Activist group Sea Shepherd is abandoning its annual face-off with Japanese whaling ships in Antarctic waters, saying it has little chance of success against Japan's economic and military might.

The end of the 12-year campaign means Japan will continue its so-called "scientific" whaling program without the group trying to physically prevent the annual slaughter, which takes place despite loud international protest.

Japan reportedly intends to take about 4000 whales over the next 12 years in the name of "research", and ultimately plans to resume commercial whaling.

In a statement, Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said Japan had doubled its hunting grounds in the Southern Ocean and reduced its annual whale-kill quota to 333, giving its fleet "more time and more area to kill".

He said Japan was also using "military" tactics in the form of real-time satellite surveillance to track Sea Shepherd ship movements, "and if they know where our ships are at any given moment, they can easily avoid us … we cannot compete with their military grade technology".............


http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/sea-shepherd-permanently-abandons-antarctic-whaling-faceoff-over-japanese-military-fears-20170828-gy5phn.html

Aug. 25 (UPI) -- An Irish pub is offering $119 worth of free drinks for the return of one of its most beloved pieces of décor -- a Donald Trump poster mounted inside a urinal.

The Adelphi pub in Dublin, which installed the poster of now-President Trump when he was running for the office last year, said in a Facebook post that someone stole the ostensibly urine-soaked poster from inside the men's room urinal.

"Somebody stole Donald from our urinal and we badly want him back," the post said. "As a reward we are offering a €100 [$119] beer tab for the person that returns him to us."

The pub said the loss of the poster has come as quite a blow to bathroom users.

"Our bathroom is just not the same without him and the enjoyment of using the urinal without Donald's face on it has left us feeling sad. So please can you put the word out and help get Donald back to us?" the Facebook post said.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2017/08/25/Irish-pub-pleads-for-return-of-urinal-mounted-Trump-poster/2761503676700/

The upcoming cover of The New Yorker depicts President Trump in a boat with sails that resemble the hood of a Ku Klux Klansmen.

The cover art, titled "Blowhard" by artist David Plunkert, focuses on Trump's statements Tuesday in which he blamed "both sides" for violence caused by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend that left one dead and dozens injured.

Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides" of the protest that included neo-Nazis.

“President Trump’s weak pushback to hate groups — as if he was trying not to alienate them as voters — compelled me to take up my pen,” Plunkert said in a press release.

“A picture does a better job showing my thoughts than words do; it can have a light touch on a subject that’s extremely scary.”