World AM News Briefs For Monday, 16 May 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - Duterte is planning to bring back a revolting form of execution - France presses ahead with plans to revive the Middle East Peace Process - The end game of the Brazilian Impeachment process comes into focus - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
Philippine president-elect Rodrigo Duterte says he will bring back the gallows and authorize security forces to shoot to kill organized crime figures and people resisting arrest. There were some last week expressing hope that Duterte was "all talk" and maybe he wouldn't be that bad. He's going to be that bad. Duterte provoked widespread disgust in Australia during the election campaign when a video surfaced of him joking about wanting to be "first in line" in the gang rape of an Australian missionary who was murdered to a prison riot.
France's Foreign Minister has met with the Israeli and Palestinian sides and says that a summit aimed at restarting Middle East peace talks will take place in Paris this month as scheduled. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his one-day visit to Jerusalem on Sunday. The Palestinians welcomed the proposal but Mr. Netanyahu expressed skepticism over the plan, which brings 20 nations together for the talks, excluding Israel and the Palestinians. The Israeli view is that direct negotiations without preconditions are the way to get things done.
Environmental ministers from the G7 will discuss climate change and resource recycling at a two-day meeting in Toyama City, Japan on the northern coast. It's the first such meeting since 2009, and takes place in the run up before the main Group of Seven leaders' meeting in Ise-Shima city in Central Japan on 26 May. They're expected to adopt a joint declaration aiming at creating long-term strategies to combat global warming by the G7 nations, ahead of the current schedule.
A Japanese bomb disposal unit detonated an old shell found at a construction site in Urasoe on Kyushu. Officials say it was likely fired from a US warship during the close of World war II more than years ago.
A bomb hoax caused the cancellation of Manchester United final game in the English Premiere League. Police evacuated the Old Trafford 20 minutes before the match against Bournemouth was to begin, and detonated a suspicious package that had been found in the toilets. Police say the harmless faux bomb - a cell phone taped to a pipe - was "incredibly lifelike". Authorities' fear of a terrorist attack at a football match has heightened since last November's bombings and shootings in Paris.
Former London Mayor Boris Johnson has violated Godwin's law and compared the UK's continued membership in the European Union to.. wait for it.. Hitler! Johnson, without a hint of shame or irony, said that the EU and the nazi dictator of World War II wanted to create continental superstate. So, popping over the Channel to buy some chocolates in Belgium? Same as annexing Belgium, I guess. Reaction has ranged from "outrageous", to "cynical nasty", to "offensive and desperate". Johnson has made a career out of offensive nutbag stuff, such as his racist claim that US President Barack Obama was anti-British (he's not) because of his "part-Kenyan" heritage.
Why do people constantly need to be reminded that blackface is racist, offensive, and completely stupid? How many times does this moronic farce have to be repeated?
The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ratted out South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, telling apartheid police where to find him in 1962. Mandela then served 27 years in prison for his activities to resist the racist regime, becoming an international icon. He was released in 1990 and became South Africa's first black president and is considered the father of the post-apartheid nation. The revelation came in the London Sunday Times, based on an interview with ex-CIA agent Donald Rickard shortly before he died. It's expected to put pressure on the US spy agency to release its files on the matter.
Not even a week since the cou-- oh, I mean "ouster" of Brazil's twice-elected President Dilma Rousseff, and the neo-liberals are already going to town. Conservative economist Ilan Goldfein is being brought over from the private sector to helm Brazil's central bank. The former IMF and World Bank executive had previously served as chief economist at Itau, Brazil's largest private bank. Meanwhile, Reuters news agency is reporting that the interim government has drawn up a list of potential buyers for a massive sell-off of public assets: The post office, utilities, water, energy. If it belongs to the Brazilian people, it's going to be for sale.