Category Archives: Viva!

Death toll rises as wildfire wipes out Chilean town of Santa Olga | News | DW.COM | 27.01.2017

Chile requests international aid

Forest fires are common in Chile’s parched, wooded areas during the hot summer months. However, serious drought has made the fires this year particularly difficult to contain. Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet, has called the fires “the greatest forest disaster” in the Chile’s history. The country has turned to the international community, requesting aid to tackle the wildfires. Heraldo Munoz, Chile’s foreign minister, said the United States, Canada and various other countries have offered help. Meanwhile, Bachelet tweeted on Thursday that the country had accepted additional super tanker planes and helicopters from Russia.

Source: Death toll rises as wildfire wipes out Chilean town of Santa Olga | News | DW.COM | 27.01.2017

Germany to take US place in defending Europe and West

Europe’s Engine

The German government has reiterated its appeal to EU members to “stick together” – not only in the power struggle against Russia, but now also against the new US administration.[12] The common foreign and military policy is the means of choice to not only assure a leading position for the EU in world policymaking, but also to weld the alliance together against internal criticism. In early 2010, Germany’s Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, declared that the “European project of a common security and defense policy could be an engine for Europe’s continuous consolidation.”[13] This was at the beginning of the Euro crisis, with its multiplying centrifugal forces escalating.

Source: www.german-foreign-policy.com

PS, We Have NAFTA To Thank For Plentiful Coronas And Modelos In American Bars: SFist Get ready for 20% price rise in everything from Mexico. Or will this turn out to be just more fake Twitter news

In 2013 alone, we apparently bought some two million tons of Coronas, Modelos, and Tecates from Mexico, and beer is now Mexico’s biggest agricultural export to the US.

Source: PS, We Have NAFTA To Thank For Plentiful Coronas And Modelos In American Bars: SFist

Death Valley National Park Joins Resistance And Starts Tweeting About Japanese Internment Camps: LAist

surrogate for President Donald Trump actually said that World War II-era Japanese-American internment camps could be seen as a “precedent” for the potential creation of a Muslim immigrant registry. This is despite the, um, slightly awkward fact that the U.S.’s Japanese internment camps are pretty much universally considered a black mark on our country’s history. In fact, it was no less a conservative icon than Ronald Reagan who signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which issued a formal apology to the more than 100,000 people of Japanese descent who were incarcerated, and paid out $20,000 in compensation to all surviving victims.

Source: Death Valley National Park Joins Resistance And Starts Tweeting About Japanese Internment Camps: LAist

Government pushes back against US halt to abortion aid – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

Sweden’s government has called for action to defend work on abortion and contraceptive rights, as the new US President orders a halt to international aid and development in those areas.” The world is looking to Sweden as a leader in these issues,” says Development Minister Isabella Lövin. She wants to meet the Swedish opposition parties and establish a broad political consensus for action to limit the effect of the new US government’s withdrawal from reproductive rights work internationally.

Source: Government pushes back against US halt to abortion aid – Radio Sweden | Sveriges Radio

Has Iran been sending Afghan children to fight in Syria? | Afghanistan Analysis

It is difficult to estimate the number of underage Afghans fighting in Syria, but former fighters have described the number of Afghan combatants as being in the thousands.Iranian authorities deny they are sending Afghans to fight in Syria in any official capacity. The Afghan foreign ministry promised last year to probe reports of Iran recruiting Afghan refugees, but it has not said anything since. However, former fighters have told the media and human rights organizations that IRGC trained and deployed them. Stories on the social media accounts of some of these fighters speak of battlefield visits they received from Gen. Qasem Soleimani, commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, which is responsible for international military operations. Iranian officials are also frequently seen attending funerals of Afghan fighters killed in Syria.

Source: Has Iran been sending Afghan children to fight in Syria? | Afghanistan Analysis