#WATERISLIFE

How the water crisis in English-speaking Cameroon is hitting students and the poor
Issued on: 13/09/2021 - 

A close view of the municipal water source at Mt Cameroon forest reserve, constructed by the Germans to supply drinkable water to the city of Buea, Cameroon.

 © Wikimedia/CC/Atabong Armstrong

Text by: RFI

At a stream in the Bomaka neighbourhood of Buea, Cameroon, a woman is using sand to wash her 20-litre jerrycan before filling it with water.

Emerencia Fosuh, a hairdresser, has been using the stream for the past four years as her only source of water. Locals call the tiny river "Mr Peter Water".

“I’m getting this water for bathing, and if I have to use the toilet, I will beg water from my neighbours,” she tells Africa Calling correspondent Batata Boris Karloff.

The jerrycan is heavy, and it’s difficult to bring it up to her house, she adds.

“I used to bathe even four times a day but now I can’t lie, I will bathe just once. I’ve been here for four years and I am so tired of this. I can’t keep going to people’s houses to ask for water because of this crisis.”

Many residents in this part of Buea, the capital of the anglophone South West region, have had no running water in their homes for years.

The four-year rupture in service, according to Malomba Esembe, the Member of Cameroon’s Parliament for Buea Urban Constituency, was due to an industrial accident caused by ENEO, Energy of Cameroon.

“I was made to understand that around Molyko checkpoint, works were being done by ENEO to fix concrete pipes, led to the destruction of one of the main pipes that supplies water to that area,” he says, after looking into the matter and discussing with Camwater, the government supplier of water.

Students suffer, too

He’s referring to Molyko, the large student neighbourhood that has a higher population than other parts of the regional capital.

For students on a tight budget, their only way of getting water is to order it from local businessmen, called ‘truck pushers’, who bring it from boreholes and sell it in the neighbourhoods.

University student Josiene Konyuy regularly orders water. She says she doesn’t trust the source of the water she buys, but she doesn’t have a lot of choice.

“The truck pushers carry water from borehole and since you do not follow them to carry the water, I don’t trust the source. Given the fact that to buy a container of water is strenuous due to distance one has to cover, we just order for water from truck pushers and we pay a thousand francs,” says Konyuy.

The water lasts for four days, so she usually has to buy water at least twice a week, which is very costly.

“While we suffer to get water, some people are actually taking advantage of the situation to make money,” she adds.

It’s a booming business, according to Frankline, a truck pusher, who just sold all his water for the day.

“As part time work, I can make about 2,000-2,500CFA (€3 - €3.80) a day if my customers call me regularly. For my colleagues who are steady in the business they can make 9,000-10,000CFA (€13.70 - €15.20) per day,” he says.

The truck pushers buy the water from the borehole owner and vary the price of water based on how far they have to bring it.

“In terms of distance, a gallon of water can cost 100-200CFA (€0.15 - €0.30), and in Molyko, the cheapest price is 150CFA”.

The demand is high, and he has more orders, so he needs to get more from the borehole. Although Frankline knows he is benefitting from the water crisis, he feels for the students who are forced to buy water like this.

“We are sympathetic with students because it is not normal for students to be buying water since water is a free commodity given by nature,” he says in Pidgin, noting that they already have a lot of expense for books and housing.

“We feel for them even as we receive their money, actually, but some of us have gone to school and there’s no work, so that’s why we are pushing trucks. We plead with the government to look into the situation,” he adds.

Water needed for work, and combatting Covid-19

Hairstylist Fosuh says she makes less money because of the lack of water.

“Like now, for instance. A lady came and said she wants me to put product in her hair. I told her that I can’t because of the distance to get water. I just told her to look for another saloon,” she says.

She’s lost a number of customers that way.

“Even if I come here to fetch water before getting home, I am already tired and I can’t work. Some will want to wash their hair and style but I can’t due to lack of water,” she adds.

Lack of water has also affected the effectiveness of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the prescribed guidelines against the virus is to wash hands regularly with soap and clean running water. For some residents in Buea, keeping to this is not feasible.

“If you look around the town even the buckets placed at strategic points for persons to wash their hands are no longer present. In some institution the is just a bottle of sanitizer whereas we are advised to wash our hands regularly,” says university student Konyuy.

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“It is really scarce to see a bucket to wash hands and this scarcity coupled with the COVID-19 guidelines is causing a lot of issues. Molyko carries the heart of Buea in terms of population, hence priority needs to be given here, but it’s not the case,” she adds.

MP Esembe says that he has been ensured by Camwater that the repairs will be taken care of, although ENEO will be footing the bill.

“They have prepared an estimate of the repairs which has to be sponsored by ENEO that did the destruction,” he says.

Esembe says that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had taken a loan out with Xim Bank of China to expand water and distribution in the area.

“Buea, Tiko and Mutengene which will amongst other things see the construction of a treatment site in Mutengene so the government is doing what needs to be done and Camwater is in charge of implementing government policy—they’re not sleeping,” he adds, speaking of the different areas in the region.

“If you go behind my house my drum is there waiting for rain, I am the one praying for this rainy season more than anybody,” says Fosuh.

“I actually need this rain because I don’t have the strength to be coming here to the stream,” she adds.

Indian woman brings her community's environmental concerns to France through video

Issued on: 14/09/2021 -

Adita Prithika Subramanian is president of the RFI listeners' club Agnichiragu Phoenix, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India in the RFI studios, Paris, 13 September 2021. She won the RFI Club prize in the 2020 edition of the ePOP short video prize dedicated to the environment. 

© RFI / Ollia Horton

Text by: Ollia Horton

Video by: RFI

The annual ePOP short video competition is an international initiative sponsored by RFI and its partners. It encourages populations exposed to environmental and climate change to share their experiences and challenges. RFI met with Adita Prithika Subramanian, from Tamil Nadu, India, one of the winners of the 2020 edition.

Adita Prithika Subramanian, from Tirupur, India won the 2020 RFI Club Prize in the annual ePOP video contest for her film Farming between Factories, a look at the sources of pollution in Tamil Nadu state in southern India, the heart of the country's textile industry.

In the video, we hear about local farmers who have been selling their land as the number of hosiery plants grows.

Without proper waste management, the effluent from the industry is destroying the nearby waterways which nourish the community.

"Since resources are scarce, we are skeptical and apprehensive of a bleak future," says 50 year-old Geeta Palaniswarmy says in the video.

A farmer in the village of Kovil Vali, whose family have been cultivating the land there for over a hundred years, she remembers a time of abundant rainfall and bountiful harvest, but she says climate change is bringing hotter temperatures.

Adita Prithika's prize included a trip to Paris to attend an ePOP workshop and five ePOP kits for her club to continue her projects (tripod, lavalier microphone, USB key, report bag, and t-shirt).

Because of the Covid pandemic, her trip to France was postponed until September 2021, where she was able to join the 2021 winners and participate in the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille.

Adita joined RFI's Ollia Horton in the studio to talk about the highlights of her trip, why she is enthusiastic about being the president of the RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Listeners' Club and what she would like to film next

UN calls for 'repurposing' farm subsidies harming environment

Emissions-heavy products such as beef, milk and rice receive the most support despite their potentially negative climate impact

 CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN AFP

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

Paris (AFP)

Farming subsidies worth around $500 billion doled out by governments every year must be repurposed, three UN agencies warned on Tuesday, citing the environmental and health damage they cause.

Released ahead of a UN food systems summit next week, the agencies' report is a "wake-up" for governments to rethink their agricultural support schemes, Food and Agriculture Organization director general Qu Dongyu said in a statement.

Global support to producers totals $540 billion (457 billion euros) per year, according to the joint report by the FAO, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Programme.

The agencies said 87 percent of that aid -- $470 billion -- is "price distorting and environmentally and socially harmful".

"Agricultural support is not providing desirable results for sustainability and human health, but repurposing it can be a game changer," the report said.

The aid is expected to triple to nearly $1.8 trillion by 2030.

A hefty portion of the subsidies, $294 billion per year, comes in the form of price incentives resulting from import tariffs and export subsidies, the report found.

Farmers also receive $245 billion in fiscal subsidies, which can lead to "negative environmental outcomes" when they are linked to the production of a specific commodity, a practice known as "coupled subsidies".

This aid can encourage the overuse of agrochemicals and natural resources, and the cultivation of a single crop, according to the report.

Emissions-heavy products such as beef, milk and rice receive the most support worldwide despite their potentially negative impact on climate change, the report said.

The subsidies also disincentivise farmers from producing healthier foods such as fruits and vegetables.

"Phasing out the most distorting and environmentally and socially harmful producer support (i.e. price incentives and fiscal subsidies tied to the production of a specific commodity) is essential," the agencies said.

"But this will not bear fruit if resources are not redirected towards investments for the provision of public goods and services for agriculture (i.e. research and development and infrastructure) and to decoupled fiscal subsidies."

The agencies suggest governments take a six-step strategy to reform subsidies, including measuring the support they provide, understanding their impact and identifying repurposing options.

"Transparency and inclusive consultations are critical to address institutional bottlenecks and vested interests that could hinder reform and the effective implementation of the strategy," they said.

"By shifting to more nature-positive, equitable and efficient agricultural support, we can improve livelihoods, and at the same time cut emissions, protect and restore ecosystems, and reduce the use of agrochemicals," said UNEP executive director Inger Andersen.

© 2021 AFP

Pakistan accused of supporting the Taliban for 20 years

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Monday on Pakistan to deny legitimacy to the Taliban unless they meet international demands, acknowledging concerns that Islamabad has supported militants from Afghanistan. Pakistani intelligence had close ties with the Taliban dating from the Islamist guerrillas' rise in the 1990s and Pakistan was one of only three countries to recognize its 1996-2001 government, which was notorious for its repression of women's rights as part of an ultra-austere interpretation of Islam. FRANCE 24's International Affairs Editor Philip Turle tells us 

THE WAGNER GROUP

Reports of Russia mercenary deal in Mali alarm France


Issued on: 14/09/2021 -

Malians hold a photograph with an image of Colonel Assimi Goita, leader of Mali's military junta, and Russia's flag during a pro-Malian Armed Forces (FAMA) demonstration in Bamako, Mali, May 28, 2021.

 © Amadou Keita, REUTERS

Text by: FRANCE 24

Video by: Cyril PAYEN

A deal is close that would allow Russian mercenaries into Mali, seven diplomatic and security sources told Reuters. Such an agreement would extend Russian influence over security affairs in West Africa and trigger fierce opposition from former colonial power France, which has spent eight years fighting terrorism in this troubled region.

Paris has begun a diplomatic drive to prevent the military junta in Mali enacting the deal – which would permit Russian private military contractors, the Wagner Group, to operate there – the sources told Reuters.

A European source who tracks West Africa and a security source in the region told Reuters that at least 1,000 mercenaries could be involved. Two other sources believed the number was lower, but did not provide figures.

Four sources said the Wagner Group would be paid about 6 billion CFA francs (€9m/$10.8m) a month for its services. One security source working in the region said the mercenaries would train Malian military and provide protection for senior officials.

If Reuters’ sources are correct, it would be a “bombshell revelation”, said FRANCE 24 senior reporter Cyril Payen.

“The French are receding, they’re leaving, especially northern Mal; this is Operation Barkhane [which has] more than 5,000 troops in Mali – so the game is between superpowers where let’s say Moscow is sending these guys on the ground when France is leaving,” Payen continued.

“This is exactly the same experience in the Central African Republic at the border with Chad and the mercenaries of Wagner," said Payen. "They are renowned because they are working in Ukraine, in Sudan and many places where they train in secrecy, they live in secrecy... It’s extremely difficult to talk to these people to know exactly who they are and what is their purpose – and they also die in secrecy.”

What is the Russian Wagner Group?
01:16

Reuters could not confirm independently how many mercenaries could be involved, how much they would be compensated, or establish the exact objective of any deal involving Russian mercenaries would be for Mali's military junta.

Reuters was unable to reach the Wagner Group for comment. Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who media outlets including Reuters have linked to the Wagner Group, denies any connection to the firm.

His press service also says on its social networking site Vkontakte that Prigozhin has nothing to do with any private military company, has no business interests in Africa and is not involved in any activities there.

His press service did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment for this story.

Potential threat to counter-terrorism

France's diplomatic offensive, the diplomatic sources said, includes enlisting the help of partners including the United States to persuade Mali's junta not to press ahead with the deal, and sending senior diplomats to Moscow and Mali for talks.

France is worried the arrival of Russian mercenaries would undermine its decade-old counter-terrorism operation against al Qaeda and Islamic State group-linked insurgents in West Africa’s Sahel region at a time when it is seeking to draw down its 5,000-strong Barkhane mission to reshape it with other European partners, the diplomatic sources said.

The French foreign ministry also did not respond, but a French diplomatic source criticised interventions by the Wagner Group in other countries.

"An intervention by this actor would therefore be incompatible with the efforts carried out by Mali’s Sahelian and international partners engaged in the Coalition for the Sahel for security and development of the region," the source said.

A spokesperson for the leader of Mali's junta, which took power in a military coup in August 2020, said he had no information about such a deal.

"These are rumours. Officials don't comment on rumours," said the spokesperson, Baba Cisse, who declined further comment.

Mali's defence ministry spokesperson told Reuters: "Public opinion in Mali is in favour of more cooperation with Russia given the ongoing security situation. But no decision [on the nature of that cooperation] has been made."

Russia's defence and foreign ministries did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, nor did the Kremlin or the French presidency.

The mercenaries' presence would jeopardise Mali's funding from the international partners and allied training missions that have helped rebuild Mali's army, four security and diplomatic sources said.

Franco-Russian rivalry in Africa

Having Russian mercenaries in Mali would strengthen Moscow’s push for global prestige and influence, and be part of a wider campaign to shake up long-standing power dynamics in Africa, the diplomatic sources said.

More than a dozen people with ties to the Wagner Group have previously told Reuters it has carried out clandestine combat missions on the Kremlin’s behalf in Ukraine, Libya and Syria. Russian authorities deny Wagner contractors carry out their orders.

Mali's military junta has said it will oversee a transition to democracy leading to elections in February 2022.

As relations with France have worsened, Mali's military junta has increased contacts with Russia, including Defence Minister Sadio Camara visiting Moscow and overseeing tank exercises on September 4.

A senior Malian defence ministry source said the visit was in "the framework of cooperation and military assistance" and gave no further details. Russia's defence ministry said deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin had met Camara during an international military forum and "discussed defence cooperation projects in detail as well as regional security matters related to West Africa". No further details were released.

The French foreign ministry's top Africa diplomat, Christophe Bigot, was dispatched to Moscow for talks on September 8 with Mikhail Bogdanov, Putin’s point person on the Middle East and Africa. Russia's foreign ministry confirmed the visit.

France's foreign ministry declined to comment to Reuters on the visit. Reuters could not immediately reach Bigot for comment. The Russian foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment from Bogdanov.

“They try to fill the gap to counter geopolitically French influence in West Africa,” Payen said. “In the [neighbouring] Central African Republic, there is really a proxy war in the field because Wagner is taking care of the presidential security against the French, so it’s contaminating the relations between the two countries.”

“It’s turned very nasty on the ground between Russian and French diplomats,” Payen continued. “The idea is just to grab power for not too much because Wagner is used to, for example, taking care of mining companies to get money from the governments and France is not doing the same.”

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

'Putin secret army': Wagner group might be allowed into Mali soon

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 
Video by: Haxie MEYERS-BELKIN

Mali's military junta is in talks with Russian private security group Wagner to hire up to a thousand mercenaries in the West African country, two French sources said on Tuesday. Such a deal could push already fraying relations between Paris and Mali to breaking point, and underscore a growing Russian influence in a region where former colonial power France has been the unrivalled foreign presence.

  

TWENTY YEARS OF MODERNISM

Hundreds march in Kandahar to protest against Taliban evictions

Issued on: 14/09/2021

Hundreds of protesters marched in Kandahar against plans by the Taliban to evict them from their homes

 Javed TANVEER AFP

Kandahar (Afghanistan) (AFP)

Hundreds of protesters from a neighbourhood populated by former Afghan army servicemen marched in Kandahar Tuesday against plans by the Taliban to evict them from their homes.

Residents of Zara Ferqa, a suburb made up of government housing and ramshackle huts, said they had been ordered to leave by the Taliban, but had nowhere else to go.

One resident said they were told to vacate their homes and give them to Taliban fighters.

Locals say more than 10,000 people live in the neighbourhood -- many of them widows or wives of servicemen killed or wounded in action against the Taliban in the past 20 years.

The Taliban have banned protests unless permission is given by the justice ministry Javed TANVEER AFP

The crowd -- mainly made up of men and youths, along with some women, many burqa-clad -- took to the streets despite the Taliban having banned unauthorised protests after taking power on August 15.

Some reporters covering Tuesday's march said they were harassed and beaten by Taliban guards along the route.

Kandahar is Afghanistan's second-biggest city, as well as the birthplace of the Taliban movement and its spiritual heartland.

In response to the protest, Kandahar's governor has temporarily stayed any eviction until the matter can be discussed with community elders.

In response to the protest, Kandahar's governor has temporarily stayed any eviction until the matter can be discussed with community elders 

Javed TANVEER AFP

A statement noted that not all the housing was official government quarters, and some residences had been built by individuals.

© 2021 AFP

Unknown Lennon recording to be auctioned in Denmark

Issued on: 14/09/2021 -

John Lennon and Yoko Ono pose for photographers in Cannes in 1971 - AFP

Copenhagen (AFP)

A 1970 audio recording of John Lennon singing a hitherto unpublished song during a visit to Denmark will go under the hammer in Copenhagen on September 28, the auction house said Tuesday.

The asking price for the 33-minute recording has been estimated at between 27,000 and 40,000 euros ($32,000-$47,000).

It has been put up for sale by four men who were teenagers when they met The Beatles' singer, who was spending part of the 1969-1970 winter in a small town on Denmark's west coast.

"The tape is totally unique because it's a conversation. It took place after a press conference with the four schoolboys and some journalists, and John Lennon plays a few songs for them," Alexa Bruun Rasmussen of the Bruun Rasmussen auction house told AFP.

"One of them, 'Radio Peace', has never been published," she said.

"It's a little piece of Danish history and when we listen to it, we can sense that John Lennon felt cosy in Denmark. He could be left alone and just be," she said.

At the end of December 1969, Lennon visited Denmark with Yoko Ono to spend time with Ono's daughter from another relationship, Kyoko, who was living with her father in northern Jutland at the time.

The visit, which lasted several weeks, went largely unnoticed at first. But once his presence was discovered, the star called a press conference.

Due to a series of unforeseeable events and bad weather, the four high school students ended up interviewing Lennon after the press conference, in an informal setting.

"I believe they were experiencing 'hygge'," the currently on-trend Danish art de vivre of making everyday life cosy and convivial, joked Bruun Rasmussen.

During the interview, conducted just months before The Beatles broke up, the teens were mainly interested in Lennon's peace activism.

"With the auction, they want to pass on the message John Lennon stood for," Bruun Rasmussen said.

She noted the "old-fashioned" charm of the recording, which is being sold with photos of the meeting and the issue of the school newspaper featuring the interview.

"To listen to the 33 minutes of the tape you need an old-fashioned cassette player and I guess that nostalgia part will add to its value."

Lennon was shot dead by an apparently delusional gunman, Mark David Chapman, who had earlier asked for an autograph, in New York in 1980.

© 2021 AFP

Report: Climate change could see 200 million move by 2050

By RENATA BRITO

1 of 5

FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, a Samburu boy uses a wooden stick to try to swat a swarm of desert locusts filling the air, as he herds his camel near the village of Sissia, in Samburu county, Kenya. Climate change could push more than 200 million people to move within their own countries in the next three decades and create migration hotspots unless urgent action is taken in the coming years to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found. The report published on Monday, Sept. 13, 2021 examines how long-term impacts of climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what the report describes as “climate migrants” by 2050.

 (AP Photo/Patrick Ngugi, File)


BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Climate change could push more than 200 million people to leave their homes in the next three decades and create migration hot spots unless urgent action is taken to reduce global emissions and bridge the development gap, a World Bank report has found.

The second part of the Groundswell report published Monday examined how the impacts of slow-onset climate change such as water scarcity, decreasing crop productivity and rising sea levels could lead to millions of what it describes as “climate migrants” by 2050 under three different scenarios with varying degrees of climate action and development.

Under the most pessimistic scenario, with a high level of emissions and unequal development, the report forecasts up to 216 million people moving within their own countries across the six regions analyzed. Those regions are Latin America; North Africa; Sub-Saharan Africa; Eastern Europe and Central Asia; South Asia; and East Asia and the Pacific.

In the most climate-friendly scenario, with a low level of emissions and inclusive, sustainable development, the world could still see 44 million people being forced to leave their homes.

The findings “reaffirm the potency of climate to induce migration within countries,” said Viviane Wei Chen Clement, a senior climate change specialist at the World Bank and one of the report’s authors.

The report didn’t look at the short-term impacts of climate change, such as the effects of extreme weather events, and did not look at climate migration across borders.

In the worst-case scenario, Sub-Saharan Africa — the most vulnerable region due to desertification, fragile coastlines and the population’s dependence on agriculture — would see the most migrants, with up to 86 million people moving within national borders.

North Africa, however, is predicted to have the largest proportion of climate migrants, with 19 million people moving, equivalent to roughly 9% of its population, due mainly to increased water scarcity in northeastern Tunisia, northwestern Algeria, western and southern Morocco, and the central Atlas foothills, the report said.

In South Asia, Bangladesh is particularly affected by flooding and crop failures, accounting for almost half of the predicted climate migrants, with 19.9 million people, including an increasing number of women, moving by 2050 under the pessimistic scenario.

“This is our humanitarian reality right now and we are concerned this is going to be even worse, where vulnerability is more acute,” said Prof. Maarten van Aalst, director of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, who wasn’t involved with the report.

Many scientists say the world is no longer on track to the worst-case scenario for emissions. But even under a more moderate scenario, van Aalst said many impacts are now occurring faster than previously expected, “including the extremes we are already experiencing, as well as potential implications for migration and displacement.”

While climate change’s influence on migration is not new, it is often part of a combination of factors pushing people to move, and acts as a threat multiplier. People affected by conflicts and inequality are also more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as they have limited means to adapt.

“Globally we know that three out of four people that move stay within countries,” said Dr. Kanta Kumari Rigaud, a lead environmental specialist at the World Bank and co-author of the report.

The report also warns that migration hot spots could appear within the next decade and intensify by 2050. Planning is needed both in the areas where people will move to, and in the areas they leave to help those who remain.

Among the actions recommended were achieving “net zero emissions by mid-century to have a chance at limiting global warming to 1.5° degrees Celsius” and investing in development that is “green, resilient, and inclusive, in line with the Paris Agreement.”

Clement and Rigaud warned that the worst-case scenario is still plausible if collective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in development isn’t taken soon, especially in the next decade.

___

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate

Read more of AP’s global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration

Russia opposition stifled but unbowed as Duma election nears

By DARIA LITVINOVA

1 of 15

FILE - In this April 28, 2021, file photo, municipal workers paint over an image of Russia's imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the months before the Sept. 19 parliamentary election in Russia, authorities unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition, making sure the best-known and loudest Kremlin critics didn’t run. Navalny, Putin's biggest critic who dented United Russia's dominance in regional legislatures in recent years, is serving a 2½-year prison sentence for violating parole for a conviction he says was politically motivated.

 (AP Photo/Valentin Egorshin, File)

MOSCOW (AP) — In the months before Sunday’s parliamentary election in Russia, authorities unleashed an unprecedented crackdown on the opposition, making sure that the best-known and loudest Kremlin critics didn’t run.

Some were barred from seeking public office under new, repressive laws. Some were forced to leave the country after threats of prosecution. Some were jailed.

Pressure also mounted on independent media and human rights activists: A dozen news outlets and rights groups were given crippling labels of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations” or accused of ties with them.

The embattled opposition groups admit the Kremlin has left them few options or resources ahead of the Sept. 19 election that is widely seen as a key to President Vladimir Putin’s effort to cement his hold on power. But they still hope to erode the dominance of the ruling United Russia party in the State Duma, or parliament.

“We still want to take a lot of seats away from the United Russia so that a lot of сandidates not approved (by the authorities) become State Duma deputies and members of regional legislatures,” Leonid Volkov, top ally of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, told The Associated Press.

The election is crucial because the Kremlin wants complete control over the next parliament, opposition politicians and political analysts say. The Duma chosen this year will still be in place in 2024, when Putin’s current term expires and he must decide on running for re-election or choosing some other strategy to stay in power.

“Putin loves to maintain uncertainty and make decisions at the last minute,” says political analyst Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter.

“No one will know until the last minute what he will do in 2024,” Gallyamov said. “Will he run himself once again or put forward a successor? … Will it be another constitutional reform, or will a new cabinet need to be approved, or election laws need to be changed? … All roads must be open to Putin, he must feel that his options are not limited by anything. For that, the parliament must be absolutely obedient.”

It’s equally important to eliminate any risk of lawmakers supporting possible protests in 2024, Gallyamov said, because a directly elected institution opposing the Kremlin alongside demonstrators could take the conflict to another level.

It won’t be easy, however, to preserve United Russia’s dominance in parliament, where it holds 334 of 450 seats.

A poll by the independent Levada Center showed only 27% of Russians are prepared to vote for the party. Thus, steamrolling the opposition and using administrative leverage is the only way, Gallyamov said.

Navalny, Putin’s biggest critic who dented United Russia’s dominance in regional legislatures in recent years, is serving a 2½-year prison sentence for violating parole for a conviction he says was politically motivated. That followed his return to Russia from Germany, where he was treated for a poisoning by a nerve agent that he blamed on the Kremlin, which denies it.

Navalny’s top allies were slapped with criminal charges, and his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices have been outlawed as extremist organizations.

That has exposed hundreds of people associated with the groups to prosecution. The parliament also quickly rubber-stamped a law barring those with ties to extremist organizations from seeking office.

As a result, no one from Navalny’s team is running, and many have left the country. About 50 websites run by Navalny and his associates have been blocked, and dozens of regional offices are closed. Several other opposition activists were not allowed to run because they supported Navalny.

Another prominent Kremlin critic, former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov, was briefly arrested in June along with his aunt on fraud charges. Gudkov said he had planned to run in a Moscow district against a less-popular United Russia candidate, but authorities pushed him out of the race.

“They took my aunt, found some alleged 6-year-old debt she owed for a rented basement, added me to the case, arrested the two of us for two days, and made it clear that if I don’t drop out of the election and don’t leave the country, they will imprison me and my aunt,” Gudkov told the AP. He then left the country.

Authorities also jailed Andrei Pivovarov of the Open Russia opposition group financed by Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a Putin critic who moved to London after spending 10 years in prison on charges widely seen as political revenge.

Pivovarov, who had planned run for the Duma, was removed from a Warsaw-bound plane just before takeoff from St. Petersburg and taken to the southern city of Krasnodar. He was accused of supporting a local candidate last year on behalf of an “undesirable” organization and jailed pending an investigation.

Open Russia shut down several days before Pivovarov’s arrest. In a twist, Pivovarov was allowed on the ballot of the liberal Yabloko party even though he will remain behind bars through election day. Allies say it will be next to impossible for him to win.

“They destroyed everyone, who was at least somehow visible, as potential political players,” said Marina Litvinovich, a human rights activist and one of the few Kremlin critics running.

Litvinovich was a longtime member of the state Public Monitoring Commission that observes the treatment of prisoners and detainees but was removed after exposing abuses of jailed Navalny supporters. She decided to run in a Moscow district in place of Yulia Galyamina, a prominent politician who was convicted in a criminal case last year and barred from running.

Litvinovich told AP it’s difficult knowing that at any moment, “you could be barred from the race, or targeted with a raid tomorrow, or become implicated in a criminal probe.”

“But we’re trying to overcome that feeling and move forward,” she said.

Navalny ally Volkov echoed her sentiment.

“It’s not a very pleasant feeling, when a giant, very heavy, very dumb elephant is galloping towards you,” he said.

Despite the crackdown, Navalny’s team still plans to deploy its Smart Voting strategy — a project to support candidates who are most likely to defeat those from United Russia. In 2019, Smart Voting helped opposition candidates win 20 of 45 seats on Moscow’s city council, and regional elections last year saw United Russia lose its majority in legislatures in three cities.

Volkov said it’s been harder to promote Smart Voting, with dozens of websites blocked and people intimidated by the crackdown: Online registrations for the project soared a year ago after Navalny’s poisoning, but there are fewer this year.

There have been record downloads, however, for the team’s smartphone app, which is much harder for the authorities to block.

Others plan to continue advocating against voting for United Russia. Pivovarov’s allies decided to proceed with his campaign even though he jailed. Last month, they opened campaign offices in Moscow and Krasnodar, using cardboard cutouts of Pivovarov to greet supporters.

“For us, this campaign is a megaphone,” Pivovarov’s top ally Tatyana Usmanova told AP at the Moscow office opening last month.

“What Andrei was striving for is that as many people as possible understood that they shouldn’t vote for United Russia, that the elections are unfair. ... Now we have a legitimate opportunity to talk to people about it all.”

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Daniel Kozin in Moscow and Tanya Titova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed


People walk past an election poster with a portrait of jailed Andrei Pivovarov, the leader of the Open Russia opposition group financed by Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and words "Freedom is stronger than fear!" in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Pivovarov, who had planned run for the Duma, was removed from a Warsaw-bound plane just before takeoff from St. Petersburg and taken to the southern city of Krasnodar. He was accused of supporting a local candidate last year on behalf of an “undesirable” organization and jailed pending an investigation. 

(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

  

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2021, file photo, detained protesters walk escorted by police during a protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in St. Petersburg, Russia. The January protests in scores of cities across the country were the largest outpouring of discontent in years and appeared to have rattled the Kremlin.

 (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, File)

#UBI  #SOCIALWAGE

US Census: Relief programs staved off hardship in COVID crash

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

FILE - In this June 29, 2021, file photo people ride their bikes past a homeless encampment set up along the boardwalk in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. The share of Americans living in poverty rose slightly as the COVID pandemic shook the economy last year, but massive relief payments pumped out by Congress eased hardship for many, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday, Sept. 14. The official poverty measure showed an increase of 1 percentage point in 2020, indicating that 11.4% of Americans were living in poverty. It was the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Massive government relief passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic moved millions of Americans out of poverty last year, even as the official poverty rate increased slightly, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

The official poverty measure showed an increase of 1 percentage point in 2020, with 11.4% of Americans living in poverty, or more than 37 million people. It was the first increase in poverty after five consecutive annual declines.

But the Census Bureau’s supplemental measure of poverty, which takes into account government benefit programs and stimulus payments, showed that the share of people in poverty dropped significantly after the aid was factored in.

The decline in the supplemental poverty measure was 2.6 percentage points below the pre-pandemic level in 2019. Stimulus payments moved 11.7 million people out of poverty, while expanded unemployment benefits kept 5.5 million from falling into poverty. Social Security continued to be the nation’s most effective anti-poverty program.

“This really highlights the importance of our social safety net,” said Liana Fox, chief of the Census’ poverty statistics bureau.

That finding is likely to resonate in a divided Congress, where President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan faces uncertain prospects. Two anchors of last year’s COVID response — enhanced unemployment benefits and a federal eviction moratorium — have expired, adding to concerns.

The Census reports released Tuesday cover income, poverty and health insurance, and amount to an annual check-up on the economic status of average Americans. The reports are based on extensive surveys and analysis.

During last year’s epic economic collapse, employers shed 22.4 million jobs in March and April, the sharpest decline since records began in the 1940s. Weekly applications for unemployment benefits topped 6 million in a single week in April, by far the highest on record. Since then, the economy has recovered three-quarters of those lost jobs, but the U.S. still has 5.3 million fewer positions than before the pandemic.

A basic barometer of the economic health of the middle class registered the shock.

The median — or midpoint — household income decreased by 2.9% to $67,521 in 2020. The median is a statistical dividing line, with half of American households having lower incomes and the other half, higher. It was the first statistically significant drop in that measure in nearly a decade.

Driving the erosion, the report found that the number of people with earnings from work fell by about 3 million as the number of full-time year-round workers contracted by some 13.7 million.

But below those toplines there was a story a story of haves and have-nots.

People who held on to steady year-round jobs saw an increase in economic well-being, with their median earnings rising 6.9% after adjusting for inflation. People on the lower rungs of the job market, those with part-time jobs or trying to stay afloat in the gig economy, lost ground as median earnings decreased 1.2% for workers overall.

Despite widespread concerns that the pandemic would make millions more Americans uninsured, health coverage held its own in 2020, the Census found. More than 91% of Americans had insurance, but 28 million were uninsured.

But Larry Levitt of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation said the numbers point to some glaring exceptions. For example, 38% of poor working age adults in the dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid were uninsured. Biden’s budget bill would provide a workaround for more than 2 million caught in that coverage gap.

“It would be hard to find a group that struggles more to get access to affordable health care,” Levitt said.

Congress passed five bipartisan COVID-19 response bills last year, totaling close to $3.5 trillion and signed into law by then-President Donald Trump. This year Democrats pushed through President Joe Biden’s nearly $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on party-line votes. Its effects are not reflected in the Census report.

Though some of the federal aid last year was delayed for reasons from wrangling over costs to problems with distribution, on the whole it insulated American families from economic disaster that would have compounded the public health crisis. Some groups were left out, such as people not legally authorized to be in the country.

As Americans fought over measures such as mask wearing and closing down businesses and community life, lawmakers of both parties were motivated to take dramatic action, said economist Bruce Meyer, a University of Chicago expert on poverty.

“You had Democrats who were very focused on helping those who were unemployed and hurting, and you had Republicans who were willing to do many things to help the reelection of their president, so there was a confluence of incentives, or of desires, by politicians on both sides,” he said.

Trump ultimately lost reelection but the Census report provides evidence that’s relevant to the current debate over Biden’s $3.5 trillion social infrastructure plan, said public policy analyst Robert Greenstein of the Brookings Institution think tank.

“For people who have a cynical view that nothing much government does works effectively, particularly on the poverty front, it will be harder to maintain that view,” said Greenstein, who founded the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonprofit advocating on behalf of low-income people.

The Biden economic plan extends tax credits for families with children, which is seen as a strategy for reducing childhood poverty and its long-term consequences.

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AP writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report.