS SAY (Elijah Meeks - reminds me of a chart I use in our dataviz training, alternative take here)

Examining Implicit Discretization in Spectral Schemes (or, whether rainbow colour schemes are bad - Visualization Design Lab)

Meta data

Openness

UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2019-2021 (UK Government)

Statement by UK Open Government Network at #OGPCanada (UK Open Government Network)

The lamentable State of Open Government in the UK (Tim Davies)

From Enthusiasm to Stagnation: The Tale of Two Countries Ahead of the OGP19 Summit (Mor Rubinstein)

The sum of our parts: Open Organisations

Cities

Tech Billionaires Think SimCity Is Real Life (Jacobin)

The ‘Smart City’ is as much a political challenge as it is a technology challenge (bytherye)

London’s TfL and Toronto’s Google Sidewalk Lab both show that cities need better ways of managing data (CityMetric)

Jobs

JOB: Communications Manager (360Giving)

JOB: Band B2 - Analyst / Data Scientist - Civil Service People Survey, Analysis and Insight (Cabinet Office)

The team I work for at @TheEconomist is looking for a new data visualisation designer. Let me tell you why you should apply (Marie Segger)

Data

GDPR One Year On (BBC Click)

Taking Next Steps to Harness the Value of Health and Care Data (Future Care Capital, via Nick)

What can the NHS learn from learning health systems? (Nuffield Trust)

Related (Harry Evans)

How could new metrics help to end homelessness? (ONS)

Everything else

Parent trap: WhatsApp groups are feeding our fears* (The Spectator)

DIGITAL SOCIALISM? (Evgeny Morozov, New Left Review)

ANTHOLOGY: TECH AND INNOVATION (Delayed Gratification, via Pritesh)

THE NEXT GENERATION OF ANTI-CORRUPTION TOOLS (Oxford Insights)

The FOI request related to @GDSTeam's Submit #GaaP service (stopped after discovery) has come in... (via David)

Translating Principles into Practices of Digital Ethics: Five Risks of Being Unethical (Luciano Floridi in Philosophy and Technology)

And finally...

D'Hondt leave me this way

Lib Dems, bar chart, but... (Stephen Tall)

When you crash the chart they prepared. (Terry Reintke MEP)

Fun framing of Shetland (Matt Smith)

Snacks

Honestly my take away from this chart is that donuts are healthier than I thought (Dr Glaucomflecken, via Pritesh)

National Biscuit Day... (NCVO)

Everything else

Less words in Game of Thrones (Joanna Robinson - and yes, I know, that's the joke)

Eurovision Song Contest: a market basket analysis of voting patterns and international relations (Gwilym Lockwood)

#AI (Florian Roth)

A People Map of the US, where city names are replaced by their most Wikipedia’ed resident (The Pudding)

Remember the 3D map I did of the local election results? Well... (Jamie Whyte)

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