The city of Mosul was recently liberated after being occupied for 3 years by fighters from the Islamic State. The Iraqi Army, advised and assisted by U.S. forces, recently declared victory in the city. This liberation has led to both joy and trepidation of the remaining residents of the city as they attempt to rebuild their lives after the horror and devastation of the occupation.  The city has been liberated, but it was almost completely destroyed in places.  The people of Mosul now must begin the rebuilding process.

The president Michel Temer is being blamed for this, as he was the one who started the budget cuts.

Sheryl Magnuson

Unspoiled Stretch of Eilat Beach Returned to Public After 50 Years.

The southern section of the Eilat shoreline has been closed to the public for almost 50 years.  It was recently returned to the local municipality.  It was under the control of state-run company. There was an official handover ceremony was attended by Finance Minister Moshe Kahlony. According to the Finance Ministry announcement, the transfer of the beach was thanks to the efforts of EAPC Chairman Erez Halfon and Eilat’s mayor, under Kahlon’s direction.  The coral reef adjacent to it is one of the best preserved in the Gulf of Eilat  area, and it remains so because very few people have swum and dived there. At a future date the municipality will receive another 200-meter strip of beach, which will be designated for diving and marine education. Eilat has 13 kilometers of beaches.

For more information on the beach:
https://www.touristisrael.com/eilat-beaches/16423/

and

http://www.israel-travel-secrets.com/eilat-beach/

Sheryl Magnuson

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/10/world/asia/india-vegetarian-airline-food-uproar.html

Air India will now only serve vegetarian meals on their domestic flights.  A spokesman for the airline  said that this change was made to reduce cost and waste.  The airline has more than 8 billion dollars in debt.  The change in meal service will save the airline 1.2 million dollars a year.  This is not the first change in food service for the airline.  In January 2016,  the airline started to serve vegetarian meals instead of sandwiches for economy passengers.  The majority of Hindus are vegetarian.  However many see the airline's actions as discriminatory. There are others who could not understand the public indignation.

For more information:

http://www.airindia.in/

The Air India website's  homepage has a scroll bar with their latest news.

            The video created an outcry because it goes against the conservative dress code of Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, women cover their hair and face and wear long “abayas” or robes when out in pubic.  Women are not to be seen, and usually have blurred out faces when on a billboard or on a poster. The article also states that even saying a woman’s name in public is not to be done. The women in the article posted a public picture of herself with a long skirt, without her abaya on. Currently, it is unclear of whether she has charges against her. 

            Saudi Arabia is a country that follows the Islamic religion. Although it is not required that foreign women wear the abaya or cover their hair and faces, the government is strict on their laws for the citizens. Women are segregated and are not even allowed to drive.  Most of Saudi Arabia is gender-segregated and need male approval for many of the unspoken privileges that women in America have. 

For more information visit:

Half of capital’s 3 million residents could have water switched off for eight hours a day after Italy’s driest spring for 60 years

More than a million residents of Rome are facing water rationing for up to eight hours a day as the prolonged heatwave that has ravaged southern Europe takes its toll on the Italian capital.

Some businesses are already reporting sporadic disruption to their supply, while last month mayor Virginia Raggi turned off thousands of the city’s public drinking fountains in an effort to save water as the drought set in.

Officials from the Italian utility Acea, the Lazio region that contains Rome, and the environment ministry will meet this week to discuss the possibility of rationing the water supply to about half of the city’s 3 million residents.

Virginia Raggi, the mayor of Rome

Lazio’s governor, Nicola Zingaretti, has ordered that a ban on drawing water from drought-hit Lake Bracciano, which lies about 40km from the capital and supplies some of its water, will come into force on 28 July.

“They are working on it and looking at some hypotheses; a decision should be made on Wednesday,” a spokesperson for Acea told the Guardian.

Water rationing in the Italian capital would be the latest consequence of a series of heatwaves in southern Europe this summer that have fuelled wildfires, exacerbated droughts and led Greek authorities to close some of the most popular tourist sites.

Blazes have broken out across southern Italy and Sicily, where temperatures have climbed well above 40C. Wildfires near the Calampiso seaside resort west of Palermo, the Sicilian capital, forced the evacuation by boat of more than 700 tourists earlier this month.

High temperatures compounded by strong winds have helped fires spread after months of below-average rainfall. Farm animals perished while several farms and more than 150 hectares of pine forest were destroyed in a blaze in Sicily this month.

The country endured an early heatwave last month. Though the phenomenon is not uncommon in July, authorities said the temperatures were especially high.

Last month scientists, using temperature records and up-to-date computer models, published a study concluding that human-caused climate change has dramatically increased the likelihood of such extreme heatwaves.

The analysis by World Weather Attribution (WAA), an international coalition of scientists that calculates the role of climate change in extreme weather events, found the heatwave that struck Portugal and Spain in June was 10 times more likely to have occurred due to global warming.

There has been significantly less rainfall across Italy this year – up to 80% lower than average in some areas. Meteorologists said on Sunday that the country had experienced its driest spring in 60 years.

The drought has ravaged two-thirds of agricultural land across the peninsula, causing an estimated €2bn (£1.8bn) worth of damage, according to Coldiretti, the farmers’ association.

Drought in the northern agricultural provinces of Italy prompted the government to declare states of emergency. Beppe Grillo, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, has called for a similar response to the wildfires.

In southern Italy the heatwave has sparked at least 20 wildfires, including on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius near Naples.

In Rome some guesthouse owners say they are already having problems with their water supply, although it is unclear if this is solely due to the drought or partly due to ageing infrastructure. The city loses as much as much as 45% of its water due to a chronically leaky network of pipes.

“Some of the guesthouses that we run with our partner in the Santa Maggiore area have been affected,” said Steve Brenner, who owns the Beehive hotel close to Rome’s Termini railway station. “The first time it happened was in the middle of the night. We thought that maybe Acea [the water authority] was working on something, but we were told there were no works going on.”

When residents in Santa Maggiore reported the first drop in water supply to Acea, the company blamed ageing pumping systems in the buildings.

Brenner said: “This has been going on for decades. So much of the system doesn’t work, but the drought makes it critical.”

Raggi, Rome’s mayor, said on Monday she would try to avoid any rationing of the city’s water supply. “It is unacceptable that over one and a half million Romans should be without water,” she told Il Messaggero newspaper.

Cranes were used to reach the trapped passengers by fire crews. There were a total of 32 cars. It is believed that the cars were in the middle of an operation when the accident happened.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40770120

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40770120

The migrants were found Saturday in a trailer in Veracruz state, about 400 miles from the U.S. border, Mexico's National Institute of Migration said. The rescue came a week after 10 undocumented immigrants died in a packed, overheated trailer in San Antonio, Texas.

Officials told AFP news service the 178 occupants of the truck Saturday apparently realized they had been abandoned by the traffickers and a few escaped, seeking help from local residents who provided food and water.

The Central Americans were shuttled to a migration center for medical assistance before the process began to return them to their home countries, the migration agency said.

No arrests were immediately reported. In the San Antonio case, a Florida trucker is facing charges that could bring the death penalty. James Mathew Bradley Jr., 60, told police he was unaware of the human cargo packed in his rig.

But one passenger told authorities about 100 people stuffed in the trailer Bradley was hauling took turns breathing through a hole in the wall. More than two dozen survivors were rushed to hospitals, some in critical condition.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly — who is leaving the post to serve as chief of staff to President Trump — said the Texas tragedy demonstrated the "brutality" of the human smuggling rings.  

"These smugglers have no regard for human life and seek only profits," Kelly said.