For a Tuesday

Lots going on...




Extortion or abduction? How is this different from the usual modus operandi of North Korea?

North Korea barred Malaysians from leaving the country on Tuesday, sparking tit-for-tat action by Malaysia, as police investigating the murder of Kim Jong Nam in Kuala Lumpur sought to question three men hiding in the North Korean embassy.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak accused North Korea of "effectively holding our citizens hostage" and held an emergency meeting of his National Security Council.

Also:

In a surprise move, South Korea and the United States began deploying the highly controversial anti-missile system here, just hours after North Korea test-fired ballistic missiles that it said were aimed at US bases in Japan.

The allies confirmed Tuesday that two launchers of the US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system arrived in South Korea’s Osan Air Base late Monday via the C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft.

They are the first batch of the missile defense system designed to enhance the allies’ capabilities in countering North Korea’s growing missile threats. The deployment will be completed as early as next month, Seoul officials said.

It's time for South Korea to nuclearise.




Two Jewish centres in Toronto received bomb threats:

Leaders in the Jewish community are condemning a rising tide of anti-Semitism after two more Canadian Jewish centres received bomb threats on Tuesday. 

In Toronto, toddlers and young children attending a daycare at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre in the downtown core were evacuated after the centre’s school received a robo-call of a bomb threat shortly after 10 a.m. At almost the same time, the Jewish Community Centre of London, Ontario, received an identical threat — the second time that centre has been threatened in two months, according to the The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

That organization cites over 120 bomb threats against Jewish community centres across North America since the start of 2017.

“The Jewish community unfortunately is being targeted quite extensively now here in Canada. We saw it in Calgary as well, and it’s follows what’s happening in the US,” said Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center. 

This follows a spate of bomb threats to Jewish community centres in the United States in recent weeks and months, as well as a number of incidents on this side of the border. A Jewish community centre in Calgary was evacuated Feb. 27.

 For Benlolo, the “Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)” movement is not just against Israel but fuels anti-Jewish sentiments, but so too has the rise of President Donald Trump.

 (Sidebar: oh, really? And how old is the BDS movement, Mr. Benlolo? As old as couple-months long Trump presidency?)




Again - Wynne is a symptom of a greater problem, one of stupid people continuing to vote for her:

Wynne isn’t reducing hydro bills 17% on June 1 because of her prudent financial management of the electricity system.

She’s doing it by making provincial taxpayers subsidize hydro ratepayers, which accomplishes nothing because taxpayers and ratepayers are the same people.

In the past decade that saw electricity rates double in Ontario, while two provincial auditors general documented how they were wasting billions of dollars on green energy through reckless planning, the Liberals were indifferent to the suffering their electricity policies caused.

When their constituents appealed to Liberal MPPs for help, many were ignored, or received form letters. Some even got back snarky replies from Liberal MPPs.

Wynne and the Liberals didn’t come up with their “Rob Peter to pay Paul’ hydro subsidy plan because they suddenly care about Ontarians forced into energy poverty because of their inane policies.

They came up with it to save their hides.

Oh, dear:

Researchers spoke with 450 children, adolescents and adults in seven of Syria’s 14 governorates.

Adults said the main cause of psychological stress is the constant shelling and bombardment that characterize the war.

Schools and hospitals have been regularly targeted, destroying the very institutions that can support traumatized children when they need it most.

According to the report, 80 per cent of those interviewed said children have become more aggressive and 71 per cent said children increasingly suffer from frequent bedwetting and involuntary urination — “both common symptoms of toxic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder among children.”

The researchers also found that two-thirds of the children had lost a loved one, had their houses bombed or shelled, or suffered war-related injuries.

Are there red lines for this?




And now, the best restaurant in Antarctica:

Life in the kitchen is never easy—being a chef is a profession that involves an incredible amount of precision, creativity, and the ability to keep your cool in this uniquely stressful environment, even in the best of conditions. In a place like Antarctica's Concordia Station, one of the most isolated research facilities in the world, where day and night can last months on end and temperatures generally hover between -30 and -60 Celsius, the already stressful task of being a chef begins to sound downright hellish.

This however, is not the opinion of Luca Ficara, who has been serving as the base's resident chef since November. ...

Ficara, affectionately referred to as "the David Copperfield of the kitchen" by his crewmates, hails from Sicily, where he spent five years training as a chef in the IPSSAR Hospitality School in Catania, Italy. At 30, Ficara has spent years working in kitchens in Australia, England, and Spain, although working in a kitchen on the white continent was always little more than a dream.

"To be honest, [going to Antarctica] was not in my plan," said Ficara, laughing. "It was like a lottery—you just buy a scratch card, and if you're lucky, you're going to win. You always dream about it, but you never think you will be the winner."

Each year, the Italian National Program for Antarctic Research (which maintains the base along with the French Polar Institute Paul Emile Victor) holds a lottery to determine who will be spending the next year as the resident chef at Concordia. This lottery system has won the station something of a reputation for its food, which received a nod in the Lonely Planet as a place "considered by many to enjoy Antarctica's best cuisine, with fine wines and seven-course lunches on Sundays."

 

"I could go for some Pinot Grigot about now."