Blue moon to appear at Halloween for first time in 76 years

October 31 will be a blue moon, meaning it is the second full moon to occur in the same month

A 'supermoon' pictured over Dubai in April 2020. Antonie Robertson / The National








It is said weird things happen when it is a full moon and Saturday’s one is right on time – falling on Halloween night.

But this one is extra special.

Not only is it a full moon tonight, it is a blue moon and a particularly rare one at that.

The National explains what a blue moon is and why it is special.
What is a blue moon?

Normally there is only one full moon a month. A blue moon is the second full moon to be seen in the same month.

The first full moon of October happened on October 1-2. This one occurs on the night of October 31.
Why is this moon even more special?

Because it coincides with Halloween, and full moons on October 31 do not happen often.

The last time it happened was almost 20 years ago, in 2001. And it will not occur again for another 19 years.

But the extra special thing about this full moon is it can be seen across all time zones in the world – something that has not happened since 1944, and will not happen again until 2039.

It will, however, look a little bit smaller than usual, as it is further from the Earth, making it a micro moon, which is the opposite of a super moon, that is around 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter in comparison.

Is the moon actually blue?

No the moon will not actually be a blue colour.

It is an expression to describe an event that is not exactly rare, but not common either – exactly like a blue moon, which happen every two and a half years or so.

However, the moon can on occasion appear blue when there is dust or smoke high in the Earth’s atmosphere.

That happened almost every night in the late 1800s, when Krakatoa, a volcano, exploded in Indonesia.

According to Nasa, some of the ash-clouds were filled with particles about one millionth of a meter wide, changing the colour of moonbeams shining through the clouds that emerged as blue, and sometimes green.

Blue coloured moons – and lavender suns – persisted for years after the eruption due to the phenomenon, said the space agency.

Sometimes the sunsets were so vivid fire engines were erroneously called out in the US to fight phantom fires.


Updated: October 31, 2020 04:18 PM


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QUE CNTU RAIDS OPSEU 

Fierce fight brewing as unhappy jail guards in Ontario seek to form new union

TORONTO — Disaffected Ontario correctional officers are pushing for their own union in an increasingly bitter battle to win the hearts and cards of thousands of front-line jail workers.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Backed by a well-heeled Quebec-based labour organization, the raid on the Ontario Public Service Employees Union has laid bare a litany of long-standing grievances and seems destined for a major showdown in the coming months.

Barry Roy, president of the recently formed Ontario Association of Correctional Employees, said a new union in the corrections sector is long overdue given, in his view, OPSEU's many failings.

"I was an OPSEU soldier," said Roy, a 27-year guard and union activist. "Now, you can't get me to even talk about it without my blood pressure boiling."

Currently, OPSEU counts about 9,000 officers and related workers in its Correctional Bargaining Unit. The dissident association argues its members have been poorly served by the union, which represents about 170,000 public-sector employees across the province.

Roy, who works at the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton, Ont., accuses the OPSEU leadership among other things of being self-serving, cozying up to the provincial government, and intimidating members deemed disloyal.

For its part, union leaders deny doing anything other than look out for the well-being of their members.

“OPSEU has some of the lowest dues and the best pension plan in the country,” longtime president Warren (Smokey) Thomas has told members. “"We have a long and successful track record of real wins with the provincial government."

Bankrolling and logistically supporting the breakaway drive is the Quebec-based Confederation of National Trade Unions, the province's second-largest labour group with about 300,000 members. The umbrella organization counts the union representing federal prison workers, who once belonged to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, among its affiliates.

OPSEU's leadership has fired back, warning of chaos and paralysis if the "scam" drive succeeds. The union has issued several warnings about of the perils of signing onto the association.

The confederation, one posting warns, is trying to get members to sign a card "by hook or by crook." Another communique brands the raiding tour of Ontario jails as "dangerous" and "socially irresponsible" in light of the COVID-19 epidemic.

“Meetings by a union that’s losing members and losing money in a doomed attempt to raid our union places unnecessary risks on our correctional members, their families and our communities," Thomas warns in one post.

OPSEU also warns its corrections workers would put their pensions in jeopardy and pay higher dues because, it says, the confederation is losing members and bleeding revenue.

"They're getting desperate," Thomas says.

Just how successful the raid has been to this point — it began in earnest in June and runs until the end of December — is difficult to verify independently. The association refuses to say how many OPSEU members have signed up but says they number in the thousands.

"People are very excited about being able to choose," said Agnes Ogle, a rehabilitation officer at the Central North Correctional Centre in Penetanguishene, Ont. "A lot of people feel that they're being noticed for the first time in a very long time."

Ogle, the association's vice-president, said her activism has sparked OPSEU's wrath, despite the union's contention that people have a right to choose their affiliation.

"I've been put in bad standing with OPSEU," Ogle said. "That's not something that worries me."

The association is hoping to gather signed cards from at least 40 per cent of OPSEU's correctional members which would force an automatic certification vote under the auspices of the Ontario labour board early in the new year. However, even if a majority were then to vote in favour of secession, OPSEU warns the fight would be far from over.

A key hurdle, the union points out, is provincial law that establishes OPSEU as the bargaining agent. A court battle, it warns, would paralyze any collective bargaining.

"The Corrections Bargaining Unit will be left out in the cold," OPSEU says. "Our contract will be frozen for years."

The association, on the other hand, said it was confident constitutional free association rights would ultimately trump the legislation. It points to a similar battle involving RCMP officers, who won the right at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015 to unionize despite a law to the contrary.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2020.

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

Economic recovery threatened if some workers, households left behind, Macklem says

OTTAWA — An economic rebound that leaves behind parts of the Canadian labour force in the short term could end up jeopardizing the recovery from COVID-19 in the long run, Canada's top central banker says.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says the pandemic has widened divides in the country that could worsen further without the right response.

He says the longer people hit by the pandemic are out of work, the harder it will be for them to find new jobs and the more likely they are to give up looking for work.

The combined effects on workers and businesses could weigh down the economy, harming even those who are doing comparatively well.

It's why Macklem has been talking recently about inequality, and why he thinks the central bank should be making the argument.

"Our mandate is to support the economic and financial well-being of Canadians. It doesn't say some Canadians, it's all Canadians," he says over a video conference from his office.

"What we see right now, as a result of this pandemic, are growing divides."

Low-wage workers are still about 20 per cent below their pre-pandemic levels of employment, Macklem notes, whereas other workers with higher incomes have recouped job losses from the spring.

"High-touch" sectors like restaurants and accommodations are lagging behind as restrictions limit customers and consumers stay home.

The way back isn't a sprint but a long slog, Macklem told The Canadian Press hours after the bank said it's expecting to take until 2022 for the economy to get back to pre-pandemic levels, with some scarring from closed businesses and unemployed workers taking even longer to heal.

"It's not going to be possible to fully recover the economy until we have a vaccine, but we want to try to reduce the negative effects," he says.

"Once there is a vaccine, we want to make sure we get back to our full potential."

Macklem took over the central bank's top job in June. He had been the bank's second-in-command during the last economic crisis a decade ago.

One of the bank's key functions is to keep inflation at a moderate level, which it does by controlling a key interest rate. The lower the interest rate, the more appealing it is to borrow, invest and spend.

Macklem inherited a key policy rate slashed to 0.25 per cent, which he has said is as low as it will go and where it will stay, likely until 2023, to keep interest rates low so households feel comfortable spending.

He has overseen the bank's foray into "quantitative easing," which is a way for central banks to pump money into the economy, and mass buying of federal debt to effectively lower borrowing costs for the government.

It has put him in a political hot seat, with Conservatives on Parliament Hill warning the bank about appearing too cosy with the Liberals and wanting Canadians to take on debt to finance a recovery.

Macklem says the bank's actions are independent of whatever the government might want, and have to do with its mandate of keeping inflation at two per cent a year. Inflation is close to zero because of the pandemic.

"We have a lot of unemployed Canadians. That's putting downward pressure on inflation. So we need to put a lot of monetary stimulus into the system to achieve our objective," he says.

"I don't want to pretend that there aren't some difficult decisions to take, but our objective is clear."

Near, the end of the interview, Macklem takes a breath to think over a question that he repeats out loud: "How am I coping?"

He speaks slowly about getting fresh air, eating right and getting enough sleep. He says he misses talking to colleagues in person, and the worry the bank could lose some creativity in its thinking without people in the same room, sharing thoughts and ideas.

"We've got to guard against that," he says.

He pivots to the uncertainty facing Canadian households: Parents whose children might be at school one day, home another, or others with elderly parents who need help getting essentials from the store.

Every Canadian is dealing with extraordinary demands, he says, and no one knows how this pandemic is going to play out. That leads to anxiety.

"I gained a lot of experience particularly in the '08-'09 financial crisis. This crisis is very different. But you know, that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach is not that different," he says.

"Some of the lessons from that crisis and also some of the things that we did that were not as effective, I think, are very valuable in dealing with this pandemic."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2020.

Jordan Press, The Canadian Press

Former MP Rob Anders accused of not reporting $750K in income for tax purposes

CALGARY — Tax authorities allege former Conservative MP Rob Anders failed to report more than $750,000 in net income over five years, court documents show.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Anders faces five charges, including tax evasion. Some of the charges date back to his time as a member of Parliament.

Anders, 48, was elected as a Reform MP in 1997 and went on to to represent his Calgary riding until 2015.

He did not appear in person at his first court date Friday, but was represented by a lawyer who indicated he had just received disclosure on the matter.

Anders has reserved his plea and the case was set over to Nov. 20.

The government alleges that in 2012, 2013, and 2014 Anders under-reported his income, which led to multiple charges of making false statements on a tax return.

Prosecutors further allege that between 2012 and 2018, he evaded payment of taxes, and between 2012 and 2015 he claimed refunds or credits he wasn't entitled to receive.

An application to obtain a search warrant for Anders's Calgary home was filed in March 2013 by the Canada Revenue Agency and outlines some of the allegations in the investigation.

The charges stem from an audit in 2012 and 2013 that found reported net rental losses on properties in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario at the same time as there were "unexplained" deposits in Anders's bank account.

"I reviewed the history of the rental income and rental expenses reported by Mr. Anders and noted he had reported a net loss on his rental properties every year for the 2001 to 2015 tax years inclusive," wrote the case investigator in the court document.

"I have reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Anders has understated his income."

The document estimates the unreported income at $752,694.

None of the allegations in the 35-page document has been proven in court.

In 2012, members of Parliament made about $157,000 a year, and by 2014 they were making about $163,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published October 30, 2020.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press

OUTSOURCING FAIL

Lack of PSWs leaves London, Ont., man stuck in his wheelchair for 3 days

© David Donnelly/CBC A shortage of personal support workers has caused great stress for people like 76-year-old George White of London, Ont., who relies on them for basic care needs.

A 76-year-old man from London, Ont., says he was left to sleep in his wheelchair for three consecutive days after his personal support worker (PSW) failed to show up to his home for care, highlighting the dire need for PSWs across the province.

George White is living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and has been relying on PSWs from ParaMed Home Health Care for basic care, such as bathing, feeding, toileting and being moved from his wheelchair to his bed.

"It is very frustrating [when they don't come] because you count on the service," said Cheryl White, George's wife, who spoke to CBC News because his illness has taken away most of his ability to speak.

"When we don't have someone to come in the evenings to put him to bed and he sleeps in his chair, then he has to be in the same soiled diaper from two o'clock [in the afternoon] until six or seven in the morning," White said, adding that her husband recently went three days straight without being lifted from his chair because no one came throughout the day.

"George's personal care is not being looked after.... Mentally, it is very frustrating for George and for me as well," she said.

White's age, along with a shoulder injury, don't allow her to help her husband, so for 12 years they've relied on four daily visits from PSWs, yet lately if they get two visits, they're lucky, they said.

"[The PSWs] do a tremendous job. They're hardworking and very dedicated people ... but ParaMed needs to have someone go in there and have a look and see what's going on because it's not fair to the clients," she said.

In a written response sent to CBC News, Extendicare, the company that manages ParaMed, said they could not talk about White's case, citing privacy issues. However, they said their top priority is providing quality care to their clients.

"Unfortunately, ParaMed and other home-care providers are not immune to the staffing shortage that has impacted Ontario's health care sector for some time, and our staff capacity has been put under further pressure due to the pandemic," the statement read.

Extendicare added that they'd taken a number of steps to address the shortage, including launching a new in-house training program that will add 60 new workers to the region, as well as partnering up with Conestoga College to provide free, fast-tracked PSW training.

Miranda Ferrier, the president of the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association, said the shortage of PSWs has been ongoing for at least a decade, but the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed it further, as many workers fear for their safety, especially in home settings.

Video: Coronavirus: New recommendations aimed at saving lives in Ontario long-term care homes (Global News)  https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/lack-of-psws-leaves-london-ont-man-stuck-in-his-wheelchair-for-3-days/ar-BB1axQZY?ocid=msedgdhp

"We were never viewed as an important part of the health-care system. We've always been replaceable. The invisible worker, shall I say, where there was just a huge stock supply of PSWs to go around."

But instead, the province has seen an increase in people leaving the field and a decrease in people entering it, Ferrier said.

"A lot of it has to do with no full-time hours, a lack of benefits, burnout, a lack of support, but the biggest thing is the lack [of] regulation, of professional recognition and title protection."

At the beginning of the month, Premier Doug Ford announced a wage boost for more than 147,000 public sector PSWs from October until March 2021. While Ferrier said the wage bump was a good start, it's long-term regulations to the sector that workers would like to see.

"The system we have right now obviously is not working if this poor man is sitting in a wheelchair for three days. I mean, it's just horrendous," she said of White's case.
'Not a sustainable way to run a system,' NDP MPP says

Stories like White's are common for London West NDP MPP Peggy Sattler, who said about one-third to one-half of the letters she receives from constituents involve issues within long-term care and home care.

Earlier this week, Sattler read a letter penned by White at Queen's Park and by Thursday, the South West Local Health Integration Network, the provincial entity that co-ordinates access to home- and community-care services for people across the province, had approved a switch in home-care provider for White.

"It's not a sustainable way to run a system," she said. "How is it that George has to come to his MPP, that I have to ask about it in question period, that the local media have to run a story on it, before the situation is addressed?"

Earlier this month, the Ontario New Democratic Party revealed an eight-year plan to create a new long-term-care system in the province, which includes transitioning all care to a public model, if the party is elected in 2022. Sattler said a full public model would at least add another level of accountability and oversight when it comes to PSWs.

In a statement sent to CBC News, the Ministry of Health said they continue to work with patients and their families to ensure they're getting the care they need, despite the shortage in PSWs.

"We are working with all local and provincial partners on both short-term and long-term actions to tackle these shortages," said Miriam Mohamadi, a spokesperson for the ministry.

Mohamadi added that some of their efforts include prioritizing care for those with complex needs, funding college bursaries for new PSW students, hiring additional PSW students and paying for their in-school training and work-term placements, as well as providing additional funding for adult day programs and assisted living programs.

While White is hopeful his new care provider will fulfil their duties, Sattler says there needs to be more accountability from the province as to how they're managing the shortage of PSWs.

"What's heartbreaking for me is the thought of all of the other constituents whose stories I do not raise in the legislature, who don't contact my office, but who are experiencing the same thing on a daily basis."

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS
Diamonds 'from the sky': This entrepreneur is making environmentally friendly gemstones
Sara Spary, CNN

A British entrepreneur claims to have created the world's first diamonds "made entirely from the sky."

 

© Jeff Moore/SkyDiamond Entrepreneur Dale Vince claims to have created the world's first "zero impact" lab-made diamonds.

Dale Vince, who is also founder of green energy provider Ecotricity, says his lab-grown diamonds are environmentally friendly because they are made using carbon drawn from the air.

Vince's new venture, SkyDiamonds, said in a press release it was capable of creating the world's first "zero impact diamond."

The stones are made by specialized machines at a factory in Gloucestershire, England, transforming carbon into diamonds that are "physically and chemically identical to Earth-mined diamonds," it said.

Synthetic diamonds are nothing new -- scientists have been making them since the 1940s in a bid to find cheaper, ethical and environmentally friendly stones.

The only difference with lab-grown stones is that the intense heat and pressure required to form them, which usually happens deep underground over millions or billions of years, is simulated via a process called chemical vapor deposition -- the same process used by SkyDiamonds, taking a matter of days.

Dr. Paul Coxon, a research fellow at the University of Cambridge's department of materials, told CNN that a diamond was formed by carbon being treated with heat and pressure.

To the untrained eye, he said, a lab-made diamond might look the same as a natural diamond, except that because it was so pure and pristine it could appear almost too brilliant.

"We've had synthetic diamonds for a long time, he said. "Chemically they are almost indistinguishable, but they are almost a bit too good [looking]."

Whereas a natural diamond would take "millions and millions of years" to form with "a whole planet squashing down on the carbon," he said, synthetic diamonds eradicate the need to wait -- and the need to have people mine them.

"That's why synthetic diamonds were such a breakthrough -- as you could quick start [the process] and take all the materials, squash it at about 3,000 degrees, and leap forward several millions of years in time," he added.

But while SkyDiamonds' manufacturing process is not unique, Vince says the way he manufactures the gems is better for the environment, because the materials and energy used in the process are all sustainable -- with carbon from the wind, water from rainwater and energy sourced from solar and wind power.

"Making diamonds from nothing more than the sky, from the air we breathe is a magical, evocative idea -- it's modern alchemy," Vince said. "It's industry fit for the 21st century... Our new process puts back air that is cleaner than we take out -- we have negative emissions," he added.

Many people still associate diamond mining with exploitative environmental and labor practices surrounding conflict or "blood" diamonds. From 1989 to 2003, a series of civil wars in Africa were funded by the illegal trading of diamonds from unregulated mines that violated workers' rights and sometimes used child labor.

The industry has been working to clean up its image with new standards, but synthetic diamonds are often seen as a way to avoid any doubt.

Lab-grown diamonds are much cheaper, and their popularity could contribute to a catastrophe for the industry. De Beers, the world's largest diamond miner, posted an 87% drop in underlying 2019 earnings in February, according to Forbes, as the average price of its gems fell by 20%.

Swiss protests for health worker rights, against virus restrictions

Police stepped in Saturday to shield health workers gathered in Bern to demand better working conditions, after protesters against fresh virus restrictions tried to disrupt their demonstration.

© STEFAN WERMUTH A healthcare worker wears a PPE suit reading in German "All are better protected than we are!" outside the Swiss House of Parliament during a demonstration in Bern

Around 1,000 health care professionals gathered in the Swiss capital Saturday afternoon to cap off a week of protests across the country demanding better pay and other conditions amid the pandemic.

But their authorised and peaceful protest was briefly disrupted by around 100 people taking part in an unauthorised protest against restrictions aimed at controlling the spread of Covid-19, which were tightened this week as virus cases surged in the country.

Police in riot gear coralled the anti-restriction demonstrators behind barriers to give space to the health workers, who needed to spread out on the square in front of the parliament building to maintain the recommended physical distance.

© STEFAN WERMUTH Police offers watch protestors as they stage a demonstration in Bern on October 31, 2020, to protest against new measures by Swiss authorities to rein in skyrocketing coronavirus cases in the country

From behind the barriers, the anti-restriction protesters -- many unmasked -- lobbed firecrackers, shouted slogans and brandished messages against the "dictatorship".

Switzerland is seeing one of the worst surges in Covid-19 cases in Europe, and the Swiss government this week announced a range of fresh measures, including more mask requirements, but stopped short of ordering new lockdowns.

After the unauthorised demonstrators spilled into the streets, police began rounding them up and taking down their names. Seven people were taken into custody, Bern police tweeted.

A similar demonstration was broken up in Zurich after participants largely failed to adhere to requirements to wear masks and keep physical distance, police there said.

The health workers in Bern, wearing facemasks and some in scrubs, meanwhile went ahead with their demonstration, holding up posters with messages like: "Don't leave us standing in the rain," and "We need: more appreciation, more recovery time, less pressure and stress".

© STEFAN WERMUTH Healthcare workers wear protective face masks as they stand with a banner that reads in German. "Let us not stand in rain" during a demonstration in Bern, as part of a week of protests to call for higher salaries and better working conditions

They were demanding a Covid-19 bonus to help compensate for the massive additional workload many had faced since the start of the crisis.

They also called for better working conditions, including a call to eliminate a requirement to time the provision of all healthcare services.

"Being constantly pressed for time, we are unable to provide the care patients need," nurse Liridona Dizdari told ATS.

"Many of us are just emotionally exhausted."

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