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Chichen-Itzá es uno los tesoros arqueológicos de México.
Algunos son naturales y otros son culturales: la lista de lugares que son patrimonio de la humanidad se amplía cada año.
A partir del próximo 2 de julio, la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (Unesco por sus siglas en inglés) determinará en Polonia cuáles serán los nuevos lugares declarados patrimonios de la humanidad.
Los escogidos se unirán a la lista de 1.052 lugares alrededor del mundo que ya están inscritos y que incluyen construcciones o sitios históricos, parques naturales o de conservación.
Los primeros se listaron en 1977 y, a partir de entonces, cada año el comité de patrimonio de la Unesco analiza qué adiciones hacerle al exclusivo listado. Este año, hay 34 lugares nominados.
Italia encabeza la lista con 51 lugares declarados patrimonio. En América Latina, México tiene 34 lugares y es seguido por Brasil con 20 sitios y Perú con 12.
Pero no están repartidos por igual en todo el planeta: en BBC Mundo te mostramos cuáles son los siete países con mayor número de lugares patrimoniales y que se podrían convertir en un excelente destino para tus próximas vacaciones.
1. Italia: 51
Ser el centro del Imperio Romano y el corazón del Renacimiento convirtió a Italia en el país con mayor número de espacios declarados patrimonios de la humanidad: tiene 51.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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El coliseo romano es uno de los 13 patrimonios inscritos dentro del centro histórico de Roma.
Sólo el centro histórico de Roma, que incluye el Vaticano y su museo y el Coliseo, aporta 13 lugares a este listado, a los que se suman luego las plazas de Venecia, Florencia y Nápoles, entre otras ciudades.
Pero Italia no sólo vive de historia: el monte San Giorgio o la cadena montañosa de las Dolomitas, en el norte del país, también están incluidos.
2. China: 50
El país asiático, a diferencia de Italia, no tiene una concentración de lugares patrimoniales históricos. Es más bien una buena combinación de sitios de interés cultural y espacios naturales.
En total tiene 50 lugares inscritos, de los que se destacan la Gran Muralla, el palacio imperial en Pekín y el mausoleo de los guerreros de terracota.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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La gran muralla china está inscrita dentro de los lugares protegidos
Pero China también tiene un gran número de patrimonios naturales como las terrazas del valle de Huanglong o las torres naturales de calcita de Wulingyuan, en el noreste.
3. España: 45
La península ibérica fue centro de muchos movimientos a lo largo de los siglos, que le han permitido anotar en la historia una gran colección de arte rupestre, la expedición de Cristóbal Colón en 1492 para llegar al territorio americano por primera vez desde Occidente, o la invasión árabe en el sur del país.
Y tal actividad dejó un legado reconocido en el listado de la Unesco, donde España tiene 45 entradas y se ubica en el tercer lugar a nivel mundial.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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La mezquita de Córdoba hace parte de los tesoros culturales españoles.
La fabulosa mezquita de Córdoba, los palacios de la Alhambra en Granada y el Escorial, el acueducto de Segovia y las cuevas de Altamira hacen parte del tesoro histórico español que bien vale la pena visitar.
4. Francia: 42
Ya solo París bastaría para ubicar a Francia en un lugar predominante en esta lista de patrimonio de la humanidad, con su increíble Palacio de Versalles (ubicado en las afueras de la ciudad) y la catedral de Notre Dame.
Pero su extensión le permite al país europeo tener 42 sitios en total. Y además de los tesoros ubicados en la capital están los fantásticos castillos del valle de Loira, el centro histórico de Avignon y hasta los 17 modernos edificios que diseñó el genial arquitecto Le Corbusier (pero que solo cuentan como uno en la lista, porque incluye edificaciones en otros países).
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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El castillo del Chambord, en el valle de Loira, en Francia.
Sin olvidar el amor de Francia por la comida y el vino: la arquitectura de la región de Champagne, donde se produce la famosa bebida espumosa, también ha sido declarada patrimonio de la humanidad.
5. Alemania: 41
Sus castillos y sus catedrales se han convertido en un símbolo del poder y la religión alrededor del mundo.
Y muchos de ellos están entre los 41 espacios que el país ha logrado anotar en la lista de protección de la Unesco.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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La catedral de Colonia, en Alemania, es uno de los lugares más visitados del país europeo.
Los castillos de Augustusburg y el de Wartburg, junto a la imponente catedral de Colonia, hacen parte de la selección que representa a Alemania.
6. India: 35
Cada país trae una cultura que lo hace distinto, pero en India esto se vuelve más visible por su conexión entre historia y espiritualidad.
Tal vez por esa razón la Unesco haya declarado 35 lugares como patrimoniales en el país asiático. Por supuesto, la joya de la corona es el famoso Taj Mahal, ubicado en la ciudad de Agra, en el norte del país.
Pero hay mucho más: el templo del sol en Konarak, el conjunto del Fuerte Rojo en Nueva Delhi, las grutas de Ajanta en la localidad de Lenapur y ferrocarril de montaña de la India.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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Tah Majal es tal vez el mayor símbolo arquitectónico de India.
7. México: 34
Entre los Aztecas y los Mayas, a México le quedó un gran legado histórico y cultural que lo convierte en el país de América Latina con el mayor número de lugares como patrimonio.
Pero no solo por eso está ubicado en el número siete a nivel mundial.
Aunque muchos de ellos corresponden a las construcciones prehispánicas como Chichen Itzá (declarada además una de las 7 maravillas del mundo) o las ruinas de Uxmal, también está la herencia arquitectónica del paso de los españoles por México.
Derechos de autor de la imagen Getty Images
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Los barcos de Xochimilco en México son famosos alrededor del continente.
Ciudades como Oaxaca, Puebla o Xochimilco están dentro de la lista por sus iglesias y casas de gobierno que quedaron tras la independencia de México.
Pollster Frank Luntz on whether special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings will shape the 2020 presidential election.
Under federal law, Attorney General William Barr could have taken Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s long-awaited Russiagate report, shoved it in a drawer, and sent the following letter to Capitol Hill:
“Dear Congress:
“No collusion. No obstruction.
“Love,
“Bill”
Beyond that, Barr was obligated to do none of what he did on Thursday morning. He held a press conference at Justice Department headquarters, answered journalists’ questions, sent Congress redacted copies of Mueller’s 448-page “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” (on CD-ROMs), made a nearly unredacted copy (minus only legally verboten grand jury material) available for top congressional leaders to inspect, posted the document on DOJ’s public website, and freed Mueller to discuss his findings before Congress, as Democrats have demanded. Barr previously agreed to let the Senate and House judiciary committees grill him on, respectively, May 1 and 2.
Democrats have suggested that Barr has something to hide. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York stated Wednesday, “The American people deserve to hear the truth.” In fact, Barr’s behavior has been clearer than a Brooks Brothers storefront window.
The White House has been equally see-through. While President Donald J. Trump ground his molars through this 22-month-long legal root canal, he let his lawyers hand Mueller some 1.4 million pages of records and allowed administration and campaign personnel to be interrogated. Trump never asserted executive privilege, nor did he request redactions in the report.
El concepto de Naked News surgió en el año 2000, pero recientemente se agregó un plus al programa, con una clase de yoga.
La página web de Naked News publica un video de tres mujeres realizando ejercicios de yoga durante más de tres minutos.
El programa muestra a mujeres desnudas o que se van quitando la ropa mientras presentan noticias.
De acuerdo con egostastic.com la suscripción por el servicio es de seis dólares al mes, si se contrata por un año, y si es sólo por un mes, el costo es de 15 dólares.
La práctica de yoga al desnudo va adquiriendo fuerza. En Nueva York las sesiones llegan a costar 25 dólares.
“All you have to do as an American is spend $28 and the I.R.S. is going to knock on your door.”
This is misleading. This was a reference to a proposal by the Treasury Department requiring banks to report aggregate annual flows of $10,000 or more in customer accounts to better tackle tax evasion. (A previous version of the proposal suggested monitoring flows of $600.) Wages and federal benefits are exempt from the reporting requirement, and banks will not report individual transactions. But this proposal did not make its way into the social spending bill.
In a fact sheet, the Treasury Department said it was a “misconception” that all Americans would face greater scrutiny under the proposal.
Michelle Nessa, an accounting professor at Michigan State University and expert on tax audits, said that the bank reporting requirement was “unlikely to meaningfully increase audit risk for most people.”
What Mr. McCarthy Said
“We’re going to take taxes from you so somebody who makes $800,000 can get a tax break to buy a Tesla.”
False. The Democrats’ bill would increase tax credits for electric vehicles to $12,500 from $7,500 if the car is made in the United States with union labor and if its battery is also produced domestically. The credits cover sedans that cost up to $55,000 and zero-emission vans, SUVs and trucks that cost up to $80,000, so the Tesla Model 3, which starts in the mid-$40,000s, would qualify.
But the hypothetical almost-millionaire in Mr. McCarthy’s example would not qualify, as only individuals making $250,000 or less (and joint filers making $500,000 or less) can claim the credits under the bill.
What Mr. McCarthy Said
“More than one million people who lost their job after President Biden was sworn in because he shut down a pipeline. ”
WASHINGTON — White House officials are closely tracking the political activity of at least half a dozen Democrats seen as potential alternatives to President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.
The administration appears to be parsing the words and deeds of the rising Democrats across the nation, deploying a charm offensive in response to those who seem to be getting a bit too ambitious on their own.
The strategy — which some Democrats close to the White House say leans too heavily on soft power, and lacks a traditional enforcer — hasn’t been especially effective. Biden hasn’t been able to stop Democrats from raising their national profiles or silence doubts within the party about his inevitability.
This article is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former White House officials, lawmakers, Democratic donors and other sources close to the Biden operation.
When Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California gained traction by dabbling in national politics, the White House was quick to host them at separate events.
In Washington this month, Newsom assured White House chief of staff Ron Klain in a private conversation that he is “not interested” in running for president in 2024, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
On Capitol Hill, Biden and top White House officials have had to spend time co-opting progressive critics who have also spurred talk of 2024 ambitions, including Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., with private praise.
And inside the West Wing, the Biden press team has compiled a list of quotes from would-be rivals insisting they back the president. (Pritzker, Khanna and Newsom’s remarks are all from the same article in early July.)
“Nobody likes seeing somebody taking out coffins for you. It’s just like — ‘Not so fast. I’ll make this decision,’” Democratic donor John Morgan said. “It’s like they’re going to the swim meet and Biden is the defending gold medalist. But they all got their swimsuits on underneath the pants. They’re ready to get up there and jump as soon as he says ‘go.’ They can’t be walking around the arena just in a swimsuit because that would really piss Biden off.”
The keep-frenemies-close approach is a sign that the White House is more worried about his potential rivals drawing contrasts with him on policy, which they’ve done, according to Biden allies. Several White House officials insisted in interviews that the administration is not concerned with or preoccupied by the possibility of a rare intraparty challenge for an incumbent president.
But the tactic also reflects the limits of the White House’s power at a time when Biden’s approval ratings are in the tank and as many as three-quarters of Democrats tell pollsters they would prefer a different nominee in 2024.
And with the president making a quick recovery from Covid and striking a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to enact more of the White House agenda, the White House is revisiting plans for what it says will be a robust travel schedule this fall on behalf of Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
That belies a recognition, sources close to the White House political operation say, that the president is at a weak political moment — including Biden himself. When a reporter asked the president recently what his message was to Democrats who don’t want him to seek a second term, the president snapped back: “Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same. That poll showed that 92% of Democrats, if I ran, would vote for me.”
But in the poll Biden cited, conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, 64% of Democrats reported that they would rather the party nominate someone other than him. That figure was at 75% in a CNN poll published Wednesday.
Such polls provide an obvious incentive for other Democrats to start warming the engines of their campaign machines. But White House allies say there’s no opening.
“This is bordering on stupidity,” said Democratic strategist Philippe Reines, a longtime adviser to Hillary Clinton. “If for any reason Biden’s not at the top of the ticket, good luck to anyone denying Kamala the nomination. Especially a white guy,” he said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Still, some Biden allies worry that he isn’t equipped temperamentally to crush potential threats himself, and say that he hasn’t outfitted his political operation with an invaluable tool: a hatchet man.
In 2012, then-President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign worked to pre-empt a possible challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager, said in an interview. He used then-Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid as an intermediary to “shut down Bernie” and dissuade him from running.
“There’s no hammer,” in Biden’s camp, one former Biden White House official lamented.
“There’s no one in the administration anyone is afraid of,” a longtime Biden ally added. “They don’t have an enforcer inside the White House that anybody takes seriously.”
Without that leverage, the White House has struggled to shut down narratives that Biden, at 79, is too old or too politically weak to run for re-election. And that puts him in danger of being viewed as a lame duck in just the second year of his term.
Biden himself has used more honey than vinegar in approaching the 2024 potential hopefuls.
In the wake of the July Fourth mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, the president invited Pritzker to the Oval Office where they discussed the need for broader gun reform and he again offered the city any federal resources that were needed, according to Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering, who was also in the meeting.
But Biden then took a moment to heap praise on the governor, who just a week earlier suggested that the president could face a primary and that there is historical precedent for it, though he added that he wasn’t encouraging a challenge.
“You guys have a great governor in Illinois,” Biden said, according to a person who was briefed on the meeting. “He’s passing what we need to pass in D.C. and across the nation.”
Biden then took photos with the group and they sat on the patio before walking out to the event together.
Top Pritzker aides had also called the White House’s external affairs team before the governor headed to New Hampshire in June, realizing the optics of the visit. Along with the heads-up, aides shared a video clip of the governor publicly stating he wasn’t interested in running against Biden, according to a person with direct knowledge of the communications.They did the same before Pritzker’s subsequent address to Florida Democrats, during which he lobbed attacks on Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Those trips only generated more headlines and speculation about 2024.
While sources close to Newsom say that he could easily change his mind about running in 2024, he has nonetheless made it a point to try to scuttle speculation about presidential ambitions in conversations with party insiders.
“He said he’s not running,” said Christine Pelosi, a Democratic National Committee member from California and daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who texted Newsom earlier this month to ask about his plans.
“He’s just frustrated at the way that Republicans have been able to take over this debate [on certain issues] and how Democrats have to fight harder to take it back and showcase our successes,” she added. “That’s what he said.”
Biden has recently been drawing sharper contrasts with former President Donald Trump, who could announce a 2024 bid before November’s midterm elections, to signal to Democrats who question his political viability that he’s the one who can beat Trump.
In virtual remarks to law enforcement officers Monday — the day before Trump returned to Washington to deliver a “law and order” speech — Biden slammed the former president over the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-cop,” Biden said. The event was one where he had been scheduled to speak in person, part of a planned two-city swing in the key battleground of Florida that was to also include his first campaign rally of the midterms. The Democratic National Committee said that trip would be rescheduled.
Trump is the backbone of Biden’s argument to fellow Democrats that he’s their best bet for holding the White House.
“I maintain that you can’t get into [the] Trump contrast too soon. It’s the best backdrop for us,” one White House official said. “Gavin Newsom has a more compelling argument about why he would beat Trump?”
In a Yahoo! News/YouGov survey earlier this month, Biden held a 42% to 40% lead over Trump. Newsom edged Trump 40% to 39%, while Harris tied with Trump at 41%.
Terry McAuliffe, a former governor of Virginia and an ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee, shot down any notion of a primary challenge.
“The president has said he’s running for re-election. His staff are preparing for him to run for re-election and we all need to rally behind Joe Biden. With Democrats, there’s this constant state of negativity,” said McAuliffe, who is being considered for a Cabinet or other senior position in the Biden administration.
He also noted that elected officials have a lot at stake in taking on a sitting president.
“Every Democratic governor wants to keep the White House and the president on their good side. They want one of these new [computer] chip plants in their state. They want to make sure they get infrastructure money and they’re not going to do anything that would jeopardize their relationship with the White House.”
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La información falsa en internet que se distribuye a través de redes sociales ha obligado a las grandes compañías como Facebook a intensificar las acciones en contra de prácticas como clickbait y noticias sin corroborar, principalmente después de la información difundida en la campaña de Donald Trump para ganar las elecciones presidenciales en Estados Unidos.
En lo que va del 2017, Facebook publicó una guía para combatir la desinformación, sumó esfuerzos en contra de los titulares exagerados y sensacionalistas, terminó los incentivos económicos para las páginas que comparten este contenido, además de integrar opciones para reportar las publicaciones sospechosas.
La nueva actualización de la red social de Mark Zuckerberg es reducir el spam que genera un pequeño grupo de personas en la sección de noticias, ya que incluyen contenido de mala calidad que afecta la experiencia de la comunidad, además le restará prioridad a esas publicaciones (links), pero no a los dominios, páginas, videos, fotos, check-ins o actualizaciones de estado.
Según Facebook, las fan pages no tendrán cambios significativos para distribuir la información con esta actualización, aunque los productores de contenido que comparten una gran cantidad de publicaciones todos los días podrán ver una reducción en el alcance de links específicos, por lo que recomendó publicar historias relevantes e informativas para sus lectores.
Facebook sigue siendo la red social favorita de los mexicanos y en junio alcanzó los 2,000 millones de usuarios activos en el mundo, por lo que incrementó de 4,500 a 7,500 el número de censores que supervisan las publicaciones de los usuarios. Este grupo de personas revisa el contenido de los usuarios, empresas y asociaciones para corroborar que concuerden con las reglas de la comunidad (que no son públicas) y en caso de tener, por ejemplo, un discurso de odio, eliminarlo.
La línea que está marcando Facebook en cuanto a contenido es impactante, ya que tiene la capacidad de decidir cuáles son los contenidos que los usuarios deben o no ver, aplicando el algoritmo a los posts, censurar contenido o limitar su alcance.
Twitter: @pegatinaa
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But senior commanders decided to depart unannounced roughly 24 hours earlier, partly because of stormy weather forecast for Tuesday but also to build in a cushion in case of any snags, military officials said, including further attacks by ISIS-K.
Understand the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan
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Who are the Taliban? The Taliban arose in 1994 amid the turmoil that came after the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan in 1989. They used brutal public punishments, including floggings, amputations and mass executions, to enforce their rules. Here’s more on their origin story and their record as rulers.
Who are the Taliban leaders? These are the top leaders of the Taliban, men who have spent years on the run, in hiding, in jail and dodging American drones. Little is known about them or how they plan to govern, including whether they will be as tolerant as they claim to be.
In the final hours of the evacuation, American surveillance and attack aircraft locked down the skies over Kabul, circling high overhead until the last transport plane was aloft.
“Job well done,” said Maj. Gen. Chris Donahue, the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne, who was on the last plane out. “Proud of you all.”
A military official said that every American who wanted to leave and could get to the airport was taken out. But a number of Americans, thought to be fewer than 300, remain, either by choice or because they were unable to reach the airport.
But the evacuation did not reach all those Afghans who had assisted the United States over the years, and who now face possible Taliban retribution. An unknown number of those who made it through the tortuous process for special visas granted to American collaborators never even made it to the airport, much less onto an evacuation flight.
“Because I worked with the Americans, I won’t be able to put food on my table, and I won’t be able to live in Afghanistan,” said one special visa holder, Hamayoon, in an interview on Monday from Kabul. “I risked my life for many years, working for the Americans, and now my life is at even greater risk.”
“[McCarthy] obviously has the ability to remove people from leadership or remove people from the conference,” Kinzinger said, pointing to House Republicans stripping Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) of her leadership position. “I hope he does.”
McCarthy condemned Greene on Tuesday, saying her comments were “appalling” and “wrong” but not taking any disciplinary action.
Greene, a first-term lawmaker, has been highly controversial, having already been stripped of her committee assignments for endorsing posts calling for violence against Democrats and suggesting school shootings were a hoax. McCarthy previously declined to remove Greene from her committees, offering just to reassign her, saying she made the comments before she was in office.
Kinzinger hasn’t been afraid of laying into Trump-friendly firebrands like Greene, as he was one of 11 Republicans who voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.
Kinzinger has made waves as one of the few Republican lawmakers to consistently rebut Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. After being one of 10 Republican House lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump this year, Kinzinger has become one of his most prominent GOP critics, along with Cheney, who lost her leadership post over her criticism of the former president.
Kinzinger said on Tuesday that he wouldn’t support McCarthy for House speaker as of now.
“This country deserves people that are going to do tough things and tell the truth,” Kinzinger said.
McCarthy originally said Trump “bears responsibility” for the Jan. 6 riots butless than two weeks later said that “I don’t believe he provoked it.”
Kinzinger said he’d “love” to see Cheney as speaker, and said that there were many other good candidates but declined to name them, saying it could be “damaging to their prospects.”
Kinzinger unloaded on McCarthy throughout the event, saying he had been putting loyalty to Trump over loyalty to members of his conference, going back to as early as last summer, or even before. Kinzinger said McCarthy would often defend Trump after his “berzerk” statements.
“When the former president would attack Liz [Cheney] or whatever the issue du jour was, Kevin would defend the president. That’s a backwards role,” Kinzinger said.
He also said McCarthy ignored his warnings, in a conference call with the Republican conference days before Jan. 6, that questioning the election results could result in violence. He said he hadn’t had a “frank” talk with McCarthy since before Jan. 6.
A spokesperson for McCarthy didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Republican Party has been grappling with its future, and so far, those backing Trump have been winning out. The former president still enjoys broad support among GOP voters, with 80 percent of Republicans viewing him favorably, according to aPOLITICO/Morning Consult poll last month.
Kinzinger has argued that sticking with Trump is detrimental for the party in the long term. On Tuesday, he acknowledged that Trump is winning the war so far, but said it’s not over yet.
Image caption
La amistad entre rusos y noruego en Kirkenes se remonta a la liberación del pueblo por el Ejército Rojo, en la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Aquí, funcionarios de ambos países conmemoran el 70 aniversario del acontecimiento.
Los compradores rusos llenan sus supermercados, los barcos rusos se amontonan en su bahía y sus museos celebran al Ejército Rojo. Sin embargo, el pequeño pueblo de Kirkenes no queda en Rusia, sino en Noruega.
Es una pequeña burbuja de amistad transfronteriza en un país miembro de la OTAN. Ahora, el despido de un conocido periodista local deja a la vista la fragilidad de esta relación especial.
La salvaje y desolada costa del Océano Ártico es un entorno ideal para el periodista Thomas Nilsen, especializado en temas ambientales. Con pelo canoso pero con una intensidad juvenil, delgado y fuerte, es del tipo de personas a las que les va la vida al aire libre.
Nada le gusta más que explorar las ensenadas rocosas y los bosques pantanosos que se extienden entre el lejano norte de su nativa Noruega hasta la adyacente península rusa de Kola. Los recorre a pie, en esquí, en lanchas o canoas.
Ha sido un activista ambiental y guía para viajes de aventura además de periodista. Pero todo su trabajo ha implicado juntar y acercar a rusos y noruegos.
Image caption
Thomas Nielsen fue sorpresivamente despedido de su periódico.
Nilsen vive en el pequeño pueblo de Kirkenes, donde hasta hace poco editaba un periódico en Internet, el Barents Observer, con la misión de derribar las barreras en una región que fue una de las más peligrosas y sensibles durante la Guerra Fría.
Submarinos rusos con ojivas nucleares aún tienen sus bases justo al otro lado de la frontera.
Kirkenes se ha convertido en lo que Nielsen califica como “un laboratorio de contactos Este-Oeste”.
Ciudadanos de ambos países disfrutan de la posibilidad de viajar a través de la frontera sin necesidad de visa. Los rusos compran en Kirkenes pañales, ropa y una amplia variedad de alimentos, gracias a lo cual contribuyen a la bonanza de la economía local. Algunos incluso se han mudado al pueblo para vivir y trabajar.
Mientras tanto, los noruegos van a Rusia a comprar combustible barato y vodka, a cortarse el cabello y a consultas con el dentista.
“Esto es: norte alto – tensiones bajas”, dice Nilsen para referirse a la política del gobierno de Noruega para la región. “Es un eslogan, pero también es algo muy serio para Noruega, porque Noruega es un país muy pequeño. Somos cinco millones de habitantes y somos vecinos del país más grande del mundo”.
Ahora algunos temen que esa relación está en riesgo y, en parte, están preocupados por lo que ocurrió con Thomas Nilsen.
El mes pasado, él fue repentinamente despedido de su cargo de editor del Barents Observer durante un pleito con sus propietarios, un grupo de consejos locales del norte de Noruega, sobre libertad editorial.
El desacuerdo surgió, según Nilsen, de la cobertura que el diario hacía sobre Rusia, particularmente por un artículo que él escribió durante la crisis de Ucrania criticando la creciente mano dura del presidente ruso Vladimir Putin sobre medios de comunicación y organizaciones no gubernamentales.
“El jefe de la directiva me llamó a su oficina y dijo: ‘estás despedido, por favor, recoge tus cosas y abandona la oficina al final del día’. Estoy muy frustrado por el hecho de que algo así haya ocurrido en Noruega en el año 2015”.
En Noruega, un país que se enorgullece de su libertad de prensa, el incidente se convirtió en un asunto de impacto, en especial después de que la empresa de radiodifusión estatal, NRK, asegurara que el servicio secreto ruso, el FSB, había exigido la remoción de Nilsen.
Una acusación que negó airadamente la embajada rusa en Oslo. Pero Nilsen asegura que el cónsul general de Rusia en Kirkenes le dijo: “Hay algunos hechos en el Barents Observer que no tienen del todo contento a Moscú”.
Nilsen dice no creer que un político noruego pueda recibir órdenes de Rusia. “Es más la estupidez de los dueños porque no quieren dañar una relación fronteriza tradicionalmente buena”.
Los dueños del diario dicen que el despido de Nilsen no tuvo nada que ver con la cobertura de Rusia y que nunca han estado en contacto con funcionarios rusos.
No obstante, queda el interrogante de si la compleja red de vínculos fronterizos podrá sobrevivir la actual tensión Este-Oeste, tras las sanciones de Occidente contra Rusia y la prohibición de Moscú a las importaciones de alimentos de Occidente.
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La alcaldesa Cecilie Hansen se crio a poca distancia de la frontera y cruza con frecuencia a Rusia.
La amistad de los vecinos se remonta al final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando las tropas soviéticas liberaron a Kirkenes de la ocupación alemana.
La escritora Olaug Bye Gamnes, que ya tiene 80 años, recuerda viéndolos llegar en octubre de 1944, cuando era una niña de nueve años. “Los considerábamos nuestros salvadores”, afirma.
“Durante el año que se quedaron, proveyeron a la población de comida. Iban hasta Rusia para traerla. No desalojaron a la gente de sus casas, como sí lo hicieron los alemanes. Ellos mismos se quedaban en carpas y dejaban que la población ocupara lo que quedaba de los edificios”.
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Los nazi ocuparon Kirkenes y construyeron búnkeres para repeler a los ejércitos aliados.
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La escritora Olaug Bye Gamnes recuerda el avance del Ejército Rojo a Kirkenes, cuando era niña.
Más tarde, durante la Guerra Fría, las relación se congeló. La saliente alcaldesa de Kirkenes, Cecilie Hansen, se crio a poca distancia de la frontera, pero no la cruzó hasta que tuvo 14 años.
Ahora va a Rusia regularmente y, el año pasado, 320.000 rusos cruzaron a Kirkenes. Para darles la bienvenida, muchos avisos están escritos en ruso, especialmente en los tres centros comerciales del pueblo.
Hansen señala que ellos compran alcohol caro en Noruega, mientras que los noruegos compran sus bebidas alcohólicas en Rusia.
Image copyright Getty
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Muchos avisos en Kirkenes están escritos en rusos.
“Los rusos confían en los productos noruegos pero cuando vamos a Rusia a nosotros no nos importa. Mientras sea barata y tenga un alto contenido de alcohol no nos importa qué tiene adentro”, afirma.
Lo que es vital para la economía local es la cooperación en los sectores de petróleo y gas.
Una empresa noruega, Norterminal, organiza el traslado de petróleo ruso a buques cisterna occidentales en el fiordo de Kirkenes, porque resulta poco rentable que los tanqueros rusos -hechos para romper el hielo del Ártico, trasporten el crudo más hacia el occidente.
Aunque el comercio de petróleo no está directamente afectado por las sanciones, sí lo está la cooperación técnica en el sector. Eso ha estancado los proyectos de desarrollo de los vastos yacimientos recientemente descubiertos en el mar de Barents.
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Odd Arne Haueng, de la empresa Norterminal, reconoce las dificultades que se han dado en el sector de cooperación técnica.
“El desafío ahora con las sanciones es el declive por el que están pasando muchos negocios”, comenta Odd Arne Haueng de Norterminal. “Y si se va a emprender algún negocio, se tiene que estar preparado para lo que venga. Muchos empresarios simplemente se dan por vencidos”.
Menos rusos han llegado a Kirkenes este año. La alcaldesa Hansen, dice que se debe en parte por la devaluación del rublo pero también puede ser por un creciente ambiente antioccidental al otro lado de la frontera.
Los pescadores noruegos que solía exportar a Rusia se han llevado lo peor de las sanciones en represalia de Moscú.
Sin embargo, todavía prospera un negocio en Bugoynes, al oeste de Kirkenes, donde cangrejos gigantes -algunos de 1,5 metros- son empacados y transportados vivos a algunos de los restaurantes más exclusivos del mundo, bajo la supervisión de un biólogo marino, Roman Vasiliev.
Este tipo de cangrejo fue introducido originalmente en la región, en los años 1960, por científicos soviéticos y considerado entonces por los noruegos como una especie invasora que estaba destruyendo el ecosistema.
Image copyright Alamy
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El cangrejo gigante fue inicialmente introducido por los rusos.
Un tiempo después, los pescadores locales se dieron cuenta del valor que representaba su pesca. “Yo los llamaría un regalo de Rusia a Noruega”, indica Vasiliev, aunque reconoce que los animales, que fácilmente pueden aplastar el dedo de una persona, son peligrosos.
“Luchan hasta la muerte. ¡De alguna forma se parecen a los rusos!”, ríe. Es una broma, por supuesto, pero en el actual clima político es un poco incómoda.
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El biólogo marino ruso Roman Vasiliev llama el cangrejo “un regalo de Rusia a Noruega”.
Thomas Nilsen, el periodista, ahora está montando una publicación online propia para cubrir la actualidad de la región.
Acusa a las autoridades rusas de “crear desconfianza contra Occidente” y rechaza cualquier sugerencia de que lo los medios noruegos debieran mantener el silencio en cuanto a los problemas en Rusia en aras de las buenas relaciones.
No obstante, espera que cualquier frialdad entre los gobiernos ruso y noruego no dañe la amistad transfronteriza que la gente que vive en el lejano norte alto ha forjado.
“Este laboratorio aquí comprueba que la cooperación es importante“, asegura. “Eso es especialmente cierto en tiempos problemáticos, cuando soplan vientos fríos entre el Este y el Oeste”.
Robert Mueller has delivered his report on the Trump-Russia investigation to Attorney General William Barr. Sometime soon, perhaps within hours, Barr will send the report’s “principal conclusions” to Congress. It will first go to the chairperson and ranking member of both the House and Senate Judiciary committees. It is unclear what will happen after that, but certainly other lawmakers will see the document, and there will be a steady stream of leaks of what is in the report.
The Mueller investigation is over, and it is apparently the case that Mueller does not recommend any new indictments.
At this point, it is not possible to say what is in the report. But even at this early moment, it is possible to note some things did not happen during the Mueller investigation.
1. Mueller did not indict Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, or other people whose purported legal jeopardy was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
2. Mueller did not charge anyone in the Trump campaign or circle with conspiring with Russia to fix the 2016 election, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
3. Mueller did not subpoena the president, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
4. The president did not fire Mueller, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year.
5. The president did not interfere with the Mueller investigation, as was the subject of intense media speculation in the last year. In his letter to Congress, Barr noted the requirement that he notify lawmakers if top Justice Department officials ever interfered with the Mueller investigation. “There were no such instances,” Barr wrote.
So Mueller is finished. Not long after the news broke, Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts said, “The feeling [at the White House] right now is that this is finally over.” Yes and no. Mueller’s decision to file a report and not to recommend any more indictments does not mean that the broader Trump-Russia investigation is over. Anticipating just this possibility, House Democrats ramped up new Trump-Russia investigations in recent weeks to make sure that it will never be over. There is little doubt that such investigations will still be going, at least until the 2020 elections.
Según el Art. 60 de la Ley Orgánica de Comunicación, los contenidos se identifican y clasifican en:
(I), informativos; (O), de opinión; (F), formativos/educativos/culturales; (E), entretenimiento; y (D), deportivos.
While Delta does not fly the 737 Max, “I hope it doesn’t set us back as an industry,” Bastian said during remarks at Aviation Week Network’s MRO Americas conference being held at the Georgia World Congress Center this week.
“I’m confident that Boeing will solve this issue,” Bastian said. “I think there will, no question, be lessons learned from this…. I think we’ll all learn from it.”
When asked if the Boeing 737 Max grounding raises issues about the relationship between the industry and regulators, Bastian said: “No question, it’s going to open up a lot of questions.”
Delta, which has a large aircraft maintenance operation, is among the airlines with an Organization Designation Authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, authorizing it to conduct some functions normally done by the FAA. The FAA says it “remains directly involved in the testing and certification of any new and novel features and technologies.”
The FAA’s relationship with airlines and manufacturers has come under scrutiny in the wake of the 737 Max crashes.
Bastian said Tuesday: “We gotta get out of the world of cops and robbers. We’re all on the same path here, and the better information and the more transparency we can offer on both sides…. the safer our customers are.”
The 737 Max crisis has also affected other priorities at Boeing.
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Delta is interested in a new aircraft Boeing is developing, currently dubbed the New Midsize Airplane, or NMA.
“We’ve talked with Boeing at some length about the NMA. Clearly they’re distracted, obviously, with the issues that happened with the Max,” Bastian said.
At Delta, “we have a big need. We have 200 757s and 767s that will be retired over the next decade, and we think the NMA would be a perfect candidate to replace many of those airplanes,” Bastian said. “Relative to Boeing, we’ve made our interest known and we’ve talked publicly about this in terms of having an interest to be one of the launch customers. And I hope we can get into deeper conversations soon.”
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren wasn’t the first major American politician to put the idea of a tax on large fortunes on the political agenda.
Indeed, it’s been kicking around in one form or another since the late 1990s, when an influential then-independent rolled out a proposal that he framed as a way to reduce the national debt while preserving the interests of the 99 percent.
Here’s how the plan’s architect described it: “By my calculations, 1 percent of Americans, who control 90 percent of the wealth in this country, would be affected by my plan. The other 99 percent of the people would get deep reductions in their federal income taxes.”
His name? Donald Trump.
The Trump plan for debt elimination
Trump’s plan, as articulated during a 1999 flirtation with a Reform Party presidential bid, differed from Warren’s in three important respects.
One, he wanted the tax to be a one-time levy that would reduce the national debt and therefore reduce interest service payments. That reduction in payments would be the enduring win for the middle class, while rich people would just pay the tax once and then forget it. Warren’s plan would simply levy a smaller tax each year.
Two, he wanted a fairly hefty rate — 14.5 percent — that would have required a lot of rapid-fire liquidation of business assets. Warren’s rate structure is much lower than that.
Three, he set the threshold for his tax lower. While Warren wants to tax fortunes worth more than $50 million, Trump proposed taxing wealth starting at $10 million. This was in 1999, and there’s been some inflation since then, but even in inflation-adjusted dollars, the Trump tax cutoff is a bit below $15 million.
What’s more, Warren has a progressive rate structure: Assets worth between $50 million and $1 billion would be taxed at 2 percent, and assets above $1 billion taxed at 3 percent tax. Trump’s tax is flat but starts lower, so he soaks the kinda-sorta rich more relative to the super-duper rich. The plan didn’t really make a ton of sense, but it does underscore one reason that very wealthy people express a lot of anxiety about the national debt.
Trump’s plan had some problems — and some insight
One major issue with wealth taxes historically has been that actually collecting the funds is relatively difficult — financial assets are highly portable, and the rich people who own them have a strong incentive to find ways to avoid paying.
Warren’s proposal contains a few ideas to try to curb avoidance — including the simple but important step of increasing IRS funding — though, of course, there are no guarantees.
Trump’s one-time wealth tax would suffer from all the same challenges as Warren’s, except that by setting the rate much higher while also making it a one-time tax, he created enormous avoidance incentives and never came up with a plan to deal with them.
Perhaps more importantly, the whole concept of dedicating a massive effort to reducing the federal debt overhang is somewhat dubious. Trump’s idea was that paying off the national debt would reduce federal interest rate costs, allowing for a middle-class tax cut. Instead, the debt volume has increased dramatically since 1999, but federal debt service payments as a share of GDP are actually lower than they were back then, since interest rates have fallen dramatically.
Relatively little of that debt accrual took the form of middle-class tax cuts — Bush’s regressive tax cuts, a couple of wars, a major recession, and a new round of regressive Trump tax cuts were the bigger player — but if we’d wanted to enact a big middle-class tax cut in 1999, we could have just done that, rather than fussing around with exotic taxes.
However, Trump’s thinking here does raise an important point. If the country continues to be nonchalant about the deficit, there is at least some chance that at some future point, debt service costs will spike unexpectedly. And if that does happen, some kind of quick soak-the-rich tax scheme would be an attractive means of reducing those costs. So if you happen to be a very wealthy person, it makes a lot of sense to worry about long-term debt accumulation (because if it goes badly, you are likely to be stuck with the bill) and to prefer instead that we slowly but surely reduce the deficit by cutting retirement programs.
The issue is rarely debated squarely in those terms, but Trump floated essentially what would be a reasonable approach to dealing with a debt crisis. And very rich people tend to want to avoid that outcome.
The city’s latest seven-day average for new COVID cases came to 5,731 on Friday, the latest day for which data were available, marking “astounding growth,” de Blasio said. The figure was 2,389 on Dec. 4, according to the city Health Department.
Dilma exchanges gifts with WEF founder, Klaus Schwab
Brasilia – Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said the country offers plenty opportunities for business and that Brazil’s success in the coming years is closely tied to partnerships with foreign and domestic investors. She spoke this Friday (24) at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Dilma emphasized that Brazil has always welcomed foreign investments. “Aspects of the recent conjuncture should not obscure reality. Brazil more than needs and more than welcomes partnerships with the domestic and foreign private sector,” she said.
She added that investments in infrastructure must face the challenge generated by decades of underinvestment, worsened by the increase in population demand in recent years.
The Brazilian president spoke about concessions. “The aim is to add resources, increase efficiency and perfect the management of services associated to these works. Private consortiums that are participating in the concessions are related to great national and international companies,” she declared, referring to the recent bids for roads, airports and the new regulatory framework of the Brazilian port system.
Dilma emphasized the importance of improving railways to help exports of mineral ores and grains. She noted that in 2014 there will be the first railway bid for the Midwestern region of Brazil.
In relation to urban mobility, the president mentioned investments worth US$ 62 billion in subways, monorails and light rail. “One of the greatest challenges is to create a modern network that is compatible with the continental size of the country,” she said.
About oil, Dilma said that the bid for the Libra Field, in the southeast coast of Brazil, in 2013, led to a turnover expectation of US$ 8 billion, a sum which will affect the entire oil and natural gas productive chain.
The issue of using oil royalties for education was also raised during her speech. “We will transform finite richness into perennial heritage for the population: education,” she declared.
Emerging countries
When speaking about trade, the president said that it was time to overcome defensive disputes and acknowledge the sector’s role in economic recovery. “A new global economic growth cycle is beginning. As the crisis begins to fade away, a new outlook on emerging countries will take shape. With a long-term strategy focused on investments, education and productivity, we hope for an even better recovery of this international crisis.”
Remy Steinegger/WEForum
Tombini: there is space for growth in Brazil
Dilma emphasized that the emerging economies, such as Brazil, are fundamental for global economic recovery. She believes it is premature to assert that these countries will lose strength with the end of the international crisis.
“We are speaking of countries with the greatest opportunities for investments and consumption increase. Countries that need diversified logistics infrastructure, social and urban infrastructure, energy, oil, gas, mineral ores, industrial and agricultural investments. We are societies going through a strong process of social changes, where new, dynamic markets are formed, internal markets formed by hundred millions and, in some cases, billion consumers,” she stated.
Before her, the president of the Brazilian Central Bank, Alexandre Tombini, said in Davos that the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by about 2% in 2013 is insufficient, but noted that there is space for growth, particularly by supplying manufactured products.
“It was not good enough. We have to do more, move forward. The government has a wide range of areas to work on. We have a broad infrastructure agenda – airports, great games coming up (2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games) -, emphasizing on education, on a pro-growth agenda. We are very well organized in this sense,” declared Tombini.
According to information from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the GDP of Brazil increased by 2.2% in the third quarter of 2013.
Kuwait City – The Second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria takes place this Wednesday (15), in Kuwait City, but on Tuesday (14), humanitarian help entities and governments had already announced donations they will be making this year for the population affected by the civil conflict in Syria. In an event prior to the start of the conference, held in the Kuwaiti capital city, Arab charity institutions have committed to donating US$ 400 million for the assistance of the Syrian population.
Alexandre Rocha/ANBA
Syrian children are threatened by polio
According to information of the government run Kuwait News Agency (Kuna), the resources shall be used for helping refugees abroad and people dislocated within Syria itself due to the war. The meeting was promoted by the International Islamic Charitable Organization, which is based in Kuwait.
According to Kuna, entities in Kuwait shall donate US$ 142 million, the British Islamic Charity Organization has announced a donation of over US$ 80 million, the Red Crescent of the United Arab Emirates shall be donating more than US$ 35 million and the Thani Foundation, of Qatar, offered US$ 15 million.
Also according to Kuna, the European Commission, executive body of the European Union, released this Tuesday that it plans on donating more than 160 million euro to meet basic needs, ensure education for the children and support neighboring countries who receive Syrian refugees.
The EU commissioner for International Cooperation, Kristalina Gerogieva, said she is “encouraging additional donations from the international community.” According to her, so far the EU has donated 2 billion euro for humanitarian aid for the Syrian population. The EU commissioner in charge of European Neighborhood Policy, Stefan Fuel, added that the bloc managed to encourage the donation of 400 million euro last summer alone. The conflict in Syria has been going on for almost three years.
Further donations were announced by other countries. Bahrain, for example, has declared it shall contribute with US$ 20 million, Finland with 7 million euro and Indonesia with US$ 500,000. The information is from news websites from these countries.
Last year, Brazil sent US$ 500,000 for Syrian aid, and a new sum is to be donated in 2014. “Brazil believes it is important to offer humanitarian assistance, but the war must end,” observed the head of Business at the Brazilian embassy in Kuwait, João Tabajara Júnior.
On January 22 there shall be a second Syria Peace Conference, in Switzerland, in the city of Montreux, where representatives of the president Bashar Al Assad regime and the opposition are expected to face each other.
Polio
The United Nations (UN), which is organizing the conference this Wednesday together with the Kuwaiti government, has announced that they must raise US$ 6.5 billion this year to keep up the humanitarian help for Syrians affected by the conflict.
Many UN agencies involved in this work are announcing their needs this year. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is pledging US$ 150 million, the World Health Organization (WHO) another US$ 178 million, and the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) another US$ 835 million.
The harsh Syrian winter and diseases are some of the greatest concerns. According to Unicef representatives in Kuwait, since October last year there have been 17 cases of poliomyelitis in Syria, which had not registered cases of the disease since the 1990s. A vaccination campaign was started last week in an attempt to offer immunization for all children under the age of five.
In all, there are fifteen UN agencies working in Syria, with the support of 18 international partner NGOs. These are the entities that need resources. One of them is the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which accepts donations on their websites www.unhcr.org (in English) and www.acnur.org (in Portuguese).
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