Violence against Colombia’s community leaders and human rights defenders has escalated to the point that a leader is assassinated almost every day, according to a leading think tank.

According to conflict monitoring Ong Indepaz, 416 (four hundred sixteen) leaders have been assassinated between the beginning of a peace process on December 1, 2016 (twenty sixteen) and Thursday.

Duque has fiercely opposed the peace process that effectively reduced violence to a record low in 2017.
Losing count

The Ombudsman’s Office and the United Nations confirmed Saturday that another social leader, Maria Caicedo from the southwestern Cauca province, was also murdered, making her the 417th victim.

Caicedo was kidnapped from her home in Argelia on October 20 by armed men. Neighbors found the tortured and half-naked body of the 62-year-old women’s rights activist on Friday.

The UN’s human rights office urged the government “to protect the human rights defenders and to investigate, try and punish this crime.”

According to Indepaz, Fourteen leaders were murdered in December 2016, 191 were assassinated in 2017 and 211 have been murdered until October 25 this year.

Since the inauguration of President Ivan Duque in August, 62 leaders have been assassinated, which is almost one per day, Indepaz said in a report published last week.

The president vowed to increase security for social leaders when signing a “Pact for Life” with national and local authorities in August, but his government has effectively suspended contact with the communities most affected by the violence, according to Indepaz.

Rumours are circulating that the Kwik-E-Mart manager could be axed from the cartoon. In the midst of a race row, it may not be that simple

 

this could be the end of Apu . After 28 years of service – and increasing controversy about the depiction of the character – it has been reported that the Indian-American convenience store worker may no longer appear in The Simpsons.

The debate over whether Apu is a harmless caricature or a racially insensitive misstep has been raging since the standup comic Hari Kondabolu released a documentary, 

The Problem with Apu, in 2017. In it, Kondabolu said that the character had become “a tool for kids to go after you”.

 

On Friday, Adi Shankar, the showrunner for the Netflix series Castlevania, told Indiewire that The Simpsons was planning to “drop him altogether just to avoid the controversy”, citing three sources. However, Al Jean, a veteran producer of the cartoon, tweeted on Sunday: “Adi Shankar is not a producer on The Simpsons. I wish him the very best but he does not speak for our show”.

An ongoing increase in violence would provide the president a perfectly legal argument for the far-reaching measure that would allow him to temporarily bypass Congress unless the Constitutional Court intervenes.

A crowded U.S. Senate race in Republican stronghold Mississippi could set the stage for weeks of uncertainty over which party ends up controlling the upper chamber of Congress after the Nov. 6 elections.

It is a scenario that could focus international attention on the Southern state and bring in millions of dollars from outside political groups.

Two Republicans and two Democrats are contesting a special election to serve out the remainder of retired Republican Senator Thad Cochran's term. Under state law, if no one gets 50 percent of the vote, the top two candidates regardless of party affiliation will go to a Nov. 27 runoff.

"Mississippi could be the deciding factor in who controls the Senate," said Melissa Scallan, a spokeswoman for Republican U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was appointed by Mississippi's Republican governor to temporarily replace Cochran after he retired on April 1.

"Exploding human consumption" has caused a massive drop in global wildlife populations in recent decades, the WWF conservation group says.

In a report, the charity says losses in vertebrate species - mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles - averaged 60% between 1970 and 2014.

"Earth is losing biodiversity at a rate seen only during mass extinctions," the WWF's Living Planet Report adds. It urges policy makers to set new targets for sustainable development.

The Living Planet Report, published every two years, aims to assess the state of the world's wildlife.

§  'Shocking' human impact on protected areas

§  Why Guyana's rainforests are a scientist's dream

§  Alarm as China eases ban on rhino horn use

The 2018 edition says only a quarter of the world's land area is now free from the impact of human activity and the proportion will have fallen to just a 10th by 2050.

The change is being driven by ever-rising food production and increased demand for energy, land and water.

Although forest loss has been slowed by reforestation in some regions in recent decades, the loss has "accelerated in tropical forests that contain some of the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth", the report notes.

It says South and Central America suffered the most dramatic decline in vertebrate populations - an 89% loss in vertebrate populations compared with 1970.

Marine freshwater species are particularly at risk, the report says. Plastic pollution has been detected in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, including the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific.

§  Ocean plastic could triple in decade

§  Welsh wildlife at risk

Freshwater species - living in lakes, rivers and wetlands - have seen an 83% decline in numbers since 1970, according to the report.

The WWF calls for "a new global deal for nature and people" similar to the 2015 Paris agreement to tackle climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Decision makers at every level need to make the right political, financial and consumer choices to achieve the vision that humanity and nature thrive in harmony on our only planet," the report says.

The data, gathered from peer-reviewed studies, covers more than 16,700 populations belonging to 4,000 species around the world.

The WWF's methodology has been criticised. One conservationist told the BBC in 2016 that the data in the 2016 report was skewed towards western Europe, where figures were more readily available.

The F1 legend suffered a severe head injury and was left in a coma, with official updates from close to Schumacher very scarce in the following months and years

ski accident in the French Alps over four years ago.

The motor sport icon was left in a coma after sustaining a severe head injury in the incident on December 29, 2013.

Official updates from Schumacher's family have been incredibly scarce in the months and years following the incident.

Ahead of the 2018 F1 season, his manager Sabine Kehm passed on the family's thanks for fans' support.

There have been suggestions he could be taken to the US for specialist treatment near the Texas ranch he owns. Reported healthcare figures suggest his home care bills have now passed £20m.

 

On the fourth anniversary of the crash, it was reported his home care bills had passed £20m.

But Professor Mark Oberman from the Centre for Neurology of the Asklepios Clinic gave the German and his family hope.

"According to a Swedish study, between 30 and 40 percent of patients have regained consciousness within four years," he said.

"Many can come back to life and see how their children and grandchildren grow up, what plans they have or what else happens in the family or circle of friends."

Mick Schumacher has also gone into motor racing and is progressing through the Formulas.

In April 2017 he revealed his dad is his inspiration. He said: "My role model is my dad. Simply because he is the best - my idol."

In August 2017 he marked the 25th anniversary of his father's first F1 win by driving the Benetton car Schumi drove to victory in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in 1992.

Mick's sister Gina-Maria paid tribute to their parents as she collected an award for her western riding achievements at the Audi Generation Awards in December 2017.

Is Michael Schumacher the greatest F1 driver ever? Off course yes!! 

 

Two years after the end of the guerrilla war that killed 220,000, other players have moved in on the drugs trade, with poor local children now being bribed to take up arms

Cabeceras villagers unfurl their peace banner, which they hope will mark a turning point in the community’s fortunes. Photograph: Federico Rios/Christian Aid

In a schoolhouse in Cabeceras in Colombia on the banks of the San Juan river, village leaders, teachers and others gather for a ceremony to mark what they hope will be a turning point in their lives. A large peace banner is unfurled and raised to waist height. Each person touches it, as if the sign, to establish their territory as an internationally protected “humanitarian zone”, is sacred.

A solemn blessing is read and repeated: a memorial to those who have been “disappeared”, murdered, silenced and displaced; those whose names they know, those they don’t.

“For the four men who disappeared on the river Naya in April,” says one woman. “For my brothers,” says Siode Arbolia, 35, tears welling up. Her young brothers, Elcias and Didier Arboleda, were among five people from Carrá, a neighbouring village, shot dead near their homes in March 2017 by an armed group.

The banner, placed overlooking the river at the village entrance, is a statement of sorts: it shows outsiders that the community has the backing of the international NGO Christian Aid, as well as the Inter-church Commission on Justice and Peace (CIJP), and that its leaders have denounced any collaboration with armed groups.

The San Juan and Naya rivers are two of Colombia’s main drug-trafficking routes and the communities are surrounded by armed groups vying for control of their land. Flowing more or less parallel to each other, on either side of Buenaventura, the country’s main port, the rivers carry shipments of cocaine from fields and laboratories deep in the jungle to the Pacific coast, where they are dispatched to international markets, including the US and Europe.

Earlier this year European officials warned that the rising availability of the illegal drug on the streets of the continent was a result of increased production in Colombia. New data shows coca cultivation had surged to a record high; the amount of land used to harvest the coca plant soared by 17% in 2017 in comparison with the previous year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). In Britain debate has centred on drug users fuelling rising violence on the streets of London and elsewhere.

In the Valle del Cauca department, cocaine trafficking and the battle to control land on which it is grown is causing such brutal conflict it is driving people to flee the territory their ancestors cultivated for centuries.

To the indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities who live on these rivers, identifying which armed group is responsible for the violence, harassment and terror inflicted on them is not an easy task. One thing they all have in common, though, is drug trafficking.

Dagoberto Pretel, the legal representative of Cabeceras, a community of a few thousand people, said: “We know that all the different actors are moving around on the river and there is combat between them to control this region, so that they can move their product.” He added: “If there weren’t drug traffickers, we would live like we did 15 or 20 years ago. We would live in peace.”

Two years after the government signed a peace accord with the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia (Farc) guerrillas, aimed at bringing an end to the longest war in the Americas, which left 220,000 people dead and nearly 6 million displaced, many armed actors remain. They include the military, paramilitaries, the police, the National Liberation Army, or ELN – an insurgent guerrilla group – as well as a rising number of dissident Farc groups.

Despite pledges by the government and Farc in the peace agreement to substitute illegal crops with alternatives among farmers and eradicate vast tracks of coca leaf, peace remains a distant hope for people in Cabeceras and the surrounding villages.

It's been extraordinary the last two days. We've seen thousands of Leicester fans, and not just Leicester fans, thousands of football fans leaving scarves and shirts, flowers, messages, candles, you name it.

Fans from clubs, not just in this country but from around the world sharing in the grief, and they're there at all hours. I left at 8pm and it was still busy.

People from all communities as well. We know how multi-cultural Leicester is and people from all cultures and religions were there, saying how this man had united the city and united cultures in a way no other chairman had done before.

It surprised me how many people kept coming. Yesterday was Sunday so most people were off work, but today was a work day and yet it was constant, a constant stream of people. To the point that the shrine of flowers has tripled in size, it almost runs down the whole side of the stadium now. And you have to remember this is for an owner, not a star striker or a manager.

FIRS TRANSGENDER LIKE CONTESTANT IN MISS UNIVERSE 2018

For the first time in history, a transgender woman will be taking part in the upcoming Miss Universe pageant later this year.

According to Express UK, Angela Ponce from Spain has won her country’s qualifying rounds against 22 other contestants. She’ll be representing Spain in Miss Universe 2018 that is set to take place in Philippines this year.
For the first time in history, a transgender woman will be taking part in the upcoming Miss Universe pageant later this year.

According to Express UK, Angela Ponce from Spain has won her country’s qualifying rounds against 22 other contestants. She’ll be representing Spain in Miss Universe 2018 that is set to take place in Philippines this year.

USA SENDS 5.000 SOLDIERS TO THE FRONTIER WITH MEXICO

The US military is preparing to send as many as 5,200 troops to the nation’s southern border ahead of a migrant caravan travelling towards the region.

The latest reports arrived as an estimated 800 troops were sent to the US-Mexico border Monday, the US Department of Defence said Monday afternoon. By the end of the week, the department confirmed nearly 5,200 active duty troops would be assisting along the border with daily operations.

Meanwhile, the number of migrants continuing their collective journey has decreased each day, as is typical with the 15-year tradition that normally ends with a much smaller number of asylum-seekers arriving to US ports of entry along the border. 

Earlier this year around 2,000 National Guard troops to the region, where about 15,000 US customs officials oversee the processing of trade, migrants and pedestrian travel daily.