Issue: Immigrants Scene: Sweden Germany Spain France Incidents and politics

A Journal of People report

The issue of immigrants is now overwhelming mainstream media and politics in many countries.
Media reports including Swedish public service broadcaster SVT said:
Days after US president Donald Trump suggested Sweden had become a victim of a major terrorist incident for accepting refugees and hours after Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven dismissed Trump’s criticism of Sweden’s refugee policies an immigrant-dominated area of the Swedish capital Stockholm has erupted into riots. It was also reported in media that Swedish embassy asked Trump to explain his remark about Sweden.
The clashes started on February 20 after police arrested a man for drug offences in Rinkeby in a suburb of Stockholm.

Fifth of the world’s food stock is lost to over-eating and waste, says study

A Journal of People report

A fifth of the world’s food stock is lost to waste and over-eating, finds a study.
Persons over-eating consume 10 per cent more than they need while nearly nine per cent is thrown away or left to spoil.
Scientists say:
The wasted food could feed the one billion malnourished human beings around the globe. Encouraging people to eat less meat and dairy, stop waste and not exceed nutritional needs could help to reverse these trends.
Study leader Dr Peter Alexander, of Edinburgh University, said: “Reducing losses from the global food system would improve food security and help prevent environmental harm.

Revolution overthrows tsar Nicholas II

A Journal of People compilation

A poster of the Russian Revolution.

The Russian monarchy faced serious opposition in the early part of the 20th century. Tsar Nicholas II lost his credibility and popularity as the Russian army suffered embarrassing defeats in World War I.
“By 1917 the bond between the tsar and most of the Russian people had been broken,” writes Encyclopedia Britannica. “Governmental corruption and inefficiency were rampant. The tsar’s reactionary policies, including the occasional dissolution of the Duma, or Russian parliament, the chief fruit of the 1905 revolution, had spread dissatisfaction even to moderate elements.”
With resources committed to the war effort, the economy strained. Widespread food shortages in the winter of 1916-17 began hurting people. On March 8 (Feb. 23 according to the Julian calendar used in Russia during the time), an International Women’s Day festival in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) gave way to strikes by female factory workers protesting food shortages. Students, industrial workers and others joined the protests.

US Meddling in Ecuador Likely to Continue if Left Wins Election: Researcher

teleSUR spoke to Eirik Vold on the U.S. attempts to undermine Ecuadorean democracy and sovereignty, as revealed by Wikileaks.

teleSUR | 21 February, 2017

U.S. meddling in Ecuador’s politics is likely to continue, especially if President Rafael Correa’s ally and former vice president, Lenin Moreno, wins the upcoming presidential election, an expert on U.S. intervention in the South American country told teleSUR.

Norwegian journalist Eirik Vold, author of the book “Ecuador In the Sights: The WikiLeaks Revelations and the Conspiracy Against the Government of Rafael Correa,” spoke to teleSUR about his investigation into how the U.S. government tried to prevent Correa from winning the presidential election in 2006, since he was an outspoken critics who threatened Washington’s interests.

The information in the book was obtained through leaked official data released by WikiLeaks, including thousands of secret documents sent from the U.S. Embassy in Quito and the U.S. consulate in Guayaquil.

In an exclusive interview with teleSUR, Vold laid bare how the U.S. tried to destabilize Correa’s government, prevent Latin American integration under UNASUR and even promote police discontent once the left-wing president assumed office. A key factor tempering the relationship was Correa’s decision to close the U.S. military base in the coastal city of Manta.

INTEGRATING UNIVERSITITES: A look at what’s happening in Havana

by  Yenia Silva Correa

Granma | 20 February, 2017

In 2013 Cuban universities began a process of integration aimed at combining all higher education establishments, with the exception of Medical Sciences faculties, within a new multi-disciplinary provincial institution.

Although the process – implemented in various stages – only began relatively recently, results have already been seen. For example, 15 institutions of higher learning were integrated between 2013 and 2015, while 2016 saw a similar number undergo the same process in Havana, where it has been particularly difficult to integrate certain structures.

According to information provided by Dr. José Ramón Saborido Loidi, minister of Higher Education, the capital’s higher institutes of Technology and Applied Sciences, as well as Design are being integrated into the University of Havana.