Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte won a landslide election in May on the promise to kill thousands of drug dealers and addicts.  

To date, at least 1,000 people have been murdered and 60,000 addicts have signed up in for treatment at clinics around the country.

"Those sons of whores are destroying our children......I warn you, don't go into that, even if you are a policeman because I will really kill you" the President said during an election speech in Manila.

During the election campaign, he said that 100,000 people would die and there would be so many bodies in Manila Bay, the fish would grow fat from feeding off them.  He promised to pardon police if they were charged with human rights offences for carrying out his orders.

However, the US has suggested that military aid could be withheld if respect for human rights is not upheld.

As more and more people are found dead in the streets, no suspects have been arrested and Human Rights lawyers are worried that the President is creating a nation without judges.

Yulia Efimova named as drug cheat

Yulia Efimova

Yulia Efimova, a Russian swimmer with a history of failed doping tests lashed out as Michael Phelps for his past marijuana and alcohol use yesterday when he received his 22nd Gold Medal at the Rio Olympics.

She was banned for 16 months for testing positive to 7-keto-DHEA in 2013 and later tested positive for meldonium.

She was upset with American gold medal winner Lilly King who named her as a drug cheat.

"What would she say about Michael Phelps?" she told reporters.  "Of course I'm not for doping and I've never used it on purpose....but I know there have been many occasions where people do it because they don't know or because they're stupid or naive.  There always should be another chance....when you are driving your car and you get a ticket you don't lose your license for life or get put in jail."  

And I agree with her, there should always be a second chance.  China and Russia have been caught cheating in front of the whole world and the athletes deserve another chance.  If the order did come from the top, as many believe it did, we could conclude that the athletes had little choice.

And if politicians can contain themselves and keep their noses out of sport, the 2020 Olympics in Japan could be the first clean, honest games to be held in decades.

Thanks to the article in the New York Times, the world finally found out the truth.

………A colleague stationed next door in the sample collection room would retrieve the correct bottles and pass them into the storage room through a circular hole cut through the wall near the floor, Dr. Rodchenkov said. During the day the hole was concealed by a small imitation-wood cabinet.

The sealed B bottles were handed over to the man Dr. Rodchenkov believed was a Russian intelligence officer, who would take them to an adjacent building. Within hours, Dr. Rodchenkov said, the bottles were returned to the storage room, their caps unlocked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html?_r=0

Rio 2016 Oympics a farce

Olympic legend Michael Phelps

It could be argued that the 2016 Rio Olympics is a farce, ruined by the IOC's inability to successfully weed out the drug cheats and instead of banning them, allowing them to compete. 

Michael Phelps said "It breaks what sport is meant to be and that's what pisses me off."

Mack Horton and Lilly King

Australia's Mack Horton has been hounded on social media by Chinese fans of swimmer Sun Yang after calling him a drug cheat. China was not pleased.

But how can they complain when it's a known fact that Sun served a three month ban after testing positive for trimetazidine, a stimulant added to the banned list in 2014.

The Chinese say he had taken the drug to treat an existing heart problem but French swimmer Camille Lacourt said yesterday that Sun "pisses purple."

Michael Phelps got involved after his young team-mate Lilly King beat the world champion Russian Yulia Efimova who served a 16 month steroid ban and this year tested positive for meldonium, the drug Maria Sharapova was banned over.

Phelps said it was sad that athletes testing positive twice were still allowed to compete. "I wish somebody would do something about it" he said.

And so do we.  The IOC told us that all Russian athletes who had a squeaky clean drug free background would get to compete so what happened?

If nothing else, the Rio games have embarrassed Russia and China, the two countries who still hold the misguided view that they have to win, no matter what.

Child's breast removal for gender dysphoria

A 15 year old girl, diagnosed with gender dysphoria has been given permission by Australia's Family Court to go ahead with surgery to remove both breasts.  Although she was born a girl, she has dressed as a boy since the age of 4.

Because she has not been taking hormones to suppress puberty, she has developed large breasts which need to be removed before she starts taking testosterone which will result in a hairy chest and facial hair.

A psychologist told the court "Society has begun to accept transgender individuals however, I am highly doubtful they would accept an individual with a beard, a hairy chest and a E-cup bust."

The child understands the operation will deny her the opportunity to breastfeed a child and hopes to begin hormone treatment within 12 months.

International guidelines which recommend genital surgery should not be performed until children have reached 18 years of age, and lived 12 months as the opposite sex, was acknowledged and accepted by the court.

The court heard the child's situation was unique and that her large breasts were causing psychological and physical pain.

Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands

There is a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited islands called the Senkaku Islands in Japan and the Diaoyu Islands in China.

Aside from the 1945 to 1972 period of administration by the US as part of the Ryukyu Islands, the archipelago has been controlled by Japan since 1895.

China began to question the sovereignty of the islands in late 1970 when evidence of oil reserves were discovered.  The territory is also close to key shipping lanes and rich fishing grounds.

The Chinese claim there is evidence to prove that before the First Sino-Japanese War, the territory belonged to China but was later seized by Japan.  They argue that the islands should be returned to China as the rest of Imperial Japan's conquests were returned in 1945.

The islands are included within the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan which means the US would be obliged to come to Japan's aid in the event of war.

Donald Trump said on Friday that he would 'walk' from Japan and other US allies if they don't commit to defending America and pay their fair share of NATO expenses.

"You know we have a treaty with Japan, where if Japan is attacked, we have to use the full force and might of the United States" he said in Iowa.

"But if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to do anything, they can sit home and watch Sony television, OK?"

Bill Leak in trouble over Aboriginal cartoon

Bill Leak

Brilliant Australian cartoonist Bill Leak has been accused of racism for his cartoon depicting an Aboriginal father holding a beer can, unable to remember the name of his son.  He said the cartoon was inspired by Aboriginal men who spoke the truth.

The NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and many other posters on social media said they were disgusted with the cartoon, but a defiant Mr Leak came back yesterday with another one, this time with himself in place of the Aboriginal boy.

Mr Lek said the outrage of "sanctimonious Tweety Birds" and "tantrum-throwers" was preventing intelligent debate "on serious social issues such as the rampant violence, abuse and neglect of children in remote indigenous communities."

"I was trying to say that if you think things are pretty crook for the children locked up in the Northern Territory's Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, you should have a look at the homes they came from" he wrote.

Paul Whittaker, editor in chief of The Australian, defended the cartoon.  "Too often, too many people skirt around the root causes of tough issues" he said.  "Bill Leak's confronting and insightful cartoons force people to examine the core issues in a way that sometimes reporting and analysis fail to do."

Liberal Democrat's David Leyonhjelm said Bill Leak had "a knack for point out the obvious."

Bill Leak has won 9 Walkely awards, 19 Stanley awards and two News Awards.

Lonely Dutchman waits for online love

Lonely Dutchman, Alexander Pieter Cirk 41, fell in love with a beautiful 26 year old Chinese girl called Zhang on the internet. He was so smitten, he flew all the way to China to meet her for the first time.  But she didn't show up.

He was so convinced she would come, he waited in the terminal for one and a half weeks.  He slept on benches in the arrivals lounge and refused to leave.  As he became more dishevelled, people were concerned and he was eventually rushed to hospital with an IV in his arm.

After the story went viral in China, a Chinese television station finally tracked Zhang down and according to CCTV news, she said that when he told her he was coming to China, she thought it was a joke.

"One day he sent me a photo of air tickets and I thought it was a joke" she said.  "He didn't contact me later."

The reason he didn't contact her was because he couldn't - she went offline and went to another city for plastic surgery.

A brokenhearted Cirk flew home to the Netherlands after being released from hospital.

Zhang said she wanted to continue their romance and would meet him after recovering from her surgery.