PARAMARIBO – Dozens of residents from the Marowijne district recently expressed their concern regarding the rising numbers of dropouts. “There is no future. Most of the youths especially chose to drop out of school and to hang around the street corners. A growing number of youths are also starting to use drugs.” The residents are puzzled by the fact that the authorities are failing to act before it is too late.

A concerned citizen from Albina explained that officials do not keep an eye on the retail prices in the local stores, in which the retailers determine their own prices. “The same product is sold for a different price in every store”, said the resident who urged the Ministry of Economic Affairs to regularly inspect the retail stores in the Marowijne district. He claimed that the stores also sell products that have expired which poses a threat to the public health in the Marowijne district. The citizen explained that most of the senior citizens can’t read which is why there is a huge chance that they will consume these expired products.

The residents complained about the high electricity and water bills that they have to pay every month even though they are confronted with blackouts that last an entire day. They also complained about the dirty water that they received out of their taps. The residents hope that these problems will be addressed soon. “It is time for solutions. There was a time when tourists flocked to Albina but that is no longer the case because of all of these problems.”…[+]

ROME –  Pope Francis is to embark on the longest, farthest and perhaps most challenging trip of his pontificate as he begins a 12-day Asia-Pacific tour that is expected to highlight environmental threats, emphasise interfaith dialogue and reinforce the importance of Asia for the Catholic church.

The 87-year-old will set off on Monday on a tour taking in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, a trip that will clock up more than 20,000 miles by air. Originally planned for 2020 but postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, the visit is being seen as a nod to the importance of Asia, one of the few places where the church is growing in terms of baptised faithful and religious vocations.

Francis is scheduled to headline more than 40 events during the ambitious tour. “It is a show of strength for Pope Francis,” Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic, told Reuters. Shihoko Goto, the director of the Indo-Pacific Program at Washington’s Wilson Center, said the visit, coming as the pontiff struggles with health problems, “speaks volumes about the strategic importance of Asia for the church”.

Francis’s first stop will be Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. Francis will visit Jakarta’s main mosque and is expected to tour a singular feature built in 2020 as a symbol of religious harmony: an underground “Tunnel of Friendship” that links the mosque to the country’s Catholic cathedral. He will be accompanied by the grand imam, Nasaruddin Umar, and both are scheduled to later take part in an interfaith gathering. Francis, who in 2019 became the first pope to visit the Arabian peninsula, has long signalled that Catholic-Muslim dialogue is a priority.

The pope is also scheduled to meet Indonesia’s outgoing president, Joko Widodo, and to hold a mass for an estimated 80,000 people at a Jakarta stadium, an Indonesian church official told the Associated Press. In Papua New Guinea, Francis will meet missionaries from his native Argentina. It is believed he will use the stop to address the threat of climate change, citing challenges such as rising sea levels and increasingly severe heatwaves and typhoons.  He will then head to East Timor to celebrate mass on the same seaside esplanade where Pope John Paul II offered a liturgy in 1989. The former pontiff was later credited with helping to cast a global spotlight on Indonesia’s brutal occupation. (The Guardian)…[+]

PHILIPPINES – The Chinese and Philippine Coast Guards traded blame over the latest collisions involving their vessels in the disputed South China Sea on Saturday.

The Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) said a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship had “deliberately collided” with one of its vessels near the disputed Sabina Shoal, according to state broadcaster CCTV. “At 12:06, the Philippine ship No. 9701 deliberately collided with the Chinese ship No. 5205, which was normally enforcing rights and law enforcement, in an unprofessional and dangerous manner, resulting in a collision. The responsibility lies entirely with the Philippines,” CCG spokesman Liu Dejun said on Saturday.

PCG spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the Chinese side had “deliberately rammed” a Philippines vessel. “This afternoon, the Chinese Coast Guard vessel deliberately rammed and collided with the BRP Teresa Magbanua three times, despite no provocation from the Philippine Coast Guard,” he wrote in a post on X.

The dueling accounts come as Chinese and Philippine vessels have engaged in multiple collisions and face-offs over the past week near Sabina Shoal, also known as Xianbin Reef. The disputed atoll lies just 86 miles from the Philippines’ west coast and 745 miles from China. A spokesperson for the US State Department said it condemned China for “deliberately colliding three times” with the Philippine vessel.

“On multiple occasions throughout August 2024, (China) has aggressively disrupted lawful Philippine aerial and maritime operations in the South China Sea, including at Sabina Shoal,” said the spokesperson Matthew Miller said. Miller added that the US called on China to comply with international law and “desist from dangerous and destabilizing conduct.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory despite an international ruling to the contrary.  The escalation in tensions comes just weeks after Beijing and Manila struck a temporary deal to lower tensions that had been rising all summer at another nearby reef, where China’s increasingly aggressive tactics had raised alarm across the region as well as in Washington, a mutual defense ally of the Philippines. (CNN)…[+]

SAN FRANCISCO – The shooting and attempted robbery of a San Francisco 49ers rookie in broad daylight in downtown San Francisco has placed a renewed spotlight on the city ahead of this fall’s mayoral election.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall was shot in the chest during the attempted robbery on Saturday afternoon and was released from the hospital Sunday, the team said on social media. Pearsall is in good spirits, his mother, Erin Pearsall, wrote in a Facebook post shared on X by The Athletic writer David Lombardi. Erin Pearsall wrote the bullet, which entered her son’s chest and exited through his back, missed his vital organs.

The 17-year-old resident from Tracy, California, who attempted to rob Ricky Pearsall — and was also shot during the incident — is in custody, police said. Officers say they believe the suspect acted alone and have no reason to believe Pearsall was targeted because he is a football player. Mayor London Breed, in a news conference outside San Francisco General Hospital on Saturday, framed the shooting as an isolated incident in a city with relatively low violent crime rates. Breed said the shooting was “a terrible and rare incident in Union Square,” where the city has increased police officer coverage in recent years.

“This incident does set us back from all of the hard work that we’ve done in order to make significant changes in public safety in San Francisco,” she said. Despite public concerns over shoplifting, car break-ins and other crime in recent years, Breed and other city officials say their efforts have resulted in an overall drop in crime.

In the first quarter of 2024, property crime decreased by 32% and violent crime is down by 14% – with gun violence, specifically, down 38% – compared to the same time last year, according to the city. The police department’s most recent report shows a 22% drop in violent crime broadly this July compared to last July, though the number of reported gun violence incidents during July was tied at 21 across both years. (CNN)…[+]