‘We Sent Her Victorious’: UK Newspapers Bid Farewell To Queen Elizabeth II
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
THE NATION
Leading Newspapers Paid Their Last Respects To Queen Elizabeth II On Tuesday, As Front Pages Across The Globe Were Dominated By The Funeral Rites And Pageantry At Westminster Abbey.
Souvenir editions featured photos of the procession led by King Charles, the late queen’s son, and his three younger siblings as they followed the gun carriage pulled by 142 Royal Navy sailors, bearing the coffin to Westminster Abbey through streets lined by the grieving public.
The Daily Telegraph was dominated by a photo of King Charles beside his mother’s coffin with the headline “An outpouring of love”.
The i newspaper took a bird’s-eye view of the pageantry, showing huge crowds lining both sides of the road with the headline “The end of the Elizabethan age”.
The Times showed soldiers from the Queen’s Company carrying the coffin into Westminster Abbey topped with the headline “Go forth upon thy journey”.
The Daily Mail’s souvenir edition titled “Her final journey” carried a photo of Queen Elizabeth’s coffin being lowered into the Royal Vault at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
“…until we meet again” said the Daily Mirror’s tribute edition, over a cropped photo of the soldiers carrying the crown-and-rose adorned coffin into the black recesses of Westminster.
The Guardian also focused on the coffin against a black background, declaring “The final farewell”.
The Sun devoted its cover pages to the solemn pageantry under the headline “We sent her victorious”. Appearing over an image of the coffin being lowered into St George’s Chapel were two headlines: “God bless the Queen” and “God save the King”.
The Metro played up a photo of the carriage carrying the coffin with a short and simple headline: “The Queen’s state funeral”.
The Financial Times ran an image of the coffin being carried into Westminster Abbey with the tribute “People of living service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer” – a quote from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s funeral sermon.
The Daily Star’s front page pictured the funeral procession with a cropped photo of Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband Prince Philip. “Side by side, together, forever” was the headline.
Singapore Couple Build Bomb-Resistant Homes In Ukraine
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Funded Privately Through Donations From Friends And Family, The Houses Are Provided To People For Free And Have Also Been Able To Create Employment Opportunities In Ukraine.
On his second trip to Ukraine in August, architect Rudy Taslim, 38, almost wandered into a forest of pine trees, before he was yanked by his collar to a halt by his local guide.
Pointing to a nondescript sign with “mine” in Ukrainian written in black paint, barely visible amid the foliage and rubble of the war-torn countryside, Taslim realised that he had nearly lost his life venturing into a field of landmines.
“Although I could have lost my life that day, this is just part of the everyday landscape for Ukrainians,” he said.
He and his wife, Lam Bao Yan, also 38, are two Singaporeans working in Ukraine to build new bomb-resistant emergency homes for the millions of citizens affected by the war with Russia.
To date, the couple has built 200 homes with local partners in the region since the war started in February.
The couple went to the country twice, in May and August, to assess the situation on the ground and build homes for a few weeks each time. They expect to roll out a total of 500 homes by winter in November.
With the winters in Ukraine getting as cold as minus 20 deg C or lower, Taslim said: “If these homes are not up by winter, the cold could kill these people even before a bullet does.”
Lam, who works with Taslim in their firm Genesis Architects, said: “When the war struck, we knew that only some fraction of the population comprising able-bodied women and children were allowed to leave… This means that men, people in rural villages and those with severe mental health conditions and physical handicaps would have likely slipped through the gaps.”
During one of their trips, the couple had heard about three children living alone in a ravaged home in the village. The trio were bereft of their parents, and the youngest – a five-year-old girl – had cerebral palsy and was being taken care of by her brother, who was only 15.
The middle child, a girl who was only eight, was vulnerable to the risk of sexual exploitation by opportunistic predators.
Lam said: “These are the people still left behind without support, who have become invisible as the world moved on from the war in Ukraine.”
While the trio have since been funded by the couple to go to school and directed to local help, Lam said most homes had also been completely destroyed, forcing residents to live in bomb shelters or makeshift tents made of tarpaulin.
Lam added: “Many of these people just live for weeks on end in bomb shelters and leave only to collect food outside. But it really is no way to live – it is dark, damp, dusty and windowless… It’s as if they’re not even human.”
Through their architectural expertise, the couple has designed modular homes that are cost-effective, using local-sourced materials such as pine wood and even styrofoam blocks that comply with European Union standards for health and safety.
Each housing module is slightly bigger than a container and comes fitted with a toilet, kitchen and living spaces. These modules can be further connected and modified to create larger homes. A family of five can live in two to three modules.
Taslim said: “Although styrofoam is often seen as this sort of fish-market, flimsy material, industrial styrofoam can be quite robust and is a cheap and light material that is also quite effective as an insulator against the cold.
“Besides this, the houses being cheap, light and modular makes it easy to manufacture these homes centrally and get them transported to places of need.”
Taslim said GenesisArchitects worked with Ukrainian suppliers to bring costs down from an initial €16,000 (S$23,000) to €4,000 per housing module.
The design plans were also shared with interested parties to build these houses by themselves.
Funded privately through donations from friends and family, the houses are provided to people for free. Taslim and Lam have also been able to create local employment in Ukraine through the building of these houses.
The occupants of these homes are chosen based on how incapable they are of moving away.
While the couple knows that their help might only be “a drop in an ocean”, Ms Lam said what matters to them is that they are actually contributing directly to the ground.
Recalling a woman who hugged her and wept when the couple rescued her after she had been living without food for a few days in a bomb shelter, Lam said: “What these people want most is to know that the world is with them, here, and that they have not been forgotten, that someone will come and save them.”
While many have sent love and support to Ukraine in the form of online messages, she said: “Ultimately, to us, love is not a word but an action… Love is a thing in the world that can be seen and felt.”
On their trips to Ukraine, the couple also took along a team of professionals such as dentists, doctors and counsellors, so that they could provide more holistic support to the people there.
Lam added: “With the skills and resources we had, building houses for Ukrainians was what we thought love and support looked like… And we would like to encourage others to imagine what love might look like if it were a thing as well.”
Long-Term Detentions At Japan’s Immigration Facilities Remain Unsolved
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
The Resolution Of Such Issues As The Long-Term Detention Of Foreign Nationals At Immigration Control Facilities Is Likely To Be Delayed, As It Has Become Certain That A Bill To Amend The Immigration Control Law Will Not Be Passed During The Current Diet Session.
The government had sought to address the problem of foreign nationals being held for a long time before being deported as a result of their illegal entry or staying in the nation too long.
On Tuesday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party told the opposition camp it would give up on passing the bill during the ongoing session. Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference on the same day that the government had submitted the bill “as a necessary measure to address urgent issues for immigration control administration, such as long-term detention.”
The number of overstayers reached 82,868 as of January this year, an increase of about 22,000 from the same month in 2015. As of the end of 2019, there were 649 foreign nationals who refused to be deported, accounting for about 70% of the 942 detainees in immigration control facilities.
Some of these detainees became ill while in custody.
To avoid prolonged detentions, the government included in the bill a system that would assign supervisors to such foreign nationals and allow them to stay outside immigration control facilities until deportation. Under the envisioned system, the Immigration Services Agency would appoint supervisors from among a person’s relatives and others.
There have been many cases in which a person made repeated applications for refugee status as a ploy to avoid deportation, so the bill also includes a rule that foreign nationals who apply for refugee status more than three times will be deported, in principle.
However, the postponement of the bill means there is no indication of when these changes could be realized.
“Ultimately we are left with the same immigration administration, which no one wanted,” Natsuo Yamaguchi, the leader of LDP’s coalition partner Komeito, said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“I wonder if the public fully understands the contents of the bill,” said Mari Kawamura, a professor of international law at Kyorin University. “[The government] should continue its efforts to protect foreign nationals who need protection, through measures including the expansion of refugee protection.”
Bangladesh Won’t Take Any More Rohingyas: Home Minister
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal On Monday Said Bangladesh Will Not Allow Any More Rohingya People From Myanmar To Enter Its Territory.
“We have already been facing problems with the Rohingya situation in Bangladesh,” he said replying to a query from journalists after attending a discussion on the fifth raising day of Anti-Terrorism Unit in the capital.
The home boss said Myanmar army is fighting with Arakan Army and firing shells and a few of those landed in Bangladesh leaving one dead and several others injured.
“We have strongly protested this. …We will continue to protest and if it does not work, we will raise the issue to the United Nations,” he said.
The minister said the prime minister and the foreign ministry will soon take a decision.
“We are peace-loving country and do not want peace to be disturbed,” he added.
Addressing the discussion Asaduzzaman Khan said militancy has been brought under control.
Inspector General of Police Benazir Ahmed said the threat of militancy is not removed completely and it will remain until the problem remains globally.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam, who was the first chief of ATU, said that ahead of the national elections when police will be busy with election duty, militancy may see a rise and advised to keep a check on that.
Referring to the repression of Palestinians, he said Muslims across the world have deprivation and resentment which is a key factor behind the rise of militancy.
Chief of ATU Additional IG SM Ruhul Amin said the unit was formed on September 19 in 2017 the backdrop of militant attacks in 2016 and 2017, but it started operation activities following the enactment of rules in 2019.
He said the ATU along with other units has brought militancy under control. Mentioning that the unit still could not reach the expected level in terms of training and equipment though it was formed five years back, he demanded government support to reach its height.
South Korean Pop Band Blackpink And American Poet Amanda Gorman Took To The United Nations Stage On Monday To Urge Action On Climate Change And Other Global Goals That Include Achieving Gender Equality And Ending Hunger And Poverty.
Gorman read a new poem in the UN General Assembly chamber in New York, a day before world leaders start making annual speeches to the 193-member body.
“I only ask that you care before it’s too late, that you live aware and awake, that you lead with love in hours of hate. I challenge you to heed this call, I dare you to shape our fate. Above all, I dare you to do good, so that the world might great,” said Gorman to a round of applause.
Gorman and Blackpink were taking part in an event to promote the 17 sustainable development goals created by the United Nations in 2015.
Speaking via video, the four members of Blackpink – UN advocates for sustainable development goals – urged people to decrease energy consumption, choose local produce and cut food waste.
“We must seize this moment and take actions to create a world that is more sustainable and leave no one behind,” Blackpink member Jennie Kim.
A U.N. climate science panel has said governments and industries should drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions to contain global warming and limit its climate impacts.
Hurricane Fiona Brings Flooding To Eastern Dominican Republic
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
After Triggering A Total Power Outage In Puerto Rico, Damage From Hurricane Fiona Was Evidenced By Boats And Debris Washed Ashore In The Town Of Ponce On Monday.
Resident, Tito Alman, told Reuters no one expected this much devastation on an island used to hurricanes.
The Category 1 hurricane will likely become a Category 3 as it moves across warm Caribbean waters toward the Turks and Caicos.
After strafing Puerto Rico, Fiona made landfall in the Dominican Republic near Boca Yuma at 3:30 a.m. local time, according to the NHC. The centre of the storm had reached the northern coast of Hispanola before noon.
In Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States, residents were still facing strong winds, frequent lightning and heavy rain.
Fiona made landfall there on Sunday afternoon, dumping up to 30 inches (76.2 cm) of rain in some areas.
The storm comes five years after the U.S. Caribbean territory was ravaged by Hurricane Maria, which triggered the worst U.S. power blackout.
Nearly 90% of Puerto Rico remained without power on Monday, according to Poweroutage.us. Officials said it would take days to reconnect the whole island of 3.3 million people.
Major Quake Strikes Mexico On ‘Cursed’ Anniversary Date
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
A Powerful Earthquake Struck Western Mexico On Monday Killing At Least One Person, Damaging Buildings, Knocking Out Power, And Sending Residents Of Mexico City Scrambling Outside For Safety.
One person was killed in the Pacific port of Manzanillo when a department store roof collapsed on them, the government said. Authorities also reported damage to several hospitals in the western state of Michoacan near the epicentre, which was in a sparsely populated part of Mexico. A person was injured by the falling glass at one of the hospitals, the government said.
The magnitude 7.6 quakes hit shortly after 1 p.m. (1800 GMT) near the western coast and close to the Michoacan border with the state of Colima – where Manzanillo is located, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.
The quake was relatively shallow, at only 15 km (9 miles) deep, which would have amplified its impact.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said there were no immediate reports of major damage in the capital after the tremors, which rumbled through Mexico on the same day as destructive quakes battered the country in 1985 and 2017.
“These things are inexplicable,” Martha Coronado, an office worker in the Cuauhtemoc borough of the city, said of the quake’s timing as helicopters flew overhead, surveying the city.
The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), one of the country’s most prestigious seats of higher learning, said there was no scientific explanation for three major quakes on the same day and attributed it to pure coincidence.
Thousands of people were killed in a Sept. 19, 1985 earthquake, and more than 350 died in another Sept. 19 quake in 2017.
Before first announcing the death in Manzanillo, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had said there was material damage near the epicentre. Images posted on social media showed buildings badly damaged.
Mexican authorities said the seismic alert had sounded nearly two minutes before the quake struck, giving residents time to evacuate their homes.
Still, some people in the capital struggled to grasp it was a real quake as the government had already sounded the alarm earlier in the day as a practice exercise commemorating the past earthquakes on the same day.
With Pomp And Sorrow, World Bids Final Farewell To Queen Elizabeth
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Britain And The World Paid A Final Farewell To The Nation’s Longest-Reigning Monarch, In A Dazzling Show Of Pomp And Ceremony On Monday.
Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was taken from Westminster Abbey to Wellington Arch in London after the state funeral, where it was transferred to a hearse to begin its journey to Windsor.
There, the procession travelled along the Long Walk past thousands of people.
Queen Elizabeth’s black pony Emma watched the monarch’s funeral procession pass by on the grounds of Windsor Castle and the queen’s two corgis, Sandy and Muick, were also brought out for the arrival of the coffin at the castle.
At St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, some 800 guests attended a more intimate committal service which concluded with the crown, orb and sceptre – symbols of the monarch’s power and governance – being removed from the coffin and placed on the altar.
Then Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was lowered into a vault at Windsor Castle, her final resting place.
As the congregation sang “God Save the King”, King Charles, who faces a huge challenge to maintain the appeal of the monarchy as economic hardship looms in Britain, appeared to be fighting back tears.
It was in the same vast building that the queen was photographed alone, mourning her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, during the pandemic lockdown, reinforcing the sense of a monarch in synch with her people during testing times.
Later on Monday evening, in private family service, the coffins of Elizabeth and Philip, who died last year aged 99, were moved from the vault to be buried together in the same chapel where her father, King George VI, mother, and sister, Princess Margaret, also rest.
Windsor Castle is the resting place of more than a dozen English and British kings and queens.
Elizabeth died on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle, her summer home in the Scottish highlands.
Carnival Magic’s Record-Breaking Theme Park Lights Up Phuket
Step into the bright lights of ‘Carnival Magic’. The world’s first Thai carnival theme park opens its doors in Phuket on the 20th of September, sparking your imagination and celebrating the vibrant cultural heritage of Thailand.
World Leaders And Royalty Pay Their Last Respects To Queen Elizabeth II Amid Scenes Of Pageantry As Britain’s Longest-Serving Monarch Is Laid To Rest.
London’s major streets and underground stations away from central areas where the state funeral is being held were eerily quiet on Monday as the usually bustling city came to a standstill for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
In the business district of Canary Wharf, dozens of people gathered around screens dotted around to watch the funeral and the procession together.
On London’s Regent street near the city’s iconic Piccadilly Circus, shops were shuttered as the country observes a public holiday that was declared for the occasion.
Leaders and royalty from all over the world have gathered in London to mourn Queen Elizabeth while millions will watch on television at home, the first funeral of a British monarch to ever be televised.
The Daily Telegraph was dominated by a photo of King Charles beside his mother’s coffin with the headline “An outpouring of love”.
The Daily Mail’s souvenir edition titled “Her final journey” carried a photo of Queen Elizabeth’s coffin being lowered into the Royal Vault at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
“…until we meet again” said the Daily Mirror’s tribute edition, over a cropped photo of the soldiers carrying the crown-and-rose adorned coffin into the black recesses of Westminster.
The Guardian also focused on the coffin against a black background, declaring “The final farewell”.
The Financial Times ran an image of the coffin being carried into Westminster Abbey with the tribute “People of living service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer” – a quote from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s funeral sermon.
SootinClaimon.Com 