World AM News Briefs For Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Good Morning Australia!! - Obama meets Castro, and it didn't go that badly - Rescuing Yemen's last Jews from a devastating war - Stunningly stupid sexism bubbles up from the world of professional Tennis - How the RRS Boaty McBoatface might sail the seas - And more in your CareerSpot Global News Briefs:
US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro held a news conference in Havana that as much highlighted their respective grievances and rivalries as it did hail the end of their Cold War. President Obama said he had spoken "frankly" to Mr. Castro about human rights, free expression, and democracy. "Our starting point is that we have two very different systems," Mr. Obama said, "and decades of profound disagreement." President Obama is making a point of meeting with dissident groups during his historic visit to Cuba, the first by a sitting American President in 88 years.
President Raul Castro countered with his own critique of the US, that it is hardly the bastion of human rights that it expounds: "In our view, civil, economic, social, and cultural rights are indivisible, interdependent, and universal," said Mr. Castro. "We find it inconceivable that a government does not defend and secure the right to healthcare, equal pay, and the rights of children." Castro also demanded the exit of US forces from the Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, and the land returned to Cuba.
A chunk of metal that washed up on a beach in Mozambique has arrived in Australia for testing to determine if it came from missing Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370. Investigators believe the Boeing 777 plunged into the Indian Ocean, killing all 239 passengers and crew including several Aussies, on 8 March 2016 after sharply deviating from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path. The only confirmed evidence of what happened to MH370 is a wing flapperon found on France Reunion Island last year.
Some of Yemen's last Jews have been taken to Israel in a secret rescue mission. Yemen used to have of the Middle East's largest Jewish communities - but things had been growing increasingly inhospitable since 2008 with radicalization in Muslim communities, killings of Jewish leaders, and the Yemen Civil War and Saudi Arabia intervention which have killed thousands. "Nineteen individuals arrived in Israel in recent days, including 14 from the town of Raydah and a family of five from Sanaa," read a statement from The Jewish Agency, a non-profit which resettles Jews from troubled areas to Israel. "The group from Raydah included the community's rabbi, who brought a Torah scroll believed to be between 500 and 600 years old."
Nah, there's no war on women. The world's number one ranked male tennis player Novak Djokovic says tennis players with the XY Chromosome (that's guys) pairing ought to earn more money than their female counterparts, because more people watch them play. Yeah, he said that. Out loud. The 28-year old Serb said tournament prize money should be "fairly distributed" based on "who attracts more attention, spectators and who sells more tickets". All four majors - including the Australian Open - and combined Masters events such as Indian Wells from where Djokovic spoke pay men and women equally. Earlier, Indian Wells tournament CEO Raymond Moore said the women's WTA Tour "ride on the coat-tails of the men".
Britain asked the public to pick a name for its new arctic research vessel, an advanced scientific ship with a price-tag of almost AU$380 Million. And the frontrunner is "RRS Boaty McBoatface". This is what happens when you ask the internet to decide things. First suggested as a jest by former BBC employee James Hand, it quickly went out of control. Asking the internet to name things has a wonderful history of turning horribly wrong, such as when Mountain Dew asked for suggestions on where to hold a Taylor Swift concert, and the winner was a school for the deaf thanks to the pranksters at 4Chan. Austin, Texas asked the public to name a sewage plant, but stopped it before the internet could name it after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst.