DUTERTE ATTACKS FREE SPEECH

Trial of journalists to deliver 'existential moment' in Philippines

Editor of news website Rappler could face prison if convicted under ‘cyber libel’ law
Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent

Sun 14 Jun 2020 13.03 BSTLast modified on Sun 14 Jun 2020 19.30 BST

Rappler’s editor, Maria Ressa, could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted. 

Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP

A verdict will be issued on Monday following the controversial trial of one of the Philippines’ most prominent journalists, in a case widely condemned as an attack on press freedom under Rodrigo Duterte.

A court in Manila will issue a verdict on Rappler, one of the country’s most influential news websites, its editor, Maria Ressa, and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos Jr on Monday. Ressa, who was arrested last year on charges of “cyber libel” for a story published by Rappler in 2012, has described the allegations as baseless.

Both Ressa and Rappler – which has exposed corruption, extrajudicial killings and online troll armies – have faced a series of charges over the past year. Most of the claims relate to allegations over the news site’s finances.

The arrest of Ressa prompted the United Nations high commissioner for human rights to warn in February 2019 that there appeared to be “a pattern of intimidation” of independent media in the Philippines. Duterte has dismissed Rappler as fake news.

The site has closely scrutinised his administration, including the brutal anti-drugs campaign that the UN recently warned had led to “widespread and systematic” extrajudicial killings. Government figures indicate at least 8,663 people have been killed in the crackdown; other estimates put the toll at triple that number.

Ressa has described the approaching verdict as “an existential moment” for democracy in the country, where there are major concerns about shrinking democratic rights.

Just last month, the country’s biggest broadcaster, ABS-CBN, was forced off air by a cease-and-desist order that was condemned as a brazen attempt to muzzle the media. Meanwhile a new anti-terrorism act has been recently passed by lawmakers, allowing warrantless arrests, weeks of detention without charge and other powers that rights groups fear could be used against government critics.

Media freedom in the Philippines has deteriorated under Duterte, and the country now ranks 136th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index. On top of the use of trumped-up legal charges against journalists, its analysis cited threats of violence against reporters and online harassment campaigns waged by pro-Duterte troll armies.

If found guilty on Monday, Ressa and Santos could face up to 12 years in prison. Another of the most prominent critics of Duterte’s narco war, Senator Leila de Lima, has been in jail for three years over drug allegations that she says are politically motivated.

The cyber-libel charge against Rappler relates to a story published on the website in May 2012 that alleged ties between a Philippine businessman, Wilfredo D Keng, and a high court judge.

The case was first brought in 2017, and initially dismissed by the National Bureau of Investigation because it was outside the statute of limitations. But in 2018 the justice department allowed the case to proceed to trial, extending the liability period for such cases from one to 12 years.

Ressa and her legal counsel point out that the controversial cyber-libel law did not exist at the time of publication, and was in fact only enacted four months after the story was written. However, the justice department allowed the case to go ahead because the online article had been updated in February 2014 to correct a spelling error.

Philippines war on drugs may have killed tens of thousands, says UN
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/04/philippines-police-may-have-killed-tens-of-thousands-with-near-impunity-in-drug-war-un

In total, Rappler and its officers and staff have faced at least 11 government investigations and court cases. Ressa has won international plaudits for her journalism and refusal to be cowed by what rights groups have described as judicial harassment. She was among those named Time person of the year in 2018, and won the 2018 Knight International Journalism award as well as a press freedom award given by the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Monday’s verdict will be issued at a court in Manila where a limited number of people will be present as part of ongoing measures to reduce coronavirus transmission.

Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa finished the trial in just eight months, far more quickly than other recent libel cases. The verdict can be appealed against in the supreme court.

Christie's withdraws 'looted' Greek and Roman treasures

Four antiquities pulled from auction after claims they came from illicit excavations

Dalya Alberge THE GUARDIAN Sun 14 Jun 2020
 

Hare in the Becchina archive, unrestored and with ears broken. Photograph: Becchina archive


Christie’s has quietly withdrawn four Greek and Roman antiquities from auction this month amid allegations that they had been looted from illicit excavations.

The items were in the original brochure catalogue but later removed from the online site with no explanation.

Prof Christos Tsirogiannis, a leading archaeologist who spotted their removal from the auction, said he had evidence that linked the four items – a Roman marble hare, a bronze Roman eagle and two Attic vases – to convicted traffickers in stolen artefacts.

He is outraged that leading auction houses and dealers are repeatedly failing to make adequate checks with the authorities about whether certain antiquities were taken illegally from their country of origin.

Tsirogiannis said: “It’s amazing. It’s the same pattern. These companies advertise due diligence and transparency – and in practice it’s exactly the opposite. As an archaeologist, my first responsibility is to let people know about my research and findings.”

Tsirogiannis, a former senior field archaeologist at Cambridge University, is associate professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Because his academic research has focused on antiquities and trafficking networks, Greek and Italian authorities gave him official access in the early 2000s to tens of thousands of images and other archival material seized in police raids from individuals involved in the illicit trade.

Photograph: Christie's

Included in that were photographs and documents seized by the police from Gianfranco Becchina, who was convicted in Greece for illegally dealing in antiquities.

Tsirogiannis was shocked to discover apparent links to Becchina in the four antiquities offered in a three-part Christie’s auction that ends on 16 June. He downloaded the original printed catalogue, but later discovered that those four objects were subsequently removed from the online site with no explanation.

The Roman marble hare, for example, originally appeared as lot 49, dated to the second to third century AD with an estimate of $20,000 (£15,900) to $30,000. Now lot 48 simply jumps to lot 50.

Tsirogiannis said: “The hare is depicted in the Becchina archive with its ears broken, but at least one of them is depicted lying in front of the sculpture. It was obviously restored later to its original position.

“According to a Becchina document, the hare was bought for 13,000 Italian lire, from a looter called ‘Tullio’ in 1987, which predates the ‘provenance’ given by Christie’s. Tullio sold several other – also unrestored – antiquities to Becchina at the same time.”

Tsirogiannis also recognised the bronze Roman eagle, from around the second to the third century AD and originally lot 25 in the Christie’s sale, from the Becchina archive.

He also had no doubt that the former lot 121, an Attic red-figured pelike dated around 430-420 BC, was “definitely the same piece as the Becchina one,” and that lot 113, an Attic black-figured band cup, from around 540-530 BC, was almost certainly the same as one in the Becchina archive.

He said: “Its Polaroid is stuck on an A4 page together with other Polaroids depicting other wonderful antiquities, also pre-restoration, that were supplied to Becchina by Raffaele Monticelli, a convicted middleman and one of the main suppliers of Becchina of illicit antiquities from south Italy.” Monticelli was sentenced in 2002 to four years in prison for trafficking illicit antiquities.

Over 15 years, Tsirogiannis has identified about 1,100 looted artefacts within auction houses, commercial galleries, private collections and museums. In alerting Interpol and other police authorities, he has played a significant role in securing the repatriation of many antiquities.

A Christie’s spokeswoman said: “Christie’s can confirm that lots 25, 49, 113 and 121 were withdrawn from the auctions following the provision of new information by the appropriate authorities from archives currently still unavailable to our researchers. We take our research very seriously. We always act appropriately on additional information when provided, particularly where we don’t have access to helpful archives, and the number of lots affected by such situations remains very few.”

But Tsirogiannis believes auction houses have a responsibility to make effective checks with the archives. He said he had repeatedly told them that it was possible to send photographs of any antiquity to the Italian or Greek authorities to be checked. If they had done this, he said, “they would have found these objects depicted in those archives before they compiled the catalogue”.

Among other antiquities identified by Tsirogiannis is an ancient Greek bronze horse, which Sotheby’s New York had planned to sell in 2018 until he notified Interpol and the US authorities of its links to the disgraced British antiquities dealer Robin Symes. Last week, Sotheby’s lost its legal challenge and Greece’s culture minister hailed the court’s ruling as a significant victory for countries fighting to reclaim antiquities

'The country is adrift': echoes of Spanish flu as Brazil's Covid-19 catastrophe deepens

A century after the 1918 pandemic, South America’s largest country has passed Britain to claim the world’s second-highest death toll

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Sun 14 Jun 2020
 

A protester digs a mock grave on Copacabana beach symbolizing deaths due to the coronavirus, in Rio de Janeiro. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

As a child growing up in 1940s São Paulo, Drauzio Varella remembers his grandmother’s tales of how the Spanish flu ravaged the blue-collar immigrant community they called home.

“So many people died that families would leave people outside on the pavements, and early each morning the carts would come by to collect them and take them off to burial in mass graves,” remembered Varella, who would go on to become Brazil’s best-known doctor.

Brazil condemned to historic tragedy by Bolsonaro's virus response – top doctor

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/05/brazil-coronavirus-covid-19-virus-doctor

More than a century after the 1918 calamity, South America’s largest country is again being shaken by a devastating pandemic, and Varella is in disbelief.

“Nobody thought this could happen. Perhaps they imagined it theoretically – that some kind of virus might come along,” said the 77-year-old oncologist, author and broadcaster. “But even when this virus did show up, we didn’t think it would cause a tragedy of such proportions.”

The precise magnitude of Brazil’s Covid-19 tragedy remains unclear – but the story told by official statistics grows more wretched by the day.

The Brazilian newspaper Gazeta de Noticias says ‘Rio is an enormous hospital’. Photograph: Bibioteca Nacional

On Friday, Brazil overtook Britain as the country with the world’s second-highest death toll: 41,901 deaths since the first fatality was confirmed in São Paulo on 17 March.

A University of Washington projection indicated another 100,000 Brazilians could die before August, possibly placing Brazil ahead of the US as the country with the most deaths.

As the catastrophe deepens there is growing anger at the conduct of president Jair Bolsonaro, whose jumbled and dysfunctional handling of a pandemic he has called a “fantasy” has made Boris Johnson’s widely panned response look sober and efficient.

“This is the worst public health crisis we’ve faced – and it has come at a time when we have the worst government in the world,” said Daniel Dourado, a public health expert and lawyer from the University of São Paulo who believes thousands of lives could have been saved by a swifter and less erratic response. “The country is adrift.”

There are uncanny and painful parallels between the impact of the Spanish flu – which historians say killed between 35,000 and 100,000 Brazilians – and the harm coronavirus is now inflicting.


Claudio Bertolli Filho, the author of a book on the 1918 pandemic, said Brazil’s then leaders had initially played down the unknown influenza – just as Bolsonaro has dismissed coronavirus as a “bit of a cold”.

Then, too, authorities tried to hide the true scale of the disaster – just as Bolsonaro’s health ministry has been accused of doing – until, like now, the determination of Brazilian journalists made that impossible.

 Residents wait for food donations in Brasilândia, São Paulo. Photograph: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters

Then, like now, doctors pushed untested and potentially dangerous remedies, just as Brazil’s populist leader has promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine despite limited scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Bertolli Filho said one São Paulo quack was famed for injecting Spanish flu patients with mercury. “He killed lots of people – and yet despite this many believed.”

As the Spanish flu ripped through cities, from Recife to Rio, religious leaders also touted miracle cures just as powerful televangelists today promise followers Covid-19 salvation with holy water and supernatural seeds.

'Enormous disparities': coronavirus death rates expose Brazil's deep racial inequalities
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/09/enormous-disparities-coronavirus-death-rates-expose-brazils-deep-racial-inequalities

And in 1918, as now, the mysterious malady prompted an explosion of rumour and conspiracy, including claims German submarines had secretly spread the infirmity along the Brazilian coast. (In fact, it arrived on an English merchant ship called the Demerara).

But perhaps no parallel is more cruel than the way in which both catastrophes obliterated the idea pandemics chose victims indiscriminately.

Bertolli Filho said the 1919 death of Brazil’s president-elect, Rodrigues Alves, from the Spanish flu was widely cited as proof epidemics were equal opportunity.
Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, a former Brazilian president who died of the Spanish flu prior to his second term. Photograph: GL Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

In fact, cemetery records showed most of São Paulo’s 5,000 dead hailed from working class, industrial districts such as Mooca, Ipiranga, and Brás, where Varella’s grandmother watched the corpse collectors at work. Today, the areas suffering most are blue collar communities such as Brasilândia, Freguesia do Ó and Capão Redondo where many do not have the luxury of social distancing or working from home.

In Rio, deprived western neighbourhoods such as Campo Grande, Realengo and Bangu have recorded some of the highest death tolls while densely populated favelas like Rocinha and the Complexo da Maré are also being punished.

“The truth is, not even a pandemic is truly democratic,” Bertolli Filho said.

Varella, who lives in his grandmother’s house to this day, said it was too soon to know just how high a price the poor would pay in a country where the richest 1% control 28% of the wealth.

“Brazil’s situation is so worrying and so unique because if you look at the path the epidemic took – from China, through Asia, and then Europe and on to the US – Brazil was its first encounter with a country suffering from the kind of severe social inequality ours does.”

“It will hit other unequal countries, like India and Pakistan, but here was the first – and we are seeing this play out now in a country where 13 or 14 million people live in precarious conditions and great poverty.”

A woman walks past water utility workers will disinfect the Turano favela in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus in Rio. Photograph: Silvia Izquierdo/AP

The omens were not good. “Ever since the epidemic began, I’ve woken up every day feeling afflicted, thinking about what will happen and how,” Varella said.

“The biggest problem we are seeing across Brazil right now is the epidemic spreading through the outskirts of cities and their rundown centres where you have tenements and the homeless live.

“Where this will end we have no clue – no clue at all,” he admitted. “Because we are now right in the middle of the dissemination.”

Trump claims 'radical left' has 'taken over' Seattle as he spends birthday at golf club

President targets city’s ‘Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone’, where protesters have taken over part of neighborhood

Bryan Armen Graham THE GUARDIAN
Sun 14 Jun 2020

Donald Trump leaves the Morristown airport, in Morristown, New Jersey, en route to Washington. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images


Donald Trump spent his 74th birthday on Sunday in seclusion at his New Jersey golf club, breaking cover late in the afternoon, shortly before his return to the White House, to claim the “radical left” had “taken over” Seattle.

What is antifa and why is Donald Trump targeting it?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/06/what-is-antifa-trump-terrorist-designation

Protesters in the north-western city took over part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood after police abandoned their east precinct following dangerous clashes amid demonstrations over police brutality and systemic racism.

Amid attempts by Trump and allies to portray protests across the US as dominated by dangerous leftwing groups, the protesters’ “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” has become a magnet for rightwing ire.

“Does anyone notice how little the Radical Left takeover of Seattle is being discussed in the Fake News Media,” the president wrote on Twitter. “That is very much on purpose because they know how badly this weakness & ineptitude play politically. The Mayor & Governor should be ashamed of themselves. Easily fixed!”


He added: “Interesting how Antifa and other Far Left militant groups can take over a city without barely a wimpier [sic] from soft Do Nothing Democrat leadership, yet these same weak leaders become RADICAL when it comes to shutting down a state or city and its hard working, tax paying citizens!”

Earlier on Sunday, contrary to Trump’s criticism about a lack of media coverage, the Seattle police chief, Carmen Best, appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation, one of the highest-rated Washington discussion programs on television.

Best described her department’s approach to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or Chaz, as a “methodical” and “practical” attempt to reach a resolution where everyone gets out safely.

“We don’t want anyone there to be harmed,” Best said. “We don’t want this to be something that devolves into a force situation. So we’re really trying to take a methodical, practical approach to reach a resolution where everyone gets out of here safely.”

Asked for her perspective on the protest movement that has spread across the US in the three weeks since George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, Best acknowledged that change would be “incredibly difficult” but said an opportunity existed to “bring people together and get positive change”.

“I was at the Black Lives Matter march, and I saw many people carrying signs about defunding the police, ending police brutality and looking at resolving the qualified immunity issue,” Best said.

“So I know standing there watching and listening that we’re going to change policing. We have to. It has to be a movement that involves everybody. And we need to reimagine and refigure out, if you will, how we’re going to move forward as a country and as an organization to make things better for everybody.”

Canada urged to open its eyes to systemic racism in wake of police violence

Amid the anger over brutality and injustice, a number of prominent Canadians have cast doubt on the idea that racism is entrenched

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Sun 14 Jun 2020

Protesters in Calgary rally against police violence and racism. Activists and historians argue that before change can come, Canadians must first accept a tarnished history. Photograph: Jeff McIntosh/AP
After a string of violent incidents involving police officers, activists and ordinary people across Canada have joined the global chorus calling for a reckoning with racism, policing, inequality and the long reach of history.

In recent weeks, a Black woman fell to her death after police were called to her flat in Toronto; an Indigenous woman suffering a mental health crisis was shot dead by an officer in New Brunswick and footage emerged showing Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers in Alberta forcing a First Nations chief to the ground and punching him in the head. On Friday evening, an Indigenous man was shot dead by the RCMP in New Brunswick.

Justin Trudeau takes a knee but is silent on reforms to policing

But amid the growing anger, a number of prominent Canadians – premiers, columnists and the head of the RCMP – have cast doubt on the idea that racism is entrenched in the country’s institutions.

“Thank God we’re different than the United States and we don’t have the systemic, deep roots they’ve had for years,” said Ontario premier Doug Ford, a view echoed by neighbouring Quebec premier François Legault.

RCMP commissioner Brenda Lucki told the Globe and Mail on Wednesday: “I think that if systemic racism is meaning that racism is entrenched in our policies and procedures, I would say that we don’t have systemic racism.” On Friday, Lucki clarified her position in a statement. “I did acknowledge that we, like others, have racism in our organization, but I did not say definitively that systemic racism exists in the RCMP. I should have.” Hours later, Rodney Levi of the Metepenagiag Mi’kmaq Nation was shot dead by RCMP officers.

Activists and historians argue that before change can come, Canadians must first accept a tarnished history and the persistent structural inequities that it has bequeathed the nation.

The numbers are clear: Black and Indigenous peoples in Canada are disproportionately over-represented in prisons and jails across the country. As students, they face harsher discipline in schools and are suspended at a higher rate than white students. In Toronto, the country’s largest city, Black residents are 20 times more likely to be shot by police.

On Thursday, Justin Trudeau contradicted the RCMP chief’s comments, saying it was clear systemic racism was present in the country’s federal police force.

“As much as we admire and support the RCMP, we know we need to do better. It is not just the individual examples we have seen, it’s the issues faced by Canadians of diverse backgrounds over years, decades and generations,” the prime minister said.

On Friday, Lucki clarified her position, saying: “I did acknowledge that we, like others, have racism in our organization, but I did not say definitively that systemic racism exists in the RCMP. I should have.”

Some argue that Canada’s national police force is itself emblematic of racism.

“The RCMP was not created to protect Indigenous people. It was created to protect white settlers from Indigenous folks – while suppressing our ceremonies and implementing laws that sought to decimate us,” said Brooks Arcand-Paul, a Cree lawyer and executive on the Indigenous Bar Association.

“Even today, the police will always look at Indigenous people and Black folks in our territories as potentially requiring some kind of suppression.”

Protesters have highlighted the case of Chantel Moore, 26, who was fatally shot last month by officers during a mental health “wellness check” and Regis Korchinski-Paquet, who fell to her death after police responded to a mental health emergency. But Arcand-Paul said her death was only the latest in a litany of cases where Indigenous lives are lost and families denied justice. He points to the case of Gerald Stanley, a white farmer who shot Colten Boushie, an indigenous man, in the head – but was acquitted by an all-white jury.

“When we talk about systemic racism, we’re not just trying to lay the blame on the RCMP. It’s the entire structure that is causing continued violence against Black and Indigenous bodies in this country,” said Arcand-Paul.

Some police forces, including in Canada’s largest city, have acknowledged systemic racism exists and pledged to make change. Last week, Toronto police chief Mark Saunders knelt with protesters.

But such actions have also raised skepticism among activists.

“Police in Canada are trying to escape this moment of criticism by casting themselves compassionate forces that care about these issues. However, once you actually dig into the data, it shows this is not necessarily the case,” said Bashir Mohamed, a researcher and amateur historian whose work has highlighted the often-forgotten racist history of western Canada.

“I think it’s by design that police forces want this information hidden, because then it makes them less responsible for actually acknowledging this is a problem.”

 Allan Adam, who was injured by police forcing him to the ground in March. Photograph: Allan Adam/Reuters
Mohamed points to the practice of “carding” – Canada’s version of stop-and-frisk – in which police conduct street checks of residents with little or no cause. While agencies have defended the practice in the past, the limited available data shows the policy disproportionately impacts racialized communities.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/06/canada-overdue-reckoning-anti-black-racism

Canada is overdue for a reckoning with its anti-black racism
Tayo Bero

Ford, the Ontario premier, quickly walked back his remarks, suggesting his comments had been taken out of context. “Of course there’s systemic racism in Ontario, there’s systemic racism across this country,” Ford said the next day.

Quebec premier François Legault also suggested there was “no system in place that discriminate” in the province – and said the province had not experienced slavery.

But political leaders’ resistance to the idea that systemic racism exists within state institutions often comes from a poor understanding of the country’s past, says educator and historian Natasha Henry, president of the Ontario Black History Society.

“It’s part of the Canadian national narrative of positioning ourselves in juxtaposition to the United States. That’s how we get this ‘exceptional Canada’ of being welcoming and warm – and not paying attention to our own parallel history of racial exclusion and the dispossession.”

In addition to being factually inaccurate, this popular view speaks to a “refusal to take responsibility” for two centuries of slavery within the country’s history, says Henry.

For generations, Canadian history has concentrated on the country’s position as the last stop on the Underground Railroad – a place which meant freedom for those who escaped slavery in the US. But the same narrative omits the experiences of thousands of enslaved people within Canada, says Henry.

According to Henry’s research, the earliest record of African enslavement in colonial Canada was the sale of a young boy, named Olivier LeJeune in 1629.

Slavery was formally ended in the British empire in 1834, including British North America, but legislation was repeatedly passed that would weaken anti-slavery laws in the years leading up to abolition.
After emancipation, Black people in Canada still faced segregation, and the looming threat of hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

“You have to decide – are you going to accept all of Canada or none of Canada?” said Henry. “Because you can’t parcel out you want. That’s not how history works.”

Indigenous peoples were also enslaved by colonial powers – a reality often forgotten in the country’s school textbooks. And by the end of the 1700s, as many as 2,000 Black people were enslaved in the Maritimes region. About 300 more people were enslaved in the area known as Lower Canada (what is now the province of Quebec) and as many as 700 in Upper Canada (Ontario).

Others argue that Canada needs a more comprehensive history.

“It’s important to incorporate anti-black racism into curricula, but also black history. Not just civil rights heroes, but also black artists,” said Mohamed. “This shows that my people existed in Canada. It shows that we have a long history of slavery over 200 years, but also have a long history of black arts and black culture.”


Canada police under scrutiny after two women die after encounters with officers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/05/canada-police-under-scrutiny-after-two-women-die-after-encounters-with-officers

Only in recent years has Canada grappled with the legacy of its residential schools – where many Indigenous students were sent against their will and experienced verbal, physical and sexual abuse – a period which schools have now started to teach.

“At the end of the day, there’s going to be some difficult conversations. Because it’s important to acknowledge that our experiences aren’t just a fabricated story. They are lived realities,” said Arcand-Paul, who has been pulled over and questioned on multiple occasions by police.

“And we’re not going to be able to achieve true understanding until, at last, we’re able to share our stories – frankly and candidly – to a receptive audience.”

Fears rise over safety of detained Saudi princess, family confidant says
Saphora Smith and Matteo Moschella,
NBC News•June 14, 2020


LONDON — Relatives of a Saudi princess, a women’s rights advocate, who says she is imprisoned in the Gulf kingdom are concerned for her health after contact was cut with her two months ago, a source close to the family has said.

Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 56, a businesswoman and a granddaughter of the country’s founding king, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, was taken from her home in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in March last year and imprisoned along with her daughter, Souhoud Al-Sharif, 28, the family confidant told NBC News.

“[If] she’s dead or alive we have no idea, we literally have no single clue,” the person said, on the condition of anonymity because of fears for personal safety.

NBC News could not independently confirm the circumstances of Basmah’s disappearance or her detention. Saudi Arabian authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

In the past, Basmah has spoken about her commitment to promoting women’s entrepreneurship and leadership in the Arab world. But now, the confidant believes, Basmah being an outspoken woman in a prominent position, along with asking for her inheritance, may be among the reasons she is imprisoned.

In recent years, the kingdom has worked to improve its image abroad and attract foreign investment, a campaign that was hurt badly by the gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, for which a United Nations investigation found senior Saudi figures could be liable.

Image: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (AFP - Getty Images file)

Over the past year, Basmah has had limited but regular contact with relatives through visits and phone calls but it was not revealed publicly what happened to her until April, the confidant said.

In April, more than a year after the princess’ detention, a verified account owned by her issued a series of tweets — which were deleted before being later reposted — imploring King Salman and powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to release her from Al-Hayer prison outside Riyadh.

The tweets, published by members of her team to draw attention to what had happened, said she was being held without charge and that her health was deteriorating.

In the days before those tweets, the princess had been too unwell to speak to her family on the phone, the confidant said, and all contact had been limited to her daughter, who is still also detained with her mother, it is claimed.

“She was in a very bad condition ... she couldn’t get out of bed,” the confidant said, adding that she was struggling to eat.

But then in mid-April, after the first tweets, contact with the daughter also ended, the source said. With no contact, the source said those close to the princess were increasingly concerned she could be seriously ill in jail.

Since being imprisoned last year, she has been denied regular access to a doctor but has been hospitalized on several occasions, according to the confidant.

The specifics of Basmah’s illness remain unclear. The person close to the family said the princess had part of her colon removed in a past operation.

The circumstances around her detention are also murky.

The princess had been due to travel abroad for medical treatment around the time of her arrest and was accused of trying to forge a passport, the source said, adding the charges were later dropped, but she still remains in prison.

Because Saudi authorities did not respond to a request for comment, NBC News has not been able to verify the status of any potential charges.

For months, Basmah was repeatedly told that she would be let out “next week,” the source added, but each week passed with no release.

It is not the first time that members of Saudi Arabia’s extensive royal family have been detained since the crown prince’s rise to power. In November 2017, hundreds of Saudi royals, billionaires and senior government officials were detained at Riyadh’s Ritz-Carlton hotel, where they were told they had to sign away large chunks of their assets to be released.

It has even been alleged by U.S. officials that the crown prince once put his own mother under house arrest.

"In today's Saudi Arabia, no one is safe from the state repression apparatus, even royal family members who fall out of line,” said Adam Coogle, a deputy director with the Middle East and North Africa division at advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

“The Saudi leadership has spent a lot of money and effort to market itself internationally as reformist, but this is quickly undermined by the continued arrests of dissidents and flagrant violations of due process of law."

BLM supporter speaks out after carrying counter-protester to safety

Photo of Patrick Hutchinson coming to the man’s aid went viral after Saturday’s protests

Clea Skopeliti
Sun 14 Jun 2020
 

Patrick Hutchinson carries the injured man near Waterloo station in London. 

Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

The Black Lives Matter demonstrator who carried a counter-protester to safety during Saturday’s protests in London has spoken out about the moment he decided to intervene to help the man.

Describing his decision to step in, Patrick Hutchinson said: “His life was under threat, so I just went under, scooped him up, put him on my shoulders and started marching towards the police with him.”

In an interview with Channel 4 News, the personal trainer and grandfather said: “You don’t think about it [being scary] at the time, you just do what you’ve got to do.”

Hutchinson contrasted the intervention with the lack of action taken by the Minneapolis police officers who were involved in George Floyd’s death. “If the other three police officers that were standing around when George Floyd was murdered had thought about intervening, and stopping their colleague from doing what he was doing, like we did, George Floyd would be alive today.

“I just want equality, equality for all of us. At the moment, the scales are unfairly balanced and I just want things to be fair for my children and my grandchildren.”

Police said 113 people were arrested on Saturday, including a 28-year-old man detained on suspicion of urinating by a Westminster memorial dedicated to the murdered police officer Keith Palmer, after far-right activists organised a counter-protest to BLM groups. The Metropolitan police said its officers were injured after being kicked, punched or hit by missiles as they faced hundreds of angry demonstrators, who claimed they were protecting statues.

Hutchinson and his friends, who are security and martial arts experts, attended an anti-racist protest on Saturday to “try and keep the peace”. When far-right groups began to clash with black protestors, Hutchinson said the man he helped had been caught alone and left by his friends.

Pierre Noah, a businessman and friend of Hutchinson’s, said of the incident: “It would have turned out really bad because someone’s life would have been taken and you know what would have happened. Straight away – black boys have killed somebody, and they’ve killed a white man – it’s just going to be worse. So we had to go out there. I couldn’t sleep.”

Describing his motivation to help the protester, Jamaine Facey, a personal trainer, said: “I’m not protecting him, I’m protecting our kids. I was protecting their future, because I know the judge would not have saw what happened before. I was protecting their future.”

Chris Otokito, a businessman, described the group’s effort to de-escalate the situation. “We were there to serve a purpose. We saw it escalating, we tried to get around the guy to try and stop it from happening. Patrick came in and assessed the situation straight away, picked him up and just tried to do what we could to get him back to a safer place.”

A photo of Hutchinson carrying the injured man went viral on Sunday, with people describing the BLM protester as a hero.

Claudia Webbe, the Labour MP for Leicester East, tweeted: “A national hero – this is what humanity looks like.”

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, shared the photo on Twitter, writing: “Patrick Hutchinson carries an injured stranger to safety during yesterday’s protests. It’s easy to focus on the worst instincts of human behaviour. But it is vital we also celebrate the best.”

Boris Johnson condemned the “racist thuggery” of the rightwing protests in London, while the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on Sunday described the scenes as “shocking and disgusting”.

Similar demonstrations took place elsewhere in the country, including in Bolton and Bristol, but appeared to proceed mostly peacefully.

This powerful image of a Black man carrying a white counter-protester to safety frames a day of chaos and race-inspired violence in London

A protester carries an injured counter-protester to safety, near the Waterloo station during a Black Lives Matter protest in London, Britain, on June 13, 2020.
Dylan Martinez/Reuters

INSIDER•June 14, 2020

Image of Black man carrying white counterprotester to safety goes viral

A powerful photo taken during anti-Black Lives Matter protests in London on Saturday shows a Black man carrying a white protester to safety after he got injured.

The picture was taken after hundreds of demonstrators, some of which belonged to far-right groups, clashed with police in Parliament Square.

Videos on social media show protesters, mostly white, throwing bottles, cans, and smoke canisters at mounted police officers.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the violence as "racist thuggery."

An alleged far-right protester at the protest was also pictured urinating next to a memorial for PC Keith Palmer, a police officer stabbed to death during the Westminster Bridger terror attack in 2017.

A Black Lives Matter group in the British capital had to call off their demonstration planned for Saturday over fears of clashes, but small groups still gathered.

A powerful photo taken during an anti-Black Lives Matter demonstration in London on Saturday shows a Black man carrying a white protester to safety after he got injured.

It came at the end of sporadic violence across the capital between white protesters, some members of far-right groups, and Black Lives Matter supporters. Police made more than 100 arrests.

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The picture, which is trending on social media, was taken as hundreds of demonstrators, some of which belong to far-right groups and organizations, clashed with police in central London's Parliament Square.

The protesters, many of which were middle-aged white men, claimed they were there to "protect" statues, after recent calls to remove them because of their colonial associations.

"Easily my favourite photo of the day," someone wrote on Twitter
—Lauren Townsend (@LaurenJTownsend) June 13, 2020

"Wow. This is it. This is the photo," another person commented.

Videos on social media of the demonstrations show white protesters gathered in Parliament Square, many of which were shirtless or clutching beers, throwing bottles, cans, and smoke canisters at mounted police.

In response, police in riot gear formed lines and blocked exits to contain protesters in the square.
—Matthew Thompson (@mattuthompson) June 13, 2020

In a post on Twitter, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the violence used by the protesters as "racist thuggery."

"Anyone attacking the police will be met with full force of law. These marches & protests have been subverted by violence and breach current guidelines. Racism has no part in the UK and we must work together to make that a reality" he wrote
—Boris Johnson #StayAlert (@BorisJohnson) June 13, 2020

Many of the protesters gathered around a statue of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which was boarded up on Friday, claiming to be protecting it after it was vandalized during a BLM protest, the previous week. Authorities also fenced off other statues in Parliament Square, including memorials to Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln.

Speaking before the protest, Paul Golding, the leader of the far-right political organization Britain First, was cited in the Guardian as saying: "I am extremely fed up with the way that the authorities have allowed two consecutive weekends of vandalism against our national monuments."

Another protester told the New York Times: "People are defacing my history and my culture. That's why these people are here because we feel we're getting attacked."

Statues and monuments have become flashpoints in ongoing demonstrations against police brutality and racism sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis after a white a police officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

The demonstration on Saturday came partly in response to a social media callout to "protect the monuments," according to the Guardian.

At one point, a protester was pictured urinating next to a memorial for PC Keith Palmer, a police officer who was after stabbed to death during the Westminster Bridger terror attack in 2017.

Home Secretary Priti Patel condemned the act as "appalling and shameful."

"We have seen some shameful scenes today, including the desecration of PC Keith Palmer's memorial in parliament, in Westminster Square, and quite frankly that is shameful, that is absolutely appalling and shameful," Patel said.

The 28-year-old man has since been arrested "on suspicion of outraging public decency," according to the BBC.

By Saturday evening, more than 100 arrests were made "for offences including breach of the peace, violent disorder, assault on officers, possession of an offensive weapon, possession of class A drugs, and drunk and disorder," according to a statement by The Metropolitan Police. Around 15 people were injured, two of which were police officers.

A Black Lives Matter group in the British capital had to call off their demonstration planned for Saturday over fears of clashes with counter-protesters.

But small groups of anti-racist protesters still gathered in the capital and briefly clashed with counter-protesters in Trafalgar Square. The two groups were throwing bottles and fireworks at one another as police tried to separate them, the New York Times reported.

The alteration comes a few days after protesters at a Black Lives Matter demonstration in the southwest city of Bristol, tore down a statue of Edward Colston, a 17th-century slave trader, and dumped it in a river.

London isn't the only European city that saw protests this weekend. In Paris, around 15,000 people rallied to condemn police brutality and racism on Saturday, also demanding justice for Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old Black man who died in 2016 after police arrested him.

Traoré's sister, who was at the demonstration, said: "What's happening in the United States is happening in France. Our brothers are dying," according to the BBC.

Beverly Hills Limits Nighttime Protests in Residential Areas With Emergency Order

By Jordan Moreau

Joe Kohen/Shutterstock
Beverly Hills issued an emergency order on Saturday that bans gatherings of more than 10 people at night in residential areas.

Enacted on Saturday night, the new rules lasts between 9:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. each night until further notice.

The city of Beverly Hills’ Twitter account shared the message as well, and the full order can be viewed here. The rule is to “preserve the peace and tranquility of residential neighborhoods.”

To preserve the peace and tranquility of residential neighborhoods, effective tonight and until further notice, no more than 10 people shall gather in an assembly in a public right of way in a residential area between the hours of 9 p.m. – 8 a.m. More: https://t.co/EVjLWqWgE5
— CityofBeverlyHills (@CityofBevHills) June 14, 2020

The emergency order comes after a group called “Occupy” staged loud protests at night using bullhorns and loud music in residential areas, according to the press release.
Silent gatherings, like candlelight vigils and private events, are still allowed, but people disobeying the order will be subject to arrest.

On May 30, Beverly Hills was hit by violence and property damage as looting began in the area, particularly around Rodeo Drive. The city had enacted an earlier curfew than the rest of Los Angeles at that time.

Protests against the death of George Floyd and police brutality are still being carried out around the country. A march for the Black LGBTQ community called All Black Lives Matter is taking place on Hollywood Boulevard on Sunday.

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Loses More Advertisers

Tiffany Hsu,
The New York Times•June 13, 2020

Tucker Carlson loses more advertisers after Black Lives Matter comments


On Monday’s segment of his prime-time show, Fox News host Tucker Carlson cast doubt on the reasons behind the worldwide unrest prompted by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month.

“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through,” Carlson said. “But it is definitely not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you. And at this rate, they will.”

Since he made those statements and others, prominent companies including The Walt Disney Co., Papa John’s, Poshmark and T-Mobile have distanced themselves from “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” joining other businesses that have backed away from the show in recent years.

The flight of advertisers accelerated Tuesday, when watchdog group Sleeping Giants tagged T-Mobile in a Twitter post, saying that Fox News had aired what amounted to an “extremely racist segment scaremongering about the Black community.”

The telecommunications giant responded on Twitter, saying that its ads had not run on the show since early May and would not run in the future. Mike Sievert, T-Mobile’s chief executive, added a post of his own: “Bye-bye, Tucker Carlson!”

Fox News said that Carlson was referring to Democratic leaders, not protesters, when he said “they” in his remarks on Monday night’s program.

“No matter what they tell you, it has very little to do with black lives,” Carlson had said. “If only it did.”

Advertiser disavowals of the show gained momentum Wednesday, after the newsletter Popular Information highlighted that Disney had run commercials 29 times on Carlson’s program this year. The entertainment giant responded by saying that it had asked the third-party media agency that placed the ads, which were for Disney’s ABC network, to stop doing so on the show.

Papa John’s, a pizza chain that was the center of an uproar in 2018 over a racial slur used by its founder, also backed away from Carlson. The company said that Havas, its media agency, placed a general buy for ad space across several cable news networks and left the positioning of the spots up to the networks.

Papa John’s began advertising on cable only after the pandemic began, as live sports and other content disappeared. It has run ads on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC and “CNN Tonight With Don Lemon.”

After Carlson’s comments, Papa John’s said in a statement that it would stop spending on opinion shows, noting that “placement of advertising is not intended to be an endorsement of any specific programming or commentary.”

Steven Tristan Young, chief marketing officer of Poshmark, said in a statement Thursday that the e-commerce company stopped advertising on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on June 2.

“We do not agree with the comments he made on his show and stand in solidarity with those who seek to advance racial justice and equality,” Young said.

Companies are trying to be especially sensitive amid the nationwide reckoning over race. Many, including Disney, T-Mobile, Poshmark and Papa John’s, have posted messages on social media in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Others have been advertising less in recent weeks.

Carlson has spoken harshly about the unrest, urging a more severe crackdown on protests. In a segment posted to YouTube on June 1, which was preceded by a note that it could be “inappropriate or offensive to some audiences,” he chided Vice President Mike Pence for having “scolded America for its racism” and told President Donald Trump that “people will not forgive weakness.”

Fox News said the advertiser departures had not caused the network to suffer a financial hit overall, noting that the commercials that would have run nationwide on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” had moved to other programs on the network.

On Thursday night, a hashtag campaign — #IStandWithTucker — sprang up on Twitter, with his fans appending it to messages of support for the host. As the phrase made the list of the platform’s trending topics, Carlson’s detractors tweeted insults at the host and the network that employs him while making use of the same hashtag.

Carlson, who recently sold his stake in the conservative site The Daily Caller, has lost major advertisers in the past few years. Dozens of companies, including Pacific Life, Farmers Insurance and IHOP, have distanced themselves following his on-air comments about white supremacy, immigrants and women.
But his show remains a linchpin of the Fox News lineup, drawing 4.8 million viewers last week. So far this year, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” generated 16% of ad revenue for Fox News, according to iSpot.tv, the television ads measurement company. Out of $75 million in total spending, more than a third came from a single advertiser: MyPillow, a pillow manufacturer in Minnesota run by Mike Lindell, a supporter of Trump who appeared at a White House Rose Garden news briefing in March.

Few major brands remain on Carlson’s program. Several major media buyers said they did not have clients with recent spots on the show.

Alongside spots from the computer security brand Norton, skin care brand Proactiv and Trump’s reelection campaign, recent ads have included a beet powder company that has used gun rights personality Dana Loesch as a spokeswoman, a foot fungus treatment brand and several law firms, according to iSpot.tv.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

Paul Krugman reveals why the far right is living out its ‘nightmare’ — and could become even more dangerous
Published on June 12, 2020 By Alex Henderson, AlterNet


The “Justice for George Floyd” protests have been having a major impact all around the United States — even in the Deep South, where symbols of the Confederacy are being removed from public property. Discussing the impact of the protests in his New York Times column, liberal economist Paul Krugman asserts that far-right “reactionaries” are having a terrible month. But Krugman also warns that the more threatened reactionaries feel, the more “dangerous” they can become in the months leading up this year’s presidential election

President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the removal of Confederate monuments from public places — which, Krugman stresses, speaks volumes about Trump’s mentality and the mentality of his party.

"Why should a guy who grew up in Queens care about Confederate tradition in the first place?” Krugman asks. “The answer is that Trump and most of his party are reactionaries.”

Krugman goes on to explain that “from a reactionary’s point of view, the past three weeks have been a nightmare. Not only are marginal people who are supposed to know their place standing up for justice — they’re overwhelmingly winning the battle for public opinion.”

Trump, according to Krugman, has responded to the Floyd protests in a variety of ways — from “wild conspiracy theorizing” to “law and order” rhetoric that seeks to “turn the clock back to 1968.” Krugman is obviously referring to the fear-mongering 1968 presidential campaigns of President Richard Nixon and segregationist George Wallace.

Another tactic of the far right, Krugman observes, is claiming that the Floyd protests are being organized by extremists.

“On the right, it’s a given that mass popular demonstrations have been orchestrated by Antifa radicals, though there’s not a shred of evidence to that effect,” Krugman writes. “And Trump, famously, suggested that a 75-year-old man knocked over by the police — we’ve all seen the video of him bleeding out on the sidewalk — was an Antifa provocateur who somehow engineered his own assault.”

Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2020

Krugman points out that in the minds of far-right reactionaries, “the horror of the situation isn’t the possibility that protests might turn violent. It’s the fact that the protests are happening at all. And that’s why people like Trump and Tom Cotton have been so eager to send in the military.”

Moreover, Krugman says, reactionaries are terrified to see so many whites marching in the protests.

But Krugman ends his column with a warning: if far-right reactionaries believe they are losing public option, that could make them even worse.

“Don’t count the reactionaries out,” Krugman warns. “They remain extremely dangerous and will become more dangerous if, as seems increasingly likely, Trump finds himself staring at the prospect of electoral defeat.”