Síntesis informativa - 7 de noviembre 2018
THE NEW YORK TIMES
As Famine Looms in Yemen, Saudi-Led Coalition Redoubles Attacks
HUDAYDAH, Yemen — The fight in Yemen has escalated drastically over the past week, exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis that the United Nations says could spiral into famine — despite, or even because of, a diplomatic push by the United States to get both sides to the peace table.
The Saudi-led coalition, which the United States has armed and supported, has launched a punishing wave of airstrikes against the rebel Houthis. The warplanes have hit targets in the capital, Sana; in the mountainous northern provinces; and in the Red Sea port of Hudaydah where, aid workers warn, the country’s main humanitarian lifeline hangs by a thread.
A senior aid worker and two Western officials, who asked not to be identified so they could speak openly about Hudaydah, said in interviews that the coalition, commanded locally by the United Arab Emirates, had redoubled its five-month offensive to snatch the city from Houthi control.
Columns of Yemeni militias fighting under the coalition flag have burst across a major front line and swept through the desert on the eastern edge of the city, threatening to encircle it completely, they say. Warplanes and attack helicopters have pummeled Houthi positions in the city in what aid workers called a near-continuous barrage of air attacks.
A ‘Legacy of Terror’: ISIS Left More than 200 Mass Graves in Iraq
BAGHDAD — Over 200 mass graves holding as many as 12,000 bodies have been found in areas of Iraq once controlled by the Islamic State, the United Nations said on Tuesday. The findings were highlighted in a joint report released by the United Nations mission to Iraq and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which called the sites a “legacy of terror.”
Where are the graves, and what are they like?
Most are in the four provinces of northern and western Iraq where the Islamic State’s so-called caliphate acted as the government: Anbar, Kirkuk, Salahuddin and Nineveh, which includes Mosul, the largest city once controlled by the extremists. They range from small burial sites with eight bodies, to massive pits believed to hold thousands. The biggest is believed to be the Khasfa Sinkhole near Mosul.
“I can only say that the number of the victims of the mass graves is much bigger than the numbers in the report,” said Dhia Kareem, head of the Mass Graves Directorate in Iraq. He said eyewitnesses estimated there were 6,000 bodies in the Khasfa Sinkhole.
Taliban Pummel Security Forces Across Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Dozens of soldiers and police officers were killed or captured in nine Taliban attacks that overran security bases and outposts in different parts of Afghanistan during a 24-hour period that ended on Tuesday, officials said.
In perhaps the most severe blow, insurgents captured battalion headquarters of the Afghan Border Force in Farah Province, in western Afghanistan, killing or taking prisoner nearly the entire contingent of officers, with as many as 20 dead. In Kandahar Province, in the south, three separate attacks killed a total of 17 police officers. And in Ghazni, a central province, a joint military and police outpost fell only two days after it had been set up, with all 16 security officials there killed or wounded.
The attack on the headquarters in Farah, close to the Iranian border, destroyed the first battalion’s base in the district of Poshti Koh. Sgt. Gholam Mohammad, the senior noncommissioned officer, said from a clinic where he had been taken with a minor head wound that, in addition to the 20 border force officers killed, 25 had been taken captive by the Taliban. Three others escaped.
Pompeo Meeting With North Korean Diplomat Postponed
HONG KONG — A meeting in New York this week between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and North Korea’s leading nuclear weapons negotiator has been called off, the State Department said Wednesday.
The meeting, which had been scheduled for Thursday, “will now take place at a later date,” Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a written statement. “We will reconvene when our respective schedules permit.”
No reason was given for the decision, and the statement did not indicate which side requested it. The postponement of the meeting threw another wrench in Washington’s efforts to get North Korea to denuclearize.
The State Department had said earlier that Mr. Pompeo planned to meet with Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s former intelligence chief and top diplomat. They were expected to discuss the goals established at the June summit meeting in Singapore between President Trump and Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, “including achieving the final, fully verified denuclearization” of North Korea, Ms. Nauert said.
At U.N., China Defends Mass Detention of Uighur Muslims
GENEVA — China faced calls on Tuesday from Western government to end its mass detention of Uighur Muslims, but brusquely rebuffed the concerns as “not factual” and “politically driven.”
“China is here to seek cooperation,” said its vice foreign minister, Le Yucheng, at the opening of a review by the United Nations Human Rights Council. He pointed to China’s achievements in lifting millions of people from poverty, largely skirting its treatment of ethnic minorities.
The focus and tone changed after North American and European diplomats expressed concern over deteriorating human rights and a crackdown in the western region of Xinjiang that has swept upwards of a million people into indefinite detention in re-education camps. The Muslim detainees are told that they are infected with an “ideological virus,” and are indoctrinated in devotion to the state and the Communist Party.
Representatives of the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and other countries called for an end to the detention of Uighurs and members of other minority groups, and urged respect for freedom of religion, expression and association.
Midterm Election Results: 4 Key Takeaways
The divergent outcomes in the House and Senate — a Democratic takeover in one chamber, and Republican gains in the other — exposed an ever-deepening gulf separating rural communities from America’s cities and suburbs.
Democratic gains in the House came in densely populated, educated and diverse enclaves around the country, around major liberal cities like New York and Philadelphia and also red-state population centers like Houston and Oklahoma City. The Republican Party’s traditional base in these districts collapsed, with college-educated white voters joining with growing minority communities to repudiate President Trump and his party.
Republican victories in the Senate came mainly in the conservative strongholds where Mr. Trump’s popularity has remained steady or grown since 2016. With rural voters moving rightward and the national Democratic Party moving left, Senate Democrats like Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Joe Donnelly of Indiana found it impossible to reassemble the political coalitions that elected them in the past.
s a long-term proposition, Democrats may be getting the better end of the bargain: They are winning over voters in growing communities that look more like the country as a whole, while Republicans are increasingly reliant on an aging population of conservative whites to hold up their electoral map. And for now, the Democrats’ eclectic coalition of white moderates, young liberals and African-American, Latino and Asian-American voters was more than enough to seize the House.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/07/us/politics/election-news.html
THE GUARDIAN
Stop biodiversity loss or we could face our own extinction, warns UN
The world must thrash out a new deal for nature in the next two years or humanity could be the first species to document our own extinction, warns the United Nation’s biodiversity chief.
Ahead of a key international conference to discuss the collapse of ecosystems, Cristiana Pașca Palmer said people in all countries need to put pressure on their governments to draw up ambitious global targets by 2020 to protect the insects, birds, plants and mammals that are vital for global food production, clean water and carbon sequestration.
Midterms: Trump threatens Democrats over investigations after they take House – live
President tweets ‘Two can play at that game!’ hours after Democrats win key seats to take back House
FGM rates in east Africa drop from 71% to 8% in 20 years, study shows
The number of girls undergoing female genital mutilation has fallen dramatically in east Africa over the past two decades, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. The study, which looked at rates of FGM among girls aged 14 and under, suggests that prevalence in east Africa has dropped from 71.4% in 1995, to 8% in 2016.
According to the study in the BMJ, the rates of FGM practised on children have fallen in north Africa, from 57.7% in 1990 to 14.1% in 2015. In west Africa, prevalence is also reported to have decreased from 73.6% in 1996 to 25.4% in 2017.
Battle rages in Yemen's vital port as showdown looms
Instead of bringing calm to the besieged Yemeni city, calls for a ceasefire in Hodeidah have brought some of the worst violence the vital port has yet faced in the three-year war.
In the past few days, more than 100 airstrikes have hit civilian neighbourhoods – five times as many as in the whole of the first week of October, according to Save the Children staff in Hodeidah. One of their malnutrition clinics was attacked on Wednesday.
BHP Billiton facing £5bn lawsuit from Brazilian victims of dam disaster
The Anglo-Australian mining company BHP Billiton is being sued for about £5bn by Brazilian victims of the Samarco dam collapse in Mariana three years ago.
The class action case was filed in the Liverpool high court on Monday by the UK-based SPG Law on behalf of 240,000 individuals, 24 municipal governments, 11,000 businesses, a Catholic archdiocese and the Krenak indigenous community.
Nineteen people died after toxic waters from the failed tailings dam surged through the village of Bento Rodrigues on 5 November 2015. The sludge destroyed hundreds of homes, devastated fisheries, contaminated forests and left hundreds of thousands of dwellers along the Doce River without drinking water.
DEUTSCHE WELLE
Rusia no cree que relación con EE.UU. mejore tras elecciones
Moscú dijo que la situación ya es suficientemente complicada, pero aseguró que muchos problemas solo pueden resolverse a través del diálogo.
El Gobierno de Rusia descartó este miércoles (07.11.2018) que las maltrechas relaciones con Estados Unidos vayan a mejorar tras las elecciones de medio mandato realizadas el martes en la principal potencia económica y militar del planeta. Para el Kremlin, sin embargo, esto tampoco significa que las relaciones vayan a empeorar.
"Se puede suponer, con gran probabilidad, que en el horizonte no se vislumbrarán perspectivas halagüeñas para la normalización de las relaciones ruso-estadounidenses", dijo a la prensa el portavoz de la Presidencia rusa, Dmitri Peskov, al ser consultado sobre qué impacto esperan las autoridades rusas de los comicios intermedios en Estados Unidos.
https://www.dw.com/es/rusia-no-cree-que-relaci%C3%B3n-con-eeuu-mejore-tras-elecciones/a-46191318
Postergan encuentro entre Pompeo y negociador norcoreano
La decisión fue dada a conocer por Estados Unidos, sin que se entregaran razones para la postergación. Corea del Sur lamentó lo ocurrido.
Sin que se conozcan las razones ni la nueva fecha del encuentro, el Gobierno de Estados Unidos anunció este martes (07.11.2018) que la reunión prevista para este jueves 8 de noviembre en Nueva York entre el secretario de Estado, Mike Pompeo, y una delegación de Corea del Norte encabezada por el jefe de la inteligencia norcoreana, Kim Yong-chol (ambos en la foto), ha sido suspendida.
https://www.dw.com/es/postergan-encuentro-entre-pompeo-y-negociador-norcoreano/a-46190018
XINHUA
Talibán dice buscar fin de presencia de EEUU en Afganistán durante conferencia en Moscú
KABUL, 7 nov (Xinhua) -- El grupo talibán ha anunciado que enviará una delegación a la Conferencia de Paz de Moscú, en la cual se discutirá acerca del fin de la presencia de tropas estadounidenses en Afganistán, según declaraciones de la organización del miércoles.
La agrupación afirmó que una delegación asistirá a la reunión en Moscú programada para el 9 de noviembre, en pos de encontrar una solución pacífica al persistente conflicto en Afganistán y buscar la salida de lo que ellos llaman una "ocupación estadounidense" del país asiático.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/07/c_137589653.htm
China tendrá 20.000 aviones de aviación general en 2035, prevé libro blanco
GUANGZHOU, 6 nov (Xinhua) -- La industria de aviación general de China ha mantenido un rápido crecimiento en los años recientes, y el número de aviones de aviación general se incrementará a más de 20.000 para el año 2035, señala un libro blanco publicado este martes.
La Corporación de la Industria de Aviación de China, Ltd. publicó el libro blanco, en el que prevé que una red de aviación general inicialmente tomará forma para el 2035, mientras que el número de aviones de aviación general superará los 20.000 con un total de seis millones de horas de vuelo al año.
En 2017, China tenía 2.984 aviones de aviación general, y las horas de vuelo anuales de esos aviones aumentó de 370.000 horas en 2010 a 840.000 horas en 2017.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/07/c_137587042.htm
China promete profundizar la cooperación con Singapur con más apertura
SINGAPUR, 7 nov (Xinhua) -- China profundizará la cooperación con Singapur y abrirá sus puertas a los inversores extranjeros, dijo el vicepresidente chino, Wang Qishan.
Wang hizo los comentarios durante su visita a Singapur, realizada entre el lunes y hoy miércoles.
Al reunirse con la presidenta de Singapur, Halimah Yacob, Wang dijo que las relaciones entre China y Singapur se han desarrollado aún más en los últimos años, lo que a su vez ha beneficiado a ambos países.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/2018-11/07/c_137589060.htm
La XII Exposición Internacional de Aviación y Aeroespacial de China
Un helicóptero Z10ME fabricado por la empresa Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) es exhibido en la XII Exposición Internacional de Aviación y Aeroespacial de China (Airshow China) en Zhuhai, provincia de Guangdong, en el sur de China, el 6 de noviembre de 2018. Airshow China, una muestra internacional de comercio aeroespacial apoyada por el gobierno central, se celebra en Zhuhai cada dos años desde 1996. En esta ocasión, más de 700 expositores de más de 40 países y regiones presentarán sus últimos productos y tecnologías aeroespaciales y de aviación. El evento será clausurado el domingo.
http://spanish.xinhuanet.com/photo/2018-11/07/c_137588020_2.htm
AL JAZEERA
'Younger, browner, cooler': Democrats win House, GOP keeps Senate
Republicans retain Senate control, shattering Democrats' hope of 'blue wave' after tumultuous two years of Trump rule.
US presidents often lose the House in midterm elections in their first term. Former President Barack Obama's Democrats were hit with what he called a "shellacking" in congressional elections in 2010.
Every seat in the House was up for grabs on Tuesday. The Republicans had an advantage in Senate races because elections were held for only 35 seats in the 100-member chamber and many of them were in states that often lean Republican.
A House majority would be enough to impeach Trump if evidence surfaced of collusion by his campaign, or of obstruction by the president of the federal investigation. But Congress could not remove him from office without a conviction by a two-thirds majority in the Republican-controlled Senate, an unlikely scenario.
Jamal Khashoggi case: All the latest updates
Turkish security source says Gina Haspel, who visited Turkey last week, has all evidence in connection to killing.
Saudi Arabia has admitted Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside its consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The evidence proves the operation was carried out on orders from the highest level of leadership in Saudi Arabia, the source added.
Haspel was in Turkey last week to review evidence, before briefing US President Donald Trump in Washington, DC.
Pompeo listed Saudi Arabia's ability to "deny" Iran "the ability to threaten America and Israel" as one of the reasons to maintain a strategic relationship with the kingdom, whose crown prince is under scrutiny over suspicions of his role in Khashoggi's murder.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/jamal-khashoggi-case-latest-updates-181010133542286.html
Morocco's king invites Algeria for 'frank, direct dialogue'
King Mohammed VI says Rabat is willing to consider initiatives brought forth by Algiers to break political stalemate.
On Tuesday, Morocco's king hinted that his country's position would remain unchanged and that its decision to join the African Union anew - after an absence of some 33 years - was informed by the country's African identity and is not aimed at defending its position regarding the Western Sahara.
Allying with Bolsonaro will harm Venezuela's opposition
If the Venezuelan opposition is truly fighting for democracy, it would not seek an alliance with an undemocratic leader.
Maryhen Jimenez Morales. Bolsonaro has praised torture as an effective political strategy and endorsed the crimes of the former military dictatorship in Brazil. He has promised to give the police forces in Brazil expanded authority to kill suspects, saying that a "good criminal is a dead criminal" and has openly humiliated and threatened women, LGTBQ, native and black communities. Based on this rhetoric many fear Brazil's young democracy is now at risk, and rightly so.
Given Bolsonaro undemocratic tendencies, why did several Venezuelan opposition leaders not only congratulate him on his victory, but also explicitly invite him to help Venezuela transition to democracy? Why would Venezuela want his support in recovering democracy, while he is a clear threat to Brazil's own democratic order?
Golden Triangle's drug production surges amid opioid worries
UN official says increase 'like nothing we have seen before' in an area notorious for illicit drug production.
Organised crime groups are expanding and diversifying drug production in Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle raising concern the region could emerge as a hub for synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Golden Triangle, which is centred around Myanmar's conflict-ridden north, has exported illicit drugs to the world for decades. While opium cultivation and heroin trafficking has slumped in recent years, synthetic drug manufacturing - especially methamphetamine - has soared.
China, which shares a border with northern Myanmar, has begun to crack down on illicit opioid production. It follows a largely successful campaign to clear out methamphetamine labs in southern China in 2013-14.
The surge in methamphetamine production in Myanmar followed the China crackdown.
RT
Guatemala: la justicia en aprietos
El reciente anuncio de la terminación de las actividades de la Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (CICIG), incluyendo la prohibición de entrada al país de su comisionado, Iván Velásquez, y la revocación o denegación de visas para varios miembros de su personal, es tan solo el más reciente esfuerzo de las autoridades guatemaltecas para socavar y obstaculizar el trabajo de una de las instituciones claves en la lucha por la verdad y la justicia.
Guatemala debe dedicar sus esfuerzos para garantizar un ambiente seguro para quienes alzan la voz por la justicia
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/11/06/america/1541537764_981218.html
Prensa de Nicaragua sufrió 420 ataques durante protestas
La prensa independiente de Nicaragua sufrió al menos 420 ataques, censuras y amenazas por parte de las fuerzas policiales, paramilitares y seguidores del gobierno, durante la cobertura de las protestas contra el presidente Daniel Ortega, denunció este martes la Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (FVBCH).
Los ataques afectaron a 261 periodistas y medios de comunicación en el período comprendido entre el 18 de abril, cuando iniciaron las protestas, y el 18 de octubre pasado, revela un informe publicado por la Fundación, que dirige la expresidenta Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997).
Macri cree en su reelección
El presidente Mauricio Macri sacó a relucir su repertorio de frases sobre el Presupuesto 2019 en una radio de Catamarca y aprovechó la oportunidad para anunciar su deseo de ser reelecto. Si bien el mandatario dijo que prefería no hablar del tema mientras "estamos poniendo el hombro”, en referencia a la inédita crisis económica y social que provocó su propio gobierno, lanzó: “Estoy listo para continuar si los argentinos creen que este camino de cambio vale la pena, estoy convencido de que es el único posible”.
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/153624-macri-cree-en-su-reeleccion
AL MAYADEEN
Brasil: Tribunal Supremo examinará nuevo pedido de libertad para expresidente Lula
6 de noviembre. …la defensa del exjefe de Estado presentó ante el Tribunal Supremo Federal un nuevo habeas corpus, en el que pide su puesta en libertad tras quedar en evidencia la parcialidad política de Moro.
Mediante un comunicado, los abogados del exdirigente obrero explicaron que con esta acción buscan conseguir la nulidad del proceso y la libertad de su defendido.
ONU llama al Gobierno mexicano a dar con el paradero de migrantes desparecidos en caravana hacia EE.UU.
6 de noviembre. La Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos mexicana (CNDH) reportó la presunta desaparición de tres camiones con migrantes que integraban la caravana proveniente de Centroamérica, quienes viajaban en dos autobuses.
AMÉRICA LATINA
Presidentes de Dominicana y El Salvador visitan China y fortalecen el vínculo económico
El canciller dominicano, Miguel Vargas, resaltó la importancia de haber establecido relaciones diplomáticas con China, un pais que es referencia a nivel mundial, por cuestiones como su crecimiento econĺmico y capacidad para trabajar. Dijo que la apertura de la embajada abre un nuevo capítulo en las relaciones formales a nivel bilateral.
“Hemos puesto nuestro corazón para que este esfuerzo que hace nuestro Gobierno de instalar una misión con dignidad y gran representación permita que todos los dominicanos se sientan representados aquí en China”, le dijo días antes el embajador Briunny Garabito a los periodistas dominicanos que se encuentran en China cubriendo las incidencias de la visita de Estado que realiza el mandatario Danilo Medina a China.
La sombra económica de China se agiganta sobre América Latina
La influencia de China en América Latina se ha visto más acrecentada por la deserción de varios países que mantenían relaciones con Taiwán, persiguiendo los capitales de la segunda economía mundial y debido al distanciamiento de EE. UU. con la región bajo el Gobierno de Donald Trump.
En la reciente cumbre empresarial China-Latinoamérica de Zhuhai, el vicepresidente del Comité Nacional de la Conferencia Consultiva Política del Pueblo Chino, Liu Xincheng, destacó que el total de las inversiones de empresas chinas en la región ascendió a 387.000 millones de dólares a finales del año pasado.
Declaración de Bolsonaro hace que Egipto cancele agenda con canciller brasileño
En la víspera de que el canciller brasileño, Aloysio Nunes, llegar a El Cairo para una visita oficial, el gobierno de Egipto canceló la agenda, por la declaración del presidente electo, Jair Bolsonaro, de trasladar la embajada brasileña en Israel a Jerusalén.
El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores al desembarcar el miércoles en la capital egipcia y tendría compromisos entre los días 8 y 11 de noviembre. Sin embargo, el gabinete del ministro confirmó que el gobierno brasileño fue informado por Egipto que el viaje tendría que ser cancelado por cambio en la agenda de autoridades del país. No es común, sin embargo, en el protocolo de la diplomacia desmarcar viajes sobre la hora.
Guatemala: la justicia en aprietos
El reciente anuncio de la terminación de las actividades de la Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (CICIG), incluyendo la prohibición de entrada al país de su comisionado, Iván Velásquez, y la revocación o denegación de visas para varios miembros de su personal, es tan solo el más reciente esfuerzo de las autoridades guatemaltecas para socavar y obstaculizar el trabajo de una de las instituciones claves en la lucha por la verdad y la justicia.
Guatemala debe dedicar sus esfuerzos para garantizar un ambiente seguro para quienes alzan la voz por la justicia
https://elpais.com/internacional/2018/11/06/america/1541537764_981218.html
Prensa de Nicaragua sufrió 420 ataques durante protestas
La prensa independiente de Nicaragua sufrió al menos 420 ataques, censuras y amenazas por parte de las fuerzas policiales, paramilitares y seguidores del gobierno, durante la cobertura de las protestas contra el presidente Daniel Ortega, denunció este martes la Fundación Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (FVBCH).
Los ataques afectaron a 261 periodistas y medios de comunicación en el período comprendido entre el 18 de abril, cuando iniciaron las protestas, y el 18 de octubre pasado, revela un informe publicado por la Fundación, que dirige la expresidenta Violeta Barrios de Chamorro (1990-1997).
Macri cree en su reelección
El presidente Mauricio Macri sacó a relucir su repertorio de frases sobre el Presupuesto 2019 en una radio de Catamarca y aprovechó la oportunidad para anunciar su deseo de ser reelecto. Si bien el mandatario dijo que prefería no hablar del tema mientras "estamos poniendo el hombro”, en referencia a la inédita crisis económica y social que provocó su propio gobierno, lanzó: “Estoy listo para continuar si los argentinos creen que este camino de cambio vale la pena, estoy convencido de que es el único posible”.
https://www.pagina12.com.ar/153624-macri-cree-en-su-reeleccion
