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© AFP/Getty ImagesLabourers work at the construction site of the new Egyptian administrative capital, 40km east of Cairo.
Billboards promising another way of life have long clustered alongside the clogged highways of central Cairo. Advertisements for gated housing developments called "Regent's Park", "Beta Greens" or "Uptown" promise "360-degree greenery" and open spaces. One, on a busy and polluted central road, invites onlookers to "just breathe".
The promise of escape from the congestion of central Cairo to a new life 40km away on the city's outskirts is fetishised for those able to afford it. Nowhere is this more clear than on the billboards advertising real estate in "Entrada", a housing and commercial property development in Egypt's new administrative capital, which is currently without a name. "Welcome to a supreme community," proclaims one. The development is touted by its creators as "the entrance to a new city, a new lifestyle, a new community and a new worldwide centre of attraction".
The alternative capital will span 700 sq km, making it almost as large as Singapore, and is intended to house a total of five million people. The plan shows an expanse of high-rises and residential buildings as well as a "government district" all stationed around a central "green river", a combination of open water and planted greenery twice the size of New York's Central Park.
© ACUDA graphic of the new Egyptian capital shows completed residential districts, as well as the planned tallest building in Africa at 345 metres high.
© Reuters / Korea Summit Press Pool
Before the summit, only 4.7 percent of students had a favorable perception of the North Korean leader, while about 87.7 percent of respondents felt the opposite, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing a poll conducted among students of the Kookmin University in Seoul. As of now, only 25.8 percent of these students viewed Kim negatively.
© Esam Al-Fetori / ReutersFile photo: A military vehicle belonging to the Libyan National Army fires towards the positions of Islamist militants
Haftar, who holds sway over almost all eastern Libya except for Derna, announced on Monday that the long-anticipated offensive to rid the city of jihadists that pledged allegiance to the Al-Qaeda affiliated Majahedeen Shura Council has begun.
"The zero hour has struck for the liberation of Derna," Haftar said, adding that his forces have already entered the city and were dismantling the terrorists' "bastions."
Comment: Funny thing, there was a rumor last month about Khalifa Haftar having died in a hospital in France - yet this month he is capturing cities.
This file photo shows an Emirati soldier waving while riding on a tank in an undisclosed location in Yemen.
The demonstrators took to the streets of the Socotra town of Hadibu on Monday, denouncing the UAE meddling in their domestic affairs.
Earlier this month, the UAE deployed some 300 soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, to Socotra amid widening divisions with the Riyadh-sponsored forces loyal to the former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are key members of a coalition that has been waging a deadly war on Yemen since March 2015 in support of Hadi and against the Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Comment: Socotra is an island of unique beauty that has been recognized by UNESCO as a natural world heritage site. But war, of course, respects nothing.
© AFPMilitants and their families wait to be evacuated from the town of Rastan, Homs, in a convoy of buses on May 7, 2018.
Takfiri militants are handing over their last strongholds in Syria's western provinces of Homs and Hama under a Russia-brokered deal with the Damascus government.
The evacuation began on Monday, when the first batch of the militants and their families left the town of Rastan in Homs through a corridor.
On the first day of the evacuation process, which is expected to last a week, more than 800 militants and their families were bused out and transported to militant-held areas in the northern city of Jarablus and the neighboring Province of Idlib.
The outgoing buses are escorted by Russian military police.
The areas in Homs include Rastan as well as the towns of Houla and Talbiseh and the villages around them.
Comment: Also recently:
Syrian Army continues smashing ISIS in South Damascus, liberates entire pocket
© PARhyhiem's mum pleaded: "Just let it stop. What must be, must be"
Emergency crews were called to Becks Lane in Macclesfield, Cheshire, following reports a man had been hurt at around 8.50pm yesterday.
Police said they found an injured 37-year-old man, who died at the scene.
A 15-year-old boy and a man, 29, have been arrested as part of ongoing enquiries into the circumstances, the Macclesfield Express reports.
The suspects are both from the Macclesfield area.
Comment: For the low down on some of the reasons why we're seeing a spike in violence in the UK, see:
Also:
- Selling off a nation: Britain's first 'no win no fee' "private police force"
- London crime wave: Theft, burglary, rape, violent crime and homicide skyrocket
- England's police deployed to hunt down 'offensive speech' amidst an actual rise in crime
© AFP1500 migrant evacuated from Porte de la Chapelle camp a month ago are still waiting for proper accommodation.
Elected representatives of French communist parties PCF and the Left Front proposed on Thursday that the matter be discussed at the Paris Council, a month after the closure of the city's oversaturated Porte de la Chapelle migrant centre (pictured below).
They're suggesting the 1,500 evacuated migrants, who are currently being housed in a makeshift camp at Porte de la Villette, be soon rehoused in a much more central and desirable part of the city: Bois de Boulogne park in the 16th arrondissement.
The group has admitted the proposal is a political move aimed at rebalancing the discrepancy in welcome centres between East and West Paris, but they also argue their request is a practical one.
Comment: The refugee crisis is antagonising underlying issues within communities and creating new ones. Have they already housed all of France's native homeless? What they don't seem to be talking about is that, were it not for Russia, their government would have created even more refugees in their illegal attacks on Syria. It's also very telling about the economy, and is common throughout the western world, that these upmarket areas are not already in use:
- Forget WW3: What We Just Saw Happen In Syria Is The Extent Of Western Power
- "We are not Macron's toilet!" Tensions rise on France-Italy border as French agents storm Italian migrant facility
- Assad tells Macron that France 'spearheaded support for terrorism' in Syria so 'they have no right to talk about peace'
- The internet questions FUKUS coalition's 'humanitarian bombs' for Syria
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
In a 5,000-word essay in The Atlantic magazine, the author of 'We Were Eight Years in Power' argues that many African-Americans, including himself, had considered West a "god" akin to Michael Jackson.
"The rule of Donald Trump is predicated on the infliction of maximum misery on West's most ardent parishioners, the portions of America, the muck, that made the god Kanye possible," Coates wrote. "But for black artists who rise to the heights of Jackson and West, the weight is more, because they come from communities in desperate need of champions."
Two weeks ago, West set Twitter on fire by posting a photo of an autographed Make America Great Again hat and calling Trump a "brother" who shared his "dragon energy." He refused to walk back his comments in the face of a backlash from many black celebrities, saying instead that he was a free thinker who refused to live in the "prison" prescribed by others.
Comment: White freedom? The left will take any chance to paint this into an identity politics issue when that's not the case. Kanye made a lot of liberals upset when he said he supported Trump. But the point he was making was people shouldn't get caught up in ideologies and learn to think for themselves. Apparently that's a threat to the liberal narrative and must be attacked for it. See also:
- The social justice mob attacks Kanye West
- Kanye West endorses black, pro-Trump Conservativism
- Kanye West has been watching Jordan Peterson
In the former rebel bastion of Jobar east of the capital, huge quantities of weapons and ammunition storage have been found hidden underneath a building.
The discovered weapons - used by Faylaq al-Rahman terror group - include mortar shells, RPGs, assault rifles and explosive devices.
Comment: Terrorists on Tuesday continued to hand over their heavy and medium weapons in the framework of the agreement stipulating for evacuation of the terrorists who are unwilling to settle their status from Homs northern countryside and Hama southern countryside to northern Syria.
SANA reporter in Homs said that terrorist groups positioned in Homs northern countryside and Hama southern countryside handed over a car equipped with rocket launcher, a car equipped with medium machinegun and what is called "hell cannon" along with a mortar launcher and a cannon, in addition to tanks' shells and BMP cannon, mines and various types of ammunition.See also: North Homs: Militants continue handing over heavy weapons to the Syrian army© SANA© SANAThe reporter said that preparations are underway to evacuate the second batch of terrorists along with their families via al-Rastan corridor on the direction of Hama, after evacuating the first batch on board 62 busses and transporting them to northern Syria on Monday evening.© SANA
Comment: Further reading: Jewish settlers attempt to break into Palestinian kindergarten as part of routine harassment designed to incite punishment from IDF