Rain on the Toy Parade

November 21, 2016, 4:05 am

Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016

SYRIA - Kurdish graffiti which reads 'Raqa we are coming' is seen on a shop door in Tal Saman, 25 km (15 miles) from Raqa. By @Delilsouleman: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

SYRIA - A commander from Syrian Democratic Forces watches his surroundings from his position in Tal Saman near Raqa. By @Delilsouleman: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - Iraqi soldiers play backgammon during a break from fighting, at their base near Shahrazad, on the outskirts of Mosul. By @azavallis: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - Shiite Muslim pilgrims carry flags as they arrive at the entrance to the central Iraqi city of Karbala. By @HaidarAFP #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - A Shiite Muslim pilgrim looks on during the mourning procession in the central Iraqi city of Karbala. By @mo_sawaf #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

AFGHANISTAN - Afghan youths play cricket on a hilltop overlooking Kabul. By @shahmarai #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

AFGHANISTAN - An Afghan vendor wears rings as he sell his wares in Kabul. By @shahmarai #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

PAKISTAN - Sufis light candles and incense during three-day annual 'Urs' religious festival in Lahore. By Arif Ali #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

UK - People dressed as Power Rangers prepare to participate in the Hamleys Christmas Toy Parade in London. By @niklashallen#AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

EGYPT - Hassan Hodhod one of Egypt’s few remaining glassblowers smokes a water-pipe outside his workshop in Cairo. By Mohamed el Shahed #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

#Iraq A soldier guards as firefighters work to put out fire in an oil well, set ablaze by IS#qayarrah #mosul#AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 20 November 2016

#Iraqi shepherd tends to his sheep, blackened by smoke from burning oil wells near ##Qayarrah, #Iraq #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Jean-Marc Mojn @mojobaghdad, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - Children play football as oil wells, set ablaze by retreating Islamic State jihadists, burn behind them in Qayyarah. By @odd_andersen: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - Workers tasked with putting out fire in oil well set ablaze by retreating IS, assemble a water pipeline in Qayyarah. By @odd_andersen: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

#Iraq Life as oil wells, set ablaze by retreating IS, burn in the town of #qayyarah #mosul #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 20 November 2016

#Iraq A woman holds her child after crossing the Tigris River in the village of Tall Adh-Dhahab #Mosul #AFP Photo by @odd_andersen: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 20 November 2016

IRAQ - Iraqis who fled due to the fighting in Mosul are escorted to safety after crossing Tigris River in Tall Adh-Dhah. By @odd_andersen: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

Syria A rescuer carries a woman who was rescued from the rubble following reported airstrikes on #al-Hamra #Aleppo #AFP by @THAEER_MOHAMEED: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

3 killed including an infant and many injured after Ard AlHamra in #Aleppo was targeted with 2 Airstrikes today. #StandWithAleppo: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef, 20 November 2016

SYRIA - White Helmets pull a body from rubble following air strike on Aleppo's rebel-held neighbourhood of Bab al-Nayrab. By @AmeerAlhalbi: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

Aleppo withstands #RussiaBurnsAleppo: image via mo3taz891. 18 November 2016

In the street after a cluster bomb killed her husband #Aleppo: image via Mohammed Al-Khatieb @MohAlkhatieb, 20 November 2016

4 martyrs and dozens wounded in the bombing with cluster bombs Assad gang criminality continuous and the world in silence #Aleppo: image via Mohammed Al-Khatieb @MohAlkhatieb, 20 November 2016

#Aleppo every day: image via Mohammed Al-Khatieb @MohAlkhatieb, 20 November 2016

3 killed including an infant and many injured after Ard AlHamra in #Aleppo was targeted with 2 Airstrikes today. #StandWithAleppo: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay this is how it looks because of #Assad and #Putin: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay this is how it looks because of #Assad and #Putin #Syria #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay this is how it looks because of #Assad and #Putin #Syria #Aleppo #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

Goodnight dear world, don't forget the #ChildrensDay, BTW this is how it looks in #Aleppo because of #Assad and #Putin: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay in #Syria: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay in #Iraq: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay in #Yemen: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

#ChildrensDay in #Palestine: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtib, 20 November 2016

INDIA - A young Indian boy walks on a foggy field in New Delhi. By @Chandanhoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 20 November 2016

Rio Puerco Valley, Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2016

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Vale

November 22, 2016, 2:20 am

≫ Next: A shepherd at dusk

≪ Previous: Rain on the Toy Parade

Police officers near Cannon Ball, N.D., confront protesters with rubber bullet guns on Sunday night near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation: photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters, 21 November 2016

Police officers near Cannon Ball, N.D., confront protesters with rubber bullet guns on Sunday night near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation: photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters, 21 November 2016

Can we start calling them the Dakota Access Oil Police? They are serving and protecting the oil companies not the people. #standingrock #noda: image via Josh Fox Verified account @joshfoxfilm, 21 November 2016

Police near Cannon Ball, N.D., on Sunday fire tear gas at protesters opposed to plans that would run the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation: photo byStephanie Keith/Reuters, 21 November 2016

As in that grey exurban wasteland in Gatsby
When the white sky darkens over the city
Of ashes, far from the once happy valley,
This daze spreads across the blank faces
Of the inhabitants, suddenly deprived
Of the kingdom’s original promised gift.
Did I say kingdom when I meant place
Of worship? Original when I meant
Damaged in handling? Promised when
I meant stolen? Gift when I meant
Trick? Inhabitants when I meant slaves?
Slaves when I meant clowns
Who have wandered into test sites? Test
Sites when I meant contagious hospitals?
Contagious hospitals when I meant clouds
Of laughing gas? Laughing gas
When I meant tears?

The Battle of #StandingRock began at 10:32 EST when Govt troops opened fire on peaceful water Protectors w/ rubber bullets and water cannon: image via Daniel Schneider @BiologistDan, 21 November 2016

This is not from a History book. This was today, in America, in 2016 #NoDAPL #standingrock #WaterIsLife #northdakota #ourworld: image via Amy @CocoGemsBlog, 21 November 2016

Please call and let your voice be heard!!! #StandingRock #NoDAPL: image via Tee Marie Hanible @The RealTeeMarie, 21 November 2016

Pepper sprayed, tear gassed, hosed down, shot with rubber bullets... solidarity with the #NoDAPL water protectors. #StandingRock: image via Tim Bednar @The Mighty Bednar, 21 November 2016

This is what an Oligarchy in war with its people looks like. #StandingRock: image via Amir @amiraminiMD, 21 November 2016

Let's be clear: the acts of brutality by ND police against Peaceful Protectors are acts of utter COWARDICE #standingrock #NoDAPL #Love: image via Josh Fox Verified account @joshfoxfilm, 21 November 2016

#Athens A man is seen following a demo. to commemorate a student uprising that helped bring down a US-backed junta in '74 By @ArisMessinis: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 21 November 2016

Des #pompiers irakiens en guerre contre les puits de #petrole incendiés par l'EI #Daech près de Qayyara, #Irak @AFP: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 21 November 2016

Riyad Jaffar, 27, from Baghdad, Iraqi army sniper, at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Qayara, south of #Mosul, #Iraq [By Marko Drobnjakovic] @xmd @AP_Images: image via L'Instant-ParisMatch @instantmatch, 21 November 2016

I made a series of portraits of fighters against IS with my phone while on assignment for AP in northern Iraq: image via Marko Drobnjakovic @xmd101, 21 November 2016

#Mosul @AP_Images photographer @felipedana recounts a hellish scene in the offensive against Daesh: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 21 November 2016

A car bomb explodes next to armored vehicles belonging to Iraqi Special Forces as they advance toward ISIS-held territory in Mosul on Nov. 16, 2016. Troops have established a foothold in the city's east from where they are driving northward into the Tahrir neighborhood.

A car bomb explodes next to armored vehicles belonging to Iraqi Special Forces as they advance toward ISIS-held territory in Mosul on Nov. 16, 2016. Troops have established a foothold in the city's east from where they are driving northward into the Tahrir neighborhood.

A car bomb explodes next to armored vehicles belonging to Iraqi Special Forces as they advance toward ISIS-held territory in Mosul. Troops have established a foothold in the city's east from where they are driving northward into the Tahrir neighborhood.: photo by Felipe Dana/AP, 16 November 2016

Blackened sheep graze as oil wells, set ablaze by retreating Islamic State (IS) jihadists, burn in the background, in the town of Qayyarah, some 70 km south of Mosul on November 20, 2016. Locals told AFP that they face a range of health issues including breathing difficulties, and sheperds said they could not sell their livestock as the sheep's fleece was blackened by smoke. / AFP PHOTO / Odd ANDERSENODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images

Blackened sheep graze as oil wells, set ablaze by retreating Islamic State jihadists, burn in the background, in the town of Qayyarah, Iraq: photo by Odd Andersen/AFP, 21 November 2016

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, toasts during a lunch at the government house in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, Nov. 21, 2016. Abe is on an official visit to Argentina after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe toasts during a lunch at the government house in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Abe is on an official visit to Argentina after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru.: photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP, 21 November 2016

A Trump Tower worker cleans the waterfall at Trump Tower on another day of meetings scheduled for President-elect Donald Trump November 21, 2016 in New York. / AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARYTIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images

A Trump Tower worker cleans the waterfall at Trump Tower on another day of meetings scheduled for President-elect Donald Trump in New York: photo by Timothy A. Clary/AFP, 21 November 2016

A newborn reticulated giraffe is seen for the first time at the Savannah in Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 21 November 2016. The calf is a week old. EPA/KOEN VAN WEEL

A newborn reticulated giraffe is seen for the first time at the Savannah in Artis Zoo in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The calf is a week old.: photo by Koen Van Weel/EPA, 12 November 2016

A bird dries its feathers on top of a tree as storm clouds gather on a wet day in Colombo, Sri Lanka November 21, 2016.

A bird dries its feathers on top of a tree as storm clouds gather on a wet day in Colombo, Sri Lanka: photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters, 21 November 2016

A vendor reads newspaper as he waits for customers at a wholesale onion market in Kolkata, India, November 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri

A vendor reads a newspaper as he waits for customers at a wholesale onion market in Kolkata, India: photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters, 21 November 2016

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A shepherd at dusk

November 23, 2016, 4:14 am

≫ Next: Changing leaves (still dreaming) / Sad Life

≪ Previous: Vale

West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2016

West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2016

Untitled | by el zopilote

West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2016

Untitled | by el zopilote

West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2016

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 21, 2016, Raad Muqdam al-Mosieh, 35, from Baghdad, Iraq, an Iraqi army soldier, poses for a portrait as he guards a checkpoint while wearing a gas mask on the outskirts of Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Thursday, Nov. 10, 2016, Abdelhakim Hamid, 19, from Qayara, Iraq, an Iraqi National Security armed guard, poses for a portrait in Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo by Marko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016, Abdelyusef, no last name given, an Iraqi Federal Police officer, poses for a portrait at a checkpoint in the village of Al Hut, some 40 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016, Alaa Hashid, from Shura, Iraq, an Iraqi army soldier, poses for a portrait at a checkpoint in Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 24, 2016, Hiwa Omar, 25, from Irbil, Iraq, a Kurdish Peshmerga soldier, poses for a portrait while guarding a checkpoint in Gwer, some 30 kilometers southeast of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, US Air Force Senior Airman Dennis Marshall, 26, from Memphis, Tenn., poses for a portrait while holding his radio at the Qayara West Coalition base in Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq..: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016, Haidar Hussein, 20, from Diwaniya, Iraq, an Iraqi army soldier, poses for a portrait while holding his machine gun on the outskirts of Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016, a Kurdish Peshmerga soldier, no name given, poses for a portrait in Nawaran, some 20 kilometers northeast of Mosul, Iraq..: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 28, 2016, Loay Mahdi, from Kirkuk, an Iraqi army soldier, poses for a portrait at the Qayara West Coalition base in Qayara, some 50 kilometers south of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016, Bergam Kadhim, from Najaf, Iraq, an Iraqi Special Forces soldier, poses for a portrait on a street in Gogjali, an eastern suburb of Mosul, Iraq.: photo byMarko Drobnjakovic/AP Photo

Members of the Syrian Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets, evacuate a child during a training session in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area, east of the capital Damascus: photo by Amer Almohibany/AFP, 22 November 2016

Lebanese police female cadets march in a military parade during an official ceremony commemorating the country’s 73rd independence day in the capital Beirut: photo by Anwar Amro/AFP, 22 November 2016

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, November 22, 2016. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France: photo by Vincent Kessler/Reuters, 22 November 2016

Forces loyal to Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) hold a position amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Sirte’s Al-Giza Al-Bahriya district during clashes with Islamic State group jihadists to retake control of the Mediterranean coastal city: photo by Mahmud Turkia/AFP, 22 November 2016

The Wider Image: Fighting tuberculosis in Peru's village of hope

Jazmin, aged six, sister of Jose Luis, receives Isoniazid Preventive Therapy in Carabayllo in Lima, Peru: photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters, 22 November 2016

.

Jazmin, aged six, sister of Jose Luis, receives Isoniazid Preventive Therapy in Carabayllo in Lima, Peru: photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters, 22 November 2016

A rescue worker inspects windscreen of the vehicle belonging to the Paramilitary Frontier Constabulary (FC) soldiers after a bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan, 22 November 2016. At least three FC men were killed and five others were injured when a bomb exploded targeting a vehicle of FC personnel in Peshawar. EPA/BILAWALARBAB

A rescue worker inspects windscreen of the vehicle belonging to the Paramilitary Frontier Constabulary soldiers after a bomb blast in Peshawar, Pakistan: photo by Bilawal Arbab/EPA, 22 November 2016

A man watches as firemen try to extinguish a fire at a plastic factory in Istanbul, Turkey, November 22, 2016. The cause of the fire is currently unknown, according to local media. REUTERS/Osman Orsal

A man watches as firemen try to extinguish a fire at a plastic factory in Istanbul, Turkey: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters, 22 November 2016

A boy sits on the deck of Topaz Responder after being rescued from a wooden boat by members of MOAS, Migrant Offshore Aid Station on November 22, 2016 in Pozzollo Italy. The MOAS team worked through the night and into the next morning rescuing 'approximately' 600 people from vessels. MOAS are currently patrolling international waters off the coast of Libya, and running rescue missions for the many migrants and refugees who continue to attempt to make the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. MOAS are a Malta based registered foundation dedicated to providing professional search-and-rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea and work alongside with the Red Cross on board the Topaz Responder. The number of deaths this year of people crossing the Mediterranean has risen to almost 4,300. MOAS alone have rescued around 19,000. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

A boy sits on the deck of Topaz Responder after being rescued from a wooden boat by members of MOAS, Migrant Offshore Aid Station in Pozzallo, Italy: photo by Dan Kitwood, 22 November 2016

Swiss Freestyle Motocross driver Mat Rebeaud performs a figure during a FMX jump training session ten days before the 31st Geneva International Supercross, in Payerne, Switzerland: photo by Laurent Gillieron/Keystone/AP, 22 November 2016

#Iraq Through the bullet-riddled windshield of an armoured vehicle in Aden #Mosul after retaking the area from IS #AFP Photo by @TomCOEX: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 22 November 2016

#Iraq Soldiers from the Special Forces patrol a street in the Aden district of #Mosul after retaking the area from IS #AFP Photo by @TomCOEX: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 22 November 2016

A girl and her father buying food from behind the fence of displacement camp near #Mosul @AFP Photo by @TomCOEX: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 22 November 2016

#Iraq The Khazir refugee camp near the Kurdish checkpoint of Aski Kalak, 40 km West of #arbilPhoto by @TomCOEX: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 22 November 2016

A family fleeing the fighting as oil fields burn in Qayyara, Iraq, this month: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

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A family fleeing the fighting as oil fields burn in Qayyara, Iraq, this month: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

Residents of Mosul leaving the city last week. Dozens of families try to escape the fighting there each day: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

Men questioned by the Iraqi forces to ensure they are not Islamic State fighters posing as civilians: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

Displaced Iraqis heading toward an army checkpoint in Mosul’s Samah district: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

Residents escaping the fighting in Mosul last week: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 22 November 2016

the human village prepares for its fate

as the daylight fades
the dream disintegrates
but the shadow holds

no power
over what’s about to happen

↧

Changing leaves (still dreaming) / Sad Life

November 24, 2016, 3:03 am

≫ Next: Mr Death, You've Got a Beautiful Future (the magic powers of a spiritual water)

≪ Previous: A shepherd at dusk

An Afghan child shepherd walks under the changing leaves of trees on the outskirts of Jalalabad. @NoorullahShir #AFP: image via shahmarai @shahmarai, 23 November 2016

#French rail-workers from various regions created #Exclusolidaires to help the poorest and #homeless in #Paris #AFP: image via Philippe Lopez @philippe_lopez, 23 November 2016

AFG: A massive suicide blast at a Shiite mosque in Kabul killed at least 27 people and wounded 35 others #AFP: image via shahmarai @shahmarai, 23 November 2016

#Afghan mourners carry the coffin of one of the 27 victims killed in a bloody mosque bombing, in #Kabul #AFP: image via shahmarai @shahmarai, 23 November 2016

AFGHANISTAN - A relative weeps next to the coffin of one of the 27 victims killed in a bloody mosque bombing in Kabul. By@shahmarai #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 23 November 2016

BANGLADESH - Border Guard Bangladesh personel stand watch for the illegal entry of Myanmar Rohingya refugees near Teknaf. By Muir Uz Zaman: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 23 November 2016

SYRIA - Smoke billows following a reported air strike by Syrian government forces in a rebel-held area of Daraa. By @AbazidMohamad #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 23 November 2016

The destruction of a mosque night air raids launched by warplanes #Medinh_almazn #Damascus Countryside syria: image via Amer Almohibany @ameralmohibany, 23 November 2016

I kid from #Eastern_Ghouta bombed my school and I am today without a school i am still dreaming #Syrianconflict: image via Amer Almohibany @ameralmohibany, 23 November 2016

#Syria This destruction and rubble left by aerial bombardment on a school for children in the #eastern_Ghouta: image via Amer Almohibany @ameralmohibany, 20 November 2016

38 sunnites ont été exterminés hier dans les bombardements chrétieno-alaouite sur la province d'#Alep: image via Syrian Reporter @ReporterSyrian, 22 November 2016

En Syrie chrétieno-alaouites il y a + de 600 avions 400 hélicoptères pour exterminer les sunnites et pas un canadair pour combattre un feu: image via Syrian Reporter @ReporterSyrian, 22 November 2016

#Alep 13 sunnites ont été intoxiqués lors d'une razzia au gaz de chlore perpétrée par l'aviation chrétieno-alaouite #SainteRatonnade: image via Syrian Reporter @ReporterSyrian, 23 November 2016

21 civilians were killed in besieged #Aleppo city yesterday, including a family of 5 in Al Myassar and many were injured: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef, 22 November 2016

En 48h 26 sunnites ont été exterminés & 119 blessés par les bombardements chrétieno-alaouite sur les banlieues #Damas #Eastern_Ghouta #douma: image via Syrian Reporter @ReporterSyrian, 22 November 2016

#Migrants Trapped in #Serbia | pic @markodjurica / @reuterspictures: image via Yahoo News @yahoophoto, 21 November 2016

Trapped in Serbia, migrants shelter in warehouse by REUTERS /@markodjurica: image via Reuters Paris Pix@Reuters Paris Pix, 21 November 2016

Members of the Spanish Guardia Civil participate in an antiterror drill at a mall in Pamplona: photo by Jesus Diges/EFE/Zuma Press, 16 November 2016

Inside #Qayara, south of #Mosul - More striking photos by @felipedana: image via Joe English @JoeEEnglish, 23 November 2016

Inside #Qayara, south of #Mosul - by @felipedana: image via Yahoo News Photos @yahoophoto, 22 November 2016

Boys play with a ball in front of oilfields burned by Islamic State fighters in Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq: photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters, 23 November 2016

Displaced Iraqis, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, ask for food supplies in a distribution point at Khazer camp, Iraq: photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters, 23 November 2016

A member of the Iraqi Christian forces Kataeb Babylon (Babylon Brigades) stands guard beneath a cross at the Mar Benham Syriac Catholic monastery in the town of Khidr Ilyas, southeast of Mosul, Iraq: photo by Safin Hamed/AFP, 23 November 2016

IRAQ - A member of Iraqi Christian forces Kataeb Babylon poses at the Mar Benham Syriac Catholic monastery in Khidr Ilyas. By @safinphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 23 November 2016

Nigel Farage, center, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, at Trump Tower in New York: photo by Yana Paskova, 12 November 2016

Buying the whole fucking float

Money, far from being the harmless arena of human emulation as its apologists hold, is a great destroyer. Because money is eminent desire, there is no satisfaction in the external world unless it is conveyed in money, until the world is possessed in monetary garb -- like an Indian bride in her finery, hair reeking of attar of roses, eyes stinging with kohl-- ; because money is all power and potential, the external world is a poor thing and may be exploited and altered without compunction.

El mundo es poco. Columbus sucked a thousand years of gold from the Caribbean in two or three, and then extinguished all its human life. The Conquest he not so much inaugurated as carried to the New World now rages all over the globe, including its polar regions. Woods are paved, mountains mined, seas eaten, species annihilated. All the large land and sea animals of the earth, and most of ts birds, are under sentence of extinction. They are being killed not by the rifle, but by a more lethal invention, money. Money is no longer, as Adam Smith thought in an excitable passage, 'a waggon-way through the air' that leaves the earth free for men, but is actually destroying it, in the sense of extirpating its most intimate and precious nature, as the cattle-money of the Masai is destroying the grasslands of East Africa. To say that human beings must accept these losses, and live among their parasites -- learn to love sparrows and magpies and no other birds, hold cockroaches to be the only insects -- in a world of perfect artifice is the final idolatry: that money is our ineluctable destiny, not merely our life, but our death as well. Schopenhauer watched the old men of his age barricade themselves behind money against the siege engines of death. Now all people do that. Humanity itself is transforming into the dragon of the Nibelungen, squatting in a filthy cave amid heaps of dusty treasure. The Ego is satisfied at last, surrounded by annihilating possessions.

James Buchan: from Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money, 1997

[To the gold:]
O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!
Thou ever young, fresh, loved and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,
That solder'st close impossibilities,
And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue,
To every purpose! O thou touch of hearts!
Think, thy slave man rebels, and by thy virtue
Set them into confounding odds, that beasts
May have the world in empire!

William Shakespeare: Timon of Athens, first performed 1607, from Act IV Scene III

Money

Shakespeare paints a brilliant picture of the nature of money.

That which exists for me through the medium of money, that which I can pay for, i.e., that which money can buy, that am I, the possessor of money. The stronger the power of my money, the stronger am I. The properties of money are my, the possessor's, properties and essential powers. Therefore, what I am and what I can do is by no means determined by my individuality. I am ugly, but I can buy the most beautiful woman. Which means to say that I am not ugly, for the effect of ugliness, its repelling power, is destroyed by money. As an individual, I am lame, but money procures me 24 legs. Consequently, I am not lame. I am a wicked, dishonest, unscrupulous and stupid individual, but money is respected, and so also is its owner. Money is the highest good, and consequently its owner is also good. Moreover, money spares me the trouble of being dishonest, and I am therefore presumed to be honest. I am mindless, but if money is the true mind of all things, how can its owner be mindless? What is more, he can buy clever people for himself, and is not he who has power over clever people cleverer than them? Through money, I can have anything the human heart desires. Do I not possess all human abilities? Does not money therefore transform all my incapacities into their opposite?

If money is the bond which ties me to human life and society to me, which links me to nature and to man, is money not the bond of all bonds? Can it not bind and loose all bonds? Is it therefore not the universal means of separation? It is the true agent of separation and the true cementing agent, it is the chemical power of society.

Shakespeare brings out two properties of money in particular:

(1) It is the visible divinity, the transformation of all human and natural qualities into their opposites, the universal confusion and inversion of things; it brings together impossibilities.

(2) It is the universal whore, the universal pimp of men and peoples.

The inversion and confusion of all human and natural qualities, the bringing together of impossibilities, the divine power of money lies in its nature as the estranged and alienating species-essence of man which alienates itself by selling itself. It is the alienated capacity of mankind.

What I, as a man, do –- i.e., what all my individual powers cannot do –- I can do with the help of money. Money, therefore, transforms each of these essential powers into something which it is not, into its opposite.

If I desire a meal, or want to take the mail coach because I am not strong enough to make the journey on foot, money can provide me both the meal and the mail coach -- i.e., it transfers my wishes from the realm of imagination, it translates them from their existence as thought, imagination, and desires, into their sensuous, real existence, from imagination into life, and from imagined being into real being. In this mediating role, money is the truly creative power.

Demand also exists for those who have no money, but their demand is simply a figment of the imagination. For me, or for any other third party, it has no effect, no existence. For me, it therefore remains unreal and without an object. The difference between effective demand based on money and ineffective demand based on my need, my passion, my desire, etc., is the difference between being and thinking, between a representation which merely exists within me and one which exists outside me as a real object.

If I have money for travel, I have no need -– i.e., no real and self-realizing need –- to travel. If I have a vocation to study, but no money for it, I have no vocation to study -– i.e., no real, true vocation. But, if I really do not have any vocation to study, but have the will and the money, then I have an effective vocation do to so. Money, which is the external, universal means and power –- derived not from man as man, and not from human society as society -– to turn imagination into reality and reality into more imagination, similarly turns real human and natural powers into purely abstract representations, and therefore imperfections and phantoms –- truly impotent powers which exist only in the individual's fantasy -– into real essential powers and abilities. Thus characterized, money is the universal inversion of individualities, which it turns into their opposites and to whose qualities it attaches contradictory qualities.

Money, therefore, appears as an inverting power in relation to the individual and to those social and other bonds which claim to be essences in themselves. It transforms loyalty into treason, love into hate, hate into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, servant into master, master into servant, nonsense into reason, and reason into nonsense.

Since money, as the existing and active concept of value, confounds and exchanges everything, it is the universal confusion and exchangeof all things, an inverted world, the confusion and exchange of all natural and human qualities.

He who can buy courage is brave, even if he is a coward. Money is not exchange for a particular quality, a particular thing, or for any particular one of the essential powers of man, but for the whole objective world of man and of nature. Seen from the standpoint of the person who possesses it, money exchanges every quality for every other quality and object, even if it is contradictory; it is the power which brings together impossibilities and forces contradictions to embrace.

If we assume man to be man, and his relation to the world to be a human one, then love can be exchanged only for love, trust for trust, and so on. If you wish to enjoy art, you must be an artistically educated person; if you wish to exercise influence on other men, you must be the sort of person who has a truly stimulating and encouraging effect on others. Each one of your relations to man -– and to nature –- must be a particular expression, corresponding to the object of your will, of your real individual life. If you love unrequitedly –- i.e., if your love as love does not call forth love in return, if, through the vital expression of yourself as a loving person, you fail to become a loved person –- then your love is impotent, it is a misfortune.

Karl Marx:from Money, in Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, translated by Gregor Benton, 1974

Mictlantecuhtli, god of the dead and king of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), lowest and northernmost section of the underworld: Aztec, sculptor unknown, recovered during excavation of the House of Eagles in the Templo Mayor: photo by Thelmadatter, 23 March 2008 (Museum of the Templo Mayor, Mexico City

Looking back from the present, it cannot be denied that western capitalism in the long run created a new art of living, new ways of thinking: it developed side by side with them. Can one call this a new civilization? That would I think be putting it too strongly: a civilization is built up over a longer time scale.

But if change there was, when did it come? ... Werner Sombart locates it in fifteenth-century Florence.

There is no doubt in my mind: on this point Sombart is right... Thirteenth-century -- and a fortiori fourteenth-century Florence was a capitalist city, whatever meaning one attaches to the word. The precocious and abnormal picture it presented struck Sombart, quite understandably... Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), architect, sculptor, humanist, was the scion of a long-powerful family with an eventful history: members of the Alberti family had economically colonized England in the fourteenth century; indeed so ubiquitous were they that the English documents often refer to them as the Albertynes -- as if like the Lucchese or indeed the Florentines, they were a nation in themselves. Leon Battista spent many years in exile and with the intention of escaping the troubles of the world entered holy orders. He wrote the first of three Libri della Famiglia in Rome, in about 1433-1434; the fourth was completed in Florence in 1441. Sombart finds in these books a new climate: praise of money, recognition of the value of time, the need to live thriftily -- all good bourgeois principles in the first flush of their youth. And the fact that this cleric came from a long line of merchants respected for their good faith lent weight to his writings. Money is 'the root of all things'; 'with money, one can have a house or a villa, and all the trades and craftsmen will toil like servants for the man who has money. He who has none goes without everything, and money is required for every purpose.' This was a new attitude towards wealth: previously it had been regarded as a kind of obstacle to salvation. The same was true of time: in the past, time had been considered as belonging to God alone; to sell it (in the shape of interest) was to sell non suum, what did not belong to one. But now time was once more becoming a dimension of human life, one of man's possessions which he would do well not to waste. And there was a new approach to luxury: 'Always remember, my sons', writes Alberti, 'that your expenditure should never exceed your income ' -- a new rule which condemned the conspicuous luxury of the nobles. As Sombart says, 'this was introducing a spirit of thrift not into the wretched domestic budgets of humble people who could hardly get enough to eat but into the mansions of the rich'. In other words, the spirit of capitalism.

Fernand Braudel: from The Wheels of Commerce (Les jeux de l'echange), 1979, Volume 2 of Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th century (Civilisation materielle, économie et capitalisme); translated from the French by Sîan Reynolds, 1982

For the Love of God: sculpture by Damien Hirst, 2007, platinum cast of a human skull covered with 8,601 diamonds; displayed at White Cube Gallery, London, asking price 50 million pounds: photographer unknown, via Daily Telegraph

... the desire incarnate in money offered a reward to the imagination, as between two lovers; and that reward seemed at first to be guaranteed by rare and beautiful metals, of whose inner nature and capacity men could only dream. In time, that guarantee was unveiled as only the projected authority of a community... It was the community that authorised the wishes expressed in money or frustrated them. To use money was to submit to the state, and when states disintegrated their moneys vanished as completely as their laws...

James Buchan: from Frozen Desire: The Meaning of Money, 1993

Máscara de Xiuhtecuhtli: representation of Xiuhtecuhtli (Lord Turquoise), Central Mexican god of fire: Mixtec-Aztec, c. 1400-1521, mosaic of turquoise inlay and other materials; photo by Manuel Parada López de Corselas, 2007 (British Museum, London)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Mictlantecuhtli_2.jpg

Mictlantecuhtli, god of the dead: Aztec, sculptor unknown; photo by Jamie Dwyer, 19 August 2008 (Museum of the Templo Mayor, Mexico City)

Travelers walk through terminal 3 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016. While driving remains the most popular form of transportation Thanksgiving travelers take, AAA expects just under 4 million people to fly to their holiday destinations. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Travellers walk through terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. While driving remains the most popular form of transportation Thanksgiving travellers take, AAA expects just under 4 million people to fly to their holiday destinations.: photo by Nam Y. Huh/AP, 23 November 2016

A bride looks up from behind her veil during a mass marriage ceremony organized for 22 Muslim couples in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016. Mass marriages in India are organized by social organizations primarily to help the economically backward families who cannot afford the high ceremony costs. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

A bride looks up from behind her veil during a mass marriage ceremony organised for 22 Muslim couples in Mumbai, India: photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP, 23 November 2016

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) on November 23, 2016 in Berlin. Merkel addressed the parliament on key domestic and foreign issues during a week of budget debate. / AFP PHOTO / TOBIAS SCHWARZTOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP/Getty Images

German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends a session at the Bundestag in Berlin. Merkel addressed the parliament on key domestic and foreign issues during a week of budget debate: photo by Tobias Schwarz/AFP, 23 November 2016

Health personnel measures a child as part of a program for malnourished children sponsored by the World Food Program at a Health Center in Mavivi, Beni territory, Eastern D.R.Congo: photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP, 23 November 2016

A man bicycles down a flooded street with empty cooking oil containers during a rain storm in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on November 23, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / DANIEL HAYDUKDANIEL HAYDUK/AFP/Getty Images

A man cycles down a flooded street with empty cooking oil containers during a rain storm in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: photo by Daniel Hayduk/AFP, 23 November 2016

A woman paints the floor of a pond as her child pulls at her saree in Delhi

A woman paints the floor of a pond as her child pulls at her sari in Delhi, India: photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters, 23 November 2016

Carrizozo, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, September 2016

↧

Mr Death, You've Got a Beautiful Future (the magic powers of a spiritual water)

November 25, 2016, 5:50 am

≫ Next: A recount for Giant Meteor

≪ Previous: Changing leaves (still dreaming) / Sad Life

Palm Beach county sheriff's deputies stand guard in front of Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday: photo by Scott McIntyre for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

e.e. cummings: Buffalo Bill ’s

Buffalo Bill ’s
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

e.e. cummings (1894-1962): Buffalo Bill’s, 1920, from Tulips and Chimneys (1923)

Janusz Biskupek of Boca Raton, Fla., an enthusiastic supporter of Donald J. Trump, waves at cars near Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Wednesday: photo byScott McIntyre for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

Janusz Biskupek of Boca Raton, Fla., an enthusiastic supporter of Donald J. Trump, waves at cars near Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort on Wednesday: photo byScott McIntyre for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

Reporters on Wednesday near the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where Donald J. Trump arrived on Tuesday for his first visit as president-elect

Reporters on Wednesday near the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., where Donald J. Trump arrived on Tuesday for his first visit as president-elect

Wilbur Ross, a billionaire investor who became known as the “king of bankruptcy” for buying, restructuring and selling off steel makers and other fading industrial companies, met with President-elect Donald J. Trump at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., this week: photo by Hilary Swift for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

A performer carries balloons across Sixth Avenue during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, in New York, Thursday, Nov. 24, 2016. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A performer carries balloons across Sixth Avenue during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, in New York: photo by Andres Kudacki/AP, 24 November 2016

Macy’s at Herald Square in Manhattan started its Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving

Macy’s at Herald Square in Manhattan started its Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving

Britain’s Prince Charles Prince of Wales, participates in a traditional celebration dance with members of the congregation following the consecration of the new St Thomas Cathedral, a Syrian Orthodox Church, in west London: photo by Ben Stansall/AFP, 24 November 2016

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, rescue a boy from the rubble following a reported barrel bomb attack on the Bab al-Nairab neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo: photo by Ameer Alhalbi/AFP, 24 November 2016

Areial view of the flowermarket at the city market in Bangalore, India 24 November 2016. Indian business is reportedly affected due to lack of Indian currency notes. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the elimination of the 500 and 1,000 rupee bills at midnight on 08 November, for the purpose of fighting against 'black money' (hidden assets) and corruption in the country. The decision sparked protests, while storekeepers complained about dwindling sales because many citizens lack the cash to buy the most basic products, as queues get longer at ATMs and banks. EPA/JAGADEESH NV

An aerial view of the flower market at the city market in Bangalore: photo by Jagadeesh NV/EPA, 24 November 2016

A firefighter brandishes a smoke flares as he and others demonstrate on Place de la Nation in Paris on November 24, 2016 as part of a nationwide strike to denounce violence against firefighters doing their job, budget cuts and downsizing. / AFP PHOTO / ALAIN JOCARDALAIN JOCARD/AFP/Getty Images

A firefighter brandishes a smoke flare as he and others demonstrate on Place de la Nation in Paris, France as part of a nationwide strike to denounce violence against firefighters doing their job, budget cuts and downsizing: photo by Alain Jocard/AFP, 24 November 2016

VIBO VALENTIA, ITALY - NOVEMBER 24: Refugees on the the MOAS vessel "Topaz Responder" as it comes into port on November 24, 2016 in Vibo Valentia, Italy. The MOAS team worked through the night of the 21st and into the next morning rescuing 'approximately' 600 people from several vessels though that figure could change. It is believed that several people had died after one rubber dinghy capsized. 117 people were saved from that incident, but many were left suffering from hypothermia and various other minor injuries. MOAS were patrolling in the 'SAR Search and Rescue Zone, approximate 20KM off the coastline of Libya, and running rescue missions for the many migrants and refugees who continue to attempt to make the dangerous crossing across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy. MOAS are a Malta based registered foundation dedicated to providing professional search-and-rescue assistance to refugees and migrants in distress at sea and work alongside with the Red Cross on board the Topaz Responder. The number of deaths this year of people crossing the Mediterranean has risen to almost 4,300. MOAS alone have rescued around 19,000. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Refugees on the the MOAS vessel “Topaz Responder” as it comes into in Vibo Valentia, Italy: photo by Dan Kitwood, 24 November 2016

Jasim plays football in Debaga camp, on the outskirts of Erbil

Displaced Iraqi boy Jasim Abudllah Jasim, 13, who according to his family lost his leg in an air strike in Baiji, plays football in Debaga camp, on the outskirts of Erbil, Iraq: photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters, 24 November 2016

epa05645016 Pedestrians walk past paper birds placed by WWF activists opposite the Spanish Lower House in Madrid, Spain, 24 November 2016, to demand a stronger protection of the Spanish National Park Donana in Andalucia. EPA/JUAN CARLOS HIDALGO

Pedestrians walk past paper birds placed by WWF activists opposite the Spanish Lower House in Madrid, Spain to demand a stronger protection of the Spanish National Park Donana in Andalucia: photo by Juan Carlos Hidalgo/EPA, 24 November 2016

Houthi fighters ride on the back of a truck during a tribal gathering held to mobilize fighters for the battles against government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen November 24, 2016. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah

Houthi fighters ride on the back of a truck during a tribal gathering held to mobilise fighters for the battles against government forces, in Sana’a, Yemen: photo by Khaled Abdullah/Reuters, 24 November 2016

U.S. soldiers eat their meals to celebrate Thanksgiving Day inside the U.S. army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq November 24, 2016.

U.S. soldiers eat their meals to celebrate Thanksgiving Day inside the U.S. army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul, Iraq: photo by Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters, 24 November 2016

A street cleaner pushes his tricycle through the alleys of Wuzhen Township of Tongxiang City, in east China's Zhejiang province on November 25, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Johannes EISELEJOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

A street cleaner pushes his tricycle through the alleys of Wuzhen Township of Tongxiang City, in east China’s Zhejiang province: photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP, 25 November 2016

Performers from the Joles ethnic group in Gambia prepare to perform with sharp blades which they say will demonstrate the magic powers of a spiritual water, that will make them immune to the cuts, during a campaign rally by incumbent President Yahya Jammeh, leader of the APRC in Bikama: photo by Marco Longari/AFP, 25 November 2016

which magical powers

circumambient inanition
spiritual water
down to a trickle
every minute wasted
trying to pay attention
you could have spent living

Stars and Northern Lights are seen above the Sycamore Gap tree on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland National Park, made famous in the film Robin Hood Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner: photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire, 24 November 2016

A Chinese labourer stands next t a furnace at outside at an unauthorized steel factory on November 3, 2016 in Inner Mongolia, China. To meet China's targets to slash emissions of carbon dioxide, authorities are pushing to shut down privately owned steel, coal, and other high-polluting factories scattered across rural areas. In many cases, factory owners say they pay informal "fines" to local inspectors and then re-open. The enforcement comes as the future of U.S. support for the 2015 Paris Agreement is in question, leaving China poised as an unlikely leader in the international effort against climate change. U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about whether he will withdraw the U.S. from commitments to curb greenhouse gases that, according to scientists, are causing the earth's temperature to rise. Trump once declared that the concept of global warming was "created" by China in order to hurt U.S. manufacturing. China's leadership has stated that any change in U.S. climate policy will not affect its commitment to implement the climate action plan. While the world's biggest polluter, China is also a global leader in establishing renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A Chinese labourer stands next to a furnace at outside an unauthorized steel factory in Inner Mongolia: photo by Kevin Frayer, 25 November 2016

Black-winged Stilt migratory birds fly over the Shahpura lake on the onset of winter season in Bhopal, India, 25 November 2016. Every year, several different species of birds arrive at the lake in search for warmer areas. EPA/SANJEEV GUPTA

Black-winged Stilt migratory birds fly over the Shahpura lake on the onset of winter season in Bhopal. Every year, several different species of birds arrive at the lake in search for warmer areas.: photo by Sanjeev Gupta/AFP/EPA, 25 November 2016

People fleeing ISIS-controlled areas being loaded onto Iraqi military trucks on the outskirts of eastern Mosul

People fleeing ISIS-controlled areas being loaded onto Iraqi military trucks on the outskirts of eastern Mosul

Residents fleeing ISIS-controlled areas on the outskirts of Qayyara: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum, for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

Men appearing out of a cloud of smoke from burning oil around Qayyara: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

Aiming to prevent coalition airstrikes, ISIS set oil fields alight near Qayyara. They continue to burn.: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

Pesh merga forces entering Bashiqa, a town a few miles northeast of Mosul, to try and recapture it from ISIS amid strong resistance: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum, for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

Pesh merga fighters mourning the death of a comrade, a tank driver shot and killed by an ISIS sniper, when leaving Bashiqa after a day of fighting: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

Residents fleeing ISIS-controlled areas on the outskirts of Qayyara: photo byPaolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

People fleeing ISIS-controlled areas on the outskirts of Qayyara: photo by Paolo Pellegrin/Magnum for The New York Times, 14 November 2016

↧

A recount for Giant Meteor

November 27, 2016, 4:37 am

≫ Next: The Tiger's Last Warning

≪ Previous: Mr Death, You've Got a Beautiful Future (the magic powers of a spiritual water)

Starlings put on a display as they gather in murmurations on November 25, 2016 in Gretna, Scotland. It is thought that starlings flock together in large groups for various reasons such as flocking together makes it difficult for predators to target a single bird, it also keeps them warm. They gather over their autumn roosting site just before dusk and perform their acrobatic whirling motions before setting down for the evening. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Starlings put on a display as they gather in murmurations in Gretna, Scotland. It is thought that starlings flock together in large groups for various reasons such as flocking together makes it difficult for predators to target a single bird, it also keeps them warm. They gather over their autumn roosting site just before dusk and perform their acrobatic whirling motions before setting down for the evening.: photo by Jeff J Mitchell, 26 November 2016

An Indian Army soldier sits with soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China after participating in an anti-terror drill during the Sixth India-China Joint Training exercise “Hand in Hand 2016″ at HQ 330 Infantry Brigade India: photo by Indranil Mukherjee/AFP, 26 November 2016

Protesters use their smartphones as part of an activity during a rally at Manila's Rizal Park, Philippines Friday Nov. 25, 2016 against the hasty burial of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes' cemetery. Thousands of Filipinos, including more than a dozen nude students, have protested the hasty burial of Marcos in a heroes' cemetery in a growing political storm that's lashing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who allowed the entombment. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Protesters use their smartphones as part of an activity during a rally at Manila’s Rizal Park, Philippines against the hasty burial of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a heroes’ cemetery: photo by Aaron Favila/AP, 26 November 2016

Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson poses with ceremonial guards at the Lahore Fort in Lahore, Pakistan November 25, 2016. REUTERS/Caren Firouz

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson poses with ceremonial guards at the Lahore Fort in Lahore, Pakistan: photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters, 26 November 2016

As the shades of evening come down, the battle lines are drawn...

At Standing Rock: photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters, 21 November 2016

.
At Standing Rock: photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters, 21 November 2016

Mr. Trump with bagpipers during a ceremony in 2010 at the site of his proposed golf course in northeastern Scotland: photo by David Moir/Reuters via The New York Times, 26 November 2016

Trump Tower in Manhattan, where the Bank of China is a tenant: photo by Sam Hodgson for The New York Times, 21 November 2016

Iraqi Omar Ali grieves as he holds his dead daughter Amira, 15 months, who was killed by an ISIS mortar shell in al-Tahrir neighborhood, at a field hospital set up by the Iraqi special forces medical unit, at al-Samah front line neighborhood, in Mosul city, Iraq: photo by Hussein Malia/AP, 23 November 2016

Iraqi Omar Ali grieves as he holds his dead daughter Amira, 15 months, who was killed by an ISIS mortar shell in al-Tahrir neighborhood, at a field hospital set up by the Iraqi special forces medical unit, at al-Samah front line neighborhood, in Mosul city, Iraq: photo by Hussein Malia/AP, 23 November 2016

GAMBIA - A performer wearing a traditional kankurang mask, a ceremonial attire of the Manding tribe, dances in Brikama. By @mlongari #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - A Shiite fighter from the Hashed al-Shaabi walks near al-Tofaha, southeast of the city of Tal Afar. By @ahmedafp #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - A Shiite fighter from the Hashed al-Shaabi rests in al-Tofaha, southeast of the city of Tal Afar. By @ahmedafp #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - An Iraqi army Mi-35 helicopter shoots a missile at an Islamic State group target near Tall Abtah, near the city of Mosul. By @TomCOEX: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - Displaced Iraqi civilians drive back to Tall Abtah near Mosul after Iraqi forces retook it from IS group jihadists. By @TomCOEX: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - Members of Iraqi Special Forces fire towards a position of the IS group from a rooftop in northeastern district of Mosul. By @TomCOEX: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - Iraqis run for cover as Islamic State group fighters clash with government forces in a northeastern district of Mosul.By @TomCOEX: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - A wounded Iraqi child who was injured during ongoing fighting in Mosul receives medical treatment at hospital in Arbil. By @safinphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 24 November 2016

Iraqi man separated from family by 2014 #ISIS offensive reunited with granddaughter in Bartalla @AFPphoto by @TomCOEX @mojobaghdad: image via The Baghdad Post @The BaghdadPostE, 24 November 2016

IRAQ - A displaced Iraqi man receives a shave at a makeshift barber at the al-Khazar camp in Hasan Sham near Arbil.By @safinphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

Scenes from #Mosul today as hundreds of Iraqi civilians flee the battle between Iraqi troops and the Islamic State. @felipedana @hmalla72: image via AP images @AP_Images, 25 November 2016

IRAQ - A man reacts at scene of suicide bombing that targeted Shiite pilgrims returning from Arbaeen commemoration in Karbala. By @HaidarAfp: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 25 November 2016

What horrible news: ISIS suicide bomber targets pilgrims returning from #Arbaeen in #Iraq today, killing 80 Iraqis, Iranians and Bahrainis: image via Sarah Abdallah @sahouraxo, 24 November 2016

Update: Death toll at least 100 (mostly #Iranian) in #Isis suicide truck bombing near #Baghdad #Iraq: image via Mete Sohtaoglu @mehtesohtaoglu, 24 November 2016

Bombed-out homes in Sana, the capital of Yemen. A Saudi-led coalition has been bombing Yemen to try to oust the Houthis, a rebel group aligned with Iran that seized the capital in 2014: photo byTyler Hicks/The New York Times, 26 November 2016

A nonfunctioning cement factory in Amran, Yemen, that was bombed twice by the Saudi-led coalition: photo byTyler Hicks/The New York Times, 26 November 2016

A camp of displaced families in Yemen in October: photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times, 26 November 2016

Men praying at the Majara camp for displaced Yemenis, in the town of Hajjah: photo byTyler Hicks/The New York Times, 26 November 2016

A taxi driver in Sana. Some Yemenis who have been living under Houthi rule said the Saudi intervention had unified diverse forces against a common enemy: photo by Tyler Hicks/The New York Times, 26 November 2016

Frank Sinatra In Israel in 1962: photo via Best American Poetry, 24 November 2016

Sinatra planting a tree in Histadrut Forest of Jerusalem: photo via Best American Poetry, 24 November 2016

Cuba’s new leader Fidel Castro addressing a crowd in February 1959. Castro had promised free elections and vowed to end American domination of the economy: photo by Associated Press

Fidel Castro at the United Nations in 1979: photo by Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

Fidel Castro with other revolutionary leaders in Cuba in June 1957 including Che Guevera, the guerrillas’ physician, second from left, and Raúl Castro, kneeling in the foreground: photo by United Press International

Fidel Castro speaking to supporters at a military base on Jan. 8, 1959, the day he entered Havana. Mr. Batista had left Cuba from the base just after midnight on Jan. 1.: photo by Associated Press

Fidel Castro with an ice cream cone on the Bronx Zoo train in April 1959: photo by Meyer Liebowitz/The New York Times

Fidel Castro visited a Cuban pilot plot for a new variety of sugar cane in 1964. Even as other Caribbean nations diversified, Cuba stuck with one major crop, sugar, and one major buyer, the Soviet Union.: photo by Jack Manning/The New York Times

Fidel Castro making a speech on radio and television during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962. He had allowed the Soviets to build missile-launching sites in Cuba, leading to a harrowing diplomatic standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union.: photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone

Fidel Castro at Havana’s airport in January 1976. He remained in power despite several C.I.A. attempts to eliminate him or to undermine his authority.: photo by Prensa Latina/Reuters

A speech at the United Nations in October 1979. Relations between the United States and Cuba thawed briefly in the 1970s during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.: photo by Paul Hosefros/The New York Times

With his brother Raúl, then the minister of defense, at a Parliament session in Havana in 2004. Fidel Castro stepped aside in 2006, ceding much of his power to Raúl, and two years later formally resigned as president. Raúl has ruled Cuba since then.: photo by Cristobal Herrera/Associated Press

La impresión de un artista sobre cómo se podría haber visto el cráter de Chicxulub poco después de que un meteorito cayera en la península de Yucatán. Los investigadores analizan los anillos de picos dentro del cráter.: image by Detlev van Ravenswaay/Science Source, 26 November 2016

Hardman triptych VDB | by efo

Hardman, Oregon: photo by efo, September 2016

Malpeque Harbour, Ridge of Trees | by LowerDarnley

Malpeque Harbour, Ridge of Trees (Malpeque Harbour, PEI): photo by Jim Rohan, 22 November 2016

DSCF0334: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

DPZM4371pe: photo by Joe Zellers, 25 November 2016

↧

The Tiger's Last Warning

November 29, 2016, 8:50 am

≫ Next: Murmuration at Sunset (Emigration of the Multitudes) / Robert Creeley: Window

≪ Previous: A recount for Giant Meteor

A displaced Iraqi man, who fled the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul, carries mattresses he received at Khazer camp, Iraq: photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters, 28 November 2016

An Iraqi soldier uses his rifle to hold up a helmet as a decoy during clashes with Islamic State fighters in Al-Qasar, South-East of Mosul, Iraq: photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters, 29 November 2016

#Hashed al-Shaabi fighters in Tofaha, near #TalAfar, west of #Mosul #AFPphoto by A. Rubaye #ghilliesuit #Sniper #PMF: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 25 November 2016

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries advance in a desert area near the village of Tall Abtah, southwest of Mosul: photo by AFP, 29 November 2016

#Iraq A displaced woman, who fled the violence in Mosul, enters her tent at the al-Khazar camp #AFP Photo by @safinhamed: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 25 November 2016

Amazing #photos of the #oil #fires near #Qayarrah, #Iraq by @TomCOEX @AFPphoto: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 25 November 2016

Great pictures from the air of Iraqi army aviation striking #IS positions today near the city of #Mosul by @TomCOEX @ / @AFPphoto #IRAQ: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 25 November 2016

#Iraq An Iraqi army Mi-35 helicopter shoots a missile at an IS group target near the village of Tall Abtah #mosul #AFP Photo by @TomCoex: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 25 November 2016

Displaced Iraqi civilians drive back to their village of Tall Abtah, near the city of #Mosul on November 25, 2016. @TomCoex @AFPphoto: image via L'Instant-ParisMatch @instantmatchAFP, 26 November 2016

Displaced Iraqi civilians drive back to their village of Tall Abtah, near the city of Mosul #AFP Photo by @TomCoex: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 25 November 2016

#Iraq The village of #Tall Abtah, #mosul after Iraqi forces retook the village from Islamic State (IS) #AFP Photo by @TomCoex: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 25 November 2016

#Iraq - After IS hell, displaced Iraqis face winter freeze. By Ahmad Al-Rubaye #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 27 November 2016

#Iraq - Iraqi residents of recently recaptured district of southeast Mosul, flee their neighbourhood. By @TomCoex: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 27 November 2016

Shiite fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) advance from an area near Qayyarah towards the village of Tal Um Jadaan, southwest of Mosul: photo by AFP, 28 November 2016

#Iraq Internally displaced people queue to fill containers with fuel for heating and cooking at al-Khazer refugee camp #AFP Photo by @coex: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

#Palestinian A woman holds a posters of late #FidelCastro in #Gaza to pay tribute to him after his death #AFP Photo by @m55baba: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

#Cuba A man cleans a picture of #FidelCastro in Havana, on November 27, two days after he died #AFP Photo by @PPardo1: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

#Cuba A man reads a newspaper obituary of #FidelCastro in Havana, on November 27, two days after he died #AFP Photo by @PPardo1: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is hugged by children during his visit to Samjiyon County: photo by Reuters, 28 November 2016

#NKorea A general view shows the Pyongyang city skyline #AFP Photo by @edwardesjones: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

Paul Nuttall Is Elected The New Leader Of UKIP

Paul Nuttall (L) is congratulated by former UKIP leader Nigel Farage after being elected new party leader: photo by Leon Neal, 28 November 2016

People gather in central Delhi for a protest against the government’s decision to withdraw 500 and 1000 Indian rupee banknotes from circulation: photo by Cathal McNaughton/Reuters, 28 November 2016

#India Tens of thousands protest against India cash ban #AFP Photo by @noahseelam @thisisindra @ArunsanKrish @nanuworld: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 28 November 2016

This is the moment when "never again" became a lie

Is not a scene from the film This horror by Russian air strikes Imagine that your brother #Warcrimes #StandWithAleppo #Syria: image via IRAQ @moonnor27, 27 November 2016

In eastern Aleppo: photo by Reuters, 28 November 2016

Syrian government drives rebels from swath of Aleppo: Tom Perry and Laila Bassam in Beirut for Reuters, 29 November 2016

The Syrian army and its allies announced the capture of a large swath of eastern Aleppo from rebels on Monday in an accelerating attack that threatens to crush the opposition in its most important urban stronghold.Two rebel officials said the insurgents, facing fierce bombardment and ground attacks, had withdrawn from the northern part of eastern Aleppo to a more defensible front line along a big highway after losses that threatened to split their enclave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the northern portion of eastern Aleppo lost by the rebels amounted to more than a third of the territory they had held, calling it the biggest defeat for the opposition in Aleppo since 2012.

Thousands of residents were reported to have fled. A rebel fighter reached by Reuters said there was "extreme, extreme, extreme pressure" on the insurgents.

Part of the area lost by the rebels was taken over by a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia from another part of Aleppo in what rebels described as an agreed handover, a rare example of cooperation between groups that have fought each other.

Hundreds of miles to the south, people started to leave the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Khan al-Shih for other parts of the country controlled by insurgents under a deal with the government, the Observatory said.

It is the latest such agreement, characterised by Damascus as "reconciliations" but decried by rebels as the forcible removal of the populations of opposition areas, and a model that the government has suggested could be employed in east Aleppo.

Capturing eastern Aleppo would be the biggest victory for President Bashar al-Assad since the start of the uprising against him in 2011, restoring his control over the whole city apart from a Kurdish-held area that has not fought against him.

For Assad, taking back Aleppo would shore up his grip over the main population centres of western Syria where he and his allies have focused their firepower while much of the rest of the country remains outside their control.

It would be seen as a victory for his allies, Russia and Iran, which have outmanoeuvred the West and Assad's regional enemies through direct military intervention.

"What happened in the last two days is a great strategic accomplishment by the Syrian army and allies," a fighter with a militia on the government side in the Aleppo area said.
Rebels say their foreign patrons including the United States have abandoned them to their fate in Aleppo.

Assad, whose backers also include the Lebanese group Hezbollah, has gradually closed in on eastern Aleppo this year, first cutting the most direct lifeline to Turkey before fully encircling the east, and launching a major assault in September.

A military news service run by Hezbollah declared the northern portion of eastern Aleppo under full state control.

The Russian Defence Ministry said about 40 percent of the eastern part of the city had been "freed" from militants by Syrian government forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Syrian army’s advances with members of his Security Council on Monday, Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Officials with two Aleppo rebel groups said rebels had withdrawn to areas they could more easily defend, particularly after losing the Hanano housing complex area on Saturday.

"It is a withdrawal for the sake of being able to defend and reinforce the front lines," an official in the Jabha Shamiya rebel group told Reuters.

KURDISH MILITIA

Citing a military source, Syrian state TV said the army and its allies had seized another key eastern Aleppo neighbourhood, al-Sakhour. The Jabha Shamiya official said part of it had been evacuated so it would become part of the new frontline.

The Kurdish YPG militia which controls the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo moved into at least two of the areas left by rebel forces. The YPG, a U.S. ally in the war with Islamic State, has been hostile to the Aleppo rebel groups.

Rebel officials said the YPG had moved into areas on Sunday night in an agreement with the insurgents.

While some of the rebels in Aleppo have received support from states such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United States during the war, they say their foreign backers have failed them as Assad and his allies unleash enormous firepower.

"The situation is very bad and the reason is the round the clock shelling with all types of weapons," said Abdul Salam Abdul Razaq, military spokesman for the Nour al-Din al-Zinki group, one of the main Aleppo rebel factions.

"There is very fierce fighting going on now and the regime and its supporters are destroying whole areas to allow themselves to advance," he told Reuters. Another fighter said there was heavy attrition in "people and ammunition".

Aleppo's Civil Defence group of rescue workers operating in rebel areas said the only fuel it had left was what remained in its vehicles and equipment.

The fighting has forced thousands of residents of eastern Aleppo to flee. Some have gone to the Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsoud district, others have gone over to government territory, and others have moved deeper into remaining rebel-held areas.

The Syrian Arab Red Crescent registered 4,000 people in the government-held Jibreen district of western Aleppo after they fled the rebel-held east in recent days, the UN's humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said on Monday.

Mohammad Sandeh, a member of the opposition city council of Aleppo, told Reuters that many people were on the move but staying in the remaining rebel-held parts of Aleppo.
"The bombardment is still heavy. There's big displacement from the eastern neighbourhoods. They are going towards the areas that are somewhat further (from the front lines)," he said. "There's fear that the regime will advance more."

Saleh Muslim, joint head of the Syrian Kurdish PYD party, told Reuters that between 6,000 to 10,000 people had fled to Sheikh Maqsoud, where they were being received.

The Observatory said several thousand more had crossed front lines in other parts of eastern Aleppo and had been taken to government-controlled areas of western Aleppo.
A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said exact figures for the number of displaced were difficult to gauge, adding that more than 2,000 had left eastern Aleppo for the government-controlled district of Jibreen.

In 12 days, 500+ civilians were killed,1500+ injured and 4 hospitals and 2 SCD cntrs destroyd in #Aleppo #StandWithAleppo: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef , 27 November 2016

In 12 days, 500+ civilians were killed,1500+ injured and 4 hospitals and 2 SCD cntrs destroyd in #Aleppo #StandWithAleppo: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef, 27 November 2016

The heartbreak of the messages from east Aleppo that made it is unspeakable. There is almost bitter gratitude that death is finally coming.: tweet via Kareem Shaheen, 27 November 2016

From this moment on, R2P is dead: tweet via Kareem Shaheen, 27 November 2016

From this moment on, siege warfare, bombing of hospitals and mass civilian deaths have become a normalized form of warfare: tweet via Kareem Shaheen, 27 November 2016

The fall of Aleppo is beginning. This is the moment when "never again" became a lie.: tweet via Kareem Shaheen, 27 November 2016

The work of the fire brigadein the Civil Defense, to put out a fire that broke out in an apartment in the city and to control the fire without injury #Aleppo always: image via SCD RifDimashq @SCD RifDimashq, 27 November 2016

150+ Airstrikes & 2500+ artillery shells targeted #Aleppo city and countryside today killing 46 civilians and injuring 325+ #Aleppo #StandWithAleppo: image via The White Helmets @SyriaCivilDef, 26 November 2016

Scavenging to survive in eastern #Aleppo: image via baraa al-halabi @baraaalhalabi, 24 November 2016

#Aleppo: The Tiger issued a statement giving militants last warning to leave Aleppo city or suffer total annihilation: image via Yusha Yuseef @MIG29, 27 November 2016

Syrians fleeing clashes between government forces and rebels in eastern Aleppo on Monday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 28 November 2016

Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria on top of a building overlooking Aleppo on Monday during their assault to retake the city from rebel fighters. They made large territorial gains Monday.: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 28 November 2016
: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 28 November 2016

A woman holds a branch of cedar during a prayer ceremony on Backwater Bridge during a protest against plans to pass the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near Cannon Ball, North Dakota: photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters, 28 November 2016

Internal Displacement: "But their eyes are all white"

At the Trump rally...: image via Alex Seitz-Wald @aseitzwald, 12 March 2016

Outside #TrumpChi rally: image via e. jason wambsgans @ejwamb, 12 March 2016

I am the man on the left, and she openly Hailed Hitler. And held the stance gladly.

I was inviting her to walk out down the path we cleared for her. Scouts honor.

I asked her to leave down the path we cleared for her, this was her response.

I was astounded. Still tried to get her to leave, for her own safety at that point. #TrumpRallyChi

-- tweets via Michael Joseph Garza @ampersandcastle, 12 March 2016

In the streets of Berlin (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)

But their eyes are all white, without lashes
and their arms thin as reeds.

Lord, not with these people. I've known
the voices of children at dawn
rushing down green slopes
happy as bees, happy as butterflies
with so many colours.
Lord, not with these people, their voices
don't even leave their mouths --
they stay glued to their yellow teeth.

Yours is the sea and the wind
with a star hung in the firmament.
Lord, they don't know that we are
what we are able to be
healing our wounds with herbs
found on the green slopes,
these slopes nearby, not any others;
that we breathe as we are able to breathe
with a little prayer each dawn
that reaches the shore by crossing
the chasms of memory --
Lord, not with these people. Let your will be done in another way.

11 September 1941
Giorgios Seferiades (George Seferis) (1900-1971): Postscript, from Logbook II (Alexandria, 1944), in Collected Poems, translated from the Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

May 1st parade, Germany, 1930s: photo by Paul Walde; image by Andreas Praefcke, 2005

Donald J. Trump speaking at a rally on Monday on the aircraft carrier Yorktown in South Carolina: photo by Sean Rayford / The New York Times, 8 December 2015

Donald J. Trump, in Macon, Ga., last week: photo by Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times, 5 December 2010

Donald J. Trump on Monday aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: photo by Mic Smith/AP, 7 December 2015

Donald J. Trump, in Macon, Ga., last week, uses a harsh tone: photo by Kevin D. Liles for The New York Times, 5 December 2015

Evan Jayne, of France, competes in the bareback riding event during the seventh go-round of the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas: photo by John Locher/AP, 10 December 2015

Donald J. Trump has also gained some support in Britain, and a counterpetition titled “Don’t Ban Trump From the United Kingdom” has more than 10,000 signatures: photo by John Locher/Associated Press, 10 December 2015

W. H. Auden: Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973):Epitaph on a Tyrant, January 1939, from Another Time (1940)

A Donald J. Trump rally in Davenport, Iowa, last week. More than four in 10 Republican primary voters say the quality most important to them in a candidate is strong leadership, and those voters heavily favor Mr. Trump: photo by Scott Olson/The New York Times, 10 December 2015

.
A Donald J. Trump rally in Davenport, Iowa, last week. More than four in 10 Republican primary voters say the quality most important to them in a candidate is strong leadership, and those voters heavily favor Mr. Trump: photo by Scott Olson/The New York Times, 10 December 2015

Donald J. Trump, in Raleigh N.C., last Friday, has caused the Democrats to try to figure out the roots of his appeal: photo by Ray Whitehouse for The New York Times, 10 December 2015

.

Donald J. Trump, in Raleigh N.C., last Friday, has caused the Democrats to try to figure out the roots of his appeal: photo by Ray Whitehouse for The New York Times, 10 December 2015

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, in 2004.<br /><br />

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, in 2004.The granddaughter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt assailed Donald J. Trump on Thursday for citing internment camps set up by the Roosevelt administration in defending his proposal to ban foreign Muslims from entering the United States.“For Donald Trump to cite my grandfather and internment as a defense of his own intolerant and divisive agenda is reprehensible,” said Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.“Japanese-Americans, who were loyal citizens and who served bravely in the U.S. military, were scarred not only by the physical deprivation of internment but by the denial of the dignity and respect of their own country. As a nation, internment weakened us all. It is a tragic reminder of what happens when we allow fear and hysteria to trump our values.": photo by John Amis/Associated Press via The New York Times, 10 December 2015

Manzanar cemetery: photo by Amanda Tomlin, 27 January 2009

TreasureIsland.01925 | by Film&PhotoArchivist

Treasure Island. Bay Bridges.: photo by FilmandPhotoArchivist, 13 July 2014

Tyskland (Berlin) (camera: Leica / film: Agfa Color Neu): photo by Thomas Neumann, 1937 (National Archives of Norway)

Surgery, Portuguese Institute of Oncology, Lisbon. Architect: Hermann Distel. Conception of project: 1938. Period of construction: 1940-1953. Opening: 1954: photo by Estúdio Horácio Novais, 1950(?)-1953 (Biblioteca de Arte / Art Library Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian)

Hospital of Santa Maria, Lisbon. Architect: Hermann Distel. Conception of project: 1938. Period of construction: 1940-1953. Opening: 1954: photo by Estúdio Horácio Novais, 1950(?)-1953 (Biblioteca de Arte / Art Library Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian)

Grande Hotel da Figueira da Foz, Portugal Aechitect: Inácio Peres Fernandes. Opened 1953: photo by Estúdio Horácio Novais, 1950s (Biblioteca de Arte / Art Library Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian)

Crowd in Chiado, Lisbon: photo by Estúdio Horácio Novais, 25 April 1974 (Biblioteca de Arte / Art Library Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian)

Crowd in Rua do Carmo, Lisbon: photo by Estúdio Horácio Novais, 25 April 1974 (Biblioteca de Arte / Art Library Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian)

Act of State. Torchlight procession: photographer unknown, 1 February 1942 (National Archives of Norway)

Statsakten (Celebration of Act of State at Akershus, marking transition to German supremacy in Norway under the national government of Vidkun Quisling): photographer unknown, 1 February 1942(National Archives of Norway)

Dancing Bear, State Fair of Texas: photo by Lynn Lennon, 1985 (Southern Methodist University, Central University Libraries, DeGolyer Library)

During the forced evacuation of Finnmark, Byåsen school was used to house evacuees and as a temporary replacement hospital: photo by Ukjent, c. August 1944 (Municipal Archives of Trondheim)

During the forced evacuation of Finnmark, Byåsen school is used to house evacuees and as a temporary replacement hospital: photo by Ukjent, c. August 1944 (Municipal Archives of Trondheim)

Doubtful Sound, NZ: photo by Amanda Tomlin, 23 December 2013

Doubtful Sound, NZ | by Amanda Tomlin

Doubtful Sound, NZ: photo by Amanda Tomlin, 23 December 2013

Pt Reyes house: photo by Amanda Tomlin, 12 April 2013

Fishermen place bamboo, where they will later place tree branches and fish food, to catch fish in a river in Dhaka, Bangladesh: photo by Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters, 29 November 2016

Church and graveyard by the Atchafalaya levee | by Up a Lazy River

Church and graveyard by the Atchafalaya levee. Taken in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana: photo by Mead Allison, 28 April 2013

Church and graveyard by the Atchafalaya levee. Taken in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana.: photo by Mead Allison, 28 April 2013

China's Virtual Reality Arcades Bring VR To The Masses

Chinese twins wear virtual reality glasses (VR) as they ride in a roller coaster simulator at the Wantong VR Park: photo by Kevin Frayer, 29 November 2016

↧

Murmuration at Sunset (Emigration of the Multitudes) / Robert Creeley: Window

November 30, 2016, 7:22 am

≫ Next: No more white shrouds in East Aleppo

≪ Previous: The Tiger's Last Warning

Starlings perform a murmuration at sunset near Gretna Green, in the south of Scotland: photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire, 29 November 2016

Starlings perform a murmuration at sunset near Gretna Green, in the south of Scotland: photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire, 29 November 2016

Multitudes of Starlings appear at Newton, and run feeding about in the grass-fields. No number is known to breed in these parts. This is therefore an emigration from some other district.
Entry for 23 November 1780, in The Journals of Gilbert White

Robert Creeley: Window

Sometimes it seems just

a push would get you over

the rooftops and out into air

it feels has nothing but

space to give you. This

riding high was made for serious

people who want to live but

can't. Just a push and you're

out, and free as the birds.

Robert Creeley (1927-2005): Window, from Places (1990)

Iraqi army soldiers carry their comrade who was wounded during the battle against the Islamic State group, in Haj Ali front line village, southern Mosul, Iraq: photo by Hussein Malla, 29 November 2016

Iraqi injured soldiers, who were wounded during the battle against the Islamic State group, lie on the ground as they receive medical treatment at a field hospital, in Haj Ali frontline village, southern Mosul, Iraq. Iraqi forces on Tuesday assaulted villages far south of Mosul in the Nineveh province, attempting to clear rural areas of Islamic State fighters who stayed behind to hinder their advance.: photo by Hussein Malla/AP, 29 November 2016

#Iraq A woman waits for food distribution during an ongoing operation against IS in #Mosul #AFP Photo by @TomCOEX: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 29 November 2016

#Iraq Distribution of food aid by the Iraqi ministry to migrants and refugees #Mosul #AFPPhoto by @TomCOEX: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 29 November 2016

#Iraq Distribution of food in an eastern district of #Mosul during fighting between IS and government forces#AFPPhoto by @TomCOEX: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 28 November 2016

#Syria Two girls on a heavily damaged street in the rebel-held town of #Douma, outskirts of #Damascus. By @SameerAlDoumy @AFPphoto: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 29 November 2016

endgame in eastern Aleppo: "intense fear of collective annihilation"

Around 10,000 civilians have escaped from Aleppo city’s rebel-held east into government-controlled western Aleppo: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 29 November 2016

Around 10,000 civilians have escaped from Aleppo city’s rebel-held east into government-controlled western Aleppo: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 29 November 2016

45 Were killed including (women and children) after #Aleppo city was targeted with artillery shells today. #StandWithAleppo: image via SCD RifDimashq @SCD RifDimashq, 30 November 2016

BREAKING: UN says 16,000 have fled #Aleppo, calls situation 'chilling' @AFP #Syria: image via Jean-March Mojon @mojobaghdad, 29 November 2016

Assad, allies aim to seize all Aleppo before Trump takes power: official: Laila Bassam and Ellen Francis in Beirut for Reuters, 29 November 2016

Syria and its allies aim to drive rebels from Aleppo before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. President, a senior official in the pro-Damascus military alliance said, as pro-government forces surged to their biggest victories in the city for years.

Rebels face one of their gravest moments of the war after pro-government forces routed fighters over the past few days from more than a third of the territory they controlled in the city. Thousands of civilians have fled for safety.

The pro-government official, who declined to be identified in order to speak freely, nevertheless indicated that the next phase of the campaign could be more difficult as the army and its allies seek to capture more densely populated areas.

Rebel fighters fought fiercely to stop government forces advancing deeper into the opposition-held enclave on Tuesday, confronting pro-Assad militias who sought to move into the area from the southeast, a rebel official said.

The attack on eastern Aleppo threatens to snuff out the most important urban center of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, who has been firmly on the offensive for more than a year thanks to Russian and Iranian military support.

Capturing rebel-held eastern Aleppo would be the biggest victory to date for Assad in the conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands of people since it arose out of protests against his rule nearly six years ago.

As Russia and Iran have stuck steadfastly by Assad, the rebels say their foreign backers including the United States have left them to their fate in their besieged enclave of eastern Aleppo, Syria's biggest city before the civil war.

Government forces backed by Shi'ite militias from Iran, Lebanon and Iraq punched into the rebel-held area from the northeast last week. The senior, pro-Assad official said the rebel lines had collapsed more quickly than expected.

"The Russians want to complete the operation before Trump takes power," said the official, repeating a previous timetable which pro-Damascus sources had said was drawn up to mitigate the risks of any shift in U.S. policy towards the war in Syria.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond when asked whether it had drawn up such a timeline.

Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has indicated that he may abandon support for Syrian rebels who have received military aid from states including the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and could even cooperate with Russia against Islamic State in Syria.

The United States has offered aid including military support to some rebel groups under President Barack Obama, though the rebels have always said this backing has fallen well short of what they need against better armed government forces.

THE WEST "CAN'T DO ANYTHING"

The rebel official said the outgoing U.S. administration was paying little attention to Syria. Assad and his allies were "trying to exploit the current circumstances, unfortunately, and the Western states can't do anything", he said.

France, another backer of the opposition, called for an immediate U.N. Security Council meeting to discuss Aleppo.

"More than ever before, we need to urgently put in place means to end the hostilities and to allow humanitarian aid to get through unhindered," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a statement.

Russia has consistently blocked attempts by Western states to take action in the Security Council against Damascus.

Accounts from eastern Aleppo, where the United Nations says at least 250,000 civilians are trapped with no access to the outside world, point to a dire humanitarian situation. People have been forced to scavenge in the garbage for food as aid supplies have run out, and all the hospitals in eastern Aleppo have been repeatedly bombed.

The civil defense rescue service that operates in eastern Aleppo said on Monday it had nearly run out fuel to power the equipment it has been using to pull people from the rubble of bombed-out buildings.

Pummeled by air strikes, artillery and ground attacks, the rebels were forced on Monday to withdraw to more defensible lines along a highway that runs through Aleppo, hoping that it would be harder for the government side to make further gains.

The rebel official with one of the main Aleppo rebel groups said the opposition fighters had managed to stabilize new frontlines, but were fighting to stop pro-government militias that sought to advance from the south.

FIERCE BATTLES

"There is no progress but the bombardment and battles remain fierce, particularly in Aziza" in southeastern Aleppo, said the official with the Jabha Shamiya rebel group, which fights under the Free Syrian Army banner. "Yesterday evening there was a big mobilization by Iranian militias in Aziza," the official added.

The government and its allies gradually besieged the rebel-held sector of Aleppo this year before abandoning a ceasefire to launch a fierce assault in September.

The latest fighting has forced thousands to flee. Some have crossed the frontline to government-held areas, others have sought refuge in a Kurdish-controlled part of the city, and many more have fled deeper into the remaining rebel-held area.

Air strikes on Bab al-Nairab, a district in the rebel-held area, killed at least 10 people and left dozens more wounded or missing, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the civil defense rescue service said. The Syrian military could not be reached for comment.

The civil defense said government planes struck as people were trying to flee the neighborhood on foot, killing 25.

The United Nations humanitarian chief and relief coordinator said up to 16,000 people had been displaced from eastern Aleppo.

A U.N. spokesman said that according to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent 10,000 people had moved into government-held western Aleppo, and 4,000-6,000 had moved into the Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsoud district. Rebels say thousands more have moved deeper into the areas still held by the opposition.

The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, said he could not say how long eastern Aleppo would hold out.

"Clearly, I cannot deny - this is a military acceleration and I can't tell you how long eastern Aleppo will last," he told the European Parliament.

Russia said that the army's breakthrough in Aleppo had dramatically altered the situation on the ground, allowing more than 80,000 civilians to access humanitarian aid after years of what it described as being used by militants as human shields.

"During the last 24 hours, thanks to very well-prepared and careful actions, Syrian soldiers were able to radically change the situation," Major-General Igor Konashenkov, a defense ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

"Practically half of the territory occupied by rebels in recent years in the eastern part of Aleppo has been completely liberated."

A medic in eastern Aleppo who gave his name as Abu al-Abbas said however there was "intense fear of collective annihilation".

"This week I've changed locations three times," he added, speaking on Monday using a social networking site. "In the shelter, we had dead people who we couldn't take out because the bombardment was so intense," he said.

Syrian families wait to board buses for government-controlled western Aleppo on Tuesday: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 29 November 2016

#syria Families fleeing from various eastern districts of #Aleppo queue to get onto governmental buses #AFP Photo by George Ourfalian: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 29 November 2016

President-elect Donald Trump, center, eats dinner with Mitt Romney, right, and Trump Chief of Staff Reince Priebus at Jean-Georges restaurant, Tuesday, in New York: photo by Evan Vucci/AP, 29 November 2016

Former UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage gestures during an interview with The Associated Press in London, Tuesday. Farage addressed the media on how he met US President-elect Donald Trump last week.: photo by Frank Augstein/AP, 29 November 2016

Smoke surrounds a home as seen from aboard a National Guard helicopter near Gatlinburg, Tenn., Tuesday. Thousands of people have fled deadly wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and a resort in the Great Smoky Mountains.: photo by Erik Schelzig/AP, 29 November 2016

Flames could be seen on Highway 441 between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., on Monday: photo by Jessica Tezak/Knoxville News Sentinel, via Associated Press, 29 November 2016

God protect the people and the animals of East Tennessee - #PrayForTheSmokies #seviercounty #gatlingburg #pigeonforge #SmokyMountains: image via Tami Marie @gypsymarie79, 29 November 2016

#JasonAldean #countrymusic #SmokyMountains how bout pulling together concert fundraiser help us out here in Tennessee #gatlingburg #pigeonforge #SmokyMountains: image via 50 eggs 50 @eggs24, 29 November 2016

Praying for rain all night! #SmokyMountains: image via Troy Lewis @MrPrimetime4, 29 November 2016

Mandatory evacuations are underway for #Gatlingburg and portions of #PigeonForge #MRXwx #TNwx: image via NWS Morristown Verified account @NWSMorristown, 29 November 2016

I gotta admit, my heart sank when I saw this. Praying for East Tennessee. Photo by Phil Roselle.#Gatlingburg #PigeonForge image via Lee Ann Womack Verified account @leeannwomack, 29 November 2016

Pray for the Smokies! We prefer them to be a lot less smoky. #Gatlinburg #wildfire: image via Jessica Chasteen @jmchasteen, 29 November 2016

Please PRAY for #Gatlinburg. Over 100 structures have been destroyed.: image via Liberty Peace Love @LuvLibertyPeace, 29 November 2016

A television showing black and white footage of Fidel Castro delivering a speech sits on a table at a memorial in his honor in Guanabacoa on the outskirts in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday. Schools and government offices are closed Tuesday for a second day of homage to Castro, with the day ending in a rally on the plaza where the Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to crowds in the years after he seized power.: photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP, 29 November 2016

Wind blows a Cuban flag as it hangs on a wall at a memorial in honor of Fidel Castro in Guanabacoa on the outskirts in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday. Schools and government offices will be closed Tuesday for a second day of homage to Fidel Castro, with the day ending in a rally on the wide plaza where the Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to mammoth crowds in the years after he seized power.: photo by Natacha Pisarenko, 29 November 2016

Rescue workers carry the bodies of victims of an airplane crash in a mountainous area near La Union, Colombia, Tuesday. The plane was carrying the Brazilian first division soccer club Chapecoense team that was on its way for a Copa Sudamericana final match against Colombia's Atletico Nacional.: photo by Luis Benavides/AP, 29 November 2016

Relatives and friends mourn during a ceremony in memory of the late journalist Guilherme Marques who died in a plane crash, near the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday. A chartered plane that was carrying the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense to the biggest match of its history, as well as members of the press, crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing most passengers, Colombian officials said Tuesday.: photo by Leo Correa/AP, 29 November 2016

A graffiti is seen on a wall in Pripyat, some 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, Tuesday. A massive shelter has finally been installed over the exploded reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in the world. The half-cylinder-shaped shelter began being moved toward the reactor on a system of hydraulic jacks two weeks ago and reached its destination Tuesday, a significant step toward liquidating the remains of the world's worst nuclear accident, 30 years ago in what is now Ukraine.: photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP, 29 November 2016

↧

No more white shrouds in East Aleppo

December 1, 2016, 7:03 am

≫ Next: Leaving us hanging

≪ Previous: Murmuration at Sunset (Emigration of the Multitudes) / Robert Creeley: Window

She survived, she run out from Death It's not a ghost, She's a woman survived from death #Aleppo today: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

20,000 left their homes in East #Aleppo in the last 48 hours: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 29 November 2016

#Aleppo The pain that No one feel it .... #StandWithAleppo #HalepÖlüyor: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib. 28 November 2016

Breaking: @SyriaCivilDef 45 Civilians killed by artillery shells targeted gathering of Civilians who flee areas controlled by #Assad#Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 29 November 2016

There's no more White shrouds in East #Aleppo, that's why they use different colours #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

In #Aleppo you Have only 2 Choice: Die while you are trying to survive Die in the #Assad areas and lose your Dignity Agin Aleppo today: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Thedeath waswritten onthe people of Aleppo Nowhere to Flee, myGod!!!: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Last call for passengers to #Paradise, Free entering, No #Visa, No #passport No need your bags, Just Leave this ugly @Earth #Aleppo Today: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Short story of Displacement, It Doesn't matter if you're Babe or Elder both will be killed by #Assad #Aleppo Today #StandWithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Run, Try to survive It doesn't matter if you wear clothes or not, The important you still alive #Aleppo today after the massacre: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

From Death to Death, No where else #Aleppo Today #HolocaustAleppo #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Displacement story is continued, Sponsored by #US silence of #Arab Promoted by @UN, Made by #Assad #Russia #Iran Goodnight world: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

Morning from the people of #Aleppo Death number in East Aleppo yesterday is 51 .. : image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 1 December 2016

↧

Leaving us hanging

December 2, 2016, 7:39 am

≫ Next: Wislawa Szymborska: Our war loot was information about the world / Ahmad Alkhatib: The beauty Sky of Aleppo

≪ Previous: No more white shrouds in East Aleppo

Indian Navy marine commandos demonstrate their skills during a rehearsal ahead of Navy Day celebrations in Mumbai, India: photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters, 1 December 2016

A Houthi rebel holds the barrel of a machine gun he carries during a rally held to mobilize fighters for battles against government forces, in Sanaa, Yemen: photo by Mohamed al-Sayaghi/Reuters, 1 December 2016

A handler swims with a horse from the Garrison Savannah in the Caribbean Sea near Bridgetown, Barbados: photo by Adrees Latif/Reuters, 1 December 2016

Cool!: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Police detain a protester from India's main opposition Congress party during a protest in Kolkata

Police detain a protester from the main opposition Congress party during a protest against the government’s decision to withdraw 500 and 1000 Indian rupee banknotes from circulation in Kolkata, India: photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters, 1 December 2016

A woman walks past posters from the far-right political movement Casapound which call to vote “No” at the constitutional referendum, in Rome, Italy: photo by AFP, 1 December 2016

Indian soldiers on Tuesday outside a camp in Nagrota, the army’s regional headquarters in the state of Jammu and Kashmir: photo by Channi Anand/Associated Press, 30 November 2016

#brotherhood - Kashmiri Muslims carrying the body of a Pandit Woman during her last rites at Habba Kadal in #Srinagar #KashmirSOS: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 18 November 2016

People in #Kashmir resume normal life after 4 months of unrest; Offices, business establishments open, public vehicles plying #KashmirSOS: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 19 November 2016

Major fire broke out from the residential houses at Dalgate area of #Srinagar #Kashmir: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 20 November 2016
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A train moves amid heavy #fog on the #Srinagar-Budgam railway track. #kashmir #KashmirSOS #KashmirWinters: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 21 November 2016

@IndiGo6E cancelled its flight 694 from #Srinagar tomorrow on 21 Nov. After #KashmirUnrest now #fog #kashmirWinters: tweet via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 20 November 2016

All morning and one @airindiain afternoon flights cancelled so far at #Srinagar airport due to poor visibility. #KashmirUnrest now #fog #kashmirWinters: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 21 November 2016

Another bank looted in JK - Unidentified persons looted Rs 40 lakh from Sarthal branch of #Jammu and #Kashmir Bank in Kishtwar. #DeMonetisation: tweet via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 22 November 2016

On 145th day of #KashmirUnrest - Separatist Leaders extend strike call till 08 Dec. Full-day relaxation on 3,4. Calls for Lal Chowk Chalo on 05: tweet via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 30 November 2016

People throng Jamia Masjid as authorities allowed Friday prayers after 138 days, in #Srinagar #kashmir #KashmirSOS #JummahMubarak: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 25 November 2016

This is what a CRPF jawan (@crpfnews) learnt in #kashmir during last 5 months. #KashmirSOS #KashirJaJeer: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 25 November 2016

An elderly @JKNC worker keenly listening the speech of Party working President @abdullah_omar during a function at Nawai Subha in #Srinagar: image via Umar Ganie @UmarGanie1, 30 November 2016

People wait for the arrival of the caravan carrying the ashes of Fidel Castro during a funeral procession that retraces the path of Castro’s march into Havana nearly six decades ago, in Esperanza, Cuba: photo by Ricardo Mazalan/AP, 1 December 2016

The urn with the ashes of Cuban leader Fidel Castro is driven through Havana starting a four-day journey across Cuba, on Wednesday. The “caravan of freedom” will leave from Havana, making symbolic stops along the 950-kilometer trek that will end in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba over the weekend. : photo by AFP, 30 November 2016

A girl holds a Cuban flag waits with others for the arrival of the funeral procession carrying the ashes of Cuban leader Fidel Castro on its way to his final resting place, in Florida, Cuba: photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP, 2 December 2016

#Cuba The urn with the ashes of Fidel Castro is driven through Santa Clara #AFP Photo by @rschemidt: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 1 December 2016

hats: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Cat Bigney, part of the Oglala Native American tribe, waits on the shore of the Cannonball river, for travelers to arrive by canoe at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D.: photo by David Goldman/AP, 2 December 2016

No, most of us try to reduce the number of times we make the same mistake: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

A woman and her daughter their respects at statues of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung (L) and late leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang: photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters, 1 December 2016

#NorthKorea Pedestrians pass the portraits of late leaders Kim Il-Sung (L) and Kim Jong-Il (R) in Pyongyang #AFPPhoto by @edwardesjones: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 1 December 2016

This hair is almost as bad as the hats: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Protesters shout from a police truck following a rally calling for their right to self-determination in the Indonesian controlled part of Papua, in Jakarta, Indonesia: photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters, 1 December 2016

Thousands of Muslims gather during a protest against Jakarta’s minority Christian Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama who is being prosecuted for blasphemy, at the National Monument in Jakarta, Indonesia: photo by Achmad Ibrahim, 2 December 201

YOU ARE 32 YEARS OLD. “Why am I so lost in life? BRB, hanging out with these guys.”: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Riot police use pepper sprays to disperse demonstrators during a protest against a fire in a dormitory that killed 11 people in the southern city of Adana, in Ankara, Turkey: photo by Reuters, 30 November 2016

Lorelai’s hat is an abomination, and Rory’s “let’s go report something!” outfit defies understanding: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Britain Wakes Up To Sub Zero Temperatures

The sun begins to rise over the town of Warminster viewed from the National Trust’s Cley Hill, as the country wakes up to sub-zero temperatures, on Wednesday in Wiltshire, England. Sennybridge in Wales recorded the lowest temperature of the season overnight, with the Met Office reporting a low of -9.4C.: photo by Matt Cardy, 30 November 2016

And I thought *I* was into analyzing Gilmore Girls: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 26 November 2016

#syria A graffiti in Arabic and English reads "From Homs, save Aleppo" and "Russia kills us" in Talbisseh #Homs #AFP Photo by Mahmoud Taha: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 2 December 2016

Ah ... GOD Where do we live Are we awake or dreaming? Why dreaming so long and why all this injustice? Sabra my brother I wanted to be beside you and to hold you so much Aleppo: image via baraa2abd, 30 November 2016

The purification (Aleppo): image via baraa2abd, 30 November 2016

The bitterness of displacement means primitive transport... wounded and elderly and children, forced by the shelling to leave their homes in the besieged neighborhoods of East Aleppo: image via @abomaherdomair, 29 November 2016

Children's suffering while they're runaway or while they're trying #Aleppo #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 30 November 2016

My Home after the first bomb was Half survived: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 29 November 2016

The second picture Today after 9 Barrel bombs on the #Alansari was enough to destroy it 100%: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 29 November 2016

This is how my House and my barber salon look like, But today is Gone Alhamdollah No one killed, #Aleppo Today #StandWithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtib, 29 November 2016

Martyr Yasser Ruslan #Douma #Syria #epaphotos: image via Mohammed Badra @badramet, 21 November 2016

Maybe the best shot of the whole series: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 26 November 2016

A tied and decomposed body at a mass grave found at a trash dump on the outskirts of Hamam al-Alil, Iraq: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 30 November 2016

A federal police officer speaks to a family in Hamam al-Alil. In the days before the killings, Islamic State militants herded people from nearby villages and took them to that town, using them as human shields against possible American airstrikes: photo by Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times, 30 November 2016

This bird is my favorite new character: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Soldiers of the Iraqi Army drag the body of an Islamic State fighter in the village Al-Qasr, 7 kilometers outside of Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 30 November 2016

wha: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Would Emily really sleep in this much makeup?: image via Margaret Lyons @margeincharge, 27 November 2016

Trump

Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Treasury Secretary, gets on an elevator after speaking with reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower, Wednesday, in New York: photo by Evan Vucci/AP, 30 November 2016

↧

Wislawa Szymborska: Our war loot was information about the world / Ahmad Alkhatib: The beauty Sky of Aleppo

December 3, 2016, 6:40 am

≫ Next: Black Skies / Wislawa Szymborska: The Turn of the Century

≪ Previous: Leaving us hanging

Aleppo this morning Aleppo beauty even it's 70% Destroyed: tweet via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

Good morning Displacement is continue, Aleppo still under siege #Aleppo #standwithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 1 December 2016

Air raid by government forces on the city of Aleppo: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 20 September 2015

death path [Aleppo]: image by baraa al-halabi, 20 September 2015

Wislawa Szymborska:"We used to know the world inside out"

We used to know the world inside out:
It was so small that it fit into two clenched fists,
So easy, that it could be described with a smile,
As ordinary as the echo of old truths in a prayer.

History did not greet us with a victorious fanfare:
It poured dirty sand into our eyes.
Before us there were roads, distant and blind,
Poisoned wells, bitter bread.

Our war loot was information about the world:
It is so big that it fits into two clenched fists,
So difficult that it can be described with a smile,
As strange as the echo of old truths in a prayer.

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012):"We used to know the world inside out", uncollected poem from Walka / Battle(no. 8), 1945, as cited in Wislawa Szymborska - The Poetry of Existence: Krystyna Dąbrowska, Culture.Pl, December 2007, translated from the Polish by Tadeusz Z. Wolański

Boznanska, Olga (1865-1945) - 1906 Interior of the Artist's Studio in Krakow (National Museum, Krakow, Poland) | by RasMarley

Interior of artist's studio in Krakow: Olga Boznanska (1865-1945) (National Museum, Krakow, Poland): image via Ras Marley, 20 October 2011

ALEPPO: Osama, a fourteen-year-old boy who lost his foot in an air strike led by Syrian government forces: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 19 September 2015

Life on the rubble Aleppo: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 11 October 2015

#Assad forces killed 9 relatives and 26 Friend, Arrest 20 #ISIL killed 13 Friend #YPG killed 4 Uncle sons ISIL + YPG =Assad: tweet via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

It's not normal Day, We wake up since 5 days on the sound of bombs, we don't listen to #Fayroz or even drink our coffee #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

6 civilians killed 12 injured in #Alshaar Several air strikes on #Alsukari neighborhood #standwithAleppo: tweet via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

The shillings come back to east Aleppo after two cloudy days make No Fly Zone, Dear world you'll see Bodies pictures Soon: tweet via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

6 Civilians killed in #Alshaar neighborhood by Regime forces shillings targeted a gathering for who fled east part of Besieged #Aleppo: tweet via IRT @InsRepTeam, 3 December 2016

1 hour ago, The beauty Sky of #Aleppo 21 mins, The clear beautiful sky of #Aleppo has 4 helicopters and 2 Jets and heavy shillings now@MahmoudRslan: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

Message From East #Aleppo #standwithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

100 Day of siege, We're still alive in #Aleppo, save the people #standwithAleppo @MontherEtaky: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

From Besieged #Aleppo We're Not Just Numbers 100 Day of siege #standwithAleppo Goodnight: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Before and After, This is how Sad Alloz Market look like after the #Assad bombs#standwithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

... and Before#standwithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

My Children's prying to God to keep the No fly zone (The clouds and rain) because that stop the bombardment of the criminal jets: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

2000 person #FSA with their families, will be evacuated toward #Idlib 55 Bus will start move those people from #AlTall: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Civilizations

It was agreed to the destruction of Syria: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015

There's little question that Russia is determined to re-establish Assad as Syria’s leader: image via The New York Times @nytimes, 1 October 2015

National sovereignty: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015

[untitled]: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 October 2015

Follow our LIVE coverage as Russian jets launch a second day of air strikes in #Syria: image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 1 October 2015

'Curious' Russian strikes in Syria not against Islamic State: France: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 30 September 2015

Where are the Russian bombs in Syria falling?: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 1 October 2015

White House says Russian involvement in Syria risks making conflict "indefinite": image via Reuters Live @ReutersLive, 1 October 2015

America . Russia And the victim Syria: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 1 October 2015

Civilizations: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 30 September 2015

[Untitled]:: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 29 September 2015

A Syrian man holds his robe while walking in the partially destroyed Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo, under the control of the Syrian army. Syrian troops backed by artillery and warplanes fought rebels on multiple fronts on September 5 as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi described the death toll as "staggering" and destruction "catastrophic.": photo byJoseph Eid/AFP, 3 September 2012

A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo: photo by Marco Longari/AFP, 14 September 2012

Smoke rises over a battle-scarred Saif Al Dawla district in Aleppo, Syria. The U.N.'s deputy secretary-general says U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon made a strong appeal to Syria's foreign minister to stop using heavy weapons against civilians and reduce the violence that is killing 100 to 200 people every day.: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 2 October 2012

Putin attends a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights in Moscow

An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday: photo by An Yuri Kochetkov/Reuters, 1 October 2015

#Syria As expected, Russian Su-30M are giving air cover to Su-24/25/34 over Idlib. At least 2 R-77 AA missiles.: image via green lemon @green_lemonnn, 1 October 2015

Chow hall in #Lattakia, this is a fucking big operation in #Syria, don't expect it to be only a couple months: image via Abraxas Spa @AbraxasSpa, 1 October 2015

Found a number of bodies of migrants this morning lying on the seashore in #Tajoura #Libya #migrantcrisis @mmic78: image via NASR @NarrAldbea, 1 October 2015

A Syrian man cries while holding the body of his son near Dar El Shifa hospital in Aleppo, Syria. Three suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives in a government-controlled area of the battleground Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, killing at least 34 people, leveling buildings and trapping survivors under the rubble, state TV said. More than 120 people were injured, the government said.: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 3 October 2012

Fighters with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) speak with government forces nearby, as they hide behind shutters in an apartment in the Seif al-Dawla neighborhood of Aleppo. Snipers took positions on rooftops and strategic places in Aleppo's old city, preventing government soldiers from approaching rebel-controlled areas.: photo by Zac Baillie/AFP, 11 September 2012

A Free Syrian Army soldier takes cover while fighting against Syrian Army troops in the Saif Al Dawle district of Aleppo: photo by Manu Brabo/AP, 2 October 2012

Aleppo, Syria.Rebel fighters move a homemade weapon known as a ‘hell cannon’: photo by Karam Almasri / NurPhoto/ Rex, 4 December 2014

Aleppo, Syria.Rebel fighters move a homemade weapon known as a ‘hell cannon’: photo by Karam Almasri / NurPhoto/ Rex, 4 December 2014

A Free Syrian Army fighter takes up position as he points his weapon through a hole in a bedroom wall in Deir al-Zor, eastern Syria. A reminder of ordinary daily life before the civil war: photo by Khalil Ashawi / Reuters, 12 November 2013

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks through a hole in the wall inside a damaged building on the frontline of Aleppo’s Al-Ezaa neighbourhood: photo by Hosam Katan/Reuters, 1 November 2014

Trump would send home Syrian refugees: image via Agence France-Presse @AFP, 1 October 2015

Good morning Displacement is continue, Aleppo still under siege #Aleppo #standwithAleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 1 December 2016

Gambians celebrate the victory of Opposition coalition candidate Adama Barrow in the streets of Serrekunda, Gambia: photo by Jerome Delay/AP, 2 December 2016

Passengers check their mobiles as garbage is accumulated during a protest by the cleaning staff at Barcelona's airport

Passengers check their mobiles as garbage accumulates around them during a protest by the cleaning staff at Barcelona’s airport: photo by Albert Gea/Reuters, 2 December 2016

Passengers check their mobiles as garbage accumulates around them during a protest by the cleaning staff at Barcelona’s airport: photo by Albert Gea/Reuters, 2 December 2016

A Navy team at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Sunday carried the coffin of Senior Chief Petty Officer Scott C. Dayton, the first American service member killed in combat in Syria: photo by Zach Gibson, 28 November 2016

↧

Black Skies / Wislawa Szymborska: The Turn of the Century

December 4, 2016, 4:17 am

≫ Next: Edward Sanders: Broom Poem / KaChing! squeaked the toy mouse clothed to represent Audrey Hepburn

≪ Previous: Wislawa Szymborska: Our war loot was information about the world / Ahmad Alkhatib: The beauty Sky of Aleppo

A shepherd and his sheep near Qayarrah, Iraq @AFPphoto By @TomCoex: image via Jean-Marc Mojon @mojobaghdad, 25 November 2016

Wislawa Szymborska: The Turn of the Century

It was supposed to be better than the others, our 20th century,
But it won't have time to prove it.
Its years are numbered,
its step unsteady,
its breath short.

Already too much has happened
that was not supposed to happen.
What was to come about
has not.

Spring was to be on its way,
and happiness, among other things.

Fear was to leave the mountains and valleys.
The truth was supposed to finish before the lie.

Certain misfortunes
were never to happen again
such as war and hunger and so forth.

These were to be respected:
the defenselessness of the defenseless,
trust and the like.

Whoever wanted to enjoy the world
faces an impossible task.

Stupidity is not funny.
Wisdom isn't jolly.

Hope
Is no longer the same young girl
et cetera. Alas.

God was at last to believe in man:
good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different people.

How to live -- someone asked me this in a letter,
someone I had wanted
to ask that very thing.

Again and as always,
and as seen above
there are no questions more urgent
than the naive ones.

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012): The Turn of the Century, from Miracle Fair (2001), translated from the Polish by Joanna Trzeciak

12 year old Wijdan Moofik arrives at a field hospital in Mosul. She is severely wounded. @aftonbladetnyheter tomorrow: image via Magnus Wennman @Magnus Wennman, 1 December 2016

Black Skies Above #Mosul Photo by @cmcgrath_photo: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 December 2016

#Iraq Shiite fighters from Hashed al-Shaabi drive through a desert area near Al-Boutha al-Sharqiyah #mosul @AFP Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 December 2016

#Iraq Shiite fighters from Hashed al-Shaabi drive through a desert area near Al-Boutha al-Sharqiyah #mosul #AFP Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 December 2016

#Iraq Baghdad's al-Shahid (martyr) Monument, which commemorates Iraqi soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war #AFP Photo by Sabah Arar: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 December 2016

Lightning strikes in the sky over Kuwait City: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 3 December 2016

#Iraq Boys play football in front of oil fields burned by Daesh fighters at Qayara, #Mosul By Goran Tomasevic @reuterspictures: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 28 November 2016

#Romania A military medical student sits in a bus before taking part in the National Day parade in #Bucharest. By @vghirda @AP_Images: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 December 2016

#Cuba Sisters await the arrival of the convoy carrying #Fidel Castro's ashes in El Maja By @EdgardGC @Reuters: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 December 2016

#Cuba People on trucks head towards the convoy carrying the ashes of #Fidel Castro, in Jatibonico #AFP Photo by @rschemidt: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 December 2016

Supporters of Adama Barrow, leader of the 7-party opposition coalition in #Gambia, arrive at a rally in Wellingara. By@mlongari @AFPphoto: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 2 December 2016

Over 500 arrests and serious charges, including rioting and conspiracy, 've been made against #NoDAPL protesters since April. By @olsongetty: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 3 December 2016

Activists camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation as they try to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline #DAPL: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 3 December 2016

An abandoned pushchair near destroyed vehicles used as barricades by rebels in Hanano, Aleppo: photo by Reuters, 2 December 2016

#syria A child who fled with his family from rebel-held areas holds a sandwich at shelter in Jibrin #Aleppo #AFP Photo by @YoussefKarwasha: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 2 December 2016
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No words can explain the fair in her eyes #Save_aleppo #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

I will tell God that #Assad and all who stand with him displaced me from my home in Suburb of #Damascus and send me to die in #Idlib: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 3 December 2016

YALA #YOLO, You Only live Ones May God bless you old man The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Hope from The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Rain it's better than Bombs That what the people in #Aleppo and #Douma agree for it The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

The wall in the background of this old man, Documented the #Assad bombs by this small holes The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Slowly my Son, Don't let the water went to your shoes The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Yes, Drive bicycle so Fast No bombs no shillings fell happy for while, Assad Jets away from here The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

What are you looking for My shoes? it's ok fine for me I like your anger face oh beautiful boy The besieged The besieged #Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Lovely weather for School and playing with little brother, The besieged#Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Hi world, it's a bit cold with this rain But it's better than Barrel bombs and air strikes, The besieged#Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

The children's of #Gaza also suffering because of the Cold and siege From #Syria our hearts withyou: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

With winter storms arriving, children took the opportunity to go sledding down a hill near the Standing Rock protest camp on Thursday: photo byCassi Alexandra for The New York Times, 3 December 2016

A converted warehouse in Oakland, Calif., that was hosting an electronic dance party caught fire on Friday night: photo by Richard Calewarts/The New York Times, 3 December 2016

A firefighter inspected the damage on Saturday at a warehouse in Oakland, Calif, where at least nine people were killed. Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland called the fire “an immense tragedy.”: photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times, 3 December 2016

Oakland officials said they were investigating possible code violations in the building: photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times, 3 December 2016

Trinidad, Colorado: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016

Bachechi Open Space, Bernalillo County, New Mexico photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, December 2016

↧

Edward Sanders: Broom Poem / KaChing! squeaked the toy mouse clothed to represent Audrey Hepburn

December 5, 2016, 7:02 am

≫ Next: Doing Battle with the Black Snake

≪ Previous: Black Skies / Wislawa Szymborska: The Turn of the Century

Hi world, it's a bit cold with this rain But it's better than Barrel bombs and air strikes, The besieged#Douma: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 2 December 2016

Edward Sanders: Broom Poem

Bomb

then clean up

Strafe

then broom up

Laser

then swab up

Drone

then brush up

Hack

then pick up

The same

back to Pork Chop Hill

&then

all the way

back to Troy VIIA (1000 bc)

& beyond

3 December 2016

Archaeological excavation in Troy: photographer unknown, 1937

Ancient Troy

Ruins of Ancient Troy. Ancient Troy was once a mythical city, known only through the text of Homer’s Iliad. In 1870, however, the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the ruins of Troy (and several cities above and beneath it) in northwest Turkey. He located the city by scrutinizing the text of the Iliad, and laboriously exploring the area on foot: IKONOS space imaging satellite composite image, 18 July 2000; image processing by Robert Simmon (NASA)

Flight of Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius from Troy: Luca Cambiaso, 1555-60, pen and brush and brown wash, 404 x 281 mm (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

For years, regime propaganda mocked estimates of civilians trapped in East Aleppo. Now it proclaims to have saved 10s and 100s of thousands.: image via Tobias Schneider @tobiaschneider, 3 December 2016

Today most of the attacks are on #Idlib city, more than 30 martyrs, half of them in a massacre in #Kafranbel photo from @SyriaCivilDef: image via Asaad Hanna Verified account @AsaadHanaa, 4 December 2016

Syrie: au moins 46 morts dans des raids probablement russes à Idleb (ONG) #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 4 December 2016

Horrific #Assad/#Russia bombing of towns in #Idlib today - 50+ people reported killed, including many women and children. #Syria: image via Charles Lister Verified account @Charles Lister, 4 December 2016

Media activist @abdulazizketaz, aiding baby after she was under the Rubble of house destroyed by Assad air strikes in Maaratanuman of #Idlib: image via Hamada Awad @hamadaalawad, 4 December 2016

A horrific massacre has been perpetrated by #atrocious_Assad in #Kafranbel today. #Syria 12 civilians have bn killed: image via Kafr zayta @SPRINGNOWTIME, 4 December 2016

#Assad warplanes killed 25 civilians in #Kafranbel in a chain of air-raids targeted Kafranbel and the nearby towns in #Idlib #Syria: image via Kafranbel English @kafrev, 4 December 2016

From the brave people of #Kafranbel who were bombed today by #PutinAssad warplanes. #Syria: image via @Revolution Syria, 4 December 2016

#Kafranbel...endless pain...: image via Nino Fezza @nfcinereporter, 4 December 2016

KaChing! squeaked the toy mouse clothed to represent Audrey Hepburn

SF "Helpers" charity for #developmentallydisabled led by #JoyBianchi is subject of @sfchronicle investigation: image via Caroline Zinko Verified account @CarolyneZinko, 4 December 2016

Joy Bianchi walks down the red carpet before the Opera Ball, celebrating the opening night of the San Francisco Opera in September 2016. Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

Joy Bianchi walks down the red carpet before the Opera Ball, celebrating the opening night of the San Francisco Opera in September 2016: photo by Leah Millis / The Chronicle, 4 December 2016

So honored to be part of the #helpershouseofCouture 40-year couture retrospective by #JoyBianchi #fashion #couture: image via Auvê Daily @AuveDaily, 17 October 2015 San Francisco, CA

SF "Helpers" charity led by #JoyBianchi gave no grants for a 6-year period while amassing millions: image via Caroline Zinko Verified account @CarolyneZinko, 4 December 2016

A fashionable San Francisco charity's ugly reality: Caroline Zinko, Karen de Sá and Cynthia Dizikes, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 December 2016

San Francisco socialite Joy Venturini Bianchi has long been a striking presence among the city’s elite, soliciting donations and earning accolades from fashion icons, philanthropists and politicians for the cause she says propels her: helping people with developmental disabilities.

At a recent VIP fundraiser at Ghirardelli Square, Bianchi, 78, beamed in a silver-sequined dress and her signature oversized eyeglasses as she received a state Senate resolution honoring her “outstanding community service” and “high business ethics.”

Yet some donors to Bianchi’s 60-year-old charity have struggled with concerns that their donations were misused, raising doubts they said were never resolved.

A Chronicle examination of the public financial records of Helpers Community Inc. — known until 2015 as Helpers of the Mentally Retarded — shows the $6 million charity indeed appears to have strayed from its cause, pursuing questionable practices with scant oversight from a small board that includes its director, Bianchi, and her longtime friend.

Over the last decade, filings to the Internal Revenue Service reveal the nonprofit has done little charitable work while amassing millions of dollars in assets and donations and generously compensating Bianchi, as she travels to red-carpet galas from Beverly Hills to Manhattan, appearing alongside celebrities such as Demi Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow and Katy Perry.

Joy Bianchi and John Rosin wait to cross the street to attend the performance of the San Francisco Ballet season-opening gala in 2013. Photo: Alex Washburn, Special To The Chronicle

Joy Bianchi and John Rosin wait to cross the street to attend the performance of the San Francisco Ballet season-opening gala in 2013: photo by Alex Washburn / Special To The Chronicle, 4 December 2016

Helpers’ mission statement defines its “most pressing and important goal” as supporting quality residential care for the developmentally disabled. But in the past 13 years, the charity has given nothing to residential programs. And for a six-year period from 2003 to 2008, Helpers gave nothing at all to any charitable cause, according to financial records.

Bianchi, meanwhile, has been paid far above the norm for directors of charities. With base compensation of $193,828 in 2015, Bianchi earned roughly $100,000 more than the CEOs of about two dozen similar San Francisco nonprofits, according to a leading charity watchdog group.

Five accounting experts and a former bookkeeper for Helpers, who reviewed 18 years of the charity’s financial disclosures to the IRS at The Chronicle’s request, questioned Helpers’ legitimacy as a nonprofit and cautioned future donors about contributing.

“It’s absolutely appalling; it turns my stomach, actually,” said La Salle University Professor Laura Otten, who has advised the nonprofit industry for 30 years. “In the nonprofit sector, we take money from people with a promise. The farther we go away from the mission, the more eyebrows we are going to raise.”

Based on The Chronicle’s findings, the San Francisco assessor’s office is reviewing the property tax exemptions Helpers receives as a charity.

Bianchi and her board members defend their organization, and dispute any notion they are mismanaging the charity. They consider it “misleading” to characterize Helpers as primarily a grant-making organization, saying their mission also includes consultation and education. Bianchi’s compensation is commensurate with her duties, they said, and they believe it would take three people to replace her. Bianchi works as many as 80 hours a week, according to the board.

“We’re very happy with what we’re doing,” Bianchi said in an October interview, adding that in years when Helpers’ donations to other nonprofits were minimal, “we were fiscally responsible for our donors’ money, and they trusted our judgment to find where those dollars — according to our standards — would make a difference in the lives of those who are developmentally disabled.”

Helpers board President Peggy Bachecki, however, said that the organization “is arriving at a crossroads” and must re-examine its resources -- its investments and real estate -- and how it is benefiting the developmentally disabled. The board pledged to do more with its “targeted grant-making” and hire outside advisers to help with accounting, finances, strategic planning and legal matters.

From 1963 to 2002, Helpers housed people living with developmental disabilities in a collection of stately homes near Golden Gate Park. Since then, it has relied on Bianchi’s personality and persuasiveness to become a fundraising and advocacy organization, raising money and selling donated designer apparel at its resale shops to support other nonprofits.

But Helpers granted nothing to any charitable organization until 2009, the group’s records show. Since then it has given about $405,000 — primarily to purchase wheelchairs for people with developmental disabilities and to fund Medical Missions for Children, a Massachusetts nonprofit that finances surgeries to repair congenital facial defects in countries such as Tanzania and Cambodia. Other funds have gone to a gardening program for the developmentally disabled and a music program for rural children in Washington state.

Bianchi said Helpers has not given more to charities because she has struggled to find suitable recipients. At some residential centers for the developmentally disabled she has visited, she said, she saw scenes that disturbed her, including one resident spending all night sitting in a chair and others receiving too many psychotropic drugs.

“I went incognito for about four years traveling throughout the U.S. trying to find facilities we could help,” Bianchi said. “It was very difficult to give money away.”

Asked why Helpers did not give money to prominent residential programs for the developmentally disabled in the Bay Area, such as those operated by The Arc San Francisco, board members declined to comment.

Joy Bianchi helps Allison Thompson try on a hat at Helpers House of Couture in San Francisco. Photo: Scott Strazzante, The Chronicle

Joy Bianchi helps Allison Thompson try on a hat at Helpers House of Couture in San Francisco: photo by Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle, 3 December 2016

Bianchi volunteered for Helpers as a teen in the 1950s, eventually joining the organization in the 1960s just as it opened its first residential care home. For roughly 40 years, money raised by the organization helped fund its group homes, which boasted lush drapery, crystal chandeliers and needlepoint-covered chairs. Helpers cared for a total of 33 residents, offering them craft-making workshops and lessons in etiquette and fine dining.

Bianchi steered the charity’s fundraising efforts toward her love of high fashion, opening a boutique called Helpers Bazaar in 1966 in donated space at Ghirardelli Square. The shop sold crafts made by Helpers’ residents, and designer apparel donated by clothier Wilkes Bashford and others.

After Helpers closed its homes, Bianchi began soliciting donations of high-end apparel from socialites and philanthropists for resale at private shopping parties. In 2008, she opened an appointment-only resale shop, Helpers House of Couture, in one of the former group homes on Fulton Street. Contributors of clothing have included philanthropists Ann Getty, wife of billionaire oil heir Gordon Getty, and British fashion designer Stella McCartney.

The boutique offers eight rooms full of designer-label apparel and accessories, including Chanel, Oscar de la Renta and Christian Dior. Stacks of handbags and shoes line shelves and floor space alongside glass displays showcasing hundreds of pieces of paste jewelry.

Bianchi, an effervescent hostess, greets visitors to the boutique with tales of Helpers’ history and its vast collection of designer goods, with pieces selling for thousands of dollars.

A longtime San Francisco resident, Bianchi emerged as a fashion icon in the mid-2000s, her celebrity boosted by widely published photographs of her elegant presence at high-society events.

Bianchi already was known for another high-fashion fundraising effort, “Mouse Couture.” For that campaign, begun in 1995, Bianchi enlisted top designers to create outfits for toy mice that were sold in the bazaar.

A toy mouse clothed to represent Audrey Hepburn in "Funny Face." Photo: KATY RADDATZ

Bianchi said the idea came to her when a mouse scampered across her path one day in Manhattan. In that moment, she said, she realized people fear the developmentally disabled like they fear mice, and she decided she could help combat that fear by dressing mouse-like dolls in formal wear.

“I was in front of a window at Bergdorf Goodman in New York and a voice came to me and said, ‘Dress the mouse, dress the handicapped, so people can find their souls,’” Bianchi recalled in a recent interview.

Such statements dismay some disability rights advocates, who questioned Bianchi’s approach to the vulnerable population her organization vows to serve.

“I see this not infrequently -- sort of well-intentioned people who miss the mark,” said Katie Hornberger, a lawyer with Disability Rights California, a prominent legal advocacy group. “There are some outmoded ideas about people with disabilities.”

Hornberger also pointed to the organization’s longtime name: Helpers of the Mentally Retarded, which was changed to Helpers Community Inc. only last year. The term “retarded,” Hornberger noted, has been considered offensive for at least 15 years.

Bachecki said Helpers is unaware of such concerns.

Joy Bianchi and Sonya Molodetskaya pose for a photo at the San Francisco Symphony Gala at Davies Symphony Hall in 2014. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle

Joy Bianchi and Sonya Molodetskaya pose for a photo at the San Francisco Symphony Gala at Davies Symphony Hall in 2014: photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle, 3 December 2016

John Bradfield (L), Joy Bianchi and Karen Caldwell attend the cocktail hour during the San Francisco Symphony Opening Gala at Davies Symphony Hall in 2012: photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle, 3 December 2016

They Earn a livelihood amid Doma stricken! .. December 5, 2016 #Douma #Syria Photos by: Rami Saleh: image via Khaled AL Homsi @PalmyraPioneer, 5 December 2016

They Earn a livelihood amid Doma stricken! .. December 5, 2016 #Douma #Syria Photos by: Rami Saleh: image via Khaled AL Homsi @PalmyraPioneer, 4 December 2016

One of the #Assad rockets fall near to #Alsukari neighborhood in East #Aleppo: image via IRT @InsRepTeam, 3 December 2016

L'incendie d'Oakland a fait 30 morts et le bilan va s'alourdir encore) #AFP: image via Agence France-Presse @afpfr, 4 December 2016

Sledding down Facebook hill at #StandingRock: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 3 December 2016

The #EiffelTower in a haze of pollution on Dec. 4, 2016 in #Paris. By Lionel Bonaventure @AFPphoto: image via L'Instant-Paris Match @instantmatch, 4 December 2016

Skyscrapers: the sun rises behind buildings poking through the clouds on a foggy morning in Dubai, UAE: image via AFP news agency @AFP, 45 December 2016

An Indian army soldier runs amid smoke from canisters during a session to showcase skills at the Army Service Corps training centre in Bangalore, India: photo by Aijaz Rahi/AP, 5 December 2016

Seagulls sit on poles in Friedrichshafen at the Bodensee (Lake Constance), southern Germany: photo by Lino Mirgeler/dpa/AFP, 5 December 2016

↧

Doing Battle with the Black Snake

December 6, 2016, 7:28 am

≫ Next: When you cry, you will cry alone

≪ Previous: Edward Sanders: Broom Poem / KaChing! squeaked the toy mouse clothed to represent Audrey Hepburn

#Russian advisers and high ranks join tr #Assad Army in the operations in east #Aleppo

#Syrian Thieves Army In #Aleppo, the new neighborhood is been liberated in East Aleppo #standwithaleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 5 December 2016

Latest from #Aleppo: 47 Civilians Died Today in Aleppo, 115 injured, Over than 150 air strike and Barrel bombs on Residential neighborhoods

This man is not selling anything, He just cary one of his loved ones died in East #Aleppo Please #standwithaleppo and #Save_Aleppo

#AlQatirji neighborhood in East #Aleppo Picture taken by #Baseem_Ayoubi

#AlQatirjineighborhood in East #Aleppo Picture taken by #Baseem_Ayoubi

Cafe Moskau. Leuchtreklame Café Moskau, Karl-Marx Allee 34, 10178 Berlin: photo by F. Linkerhand, 6 April 2016

Westkreuz Berlin-Westkreuz, Am Messedamm/Halenseestrasse 28, 14057 Berlin: photo by F. Linkerhand, 3 April 2016

↧

When you cry, you will cry alone

December 7, 2016, 6:14 am

≫ Next: Fleeing deeper into the penumbra of the world-historical on a badly overloaded tricycle

≪ Previous: Doing Battle with the Black Snake

Menino iraquiano que fugiu de Mossul, em um campo de refugiados da #ONU na província síria de Hasakeh @AFPphoto por @Delilsouleman #Mossul: image via AFP Brasil @AFPBrasil, 6 December 2016

"Now that my curls are free I am yet to live the freedom." Photo courtesy: Delil Souleiman, @Delilsouleman near Raqqa,13 Nov 2016: image via Kadar Sheikhmous @kadaroza, 23 November 2016

#Syria #Iraq Daily life of refugees, who fled #mosul, in the UN-run al-Hol refugee camp in Syria's Hasakeh #AFP Photo by @Delilsouleman: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 6 December 2016

when you cry, you will cry alone. I am sure now, No one with us #Aleppo: image via Abd @WhiteHelmetAbd, 2 December 2016

#Aleppo nowadays #StandWithAleppo: image via Abd @WhiteHelmetAbd, 4 December 2016

#Assad's army took over our neighborhood, then destroyed, displaced, and committed tens of massacres against civilians. Ph: by me.: image via Khaled Khatib @995Khaled, 6 December 2016

A mother in eastern Aleppo takes her final breath as her husband desperately searches for a doctor. Her 7 children are still missing.: image via TRT World @trtworld, 6 December 2016

5 Terrorists, Sorry five Civilians killed between of them some children's in #Alfardos in Besieged #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 6 December 2016

This is the Ambulance is being used in #Aleppo. Or the Carts to transfer the Died bodies within East Aleppo.: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 6 December 2016

My House, and my neighbourhood today in pictures, #Aleppo today, No words can explain my feelings: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 6 December 2016

Life is really hard right now #Aleppo #Syria #cats: image via Syrian Cats @SyrianCats, 4 December 2016

Where there Alaa there are always Cats. #houseofcatsErnestoinAleppo #cats #NobelPeacePrizetoAlaa #siege #fatherofcats #saveAleppo #foods: image via Il Gattaro D'Aleppo @gattarodialeppo, 6 December 2016

Breaking: #Aleppo, First pic show militants and their familis Surrendered to the syrian Army: image via Yusha Yuseef @MIG29, 6 December 2016

Syrian government soldiers in Aleppo on Saturday: photo by Hassan Ammar/Associated Press, 3 December 2016

Outgoing French Prime Minister Manuel Valls waves as he leaves the Hotel Matignon in a car, in Paris during the handover ceremony after he resigned to seek the Socialist nomination in next year’s presidential election: photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP, 6 December 2016

Iraqi forces backed by tribal militias during battle to retake a village from the Islamic State on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, Iraq December 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Iraqi forces backed by tribal militias during battle to retake a village from the Islamic State on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, Iraq: photo by Mohammed Salem/Reuters, 7 December 2016

Police officers look on as a firework thrown by protesters explodes in front of them in the central district of Exarchia in Athens, on December 6, 2016, following a commemorative rally marking the eighth anniversary of the killing of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a Greek police officer. Hundreds of pupils, university students and workers participated in a rally to mark the eighth anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a 15-years old student , which sparked riots in the country in 2008. / AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINISARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

Police officers look on as a firework thrown by protesters explodes in front of them in the central district of Exarchia in Athens following a commemorative rally marking the eighth anniversary of the killing of teenager Alexandros Grigoropoulos by a Greek police officer.: photo by Aris Messinis/AFP, 7 December 2016

A child walks in front of Iraqi army during an operation against Islamic State militants in the neighbourhood of Intisar, eastern Mosul, Iraq, December 6, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

A child walks in front of Iraqi army during an operation against Islamic State militants in the neighbourhood of Intisar, eastern Mosul, Iraq: photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters, 6 December 2016

Migratory birds of the flamingo species congregate at the shore of Kuwait City, Kuwait, 06 December 2016. Flamingos and other migratory birds are having regular appearances on the coast at the beginning of warm winter in Kuwait. EPA/RAED QUTENA

Migratory birds of the flamingo species congregate at the shore of Kuwait City. Flamingos and other migratory birds are having regular appearances on the coast at the beginning of warm winter in Kuwait.: photo by Raed Quetena/EPA, 6 December 2016

German Chancellor and leader of the conservative CDU Merkel reacts after her speech at the CDU party convention in Essen

German Chancellor and leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party CDU Angela Merkel reacts after her speech at the CDU party convention in Essen Germany: photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters, 6 December 2016

British Prime Minister Theresa May addresses sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain, on December 6, 2016 in Manama, Bahrain. Prime Minister May is the first British leader and the first woman to attend the annual two-day Gulf Cooperation Council and will attend a dinner with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman on Tuesday, and will also discuss the situation in Yemen and Syria. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Theresa May addresses sailors on board HMS Ocean during her trip to attend the Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Manama, Bahrain: photo by Carl Court, 6 December 2016

Israelis take pictures of a golden statue depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel, 06 December 2016. The statue was installed overnight by Israeli artist Itay Zalait, as a political statement against PM Netanyahu. EPA/ABIR SULTAN

Israelis take pictures of a golden statue depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. The statue was installed overnight by Israeli artist Itay Zalait, as a political statement against PM Netanyahu.: photo by Abir Sultan/EPA, 6 December 2016

↧

Fleeing deeper into the penumbra of the world-historical on a badly overloaded tricycle

December 9, 2016, 5:24 am

≫ Next: Something in the street

≪ Previous: When you cry, you will cry alone

A view of Aleppo on Wednesday showed smoke rising after shelling on neighborhoods in the Old City: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 7 December 2016

Syrian civilians, in eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo retaken by government forces, return to their homes on Thursday under "military supervision": photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 8 December 2016

.

Syrian civilians, in eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo retaken by government forces, return to their homes on Thursday under "military supervision": photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 8 December 2016

Men ride a tricycle as they flee deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo, Syria: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 7 December 2016

46 Civilians killed in East #Aleppo, 230 injured half of them faced suffocation because of 2 Chlorine Gas attack 160 air raids 1200 shells: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 8 December 2016

#syria pro-government forces manoeuver a tank in the retaken area of Sahat al-Melh and Qasr al-Adly in #Aleppo #AFP Photo George Ourfalian: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 December 2016

#Russian aircraft carrier Admiral #Kuznetsov, less than 1 km from the shores of #Tartus #IRTSyria: image via IRT @InsRepTeam, 8 December 2016

#Russian jets targeted by Phosphor bombs the village of Kafar Karmin in the west countryside of #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 7 December 2016

The last Goodbye for #Alshaar neighborhood before #Assad forces take control on it #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 7 December 2016

#Assad forces in Qadi Asker - Bab Al-Haded after taken control early this morning in East #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 7 December 2016

#Aleppo today #IRT: image via IRT @InsRepTeam, 8 December 2016

Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria inside the medieval citadel of Aleppo on Wednesday: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 7 December 2016

A picture of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Ramouseh, a government controlled area of Aleppo, Syria December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

A picture of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Ramouseh, a government controlled area of Aleppo, Syria: photo by Omar Sanadiki/Reuters, 8 December 2016

A bull shark swims at the Ocearium in Le Croisic, western France, on December 6, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / LOIC VENANCELOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images

A bull shark swims at the Ocearium in Le Croisic, western France: photo by Loic Venance/AFP, 7 December 2016

A member of the Syrian government forces inspects a post used by the rebels in the newly captured Al-Safa neighbourhood of Aleppo on December 7, 2016. Rebels in Aleppo called for a five-day truce and the evacuation of civilians Wednesday after losing more than three quarters of their territory including the Old City to a Syrian army offensive.

A member of the Syrian government forces inspects a post used by the rebels in the newly captured Al-Safa neighbourhood of Aleppo: photo by George Ourfalian/AFP, 7 December 2016

Residents fleeing the violence in eastern Aleppo on Wednesday: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 7 December 2016

The Jewel of Kashmir

Le joyau du Cachemire qui permet à un photographe d' @AFP d'oublier les conflits #environment @AFPMakingof: image via Making-of AFP @AFPMakingof, 6 December 2016

The Jewel of Kashmir: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 7 December 2016

Srinagar - I regularly go around the Dal Lake. It is a place where I am at peace, whatever the season. It is located on the edge of the capital of Kashmir, at the western tip of the Himalayas.

A boat passes in front of snow-covered mountains, on the Dal Lake, in Srinagar on January 1, 2011.

Dal Lake at the base of the foothills of the Himalayas: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, January 2011

The lake is a "jewel in the crown of Kashmir", according to the formula. It is a place where silence is king. Particularly in the autumn, when the fog spreads over it.

It allows me to pause in the coverage of the clashes between the Kashmiri separatists and the Indian army.

A Kashmiri fisherman rows his boat on Dal Lake at sunset on a cold, winter day in Srinagar on November 23, 2016.

A fisherman on the lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 23 November 2016

There are three lakes in fact, Dal, Nagin and Anchar. The most famous is the first, the largest. It is surrounded by magnificent trees, weeping willows and huge plane trees.

In places the lake is covered with lotus, which the peasants collect for feeding livestock.

Kashmiri women carry lotus roots for Srinagar on November 23, 2016.

Women carry lotus flower roots to feed livestock: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 23 November 2016

A Kashmiri woman collects lotus roots to be used as animal feed on Dal Lake in Srinagar on September 17, 2016.

A woman collects lotus flower roots in the lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 17 September 2016

The major problem is pollution, which has almost killed one of the three lakes, Anchar.

According to experts, the main cause of this ecological disaster is the discharge of wastewater. Each year the lake receives thousands of tons of mud, nitrates and phosphates. This has led to the proliferation of algae, which consume the oxygen necessary for traditional flora and fish.

Members of Kashmir's Lakes and Waterways Authority collects weeds in a dense fog in Srinagar on November 20,2016

Kashmir lakes and rivers administration employees harvest algae from Dal Lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 20 November 2016

The efforts of the authorities to control this pollution have remained without visible effect. Employees of the lake and river administration are responsible for harvesting algae that invade the lake. But it is an impossible task if one does not treat the cause of evil.

Farmers is out on a lake in Srinagar on November 22,2016.

Farmers sort their crops by the lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 22 November 2016

It is still a fabulous place, surrounded by beauties. With the Mughal gardens of Nishat, Shalimar or Chashamshahi, which were designed centuries ago on the model of the Persian gardens.

I like to go there for the pleasure of the walk, and to make personal photos. Of course I also take photographs that interest the agency, to illustrate a situation or an event. It is a peaceful place full of poetry.

A man collects leaves of mapple trees inside a Mughal garden during a dense fog in Srinagar on November 20, 2016

Collecting leaves in a Mughal garden: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 20 November 2016

I often spend hours there. There are always pretty scenes, timeless, with men or women rowing in their boats, fishermen, sellers of vegetables that cross the lake or along its banks to go to the market.

A vegetable vendor waits for customers on the banks of Dal lake in Srinagar on November 22,2016.

A vegetable seller on the shores of the lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 22 November 2016

A woman sits on the shores of dal lake as her her play during a dense fog in Srinagar on November 20, 2016.

On the shores of the lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 20 November 2016

What I prefer above all else is silence. It inspires a sense of peace. I feel calmed when I am there. It is a welcome break between reports or missions that are sometimes hectic.

Since July the region is shaken by a revival of troubles. With sometimes violent incidents between the Kashmiri separatist movements and the Indian security forces. The conflict is very old, it goes back to the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.

Sometimes there are daily manifestations that become violent. For several months I regularly cover these clashes, some of which prove fatal.

Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard on the shores of Dal Lake on a cold, winter day in Srinagar on November 23, 2016.

An Indian soldier on the shores of the lake: photo by Tauseef MUstafa/AFP, 23 November 2016

Indian paramilitary troopers patrol on the third day, near the site of a gunfight between the Indian army and suspected militants in Pampore, south of Srinagar on October 12, 2016

Patrol of Indian paramilitaries south of Srinagar, after a shoot-out with activists: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 12 October 2016

The Indian security forces are everywhere, including around the lake. The paramilitaries can be smiling, but they are always on the alert, whether on the banks of the Dal or in the Kashmir Valley.

Indian Kashmiris walk next to maple trees in autumn in Srinagar on November 18, 2016.

Under the plane trees,: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 18 November 2016

If you do not notice too many people in the pictures, it's not because of the situation, but because of the weather.

With the advent of winter it is getting very cold.

And we are in altitude, surrounded by the chain of the Himalayas.

This said the situation has greatly affected tourism around the lake.

Before people could spend whole days there, so beautiful it is. Especially at sunset.

Those who go there are not afraid of what might happen to them.

Indian tourists come less. Above all, we find kashmiris.

We go sometimes as a family to make a tour by Chikara, a small boat for walks.

On Dal Lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 20 November 2016

Fisherman on Dal Lake: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 20 November 2016

#india #kashmir Indian paramilitary troopers stand guard near the site of a gunbattle at Arwani Bijbehara #Srinagar #AFP Photo @TauseefMUSTAFA: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 December 2016

A Kashmiri youth hospitalized for wounds from lead pellets fired at protestors by the Indian police. Since mid-July, when a new wave of protests against the Indian military presence started, more than 570 patients have reported to the main government hospital in Srinagar, Kashmir, with eyes ruptured by pellets.: photo by Tauseef Mustafa/AFP, 28 August 2016

#Civilian killed after ‘encounter’ of 3 #Lashkar #rebels in south #Kashmir | #KashmirDispatch: image via Kashmir Dispatch @KashmirDispatch, 8 December 2016

Hundreds of innocent people of #kashmir have been killed by Indians terrorists armed forces #IndianBrutalityinKashmir: image via Arslan Sadiq @Arslan_Sadiq, 5 December 2016

#India Pedestrians walk along the street on a cold foggy morning in New Delhi #AFP Photo by @dofaget: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 December 2016

#France Partial view of the city of #Lyon through a haze of #pollution #AFP Photo by @Phdesmazes: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 8 December 2016

epa05665245 Aerial view of Paris with the Eiffel tower shrouded in haze, in Paris, France, 08 December 2016. Paris is undergoing a third day pollution spike, prompting the city to limit vehicle circulation. EPA/YOAN VALAT

An aerial view of Paris with the Eiffel tower shrouded in haze, in Paris, France. Paris is undergoing a third day pollution spike, prompting the city to limit vehicle circulation: photo by Yoan Valat/EPA, 8 December 2016

An Indian Sikh devotee takes a dip in the holy sarovar (water tank) during dense fog at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on December 9, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / Narinder NANUNARINDER NANU/AFP/Getty Images

An Indian Sikh devotee takes a dip in the holy sarovar during dense fog at the Golden Temple in Amritsar: photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP, 8 December 2016

Iraqi internally displaced groom Jassim Mohammed walks with his bride, Amena Ali, during their wedding ceremony at a camp for internally displaced people, in Khazir, near Mosul, Iraq: photo by Hadi Mizban/AP, 8 December 2016

Iraqi soldiers distribute water to children outside a distribution point run by United Nations agencies at Zahra district, east of Mosul, Iraq December 8, 2016. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah.

Iraqi soldiers distribute water to children outside a distribution point run by United Nations agencies at Zahra district, east of Mosul, Iraq: photo by Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters, 9 December 2016

Chaos, Desperation at First U.N. Aid Distribution Inside Mosul: Reuters, 8 December 2016

MOSUL, Iraq — Iraqi police fired shots in the air and threatened to whip crowds with a hose as residents tried to overrun the first distribution of aid by UN agencies inside Mosul on Thursday, a scene of the desperation in areas retaken from Islamic State.

The distribution aimed to reach 45,000 people in total at several locations but showed the challenges for humanitarian organizations seeking to alleviate acute shortages of water, food and fuel.

As word of the aid spread, residents of the Zuhour neighborhood flocked to a boys' primary school chosen as a distribution point -- men queuing to one side of the main entrance and women on the other.

Fifty-six year old Saad Salih came in an electric wheelchair but the battery was flat and there is no power in Mosul to re-charge it, so a neighbor pushed him along. "We need everything," Salih said. "The disabled should have priority. It's hard for us."

The men queued in relative order, but the women crushed against the door and tempers flared.

"We can't push them back because they are women," said one of the policemen controlling the crowd. Another brandished a section of hose, threatening to hit anyone who tried to push through.

Eventually, the organizers began to let people in small groups, but could not control the flow as hundreds surged forward against just a handful of men pushing to close the gate.

They burst through, and began climbing over the walls and pushing in through the exit until the police, firing shots in the air and wielding long sticks, managed to regain control.

Outside, young boys hawked carts and donkeys to transport people's boxes of aid home, at a price.

Aid agencies have struggled to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Mosul, where residents have largely remained in their homes despite the fighting.

The sound of small arms fire was audible from several kilometers away, where Iraqi forces are fighting to dislodge the militants from the eastern side of the Tigris River that bisects Mosul. Even in areas recaptured by government forces, mortars fired by insurgents still kill and maim residents.

WINTER SETTING IN

Inside the school, three trucks full of aid were unloaded with the help of volunteers, who stacked boxes in neat rows containing food, hygiene kits and water purification taps.

"We are going to cover the whole population in this area," said Hayder Ithawi, a program officer for the U.N.'s World Food Program who is in charge of its rapid response operations.

With winter setting in, fuel is increasingly important, along with water and healthcare, Ithawi said.

Queuing outside, people were anxious for their share and complained that prior distributions of aid by smaller charitable groups and individuals had been unfair.

"Some people got five bags of flour and others got none," said 46-year old carpenter Ihsan Abdullah.

Most people clutched government ration cards, but Samira Mohammed brought a slip bearing the official stamp of Islamic State's vice squad, known as the Hisba.

It proved that the militants had confiscated the family ration card when her son was detained for raising birds, which was forbidden under their rule.

Due to the "critical situation", WFP's Ithawi said any document that reliably identified a household and its head would be accepted, including those issued by Islamic State.

Although the militants are no longer around to enforce their strict dress code, most of the women were still shrouded in black, with only their eyes showing.

A man with a thick moustache, who identified himself as a policeman, said three Islamic State members had been found queuing for aid and were taken away.

Seventy-seven-year old Idrees Saeed Ilyas blamed the government for reducing Iraqis to waiting on handouts.

"If the head of a fish is rotten, the rest will go bad," said Ilyas, who was the first man in the queue. "This is Iraq."

A general view of the conveyor belts and systems that handle the hundreds of thousands of items of mail that pass through the Royal Mail’s Worldwide Distribution Centre in Slough, England. The festive season sees a huge spike in postal items coming through the centre from all over the United Kingdom, destined for international destinations.: photo by Leon Neal, 8 December 2016

A rainbow shines in the sky above the city following a rainstorm, in Beit Lahiya City, Gaza Strip, Dec. 8, 2016. #APPhoto by @ahana99: image via AP Images @AP_images, 8 December 2016

↧

Something in the street

December 10, 2016, 4:20 am

≫ Next: With no clue about what will come

≪ Previous: Fleeing deeper into the penumbra of the world-historical on a badly overloaded tricycle

The last two weeks have seen the fiercest bombardments yet of Aleppo's rebel-held districts. Those still inside describe chaos and intense crowding in some areas as people scramble for shelter. They said wounded people and bodies were left in the streets with no one to help them. Here, what is believed to be the charred body of a rebel fighter can be seen on a street in retaken Bab al-Hadid.: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 9 December 2016

We are dying a day and everyone is silent: tweet via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 8 December 2016

Medics and the ill are suffocating in Kalasah after regime drops chlorine-filled barrel bombs on field clinic in the besieged Aleppo district: tweet via Hadi@HadiAlabdallah, 9 December 2016

The UN confirms what all of us feared - 100s of men and boys are “missing” after crossing/withdrawing into #Assad regime territory of #Aleppo: tweet via Charles Lister @Charles_Lister, 9 December 2016

We'll stay, We will not leave our homes, We don't want to leave for those who come to occupy it #Aleppo Goodnight: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 9 December 2016

Again from East #Aleppo, With All the Darkness of this war, Still there's Love My beloved city Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 9 December 2016

Residents fleeing the violence in Aleppo, Syria, gather at a government checkpoint in the city on Thursday: photo by Youssef Karwashan/Agence France-Press, 9 December 2016

Residents fleeing the violence in Aleppo, Syria, gather at a government checkpoint in the city on Thursday: photo by Youssef Karwashan/Agence France-Press, 9 December 2016

Hundreds of Syrian men are missing after escaping from rebel-held parts of Aleppo, U.N. says: image via New York Times World @nytimesworld, 9 December 2016

#Syria Residents fleeing the violence gather at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces in Maysaloun #Aleppo Photo by @YoussefKarwashan: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Syria Residents fleeing the violence gather at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces in Maysaloun #Aleppo Photo by @YoussefKarwashan: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Syria Residents fleeing the violence gather at a checkpoint, manned by pro-government forces in Maysaloun #Aleppo #AFP Photo by @YoussefKarwashan: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Syria Damaged buildings in old #Aleppo Jdeideh neighbourhood today #AFP Photo by George Ourfalian: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Syria Pro-government forces walks past a makeshift barricade made of wreckages of buses in Bab al-Nasr #Aleppo #AFP Photo George Ourfalian: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

U.N. General Assembly demands truce in Syria, end to Aleppo siege: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 9 December 2016

UNGA votes overwhelmingly (122 — 13) to pass resolution to stop bombing, protect civilians and let aid into #Syria via @MatthewRycroft1: via Charles Lister @Charles_Lister, 9 December 2016

#Serbia #migrants warm up at a makeshift shelter at an abandoned warehouse in Belgrade #AFP Photo by @iandrej: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#India Kashmiri youths play football on a cold and foggy day in Srinagar #AFP Photo by @TauseefMUSTAFA: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Pakistan A man walks past a horse and cart during fog in Lahore #AFP Photo by Aref Ali: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#Paris aujourd'hui. La preuve de la nécessité de réduire la place de la voiture en centre-ville #pollution: image via Anne Hidalgo @Anne Hidalgo, 6 December 2016

#France Doctors urge action over pollution levels @AFP @afpfr #Paris The #eiffeltower in the smog #AFP Photo by Thomas Samson: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

#smog and #fog. Pic de #pollution sur #lyon @CanonFrance @Manfrotto_fr @TourrIncity @auvergnerhalpes @leprogreslyon @AFPLyon: image via Anthony XAVIER @AnthoXav, 7 December 2016

We're going to set the world on fire

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump removes his coat as he speaks during a ''Thank You USA'' tour rally in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S.: photo by Mike Segar/Reuters, 9 December 2016

Trump team memo on climate change alarms Energy Department staff: Timothy Gardner / Reuters, WASHINGTON, 9 December 2016

President-elect Donald Trump's Energy Department transition team sent the agency a memo this week asking for the names of people who have worked on climate change and the professional society memberships of lab workers, alarming employees and advisors.The memo sent to the Energy Department on Tuesday and seen by Reuters on Friday, contains 74 questions including a request for a list of all department employees and contractors who attended the annual global climate talks hosted by the United Nations within the last five years.

It asked for a list of all department employees or contractors who have attended any meetings on the social cost of carbon, a measurement that federal agencies use to weigh the costs and benefits of new energy and environment regulations. It also asked for all publications written by employees at the department's 17 national laboratories for the past three years.

"This feels like the first draft of an eventual political enemies list," said a Department of Energy employee, who asked not to be identified because he feared a reprisal by the Trump transition team.

"When Donald Trump said he wanted to drain the swamp it apparently was just to make room for witch hunts and it's starting here at the DOE and our 17 national labs," the employee said.

Trump transition team officials declined to comment on the memo, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

Republican Trump, a New York businessman and former reality TV star who has never previously held public office, said during his election campaign that climate change was a hoax perpetrated by China to damage U.S. manufacturing. He said he would rip up last year's landmark global climate deal struck in Paris that was signed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

Since winning the Nov. 8 election, however, Trump has confused observers by saying he will keep an "open mind" about the Paris deal. He also met with former Vice President Al Gore, a strong advocate for action on climate change.

Contenders to head the Energy Department under Trump include Kevin Cramer, a Republican U.S. representative from oil producing North Dakota, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat from the same state, and Joe Manchin, a Democrat from coal-producing West Virginia.

The memo also asked for the names of the 20 top salaried employees at the department's labs, and a list of all websites maintained or contributed to by lab staff during work hours.

A list of projects at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy which funds research into high risk clean energy projects that could revolutionize energy markets, was also requested.

"They're certainly sending an aggressive signal here with some of these questions and they need to be careful," said Dan Reicher, a professor at Stanford University who also serves as an advisor to U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.

"I worry about some of the questions being sent that could unnecessarily alienate key career staff, because they need the career staff and lab professionals to get the daily work done," said Reicher.

The Energy Department employs more than 90,000 people working on nuclear weapons maintenance and research labs, nuclear energy, advanced renewable energy, batteries and climate science.

Two sources at the Environmental Protection Agency, where many climate regulations are formed, said no similar memo has been sent to that agency by the Trump administration.

Democratic Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts warned the Trump transition team about taking actions against any employees named in any response the department might send.

"Any politically motivated inquisition against federal civil servants who, under the direction of a previous administration, carried out policies that you now oppose," would call into question the Trump team's commitment to the rule of law and a peaceful transition, Markey said in a letter to Trump.

Exxon Mobil Corp Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson emerged on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate for U.S. secretary of state, a senior transition official said.Trump met Tillerson on Tuesday and may talk to him again over the weekend, the official said. Trump appears to be in the final days of deliberations over his top diplomat with an announcement possible next week.

Tillerson's favored status was revealed as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani formally withdrew from consideration for secretary of state.

The transition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tillerson, 64, had moved ahead in Trump's deliberations over 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has met Trump twice, including at a dinner in New York.

But the official said Romney was still under consideration for the job, along with John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, and retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis.

Giuliani's withdrawal came after he was fully vetted by the Trump transition team for his overseas business ties in what was described by the Trump official as an "intense" effort by lawyers and accountants.

Giuliani, who runs a global consulting firm, was given a clean bill of health, with Trump's aides concluding his business interests would not pose a risk to his confirmation.

Should Tillerson be nominated, his business ties, too, will come under scrutiny. Exxon Mobil has operations in more than 50 countries and boasts that it explores for oil and natural gas on six continents.

In 2011, Exxon Mobil signed a deal with Rosneft, Russia's largest state-owned oil company, for joint oil exploration and production. Since then, the companies have formed 10 joint ventures for projects in Russia.

In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded Tillerson his nation's Order of Friendship.

But U.S. sanctions against Russia for its incursion into Crimea cost Exxon Mobil dearly, forcing it to scrap some projects and costing it at least $1 billion in losses. Tillerson has been a vocal critic of the sanctions.

Trump has spoken of wanting warmer relations with Moscow, which has sparked concerns in Congress that he could lift or loosen some of the sanctions on Russia.

Tillerson has been chairman and CEO of Exxon Mobil since 2006. He is expected to retire from the company next year.

Should Tillerson be nominated, climate change could be another divisive issue. The company is under investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office for allegedly misleading investors, regulators and the public on what it knew about global warming.

#China A woman walks past a property advertisement billboard in #Beijing #AFP Photo by @NAsfouri: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 9 December 2016

A walkway in the old T.W.A. Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport in Queens, where a $265 million overhaul, including a new 300-room hotel, is planned: photo by Angel Franco/The New York Times, 9 December 2016

An ill orangutan rests at an International Animal Rescue clinic in Indonesia. Destruction of rain forests in neighboring Malaysia, financed in part by American banks, is robbing orangutans of their habitat.: photo by Kemal Jufri for The New York Times, 9 December 2016

Members of French special police forces of Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI) take part in a mock terrorist attack inside the European Council building in Brussels, Belgium: photo by Francois Lenoir/Reuters, 9 December 2016

A worker levels a salt pan in Mumbai, India: photo by Shailesh Andrade/Reuters, 9 December 2016

A worker levels a salt pan in Mumbai, India: photo by Shailesh Andrade/Reuters, 9 December 2016

Untitled | by el zopilote

Tucumcari, New Mexico. In memory of William Christenberry (1936-2016): photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, October 2016

↧

With no clue about what will come

December 11, 2016, 3:52 am

≫ Next: Flock / Bent neck (outside future city)

≪ Previous: Something in the street

A man in a wheelchair fleeing with others in Aleppo on Friday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 9 December 2016

Syria, Russia pound rebel-held Aleppo but advances halt: Syrian opposition appears resigned Aleppo will fall: Laila Bassam in Aleppo and John Davison in Beirut, Reuters,10 December 2016

Syria's military and Russian warplanes bombarded rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Saturday as Damascus's allies said victory was near, but insurgents fought back and army advances halted after rapid gains during the week.

The United States said it was meeting a Russian team in Geneva to find a way to save lives, but an agreement looked elusive as the two countries, which back opposing sides, have repeatedly failed to strike a deal to allow evacuations and help aid deliveries.

Russia, whose military intervention helped turn the war in President Bashar al-Assad's favor, said the Syrian government now controls 93 percent of Aleppo, a figure Reuters could not independently verify. Recapture of the country's second-largest city would deal a major blow to rebels who have fought to unseat Assad in the nearly six-year war.

Syrian government troops on Wednesday patrol the newly captured neighborhood of al-Sakhour in the eastern part of Aleppo: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 7 December 2016

The insurgents are holed out in a handful of areas mostly south of the historic Old City, having lost nearly three-quarters of territory they controlled for years in the space of around two weeks.

Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, a key military ally of Damascus alongside Russia and Iran, said late on Friday that a "promised victory" in Aleppo was imminent and would change the course of the war.

The advances mean the government appears closer to victory than at any point since 2011 protests against Assad evolved into armed rebellion. The war has killed more than 300,000 people and made more than 11 million homeless.

A win for Assad in Aleppo looks close, but the fighting still raged on Saturday.

Isis fighters attacking the Syrian army on the outskirts of Palmyra on 9 December. Isis ‘retook part of Palmyra’ in a lightning advance nine months after being driven out of the ancient Syrian city. Militants entered the suburbs just two days after launching a ‘surprise’ offensive against the Syrian army: photo via The Independent, 10 December 2016

In a surprise setback elsewhere, government forces lost control of most of the ancient city of Palmyra in eastern Syria to Islamic State, a war monitor and rebels said.

The army earlier said it had sent reinforcements to Palmyra, morethan 200 kms (130 miles) away, to stave off a fierce attack by the militants.

A rebel commander in the Aleppo-based Jaish al-Mujahideen group said the IS offensive had forced the government to divert troops to Palmyra from Aleppo - a possible explanation for the slowed advance there and heavy aerial and artillery bombardment.

Russian warplanes and Syrian artillery bombarded rebel-held districts, and rebels responded with shelling of government-controlled areas as gunfire rang out, a Reuters correspondent in Aleppo said.

Russia and Syria said on Friday they had reduced military operations to allow civilians to leave.

But rebels said their counterattacks are what have halted government advances.

"There's no advance by the regime. They (rebels) have stopped them several times," Zakaria Malahifji, a Turkey-based official in the Fastaqim rebel group said.

Rebel fighters in Aleppo have vowed to continue fighting despite sustaining huge losses to government forces: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 8 December 2016

VAST DESTRUCTION

Fighting has killed hundreds of people in recent weeks, monitors say, and devastated large areas of east Aleppo.

Parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Old City recaptured by the government were completely destroyed by fighting, a Reuters correspondent said. Old markets and bathhouses had been flattened.

A picture taken on Thursday shows destroyed buildings in the Bab al-Hadid neighbourhood, in Aleppo's Old City, after Syrian pro-government forces took control of the area: photo by AFP, 8 December 2016

"I found my home destroyed," said one returning resident, who gave only his family name, Sheikho.

"I didn't even recognize where it was because of the destruction," he said.

Thousands of people have left rebel districts. Some have fled to government-held areas but others went to areas under rebel control fearing arrest and reprisals by government forces.

Syrian pro-government forces patrol Marja Square area of Aleppo on Saturday: photo by AFP, 10 December 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russia to show "a little grace" when American and Russian officials meet in Geneva later on Saturday to try to reach a deal enabling civilians and fighters to leave Aleppo.

"Fighters ... don't trust that if they agreed to leave to try to save Aleppo that it will save Aleppo and they will be unharmed," Kerry told reporters in Paris after a meeting of countries opposed to Assad.

"The choice for many of them ... is to die in Aleppo, die in (neighboring) Idlib, but die," he added.

There were no restrictions or limitations to the extent of destruction wrought on Aleppo: photo by SANA/Handout via REUTERS/Al Jazeera News, 8 December 2016

Germany said Syrian opposition backers were seeking a political solution, but there was no agreement in Paris on a truce.

IS ASSAULT STRETCHES ARMY

Russia's defense ministry said more than 20,000 civilians left eastern Aleppo on Saturday and over 1,200 rebels laid down their arms. The British-based Observatory said hundreds of civilians had left but no fighters surrendered.

Rebel officials have sworn they will never leave.

Rebel fighters pose in an opposition-held area of Aleppo on Thursday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 8 December 2016

The army said that it reduced operations to allow residents to leave and that this would enable the military to carry out "wider maneuvers" against insurgents in due course.

Even once Aleppo is retaken, the multi-sided Syrian war will continue.

The United States, which is leading a separate fight against Islamic State in northern and eastern Syria, said it will send 200 additional military personnel including special forces to create pressure on the group's Raqqa hub.

The fight against Islamic State, waged separately by the group's many enemies - Moscow and Damascus, the U.S. coalition, and some of the same Turkish-backed rebels fighting Assad in Aleppo - is just one sign that Syria's complex conflict will not end with a defeat for insurgents in Aleppo.

Kerry warned the war would create more jihadist militants and grind on.

"If Aleppo were to fall ... the war does not end, but in fact could create more jihadis and more people to seek revenge and prosecute their interests," he said.

Rebel fighters with civilians in an opposition-held area of Aleppo on Thursday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 8 December 2016

Latest in East #Aleppo: Heavy bombing on several neighborhoods #FSA Repelling Assad attacks and destroying 2 Tanks, Damaged #T90 in Izzah: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtiib, 10 December 2016

Today the #Assad regime bombed Al-maghaier in #besieged_Aleppo and the #French Archaeological tap survived #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtiib, 10 December 2016

Syrians leaving eastern Aleppo on Saturday encounter a checkpoint run by pro-government forces: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 10 December 2016

Good morning, world. The compass of humanity is crashed and broken, where are the ways that will lead to peace? The question hung, I stood before him, and then I followed the long march.: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @Ahmad Alkhtiib, 10 December 2016

Cold..dark.. Warplanes flying over your neighbor.. Covering with the blanket.. Long night.. With no clue about what will come! #Aleppo: profile image and tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @Zouhir_AlShimale, 10 December 2016

↧

Flock / Bent neck (outside future city)

December 12, 2016, 2:57 am

≫ Next: Full moon with red sunrise / Look to her eyes (The people running away to nowhere)

≪ Previous: With no clue about what will come

An elderly woman cleans a window next to an advertising poster in Bucharest, #Romania, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. #APPhoto by @vghirda: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 9 December 2016

Few dozens of #Russian in #Palmyra airport manage to flee before #ISIS control of the city: image via Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrai, 11 December 2016

#IRAQ #IslamicState Releases Pictures Claiming Wreckage Of The #US Drone Shot Down Near The #Haditha Dam. #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

#IRAQ #IslamicState Releases Pictures Of Suicide Bombers Who Attacked Near #Mosul City. #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

INDIA - Seagulls fly and float on the Sangam, confluence of rivers Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswathi in Allahabad. By @Sanjaykanojia07: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 December 2016

SYRIA - Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces prepare for an assault on the IS bastion of Raqa in Aliyah. By @Delillsouleman #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 December 2016

#Idlib Maart-Alnuman 11/12/2016 #Massacre 6 martyrs and more than 10 injuries By targeting Maart Alnuman city in Idlib from regime Airplanes: image via Idlib - White Helmets @whitehelmets_sy, 11 December 2016

#BREAKING || Rural #Idlib Civilians killed and injured by parachute bombs on local market in Saraqib and another massacre in Maarat Al-Nouman: image via FSA News @FSAPlatform, 11 December 2016

#Douma: Sunday, death toll by airstrikes and artillery bombing rises to 5 civilians (2 children are among the death): image via SCD RifDimashq @SCDrifdimashq, 11 December 2016

SYRIA - A youth cleans a room at a makeshift hospital following a reported government airstrike on Douma near Damascus. By @AbdDoumany #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 December 2016

#SYRIA #IslamicState Releases Pictures Shows Suicide Attack On Rebels And Turkish Soldiers East Of #AlBab #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

#SYRIA #IslamicState Releases Pictures Shows Attacks On #SAA Positions Near T4 Airbase West Of #Palmyra. #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

#SYRIA #IslamicState Attack On #SAA Positions With Heavy Weapons In The Outskirts Of Bardah Area, East Of #Qaryatayn, #Damascus. #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

#SYRIA #IslamicState Releases VDO Shows Suicide Attack On #SAA Irtiwazah Checkpoint East Of #Palmyra Before Reached The City. #TerrorMonitor: image via Terrormonitordotorg @Terror_Monitor, 11 December 2016

ISIS is not the enemy of one side or belligerent, in theory, but the world enemy. @19jk65: tweet via Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrair, 11 December 2016

Cars (Toyota) used by #ISIS were sold to countries in the Middle East. @Ghifarix: tweet via Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrair, 11 December 2016

#ISIS using different weapons during the #Palmyra attack #Syria: image via Elijah J. Magnier @EjmAlrair, 11 December 2016

Bent neck (outside future city)

Windmill, Washington | by austin granger

Windmill, Washington [Goodnoe Hills, Washington]: photo by Austin Granger, 5 December 2016

Bent neck (outside future city)

The sadness in the stooping

of the land, the exhaustion
of everything upon it

Windmill, Washington [Goodnoe Hills, Washington]: photo by Austin Granger, 5 December 2016

Eastern Washington: photo by Austin Granger, 1 December 2016

Wetlands, Oregon [Jackson Bottom Wetlands]: photo by Austin Granger, 23 November 2016

future city, illinois, at dusk | by jody9

future city, illinois, at dusk [Cairo, Illinois]: photo by jody miller, 29 November 2016

[Alamo, Nevada]: photo by Lucas DeShazer, 2 November 2016

[Alamo, Nevada]: photo by Lucas DeShazer, 2 November 2016 Estuary | by efo

Estuary [Pinole, California]: photo by efo, 9 December 2016

Flock [Pigeons, Richmond, California]: photo by efo, 3 December 2016

Road Ends [Montalvin Manor, California]: photo by efo, 26 November 2016

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Full moon with red sunrise / Look to her eyes (The people running away to nowhere)

December 13, 2016, 6:45 am

≫ Next: Both the yeares, and the dayes deep midnight / The morning from East Aleppo: Don't let them take any memory

≪ Previous: Flock / Bent neck (outside future city)

Look to her eyes It says: You!! Who was bombing us And now we come here because of you And my son will be killed because of you in Your Army: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 12 December 2016

Dozens of Attacks over the last remaining part of the east of #Aleppo .. Many got injured and died and still the attacks ongoing..: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 13 December 2016

Baby died out of cold and freezing weather in #Aleppo: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 13 December 2016

Dozens of families are in the streets with no shelters and many are dying until now.: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 12 December 2016

Oh God .. wake us from this nightmare .. #Aleppo is being erased and more than 50.000 are under risk of being killed. Mostly women and child.: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 12 December 2016

As they are desperate of the situation..many families are leaving even though they don't know if they will be arrested or executed. #Aleppo: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 12 December 2016

Breaking: Execution reports done to some families in #Ferdous district after taking control of it from the rebels! #Aleppo: tweet via Zouhir AlShimale @ZouhirAlShimale, 12 December 2016

Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo's Fardos neighbourhood on December 13, 2016, after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters. Syrian rebels withdrew from six more neighbourhoods in their one-time bastion of east Aleppo in the face of advancing government troops, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGERSTRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Syrian residents, fleeing violence in the restive Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood, arrive in Aleppo’s Fardos neighbourhood after regime troops retook the area from rebel fighters: photo by AFP, 13 December 2016

Those are not zombies, And they're not acting, They're escaping from Death to Death #Aleppo suffering save it and save the people : image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 12 December 2016

Those are the terrorists that the world is watching how #Assad's killing them in #Aleppo Have nice watching world: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 12 December 2016

Assad's global coalition of Russia, Iran, and regional Shia militias are poised to seize Aleppo from local rebels: image via Middle East Eye @MiddleEastEye, 12 December 2016

The people running away to nowhere, they don't know where but all what they want to stay alive that's it #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 12 December 2016

Women and men's waiting to see their relatives who forced to join #Assad military service, Almost of those youngs flee from East #Aleppo: image via Ahmad Alkhatib @AhmadAlkhtiib, 12 December 2016

#Syria - More than 10,000 civilians in besieged #Aleppo are thought to have fled in the last 24 hours: image via DOAM @doamuslims, 12 December 2016

Syrian Army has regained control of #Aleppo, but at what cost? -Total Deaths: 108,150+k -Schools Destroyed: 100+ -Hospitals Destroyed: 35+: image via Rehman Siddiq @RehmanSid, 13 December 2016

Every journalist I know with contacts, sources, colleagues still in #Aleppo are spending their evenings terrified and attached to their phones: tweet via Maya Gebelly @GebellyM, 12 December 2016

"We have no oxygen canisters left...We have no ICU. The medical situation we’re in reduces us to tears"~ #Aleppo doc: image via Human Rights Watch Verified account @hrw, 12 December 2016

Full moon with red sunrise

#France Red sunrise in #Tours on December 9 #AFP Photo by Guillaume Souvant: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 12 December 2016

#Sparrows fly along the edge of the forest as they feed in the outskirts of Minsk, #Belarus. #APPhoto by Sergei Grits: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 12 December 2016

INDIA - Crows fly in front of government buildings at sunset in New Delhi. By @Sajjadkmr #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

SYRIA - Fighters from Syrian Democratic Forces stand in Al-Haymar, located on the western outskirts of IS bastion of Raqa. By @Delilsouleman:: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

SYRIA - Fighters from Syrian Democratic Forces wait in their vehicle near al-Naseem, located some 50 km of Raqa. By @Delilsouleman:: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

Foreign YPG volunteer on #Raqqa fronts [photo Delil Souleiman]: image via Dr Partizan @DrPartizan, 12 December 2016

SDF fighter on #Raqqa fronts [photo Delil Souleiman]: image via Dr Partizan @DrPartizan, 12 December 2016

INIDA - Kashmiri Muslims pray as a priest displays a relic believed to be hair from beard of Prophet Muhammed in Srinagar. By @TauseefMUSTAFA: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

SYRIA - Men bury a relative during his funeral at a layered cemetery following reported government airstrike on Douma. By @AbdDoumany #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

IRAQ - A displaced Iraqi child, from the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, walks at a makeshift camp in Khalif Saleh. By @ahmedafp #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

SYRIA - Smoke billows during reported shelling by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held area of Daraa. By @AbazidMohamad #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

#Syria Pro-government forces patrol in Sheikh Saeed #Aleppo after troops retook the area from rebel fighters #AFP Photo by George Ourfalian: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 12 December 2016

SYRIA - Syrian pro-government forces sit amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Aleppo's Sheikh Saeed district. By @AFPphoto #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 12 December 2016

"There's a lot of suffering here no one sees." Hard times in #Venezuela's coastal Sucre state @RodrigoAbd: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 12 December 2016

Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A worker decorates bulbs on a wire as balloons on display to celebrate upcoming Christmas season over the Cheonggye Stream in Seoul, South Korea: photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP, 12 December 2016

A civil defence member attempts to get out of a site hit at night by an airstrike in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province, Syria December 11, 2016. Picture taken December 11, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

A civil defence member attempts to get out of a site hit at night by an airstrike in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province, Syria: photo by Ammar Abdullah/Reuters, 12 December 2016

A civil defence member attempts to get out of a site hit at night by an airstrike in Saraqeb, in rebel-held Idlib province, Syria: photo by Ammar Abdullah/Reuters, 12 December 2016

An Indian balloon seller sells balloons during a procession to celebrate Eid-e-Milad, in Hyderabad, India, Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Many people gathered along the streets to chant religious slogans during the annual Eid-e-Milad festival marking the anniversary of Prophet Muhammad's birth. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

An Indian balloon seller sells balloons during a procession to celebrate Eid-e-Milad, in Hyderabad, India: photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP, 12 December 2016

Pedestrians are reflected in a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan, 12 December 2016. Tokyo stocks closed above the 19,000 mark for the first time since December 2015, following continuous gains in Wall Street and a weaker yen. The Nikkei Stock Average rose by 158.66 points, or 0.84 per cent, to close at 19,155.03. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON

Pedestrians are reflected in a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo stocks closed above the 19,000 mark for the first time since December 2015, following continuous gains in Wall Street and a weaker yen.: photo by Franck Robichon/EPA, 12 December 2016

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Palm Beach county sheriff's deputies stand guard in front of Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday: photo by Scott McIntyre for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

Palm Beach county sheriff's deputies stand guard in front of Donald J. Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday: photo by Scott McIntyre for The New York Times, 24 November 2016

e.e. cummings: Buffalo Bill ’s

which magical powers

Assad, allies aim to seize all Aleppo before Trump takes power: official: Laila Bassam and Ellen Francis in Beirut for Reuters, 29 November 2016

Wislawa Szymborska:"We used to know the world inside out"

Wislawa Szymborska (1923-2012):"We used to know the world inside out", uncollected poem from Walka / Battle(no. 8), 1945, as cited in Wislawa Szymborska - The Poetry of Existence: Krystyna Dąbrowska, Culture.Pl, December 2007, translated from the Polish by Tadeusz Z. Wolański

William Wordsworth:Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

William Wordsworth (1770-1850):Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 (31 July 1802), from Poems in Two Volumes, 1807

The Jewel of Kashmir

Syrian government troops on Wednesday patrol the newly captured neighborhood of al-Sakhour in the eastern part of Aleppo: photo by George Ourfalian/Agence France-Presse, 7 December 2016

Syrian pro-government forces patrol Marja Square area of Aleppo on Saturday: photo by AFP, 10 December 2016

There were no restrictions or limitations to the extent of destruction wrought on Aleppo: photo by SANA/Handout via REUTERS/Al Jazeera News, 8 December 2016

Rebel fighters with civilians in an opposition-held area of Aleppo on Thursday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 8 December 2016

Rebel fighters with civilians in an opposition-held area of Aleppo on Thursday: photo by Abdalrhman Ismail/Reuters, 8 December 2016