Election could stoke US marijuana market, sway Congress
By MICHAEL R. BLOOD October 25, 2020


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- In this Oct. 16, 2015 file photo, Jonathan Hunt, vice president of Monarch America, Inc., shows a marijuana plant while giving a tour of the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe's marijuana growing facility, in Flandreau, S.D. Voters in four states could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, setting the stage for a watershed year for the industry that could snowball into neighboring states as well as reshape policy on Capitol Hill. The Nov. 3, 2020, contests will take place in markedly different regions of the country, New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana and approval of the proposals would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation's deep political divide. (Joe Ahlquist/The Argus Leader via AP, File)

Voters in four states from different regions of the country could embrace broad legal marijuana sales on Election Day, and a sweep would highlight how public acceptance of cannabis is cutting across geography, demographics and the nation’s deep political divide.

The Nov. 3 contests in New Jersey, Arizona, South Dakota and Montana will shape policies in those states while the battle for control of Congress and the White House could determine whether marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

Already, most Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form and 11 now have fully legalized the drug for adults — Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. It’s also legal in Washington, D.C.

In conservative Mississippi, voters will consider competing ballot proposals that would legalize medicinal marijuana, which is allowed in 33 states.

Nick Kovacevich, CEO of KushCo Holdings, which supplies packaging, vape hardware and solvents for the industry, called the election “monumental” for the future of marijuana.

New Jersey, in particular, could prove a linchpin in the populous Northeast, leading New York and Pennsylvania toward broad legalization, he said.

“It’s laying out a domino effect ... that’s going to unlock the largest area of population behind the West Coast,” Kovacevich said.

The cannabis initiatives will draw voters to the polls who could influence other races, including the tight U.S. Senate battle in Arizona.

In Colorado, one supporter of legal cannabis could lose his seat. Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who is struggling in an increasingly Democratic state where some in the industry have lost faith in his ability to get things done in Washington.

Despite the spread of legalization in states and a largely hands-off approach under President Donald Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate has blocked cannabis reform, so under federal law marijuana remains illegal and in the same class as heroin or LSD. That has discouraged major banks from doing business with marijuana businesses, which also were left out in the coronavirus relief packages.

“Change doesn’t come from Washington, but to Washington,” said Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project. “States are sending a clear message to the federal government that their constituencies want to see cannabis legalization.”

The presidential election could also influence federal marijuana policy, though the issue has been largely forgotten in a campaign dominated by the pandemic, health care and the nation’s wounded economy.

Trump’s position remains somewhat opaque. He has said he is inclined to support bipartisan efforts to ease the U.S. ban on marijuana but hasn’t established a clear position on broader legalization. He’s appointed attorneys general who loath marijuana, but his administration has not launched crackdowns against businesses in states where pot is legal.

Joe Biden has said he would decriminalize — but not legalize — the use of marijuana, while expunging all prior cannabis use convictions and ending jail time for drug use alone. But legalization advocates recall with disgust that he was a leading Senate supporter of a 1994 crime bill that sent droves of minor drug offenders to prison.

Even if there are lingering doubts about Biden, the Democratic Party is clearly more welcoming to cannabis reform, especially its progressive wing. Vice presidential nominee and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California has said making pot legal at the federal level is the “smart thing to do.”

Familiar arguments are playing out across the states.

Opponents fear children will be lured into use, roads will become drag strips for stoned drivers and widespread consumption will spike health care costs.

Those backing legalization point out the market is already here, though in many cases still thriving underground, and argue that products should be tested for safety. Legal sales would mean tax money for education and other services, and social-justice issues are also in play, after decades of enforcement during the war on drugs.

An added push this year could come from the virus-damaged economy — states are strapped for cash and legalized cannabis holds out the promise of a tax windfall. One Arizona estimate predicts $255 million a year would eventually flow for state and local governments, in Montana, $50 million.

Despite the pandemic and challenges including heavy taxes and regulation, marijuana sales are climbing. Arcview Market Research/BDSA expects U.S. sales to climb to $16.3 billion this year, up from $12.4 billion in 2019.

In New Jersey, voters are considering a constitutional amendment that would legalize marijuana use for people 21 and over. It’s attracted broad support in voter surveys. If approved, it’s unclear when shops would open. The amendment also subjects cannabis to the state’s sales tax, and lets towns and cities add local taxes.

The Arizona measure known as Proposition 207 would let people 21 and older possess up to an ounce or a smaller quantity of concentrates, allow for sales at licensed retailers and for people to grow their own plants. Retail sales could start in May. State voters narrowly rejected a previous legalization effort in 2016.

If Montana voters approve, sales would start in 2022. Montana passed a medicinal marijuana law in 2004 and updated it in 2016. The proposed law would allow only owners of current medical marijuana businesses to apply for licenses to grow and sell marijuana for the broader marketplace for the first year.

Perhaps no other state epitomizes changing views more than solidly conservative South Dakota, which has some of the country’s strictest drug laws.

The sparsely populated state could become the first to approve medicinal and adult-use marijuana at the same time. However, legalizing broad pot sales would be a jump for a state where lawmakers recently battled for nearly a year to legalize industrial hemp, a non-intoxicating cannabis plant.

Meanwhile, a confusing situation has unfolded in Mississippi, after more than 100,000 registered voters petitioned to put Initiative 65 on the ballot. It would allow patients to use medical marijuana to treat debilitating conditions, as certified by physicians. But legislators put an alternative on the ballot, which sponsors of the original proposal consider an attempt to scuttle their effort.

Hawkins is among those already looking toward 2021, when a new round of states could move toward legalization, including New York and New Mexico.

“There is clearly a tide,” Hawkins said. “We are moving toward a critical mass of states that ... will bring about the end of federal prohibition on cannabis.”

___

Associated Press writers Michael Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Bob Christie in Phoenix; Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana; Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi; and Nick Riccardi in Denver contributed.

For transgender activists, election stokes hopes and fears

By DAVID CRARYOctober 25, 2020

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FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020 file photo, transgender activist Sarah McBride, who hopes to win a seat in the Delaware Senate, campaigns at the Claymont Boys & Girls Club in Claymont, Del. McBride, who has long-standing ties to Delaware’s best-known political family, says, “I am very aware of the stark contrast between the president we could have (Biden) and the president we now have. ... There has never been a moment in the fight for trans equality with such potential and at the same time such risk.” (AP Photo/Jason Minto)

Among transgender-rights activists, there’s a powerful mix of hope and fear heading toward the Nov. 3 election. They’re yearning for President Donald Trump’s defeat but dreading the possibility that his administration might win four more years and continue targeting them with hostile policies.

“The stakes are extremely high,” said Shannon Minter, a transgender attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights. “It seems clear that President Trump intends to use the full power of the presidency and the executive branch to inflict maximum damage on the transgender community.”

Among the administration’s moves that have been decried by activists:

— A near-total ban on military service by transgender people.

— Support from administration attorneys for efforts to prevent transgender girls from competing in Idaho K-12 girls’ sports and university women sports and from doing so in Connecticut high school girls’ sports.

— A move to end health-care protections for trans people provided by Affordable Care Act.

— Moves to eliminate anti-discrimination protections for trans people in homeless shelters and for trans students in schools.

Adding to activists’ anxiety is the continuing violence directed at transgender people.

There have been at least 33 violent deaths of transgender or gender nonconforming people this year in the U.S., according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ-rights organization. That’s the highest yearly total since the group began tracking transgender killings in 2013.

On Oct. 16, former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic rival in the presidential election, issued what the Human Rights Campaign described as his strongest statement of the campaign supporting trans issues. He decried the anti-trans violence and asserted that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence “have fueled the flames of transphobia.”

The White House press office in an email exchange declined to comment on Biden’s statement.

“Every day it feels like there are new horrors to confront about the future, and the types of attacks we will encounter,” said Chase Strangio, who leads transgender-justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT and HIV Project.

Even as he worries about what might lie ahead under a second term for Trump, Strangio is encouraged by the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in June affirming that gays, lesbians and transgender people are protected from discrimination in employment under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Strangio played a lead role on the legal team for one of the plaintiffs in that case -- Aimee Stephens, who was fired from her job at a Detroit-area funeral home after her employer learned she was transgender. The Supreme Court ruled a month after Stephens’ death that her firing in 2013 violated the civil rights law.

Overall, Strangio is concerned that Trump’s appointments of more than 200 federal judges – and the likely addition of conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court -- is creating a federal judiciary that may not defend transgender rights.

“If Trump loses, I’m hopeful we’ll see federal agencies reversing the many anti-trans policies that the Trump administration has adopted,” Strangio said. “However, we can expect that any trans-inclusive agency policies will be challenged in court and we will have to defend them before increasingly hostile judges.”

The run-up to the election has been a mix of excitement and apprehension for trans activist Sarah McBride, who has been a spokeswoman for the Human Rights Campaign for several years and is now running for a seat in the Delaware Senate.

She easily won the Democratic primary in her Wilmington-area district and is a favorite to become the first trans member of any state Senate in the nation.

McBride has long-standing ties to Delaware’s best-known political family. She worked on the late Beau Biden’s campaigns for state attorney general, and Beau’s father, Joe Biden, wrote the foreword to her memoir.

“I am very aware of the stark contrast between the president we could have (Biden) and the president we now have,” McBride said. “There has never been a moment in the fight for trans equality with such potential and at the same time such risk.”

Kris Hayashi, executive director of the California-based Transgender Law Center, suggested there would be challenges for trans-rights activists at the state level even if a Biden victory leads to more trans-friendly federal policies.

“We are likely to see legislatures continue to enact — and even escalate — a Trump administration playbook at the state level, with increased trans athletics ban bills, medical ban bills, and bad bills around public accommodations access,” Hayashi said via email.

One was signed into law in Idaho in March -- prohibiting transgender students who identify as female from playing on female teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the law in April, and a federal judge blocked the law’s implementation while the case proceeds.

In issuing an injunction, U.S. District Judge David Nye wrote that the law’s ban on transgender athletes “stands in stark contrast to the policies of elite athletic bodies that regulate sports both nationally and globally.”

Shannon Minter, the National Center for Lesbian Rights attorney, noted that Nye was appointed by Trump and praised the judge’s “incredibly positive, thoughtful decision.”

“That was a powerful reminder to me that even conservative judges, and by extension, people generally, value fairness and inclusion,” Minter said.

The Trump administration weighed in to support the Idaho law, saying in a court filing by the Justice Department that it did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The administration filed a similar document in March in another federal lawsuit in Connecticut.

A conservative group, the American Principles Project, has been striving for months to draw attention to the issue of transgender sports participation, hoping to build support for bans on trans girls and trans women competing in female sports.

The group’s executive director, Terry Schilling, was a guest on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show in August, and both said that the Trump campaign should highlight the question of transgender sports participation. But the topic did not catch on as a major election campaign issue.

A bill proposing the kind of ban envisioned by Schilling was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in January and a similar bill was introduced in the Senate in September.

But neither has advanced to the committee hearings needed for the bills to reach the chamber floors for a vote.

Cathay Pacific: with deadline looming, Hong Kong flight attendants threaten collective action over new contracts that will slash pay


Union says it has full support of membership and will ‘act fast’ if necessary after general meeting where some broke down in tears

Pilots for the city’s flag carrier, meanwhile, push for a meeting with the labour commissioner over take-it-or-leave-it deals offered without consultation


Phila Siu
Published: 9:36pm, 26 Oct, 2020

Cathay Pacific flight attendants arrive for a meeting to determine their next steps as an unpopular contract offer looms. Photo: Winson Wong


Cathay Pacific’s flight attendants union has threatened to mobilise its members for collective action if the airline refuses to postpone next week’s deadline for accepting a new contract that will slash wages by up to 40 per cent.

The threat came as the union representing the airline’s pilots, who are also facing a substantial pay cut, requested a Tuesday meeting with the labour commissioner to discuss the preservation of their “statutory rights”.

Both groups have been told they face termination if they do not accept the new contracts.

After surviving mass lay-offs, Cathay staff face dilemma over new contracts
22 Oct 2020



Representing most of the airline’s 8,000 flight attendants, the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union held an emergency general meeting on Monday. Some 360 members took part, while another 140 were forced to wait outside due to the size of the venue at a Tung Chung hotel.

After the four-hour meeting, the union said its members had pledged their full support for any potential collective action.

People pose for photographs near Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Robert Ng

“Our members have floated different suggestions for actions. There are still a lot of things we need to consider. At the moment, I cannot explain in detail,” said union vice chairwoman Amber Suen. “But as to when we will take the actions … the deadline is coming, so we will act fast.”

Last week, Cathay announced Hong Kong’s biggest mass lay-offs in three decades, axing 5,300 jobs in the city and closing its Cathay Dragon brand in a desperate restructuring attempt to survive the coronavirus pandemic. The sackings encompassed 4,000 cabin crew, 600 pilots and 700 ground staff and office workers.

The airline then asked the remaining 8,000 flight attendants to sign new contracts the union said would cut their wages by 20 to 40 per cent. Cathay set November 4 as the deadline, but sought to encourage earlier sign-ups by offering a one-off payment to those accepting the offer by Wednesday.

The pay cut has sparked frustration among cabin crew staff, many of whom were already bringing home less pay due to the drastic reduction in the number of flights.

Flight attendants who joined the airline before 1996 and were on contracts offering a more generous retirement payment have also been asked to accept a new formula to calculate that sum. Under the new formula, some senior flight attendants interviewed said they would be taking home about HK$200,000 (US$26,000) less at the end of their tenure.

Pilots union tells Hong Kong-based members not to sign new pay-slashing contracts
23 Oct 2020


Suen said some members became so emotional at the meeting they broke down in tears. Others who had already signed the contracts said they regretted doing so.

The union’s chairwoman, Zuki Wong Sze-man, said the airline had spent months working on its restructuring and thus it was unreasonable to give staff just 14 days to study the new contracts.

The union, which is also demanding the contracts be made short term rather than permanent, will sit down again with Cathay management on Tuesday, after a meeting last week failed to narrow the dispute between the two sides.

A flight attendant who has worked at Hong Kong’s de facto flag carrier for 26 years said she intended to sign because she did not want to lose her job.



“I have no choice. I just have to sign it,” she said, adding it would be difficult for the union to bargain for better terms given the company’s financial struggles during the pandemic.


Another flight attendant who had been with the airline for more than a decade said she was disappointed by the new contract, but also intended to sign it.



“The new contract is so disrespectful,” she said. “It’s not like I have done anything wrong at work to deserve this.”

Cathay likely to retain axed subsidiary’s routes, but push for transparency ongoing
23 Oct 2020



One veteran flight attendant expressed anger over an internal email in which management indicated staff who had already signed the new deals would be enough to keep the airline operational until next year, suggesting they were not sincere in wanting the rest to stay.



She also noted that flight attendants who joined the airline before 1996 would normally get more than HK$1 million on retirement. The formula for calculating that payout under the new deal, however, would reduce that amount by about HK$200,000.


Meanwhile, Tad Hazelton, chairman of Cathay’s pilot union, on Monday sent a letter to Commissioner of Labour Carlson Chan Ka-shun requesting an urgent meeting for the next day.



He cited a recent Labour Department statement on the Cathay saga, which said the airline should consult and secure consent from its employees prior to changing the terms of their employment contracts.

Travel agents fear cash squeeze as Cathay targets tickets sales in money-saving move
26 Oct 2020



“No such consultation has occurred between the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) and the management of Cathay Pacific,” Hazelton said.


The meeting with Chan or senior representatives of his department would be to discuss preserving “the statutory rights and upholding the moral obligations of Cathay Pacific to its pilots”, he said.


The AOA represents about 2,200 Cathay pilots. The pilots also have until Wednesday next week to sign new contracts they said would cut their wages by 40 to 60 per cent.


In a statement, Cathay said it was aware of the views expressed by staff at Monday’s union meeting and that management would be conducting further dialogue with cabin crew representatives.


“We encourage our crew to consider the reality of the global economic environment – particularly in our aviation industry – and we want each and every one of them to join us and be part of Cathay Pacific’s future,” the airline said.




This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Union wants contract deadline extended

‘Where’s our democracy?’: Thai protesters march on German embassy, urge Berlin to pressure king

Pro-democracy demonstrators are demanding the European country investigate King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s actions while away from the kingdom

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha acknowledged some of the protesters’ concerns in parliament, but warned that the country needed to control illegal rallies

SCMP Reporters
Published: 10:47pm, 26 Oct, 2020

Pro-democracy demonstrators march to the German Embassy in central Bangkok on Monday as lawmakers debated in a special session in parliament. Photo: AP

Thailand’s pro-democracy protesters massed outside the German embassy in Bangkok on Monday night as their movement sought a wider international spotlight, pulling the monarchy deeper into the heart of their demands for reform.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn spends much of his time in Germany, angering many
Thais who receive snippets of his high living through the European country’s tabloid press.

Thai protesters rally at German embassy, calling for Berlin to investigate Thai king

Now, the protesters are demanding accountability of the king, with about 10,000 of them marching to the embassy to deliver a petition calling for Berlin to investigate whether the Thai king has been orchestrating domestic politics from his overseas retreat.

The embassy was ringed by police buses and a deep line of riot police – a sign of the rising tensions on the streets of the politically combustible Thai capital

“I want Germany to see what is happening in our country while the king lives over there,” said Palm, a 24-year-old protester who was waving a German flag and asked to be identified by her first name. “Why are we so poor when he is so rich? Why do we have no democracy while he lives over there in a democratic country?”

In their petition, one of the main protest groups, Khana Ratsadon or “The People”, urged Germany to investigate the king’s actions while away from Thailand in order to “bring Thailand back to the path of the truthful constitutional monarchy”.

Thailand’s monarchy, super rich and the apogee of a power pyramid supported by the army and tycoons, is cloaked from criticism or accountability by a royal defamation law – one the protesters are openly flouting.

Germany has also become increasingly uneasy over the king’s stay in its country, with the German foreign minister on Monday again questioning the potential illegality of
Vajiralongkorn ruling Thailand from European soil.

“We have not only been looking into that in recent weeks, but on a regular basis,” Heiko Maas said. “If there are things we consider to be illegal, that will have immediate consequences.”

Thailand protests: How it all started

The king must sign off on Thai laws and is seen as the ultimate political authority in Thailand and the pillar holding up Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s unpopular government, despite being cast as above politics.

“The Germans must pressure the king … then he might kick out Prayuth,” said Praew, 42, who also gave just one name on concerns for her safety.

Protesters say the palace must be constrained within the constitution as laid down by the 1932 Thai revolution, which ended the system of absolute monarchy.

Why are there protests in Thailand and what will happen next?
21 Oct 2020


But their calls for reform of the monarchy have opened old divides within the country – with royalists, including the army-aligned establishment and an older generation of conservatives, outraged by the calls for changes to the way Thailand’s highest institution operates.

Faced with an unprecedented challenge to his authority, the king has made equally unseen public-relations moves of his own to rally his supporters. In a rare walkabout among yellow-shirted loyalists on Friday night outside the Grand Palace, the king was directed by Queen Suthida to a man who had held a royal portrait aloft in the middle of a recent pro-democracy rally.

In candid cellphone video, the king was heard saying to the prostrated man: “Very brave, good job, thank you.” It was a an apparent chance encounter pinged across
social media in what many saw as a rallying cry for royalists.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha during a special parliament session to discuss Thailand’s current political situation. Photo: Reuters

But for the protesters, it meant another chance to to mock and subvert the language of Thai leaders, and on Monday night they chanted “Very good, very brave, thank you” as they arrived at the embassy.

So far there has been little firm international reaction to Thailand’s youth-led protests, with the US and European Union – the usual first responders to human rights issues – staying quiet, while China has stuck to its policy of refusing to enter into the domestic politics of other countries.

“We are monitoring this long term,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Monday of Vajiralongkorn’s presence in his country. “It will have immediate consequences if there are things that we assess to be illegal.”

Thailand protests snowball as royalists blame foreigners
26 Oct 2020


Protesters say they are drawing their strength in part from the Milk Tea Alliance – a social media movement linking Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thai pro-democracy protesters against their government opponents.

Small but colourful protests in Japan and Korea in support of the Thai protesters have also signalled a widening of interest in the outcome of the pro-democracy demonstrations.

And the Thai movement has caused another ripple in Laos, a secretive communist nation where fear of the government hushes any challenge. There, the hashtag “if Laos’ politics was good” has bounced around social media in an unprecedented questioning of the government.

Thousands defy gathering ban to attend pro-democracy protest in Thailand

Also on Monday, the opposition bloc in parliament called on Prayuth to resign in a heated special session to discuss the snowballing pro-democracy protests, said Sompong Amornvivat, leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party, the largest single party in parliament.

“You should resign … and all will end well,” he said during the parliamentary session.

Opening the session, Prayuth acknowledged some of the demonstrators’ concerns but warned that the country needed to “control illegal protests”.

Thai protests: is Milk Tea Alliance stirring global support?
25 Oct 2020


Thailand has sunk into political crisis after months of protests across the country, with tens of thousands now regularly massing in Bangkok calling for the government of Prayuth, the former head of the army, to resign, the drawing up of a new constitution and the release of dissidents.

Seasoned political players see the parliamentary session as a sign the street movement is starting to gain traction in the political arena, where Prayuth and his allies have staunchly refused to respond.

“It‘s highly likely that the two-day extraordinary session will turn up the heat of the already sizzling political atmosphere,” Chaturon Chaisang, a veteran politician from the pro-democracy bloc and former activist, posted on his Facebook page

.

Pro-democracy demonstrators shine their mobile phone lights as they march to the German embassy in central Bangkok on Monday. Photo: AP

Others said the session, which runs through Wednesday, is little more than a game of political dress-up.

With a debate-only format, the session is “all style over substance”, Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang, a law professor at Chulalongkorn University told This Week in Asia. “It doesn‘t move any needles and the protesters definitely won’t fall for it. We will see more escalation on the streets.”

Thai king’s praise for defiant loyalist amid protests draws controversy
24 Oct 2020



He added: “One would think that some kind of a compromise on constitutional change would quell some tensions, but it‘s very clear that the government plans to drag its feet as long as possible.”

The protesters on Monday also submitted a letter to a German embassy official.

Nititorn Lumlua, a lawyer who helped organise the gathering at the embassy, said the protesters hoped German authorities would get accurate information about the political situation in Thailand.

The German government has already warned the Thai king not to rule his country remotely from its soil.

The king, who ascended to the Thai throne in 2016, has been back home since early October and plans to stay until next month.


This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Germany pressured to question king’s status

Belarus strike action begins

Belarusian factory workers, students and pensioners have taken to the streets in a nationwide strike. President Alexander Lukashenko remains defiant after 11 weeks of mass protests



Factory workers, students and business owners in Belarus began a general strike on Monday to demand that President Alexander Lukashenko step down after more than two months of continuing mass protests following a disputed election.

Lukashenko ignored an ultimatum to surrender power by midnight over claims his August 9 re-election was rigged. The authoritarian leader had challenged his opponents to carry out a threat to paralyze Belarus with strikes.

Police used stun grenades as more than 100,000 people gathered in Minsk, Grodno, Brest and other cities. The Interior Ministry said police made 523 arrests across the country


Watch video   https://p.dw.com/p/3kRAQ
Belarus police fire stun grenades at protesters

"The regime has once again showed the Belarusians that violence is the only thing it is capable of,'' said civil rights activist and exiled opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in a statement from neighboring Lithuania.

The Belarusian human rights organization Viasna said that more than 255 people had been detained at strikes and other protests in the country on Monday.

Students in several universities refused to attend lectures and marched in Minsk in protest. Hundreds of small private companies declared Monday a non-working day. Meanwhile, shops and cafes closed their doors, with their owners and employees forming human chains all over Minsk.

Several thousand retirees marched in the capital in their regular Monday protest to demand Lukashenko quit.

"We don't see, hear or run well, but we understand perfectly well that Lukashenko lost," read one of the banners carried by the pensioners.
Lukashenko mocks strikers

Factories carrying out strikes included oil company Belarusneft, fertilizer giant Belaruskali, automakers MAZ, MZKT and Belkommunmash, tractor manufacturer MTZ and appliance maker Atlant, the opposition movement said in a statement.

Managers "tried to intimidate people with riot police in the usual collective-farm manner, yelling at the workers and resorting to ridiculous threats to deprive them of pay. This only reminds them of why they took to the streets," the statement said.

Lukashenko scoffed, asking "who will feed the kids?" if workers at state-owned enterprises went on strike.

The latest twist in the standoff was being closely watched Monday by neighboring Russia and Western governments.

Students at the Belarusian State University in Minsk carried out a sit-in as part of the general strike

No details on turnout

Tsikhanouskaya on her social media Telegram channel had called on private businesses, clergy and athletes to join and observe the general strike call.

"Employees of state factories and enterprises, transport workers and miners, teachers and students have gone on strike this morning," she announced.

The 38-year-old did not provide figures on participation.

The head of Belarus' Confederation of Democratic Trade Unions, Alexander Yaroshuk, warned that it was hard to calculate turnout, "given the authorities' massive pressure."

Accounts of Lukashenko's crackdown since August include harrowing scenes of abuse in jails, thousands of arrests, and several deaths.

Travel bans and asset freezes against Belarus officials accused of election fraud were recently imposed by the United States, the EU, Britain and Canada.

Watch video  https://p.dw.com/p/3kRAQ
EU agrees to target Belarus with new sanctions

mvb, ab/msh

Exclusive: EU taps Chinese technology linked to Muslim internment camps in Xinjiang

In the fight against coronavirus, the EU is using thermal cameras produced by Chinese tech giant Hikvision. The firm has been linked to the oppression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang province.

Two EU institutions are using technology produced by China's Hikvision, a firm that has been accused of providing surveillance equipment to Muslim internment camps in the country's northwest Xinjiang province.

Hikvision describes itself as "the world's leading video surveillance products supplier."

The Chinese tech giant has its European base in the Netherlands and has not been subject to any EU sanctions or blacklist measures.

Officials at the European Parliament and the European Commission acquired the company's thermal imaging cameras as part of the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus.

The gadgets can detect a high temperature or fever, which is a common symptom of COVID-19.

Anyone with a temperature of more than 37.7°C (99.86°F) is denied entry.

Ministers, parliamentarians, senior diplomats, and staffers are asked to briefly stare into one of Hikvision's cameras as soon as they enter the buildings in question.

Many will have been unaware they will come face to face with a firm accused of contributing to human rights abuses in China.

Hikvision's thermal cameras are being used at the entrances of European Parliament

Trump blacklisted Hikvision last year

US President Donald Trump's administration decided to blacklist the Chinese company in October last year.

Washington added Hikvision to what is known as the US Entity List, a register of companies believed to pose a threat to national security or US foreign policy interests.

The move bans American companies from doing business with the firm without the government's approval.

In return, Hikvision is effectively barred from buying American products or software.

The Trump administration says the company has been "implicated in the implementation of China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other members of Muslim minority groups."

Read more: US blacklists 28 Chinese companies over Xinjiang 'rights abuses'

The US also accuses the company of being linked to the Chinese military, a charge the tech giant denies.

European Parliament, Commission turn to Hikvision

The allegations surrounding Hikvision's business dealings in Xinjiang are in the public domain.

Yet staff at the EU institutions acquired the company's thermographic cameras when they brought in new coronavirus safety measures to fight the pandemic.

The cameras have been placed at entrances throughout the European Parliament.

A DW journalist also saw similar Hikvision equipment installed at the European Commission's main offices, the Berlaymont and Charlemagne buildings, in the heart of the Belgian capital's European quarter.

A Hikvision thermographic camera at the main entrance of the Berlaymont building, the European Commission's headquarters

Two staffers, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the EU's executive arm will bring in more thermal screening hardware at other offices in the Belgian capital. The Commission has some 60 buildings in Brussels.

A European Commission spokesperson, however, told DW that Hikvision equipment will not be used for the rest of the buildings.

Hikvision has faced repeated accusations over its alleged links to brutal "re-education camps" in Xinjiang.

A leaked German Foreign Ministry report, obtained by DW in January of this year, said an estimated 1 million Uighurs in China are being detained without trial.

Ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and members of other Muslim minority groups are also being imprisoned, the report said.

In July this year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the detention centers "concentration camps" — a term disputed by Beijing.

This building, photographed in September 2018, is part of a detention center in Xinjiang

These allegations were put to Hikvision, in which the Chinese government holds a 40% controlling stake via the state-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

A Hikvision spokesperson, in an emailed statement to DW, said: "Hikvision takes all reports of human rights very seriously and recognizes our responsibility for protecting people. We have been engaging with governments globally to clarify misunderstandings about the company and address their concerns."

Hikvision, however, did not comment on DW's specific questions on the company's reported connection to the detention centers and other security contracts with authorities in Xinjiang.

A January 2020 report by the ethics council for the Norwegian government's pension fund said Hikvision signed five security and surveillance contracts in 2017 with the public authorities in Xinjiang worth more than €230 million ($273 million).

They included tenders for surveillance technology at internment camps, the report said.

It described another contract as providing "a network of around 35,000 cameras to monitor schools, streets and offices" and the "installation of facial recognition cameras at 967 mosques."

The ethics council's report recommended divesting from the company due to "an unacceptable risk that Hikvision, through its operations in Xinjiang, is contributing to serious human rights abuses."

Last month, Norges Bank, which manages the investments, said “the company is no longer in the fund's portfolio."

Hikvision has said in the past that it has no access to any data processed by its hardware and no information is sent to Beijing.

DW reported in February how technology is used to subject the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities to draconian methods of tracking and arrest.

Watch video https://p.dw.com/p/3kIDV
China's Uighurs: Imprisoned for their faith and culture

EU talks tough on China

EU officials' use of Hikvision technology seems to be at odds with the bloc's own policy goals, given that it has been a repeated critic of China's human rights record.

The European Parliament gave its annual human rights prize to Uighur activist Ilham Tohti in 2019, who has been jailed for life.

On Sunday, his daughter Jewher tweeted that she had not had any contact with him for three years.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Beijing at an EU-China summit in June that "human rights and fundamental freedoms are non-negotiable."
European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs the regular meetings of EU leaders, has also been critical of Chinese repression.

"We will not stop promoting respect for universal human rights, including those of minorities such as the Uighurs," the ex-Belgian PM said in a speech to the UN General Assembly last month.


European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel give an online press conference after the EU-China summit in June 2020

EU urged to cut Hikvision ties

German Green MEP Reinhard Bütikofer, who heads the European Parliament's China delegation, said that DW's revelations of the use of Hikvision technology were "extremely disturbing."

"It points to a shameful lack of due diligence in procurement," he told DW in a telephone interview. "Hikvision is a tech company that is deeply complicit in the terrible oppression of the Uighur people in Xinjiang which borders on genocide."

Bütikofer said EU officials should "immediately create transparency and draw the adequate consequences: i.e. sever any direct or indirect business relationship with Hikvision."

Charlie Weimers, a Swedish MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, said: "The EU should have no dealings whatsoever with a Chinese firm that is alleged to be involved in some of the most abhorrent human rights abuses in the world."

"Nobel Prize winners should adhere to a higher standard," he added.

In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights."

VIDEO https://p.dw.com/p/3kIDV 

Uighurs targeted: Ex-prisoners reveal forced confessions

Question marks over EU procurement

DW has been unable to locate any public tenders for the equipment on the EU's procurement websites.

Parliamentary insiders, who work on the European Parliament's budget committee, also say there is no trace of them in any public EU records.

Internal rules say that contracts can be kept secret if they are linked to "special security measures."


The European Parliament and the European Commission were asked to provide the documents linked to the hardware's acquisition.

Officials at both institutions did not provide them by the time of publication.

Given that neither Hikvision, nor its European subsidiaries, have been blacklisted by the EU, there is no suggestion of any illegality.

"The equipment is neither connected to Parliament's IT network, nor registers any data," said a European Parliament spokesperson in a written response to DW.

The spokesperson declined to confirm if Hikvision technology was being used in Brussels.

When DW provided photos of the cameras, she said: "We cannot comment further on anything related to security."

A spokesperson for the European Commission, in a written statement to DW, has since said the cameras were "purchased under an existing framework contract."

This article has been updated to include the European Commission's response to DW's exclusive report. The statement was received after the article was published.

NASA to launch delicate stowing of Osiris-Rex asteroid samples

Issued on: 27/10/2020 - 

Osiris-Rex is on a mission that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system, but that hit a snag after it picked up too big of a sample from an asteroid 

Handout NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University/AFP


Washington (AFP)

NASA's robotic spacecraft Osiris-Rex is set to begin on Tuesday a delicate operation to store the precious particles it scooped up from the asteroid Bennu, but which were leaking into space when a flap got wedged open.

The probe is on a mission to collect fragments that scientists hope will help unravel the origins of our solar system, but that hit a snag after it picked up too big of a sample.

Fragments from the asteroid's surface are in a collector at the end of the probe's three-meter (10-foot) arm, slowly escaping into space because some rocks have prevented the compartment closing completely.


That arm is what came into contact with Bennu for a few seconds last Tuesday in the culmination of a mission launched from Earth some four years ago.

The probe is thought to have collected some 400 grams (14 ounces) of fragments, far more than the minimum of 60 grams needed, NASA said previously.

Scientists need to stow the sample in a capsule that is at the probe's center, and the operation was moved up to Tuesday from the planned November 2 date due to the leak.

"The abundance of material we collected from Bennu made it possible to expedite our decision to stow," said Dante Lauretta, project chief.

Osiris-Rex is set to come home in September 2023, hopefully with the largest sample returned from space since the Apollo era.

The stowing operation will take several days, NASA said, because it requires the team's oversight and input unlike some of Osiris-Rex's other operations that run autonomously.

After each step in the process the spacecraft will send information and images back to Earth so scientists can make sure everything is proceeding correctly.

The probe is so far away that it takes 18.5 minutes for its transmissions to reach Earth, and any signal from the control room requires the same amount of time to reach Osiris-Rex.

© 2020 AFP

Facebook content moderators call for better treatment

Issued on: 27/10/2020 -

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is to face a grilling by the Senate over politically charged content on his platform: but current and former Facebook content moderators say their voices are all too often ignored 

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS AFP


San Francisco (AFP)

As Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg prepares to be grilled by a Senate committee about the handling of politically-charged posts, content moderators are insisting that properly valuing their work is key.

Two former content moderators contracted in the US to make judgment calls on posts, and one other currently tackling the same challenge took part in a conference call with reporters on Monday.

The former and current content moderators expressed concerns about posts intended to cause trouble or bedevil the outcome of the forthcoming election.

The worker still on the job spoke under condition of anonymity, since such positions involve non-disclosure agreements restricting what they can say about their work,

"I certainly am not supposed to tell the truth about my work in public," the Facebook content moderator said.

"The truth is this work is incredibly important but it's done completely wrong and while the policy is constantly changed the situation seems to get worse."

The current and former content moderators described stressful hours spent focused on torrents of hateful, disturbing posts with little regard given to their feedback or their well-being.

They called for Facebook to find a way to make them and their colleagues full-time employees, complete with the benefits for which tech companies are renowned, instead of keeping them at arms-length by outsourcing the work.

"Facebook could fix most of its problems if it would move away from outsourcing, value its moderators, and build them into its policy processes," said former content moderator Allison Trebacz.



"Moderators are the heart of Facebook’s business - that's how they should be treated."

Zuckerberg has pushed back against concerns about hateful or violent posts at the social network by saying the social network has invested heavily in artificial intelligence and real humans to take down content violating its policies.

The bulk of that army of content moderators are contracted and their viewpoints -- hard-won on the frontlines of the battle -- are typically ignored, according to those who took part in the press briefing.

"I became a Facebook content moderator because I believed I could help make Facebook safer for my community and other communities who use it," said Viana Ferguson, who left the job last year.

"But again and again, when I tried to address content that dripped with racism, or was a clear threat, I got told to get in line, our job was to agree."

Zuckerberg and Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey are to testify Wednesday before a Senate committee exploring the potential to weaken legal protections given to online platforms when it comes to what users post there.

© 2020 AFP

US elections: Four years on, many in America's coal country still trust Trump

Issued on: 27/10/2020 - 
Text by:Sam BALL
Video by:Sam BALL

Gillette, Wyoming, calls itself the 'Energy Capital of the World' and is at the centre of the state's coal mining industry. It is also one of the most pro-Donald Trump towns in America.

In 2016, 88 percent of people in Campbell County, where Gillette is located, voted for Trump after he promised to protect jobs for coal miners.

But four years on the future of the town looks uncertain. Coal production in the state is declining at almost half of what it was in 2008 and falling a further nine percent in 2019, leading to mine closures and job losses.

Lynne Huskinson was among those who found herself unemployed when two coal mines in the region shut last year after their owner went bankrupt.

Now, she is running for the Wyoming State House of Representatives as a Democrat.

"Has Donald Trump helped coal? No. Because it was a campaign ploy. I don't think he understood anything about coal, I think he knew that it was a dying resource," she told France 24.

But many here still support the president.


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Among them is coal miner and city council candidate Eric Hanson.

"I will vote on November 3rd and I will vote for President Trump," he told France 24.

"I have a lot of friends who have lost jobs and had to either look for another coal mining job at one of the mines that were still open or find a different occupation. Those are things that are out of his control. I believe he is not for getting rid of jobs in the coal industry or any of the other energy industries."

Click on the video player above to watch the full report

Giving up on on controlling Covid-19 would be 'dangerous', WHO chief says

Issued on: 26/10/2020 -

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attending a WHO executive board special session on the Covid-19 response at the health agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on October 5, 2020. © Christopher Black, WHO, AFP

Text by:FRANCE 24

Head of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that "giving up on control" of the coronavirus pandemic was "dangerous", in response to comments from US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.

"We must not give up," Tedros told a virtual briefing.

He acknowledged that after months of battling Covid-19, which has claimed more than 1.1 million lives globally, a certain level of "pandemic fatigue" had set in.

"It's tough and the fatigue is real," Tedros said.

But we cannot give up," he added, urging leaders to "balance the disruption to lives and livelihoods".

"When leaders act quickly, the virus can be suppressed," he insisted.

His comment came a day after US President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows told CNN that the administration's focus had moved to mitigation, not stamping out the virus.

"We're not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations," Meadows said, comparing the more deadly Covid-19 to the seasonal flu.

Tedros said that giving up on virus controls was "dangerous".

When asked about the comments, WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan insisted that while mitigation of the effects of the pandemic were vital, efforts to beat the virus could not be abandoned.

"We should not give up on trying to suppress transmission," said Ryan.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)