Documentaries

[scarface]

Here is a disquieting picture.


It looks like nuclear bombs and this place seems crowded. Is Trump testing some weapons of mass destruction in Washington? No.
Actually, the scene is taking place in Gaza.

The fever continues, and it not fall. A fresh bout of violence has plagued Israel and the Gaza Strip since Friday, May 3rd. It demonstrates the immense difficulty for Hamas and the Israeli government to respect a tacit ceasefire agreement reached several weeks ago in return for substantial humanitarian improvement in the enclave.

Nearly 450 mortar and rocket attacks have been fired by Palestinian factions towards Israel since Saturday morning. Numerous shootings - nearly 150 of which were intercepted by the "Iron Dome" defense system - forced the population to take refuge in the shelters.

Three Israelis were killed in Ashkelon in southern Israel by Palestinian rockets, police said. In response, Israeli raids hit more than 200 targets in Gaza, where at least nine people died.

[scarface]

Today, I'm going to talk about the attack that took place in Lyon on Friday.

Is it a politician? Is it a Jihadist? Is it a Buddhist monk? Nobody knows.
indeed, no claim of responsibility has yet been made for the bomb attack in Lyon on Friday that left at least 13 people injured.
The man is believed to be in his early 30s, was wearing light-coloured shorts, a long-sleeved dark top, and riding a mountain bike in the area immediately before the explosion according to the photo caught on CCTV.

[scarface]

Tonight, I stumbled upon a good article titled: In Algeria, it is difficult not to observe Ramadan.
I translated it for the users of the forum.


The seafront in Algiers, where locals prepare the meal to break the fast of Ramadan.

They are young and refuse to observe Ramadan, which they think is more dictated by habit than religious motives.

First, Anis had made an appointment at the headquarters of a political party on the heights of Algiers. Over there, at lunchtime, sympathizers and activists are used to ending up in a room with opaque windows to share "gueuletons" and cigarettes. Even in this period of Ramadan.

Finally, this progressive party refused to welcome the group of friends for an interview: the officials were warned too late. After walking a few kilometers to the city center under a hostile sun, the group of friends landed in a corner of the Park of Liberty, out of sight and ears, to discuss the reasons that led them to no longer follow the ritual of Ramadan, a sacred month for Muslims. "I would have liked to invite you to drink a coffee to discuss the subject", apologizes the young man. But, in this month of fasting, restaurants and bars of the capital are closed all day.

Anis can no longer bear the weight of traditions and social pressure that suffocate some Algerians. "I discovered that the majority of young people in my neighborhood did not observe Ramadan. But they do not show it" he says. In his world, non-fasters hide to eat: car, toilet, building hall ... Never on the street in public. "It's better, because it's dangerous," he says, recalling that on May 11 students were violently attacked in the Bouzareah campus, northwest of Algiers, after been caught sniffing. "I too have come several times," said Nazim, 22, a computer science student living in a city in Bordj Al-Kiffan, east of the capital. "But I, I do not hide, says the boy with long hair, quick geek. I feel the frustration of other young people, their lack of freedom. They are Muslim by inheritance without being able to question the bases of their convictions. "

"It's hypocrisy," says Mehdi, dry throat. The thirty-year-old dreams to drink his bottle of water in one go. Unemployed construction worker for several days, he is an anarchist. "I'm for freedom," he says soberly. So, fasting or not is a problem that, in his opinion, should not even be asked, he says, regretting that "spirituality has become a mechanical practice". "So, if I do not fast, they say I'm a bad person. That's why I fight Islam. If they see me drinking, people will be afraid of me, think that I am different, that it is provocation, that I will ruin society. It's a psychological problem" he lashes out.

For this group of friends, Ramadan has nothing "sacred". "We see people getting drunk, smoking ****, smuggling, but they dare to say," Do not touch Ramadan, it's sacred, "says Mehdi. "They would like to be free like us, but they suffer, "observes Anis who tenderly holds Zora's hand. But Zora remains wrapped a black veil. "I've been wearing it for a long time and can not take it off, people would not understand," she explains softly. "That's the social pressure."

[scarface]

Maybe some of you watched the American movie "Saving Private Ryan". But I'm sure you never heard of the Iraqi movie "Saving the French Jihadists".
That's why I'm going to tell you what is going on in Iraq.


The SDF in Syria in March 2019.

French citizens Mustapha Merzoughi, Kevin Gonot, Leonard Lopez and Salim Machou were sentenced to death after they were found guilty of pledging allegiance to IS supremo Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi by An Iraqi court on Sunday.
In recent months Iraq has taken custody of thousands of jihadists including foreigners captured in neighbouring Syria by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during the battle to destroy the Isis caliphate.
The trials have been criticised by rights groups, which say they often rely on evidence obtained through torture. They have also raised the question of whether suspected Isis jihadists should be tried in the region or repatriated.
France has long insisted that its citizens captured in Iraq or Syria must face trial locally, refusing to repatriate them.
And yet, it reiterated its opposition to the death penalty, saying it would take “the necessary steps” to prevent Iraq from carrying out capital punishment against its Jihadists.

Mustapha Merzoughi, 37, was sentenced to death by hanging.
Before handing down the sentence on Monday, the Iraqi court judge told Merzoughi: “The evidence and the confession show that you joined the Islamic State group, that you worked in its military branch.”
Wearing a yellow prison uniform, Merzoughi said he was “not guilty of crimes and killings” but simply of travelling to Syria. Merzoughi told investigators he had served in the French army from 2000 to 2010, including a tour in Afghanistan in 2009.
Merzoughi passed through Belgium and Morocco, then on to northern Syria where he allegedly underwent “religious and military training in Aleppo”.
He allegedly told investigators previously that he pledged allegiance to a masked Isis leader in Mosul, claiming that many senior jihadists worried about being “recognised or identified by foreign fighters they feared were spies”. But in court on Monday he said he never pledged allegiance to the jihadist group.

Leonard Lopez, one of three sentenced on Sunday, is a 32-year-old Parisian convert to Islam long known to French authorities.
His French lawyer, Nabil Boudi, denounced “summary justice” and said he and his Iraqi counterpart would appeal the decision.

[scarface]

You didn't leave Paris yet? Maybe you should, at least if you are a driver.



In 2014, the speed limit on the Parisian Ring road was reduced from 80km/h to 70km/h. Like humbert or Maher, I used to drive on the Parisian ring road at 70 km per hour, but it seems the Mayor of the town wants to limit the speed to 50km/h now.
An interesting article is available here: https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/05/paris-beltway-speed-limit-traffic-congestion-lane-removal/590362/


And here is a video of Ghost rider, a swedish biker. (No, It's not Mr baboon on the motorbike). It's a new record for the tour of the périphérique, with an average speed of 210 km/h, after the record of the black prince in the 80's.
Note that this record was made in 2004, at this time there was no radar on the road.
I advise you not to try this at home. If Vasudev is hitting a cow at 200km/h, there is no more cow and no more motorbike.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kce7

[scarface]

Today, I'm going to hold a conference about climate change.


America's biggest cities could avoid hundreds of deaths during future heat waves if the world reduces its greenhouse gas emissions enough to meet the Paris climate agreement goals, a new study shows.


A groundskeeper in Los Angeles sweats through another heat wave. A new study looked at what rising global temperatures will mean for heat wave deaths there and other major U.S. cities, including Miami, Chicago and Detroit

Even half a degree warming matters. A new study shows how meeting the Paris climate agreement goals would make a difference in lives saved or lost.


"At the path we are on, toward 3 degrees Celsius warming, we get into temperatures that people have not previously experienced," said Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy and chief climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and a co-author of the study published Wednesday in Science Advances. "The core point is, across these cities, thousands of deaths can be avoided by keeping temperatures within the Paris target."


The scientists used detailed data on the deaths that occurred during past heat waves in 15 major U.S. cities, then applied climate models to show what future extreme heat waves would look like as global temperatures rise.

They compared three scenarios: If countries meet their Paris climate pledges, expected to result in about 3 degrees Celsius (5.4°F) of warming this century compared to pre-industrial times; if global warming is instead kept to 2°C; and if countries are able to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep warming to 1.5°C.

With each of those baselines, they explored what temperatures would do to people in the kind of extreme heat wave expected to occur two to three times in a person's lifetime.

"Rising global temperatures mean more people in major U.S. cities will be exposed to extreme heat, and more heat-related deaths will occur. This is relevant to climate policy, especially with the next round of climate pledges taking place in 2020," said University of Bristol climate researcher Eunice Lo, lead author of the study. "This shows the substantial public health benefits of reaching the Paris goal."



Cities vary in their vulnerability to extreme heat for several reasons. Demographics, such as age and poverty, can mean a larger percentage of the population is at risk. Miami, for example, has a large proportion of elderly residents.

Some of the cities are also warming faster than the global average. And dense cities often have a stronger urban heat island effects.

How well the city is prepared also has an effect on survival rates. For the comparison, the study didn't factor in future changes in population, and cities might develop adaptation plans as the heat rises.

[scarface]

For those who are in the organisation of the Muslim brotherhood on the forum it’s a day of mourning.

Indeed, Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi has collapsed during a court session and died, almost six years after he was forced from power in a bloody coup.



Morsi, 67, was attending a session in his trial on espionage charges on Monday when he blacked out and then died, according to state media.
“He asked the judge to speak, and was allowed. After the case was adjourned, he fainted and died. His body was then transferred to the hospital,” reported the Egyptian state newspaper al-Ahram, referring to Morsi’s retrial for allegedly spying for the Palestinian Islamist organisation Hamas.
Morsi became president in 2012, following Egypt’s first and only free elections after the dictator Hosni Mubarak was forced from power. He won 51.7% of the vote and his rule marked the peak of power for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which had functioned for decades as an underground political organisation.
But his time in power was cut short a year later as demonstrators once again took to the streets â€" this time to protest against Morsi’s rule. Egypt’s military seized power in a coup days later on 3 July 2013, bringing the then defence minister, Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, to power.



As president, Sisi has overseen an extensive crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and anyone suspected of supporting the group, which Egypt now considers a terrorist organisation.
Morsi was arrested after the 2013 coup and has faced trial on three separate counts of leaking state secrets to Qatar, killing protesters during a sit-in outside the presidential palace, and spying for Hamas.
He received multiple long sentences, including a life sentence for spying for Qatar and a 20-year sentence for killing protesters. A death sentence for charges relating to a mass jailbreak during the revolution was overturned in a retrial in November 2016.
The former president, who had a history of ill health including diabetes and liver and kidney disease, was held in solitary confinement in Tora prison in Cairo.
In 2018, a panel of three British parliamentarians reported that Morsi was being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, with just one hour allowed for exercise. The group, led by Crispin Blunt, said the conditions of Morsi’s confinement could be classified as torture and could also cut short his life.

[humbert]

For those who are in the organisation of the Muslim brotherhood on the forum it’s a day of mourning.
Indeed, Egypt’s ousted president Mohamed Morsi has collapsed during a court session and died, almost six years after he was forced from power in a bloody coup.

It's pretty obvious that Morsi was killed by al-Sisi and his thugs. It just didn't happen in a single day. I suppose the only thing positive about al-Sisi is that he's not a radical Islamist. Other than that he's another Mubarak.

[aa1234779]

It's pretty obvious that Morsi was killed by al-Sisi and his thugs. It just didn't happen in a single day. I suppose the only thing positive about al-Sisi is that he's not a radical Islamist. Other than that he's another Mubarak.

A mass murderer, yet you see the brights side in him.
How humane of you!

[humbert]

A mass murderer, yet you see the brights side in him.
How humane of you!

Of course al-Sisi is a murderer! I don't question that for a second. At least under his rule no religion has dominance over any other and people can visit a Mosque or Coptic church as they please. Similarly, if you [for example] bake bread and sell it for a living, al-Sisi will probably just leave you alone. This is in sharp contrast to true totalitarian regimes such as the Saudi government or the Islamic Republic of Iran where the government is in every facet of your life.