Category Archives: Viva!

‘Cultures are not all equal,’ writes Australia’s former PM Abbott

Australians should stop apologizing for their Western values, Australia’s recently-deposed prime minister, Tony Abbott, has written in a newspaper. His opponents accused him of trying to “Trumpify” the nation’s politics.

Canada launches inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women

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Justin Trudeau promises ‘total renewal’ of relationship with aboriginal people with investigation of nearly 1,200 murders and disappearances in three decades

Canada’s government has launched a long-awaited national inquiry into the murder or disappearance of hundreds of indigenous women, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised a “total renewal” of the country’s relationship with its aboriginal population.

Speaking to an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) special chiefs gathering in Gatineau, Québec, the Liberal leader announced that his government had begun the process to create the inquiry into the nearly 1,200 indigenous women and girls who have been murdered or who have gone missing in Canada over the past three decades.

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US to ban soaps and other products containing microbeads

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New act would phase out the tiny pieces of plastic found in soap, toothpaste and body washes, which pollute waters and spread throughout the food chain

The US is set to ban personal care products that contain microbeads after the House of Representatives approved a bill that would phase out the environmentally-harmful items.

The bill, which had been backed by a bipartisan committee, will now go to the Senate for approval.

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On Artificial Turf Issue, U.S. Women Dig In at Last – The New York Times

“We have become so accustomed to playing on whatever surface is put in front of us,” the team wrote in an open letter posted Monday on The Players’ Tribune. “But we need to realize that our protection — our safety — is priority No. 1.”Good for them. With their stock and their visibility as high as it has ever been, the players realized that there has never been a better time to find their voices.So goalkeeper Hope Solo shared a photo with her one million Twitter followers and forward Alex Morgan, who battled a leg injury for much of the past year, grumbled publicly about the “horrible” conditions. Morgan even told Fox Sports that she now encourages her teammates to speak their minds and ask “whether we should be playing on it if the men wouldn’t be playing on it.”And there’s the rub. The men’s national team does not play on artificial turf. Even when it schedules a game in a stadium that has it, sod is laid down for the game, no matter the cost. The women, however, were to play eight of the 10 games of their current World Cup victory tour on artificial turf.

Source: On Artificial Turf Issue, U.S. Women Dig In at Last – The New York Times