It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Contentious Jumbo Valley to become Indigenous protected area after feds provide $21M
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Once the site of a proposed billion dollar ski resort, the area is now slated to become a conservation zone
CBC News ·
The federal government is giving the Ktunaxa Nation in southeast B.C. $21 million to create an indigenous protected area around the Jumbo Valley in the East Kootenay. (The Canadian Press)
The Ktunaxa Nation in the East Kootenay will create a conservation zone in the towering mountains and glaciers around the Jumbo Valley, which has been in the eye of developers for three decades.
"I believe this is a positive outcome to what was an extremely challenging situation," said Kathryn Teneese, Ktunaxa Nation council chair.
The Ktunaxa calls Jumbo Qat'muk and say it's home to the grizzly bear spirit and therefore sacred.
But for almost 30 years, the Jumbo Glacier Resort project team led by Vancouver architect Oberto Oberti has been trying to build a billion dollar year-round ski resort there.
Robert Phillips of the First Nations Summit addresses the media alongside Kathryn Teneese on Nov. 2, 2017, following the Supreme Court decision related to the Jumbo Glacier Resort. (Chantelle Bellrichard)
But in 2015, the same government cancelled the resort's environmental certificate after finding hardly any work had been done and the project "had not been substantially started."
Federal Environment Minister Johnathan Wilkinson says turning the site into a protected area is part of a broader reconciliation agenda the Liberal government has with Indigenous people.
A map by Jumbo Glacier Resort shows the intended location of the now-dead project. (Jumbo Glacier Resort Master Plan/Oberti Architecture)
"This has been the subject of lots of controversy, including many court cases for many, many years. This is something that assures we are protecting an important local ecosystem," he said.
Teneese says the boundaries of the protected area haven't been finalized, but it's expected to be half the size of Yoho National Park to the north.
"We don't know what it is going to look like. A big part of the initial work is going to be conversations with people who are going to be impacted by this," she said.
Some of the money going to the Ktunaxa is expected to be used to pay off Jumbo Glacier Resort.
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FBI arrests reveal shocking details in case against former Canadian reservist Patrik Mathews
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After leaving Manitoba and crossing into U.S., he appeared to become target of a murder plot he helped plan
An affidavit used to secure arrest warrants for three men in Georgia Friday describe another man, believed to be former Manitoba reservist Patrik Mathews, above, as 'incompetent' and 'stupid,' eventually making him the target of a potential murder. (Gary Solilak/CBC)
FBI officers have arrested more alleged members of a racially motivated and violent extremist group that a former Manitoba reservist has been accused of recruiting for — and court documents tell a chilling tale that includes plans to murder a married couple and overthrow the U.S. government.
In separate sweeps Friday, American law enforcement arrested three men in Georgia and another in Wisconsin.
The arrests came just one day after three alleged members of The Base were arrested in Delaware and Maryland — including 27-year-old Patrik Mathews. The Manitoba man had been missing for nearly five months, ever since he was accused of recruiting for a global neo-Nazi group, while at the same time serving in Canada's army reserves.
Mathews is believed to be connected to the group arrested in Georgia, based on an affidavit used to secure the arrest warrants, which was released by the Floyd County police.
It describes an unnamed member of The Base who "crossed into the United States illegally." That detail, along with others in the affidavit, match the description of Mathews from the FBI complaint against him filed in court.
Although the document suggests the group member believed to be Mathews stayed with a Georgia cell member for months, he is later reportedly characterized as "incompetent" and "stupid" and is seen as a liability to the local group. In fact, he eventually becomes a new potential murder target.
Local police and the FBI believe the headquarters for The Base's paramilitary training camp was a home and 105-acre tract of land in Silver Creek, Ga.
These undated photos provided by Floyd County, Ga., police show, from the left, Luke Austin Lane of Floyd County, Jacob Kaderli of Dacula, and Michael Helterbrand of Dalton, Ga. FBI spokesperson Kevin Rowson said Friday that agents assisted in the arrests of the three Georgia men linked to The Base, a violent white supremacist group, on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and participating in a criminal street gang. (Floyd County Police/The Associated Press)
That's where Luke Austin Lane, 21, was arrested on Wednesday. Michael John Helterbrand, 25, and Jacob Kaderli, 19, were scooped up shortly after. They are charged with conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal gang known as The Base.
Undercover operation detailed in affidavit
The underground FBI operation began in July 2019 when an undercover agent underwent an online vetting interview for admission into The Base using an encrypted online messaging app, according to the affidavit.
The agent was admitted to the members-only chat room and was soon invited to an in-person meeting with two members of The Base later identified as Lane and Kaderli.
The next day, they were joined by two other members for firearms training.
"Based upon previous discussions with members of The Base online, the UCE (undercover employee) believed the intended purpose of those drills were to prepare for the 'boogaloo,' a term used by members of The Base to describe the collapse of the United States and subsequent race war," the affidavit states.
At the end of the training, the members posed for photos, wearing tactical gear and balaclava hoods. The photos were later used for propaganda.
In early October, the undercover agent met again at the Georgia home with Kaderli, Lane and another member of The Base "who crossed into the United States illegally" and is referred to as TB.
It's believed former Manitoba reservist Patrik Mathews, who went missing soon after being a recruiter for The Base, is the person identified as TB in the affidavit. (RCMP)
It's believed TB is Mathews, who was last seen in Manitoba at the end of August. Court documents filed in support of his arrest say he had met up with two members of The Base in Michigan. He was living in an apartment with one of them in Delaware when they were arrested. TB also lived with Lane in Georgia for several months before that.
During that October meeting, TB talked about a journalist believed to be Ryan Thorpe of the Winnipeg Free Press, who exposed Mathews as a Base recruiter in newspaper stories published last August.
"The TB member further characterized the journalist who doxed him as 'essentially Antifa' and others like him as enemies of The Base stating, '[A]ny engagement in anti-fascist activity will carry the death penalty,'" the affidavit reads.
A larger group of about a dozen members, including TB, met again between Oct. 31 and Nov. 3. After putting their cellphones in airplane mode, Lane allegedly told the undercover officer about a plan he and TB had been discussing, targeting members of Antifa who lived nearby.
"Lane said he decided against carrying out the plan with the TB member because he felt the TB member was incompetent and believed they would get caught," says the affidavit.
One month later, Lane told the group about a "camping trip" planned for Dec. 13. They were instructed to bring two sets of clothing, leather gloves, and firearms and ammunition.
The undercover officer arranged to meet with Lane, who told him "his plan was to kill two high-ranking Antifa members," a married couple who lived nearby.
"Lane believed killing the couple would ultimately send the right message and show that the previous actions taken by antifascists like VICTIM 1 and VICTIM 2, such as doxing white supremacists, would not continue to go unpunished," the affidavit says.
Lane told the undercover officer he believed Kaderli and Helterbrand would be "solid."
He allegedly also told the undercover officer that he wanted to kill TB and a member of The Base in Maryland because they knew about the plan to murder the couple in Georgia. He worried that they had already told a third Base member, something that could cause problems for the cell in Georgia.
The next day, the undercover officer picked up Land and Kaderli and drove them to the couple's home to do reconnaissance.
The plan was to use a "lock pick gun" to gain entrance to the front door and kill the couple with revolvers because they don't leave shell casings at the crime scene.
They planned to rent cars and use licence plates from a different state, put Vaseline on their eyebrows and eyelashes to prevent leaving evidence, and rent a cheap motel so they could shower after the murders.
At meetings later that week, they continued to solidify their plan, which included setting the victims' house on fire.
However, Helterbrand said he was getting back surgery on Dec. 27 and would need about six weeks to recover. The group later discussed carrying out their plan between Feb. 22-23.
That never happened, as FBI officers began arresting them this past week.
Autonomous cells
"Investigation of The Base indicates that various cells have a significant degree of autonomy regarding their activities, and criminal conduct is typically not centrally co-ordinated in order to foster plausible deniability among those not directly involved," the affidavit says.
That strategy can be seen in the affidavit supporting the arrest Friday of another member of The Base, Yousef Omar Barasneh in Wisconsin.
He's accused of conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate Jewish citizens by vandalizing private property, a synagogue and a temple in two Wisconsin communities between Sept. 15-23.
"Officers saw swastikas, the symbol for The Base, and anti-Semitic words spray painted on the exterior of the building," court documents say.
Barasneh is accused of being a member of the North Central region of The Base, also known as the Great Lakes cell. Members organized an armed training session in Wood County, Wis., and posted photos on social media, according to the affidavit supporting Barasneh's arrest.
In this case, FBI officers gathered evidence during a search of two people's homes and electronic devices. According to the affidavit, the undercover officer involved in the Georgia sting saw Barasneh, who was known as "Joseph," participate in firearms training at The Base headquarters in Georgia.
Arrests ahead of pro-gun rally in Virginia
The Base was founded in July 2018 to unite white nationalists to "prepare for a violent insurgency against various targets, including the United States government and non-white majority groups," according to the affidavits.
Investigators say leadership has cautioned its members to be "as covert as possible" during this phase.
However, according to court documents, law enforcement authorities were concerned some members, including Mathews, were planning to attend a pro-gun rally at the Virginia state capitol on Monday
Law enforcement officials in the U.S. were concerned former army reservist Patrik Mathews, shown in a 2015 photo, was part of a group planning to attend a pro-gun rally in Virginia. (Courtney Rutherford/CBC)
On Wednesday, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he had received credible evidence of out-of-state "armed militia groups storming our capitol." He declared a state of emergency and imposed a temporary ban on all weapons, including firearms, around the capitol building until the day after the rally.
"Let me be clear. These are considered credible, serious threats by our law enforcement agencies," Northam said at a news conference.
Anti-fascist activists believe the arrests of members of The Base this week could galvanize like-minded people, raising concerns about a repeat of the violence that killed one person and injured 28 in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
"It's possible that they were going there to try to create a sense of disorder," said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project in New York.
"They are an accelerationist group. They want to create chaos that will help lead to the breakdown of order in the government. So in a situation like this, any disorder benefits this group."
"If they can inflame tensions whether it's between pro-firearms groups and law enforcement or between pro-firearms groups and gun control groups, this is something that really benefits them," he said.
FBI Busts Members of Neo-Nazi Group ‘The Base’ Days Before Richmond Gun Rally
Will Sommer,The Daily Beast•January 16, 2020
The FBI arrested three members of a neo-Nazi group called “The Base” on Thursday morning, days ahead of a pro-gun rally in Richmond that is attracting fringe figures and has already prompted a state of emergency declaration.
The three suspects—Brian Mark Lemley, William Garfield Bilbrough, and Canadian fugitive Patrik Mathews—face a variety of gun charges. Lemley and Bilbrough are also accused of illegally harboring Mathews, a former Canadian military reservist who fled his home country after being accused of being a recruiter for The Base. The trio is expected to face a federal judge in Maryland on Thursday afternoon. The suspects had discussed traveling to Richmond, Virginia, for a Jan. 20 rally in front of the state Capitol to protest new gun control legislation, The New York Times reported. The rally has become a flashpoint for the fringe right, prompting Gov. Ralph Northam to declare a four-day state of emergency and ban guns from the Capitol complex.
Lemley and Mathews had allegedly built an assault rifle and amassed hundreds of rounds of ammunition before their arrest, according to the FBI. On a recording, Lemley said he had made the gun into an illegal machine gun and made plans to hide it from federal agents, according to the FBI.
“Oh oops, it looks like I accidentally made a machine gun,” Lemley, a former cavalry scout in the U.S. Army, said, according to the affidavit.
“I’m going to stow it here until next week, just in case the ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] shows up tomorrow,” he told Mathews.
“Um, if they show up here, we got other problems,” Mathews replied.
Missing Canadian Bomb Expert With Neo-Nazi Ties May Be in U.S.
The Base, which is derived from the English translation of the name of radical Islamic terrorist group al Qaeda, is a white supremacist paramilitary group committed to race war. In an affidavit filed with an application for the arrest warrants, the FBI described how Base members discuss their racial terrorism plans online.
“Within The Base’s encrypted chat rooms, members have discussed, among other things, recruitment, creating a white ethno-state, committing acts of violence against minority communities (including African-Americans and Jewish-Americans), the organization’s military-style training camps, and ways to make improvised explosive devices,” the affidavit reads.
Mathews allegedly crossed into Minnesota from Canada around Aug. 19, according to the FBI. After learning that Mathews was hiding in Michigan, Lemley and Bilbrough allegedly drove from Maryland to pick him up, then allegedly drove him back to the mid-Atlantic area on Aug. 30.
On Nov. 4, according to the FBI, Mathews and Lemley rented an apartment in Delaware, according to the FBI. They ordered a part for the gun and ammunition, according to the affidavit, and made regular trips to a Maryland gun range with the functional assault rifle they had assembled. At one point, Bilbrough visited the pair, and the three allegedly discussed the Base’s membership and tried to make the hallucinogen DMT.
On Jan. 11, Lemley picked up hundreds of rounds of additional ammunition and components for body armor, according to the FBI.
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BACKGROUNDER
Organizers appeal ban on arms at upcoming Virginia gun rally
DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press•January 16, 2020 1 / 10 Virginia Legislature Gun Rights Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin, speaks in opposition to SB35, a bill relating to control of firearms by localities as it was debated in the Virginia Senate inside the State Capitol in Richmond, Va., Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A gun-rights group has filed an emergency appeal of a judge's ruling upholding the Virginia governor's ban on firearms at a pro-gun rally that's expected to draw thousands of gun activists to the state Capitol on Monday.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League and Gun Owners of America sought an injunction against the ban, but Judge Joi Taylor ruled Thursday that Gov. Ralph Northam has the authority under state law to take action related to "the safety and welfare" of the state. The group's lawyers then turned to the Supreme Court of Virginia.
“Without relief from this court, petitioners and thousands of other rally participants will be irreparably denied their right to bear arms,” the groups' attorneys argue in their appeal.
It was not immediately clear when the court would hear the appeal.
In her written decision, Taylor cited rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts that found the Second Amendment right to bear arms is not unlimited. Because of that, she wrote, the gun-rights groups would not "suffer an irreparable harm" sufficient to justify the injunction.
The judge's ruling came hours after the FBI in Maryland announced the arrest of three men who they said were linked to a violent white supremacist group. The three men were believed to be planning to attend the rally in Richmond, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an active investigation.
Virginia's solicitor general, Toby Heytens, argued at Thursday's hearing that the governor was well within his authority to declare the state of emergency and ban weapons after law enforcement identified "credible evidence" that armed out-of-state groups planned to come to Virginia with the possible intention of participating in a "violent insurrection."
David Browne, an attorney for the gun-rights groups, argued that prohibiting rallygoers from carrying guns would violate their Second Amendment right to bear arms and their First Amendment right to free speech. Browne said carrying guns is a form of symbolic speech.
Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League — the gun-rights group sponsoring Monday's rally — called the judge's ruling “mind-boggling."
Northam applauded the ruling in a statement.
“I took this action to protect Virginians from credible threats of violence,” he said. “These threats are real — as evidenced by reports of neo-Nazis arrested this morning after discussing plans to head to Richmond with firearms.”
Virginia senators were debating a package of gun-control bills as the court challenges developed.
The Democrat-led Senate advanced legislation limiting handgun purchases to once a month, requiring universal background checks on gun purchases, and allowing localities to ban guns in public buildings, parks and other areas. The measures largely passed along partisan lines and will now go to the House for consideration.
Democrats said they were reasonable measures that would improve public safety while respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. They said the public had made clear by voting for Democrats in recent elections that new gun laws were needed.
"The citizens in this last two elections have spoken,” said Democratic Sen. Dave Marsden.
Republicans decried the legislation as an assault on the Second Amendment. They said the bill was aimed at appeasing special interest groups and donors such as Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg. GOP senators said the new laws would entrap innocent people and do nothing to stop bad actors.
"This may be what you think is safety, but it is not,” said Republican Sen. Bill Stanley.
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Associated Press reporters Alan Suderman in Richmond; Michael Kunzelman in College Park, Maryland; and Mike Balsamo in Washington in contributed to this report.
XINGU INDIGENOUS PARK, Brazil (Reuters) - Leaders of native tribes in Brazil issued a rallying call to protect the Amazon rainforest and its indigenous people from what they called the "genocide, ethnocide and ecocide" planned by the country's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
A manifesto signed on Friday at the end of a four-day meeting in the Xingu reservation said Bolsonaro was threatening the survival of indigenous people with plans to allow commercial mining and ranching on their protected lands.
"The government is attacking us and wants to grab our lands," the document said, calling for a year of demonstrations and the support of foreign organizations and environmental activists.
Bolsonaro has vowed to encourage economic development in the Amazon to lift the tribes from poverty and improve the lives of 30 million Brazilians who live there. Environmentalists fear his plans will speed up destruction of the rainforest, which is a bulwark against global climate change.
"We do not accept mining, agribusiness and the renting of our lands, nor logging, illegal fishing, hydroelectric dams or other projects that will impact us directly and irreversibly," the four-page document said.
The meeting in the village of Piaraçu on the Xingu river was called by Raoni Metuktire, the 90-year-old Kayapó chief who became an environmental campaigner in the 1980s with British rock singer Sting at his side.
The tribes said the Brazilian state under Bolsonaro had failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to protect indigenous lands and the surrounding environment by stopping illegal activity and punishing invaders.
They also held the government responsible for the poisoning of the "air, soil and rivers" by the uncontrolled use of chemicals in agriculture adjacent to their reservations.
"We were convened by Chief Raoni with the goal of coming together and denouncing that a political project by the Brazilian government of genocide, ethnocide and ecocide is underway," the manifesto said.
Bolsonaro's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency, Funai, run by a police officer appointed by Bolsonaro, said earlier this week that the meeting in the Xingu was a “totally private event” that it could not support because it was not “in line” with government policy.
The farm frontier in Brazil, one of the world's top meat and grains exporters, has advanced into the Amazon region in recent years, causing land conflicts with indigenous people.
Invasions of reservations by illegal loggers and miners have increased since Bolsonaro took office last year, leading to violent clashes. At least eight indigenous leaders were killed last year in circumstances that have not yet been clarified
(Reporting by Ricardo Moraes and Leonarod Benassatto; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Paul Simao)
Anti-Trump protests have shrunk. What’s it mean for 2020?
SARA BURNETT, Associated Press•January 17, 2020 Iran protests erupt after Tehran admits Ukrainian passenger jet accidentally shot down
CHICAGO (AP) — Days after President Donald Trump killed an Iranian general and said he was sending more soldiers to the Middle East, about 100 protesters stood on a pedestrian bridge over Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive with an illuminated sign that read “No War in Iran.”
Some 200 people marched in the bitter cold near Boston, while a few dozen people demonstrated on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall and at similarly sized gatherings across the U.S.
Three years after Trump took office and millions of people swarmed to the Women’s March in Washington and companion marches across the country, these typically modest protests are often the most visible sign of today’s Trump resistance.
Activists say the numbers should not be mistaken for a lack of energy or motivation to vote Trump out of office come November.
The anti-Trump movement of 2020, they say, is more organized and more focused on action. Many people have moved from protesting to knocking on doors for candidates, mailing postcards to voters, advocating for specific causes or running for office.
But the movement that sprung up to oppose Trump's presidency also is more splintered than it was when pink-hatted protesters flooded Washington the day after his inauguration for what is generally regarded as the largest protest in the city since the Vietnam era. There have been schisms over which presidential candidates to back in 2020, as well as disagreements about race and religion and about whether the march reflected the diversity of the movement. Those divisions linger even as many on the left say they need a united front heading into November's election.
The disputes led to dueling events in New York City last year, the resignation of some national Women's March leaders and the disbanding of a group in Washington state. Organizers expect about 100,000 people across the country to participate in this year’s Women’s March, which is scheduled for Saturday in over 180 cities. They say up to 10,000 people are expected at the march in Washington, far fewer than the turnout last year, when about 100,000 people held a rally east of the White House. Instead of a single big event, the group has been holding actions in a run-up to the march this week around three key issues: climate change, immigration and reproductive rights.
The week reflects that the movement is “moving into the next stage,” said director Caitlin Breedlove.
Leaders of MoveOn.org, which organized some of the anti-Iran war protests, agreed. Mobilization manager Kate Alexander said the group and its members pulled together over 370 protests in 46 states in less than 48 hours to show resistance to Trump’s actions. The president ordered airstrikes that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Force who has been blamed for deadly attacks on U.S. troops and allies going back decades. Iran pledged retribution, sparking fears of an all-out war.
Alexander noted that the Iran protest is just one of many issues MoveOn members have organized in response to in the past few years.
“It’s not that there are fewer people mobilizing — it’s that they’re mobilized in different campaigns. There’s more to do,” Alexander said. “I don’t believe people are tuning out. I think people are lying in wait.”
Several organizations also said much of their organizing is done through social media or text message and email programs, which are less visible but have a significant impact. In 2018, the Women’s March had over 24 billion social media impressions, Breedlove said.
Atef Said, a sociology professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said all social movements evolve over time. He noted the Trump resistance movement is global and will continue regardless of whether Trump is reelected.
“Movements always rise and decline in terms of numbers on the ground," he said.
Andy Koch, a 30-year-old nurse who lives in Chicago, has seen that ebb and flow firsthand. Koch has been active in protesting Trump’s policies even before he took office. When Koch was a student at University of Illinois at Chicago, Trump’s campaign canceled a 2016 speech at the campus following tense student protests.
Koch said the anti-Trump activism swelled when he first took office and again in early 2017 when he announced his first travel ban affecting people from several predominantly Muslim countries.
Roughly 1,000 people mobilized in Chicago immediately after Trump authorized the attack on the Iranian leader, and then the crowds subsided a few days later after the threat of war seemed to subside following Trump’s address to the nation Jan 8. That day, a few dozen — including Koch — showed up in 20-degree Fahrenheit (minus 7 Celsius) temperatures outside Trump International Hotel Chicago during rush hour.
Koch understands that masses of people won't show up for every protest. “ What allows those numbers to come out ... is continued organizing going on in between these events,” he said.
He said there have been numerous smaller protests he’s been involved with, including protesting U.S. foreign policy in Venezuela and Syria, and they’ve taken other forms. For instance, he’s helped plan a teach-in on Iranian foreign policy this week at UIC.
Maya Wells, a 21-year-old political science senior at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was a speaker at a rally last week in Charlotte. Wells, who is Persian American and has family in Iran, said she doesn’t look at the numbers of people who turn out but rather at the fact that they took time out of their day to be there.
“I see more people coming. Because some of my friends who are conservatives and voted for Trump, they’re against this,” she said, adding that the most recent protest wasn’t the last.
“There will be more days to come,” Wells said. “I have no doubt in my mind.”
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This story has been corrected to show Women's March organizers expect about 10,000 people, not 100,000 people, to attend Saturday's protest in Washington, D.C.
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Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago and Sarah Blake Morgan in Charlotte, N.C., contributed to this report.
Lebanese block roads as protests enter fourth month AFP•January 17, 2020
Protests in Lebanon have resurged this week amid a growing financial crisis (AFP Photo/PATRICK BAZ)
Beirut (AFP) - Protesters blocked several main roads across Lebanon on Friday as unprecedented demonstrations against a political elite accused of corruption and incompetence entered their fourth month.
The protest movement rocking Lebanon since October 17 has resurged this week, over delays in forming a new cabinet to address the country's growing economic crisis.
No progress seemed to have been made on a final lineup, which protesters demand be made up solely of independent experts and exclude traditional political parties.
In central Beirut, dozens of protesters Friday stood between parked cars blocking a key thoroughfare linking the city's east and west.
"We blocked the road with cars because it's something they can't move," Marwan Karam said.
The protester condemned what he regarded as efforts to form yet another government in which power is divided among the traditional parties.
"We don't want a government of masked political figures," the 30-year-old told AFP. "Any such government will fall. We won't give it any chance in the street."
Forming a new cabinet is often a drawn-out process in Lebanon, where a complex system seeks to maintain balance between the various political parties and a multitude of religious confessions.
Nearby, Carlos Yammine, 32, said he did not want yet another "cake-sharing government".
"What we have asked for from the start of the movement is a reduced, transitional, emergency government of independents," he said, leaning against his car.
Demonstrators also blocked roads in second city Tripoli Friday morning, although they were cleared later in the day, local media reported. Protests also took place in the southern port city of Tyre later in the day.
- 'Unacceptable' violence -
On Friday evening, hundreds of protesters gathered near the parliament and outside the central bank, the target of renewed anger amid the worst economic crisis that Lebanon has experienced since its 1975-1990 civil war.
Protests this week saw angry demonstrators attack banks following the imposition of sharp curbs on cash withdrawals to stem a liquidity crisis.
On Thursday night, protesters vandalised three more banks in the capital's Hamra district, smashing windows and defacing ATMs, an AFP photographer said.
Earlier, Lebanon's security services released most of the 100-plus protesters detained over the previous 48 hours, lawyers said.
Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned the arrests and the response of security forces to protests outside a police station on Wednesday night demanding detainees be released.
"The unacceptable level of violence against overwhelmingly peaceful protesters on January 15 calls for a swift independent and transparent investigation," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at the rights watchdog.
Over the past few months, the Lebanese pound -- long pegged to the US dollar at 1,507 -- has fallen in value on the unofficial market to around 2,500.
The World Bank has warned that the poverty rate in Lebanon could rise from a third to a half if the political crisis is not remedied fast.
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Protests close Louvre museum in Paris amid pension strikes
ELAINE GANLEY and JEFFREY SCHAEFFER Associated Press January 17, 2020 Striking employees demonstrate outside the Louvre museum Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 in Paris. Paris' Louvre museum was closed Friday as dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to denounce the French government's plans to overhaul the pension system. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)More
PARIS (AP) — Dozens of protesters blocked the entrance to the Louvre museum and forced the famous Paris landmark to close Friday while they denounced the French government's plans to overhaul the pension system.
Protesters later chased down President Emmanuel Macron at an evening theater performance in northern Paris. Video showed protesters chanting and some entering a door as surprised police tried to hold them back. A black car reported carrying Macron then sped away under a hail of boos.
An edgy tension marked the day as small but determined groups of protesters moved into action to make their complaints against pension changes heard. It was the 44th day of strikes aimed at overturning the plan
The protesters at the Louvre, who included some museum employees, staged the demonstration against President Emmanuel Macron's proposals after several hard-left trade unions appealed for public actions to oppose that they said would “lower everyone's pensions.”
The museum's Leonardo da Vinci exhibit marking the 500th anniversary of the Italian master’s death was included in the closure. Some protesters chanted, "Mona Lisa in on strike, Leonardo is on strike.”
It is the first time since railway strikes and protests against the pension overhaul began on Dec. 5 that the Louvre and its Leonardo exhibit were fully shut down. About 30,000 people visit the museum every day.
Some videos on social media showed angry visitors booing at museum protesters to express their disappointment.
Some of those shut out of the Louvre were upset, while a few interviewed expressed solidarity with the strikers.
“I think it’s fine if they want to protest but they shouldn’t block the plans of the people who have flown over here to see an exhibition of Leonardo," said Ben Garrett of Dallas, Texas.
Gerhard Jehle of Germany, who had bought his ticket in advance, shared that view, and said he was “badly informed about the extent of the strike.”
“I don’t understand how this happens,” Jehle said. "Public transport doesn't function. The unions have to be controlled with an iron hand.”
Argentinian Marcelo Campano, who also had a ticket, said that he understands workers' bid to confront a government they perceive as “neoliberal ... So we'll show our solidarity and come back another day.”
The action at the Louvre was one of several signs of mounting tensions among strikers.
Several dozen people on Friday invaded the headquarters of the CFDT union, which is favorable to a point-system Macron wants to put in place to determine retirement benefits.
The invaders were seen on video singing and mocking the union's leader. Macron condemned the action as violent, unacceptable and “shameful for our democracy.”
In a more playful bid for attention, dozens of lawyers opposing the president's proposed pension reforms put on a dance show in Versailles wearing their black robes.
Unions have called for a seventh round of street marches next Friday, when the contested pension plan is to be presented to the Cabinet.
The weeks of strikes and protests have hobbled public transportation and disrupted schools, hospitals, courthouses and even opera houses and the Eiffel tower.
Major French retailers Fnac Darty and Casino said that business in France has been badly affected by the strikes, especially during the holiday season.
Fnac Darty said the strikes cost it around 70 million euros ($78 million) in lost revenue.
Casino cut its forecast for earnings growth in France, where it does more than half its business, to 5% in 2019, from a previous 10%. The company estimates that the strikes in December cost it about 80 million euros in lost revenue.
Shares in both companies were down by more than 5%.
The prime minister's office said earlier this week that the SNCF train authority and the RATP, which runs public transport, had lost over a billion euros since the start of the strike. Trains have suffered most, so far losing some 850 million euros.
While the number of striking workers has diminished since the movement, the country's trains and the Paris subway were still disrupted Friday.
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Associated Press journalists Sylvie Corbet and Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed to this report.
Hong Kong protests 'similar' to Venezuela unrest: foreign ministerAUTHORITARIAN STATES LEFT AND RIGHT AGREE THE PEOPLE ARE REVOLTING
AFP•January 17, 2020 Millions have come out on the streets in Hong Kong since
June in demonstrations sparked by opposition to a
now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland
China (AFP Photo/ISAAC LAWRENCE)More
Beijing (AFP) - Protests in Hong Kong bear an "overwhelming" similarity to political unrest that has wracked Venezuela in recent years, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Friday.
Arreaza, who met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing Thursday, told reporters the pair had discussed similarities between "this attempt to establish a colour revolution in Hong Kong", and "what happened in Venezuela in 2014 and 2017."
"The similarities are overwhelming," Arreaza said.
Millions have come out onto Hong Kong's streets since June in demonstrations sparked by opposition to a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. These have since morphed into wider calls for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
The sometimes violent protests are the starkest challenge to Beijing since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Oil-rich Venezuela suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced millions to flee the South American state since 2016.
The country, locked in an ongoing power struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, has faced a series of mass protests since 2014.
China and several other countries including Russia support Maduro, and Beijing is one of Caracas's main creditors.
Arreaza, a member of Maduro's government, said that in Venezuela and Hong Kong "the violent tactics that the protesters claim as non-violent are the same, the pressure on the security forces is the same".
Beijing and Hong Kong's administration have refused to cede to the protesters' demands.
These include fully free elections in the city, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct, and amnesty for the nearly 6,500 people arrested during the movement -- almost a third of them under the age of 20.
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Women's March organizers hope to re-energize protests, draw thousands despite 'marcher fatigue'
Joshua Bote, Grace Hauck, Jorge L. Ortiz and Doug Stanglin
Women's March organizers hope to re-energize protests, draw thousands despite 'marcher fatigue'
WASHINGTON — Beset by internal wrangling, divergent strategies and perhaps a bit of protest fatigue, Women's March protesters were expected to turn out by the thousands Saturday, hoping that grit and determination might make up for the absence of the millions who hit the streets in 2017.
Like the first protest only days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the national Women's March will take place in Washington, D.C., with sister marches planned in Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Oakland, among other cities.
A slate of marches and events were also scheduled across five continents in cities like Oslo, Norway; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Lagos, Nigeria.
D.C. organizers didn't expect more than 10,000 attendees for this year's "Women Rising" march — about a tenth of the 100,000 or so who showed up last year, despite snow and wind, and a fraction of the 500,000 who jammed the street in 2017.
“We want decency brought to the White House, and we are a nation to be respected and not be about hatred,” said Therese Moran-Conlon, of Eldersburg, Maryland, who turned out Saturday for another cold, snowy day in Washington to protest with her husband, Mike. “It’s historic.”
It was the first appearance at the D.C. March for the 56-year-old psychotherapist who attended for a “small but very powerful” march in Annapolis, Maryland, last year. She called the protest march "a fight against good and evil.”
“I know they keep saying there aren't gonna be many people but with recent events, it’ll compel people to go,” she said.
Despite the lower turnout expectations, emotions were still running high on both sides of the issue. En route to the site by subway, an unidentified man flicked Mike on the head, prompting an exchange of angry words and simultaneous flashing of middle fingers.
Organizers are hoping that, given the election year — and Trump's recent spate of political controversy, including the strike against Iranian general Qasem Soleimani — turnout will match past year's.
"One, we are in an election year," said Carmen Perez, an original co-chair of the Women's March. "Two, we are in potential war conversations, with the fact the U.S. has struck another country. I personally feel we’re going to see an increase in numbers because people are wanting to come together again."
The D.C. march is focusing on a smaller slate of issues, shifting away from its original 10-point program into three central themes: reproductive rights, immigration and climate change. Similarly, Chicago's Women's March will feature a "gallery of issues," highlighting voting, the census, climate justice, gun violence prevention and women's health.
"It's just trying to create a very festive atmosphere, but one that encourages our marchers to educate themselves on the issues and activate around them," said Chicago march organizer Harlene Ellin. "We want people not just to march, but to go out and do something."
Organizers nationwide also appear to be eschewing celebrity appearances and stages in favor of marching, grassroots organizing and community-focused activism.
Turnout in New York City will likely be similar. Last year, attendees split by two marches due to infighting with Women's March Inc. — the organizers of the first march — totaled just over 11,000, according to Newsday.
Meanwhile, Chicago is "preparing for large crowds," possibly in the tens of thousands. The Chicago march saw crowds estimated at 250,000 in 2017 and 300,000 in 2018 but took a hiatus in 2019, following a "March to the Polls" around the midterm elections.
"I've read lots of pieces and stories on this 'marcher fatigue,'" Ellin said. "That remains to be seen. I get the feeling that there's energy for this."
A banner is seen during a rally in Hong Kong in December 2019
(AFP Photo/DALE DE LA REY)More
An off-duty Hong Kong police officer was arrested along with seven other people on Friday as they tried to put pro-democracy posters on a footbridge, police said.
It's the first known case of a police officer being apprehended for supporting the massive demonstrations that have led to more than 6,500 arrests in the past seven months.
The officer, 31, and the seven other people aged 14 to 61, were arrested at 3:00 am on Friday in Tuen Mun, a district in northwest Hong Kong.
The individuals were accused of "possessing objects with intent to damage or destroy property", and suspected of attempting to damage a footbridge, according to a police statement.
Police said they found the group in possession of posters, plastic scrapers, gloves and electric drills, and that all eight were still in detention for further investigation as of Friday night.
Local media reported that the group was trying to build a "Lennon Wall" — collages of pro-democracy visual art which have sprung up on walls and roads across the city in the past few months.
"The police force attached great emphasis on its members' professional ethics," the police said in the statement, adding that any violation of the law must be handled "seriously and justly."
Among the thousands of protesters who have been arrested, 41 have been civil servants, including 24 from disciplines such as fire services.
No police officers have been arrested despite complaints of blinding some protesters, driving a motorcycle into a march and showing a reporter's ID card to a camera on live broadcast.
The city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, a pro-Beijing appointee, said on Thursday that she would not accept any accusation of police brutality and that the force had been smeared.
The protests, which were triggered by a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China in early June, have morphed into a larger revolt against China's control over the semi-autonomous city.
Violent clashes between riot police and protesters often erupted during rallies and marches calling for democratic freedoms and independent inquiry into the havoc.
The TSA apologized after an agent pulled a Native American passenger's braid and said "giddyup!" during a pat down
Native American woman Tara Houska says a TSA agent grabbed her braids, whipped them like reins and said "giddyup" while she was going through security at the Minneapolis airport on Monday.
A TSA official apologized to Houska for the incident, and released a statement saying "improper behavior is taken seriously" by the agency.
The Transportation Security Administration was forced to issue an apology on Tuesday after a Native American woman described on Twitter a humiliating experience going through security at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.
Tara Houska, an Ojibwe native and prominent attorney and activist, said her braids set off the scanners, and an agent pulled her aside to do a pat down.
While searching her braids, Houska said the woman grabbed them, pulled them behind her head, and whipped them like reins before laughing and saying "giddyup! —tara houska (@zhaabowekwe) January 13, 2020
Houska said she felt "angry" and "humiliated." She said she told the agent that she was not OK with how she "casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me."
In response, the agent said she was sorry and never meant to offend her.
"Well it was just in fun, I'm sorry. Your hair is lovely," the agent said, according to Houska.
Houska said she was not satisfied with this response.
After her story got picked up by local and national outlets, the TSA issued a response.
TSA's federal security director for Minnesota Cliff Van Leuven told the Star Tribune that the incident was investigated and that he spoke to Houska and apologized for the officer's actions and comment.
"TSA holds its employees to the highest standards of professional conduct and any type of improper behavior is taken seriously," the agency said in a statement.
Houska told the Bemidji Pioneer that the agent had not been fired, but that it was never her intention to cause that.
"The way that I personally felt about the situation was that I didn't want the employee to be fired because I didn't want that person to (be) bitter and then for no one to learn anything," Houska told the newspaper. "I feel when it comes to empathy, people really lack that for each other, and that's not a good thing."
