Cold threatens Iraq refugees
The UN High Commission on Refugees says the upcoming winter threatens to worsen conditions for around half a million displaced Iraqis receiving UN aid in August. A statement:
Time is now of the essence in providing support to Iraq’s displaced. Winter is approaching fast, with snow, rain and muddy conditions. In less than three months from now, daily temperatures will average less than ten degrees Celsius, and the rains will begin.
The agency says it has provided more than 100,000 mattresses, 10,000 family tents, and 40,000 jerry cans for water as well as tens of thousands of other essential items for some of the estimated 850,000 people who have fled into the northern Kurdistan region. It will send another 10 aid flights into Erbil over the next few days to supply 40,000 blankets, 10,000 kitchen sets, and almost 18,000 plastic tarpaulins. However the accommodation situation remains acute and the agency needs extra financial support:
UNHCR, as a part of the UN humanitarian relief effort, will be launching an appeal for an additional US$350 million to help meet these needs. The main focus will be on providing life-saving protection services and assistance to respond to the most urgent basic needs of displaced Iraqis, including winterization support.
Tavis Smiley interview
Childs discusses his career and his latest project, a tribute to singer-songwriter, Laura Nyro, in this interview for PBS.
Joni Mitchell’s a genius. I think she’s brilliant, you know. I think she and Laura Nyro are kind of like the two most important singer-songwriters, although the term singer-songwriter is kind of like a limiting description of what they are. And I think they’re kind of like, in my opinion, the two that stand out the most.
Steve Buscemi interview
Buscemi appears as a guest for the first time on The Late Show with David Letterman to talk about how he almost got into the show in 1994. He also shares his experience being a New York fireman during his early days as a stand-up comic.
Engine 55 is on Broome Street, and so we covered Little Italy and Chinatown and Soho and the Lower East side. Certainly in the early 80s it was probably busier than it is now, but I missed the heyday of when it was super busy in like the 60s and 70s.
Kristen Wiig interview
Wiig guests on The Late Show with David Letterman to talk about her upcoming film with Zach Galifianakis and Owen Wilson. She also describes the “hippie” culture of Asheville, North Carolina, where they filmed some of the scenes. She also tells Letterman about her father’s reactions to her intimate scenes in movies.
I try to tell him the scene before, so he should go to the bathroom or something, because it’s uncomfortable. But the sex scene he was most uncomfortable was MacGruber.
Stephen Colbert interview
Colbert and Meyers discuss the Emmys on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
It’s fun if you win.
Wiz Khalifa interview
Khalifa talks about the many tattoos on both he and his wife with Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
If that were to happen, I feel sorry for the next guys that she is with after me.
I got that first though. We were only dating for like a month and I got that tattoo.
Eva Longoria interview
Longoria talks about how involved she is with her restaurant Beso on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
I am a control freak, everyone knows I am a control freak. If there is something wrong I go back and find out why and what happened.
Wiz Khalifa interview
Wiz talks about his affinity for marijuana and compares his use to that of his friend Snoop Dogg.
They give me a lot of pot but I am specific about what kind I like, I take it with me every where I go.
Eva Longoria interview
Longoria appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel discovers they both over-plan their vacations.
Biden warns ISIS
Biden says the U.S. is grieving the deaths of Foley and Sotloff and will bring ISIS to justice:
They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.
He says America will not be intimidated by brutal acts like the beheading by ISIS of the two journalists:
We came back after 9/11. We dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama bin Laden would never, ever again threaten the American people. We came back after Boston strong, blaming no one but resolving to be certain that this didn’t happen again. As a nation, we’re united, and when people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget.
US will ‘degrade and destroy’ ISIS militants
At a news conference in Estonia, Obama promises to “degrade and destroy” ISIS, the group responsible for beheading a second America journalist, Steven Sotloff.
We will not be intimidated. Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn that we will not forget and that our reach is long and that justice will be served.
He also vows that the U.S. would continue to lead the battle against “the kind of barbaric and empty vision that [ISIS] represents.”
‘We will send ISIS to death’
Outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki promises to turn the country into a ‘grave’ for ISIS. During an unannounced visit to the northern Shiite Turkmen town of Amerli, he orders promotions and awards for those who fought in the weekend battle to successfully break an ISIS siege:
I salute you for your steadfastness and patience against those beasts and killers … All Iraq will be a grave for those infidels, and we will send all the [ISIS] gang to death
‘Ethnic cleansing’
Amnesty International says ISIS is carrying out ‘a wave’ of ethnic cleansing in Iraq. A statement says the group have:
…launched a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing in northern Iraq, carrying out war crimes, including mass summary killings and abductions, against ethnic and religious minorities.
It says several mass killings took place in Sinjar in August:
Two of the deadliest incidents took place when IS fighters raided the villages of Qiniyeh on 3 August and Kocho on 15 August. The number of those killed in these villages alone runs into the hundreds. Groups of men and boys including children as young as 12 from both villages were seized by IS militants, taken away and shot.
Senior Crisis Advisor Donatella Rovera:
Instead of aggravating the fighting by either turning a blind eye to sectarian militias or arming Shi’a militias against the Islamic State as the authorities have done so far, Iraq’s government should focus on protecting all civilians regardless of their ethnicity or religion. The people of northern Iraq deserve to live free from persecution without fearing for their lives at every turn. Those ordering, carrying out, or assisting in these war crimes must be apprehended and brought to justice.
Starts carrying mattress
After seeking guidance from visual arts professor Kessler over the summer, Sulkowicz starts carrying her mattress wherever she goes on Campus.
Rape can happen anywhere. I was raped in my own dorm bed, and since then that’s become fraught for me. And I feel like I carry the weight of what happened there with me everywhere…For my senior thesis I will be doing a piece called ‘Mattress Performance’ or “Carry that Weight’ where I will be carrying this dorm room mattress everywhere I go for as long as I attend the same school as my rapist.
Kessler:
Carrying around your university bed—which was also the site of your rape—is an amazingly significant and poignant and powerful symbol. I felt I had something to offer in terms of how artists have done endurance performance pieces in the past, and the connection between activism and performance…The best art comes from a very personal place and from personal commitment and belief—otherwise you’re just doing an assignment…As a physical metaphor, the piece has tremendous power.
‘Bring the battlefield home’
A Scottish-born girl is reported to have have moved to Syria and has disseminated jihadi messages via Twitter. The ‘@Umm Layth_’ Twitter account believed to be operated by is currently suspended. A tweet in June apparently supporting the Lee Rigby murder, Boston Marathon bombing and Fort Hood, Tx., shootings:
Follow the examples of your brothers from Woolwich, Texas and Boston. If you cannot make it to the battlefield, then bring the battlefield to yourself.
Police spokesman:
A 19-year-old female from Scotland was reported missing to us by her family in November 2013. Inquiries are ongoing in relation to her whereabouts and we are supporting her family.
‘Cluster munitions’
Human Rights Watch cites ‘credible evidence’ that ISIS has used cluster munitions in at least one location in northern Syria in recent weeks. Local Kurdish officials and photographic evidence show the extremist group used cluster munitions on July 12 and August 14 during fighting around the town of Ayn al-Arab – known as Kobani in Kurdish – in Aleppo governorate near the northern border with Turkey. A statement:
The use of cluster munitions by non-state actors such as the Islamic State shows the urgent need for Syria and all nations that have not yet done so to join the ban on cluster munitions and destroy their stockpiles
Ok Magazine interview
Jonas gives an interview to Ok Magazine about the meaning behind his single Chains.
I think what’s great about Chains and the reason I really connect with it is that anyone can make it about whatever chains are in their life. For me, it’s about trying to be a bold and fearless artist. So, to me, the chains are fear.
NBC interview
Brantly is interviewed by Lauer for NBC Nightly News.
That morning. I just felt a little off. A little warm. A little under the weather. And I took my temperature and it was 100.0 I think.
I don’t think they ever said, ‘Ken I think you are about to die’. but I felt like I was about to die.
Tavis Smiley interview
Culbertson discusses his 20-year career and the remake of his debut CD in this interview for PBS.
I think it’s more about an experience of listening to music again. You know, we’ve gotten just sort of like music is going everywhere with the digital age and now to put vinyl on a record player and to actually sit down and listen to it, I think it brings you back to at least, you know, my early years and it’s a beautiful thing.
Julie Chen interview
Chen and Letterman discuss the new season of The Talk on The Late Show with David Letterman.
They’ve called our family members about our fears, they are sneaky.
