Afghan Anger over US’s Sudden, Silent Bagram Departure

THE GUARDIAN: Military officials say troops turned off power and slipped away without notifying new commander

US forces plunged their main operating base in Afghanistan into darkness and abandoned it to looters when they slipped away in the middle of the night after two decades at the site without notifying their Afghan allies.

The furtive departure from Bagram airbase, which is vital to the security of Kabul and holds about 5,000 mostly Taliban prisoners, infuriated the Afghans. Many saw it as emblematic of a withdrawal they say is being carried out entirely to fit an American political schedule, with no heed for the collapsing security situation on the ground.

“People are saying: ‘The Americans didn’t ask Afghans about coming here, and they didn’t consult Afghans about leaving’,” said one senior official.

Much of northern Afghanistan, once an anti-Taliban stronghold, has fallen to the group in the last two weeks, and the militants have made substantial advances across the rest of the country. Afghanistan has just over 400 districts, and the Taliban now hold nearly half, and are fighting for many more. » | Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Peter Beaumont | Tuesday July 6, 2021

Coronavirus: Covid Rules to End, But with Cases Rising Is It the Right Time? - BBC Newsnight

ul 5, 2021 • Boris Johnson announces the end of most Covid restrictions in England. But are we prepared, and able, to be our own risk managers?

UK PM Boris Johnson announces face masks will no longer be legally required and distancing rules will be scrapped at the final stage of England's Covid lockdown roadmap.

The rule of six inside private homes will be removed and work-from-home guidance abolished as 16 months of on-off restrictions on daily life end.

The PM said he expected the final step would go ahead as planned on 19 July.

This will be confirmed on 12 July after a review of the latest data.

Newsnight's political editor Nick Watt reports.

COVID-19: Should We Be Scared Of Virus Variants? | COVID-19 Special

Jul 6, 2021 • Many countries are racing to vaccinate their populations against the coronavirus amid fears that the highly transmissible delta variant could spark another COVID wave and overwhelm health systems.

Scientists have predicted that the delta variant could account for 90% of all new cases in Europe by the end of August. However, evidence shows that the spread of the delta variant is cause for caution — but not panic.

Venezuela : Joe Biden réaffirme le soutien américain au leader de l’opposition, Juan Guaido

LE MONDE : Les Etats-Unis, comme une cinquantaine de pays, n’ont pas reconnu l’élection du président Nicolas Maduro lors du scrutin de 2018 boycotté par l’opposition.

Le président américain, Joe Biden, a réaffirmé dans un courrier lundi 5 juillet, jour de la fête nationale vénézuélienne, le soutien de son pays au leader de l’opposition vénézuélienne Juan Guaido, qu’il reconnaît comme le président par intérim.

« Plus que jamais, nous restons déterminés à soutenir la lutte pour la liberté pour tous les Vénézuéliens à travers une transition pacifique et démocratique », a écrit le président américain dans une lettre adressée à « M. le président ». » | Le Monde avec AFP | mardi 6 juillet 2021

Incroyable ! – Mark

Joe Cocker : Up Where We Belong

How Coming Out Heals Your Life

Jul 19, 2012 • After Anderson Cooper and Frank Ocean came out, I got to thinking about my own coming out at age 12 and how it affected my life. I found it to be an extremely healing experience that wasn't easy at first, but led me toward greater peace and wholeness. Telling the truth can challenging for many, but it will bring your destiny closer to you; it will ignite your life and give your struggle greater meaning and purpose. It will set you free.

Powerful! – Mark

Homosexuality: It's about Survival - Not Sex | James O'Keefe | TEDxTallaght

Nov 15, 2016 • This passionate talk from Dr. James O'Keefe MD gives us a deeply personal and fascinating insight into why homosexuality is indeed a necessary and extraordinarily useful cog in nature's wheel of perfection.

James H O'Keefe MD, is a Board Certified Cardiologist and Director of both the Charles & Barbara Duboc Cardio Health & Wellness Center and the Preventive Cardiology service at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. He is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. His postgraduate training included a cardiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr O’Keefe is board-certified in Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology, and Cardiac CT Imaging. He is consistently ranked among the ‘Top Doctor’ lists regionally and nationally as one of America’s Top Rated Physicians in Cardiology. He has been named as one of USA Today’s Most Influential Doctors. Dr O’Keefe has contributed more than 300 articles to the medical literature and has authored best-selling cardiovascular books for health professionals including: The Complete Guide to ECGs (which is used for Cardiology Board Certification), Dyslipidemia Essentials, and Diabetes Essential.

Afghan Forces Flee as Taliban Advances in the North | DW News

Jul 5, 2021 • Over the weekend, Afghan government troops in the north of the country, abandoned their posts and fled to neighboring Tajikistan. The reason, a Taliban advance they felt they were ill-equipped to oppose.

It's a pattern playing out across the country, with the Taliban now controlling about one-third of the country's 421 districts. These gains come as international troops continue to pull-out from the country. A scenario that's left many Afghans worried about their future.

Also neighboring Pakistan, has long been seen as having influence over the Taliban. For that reason, Pakistan's involvement in the peace process is seen as crucial to its outcome.

Relations between Pakistan and the Taliban go way back: The group itself was formed in the early 1990s primarily by Pashtun students in Pakistani madrassas or Islamic religious schools. Pakistan was one of only three countries that recognised the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. And in the last few years, Pakistan has played a key role in bringing the Taliban to the talks table.

Doris Day - Whatever Will Be Will Be – Que Sera Sera

Doris Day - Move Over Darling

Percy Faith & His Orchestra - A Summer Place - 1959

Opinion: From Junk Food Ad Bans to New Smoking Bans: The UK Is in an Age of State Intervention

CITY A.M. : We have slipped into a new age of state intervention. Even after a year of unprecedented interference in our everyday lives, attacks on personal freedoms are emerging from every quarter. Take gambling, for example. The government’s review of the Gambling Act looks set to introduce new spend limits to dictate what people can and can’t do with their money, with some calling for it to be illegal to spend more than £100 per month.

Elsewhere in gratuitous growth of the state in the name of public health, the government has finally signed off on its plan to ban advertising for what it deems “junk food” in an effort to curb obesity, albeit a slightly watered-down version which promises not to criminalise family-run bakeries posting pictures of cakes on Instagram.

There is no disagreement whatsoever in the science on this. All the evidence demonstrates that it will do much more harm than good. The government’s own in-house analysis of the policy concluded that it will remove a grand total of 1.7 calories from children’s diets per day – roughly half a Smartie. » | Jason Reed * | Thursday, July 1, 2021

* Jason Reed is the UK lead at Young Voices and a policy fellow with the Consumer Choice Centre.

Xavier Bettel toujours hospitalisé, son état jugé “sérieux mais stable”

LE QUOTIDIEN : Le Premier ministre Xavier Bettel restait lundi hospitalisé en observation suite à son infection au Covid, en raison de la persistance des symptômes, a indiqué le ministère d’État dans l’après-midi.

Durant le week-end, les symptômes constatés (fièvre et maux de tête) ne se sont pas atténués, ce qui a mené le Premier ministre à être hospitalisé par précaution dimanche. Une saturation d’oxygène insuffisante a été diagnostiquée et Xavier Bettel est depuis placé sous surveillance médicale continue, précise le ministère d’État.

Actuellement, l’état de santé du Premier ministre “est jugé sérieux, mais stable”, soulignent ses services, ajoutant que le personnel soignant a de fait décidé qu’une hospitalisation reste actuellement nécessaire afin de pouvoir poursuivre l’observation, “ceci pour une durée estimée à 2-4 jours”. Selon l’un de ses collaborateurs, Xavier Bettel “a le souffle court mais n’est pas intubé”. » | LQ | lundi 5 juillet 2021

The Beach Boys : God Only Knows (Remastered)

Growing Up Illegally Gay - Four Life Stories | 'I Am...' Short Film

Oct 2, 2017 • What was it like growing up being illegally gay? Before 1967, homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom. Through the decades, thousands of gay men were prosecuted for consensual homosexual acts.

This film tells the incredible stories of four elderly gay men who lived through this time. We hear about their double lives, heartbreaks, being arrested, coming out, losing friends to suicide and what they would say to their younger selves.

…

This short film premiered at Buffer Festival, Toronto 2017 to mark 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in the UK.

LGBT Seniors Tell Their Stories | LA LGBT Center

March 28, 2013 – An Oral History is an ongoing project of the Los Angeles LGBT Center's Senior Services Department. This short film captures the perspective of eleven LGBT seniors in Los Angeles who came of age during a time in which imprisonment, daily discrimination, physical violence and abuse were commonplace. Exemplifying elegant survival, the individuals you will meet in An Oral History, made the community we have today possible. From the "Daughters of Bilitis" and "Mattachine Society" to the marches led by Frank Kameny and Barbara Gittings, the history of the LGBT movement has often been forgotten, overlooked or ignored. This is an attempt to give voice to and shine the light on the stories and lives of these individuals.

LGBT Documentary: Gay, Old and Out

Feb 27, 2018 • Meet the people who paved the way for LGBT rights. It has been a long hard fight to secure acceptance for the LGBT community, and the older people who fought the fight often get overlooked and forgotten.

For LGBT history month this documentary follows the astonishing and moving stories of the members of the Opening Doors London project - whose personal struggles and successes paved the way.

Reporter ohne Grenzen: Orbán ist „Feind der Pressefreiheit“

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINER ZEITUNG: Zum ersten Mal setzt die Journalistenvereinigung „Reporter ohne Grenzen“ einen Regierungschef der EU auf die Liste der Politiker, die besonders drastisch die Presse unterdrücken. Auch andere bekannte Namen stehen erstmals darauf.

Die Organisation „Reporter ohne Grenzen“ führt in ihrer neuen Liste der „Feinde der Pressefreiheit“ erstmals einen Regierungschef aus der Europäischen Union auf: den ungarischen Ministerpräsidenten Viktor Orbán. „Seitdem Viktor Orbán und seine Fidesz-Partei 2010 an die Regierung gekommen sind, haben sie Ungarns Medienlandschaft Schritt für Schritt unter ihre Kontrolle gebracht“, kritisierte die Journalistenvereinigung am Montag in Berlin.

„Die öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunksender wurden in der staatlichen Medienholding MTVA zentralisiert, zu der auch Ungarns einzige Nachrichtenagentur MTI gehört“, schrieb die Organisation in einer Mitteilung. „Die regionale Presse ist seit dem Sommer 2017 vollständig im Besitz Orbán-freundlicher Unternehmer. Im Herbst 2018 wurden fast 500 regierungsnahe Medienunternehmen in einer Holding zusammengefasst, um ihre Berichterstattung zentral zu koordinieren.“ » | Quelle: dpa | Montag 5. Juli 2021

Seniors Give Gay Advice! (2015)

Angleterre : le port du masque, bientôt un « choix personnel »

LE POINT : Le ministre britannique du Logement a évoqué, selon CNN, la fin de l’obligation du port du masque au moment de la levée des restrictions le 19 juillet.

Malgré la hausse des contaminations, le nouveau ministre britannique de la Santé, Sajid Javid, a maintenu l’objectif du gouvernement de lever, le 19 juillet prochain, les dernières restrictions encore en vigueur en Angleterre. Cette nouvelle étape pourrait même s’accompagner d’une levée de l’obligation du port du masque. Ce dimanche 4 juillet, le ministre du Logement affirme que le gouvernement réfléchit à faire en sorte que le port du masque ne relève plus, à cette date, que d’un « choix personnel ».

Dans des propos rapportés par CNN, Robert Jenrick explique : « Je ne veux pas particulièrement porter un masque et je ne crois pas que beaucoup de gens aiment le faire. Nous allons passer à une phase où il sera question d’un choix personnel. Ainsi, certains membres de la société voudront le faire pour des raisons parfaitement légitimes, mais ce sera une période différente où nous, en tant que citoyens privés, portons ces jugements plutôt que le gouvernement qui nous dira quoi faire. » » | Par LePoint.fr | dimanche 4 juillet 2021