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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017987

A Chicago snack is garnering attention, far beyond the neighbourhood where it is being sold, for both its name and its ingredients.

In mid-July, Joe’s Kitchen, a convenience store on the city’s West side, started stocking their shelves with ‘Jail Dip’, a dish inspired by meals inmates might fix for themselves using only items from a prison commissary.

“Noodles, rice, chilli, summer sausage, pickles, mayonnaise,” said Kevin Watson, a lifelong Chicago resident who said he’d spent some time locked up and came to enjoy, and even miss, some of the food he’d eaten during that period. “It actually tastes good,” said Watson. “Some people like to judge it beforehand, but if you actually taste it — especially if the right person cooks it or makes it — oh yeah, it’s the bomb.”

Watson said he and his friends have been making the dish for themselves regularly for awhile.

The 37-year-old claims earlier this month, they brought the idea before the manager of Joe’s Kitchen, and it wasn’t long before ‘Jail Dip’ was on shelves.

But not everyone’s pleased with the new item’s name, nor the fact that it’s being sold in Chicago’s Austin community. According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, roughly 78% of Austin residents are Black and the median income for 2015-2019 was less than $34,000 a year. 

“That isn’t cool, not at all, at least not to me and my family of Black sisters and brothers out here,” said Abdul Johnson, a Chicago resident who calls the Austin neighbourhood home. “Don’t just put it in your store and call it ‘Jail Dip’, because a lot of people in the community have been to jail, especially a lot of brothers here.”

“Boycott that place, that’s what we should do,” said Daniel Thornton, a fellow Black resident.

“If you don’t want it, you can walk past it,” said Watson, when asked what he thought about negative reactions from some in the area. “If you do want it, you can get it and eat it. It’s not harming anybody in any way. I don’t understand why there’s a problem with it being here.”

Published : July 21, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017984

US President Joe Biden plans to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, within the coming days at a moment of simmering tensions between the countries.

“Ithink I’ll be talking to President Xi within the next 10 days,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday as he returned from a climate-related trip to Massachusetts.

The long-planned call between the two leaders would come at a crucial moment given ongoing tensions over the status of Taiwan and as the Biden administration weighs a sharp reduction in tariffs on goods imported from China to help reduce inflation pressures on American consumers.

Biden cast doubt on a trip reportedly planned by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan next month, saying, “I think that the military thinks it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is.”

Published : July 21, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017983

South Korean prosecutors carried out search and seizure operations at local crypto-currency exchanges and related offices, looking for evidence of illegal practice involved in the collapse of cryptocurrency Luna in May, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

“Atotal of 15 places, including cryptocurrency exchanges and related offices, were searched on Wednesday (July 20) for proof of allegations,” a spokesperson told Reuters, without elaborating.

Investors have made fraud accusations against Korean developers Do Kwon and Daniel Shin, co-founders of blockchain platform Terraform Labs, which is affiliated with the failed crypto-currency.

Luna’s value fell to practically zero in May with the collapse of stablecoin TerraUSD, which had been pegged to the U.S. dollar and was exchangeable with Luna.

Several employees of South Korea-based Terraform Labs were put on a no-fly list last month.

Published : July 21, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017982

Reena Varma, a 90-year-old Indian woman, waved to the media and recalled her playful childhood on Wednesday, as she stood on the balcony of her birthplace in Pakistan during a long-awaited visit.

It was the first time in 75 years that Varma had seen her home and her childhood neighbourhood.

“I am feeling very happy about coming to my home after such a lot time. A very old dream of mine has come true,” said the petite, ever-smiling woman, sporting snow-white hair.

Varma has a vivid memory of the day she and her family left the two-storey home tucked away in the narrow, dark alleys of garrison city of Rawalpindi, where residents showered her with rose petals on her arrival.

She was just 14 years old at the time she left.

After spending some hours inside the house where she had lived with her parents and five siblings before the partition, Varma said she was happy to see it had not changed much.

However, her parents and siblings who have all since died never got a chance to return to the ancestral home.

Varma’s family fled to Western Indian state of Pune shortly before the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, which is known as the world’s largest migration.

After decades of attempting to get a visa, she crossed into Pakistan last week by road in the eastern city of Lahore at a border crossing that divides the arch-rival, nuclear-armed neighbouring nations.

Varma urged both countries to ease visa requirements to enable people from both countries to cross over and meet frequently.

“At least the new generation should be given a message of love so that they can try and improve things. You know, the new generation can change the government (policies). We are neighbour countries; our cultures and so many other things are the same. So, we should live in love and harmony,” she said.

The 75 years of rivalry should end now, she said as she sang an Indian song about wanting to return again and again.

The 1947 partition forced millions of families to migrate and has changed their lives ever since, after then ruling Britain ordered carving out two countries on the basis of majority Hindu and majority Muslim population areas.

The mass migration was marred by violence and bloodshed, as around 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs swapped countries in a political upheaval that cost more than a million lives.

Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947, and relations have remained tense, making it almost impossible for the people of both nations to meet and interact.

August 14 will mark 75 years since the partition split the two countries, dividing the province of Punjab roughly down the middle.

Published : July 21, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017961

Sri Lankan MPs have elected prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country’s new president. He defeated Dullus Alahapperuma, with 134 votes to 82 in the parliamentary vote.

Awin for acting president and incumbent prime minister Wickremesinghe, one of the main two contenders but opposed by many ordinary Sri Lankans, could lead to more demonstrations by people furious with the ruling elite after months of severe shortages of fuel, food and medicine.

Ruling party lawmaker Alahapperuma, is more acceptable to the protesters and the opposition but does not have any top-level governance experience in a country with barely any dollars for imports and desperately in need of an IMF bailout.

The third candidate, Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, is leader of the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna party, which commands only three seats in the 225-member parliament.

Two of ousted former prime minister Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s brothers, including former prime minister and president Mahinda Rajapaksa, as well as a nephew were in attendance as members of parliament gathered for the vote. 

Although Wickremesinghe’s party holds only one seat in parliament, sections of Sri Lanka’s ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), including the president’s brother Basil Rajapaksa.

An SLPP official said that party members felt Wickremesinghe – who is also the country’s finance minister – has a good handle on the economic challenges facing Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe was involved in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package and a new budget.

But the 73-year-old politician remains deeply unpopular among many protesters, hundreds of whom clashed with security forces and occupied his office this week.

About a hundred people protested outside the Presidential Secretariat, the office of the President of Sri Lanka as lawmakers voted in parliament to choose the next president.

Many of the hundreds of thousands on the streets who forced the ouster of previous president Gotabaya Rajapaksa last week had wanted Wickremesinghe gone too, labeling him an ally of the Rajapaksa family.

Protesters occupied the presidential secretariat earlier this month along with the official president’s residence, forcing the then incumbent Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

Protesters recently stormed Wickremesinghe’s private house and office demanding his ouster.

Published : July 20, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017958

Houses were engulfed in flames around Mount Penteli in northern Athens on Wednesday as firefighters spent the night trying to contain the blaze.

At least 485 firefighters, including a team from Romania, battled to contain a fire as night fell on Tuesday that ripped across Mount Penteli and came close to homes in the greater Athens region, some 27 kilometres north of the centre.

Four suburbs and a hospital were evacuated after orders were sent by text message and police assisted in the distancing of residents.

Special ground units, the military, and volunteers had joined the fight as 24 aircraft operating in the region ceased water drops after darkness. Firefighters worked amidst fierce winds that continued to propel the flames near homes. Orange flames formed long lines along the hillsides and the glow and smoke from the fire was seen in downtown Athens.

There were no initial reports of injuries or anyone trapped in the blaze, the Greek Fire Service said. It was not clear if any homes had been damaged.

Police closed off roads and redirected traffic, and prepared to patrol through the night and remain on standby if any other evacuations were necessary.

“All the forces in the field will remain active and will be further re-inforced with the aim of containing the fire, while air assets will be ready to begin operations at the first light of day,” said Fire Service spokesman Ioannis Artopios. Hospitals and ambulances had been put on alert, said Artopios.

Thousands of acres of land were scorched and houses burned in fires that lasted for weeks in 2021, after a prolonged heatwave. The fires prompted the government to revamp its civil protection ministry and come up with a pre-emptive readiness program for the summer, which includes bringing in firefighters from other EU nations to assist on the ground, such as the Romanian team. A German team is also stationed in central Greece.

Aerial views taken from an airplane on Tuesday showed the large trail of smoke from a fire burning in a northern suburb of Athens that filled the sky for kilometres.

Authorities ordered the evacuation of neighbourhoods in the area, some 27 kilometres north and northeast from the city centre, as flames reached dangerously close to homes and firefighting aircraft battled to keep the blaze from houses.

Residents in the area were sent phone alerts to pre-emptively evacuate their homes while fire brigade vehicles driving through the area ordered people to evacuate through loudspeakers.

Authorities had issued a fire precaution warning for Tuesday after strong winds were forecast for the country.

Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland in different parts of Greece as the country experienced its worst heatwave in 30 years.

Published : July 20, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017945

London’s firefighting authority declared a major incident in the British capital on Tuesday in response to the surge in fires amid a record-breaking heatwave in Britain and Europe.

The London Fire Brigade said it had deployed dozens of fire tenders to several blazes in and around the city, including 30 to a grass fire in east London. Television footage showed one blaze engulfing several homes in the village of Wennington to the east of the capital.

Britain recorded its highest ever temperature, breaking 40C (104F) for the first time, as a heatwave gripping Europe intensified, scorching fields and damaging airport runways and train tracks.

London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Smith said the past 48 hours had taken its toll on the service with multiple fires breaking out across the capital.

Smith said what was once regarded a once in a generation incident is now becoming far more regular.

London mayor Sadiq Khan voiced concern over the long delays it took fire brigades to respond to some calls, with its typical response time of six minutes being pushed to more than 20 minutes for the first fire trucks to arrive at a scene due to high demand.

“It’s simply not possible for the London Fire Brigade to respond to all these fires if they continue at this pace,” added Khan.

To the east of the capital, a large fire engulfed houses in the village of Wennington, some 18 miles (30km) east of the city centre with flames tearing across about 40 hectares (100 acres) of neighbouring tinder-dry fields.

“It was just completely surreal just how fast it went and how hot it was,” local man John Bishop told the BBC, adding that some pets were still unaccounted for but he believed all his neighbours were well.

A huge cloud of smoke was seen rising over a major road outside London after Britain recorded its highest ever temperature.

Eyewitness video showed thick plumes of smoke rising over the A2 in Dartford, Kent. Earlier footage showed a fire burning on a nearby field.

Elsewhere large grassland areas around the city caught alight, billowing smoke over major roads and nearby areas.

The heatwave gripping Europe intensified on Tuesday, scorching fields, damaging runways and forcing train tracks to buckle under the pressure.

Published : July 20, 2022

By : Reuters

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https://www.nationthailand.com/international/40017938

Portugal has reported more than 1,000 deaths due to the heat wave, with the health chief warning on Tuesday that the country must gear up to cope with the effects of climate change as temperatures continued to rise.

“Portugal…is among one of the areas of the globe that could be (more) affected by extreme heat,” Graça Freitas, head of health authority DGS, told Reuters. “We have to be more and more prepared for periods of high temperatures.”

Temperatures across drought-hit Portugal surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104F) last week and although they have dropped in the last few days Freitas said they remained above normal levels for the time of year.

DGS previously reported 238 excess deaths due to the heat wave from July 7 to 13 but Freitas said the number of fatalities has now increased to 1,063 up to July 18.

High temperatures, the drought and poor forest management have been blamed for several wildfires sweeping across drought-hit Portugal. Firefighters are also combating blazes in other southern European nations, including in neighbouring Spain.

Carlos Antunes, researcher at Lisbon University’s faculty of sciences, said the data showed those most likely to die due to heat waves were elderly people.

He said the number of deaths in the future will depend, among other things, on the preventive measures people adopt to protect themselves, how care homes take care of residents and the adaptation of infrastructures.

“With climate change, it is expected that this increase in mortality will intensify and therefore we have to take measures at the public health level to minimise the impact,” Antunes said in an interview.

Published : July 20, 2022

By : Reuters