Category Archives: Viva!

While Nestlé extracts millions of litres from their land, residents have no drinking water

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Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of a First Nations community try to improve the water situation as the beverage company extracts from their land

The mysterious rash on the arm of six-year-old Theron wouldn’t heal. For almost a year, his mother, Iokarenhtha Thomas, who lives in the Six Nations of the Grand River indigenous reserve in Ontario, went to the local doctor for lotions for the boy. It worked, for a time. But the itchy red rash always returned. Thomas came to suspect the culprit behind the rash: water – or, rather, the lack of it.

Thomas, a university student and mother of five, has lived without running tap water since the age of 16. Her children lack access to things commonplace elsewhere, like toilets, showers and baths. For washing and toilet usage, they use a bucket.

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Ukip has become too vile even for its own extremists | David Lawrence

British brown shirt throwbacks to British 1930’s fascism.

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MEP Bill Etheridge is the latest to desert the party as it ramps up the ugly anti-Muslim rhetoric

Ukip’s controversial and gaffe-prone West Midlands MEP, Bill Etheridge, has dramatically quit the party, claiming that its character has been “permanently changed” and is now viewed by voters as “a vehicle of hate towards Muslims and the gay community”.

The move is yet another blow to the Eurosceptic party, which has driven hard into far-right territory under leader Gerard Batten, who has actively courted anti-Muslim figurehead Tommy Robinson in an obsessional quest against Islam (which he calls “Mohammedanism”).

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Scientists say halting deforestation ‘just as urgent’ as reducing emissions

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Protecting and restoring forests would reduce 18% of emissions by 2030 and help to avoid global temperature rise beyond 1.5C

The role of forests in combating climate change risks being overlooked by the world’s governments, according to a group of scientists that has warned halting deforestation is “just as urgent” as eliminating the use of fossil fuels.

Razing the world’s forests would release more than 3 trillion tons of carbon dioxide, more than the amount locked in identified global reserves of oil, coal and gas. By protecting and restoring forests, the world would achieve 18% of the emissions mitigation needed by 2030 to avoid runaway climate change, the group of 40 scientists, spanning five countries, said in a statement.

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Mike Pence accuses China of meddling in US elections despite lack of evidence

Pimping for Trump and using racism and yellow peril to cover bribes from Russia.

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Vice-president’s allegation echoes similar claim made by Trump last week but has been contradicted by cybersecurity experts

Mike Pence has claimed that Russian interference in US elections “pales in comparison” with Chinese meddling, which he said was aimed at ousting Donald Trump.

Related: Trump accuses China of meddling in midterms, citing Iowa newspaper ad

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“The first time I was offered a journalism job in Nigeria, the…

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“The first time I was offered a journalism job in Nigeria, the newspaper owner suggested that I supplement my income with bribes.  He told me: ‘I’m giving you a platform.  Use what you have to get what you need.’  I knew then that the rumors were true.  Journalism in this country was corrupted.  There was no idealism.  Reporters were writing stories for money.  And even more damaging, they were killing stories for money.  I didn’t want to participate.  I felt it would be more ethical to just find a corporate job.  But in 2008, I was given the opportunity to manage a new paper founded by Nigeria’s only Pulitzer Prize winner, Dele Olojede.  The paper was called Next.  And we tried to change things.  We hired young people who were untainted by the culture.  Half of them were women.  We paid them well and we trained them well.  Ethics came first.  Accepting gifts was absolutely forbidden.  Our paper survived for three years.  During that time, we broke major stories every single week.  We exposed all sorts of corruption.  But we were targeted for our success.  Our reporters were detained.  Our board members were threatened.  The government leaned on our advertisers, and they withdrew one by one.  Eventually we were forced to close.  But for three years we set the pace.  We created a mold.  And I believe we changed the media landscape.  Investigative journalism is stronger now.  Many of our journalists have gone on to start amazing publications of their own.  The paper may have been short lived, but I know it had an impact.  Revolution is too strong of a word, but we definitely shook the table.”
(Lagos, Nigeria)