Armenia asks Moscow for help amid Nagorno-Karabakh fighting

YEREVAN, Armenia — Armenia’s leader urged Russia on Saturday to consider providing security assistance to end more than a month of fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, and both sides in the hostilities accused each other of breaking a mutual pledge not to target residential areas hours after it was mad.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The fighting represents the biggest escalation in decades in a long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the separatist territory. As Azerbaijani troops pushed farther into Nagorno-Karabakh, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to quickly discuss possible security aid to Armenia.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.

Russia, which has a military base in Armenia and has signed a pact obliging it to protect its ally in case of foreign aggression, faces a delicate balancing act, of trying to also maintain good ties with Azerbaijan and avoid a showdown with Turkey.

Pashinian’s request puts Russia in a precarious position: joining the fighting would be fraught with unpredictable consequences and risk an open conflict with Turkey, while refusing to offer protection to its ally Armenia would dent Moscow’s prestige.

Nagorno-Karabakh lies within Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a war there ended in 1994. The latest outburst of hostilities began Sept. 27 and left hundreds — perhaps thousands — dead, marking the worst escalation of fighting since the war’s end.

The foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan met Friday in Geneva for a day of talks brokered by Russia, the United States and France, co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that tries to mediate the decades-long conflict.

The talks concluded close to midnight with the two sides agreeing they “will not deliberately target civilian populations or non-military objects in accordance with international humanitarian law.”

But shortly after the mutual pledge was announced by the Minsk Group co-chairs, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities accused Azerbaijani forces of firing rockets at a street market and a residential building in the separatist region's capital, Stepanakert. They said that residential areas in the town of Shushi also came under Azerbaijani shelling.

In Stepanakert, shop owners came to their stalls to collect their merchandise and clear the debris after the shelling.

“It seems they reached these agreements, but there is no truce at all,” said Karen Markaryan, a shop owner. "People don’t believe these empty words. And what will happen next is only known to God.”

Azerbaijan's defence ministry denied targeting civilian areas, and in turn accused Armenian forces of shelling several regions of Azerbaijan.

The rapid failure of the latest attempt to contain the fighting follows the collapse of three successive cease-fires. A U.S.-brokered truce frayed immediately after it took effect Monday, just like two previous cease-fires negotiated by Russia. The warring sides have repeatedly blamed each other for violations.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has insisted that Azerbaijan has the right to reclaim its territory by force after three decades of fruitless international mediation. He said that Armenia must pledge to withdraw from Nagorno-Karabakh as a condition for a lasting truce.

Azerbaijani troops, which have relied on strike drones and long-range rocket systems supplied by Turkey, have reclaimed control of several regions on the fringes of Nagorno-Karabakh and pressed their offensive into the separatist territory from the south.

On Thursday, Nagorno-Karabakh’s separatist leader said Azerbaijani troops had advanced to within 5 kilometres (about 3 miles) of the strategically located town of Shushi just south of the region’s capital, Stepanakert, which sits on the main road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

With Azerbaijani troops moving deeper into Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia’s prime minister made his first public plea for Russia's assistance since the latest fighting started.

While Pashinian stopped short of directly asking Moscow to intervene militarily, he asked Putin to conduct “urgent consultations” on the “type and amount” of assistance that Russia could offer to ensure the security of Armenia. The Armenian leader argued that the fighting is raging increasingly close to the border of Armenia and pointed at alleged attacks on the Armenian territory.

During more than a month of fighting, Armenia and Azerbaijan have repeatedly accused each other of taking the fighting beyond Nagorno-Karabakh. Each side has denied the opposite claims.

Retired Lt. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhisnky, the former chief of the Russian Defence Ministry's international co-operation department, said Moscow would stay away from the conflict.

“I exclude the Russian military's involvement,” Buzhinsky was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “Azerbaijan is far too important for Russia to wage a war against it and Turkey.”

He noted that Azerbaijan has tried to avoid hitting Armenian territory, so “there is no reason for the Russian military intervention.”

According to Nagorno-Karabakh officials, 1,166 of their troops and 39 civilians have been killed. Azerbaijani authorities haven’t disclosed their military losses, but say the fighting has killed at least 91 civilians and wounded 400. Putin said last week that, according to Moscow’s information, the actual death toll was significantly higher and nearing 5,000.

___

Associated Press writers Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and Aida Sultanova in London contributed to this report.

Avet Demourian, The Associated Press

Russia to 'assist' Armenia if conflict with Azerbaijan spreads beyond Nagorno-Karabakh

Russia has pledged Armenia "all necessary assistance" if the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict expands to Armenian territory. Shelling has broken a fourth internationally mediated ceasefire bid.


Russia would be prepared to render "all necessary assistance" to treaty partner Armenia if the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict expanded to Armenian territory, Russia's Foreign Ministry declared Saturday.

Overnight, Armenia and Azerbaijan had again accused each other of shelling residential areas of the separatist Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh — internationally recognized as lying within Azerbaijan.

That followed a fourth ceasefire bid, negotiated Friday in Geneva via the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

At those six-hour talks, involving both countries' foreign ministers, the countries pledged not to target civilians and to provide lists of soldiers detained for potential exchanges.



Watch video 03:29
Fighting continues in Nagorno-Karabakh despite truce

Read more: Civilians suffer amid Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Armenia requests assistance

Early on Saturday, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had formally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for "urgent consultations" on security assistance, reiterating that Turkey was backing Azerbaijan.

Russia and Armenia have a 1997 mutual assistance treaty, with Russia maintaining a base in Armenia's second-largest city of Gyumri.

Weeks of fighting have claimed hundreds of lives in the Nagorno-Karabakh region

Read more: Fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh: Ethnic Armenians in limbo

Shelling asserted by both sides

Nagorno-Karabakh authorities said Saturday shelling had struck the central market in Stepanakert, the enclave's largest city. Armenia's Defense Ministry said several civilians had been wounded in Shushi in the enclave's south.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry denied both accusations and said Azeri regions of Terter, Aghdam and Aghjabedi had come under artillery fire.

The monthlong conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh has officially claimed more than 1,200 lives but the actual death toll on all sides is thought to be substantially higher.

ipj/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)


DW RECOMMENDS

Germany under pressure to take sides in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have called on Germany to take a more active role in condemning the other over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. But Berlin insists the two should come back to the negotiating table. 


Date 31.10.2020
Related Subjects Vladimir Putin, Armenia, Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Dmitry Medvedev
Keywords Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey

Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3kgwY

Trump seeks to lock in a set of irreversible foreign-policy decisions (opinion)

In the closing weeks of the presidential campaign, President Trump has been seeking a global legacy that will outlast his tenure, with or without a victory on Nov. 3, doing his best to cement a world order that a potential President Joe Biden could find most challenging to unravel.

US President Donald Trump gestures during a bilateral meeting with Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, on December 01, 2018. - Trump canceled a press conference planned for Saturday at the G20 summit, saying he wanted to show respect to the family of late president George H.W. Bush.

(Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo credit should read SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

The key question is whether foreign leaders — or even members of his own administration — are prepared to go along with his ideas, which in many cases appear to be only on the fringe of realistic, or even safe for America.

As a case in point, Trump appears devoted to his already-stated goal of bringing home all, or at least a large chunk, of the US troops still in Afghanistan by the end of the year. On Oct. 7, Trump tweeted (his preferred form for major military or foreign policy announcements) that he was planning to withdraw all these forces by Christmas. "We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!" the President tweeted. Only hours earlier, his national security adviser, Robert O'Brien, had said that the number of US troops in Afghanistan would be drawn down to 2,500, but not until early next year.

The Trump tweet caught American commanders, from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on down, utterly by surprise.

Joe Biden has already laid down his own marker. In a September interview with Stars and Stripes, Biden said "these 'forever wars' have to end," but observed that on-the-ground realities in Afghanistan, as well as Syria and Iraq, require an American military presence without a concrete end-date. The day after Biden talked with Stars and Stripes, Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of US Central Command, said that American forces in Afghanistan would shrink from 8,600 to 4,500 by late October.

Even if a major foreign policy pronouncement never happens, Trump has already done his best to cement policies that could prove expensive, even dangerous, to unwind.

Several of these involve Israel. The diplomatic-recognition agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan leave several festering wounds that Biden would have to deal with. First, the deals require Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to temporarily refrain from acquiring land and establishing new settlements in the occupied West Bank. Yet barely a month after the signing ceremony, Israel reportedly approved the construction of more than 2,000 new homes across the West Bank, with a total of more than 4,000 on the agenda for approval by Israel's Civil Administration, the military-run unit that oversees the region's civilian affairs.

At the same time, the push continues for a new, permanent American embassy in Jerusalem. While the ambassador and a handful of aides are currently working out of the US Consulate building in that city, plans for a massive new embassy complex of 269,000 square feet are still on the drawing board. But just in case Biden, if elected, would have any interest in reversing these plans, Trump friend Sheldon Adelson quietly purchased the ambassador's residence in Tel Aviv last month for $80 million. Presumably, that would make it even harder for Biden to reverse Trump's decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, were he inclined to.

All these moves engineered by Trump have enraged the Palestinian community, and its leadership has effectively severed all ties with Washington. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the European Parliament on Oct. 12 that the only viable road to peace in the region was an end to a Trump presidency. "The election is very important. God help us, the EU, and the whole world if there are four more years of Trump," he said.

Beyond the Middle East, there are no shortages of other foreign policy and military initiatives that Trump has hustled through, the unwinding of which would pose substantial challenges for a Biden presidency.

In Africa, Trump has made several moves toward potentially dangerous withdrawals of American forces. The latest is the news this month that Trump has told advisers he plans to withdraw 700 American troops stationed in Somalia. That could only have been welcome news to al Shabab, the al Qaeda offshoot that analysts suspect has nearly 10,000 fighters and which the US Africa Command's top intelligence official cited as the "most capable" terrorist group on the continent. Across the continent in West Africa, Trump has also been talking about pulling out substantial American forces monitoring a host of terrorist groups operating across a vast swath of territory. This could also mean shuttering a $110 million drone base in Niger that has only recently gone into operation.

Beyond these trouble spots, there are other critical zones where Trump initiatives will need to be unwound in some fashion. The president appears anxious to cement a legacy in Russian-American arms negotiations, or at least to extend the New START agreement set to expire in February. Trump has already torpedoed several other critical agreements, by withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Scrapping or renegotiating the New Start treaty would complete the horrific trifecta of a bequest to a new administration. Initially, the Russians seemed to recognize the futility of trying to bring off a new pact by the end of a first Trump term: The Russian Foreign Ministry described as a "delusion" the American negotiator's claim that an agreement in principle had been reached. Still, Russia has proposed a one-year "extension" of the deal that could avoid changes that might advantage the US.

Then there are other areas like intelligence cooperation, where the 74-year-old Five Eyes cooperation between the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand has been threatened over friction about use of Huawei equipment in modernization.

Repositioning the United States by undoing a host of other Trump-era global initiatives — including, as Biden has pledged to do, returning to the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization — would be added burdens on a new administration. But for many diplomats, especially in Europe, that moment can't come too soon.

Harvard professor and former Kennedy School dean Joseph S. Nye Jr. told me in a conversation Thursday, before the start of a conference sponsored by Friends of Europe, that "a European diplomat told me, 'We can hold our breath for four years, but eight years?'"

This is the challenge facing the American electorate, as a host of global leaders and thinkers hope that American voters will make a choice that would enable the next administration to undo initiatives that are destabilizing to the world order and are becoming increasingly entrenched.

© Courtesy of David Andelman 

Borat' star gives church $100K after member appears in film

OKLAHOMA CITY — Actor Sacha Baron Cohen, who stars in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” donated $100,000 to the church of a woman who believed she was taking part in a documentary but instead was being featured in the mockumentary comedy film.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Jeanise Jones, 62, thought she had been recruited by her place of worship, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, in Oklahoma City to mentor a teenager named “Tutar” who came to the U.S. with her father from a developing nation. But Jones didn't find out until the film was released on Amazon Prime last week that “Tutar" was an actress and the man — whom she believed was the girl's father — was actually Cohen.

Rev. Derrick Scobey, the church's senior pastor, said Cohen made the donation on Wednesday. Scobey added that he and other church members also were not aware of the movie.

Scobey said he wasn’t surprised by the donation, just the amount, noting that the money had been earmarked for community use, The Oklahoman reported. Scobey added that Cohen knew the church is a community hub where people gather for spiritual hope and help.

A representative for Cohen declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

The movie follows Borat Sagdiyev, portrayed by Cohen, as he returns to America from Kazakhstan, with his daughter portrayed by Maria Bakalova, to offer a “bribe” to American leaders. It is a sequel to “Borat," which was released in 2006.

After the latest film’s debut, many on Twitter described Jones' character as the movie’s hero, moral compass and breakout star. But she's simply relieved that “Tutar” was never in trouble.

Jones has not seen the movie but she said one of the film's producers called to check on her after it was released. Cohen reached out to her on Wednesday, said Jones, who noted the call was “enlightening."

Scobey started a GoFundMe account for Jones, saying that she believed the scenario was real and that she lost her job as a counselling service receptionist job because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Jones said Thursday that she was surprised to hear $128,000 had already been donated.

“It is amazing. I would never expect nothing like this,” she added. “It’s blowing my mind.”

The film also features a scene with Rudy Giuliani, one of President Donald Trump's lawyers, in a compromising position in a hotel room with a young woman acting as a journalist. Trump previously told reporters aboard Air Force One that he didn’t know what happened with Giuliani.

The Associated Press

KLM pilots reject Dutch government's wage freeze demand

© Reuters/Axel Schmidt A KLM Boeing 737 plane lands at Tegel airport in Berlin

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The pilots' union of KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France , on Saturday declined to accept a wage freeze through to 2025, potentially endangering efforts to secure the company's future amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It said it had already agreed to a freeze lasting until March 2022, and changing the agreement at short notice was not feasible.

Other unions representing ground and cabin crews have agreed to the prolonged wage freeze, which is set to last as long as the airline receives government support.

On Friday the government said it would withhold payments from the 3.4 billon euro bailout package KLM is due to receive unless the company adjusted its restructuring plan to include the freezes.

Air France-KLM on Friday reported 67% drop in third-quarter revenue to 2.52 billion euros, underlining the airline's dire financial condition as a new COVID-19 surge poses further threats to an industry already crippled by the epidemic and a collapse in long-haul travel.Air France-KLM has 12.4 billion euros in liquidity, thanks largely to a French and Dutch government-backed bailout, a cash cushion comparable to that of European peers Lufthansa and IAG .

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; editing by John Stonestreet)

KLM 3.4bn bailout hits crisis as unions refuse paycut plan

The Dutch government on Saturday suspended plans to help beleaguered national carrier KLM with a multi-billion-euro bailout package after unions declined to sign a deal involving a five-year pay-cut plan.

© Koen van Weel The move puts the future of the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM into jeopardy, which said it would not remain afloat without a massive government injection to save KLM, the world's oldest airline hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic

The move puts the future of the Dutch arm of Air France-KLM into jeopardy, which said it would not remain afloat without a massive government injection to save KLM, the world's oldest airline hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.


"The planned state aid is not going through. It's disappointing but that's the case," Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra told reporters in The Hague.

"It's really important now that everybody take their responsibility and realise that KLM is in an existential crisis," the minister said after talks with KLM.

The Dutch cabinet's decision follows a day of intensive talks between KLM and its unions to try and reach agreement over the deal.

Hoekstra gave KLM and unions representing pilots, cabin and ground crew until 12:00 pm (1100 GMT) on Saturday to sign the agreement to unlock the 3.4 billion euro injection.

While talks are still ongoing with several unions, the Dutch pilots' union VNV have refused to sign what they termed a "last minute" change to conditions for the deal.

The bitter feud centres around a clause in the agreement which asks the troubled airline's staff to take salary cuts for the next five years.

KLM this week presented the Finance Ministry with the austerity plan, which demands a 15 percent cut in costs and will see 5,000 jobs being shed as a result of the global impact of the coronavirus pandemic on air travel.

It also included an agreement from unions to cut pilots' salaries until March 2022 and ground and cabin crew salaries until the start of 2023.

But Hoekstra on Friday turned down the plan, insisting on salary cuts to run concurrently with the government's five-year bailout package.

- 'Great uncertainty' -

"We have not signed," a VNV representative told AFP shortly after the deadline passed.

"We had an agreement in place with KLM on October 1 and now they (the government) are going back on it," said the representative, who declined to be named.

"A deal is a deal," he said.

Talks are also ongoing with umbrella union FNV which accused the government of "creating great uncertainty with changes at the 11th-hour".

"We do not understand why KLM and the cabinet require extra commitment at the last minute," FNV said in a statement to AFP.

But it added: "As FNV we will never endanger the future of KLM."

Some 3,000 pilots within the airline are said be the hardest hit by the austerity plan, with salary cuts of up to 20 percent, Dutch news reports said.

Other unions, however, have signed the deal including cabin crew union and the aerospace technicians' union, saying keeping KLM flying was the first priority.

"We're staring at the bottom of the barrel," Dutch Union of Aerospace Technicians (NVLT) chairman Robert Swankhuizen told the RTL Nieuws private broadcaster.

"Squabbling any longer jeopardises state aid," he said.

Air France-KLM posted a net loss of 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) for the third quarter, compared with a 363 million euros profit year-on-year.

Two lesbian couples marry in mass wedding held by Taiwan's military

Taiwan is the only place in Asia to have legalized gay marriage, with more than 4,000 same-sex couples marrying since the legislation passed in May 2019.

Yi Wang, right, and Yumi Meng pose during a military mass weddings ceremony in Taoyuan city, northern Taiwan, on Oct. 30, 2020.Chiang Ying-ying / AP

Oct. 30, 2020
By The Associated Press

TAOYUAN, Taiwan — Two lesbian couples tied the knot in a mass wedding held by Taiwan’s military on Friday in a historic celebration with their peers.

Taiwan is the only place in Asia to have legalized same-sex marriage, with more than 4,000 such couples marrying since the legislation passed in May 2019. The mass wedding with 188 couples was the first time same-sex couples have been wed and celebrated at a military ceremony.

Both couples viewed their ceremonies with a sense of responsibility towards representing the LGBTQ community.

“We are hoping that more LGBT people in the military can bravely stand up, because our military is very open-minded. In matters of love, everyone will be treated equally,” said Chen Ying-hsuan, 27, an army lieutenant who married Li Li-chen, 26

Chen Ying-Hsuan and her wife Li Chen-Chen, during a military mass wedding in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on Oct. 30, 2020.Ann Wang / Reuters

Chen wore a rainbow wristband and said she has always been open about her sexual orientation while serving.

The ceremony at an army base in the northern city of Taoyuan was brief. The couples took part in a parade and then exchanged rings in front of an audience of family members and their senior officers.

Yumi Meng, 37, and her wife, army Maj. Wang Yi, 36, wiped back tears as they exchanged rings. Meng wore sneakers under her wedding dress, while Wang wore her officer’s uniform. They each carried a pride flag throughout the ceremony.

Meng’s parents had not come to the celebration, but in support both of Wang’s parents as well as her teacher came out to support the couple.

“I really feel that this is a huge breakthrough for the military because before gay people really had to go through a lot,” said Amy Chao, mother to Wang. “Perhaps for heterosexual couples, it’s just a paper, but it’s very important for gay couples, if you’re sick or have to have a major surgery, if you don’t have this, then you are nothing, you can’t make a decision.”

Since same-sex marriage became legal in Taiwan, 4,021 such couples have married, with 69 percent of them lesbian couples, according to the most recent government data.

The military seemed an unlikely institution to be the site of a same-sex marriage, but in recent years has opened up, said Victoria Hsu, the Co-founder of Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights. “We hope this is a good sign to show that the armed forces’ attitude towards the LGBT community is becoming more supportive than before in Taiwan.”

That attitude was on full display Friday as it welcomed dozens of reporters to the wedding.

“Our attitude is that everyone should be treated equally, and we congratulate each and every couple, and this shows that our military’s position is open-minded, progressive and with the times,” Lt. Gen. Yang An told reporters at the wedding.

Taiwan hosts biggest in-person LGBTQ Pride event of post-Covid 2020

TAIPEI, Taiwan — An estimated 130,000 people attended Taiwan LGBT Pride on Saturday, making it the world’s biggest in-person celebration of gay rights since the pandemic began.  

© Provided by NBC News

The high turnout reinforced Taiwan’s image as a beacon of gay rights in Asia and one of the world’s safest places in the coronavirus era.

“I feel that Taiwan has really set an example, to be able to have a normal life and also to continue with this Pride event even though the world is not able to come this year,” said Eve Teo, 34, who lives in Taipei

.

© Chiang Ying-ying Image: Pride parade in Taipei (Chiang Ying-ying / AP)

In a year in which many global gay pride events have been canceled or moved online, Taiwan’s parade kicked off from outside Taipei City Hall, as scheduled, on the last Saturday in October.

Organizers said they expected it to be the biggest Pride event to take place this year since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in March.

The event was a colorful testament to Taiwan’s successful control of the coronavirus. The island of 24 million people has seen just 554 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including seven deaths, and no lockdowns. Taiwan’s last locally transmitted infection was recorded in April

.

 

Louise Watt Image: Pride parade in Taipei (Louise Watt / for NBC News)

                                                ©Louise Watt Image: Pride parade in Taipei (Louise Watt / for NBC News)
Organizers asked participants to wear masks, although many didn’t. Wearing a mask was Chen Yen-shuo, 25, who held up a sign offering “free hugs.” The software engineer from Taichung said the pandemic wasn’t stopping people from “Taiwan just legalized same-sex marriage last year, and there still hasn’t been a second country in Asia to do so, so I think this parade is really important for Asia,” Liu said. “We first reached the milestone, and we can help others to march forward and take the next step, and make more people in Asia care about this aspect of human rights.”Democratic Taiwan is a trailblazer for gay rights in Asia. In May last year, it became the first — and still only — place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. Since then, more than 4,000 same-sex couples have tied the knot in Taiwan.

On Friday, two gay couples were, for the first time, among dozens taking part in the Taiwan army’s annual mass wedding ceremony. The army posted on Facebook wedding photos of the couples, and those of the two female soldiers and their civilian partners by far received the most likes from the public.

“You defend our country, we defend your freedom,” read one comment.

Last year, organizers estimated 200,000 people marched to celebrate Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage. This year, fewer people could travel from elsewhere in Asia to attend the event because Taiwan’s borders are closed to tourists. Anyone who does enter must self-isolate for 14 days.

Liu Chun-chieh, 34, who works in e-commerce and was dressed as a Greek warrior, said the event was important for the region at large.

Even though gay men and women have the right to marry in Taiwan, activists say discriminatory attitudes still need to change as well as the law. In one example, a Taiwanese person can only marry a foreigner of the same sex if same-sex marriage is also legal in the foreigner’s home country. In addition to Taiwan, only 28 countries around the world allow same-sex marriage.

As the government’s measures to stop the spread of Covid-19 have included barring the entry of many foreigners, this has meant some same-sex couples have been forced apart this year.

Among those unable to marry in Taiwan are Olivia Wu and her partner Eve Teo, who is from Singapore, where a law banning consensual sex between men is still on the books.

© Ann Wang Image: Pride parade in Taipei (Ann Wang / Reuters)

“Singapore hasn’t legalized same-sex marriage, so us deciding to live here in Taiwan, that has really affected us,” said Wu, a Taiwanese American from Los Angeles. The couple were marching with Wu’s parents.

“As a community, we’re still very proud and obviously happy that Taiwan is the only country that recognizes this, but we just feel like there’s that part where we’re not complete yet,” Wu, 35, said.

Activists are also fighting for equal adoption and assisted-reproduction rights. At the moment, Taiwan’s law only allows for married same-sex couples to adopt children who are biologically related to one of the partners. Reese Li, secretary general of Taiwan LGBT Family Rights Advocacy, said there were at least 300 LGBTQ families in Taiwan who had adopted children or had assisted reproduction abroad.

© Louise Watt Image: Pride parade in Taipei (Louise Watt / for NBC News)

Chi Chia-wei, an activist who had been campaigning for marriage equality in Taiwan since the 1980s, said this year’s parade was less about protest, and more about education regarding LGBTQ issues and equality.

“In schools, they don’t teach children that after same-sex marriage is passed, there will be a lot of LGBT families,” he said. “They don’t let children understand this, and so there needs to be more effort to strengthen this.” 

Hugs, sequins and rainbows as Taiwan enjoys victory over coronavirus

At the entrance to Taipei’s Pride march on Saturday, Pearl Jain and Lance Xie held up a sign offering free hugs. Similar placards were waved above the pulsating crowd of 100,000 sweaty and bedazzled party goers crushedalong the parade route.

Xie had recently returned from Melbourne, where 5 million people have just emerged from one of the toughest lockdowns in the world and everyone is trying not to touch each other. It was good to be home.

Jain said: “It’s nice to have the chance to hug people here because everywhere else is in lockdown and that’s just so sad.”

People in Taiwan are still taking precautions – mandatory masks on public transport, digital registration for some events, isolation for people with symptoms – but Jain said life in Taipei had barely changed in 2020. “We’re doing really great, our government and people here are just trying to protect ourselves,” she said.

Saturday was Taiwan’s 202nd consecutive day without a single locally transmitted case, and for the tens of thousands out celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, Covid feels like a distant memory.

Taiwan, a self-governing democracy of 24 million dangerously close to mainland China, where the virus began, has essentially eliminated community transmission of Covid-19 after recording just 550 mostly imported cases and seven deaths.

Amid a global downturn, Taiwan’s GDP is predicted to grow by more than 1.5% this year. In the third quarter it grew by 3.3% – the fastest since 2018. The only other government claiming growth is China, which considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province that it must take back – by force or otherwise.

Even though people are quite divided on political issues, when we face a common threat people want to work together Professor Yawen Cheng

“In Taiwan, even though people are quite divided on political issues, when we face a common threat, people want to come together and work together,” Yawen Cheng, professor of health policy at the National Taiwan University, told the Observer.

After the 2004 Sars epidemic killed 73 of its people, Taiwan strengthened and centralised its disease control framework and pandemic preparations, and started annual drills. Taiwan also learned from that epidemic that it couldn’t rely on bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO) for timely information, because China had ensured the country’s exclusion from global briefings and emergency meetings.

“We couldn’t get direct information from international organisations,” said Cheng. “Taiwan has always been careful about what happens in mainland China, so the Central Epidemic Command Centre (CECC) of Taiwan tried to get information from informal channels.”

When Taiwan’s authorities received a social media message in late December warning of a strange pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, they acted almost immediately, screening flights from the Chinese city before enacting entry bans, which were eventually extended to all foreigners by March. Strict border controls are still in place, and around 340,000 people have gone through the mandated quarantine for new arrivals, monitored by the CECC and police, and tracked by mobile phones.

The government also banned mask exports while it stockpiled and then rationed them out to residents as local production increased tenfold. The health system was scaled up and new technologies developed to monitor, track and trace potential cases, and to support people with grocery deliveries and counselling.

Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s digital minister, said the most important technologies in the Covid response were masks and soap, but technology played an “assistive role”. This included the development of a mask availability map using pharmacy supply and sales data, and “digital fencing” – using phone tracking to allow people to quarantine at home. When a signal leaves the property or drops out, a call is made to the police.

© Provided by The Guardian Marchers at Taipei Pride. Photograph: Sam Yeh/Getty Images

The measures “piggyback” on existing technology – such as mobile phone mast triangulation and SMS warning systems for earthquakes – to alert people to infection risks nearby, said Tang, a former civic hacker and well-known advocate of open democracy. They don’t collect any data they weren’t collecting pre-pandemic, Tang added.

Other countries have balked at proposals far less intrusive than those that Taiwanese people accept. Cheng said there had been a lot of discussion about whether the state had gone too far but acknowledged that it had been responsive to concerns.

In a policy study published in October, Cheng and her co-author suggested the Taiwanese government’s landslide election win in January gave it the political capital to maximise its response, and perhaps even to overreact. “I think social trust is the key to the success of Taiwan’s virus control,” she said. “It’s an interactive process. The government has done a lot to make the information more public and open, and so in turn the public trust the government’s actions.”

Taiwanese society was not unchanged by the pandemic. While Taiwan’s tech exports rose in a world full of people stuck at home with their devices, the local economy suffered. The Taiwanese government has passed financial measures worth billions of pounds.

Tang said habits formed in the early months, like contactless payments and online food deliveries, boosted e-commerce but hurt sectors that rely on face-to-face interaction. In response, the government launched a programme selling NT$3,000 (£80) shopping vouchers for $1,000.

“That rebuilt the habits of spending outside of one’s home, and rebuilt the economy based on face-to-face transactions, like night markets,” Tang said.

Now, Taipei’s shops and markets are heaving. People browse, busk and greet each other with handshakes and hugs. It feels normal.

Tang said the government’s willingness to listen to expertise outside its inner circle was key. It helped that the vice president at the time of the outbreak was Chen Chien-jen, an epidemiologist, but there was also “a larger culture that says we trust the wisdom at the edges and the frontline”.

Back at the parade, the afternoon sun bounced off the blue sequins of Diva Wei’s ballgown as she and Daniel Lin waited to start marching, something they were conscious was open to few others around the world.

“I feel this is the marvellous outcome of our government’s policy and the collaboration from society,” said Lin. “It’s so great.”

‘Corona-freed’ Taiwan celebrates gay pride

Taiwan has staged its gay pride rally, 200 days free of local coronavirus infections. Some 130,000 celebrated the island nation’s vanguard role on same-sex in Asia, but this year’s turnout was smaller.


Rainbow-masked revelers paraded through Taiwan's capital, Taipei, Saturday, celebrating equality gains since it allowed same-sex marriages last year, despite objections from religious conservatives.

President Tsai Ing-wen, re-elected to a second term last January, urged the country via social media Saturday to embrace "love, tolerance and a better Taiwan.”

The mingling went ahead after 200 days in a row without a single recorded local infection, thanks to Taiwan's early 2020 response that saw arrivals from rival China and other origins tested and quarantined, limiting Taiwan's toll to 7 deaths. 

Asian Gay Games host next year

Drag queen Qu Po-sung wore a red banquet dress at Saturday's parade and vowed to attend "all of my friends' weddings as the rally wound through Taipei, which next year is due to host Asia's Gay Games.

Read more: Taiwan parliament approves gay marriage bill

Since Taiwan legalized same-sex marriages in May 2019, more than 4,000 couples have registered nuptials, including two women military officers married Friday. 

One restriction is that a foreign partner must come from a country with gay law. And, on same-sex parenting, Taiwanese remains divided.

Rights vanguard role

Taiwan, though, is seen as the vanguard of a burgeoning movement in Asia for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite) rights.

Read more: Taiwan military marries LGBT+ couples for first time

"Taiwan is Asia's first,” said Chien Chi-chieh, secretary general of the Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnerships Rights.

"That makes us proud,” added Chen Wei-chun, a bank employee. "Taiwan has done a fantastic job at both equality and pandemic control.”

ipj/rc (Reuters, AFP)

Puerto Rico statehood is on the ballot again
By Ray Sanchez and Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN

© Ricardo Arduengo/AP For the third time this decade, Puerto Ricans will vote on statehood.

Michelle Rodriguez Olivero's social media feed hasn't been buzzing about Tuesday's nonbinding vote to make Puerto Rico the 51st star on the American flag. Nor has there been much dinner table talk about it among her many pro-commonwealth relatives in the northern coastal town of Dorado.

After all, the island's been here before. And nothing has changed, since the referendums are nonbinding.

"We've had five votes with no political consequence," said Rodriguez, 31, a poet who works for a nonprofit and supports independence for Puerto Rico. "It has not led to more funding for the island. We still cannot vote for the President. People have no respect for this process."

For the third time this decade, Puerto Ricans will vote on statehood, which is ultimately in the hands of the US Congress. This time, however, voters on the island will simply be asked, "Should Puerto Rico be admitted immediately into the Union as a State?" Yes/No.

But the island's history is far from simple.

As a US territory, Puerto Ricans are natural-born US citizens and can vote in presidential primary elections, but not in the general election, unless they live on the mainland. They don't have a vote in Congress.

"You know how I see the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States?" said Luis Martinez-Fernandez, a history professor at the University of Central Florida. "It's a couple and they've been dating for over a century. But they're not married and neither side is convinced strongly enough they want that marriage. Because if at least one side wanted it, and the other not, well that side could try to seduce the other side. But in the case of Puerto Rico, there is no consensus."

The island has voted in favor of statehood twice before

It's a love-hate relationship dating to the Spanish-American War of 1898, when the US invaded and acquired the small Caribbean island. It's been a US territory since 1952.

The issue of statehood has always been a point of contention. Of the five nonbinding referendums since 1967, the 2012 vote was the first in favor of statehood. Political analysts at the time said the outcome likely reflected an overwhelming desire for a status change in general, whether it be statehood, independence or some other solution. No action was taken in Washington.

In 2017, Puerto Ricans voted overwhelmingly for statehood in yet another nonbinding referendum. But only 23% of eligible citizens voted after opposition parties urged a boycott of an election they said was "rigged" in the way the ballot was worded. Again, no action was taken.

On Tuesday, residents will again consider statehood the same day pro-statehood gubernatorial candidate Pedro Pierluisi faces Carlos Delgado Altieri, candidate of the pro-commonwealth Popular Democratic Party, in a tight race.

But analysts said Pierluisi's governing New Progressive Party -- beset by corruption scandals and criticized for bungling the aftermath of Hurricane Maria after plunging the island into economic collapse -- organized the statehood vote to animate its base at a crucial moment.

"The catastrophe left behind by Hurricanes Irma and Maria unmasked the reality of the unequal treatment of the American living in Puerto Rico," resident commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican and the island's sole, nonvoting member of Congress, said when she launched the new statehood effort in 2018.

The statehood ballot measure, González-Colón promised, would finally put the island "on the path towards the political equality we deserve."

Support for statehood among Democrats

That road to the great state of Puerto Rico is pitted and complicated.

The referendum would need Congress' approval to establish Puerto Rico as the newest state — and that all depends on how the November elections shake out.

Congressional Democrats have led the push for Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, to be admitted as states, but Republican leadership opposes the idea, arguing it could give Democrats four seats in the US Senate and allow them to push what the GOP calls a socialist agenda.

So while a statehood measure might fare better in the Democratic-controlled US House, legislation for Puerto Rico statehood is unlikely to advance in the Republican-led US Senate, and President Donald Trump has said he would be an "absolute no" on statehood for the island.

Puerto Rico has a likelier chance of becoming a state if Democrats win control of the Senate in November, keep the US House and Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins the White House — giving Democrats complete control of the federal government.

"I happen to believe statehood would be the most effective means of ensuring that residents of Puerto Rico are treated equally, with equal representation at the federal level, but the people of Puerto Rico must decide, and the United States federal government must respect and act on that decision," Biden said in September while campaigning in Kissimmee, Florida.

The Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, who could be the next majority leader if Democrats win the Senate, has voiced support for Puerto Rican statehood and suggested his party would consider the island's status if it takes back the upper chamber.

Bills address pathway for Puerto Rico

Still, even if Democrats retake the Senate, it won't be an easy ride to statehood.

A Democratic majority in the chamber is likely to be slim, which could mean that Senate Republicans opposed to statehood would be able to block any measure with a filibuster. Some Democrats, however, are already suggesting the filibuster be eliminated if Republicans stonewall their every move.

And while Democrats in the House passed a bill in June to admit DC as a state, they seem split on Puerto Rico.

Rep. Darren Soto of Florida, a Democrat, and González-Colón have introduced a bipartisan bill establishing a process to admit Puerto Rico as a state.

The bill garnered support from a handful of House Republicans, including Rep. Don Young of Alaska, a longtime advocate of Puerto Rico statehood, and other GOP lawmakers from Florida and New York.

Soto said in an interview that the "votes are there" and most House Democrats support statehood, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Democratic Reps. Nydia Velazquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a bill in August calling for a status convention where delegates, elected by Puerto Ricans, develop an option for the island's status with the intent that it be voted on. The bill by the New York congresswomen -- which has no Republican co-sponsors -- hints at the Democratic divide on the statehood issue.

"If the people of Puerto Rico vote yes, that bill's unnecessary," Soto told CNN. "We don't need a constitutional convention to slow down the will of the people should they vote that way. If the people vote no, that may be another option, certainly. But it starts with the election."

He added, "If the people vote yes, they'll be hard pressed to find a lot of support among House Democrats to ignore an election and stand in the way of a majority-Hispanic island becoming the next state of the United States."

'We would be like New Jersey, my dear'

But many Puerto Ricans as well as political observers on the island and the mainland are wary of the statehood effort.

Pedro Cabán, a professor of Latin American, Caribbean and US Latino studies at the University at Albany-SUNY, dismissed the referendum as political "pageantry."

About 3.1 million people live on the island, and more than 5.6 million Puerto Ricans live on the mainland, according to 2017 data from the Pew Research Center.

"I get the sense that when Puerto Ricans leave the island, they're even more nationalistic than when they're on the island," Cabán said. "If they're more nationalistic, that means it's harder for me to believe they really are into statehood."

Some Puerto Ricans fear the cultural implications of statehood, particularly losing a sense of national identity and Spanish as the official language.

"We love to participate in the Miss Universe pageant and the World Baseball Classic," said Cynthia García Coll, a psychologist who teaches at the University of Puerto Rico. "That unites us like nothing else. All that would be gone under statehood. We would be like New Jersey, my dear."

Many island residents doubt the United States -- long indifferent to their plight -- would accept a 51st state that is Spanish-speaking and poorer than the poorest US state, Mississippi.

"The United States opposition to Puerto Rican statehood has been based upon a racist concept, actually beginning with the idea of giving statehood to Spanish-speaking, brown skin Catholic foreigners," Cabán said. "The fundamental opposition is based upon this notion of Puerto Ricans being other than."

Martinez-Fernandez doubts the latest statehood push will succeed even if all the political stars align in its favor.

"The atmosphere in Washington is not propitious for that at all," he said. "You know, in this country we can't come to an agreement about whether to wear masks or not. Imagine inviting a new state that is going to push the balance of power further into the Democratic side. There's no chance that the Republicans will stand for that."

Statehood is unlikely even if Democrats take the White House and Senate, he said.

"It would be way down in the stack of papers on Biden's desk," Martinez-Fernandez said. "He has to reconstruct this country."

'Love always triumphs over status politics'

Rodriguez, the poet in Dorado, said most of her relatives -- concerned about preserving their national identity -- are pro commonwealth, or the status quo on the island. She said she supports independence because it would allow the island to finally break the chains of US colonial control. They all plan to vote no on statehood.

Other Puerto Ricans are throwing their support behind the burgeoning Citizens' Victory Movement, which is promoting a progressive, anti-colonial ideology -- a move that could help the governing, pro-statehood party.

"Many times the conversation is not about which candidates are the most qualified but about, if we let go of the United States, we will die of hunger," Rodriguez said.

Cabán recalled a married couple that was leading recovery efforts in a town in the countryside after Hurricane Maria devastated the island and left thousands dead in September 2017.

"I remember him saying, 'I'm pro independence, dammit!' " Cabán said. "And I asked, 'What about your wife?' And he says, 'She's pro statehood.' Is that a problem? 'No,' he says, 'Statehood will never come.' And she says, 'And independence will never come.' Love always triumphs over status politics."

COVID 19 IN ALBERTA GRAPHS

The best the worst of Halloween candy, all the way back to the 1930s

Author of the article:Monica Zurowski • Calgary Herald Publishing date:Oct 31, 2020 •  

Postmedia archives photo. Calgary Herald

One of the best parts of collecting Halloween candy — aside from eating it — is the assessment, sorting and analysis of the merits of the Oct. 31 haul. Kids can spend hours deciding which candy should be eaten and what in order; which treats should be traded to siblings; and which unwanted candy can be tossed to parents.

So, what are the best Halloween candies to get? According to candystore.com and its annual ranking of Halloween candies, the No. 1 treat in the United States — in terms of volume of purchases — is Skittles. That’s followed by Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Starburst, M&Ms, Hot Tamales, candy corn, Snickers, Sour Patch Kids, Hershey Kisses and Jolly Ranchers. However, in Canada, those boxes of Nestle mini chocolate bars rank high. People know they can’t go wrong with Kit Kats, Coffee Crisp, Aero bars and Smarties. A survey in one Canadian city last year (Ottawa) showed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were chosen as a favourite Halloween treat by 23 per cent of poll respondents, followed by Coffee Crisp at 18 per cent and Kit Kat at 16 per cent.

While most people enjoy a good chocolate bar, many of the faves from days past are now long gone, perhaps even extinct. Mainstays of the 1960s and 1970s like Kraft Caramels and Rockets are rarely seen. Little boxes of Chiclets, Dubble Bubble gum and Mojos don’t make appearances. Also largely gone — thankfully — are those handfuls of hard-to-bite, hard-to-define candies wrapped in orange-and-black Halloween-themed wrappers.

And, let’s not forget about the ubiquitous sucker. They were plentiful and popular for decades. The following Calgary Herald ads for Halloween candy over the decades provide a quick look back at what Calgarians were handing out on Oct. 31 in years past.

1930: This ad from the fall of 1930 showed the specials at the City Hall Market, including candy. Toasted marshmallows were on sale for 19 cents a pound, sugar peanuts were 25 cents a pound, mixed chocolates cost 30 cents a pound and jelly beans went for 25 cents a pound.





An Oct. 24 ad from the same year, 1930, showed the Hudson’s Bay Company advertising Halloween candy at a similar price: Black and orange jelly beans for 25 cents a pound, Halloween Kisses or creamy fudge for 29 cents a pound, and for 39 cents a pound you could “satin candies,” with assorted cream fillings in coral pink, nile green, canary and white.



1940: This Oct. 23, 1940 ad for a store called Naglers, located at 606-608 2nd St. East, showed jelly beans were still a popular treat and selling for 10 cents less a pound than they had a decade earlier — now 15 cents. Halloween kisses were still on offer, too, but Halloween suckers were newly making an appearance — a box of 100 sold for 43 cents.



Eaton’s, on Oct. 24, 1940, was also advertising a variety of Halloween goods: paper costumes for 29 cents, masks for 5 to 15 cents and party hats for 25 cents. Its featured Halloween candy was the caramel sucker — you could get 50 for 38 cents. The treat was expected to be so popular that the store limited sucker purchases to 100 per customer.



1950: Jenkins’ Groceteria Ltd. advertised a number of Halloween treats in its Oct. 26, 1950 ad. A 10-ounce bag of roasted peanuts sold for 25 cents and a bag of Halloween suckers was going for 25 cents, while a box of apples sold for $1.79.



1960: Halloween suckers continued to be the treat to beat; they’re featured in several ads of October 1960 editions of the Calgary Herald, including this Zeller’s ad on Oct. 26. A box of 72 suckers was on sale for 47 cents.

Alberta government blocking federal COVID Alert app, Trudeau says
Author of the article:Jason Herring
Publishing date:Oct 31, 2020 •

The COVID Alert app is seen on an iPhone in Ottawa on July 31, 2020.

 PHOTO BY THE CANADIAN PRESS/JUSTIN TANG


The Jason Kenney government is blocking the federal COVID Alert app from being used in Alberta, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in an Edmonton radio interview Friday.

“(The app) will be a lot more useful when the province decides to give people the ability to plug in the codes,” Trudeau said in an interview with 630 CHED.

“That’s all that’s missing, and we really hope that people will take on every tool we possibly can to fight COVID-19.”

The comments come three months after the federal government launched the COVID Alert app.

Though some provinces took longer than others to sign on, the app now works in all provinces except for Alberta and British Columbia.

Alberta released its own app called ABTraceTogether in the spring but it faced concerns over functionality and privacy.

The province has said the delay in signing on to the federal app stems from ensuring the 247,000 accounts created on the provincial app can be “transitioned” to the federal one.

The premier’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday.

Reports of heckling by UCP MLAs referring to COVID Alert as “Trudeau’s app” in legislature Tuesday led Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to call for the province to allow the app to work and avoid the “politicization of public health.”

Trudeau still asked Albertans to download the app, saying it has some utility because it can notify people of exposures if they come in contact with someone from another province using the app.

“I encourage Albertans to download the COVID-19 app because it starts working right away and if it comes online in the next couple of weeks, you’ll have that much more protection,” he said.