World News Random, Random

[Suliso]

This is extremely rare in Japan. Hence there was no need for security.

[ti-amie]

[ponchi101]

Back to Japan. The weapon used to kill Abe seems to have been a homemade device, not something you can buy.

[ponchi101]

Considerable news about Sri Lanka, where "Protesters break into home of Sri Lankan PM, set it on fire".
One of the most beautiful countries I have visited (scenery and history), and, at the time, very peaceful. The PM has resigned, but the country is in chaos; lack of food, gasoline and other basic goods.
My third, split personality (Ponchi101-The Bringer of Doom) expects at this rate anytime soon for the skies above to part, and the giant hooves of the horses of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to stomp on our Earth. One of the horses will take a massive, toxic dump in my garden, which I will then have to clean.
My unofficial nickname: P, the Dark Cloud (I kid not in that last one. In a job 26 years ago. How often was I right).

[Suliso]

It's another Venezuela almost... How did they manage to run a modestly successful country in the ground in less than 15 years?

[ponchi101]

Indeed. They had some interesting industries, and were viable. But I know nothing about the details. It makes me sad.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

Boris Johnson accused of trying to derail Rishi Sunak’s bid to be next PM
Senior Tories say the former chancellor is the main focus of the ousted leader’s anger as bitter infighting breaks out

Toby Helm and Michael Savage
Sat 9 Jul 2022 21.32 BST

Senior Tories accused Boris Johnson of trying to torpedo Rishi Sunak’s bid to succeed him as prime minister – and of refusing to leave No 10 with good grace – as the leadership race descended into bitter infighting.

As a trio of cabinet ministers entered the contest last night, senior MPs said the battle now risked inflicting even more damage on the party than the fall of Margaret Thatcher more than three decades ago.

One party grandee accused Johnson of installing unsuitable MPs to middle-ranking and junior government posts when he knew he was on his way out “to cause maximum problems for his successor” who would inevitably have to sack most of them on taking office.

“Those appointments were the most appalling thing I have seen in politics,” said the senior source. “It was obviously a move to sabotage his successor’s first weeks in office.”

Another senior figure in the government added that Johnson was so incensed at the way he had been ousted, having won such a huge mandate at the 2019 general election, that he was now intent on exacting revenge on those he saw as responsible, and on influencing events wherever possible from the outside.

“This is not an administration that is going to go quietly. There is a lot of anger about how this all happened,” said the source. “It is clear that much of it will now focus on Rishi. It is all very Trumpian.”

A former vice-chairman of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, Sir Charles Walker, told the Observer that pleas for restraint were pointless because there was so much bad blood.

“People like me can say until we are blue in the face that the Conservative party should not tear itself apart, but our pleas will fall on deaf ears.

“Clearly the prime minister remains deeply bruised by the chancellor’s resignation. Rishi’s camp will have to soak up a lot of anger over the days to come. That will apply to whoever takes over.”

Meanwhile, Johnson allies warned the party it would soon regret ditching him and accused the candidates vying to replace him of being incapable of repeating his successes. They say Sunak, in particular, faces questions of “loyalty and propriety” and accuse him of plotting his leadership bid for months while publicly professing his loyalty.

On Saturday night , amid the succession turmoil, fresh allegations emerged that Johnson had lobbied for a job for a young woman who claims she was having a sexual relationship with him during his time as London mayor.

According to the Sunday Times, the appointment was blocked because Kit Malthouse, then a senior figure in City Hall and now a cabinet minister, suggested the pair had an inappropriately close relationship. Johnson is said to have admitted pushing her forward for a job when the woman, who remains anonymous, confronted him in 2017.

The claims follow reports last month that Johnson had tried to secure his wife, Carrie, a role as his chief of staff during his time as foreign secretary. The pair were having an affair at the time. He is also accused of helping an American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri gain access to taxpayer-funded business trips after their affair in 2011.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss, transport secretary Grant Shapps and the new chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, all entered the leadership contest on Saturday night, alongside Sunak, the attorney general Suella Braverman, ex-minister Kemi Badenoch and the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat.

Shapps said he would focus on the cost of living crisis, while Zahawi promised to lower taxes “for individuals, families and business”.

The chancellor also stressed his “culture war” credentials, saying he would “focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists”.

Truss is expected to pledge to reverse the government’s recent national insurance rise when she officially launches her campaign this week.

Others expected to declare in the coming days include former cabinet ministers Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt. Supporters of trade minister Penny Mordaunt are urging her to declare, while the defence secretary Ben Wallace – one of the bookies’ early favourites – said on Saturday that he would not be throwing his hat into the ring.

The chair of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady, will meet senior MP colleagues and members of the party’s board on Monday to decide how the contest will proceed. They are expected to agree a timetable that will see the number of candidates whittled down to two in a series of votes by MPs over the coming fortnight. Then there will be a programme of hustings for the final two, leading to a vote by party members, and the announcement of a new leader and prime minister in early September.

According to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer, Sunak is the favourite among people who voted Conservative at the last general election. Some 55.4% said he would be a good prime minister. Javid was in second place on 50.5%.

Those close to Johnson are struggling to decide which candidate they should back. “People are trying to work this out at the moment, the field is muddied by so many unrealistic candidates,” said one.

“There is a strong concern in what you might call the pro-Boris camp of certain candidates – some, perfectly reasonably, have never bought into what Boris was trying to do.

“Then there are those who have been running leadership campaigns from within the cabinet for some time, which is an act of the highest disloyalty. If you’re that far gone in terms of your support to the prime minister, you ought to have resigned months ago. I think that raises a fundamental question of loyalty and, indeed, of propriety.”

Johnson loyalists will look at any potential campaign by the home secretary, Priti Patel, as well as Truss and Zahawi, before deciding who to back. Another Johnson supporter said “buyer’s remorse” was already beginning to grow among those who had helped to topple Johnson.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... be-next-pm

[ponchi101]

Considerable news that there are some major demonstrations in Argentina. The peso has (once again) devalued, price hikes have hit everybody (everybody poor, that is) and there are calls for the resignation of the president and vice president.
No, I did not read the news from 20 years ago. Nor 10. Nor 5. These are yesterday's.

[ti-amie]

Thanks Ponchi.

[Suliso]

Sri Lanka’s Gotabaya Rajapaksa fails in effort to flee country

Airport staff reportedly block departing president from using VIP lane to board flight to Dubai

The Sri Lankan president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has made a failed attempt to flee the country after airport staff stood in his way and forced him to beat a humiliating retreat.

Rajapaksa, who is due to officially resign on Wednesday after months of demonstrations calling for him to step down, was reportedly trying to escape to Dubai on Monday night.

However, officials said immigration staff refused to let the president come to the VIP area of the airport to stamp his passport and he would not go through the ordinary queues for fear of being mobbed by the public.

As a result, Rajapaksa reportedly missed four flights to the United Arab Emirates, and he and his wife had to return to a nearby military base.

According to officials who spoke to Agence France-Presse, the president is now considering using a navy patrol craft to flee the island, though this could not be confirmed.

While he is still president, Rajapaksa enjoys immunity from arrest and he is believed to want to go abroad before stepping down to avoid the possibility of being detained. He stands accused of overseeing corruption and economic mismanagement, which bankrupted the country and triggered the worst financial crisis on record.

He has also been accused of war crimes, including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, during his time as defence minister, when he brought the civil war, fought against the Tamil minority, to a bloody end in 2009. For more than a decade, the allegations against him have been prevented from reaching the courts.

The president was not the only member of the family unsuccessfully trying to flee. His younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, who served as finance minister and has also been accused of widespread corruption, was prevented from boarding a flight to the US, via Dubai, on Tuesday morning after other passengers protested.

Airport staff refused to let him use the fast-track concierge service and stopped him getting on the flight. According to airport officials, as the situation grew tense, Basil Rajapaksa, who has dual US citizenship, retreated.

After news of the Rajapaksa family’s attempts to flee emerged on Tuesday, a motion was filed to the supreme court seeking an order to prohibit Basil Rajapaksa, his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign as prime minister in May, the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and several others who served in president Gotabaya’s Rajapaksa’s regime from being allowed to leave the country.

Rajapaksa had pushed back against public pressure for him to resign for months, but on Saturday, after hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Colombo, then took over his presidential palace and offices, he had little choice but to announce that he would step down.

However, the president has not been seen since the protests and his whereabouts remained a source of speculation. His resignation, which is expected on Wednesday, was conveyed first through the speaker of parliament, then the office of the prime minister, but no public address has been made by the president.

An interim all-party unity government is expected to take over after Rajapaksa’s much-anticipated resignation, when the cabinet have said they will all resign. Sajith Premadasa – the leader of the largest opposition party Samagi Jana Balawegaya – who lost the presidential election against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019, has said he will put himself forward for president.

Sri Lanka’s parliament will reconvene on Friday and a new president will be elected by MPs on 20 July. The caretaker government is expected to rule for six to eight months until the country can afford to hold parliamentary elections.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... ee-airport

[ti-amie]

The news out of Sri Lanka continues to amaze.

Ponchi The Guardian hasn't shown anything about what is happening in Ecuador in the last week or so. Have things calmed down?

[ponchi101]

No.
It is S. America. Ecuador is going through some serious civil unrest. Argentina is again facing its 1,000th economic meltdown. Colombia elected a former guerrilla for president, who will begin the destruction process take over in about a month. Chile's recently elected psychopath is in the process of changing the constitution.
In other words, SNAFU. We are what we are. We are stupid.

[ti-amie]

Met police launches investigation into Mo Farah trafficking claims
Scotland Yard is likely to question a married couple Farah accused of forcing him into domestic servitude

Tom Ambrose
Wed 13 Jul 2022 20.24 BST

The Metropolitan police has launched an investigation into claims by Sir Mo Farah that he was trafficked into the UK and forced into domestic servitude.

The four-time Olympic champion told a BBC documentary that he was brought to London by a stranger under an assumed name after escaping war in Somalia aged nine.

Scotland Yard detectives are now likely to question a married couple Farah accused of forcing him to cook, clean and babysit, the Daily Telegraph reported.

He claimed they told him he would never see his family again if he told anyone the truth. The documentary, The Real Mo Farah, also revealed that his name is actually Hussein Abdi Kahin.

A Met spokesman said: “We are aware of reports in the media concerning Sir Mo Farah. No reports have been made to the MPS at this time.

“Specialist officers have opened an investigation and are currently assessing the available information.”

The athlete had previously claimed he had left Somalia aged eight to join his father, after his parents sent three of their six children to London for the chance of a better life.

Farah said his real father, Abdi, died in the Somali civil war before he was sent by his mother to live with family in Djibouti. He was then brought to the UK by a woman.

When he arrived in Britain Farah claimed he lived with a married couple who treated him badly. His PE teacher at school, Alan Watkinson, rescued him and also helped him to apply for British citizenship using his assumed name.

In the documentary, the athlete discloses that the name Mohamed Farah was stolen from another child and used to create a fake passport.

“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name or it’s not the reality,” he said. “The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK.”

He decided to go public with the truth about his past after being encouraged to do so by his children.

“Family means everything to me and, you know, as a parent, you always teach your kids to be honest, but I feel like I’ve always had that private thing where I could never be me and tell what’s really happened,” he said.

“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that.”

The Home Office confirmed he would not face any repercussions following the documentary. “No action whatsoever will be taken against Sir Mo and to suggest otherwise is wrong,” a spokesperson said.

Farah is also understood to be in regular contact with his real mother, Aisha, and his siblings in Somaliland, a semi-autonomous region of Somalia.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/ ... ing-claims

[ti-amie]

I wonder if he will be able to get new documents with his real name?