Monday, January 5, 2015
AIRASIA BLACK BOXES MAY NEVER BE FOUND
The AirAsia flight QZ8501 recovery mission has resumed today with improved weather conditions. The Indonesian navy found what could be the jet’s tail section, but officials have warned that the aircraft’s black boxes may never be recovered. Meanwhile, leaked documents published in The Jakarta Post reveal that the company violated procedures by allowing pilots to take off without having obtained a weather report. Indonesia’s Transportation Ministry announced a severe crackdown on everyone involved in the unlawful decision. But The Malay Mail reports that families of the victims will be compensated whatever the result of the investigation.
DEADLY CLASHES IN BANGLADESH
Two activists from Bangladesh’s opposition Nationalist Party were killed in clashes with supporters of the ruling Awami League, one year exactly after a disputed general election that the Nationalist Party boycotted, Al Jazeera reports. Police reportedly locked opposition leader Khaleda Zia in her office as she called for mass anti-government protests. Several people have been injured in fights in the capital Dhaka and in cities across the country.
TOMB OF UNKNOWN EGYPTIAN QUEEN DISCOVERED
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the tomb of a previously unknown Pharaonic queen from the Old Kingdom’s Fifth Dynasty, dating back nearly 4,500 years, Mada Masr reports. It comes just days after a separate team unearthed a multi-level funerary complex honoring the Ancient Egyptian god of the dead and the underworld, Osiris.
BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING TRIAL BEGINS
Jury selection will begin today in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 21-year-old who together with his dead brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev are believed responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. Dzhokhar has pleaded not guilty to all 30 charges against him but faces the death penalty if convicted. According to The Boston Globe, no verdict is likely to come until late spring or early summer.
ON THIS DAY
Jan. 5 was an important day for Panama’s independence and so much more. Get your 57-second shot of history in our daily video feature.
“GREXIT” FEARS SEND EURO TO NINE-YEAR LOW
The euro sank to a nine-year low against the dollar this morning with investors betting on a quantitative easing program by the European Central Bank. But the slip is also being heavily linked to a report published in German magazine Der Spiegel that Berlin is ready to see Greece leave the single currency if the far-left and anti-austerity party Syriza wins a snap Jan. 25 election there. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government denied the claims while an opposition leader described the conflicting reports as a strategy to “influence the election in Greece.” Oil prices, meanwhile, hit five-year lows.
WORLDCRUNCH-TO-GO
As Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Violetta Simon writes, modern feminism is too focused on the image of feminists themselves rather than renewing debate about the movement’s core principles. The result is feminism fatigue. “The (self-)criticism that feminism is going in circles, getting itself entangled in academic debates, and is way too elitist in its discourse isn’t really new. What’s new is the pace, undoubtedly one of the reasons for the exhaustion known internationally as ‘activist burnout,’” Simon writes. “Like every other form of activism today, feminism can be an energy-sapping business. The Internet has become a tireless political space that can be intellectually and spiritually challenging,
Read the full article, No More Bras Left To Burn? The Spectre Of Feminism Burnout.
LEBANON RESTRICTS FLOW OF SYRIANS
Beginning today, Syrians fleeing war zones and seeking to cross into neighboring Lebanon must apply for a visa at the border. The new requirement is an attempt from the government in Beirut to stop the influx of refugees in a country that already hosts more than 1.1 million of them. The United Nations refugee agency expressed its concern at the decision, though Lebanon’s Social Affairs Minister explained that borders would remain open and that refugees already in the country would not be deported. A report in The Daily Star describes the refugees’ dismal living conditions in makeshift camps, made even worse by cold weather and heavy rainfall.
MY GRAND-PÈRE’S WORLD
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PALESTINIANS RESUME STATEHOOD BID
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced yesterday that the Palestinian UN delegation would resume a statehood bid despite “pressure” and a failed attempt last week, The Jerusalem Post reports. “We did not fail at the Security Council. Rather, it’s the Security Council that failed,” Abbas said. Israel is reportedly pressuring the U.S. Congress to stop funding the Palestinian Authority after it filed a request to join the International Criminal Court, a move that could eventually see Israel tried for war crimes. Israel has already frozen $127 million worth of tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority.
O’ LUNA MIA
We all share the same sky, but each of us gazes up from a unique place on earth. Check out this week’s “O Luna Mia, the weekly horoscope of Simon, Italy’s most trusted astrologer.
