“C’est une énorme saisie, d’habitude nous saisissons des dizaines, quelques fois des centaines de kilos d’écailles. Ici on parle de plus de deux tonnes !”, s’est réjoui le directeur adjoint de l’ONG LAGA, Eric Kaba Tah, avec qui les forces de l’ordre ont conjointement mené l’opération.Ce trafic semble sans fin, et nous nous en faisons régulièrement l’écho. En juillet 2017 trois tonnes d’écailles étaient saisies en Côte d’Ivoire. Malgré l’interdiction de son commerce depuis 2016, l’animal peut encore s’acheter dans des échoppes de Hong Kong, où ses écailles se vendent à prix d’or explique l’AFP. Selon l’ONG LAGA, la saisie est estimée à 150 millions de francs CFA (227 000 euros)..@CITES #CoP17 agrees in Committee to move all 8 species of #pangolins, the most trafficked mammal, in Appendix I for stronger protection pic.twitter.com/pQ2jRaMnAE — CITES (@CITES) 28 septembre 2016
Ce pauvre mammifère fourmilier ne fait pourtant de mal à personne. Son seul problème : avoir le corps couvert d’écailles. En Asie du Sud-Est, elles passent pour avoir des vertus thérapeutiques et aphrodisiaques. Selon des études un million de pangolins ont été capturés en dix ans en Afrique et en Asie, et l’espèce est aujourd’hui menacée. Les trois tonnes d’écailles saisies en 2017 en Côte d’Ivoire représentent environ 4000 pangolins.Et, en guise de saisie accessoire, les policiers ont également mis la main sur 200 défenses d’ivoire. Le réseau, selon les autorités, agit depuis le Nigeria et alimente l’Asie et le Moyen-Orient.
Une ville a été ravagée, détruite à 90%. Le cyclone Idai s’est acharné sur la ville de Beira, au Mozambique, 500 000 habitants. Construites avec les moyens du bord, les fragiles maisons des quartiers défavorisés ont été balayées. “Je n’avais jamais vécu une telle catastrophe de toute ma vie”, lance une habitante au micro de France 3.Des secours débordésL’eau recouvre des dizaines de kilomètres de terre. Certains habitants sont juchés sur les toits depuis cinq jours. Les secours sont débordés. L’aide internationale commence à s’organiser. La Croix Rouge de La Réunion s’apprête à envoyer du matériel de première urgence. Des routes, des ponts, ont été emportés par les flots. Le pays voisin, le Zimbabwe, est lui aussi touché. Le bilan officiel est de 182 victimes sur les deux pays, mais les autorités du Mozambique évoquent déjà le chiffre d’un millier de morts.Le JT
JT de 19/20 du mardi 19 mars 2019 L’intégrale
Les autres sujets du JT
1
“Gilets jaunes” : Christophe Castaner sur le gril
2
“Gilets jaunes” : Christophe Castaner plus que jamais menacé
3
Le pape refuse la démission du cardinal Barbarin
4
Emploi : l’industrie recrute
5
Industrie : pourquoi le secteur repart
6
Aides sociales : que contiendra le revenu universel d’activité ?
7
Nemours : à la reconquête du centre-ville
8
Mont-Saint-Michel : une supercentenaire réalise son rêve
#AlertePollutionRivières ou sols contaminés, déchets industriels abandonnés… Vous vivez à proximité d’un site pollué ? Cliquez ici pour nous alerter !7 mètres de long. C’est la taille que peut faire le nid construit par des républicains sociaux. Cette petite espèce de passereau endémique des zones arides du sud de l’Afrique est en effet capable de construire un nid de cette ampleur, faisant de lui l’un des plus gros nids au monde. Bâtis sur de grands arbres ou sur des poteaux, ils peuvent accueillir plus de 100 couples et leur progéniture. Ces habitats collectifs offrent de nombreux avantages. Ils servent notamment de remparts contre certains prédateurs. Mais dans ces régions arides du Kalahari, ils offrent surtout une protection efficace face aux températures extrêmes.Une organisation hors pairEn plus d’être gigantesques, ces nids hors norme sont également très bien organisés. Au centre, les chambres individuelles permettent de garder la chaleur pendant la nuit. Autour, d’autres espaces servent à s’abriter de la chaleur du jour. Cette collocation géante est d’ailleurs basée sur la coopération : les jeunes élèvent d’autres oisillons, qu’ils soient de leur famille ou non.Des règles bien établiesPour éviter que certains ne profitent du confort sans contribuer aux tâches communes, plusieurs mécanismes sont mis en place. D’abord, les liens de parenté avec les voisins encourageraient l’oiseau à travailler pour la survie de sa famille. De plus, il y aurait également des superviseurschargés de punir les oiseaux ne participants pas assez à l’entretien collectif.Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership
“La LADDH (Ligue algérienne de défense des droits de l’Homme) dénonce les entraves à la liberté de circuler et les tentatives d’entraver les manifestations à Alger par les différents dispositifs policiers dans les rues principales. L’usage des bombes lacrymogènes est à dénoncer vis-à-vis des manifestations pacifiques, notamment dans le Tunnel des facultés qui a provoqué des scènes de panique, des évanouissements et des sensations d’étouffement chez des personnes âgées, malades et des personnes à mobilité réduite”, ecrit dans El Watan Maître Nourredine Benissad, son président.Pour la première fois depuis le début du mouvement de protestation contre le pouvoir algérien, des incidents, qui auraient pu être graves, ont eu lieu le 12 avril à Alger. De quoi y voir un raidissement du pouvoir face à la contestation de la rue.
A l’intérieur du tunnel des facultés noyé dans les gaz lacrymogènes, le pire a été évitéhttps://t.co/kQwtkG1ihB — HuffPost Algérie (@HuffPostAlgerie) 12 avril 2019
A Alger, la manifestation, qui avait commencé dans une ambiance plus tendue qu’à l’habitude, s’est achevée par des heurts entre quelques centaines de jeunes et des policiers. Des agents anti-émeutes ont été déployés, pour la première fois un vendredi, sur le parvis de ce bâtiment emblématique devenu point de ralliement des manifestants, tentant même en vain de faire évacuer les lieux en début de matinée.”Contrairement au week-end dernier (…), cette fois-ci, toutes les entrées de la capitale ont été complètement fermées par les mêmes services dans le but d’empêcher les citoyens de rejoindre la manifestation hebdomadaire anti-système”, dénonce La Liberté. Autre signe, l’un des premiers à s’être opposé au cinquième mandat de Bouteflika, Hadj Ghermoul, est toujours détenu, rappelle El Watan. “Les Algériens ne se contentent plus d’exprimer verbalement leur refus des 3B, résidus du clan Bouteflika”Il faut dire que les millions de manifestants qui défilent dans toute l’Algérie ne cessent de mettre en cause le pouvoir de transition, composé de proches du président déchu. “Qu’ils partent tous” est devenu l’un des principaux slogans. “Tous“, ce sont ceux contre lesquels “pendant des heures, en dansant, en chantant, sous le rythme des darboukas, cette foule, enlacée dans son fanion vert et rouge, a crié ‘dégage !’ aux ‘trois B’, surnommés ‘le triangle des Bermudes’ : Abdelkader Bensalah, le président par intérim depuis la démission d’Abdelaziz Bouteflika (le 2 avril), Noureddine Bedoui, Premier ministre, et Tayeb Belaiz, président du Conseil constitutionnel, tous des très proches de ‘Boutef’“, selon Le Monde.”Les Algériens ne se contentent plus d’exprimer verbalement leur refus des 3B, résidus du clan Bouteflika, ils passent à l’action en perturbant et en empêchant les visites ministérielles, sur lesquelles le gouvernement mise pour reconquérir le terrain perdu et montrer qu’il est capable de gérer la situation“, note TSA. Mais face à cette détermination, selon ce quotidien francophone, les derniers événements confirment “la volonté du pouvoir d’imposer par la force une transition contrôlée par les symboles du système, et qui est rejetée par les manifestants”.Face aux autorités, la population maintient la pression. Des exemples de désobéissance civile se multiplient (à Béchar, une délégation de trois ministres, conduite par celui de l’Intérieur, a été chassée par la population). Situation bloquée, situation explosive ? Certains redoutent le pire : “Aucune hypothèse n’est à exclure, y compris celle de l’existence chez certaines parties d’une volonté de provoquer des débordements pour justifier le rétablissement de l’interdiction de marcher dans la capitale (…) et, peut-être même ‘provoquer une déclaration de l’état d’exception’ comme suggéré par le chef d’état-major de l’ANP, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, lors de sa dernière sortie à Oran“, affirme La Liberté. Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership
The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee have officially kicked off the process for crafting the annual defense policy bill, introducing the “by request” version.
The churning of the legislative process for the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) comes despite the coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted business as usual in Congress and the country.
“As the nation grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, the committee continues to adhere to the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Sergeant at Arms and the House Attending Physician,” the Armed Services Committee said in a statement Friday.
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“During this time of uncertainty, the committee remains focused on completing the FY21 NDAA and performing rigorous oversight through formal communications and teleconferences, which can and will be accomplished while protecting the health of our members and staff,” the statement added.
The committee has been expected to consider the bill — which dictates defense policy for the year and is considered must-pass — at the end of April, with the full House voting on it in May.
The panel traditionally kicks off the process a month or so before the markup by introducing a “by request” version, which only has proposals from the Pentagon and does not reflect any work done by the committee.
The text in that version is eventually stripped out and replaced with the committee’s work.
The committee’s markup of the bill is typically its best-attended session of the year, with a hearing room packed the entire day with the nearly 60-member panel, staffers, reporters and lobbyists sitting in tightly spaced chairs — something that would not adhere to social distancing guidelines meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has started holding “paper hearings” to keep up work on the NDAA while adhering to social distancing rules.
In the paper hearings, written testimony and opening statements are being posted online and are expected to be followed a week later by senators’ written questions and witnesses’ written answers. The committee held its first hearing in that format Thursday for the secretary and chief of staff of the Army.
A sudden drop in travel due to the coronavirus could cut demand for oil by more than 50 percent.
The analysis from IHS Markit, which studies the energy market, said the oil industry could take a sustained hit as people stay close to home and forgo typical commutes along with travel plans.
“A sudden drop in miles traveled by car triggered by social isolation measures will have immediate ramifications for gasoline demand,” IHS said in its assessment.
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“The magnitude of gasoline demand decline will be much greater than the impact of the 2008 recession—and could be further protracted depending on how effective social distancing measures are,” it added.
The oil industry hasn’t just been hit hard by coronavirus implications. A trade feud between Saudi Arabia and Russia has led oil to drop to its lowest level in nearly 20 years.
But efforts to boost the industry by filling the U.S. petroleum reserve failed to get funding in the latest stimulus bills.
The low prices are likely to have reverberations elsewhere in the market.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales were down last year, a trend IHS expects to continue in the short term.
“We expect EV sales to stagnate in 2020 and likely into 2021,” the group wrote. “Global climate ambitions, however, are unlikely to be downgraded and will continue to support the path ahead for EVs over the longer term.”
Amnesty International’s new secretary-general warns that the position of human rights in the EU’s new diplomatic corps is precarious.
The European Union ought to continue to be one of the world’s most influential defenders of human rights. But to maintain this role it will have to act with confidence, agility and authority, no small challenge for a union of 27 nation states.
In theory, the rights to freedom of speech and association, immunity from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, the exemption from torture or misogynistic violence, are espoused by many nations. Unfortunately, the upholding of human rights, even among countries which were erstwhile bastions of the cause, has faltered for much of the past decade.
The EU faces an important opportunity to exercise its international clout and moral authority: it is now busy recasting the structures through which it engages with the wider world. This is surely a key moment when the promotion of human rights can be plumbed into the new architecture. But this chance will vanish if we fumble it.
How, then, ought the EU to enhance its moral stature? It will need political commitment at the highest level to put human rights at the heart of foreign and domestic policy. This process should largely be driven by the new diplomatic corps, the European External Action Service (EEAS), which will transmit EU policies to every capital.
It is easy for us to demand that this new body should embody the very best practices and be fully transparent. But it will be tougher to ensure that the EEAS actually has the mechanisms to turn rhetoric into reality. We need to be able to hold it to account for delivering on its promises. And to be a true force for good, it must have a strong human-rights directorate. Unfortunately, this key element still looks precarious, owing to resistance from some prominent EU decision-makers. The EEAS’s human-rights function must run hand-in-hand with players outside the EU institutions’ inner circle, not least civil society. Encouraging progress in this direction might still be stymied. There is also a real risk that the mooted human-rights unit will be too small to be more than a fig leaf. In fact, where in the past each of the three institutions had a human-rights unit, there will now be just one body – and it is currently in danger of being a weakling. To boost the directorate’s contribution, human-rights staff ought to be part of2 all EEAS decision-making, and the Service should appoint a prominent human-rights actor to its senior leadership. It is, of course, imperative that all EU missions abroad are staffed by diplomats well versed in human rights – something that has been true only very patchily across European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.
One of Europe’s greatest hidden assets is its power to attract migrants from around the world, not least because it offers them the promise (albeit too often illusory) of a life of dignity and fundamental rights. The continent has been enriched by the influx of people as diverse as Filipinos, Somalis and Surinamese. Too often, migrants fleeing chaos fall victim to racist violence and nationalistic disdain, egged on by populist politicians. Instead of dismissing migrants as a ‘problem’, the EU ought to take a more positive attitude and ensure that there is proper democratic and humanitarian oversight of the immigration process. We need to be clearer about how Europe’s borders are governed, including the joint operations by EU countries through the borders agency, Frontex. Too often the EU avoids its obligation to analyse each migrant’s personal circumstances by preventing migrants from even reaching the European coast.
So much for the EU’s external relations. I ought not, in closing, to overlook the inner Union and how human rights are protected there. I could focus on Roma discrimination or the dearth of counter-terrorism accountability. But let me target an issue of particular importance for the EU which consequently has a major influence on its neighbours: for over two years the Council of Ministers has signally failed to close a legal gap in its otherwise laudable anti-discrimination laws by extending them to those groups which are not currently offered that degree of protection. Talks on the anti-discrimination directive have wobbled in the face of fierce German opposition and no coalition of EU states has sponsored the directive. Unless it fills the legal gap in existing EU law, Europe will effectively be admitting that it is not taking discrimination seriously, and will allow it to persist with impunity.
Salil Shetty is the secretary-general of Amnesty International.
The NCAA is drastically cutting the amount of money it was expected to distribute to its Division I member schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that has canceled big college sporting events such as the annual men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
On Thursday, the college athletics governing board announced that it would be distributing $225 million to its 350 Division I member schools, down from the $600 million that was expected.
This isn’t surprising. In 2019, the NCAA made over $1 billion in revenue, and roughly $900 million of that came from its annual Division I men’s basketball tournament, colloquially referred to as March Madness.
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But, on March 12, the NCAA canceled March Madness as well as all of its other winter and spring championships due to the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S.
“We are living in unprecedented times not only for higher education, but for the entire nation and around the globe as we face the COVID-19 public health crisis,” Michael Drake, chair of the NCAA’s board of governors and president of Ohio State University, said in a statement.
“As an Association, we must acknowledge the uncertainties of our financial situation and continue to make thoughtful and prudent decisions on how we can assist conferences and campuses in supporting student-athletes now and into the future,” he added.
According to the statement, $50 million of the $225 million distribution will come from NCAA reserves. The rest of the money will come from the $270 million cancellation insurance policy that the NCAA will receive.
Drake added that the NCAA would be implementing various cost-cutting procedures in the coming weeks.
“The Association has prepared for a financial catastrophic event like the one we face now. While we certainly have challenges ahead, we would be in a far worse position had it not been for this long-standing, forward-focused planning,” he said.
Apple on Friday launched a website and app designed to screen for COVID-19 and provide information on the coronavirus from vetted sources.
The screening tool and informational resources were developed in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the White House-led coronavirus task force and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The app and website let users answer a series of questions, including about risk factors and symptoms, and receive CDC guidance on what steps to follow next.
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Apple said in a press release that the users will not be required to sign in to access the coronavirus software and that individual responses will not be sent to Apple or government agencies.
The company is not the only Silicon Valley giant to create new systems designed to address the coronavirus.
Google on Saturday launched a website “focused on education, prevention and local resources.”
President TrumpDonald John TrumpDefense industrial base workers belong at home during this public health crisis Maduro pushes back on DOJ charges, calls Trump ‘racist cowboy’ House leaders hope to vote Friday on coronavirus stimulus MORE originally announced that Google was creating a screening site, but that effort has actually been carried out by Verily, another Alphabet company. That service has been available in the Bay Area and plans to expand.
Health officials in Italy fear the coronavirus is slowly spreading from the northern part of the country to the south, according to The Associated Press.
While the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has started to stabilize in Italy, more and more cases are being seen in the south.
“It’s a matter of hours, not days,” the governor of the Campania region, which includes Naples, told the central government, complaining that his urgent requests for ventilators had gone unheeded. “There is a real chance of adding a tragedy of the south to the tragedy of the north.”
On March 10, the Italian government imposed one of the strictest nationwide shutdowns after an initial quarantine of a dozen small towns in the Lombardy and Veneto regions failed to stop the spread of the virus. On Thursday, Italy paused all nonessential production and industry, marking the most widespread manufacturing shutdown in the world.
As of Friday morning, Italy had more than 80,000 confirmed cases.
Though the U.S. surpassed Italy in confirmed cases Thursday, the European country still has by far the most deaths in any other Western country, with more than 8,000.