James Hormel, First Out Gay U.S. Ambassador, Dead at 88

Hormel, an activist and philanthropist, saw conservative pushback to his ambassadorial nomination because of his work for LGBTQ+ causes.
ADVOCATE: James Hormel, the first out gay U.S. ambassador, has died. He was 88.

An heir to the Hormel meatpacking fortune, he was a philanthropist and LGBTQ+ activist, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

President Bill Clinton nominated him to be ambassador to Luxembourg in 1997. But because of controversy over his identity and his activism, the Senate denied Hormel a confirmation vote. Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel called him too “aggressively gay,” for which Hagel apologized years later, and another Republican senator, Tim Hutchinson, claimed Hagel was anti-Catholic because he laughed at the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Clinton put him in the ambassadorial post through a recess appointment, bypassing the Senate, in 1999. Hormel served until 2001.

Pete Buttigieg, who this year became the first out Cabinet member as secretary of Transportation, often spoke of the homophobia that kept Hormel from being confirmed. Watching the story play out, “I learned about some of the limits that exist in this country when it comes to who is allowed to belong,” Buttigieg said when President Joe Biden nominated him to the Transportation post in December. “And just as important, I saw how those limits could be challenged.” » | Trudy Ring | Friday, August 13, 2021

Canberra, la capitale de l'Australie, à son tour confinée

FIGARO / LIVE : Un confinement de sept jours de Canberra, la capitale australienne a été décrété jeudi par les autorités après la découverte d'un cas de coronavirus. Environ 400.000 habitants de cette ville, où siège le gouvernement, seront confinés à compter de jeudi, et rejoindront ainsi les millions d'Australiens du sud-est de l'immense île continent déjà contraints de demeurer chez eux. Avec une vidéo en anglais » | Publié : jeudi 12 août 2021 ; mis à jour : vendredi 13 août 2021

Poverty, Disease, Customs: Why So Many Indonesian Children Die of Covid

The grave of Alesha Kimi Pramudita, a 22-month-old who died after being infected with the coronavirus in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in July. Credit...Ulet Ifansasti for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: BULUS WETAN, Indonesia — When Debiyantoro, a hotel repairman, first lost his sense of taste, he wondered briefly if it might be Covid-19, but he quickly dismissed the idea. Having the disease would mean not being able to make a living.

Now he blames his reluctance to get tested for the death of his 22-month-old daughter, Alesha Kimi Pramudita. All 10 members of their crowded household suffered Covid-like symptoms but none were tested until Kimi went for an unrelated checkup. Hospitalized immediately, she died a day later.

“Although I thought it might have been Covid, I was afraid I wouldn’t be allowed to work, which means I couldn’t have supported my family,” Mr. Debiyantoro, who like many Indonesians uses one name, said as he tried to hold back tears. “But now I am filled with remorse that I lost my daughter.”

Across Indonesia, children have fallen victim to Covid in alarming numbers, with a striking increase since June, when the Delta variant began taking hold. The pandemic has killed at least 1,245 Indonesian children and the biggest recent jump has been among those under age 1, said Dr. Aman Bhakti Pulungan, head of the Indonesian Pediatric Society.

Researchers point to many reasons children would be more likely to die in developing countries, but many of those factors boil down to a single one: poverty. » | Dera Menra Sijabat, Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono | Saturday, August 14, 2021

The Afghan Military Was Built over 20 Years. How Did It Collapse So Quickly?

An Afghan police special forces soldier at a frontline position in Kandahar this month.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Taliban’s rapid advance has made clear that U.S. efforts to turn Afghanistan’s military into a robust, independent fighting force have failed, with its soldiers feeling abandoned by inept leaders.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The surrenders seem to be happening as fast as the Taliban can travel.

In the past several days, the Afghan security forces have collapsed in more than 15 cities under the pressure of a Taliban advance that began in May. On Friday, officials confirmed that those included two of the country’s most important provincial capitals: Kandahar and Herat.

The swift offensive has resulted in mass surrenders, captured helicopters and millions of dollars of American-supplied equipment paraded by the Taliban on grainy cellphone videos. In some cities, heavy fighting had been underway for weeks on their outskirts, but the Taliban ultimately overtook their defensive lines and then walked in with little or no resistance.

This implosion comes despite the United States having poured more than $83 billion in weapons, equipment and training into the country’s security forces over two decades.

Building the Afghan security apparatus was one of the key parts of the Obama administration’s strategy as it sought to find a way to hand over security and leave nearly a decade ago. These efforts produced an army modeled in the image of the United States’ military, an Afghan institution that was supposed to outlast the American war.

But it will likely be gone before the United States is.

While the future of Afghanistan seems more and more uncertain, one thing is becoming exceedingly clear: The United States’ 20-year endeavor to rebuild Afghanistan’s military into a robust and independent fighting force has failed, and that failure is now playing out in real time as the country slips into Taliban control. » | Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Fahim Abed and Sharif Hassan | Friday, August 13, 2021

EU muss sich laut Baerbock auf Afghanistan-Flüchtlinge vorbereiten

Afghanische Binnenflüchtlinge in Kabul © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
ZEIT ONLINE: Die Grünenkanzlerkandidatin warnt davor, ähnlich unvorbereitet zu sein wie angesichts des syrischen Bürgerkriegs. Auch andere Politiker mahnen zum Handeln.

Angesichts des Vormarschs der radikalislamischen Taliban in Afghanistan hat Grünenkanzlerkandidatin Annalena Baerbock vor einer Wiederholung von Versäumnissen im Verlauf des syrischen Bürgerkriegs gewarnt. Die europäischen Länder seien auf fatale Weise unvorbereitet gewesen, dass Menschen in so einer dramatischen Situation ihr Land verlassen müssten, sagte Baerbock in einem Interview des Deutschlandfunks. » | Quelle: ZEIT ONLINE, Reuters, AFP, jos | Samstag, 14. August 2021

Lockdown in Sydney erneut verschärft

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images | Ein Mann sitzt am Hafen von Sydney
ZEIT ONLINE – LIVE: Die coronabedingten Einschränkungen in Sydney sind nochmals verschärft worden. Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner dürfen ihre Wohnungen nun nur noch verlassen, um Sport zu treiben, zur Arbeit oder einkaufen zu gehen, wie die Regionalregierung mitteilte. Die Regelungen zum Verlassen der Stadt wurden verschärft, um eine Ausbreitung der Epidemie zu verhindern. Auch ist der Lockdown für den gesamten Bundesstaat New South Wales ausgeweitet worden. Corona-News aus aller Welt » |Von Ivana Sokola | Samstag, 14. August 2021

Pain fait maison : comment choisir les bons ingrédients ?

Und wann stoßen sie auf Kabul vor?

VORMARSCH DER TALIBAN
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: Wegen der dramatischen Entwicklung verlegt Washington Truppen an den Flughafen von Kabul. Daraus spricht Panik. Erinnerungen an Saigon 1975 werden wach.

Herat, Kandahar – und wann Kabul? Die Taliban eilen in Afghanistan von Sieg zu Sieg, von eroberter Stadt zu eroberter Stadt. Es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, wann sie auf die Hauptstadt vorstoßen. Mittlerweile scheint die Regierung Biden davon auszugehen, dass die Radikalislamisten die Kontrolle über Kabul nicht mehr erst in einigen Monaten, sondern in wenigen Wochen übernehmen. Nur so ist die Entscheidung zu verstehen, mehrere tausend Soldaten an den Flughafen der Hauptstadt zu verlegen, um die Ausreise amerikanischer Staatsbürger und Diplomaten zu sichern (nicht um der Regierung beizustehen). » | Ein Kommentar von Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger | Freitag, 13. August 2021

Rift with US Grows as UK Minister Voices Fears over Afghanistan Exit

THE GUARDIAN: Ben Wallace says he is ‘absolutely concerned’ about terrorism threat, contradicting Biden analysis

Joe Biden’s decision to rapidly withdraw from Afghanistan is threatening to turn into one of the biggest Anglo-American foreign policy rifts in decades, with potentially dangerous political consequences if the UK government’s warnings about a return of terrorism and mass movement of refugees to Europe eventually prove correct.

Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, revealed in remarkably frank interviews on Friday that the UK was so aghast at the US decision to withdraw completely from Afghanistan next month that it had canvassed other Nato allies to see if there was support for a reconfigured alliance to continue the stabilisation force in Afghanistan without the US.

The Taliban continued its lightning advance on Friday, seizing four more provincial capitals and gaining control of more than two-thirds of country as its forces headed towards Kabul. Kandahar and Herat, the country’s second and third biggest cities, fell on Thursday.

Biden said as recently as July that there was no chance the Taliban would overrun the country, and denied that Afghanistan still represented a breeding ground for terrorism. Wallace and the chief of the UK defence staff, Gen Sir Nick Carter, have directly contradicted Biden’s analysis and even said it may prove necessary to go back into the country. » | Patrick Wintour, Diplomatic editor | Friday, August 13, 2021

Whatever happens next in Afghanistan, a humanitarian disaster is already in train: Even before the western withdrawal and Taliban resurgence, the country was on its knees. A refugee crisis is now inevitable »

L’Amérique sidérée par l’ampleur de sa défaite en Afghanistan

En une semaine, les talibans se sont emparés d’une dizaine de capitales provinciales dont Kandahar, berceau historique de leur mouvement, et, ici jeudi, Herat. -/AFP
LE FIGARO : DÉCRYPTAGE - Le Pentagone a dû se résoudre à l’envoi de renforts à l’aéroport de Kaboul pour protéger les opérations d’évacuation, encore qualifiée de partielle, de son ambassade.

L’avance rapide des talibans, qui se sont emparés cette dernière semaine d’une dizaine de capitales provinciales afghanes, dont Kandahar, le berceau historique de leur mouvement, oblige les Américains à accélérer leurs plans d’évacuation. L’effondrement des forces armées afghanes, qui se débandent souvent sans combattre, rend de plus en plus plausible la perspective de voir Kaboul tomber dans les semaines qui viennent entre les mains des insurgés. La France et plusieurs autres pays européens ont appelé leurs ressortissants à quitter le territoire afghan dès que possible. » | Par Adrien Jaulmes | vendredi 13 août 2021

Afghanistan: l’avancée foudroyante des talibans menace Kaboul : En une semaine, la rébellion a pris onze capitales régionales dont Hérat, la troisième ville du pays. »

Queer Quote of the Day

Prince Charming from Cinderella in Durmstrang. This artist sorted Disney princes and princesses into Hogwarts Houses, robes and all! | Popsugar, Smart Living, Photo 20
Image thanks to Popsugar.
“If you were expecting Prince Charming, I'm sorry. He's with his boyfriend.” ― Shayla Black, Wicked Ties.

Colourful Kisses!

Bisous colorés ! / Bunte Küsse!
With many thanks to Szymonss for this great and colourful photo. A photo that is gay in every way!

Dutch-Turkish Novelist Depicts Her Journey to Secularism with No Inhibitions

The Dutch-Turkish writer Lale Gul at the office of her publisher in Amsterdam, in June. Credit...Ilvy Njiokiktjien for The New York Times
THE NEW YORK TIMES: Lale Gul’s autobiographical and sexually frank tale of a woman breaking with her conservative Muslim culture, and her strict parents, is a best seller in the Netherlands. “I’m done hiding,” she says.

AMSTERDAM — Perhaps naïvely, Lale Gul thought she could continue living with the same people on whom she had based her best-selling novel: her strict Turkish-Dutch migrant family.

But just weeks after the February publication of her book — the autobiographical tale of a young woman breaking with her conservative Muslim culture — “a war broke out” in the family’s tiny apartment in a migrant neighborhood in Amsterdam, said the author of “Ik Ga Leven,” or “I Will Live.”

As years of building frustration erupted into open conflict that March evening, Ms. Gul, 23, fled her house in the middle of the night and has not returned since.

Looking back, Ms. Gul admitted that after writing an unbridled book revealing her journey to secularism, the thought that her parents would simply not hear about it was maybe a little foolhardy.

They did hear about it, as has most of the country: The novel quickly became one of the most read in the Netherlands, and she was in demand for TV interviews.

The publicity made it impossible not to address the book with her family, but she wanted to stay with them.

“Even after the book came out, I was still trying to negotiate with my parents, I wanted to make it work, try to combine their lives and my own life,” she said on a recent afternoon in the 17th-century canal house where her publisher has an office. “Despite everything, they are my family.”

But in her family’s view, what Ms. Gul had done was beyond repair. » | Thomas Erdbrink | Friday, August 13, 2021

Emmanuel Macron boycottera la conférence de l'ONU contre le racisme prévue en septembre

Le président de la République est préoccupé par le «passif de propos antisémites» tenus lors de la conférence de Durban en 2001 et de celle qui avait suivi, en 2011 à Genève, selon l'Élysée. ERIC GAILLARD / REUTERS
LE FIGARO : Cette journée doit marquer le 20e anniversaire de la Conférence de Durban. Le président de la République déplore un d'anciennes «déclarations antisémites.»

La France ne sera pas présente. Alors que l'Assemblée générale des Nations unies doit tenir en septembre prochain une journée sur le racisme, la discrimination raciale, la xénophobie et l'intolérance, l'Élysée annonce qu'Emmanuel Macron n'y participera pas. En cause ? La préoccupation du chef de l'État concernant l'«historique des déclarations antisémites prononcées dans le cadre de la conférence. » | Par John Timsit | vendredi 13 août 2021

«Antisémitisme aux États-Unis: la gauche “woke” est-elle dans le déni?» »

Phil Collins - Can't Stop Loving You | Official Music Video

Views on YouTube: 34,462,992

Dimitra’s Dishes: Briam Roasted Vegetables

An easy and delicious side dish for lamb.

Get the recipe here.

Manuel & The Music of the Mountains: Rodrigo’s Guitar Concerto de Aranjuez

Theme from the Second Movement | Views on YouTube: 191,218

Report: Rachel Maddow May Exit MSNBC

The network's breakout star is expressing burnout, much to the consternation of her bosses.
ADVOCATE: Rachel Maddow, one of the most prominent and respected fixtures in cable news, is considering leaving her eponymous nighttime program on MSNBC when her contract expires early next year, The Daily Beastreports.

Speaking to six individuals in the know, the report says the out journalist and author is expressing a desire to lighten her considerable load; she's been hosting her show, airing weeknights live at 9 Eastern, since 2008. Unlike fixtures on other cable programs who simply air talking heads discussing the day's headlines or, in the case of Fox News, feature an incendiary host whipping up viewer anger and xenophobia, Maddow's shows are highly researched and offer broad context on the news. » | Neal Broverman | Thursday, August 12, 2021

Taliban Seizes Herat, Ghazni as Battle for Kandahar Rages on

Aug 13, 2021 • Ghazni province just south of Kabul has fallen to the Taliban, with the governor arrested shortly afterwards for surrendering to the group. Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis reports from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Life Inside a Taliban Town as Insurgence in Afghanistan Continues - BBC News

Aug 12, 2021 • Taliban insurgents have been rapidly capturing territory in Afghanistan as nearly all remaining international troops withdraw.

In the past few months, the militants have taken vast rural areas, multiple border crossings and now a number of Afghan cities.

Journalist Secunder Kermani was granted rare access to visit the group – meeting fighters stationed just a short drive away from one of the country’s largest cities.

There are concerns over how long the Afghan government will be able to fend them off before they are completely overtaken. | This video is age-restricted, so it cannot be embedded; it must be viewed on YouTube. The link is below. | Views on YouTube: 560,710

Watch the BBC video here.