Locked out by COVID, refugees lives on hold

Millions of people have been hit hard by the new coronavirus. These people had been promised escape from war, violence, conflict or persecution.

The corona pandemic had taught us a tough lesson as the pope said in his „Fratelli tutti“.

Palestinian refugees: In the past there was a lot of trade deals and backroom diplomacy between Israel and the Arab countries, that have sold out the Palestinian cause altogether. None of them addressed the basic Palestinian rights, like the right of return of the refugees, self-determination, equality, and freedom.

Syria refugees: Turkey gave up more territory than expected and certainly more than many of its Syrian proxies were hoping. But the Turkish government does have a real red line: they enforce a buffer area to keep the refugees out of Turkey. Turkey and Russia are likely to come to an agreement about possible concessions, where Turkey will may be give up control of certain parts of Idlib in return for pressure-relief in other conflict zones or potentially the elimination of certain figures affiliated with PKK and a guarantee to prevent any new wave of refugees.

Nationalism, fear of infection, economic worries and ageing voters‘ resistance to change are undermining a long-established post-war consensus that people at risk of persecution, abuse or violence deserve to be sheltered.

After submitting to a review process that can take years, and winning a chance to make new lives in countries such as the United States and Canada. Earlier this week, a former Trump Department of Homeland Security official said that refugees are some of the most heavily screened applicants of all immigrant groups.

Heatmap of „refugees“ news © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: reuters.com

Links:

Exclusive: Hong Kong survey shows support grows for pro-democracy goals, 44% back protest movement

Due to coronavirus related restrictions the demonstrations had been fewer and smaller than the mass protests that roched Hong Kong.

On another case chief executive Carrie Lam told the press that 12 people were arrested because of illegal entry into mainland and these were not democratic activists being oppressed.

Most of them had been charged with offences such as manufacturing or possessing explosives, arson, rioting, assaulting police or possession of offensive weapons. They were bailed and not allowed to leave Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, China © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: reuters.com

Links:

1 shot and killed as Trump supporters and protesters clash in Portland

The protests continued in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Jakob Blake was shot serveral times in the back by a police officer and a teenager shot two people dead at a protest days later.

Kenosha, Wisconsin © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: cbsnews.com

Links:

Hurricane Laura decimates Cameron Parish, Louisiana

Hurricane Laura is a Category 4 storm with a kind of „unsurvivable“ storm surge like power outages and dangerous winds up to 150 mph. The experts of the National Hurricane Center expects catastrophic damage in Louisiana.

Louisana, US © OpenStreetMap contributors

A lot of people in Louisana refused to leave their homes. People located in Beaumont, Galveston and Port Arthur were ordered to evacuate as the storm approached.

Beaumont, Louisana © OpenStreetMap contributors
Galveston, Louisana © OpenStreetMap contributors
Port Arthur, Louisana © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: usatoday.com

Links:

Belarus opposition figures in court after night in jail

In Minsk two leaders of the opposition in Belarus appeared in court after a night in jail. There are more mass demonstrations planned against President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarus © OpenStreetMap contributors

Minsk is a second-level administrative subdivision of Belarus in the Minskaja Voblasć. The administrative seat is the city of Minsk, which is administratively separated from the subdivision.

Minsk, Belarus © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: yahoo.com

Links:

Hundreds of thousands of California residents flee as wildfires continue to rage

Dry lightning and dusty winds are the results of the fires in California. Red-flag warnings across northern and central california. The fire-fighters are tackling the hotspots in Boulder Creek, California.

Boulder Creek, California © OpenStreetMap contributors

Dangerous fires are also arising from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Usually these fires were ignited by lightning strikes.

Santa Cruz, California © OpenStreetMap contributors

Several counties including Sonoma, Napa and Solano are fighting the fires. Lightning storms could spark new blazes across these counties of Northern California.

Sonoma, Napa and Solano, California © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: dailymail.co.uk

Links:

Seoul mandates face masks as South Korea battles spike in coronavirus

The mental health has worsened since the COVID-19 outbreak. IBM Korea had used an artificial intelligence program to analyze the captured data.

All over the world the social distancing guidelines are too indispensable.

Seoul, South Korea © OpenStreeMap contributors

Source: reuters.com

Links:

U.S.-led troops withdraw from Iraq’s Taji base

Iraq’s Taji base is a military camp also known as „Camp Cooke“ used by coalition forces, near the city Taji, Iraq. The camp is located in a rural region north of the city of Baghdad.

„Camp Cooke“, Iraq © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: aljazeera.com

Links:

California lightning fires advance on towns

The fire crews deploying water-dropping helicopters made a defensive stand against flames raging in the foothills of the Napa Valley wine region as forecasts called for a return of dangerous high winds and hot weather.

Firefighters were battling the fire, which broke out near the resort community of Calistoga, north of San Francisco.

Calistoga, north of San Francisco © OpenStreetMap contributors

Source: reuters.com

Links:

Starting the geospatial intelligence blog


What does geospatial intelligence mean?

For me, geospatial intelligence means monitoring human activities by getting insights from location based informations.

In the current decade using open source intelligence is one of the most important intelligence disciplines.

„I do not know what I do not know!?!“

Let us take a look back …

Wikipedia started as an open collaboration project in 2001.

The Open Streetmap project was created by Steve Coast in 2004.

Since 2005 a crowdsourced geographical database named GeoNames was founded.

2020 I just started this blog based on geospatial intelligence. Stay tuned.