SAUDI FEMINIST POLITICAL PRISONER TO BE TRIED IN 'TERRORISM COURT'

AYA BATRAWY
Wed, November 25, 2020

 This Nov. 30, 2014 image made from video released by Loujain al-Hathloul, shows her driving towards the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia border before her arrest on Dec. 1, 2014, in Saudi Arabia. Al-Hathloul, a leading Saudi women's rights activist who's been imprisoned for over two years will be tried by a court established to oversee terrorism cases, her family said Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. They said she had been on hunger strike for two weeks until mid-November.  (AP Photo/Loujain al-Hathloul, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A leading Saudi women’s rights activist who’s been imprisoned for 2 1/2 years and drawn attention to the kingdom’s hard limits on dissent will be tried by a court established to oversee terrorism cases, her family said Wednesday.

The referral of Loujain al-Hathloul's case to the Specialized Criminal Court is a setback for efforts to push for her swift release and means she will face charges related to terrorism and national security. The court is notorious for its secretive nature. A range of cases are brought before the court under broadly worded counter-terrorism laws that criminalize acts such as insulting the government and “disobeying the ruler.”

According to a 53-page report released earlier this year by Amnesty International, the court has been used as “a weapon of repression” to imprison peaceful critics, activists, journalists, clerics and others. Amnesty International says it had documented numerous cases of trials held in secret before the court.

Al-Hathloul is among SaudiArabia’s most prominent women’s rights activists. She was detained amid a sweeping crackdown spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has ushered in wide-ranging reforms but has simultaneously clamped down on activists who have long pushed for change.

She and around a dozen other prominent women's rights activists were arrested in May 2018 just weeks before Saudi Arabia lifted its decades-long ban on women driving. The women face vague national security charges related to their activism and communication with foreign journalists, Western diplomats and independent rights groups.

Al-Hathloul's family said the 31-year-old activist’s case was being transferred to the Specialized Criminal Court due to a “lack of jurisdiction” by Riyadh’s criminal court, where her trial had been suspended for months. They say “her body was shaking uncontrollably and that her voice was faint and shaky” when she appeared in court on Wednesday. She had been on a hunger strike for two weeks earlier this month.

Al-Hathloul and the other Saudi women activists detained in 2018 — some of them mothers, grandmothers and professors — say they were physically and sexually abused while in detention by masked interrogators. The women say they were caned on their backs and thighs, electrocuted and waterboarded. Some women say they were forcibly touched and groped, made to break their fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and threatened with rape and death. One of the women attempted suicide in prison.

While most of the women have since been released pending trial, al-Hathloul and three other women activists remain imprisoned. Rights groups tracking the trials said only al-Hathloul's case was referred to the Specialized Criminal Court.

The court said it will open an investigation with the prosecution regarding her claims of torture, the family said.

Last year, Saudi authorities told her she could be released if she signs a statement denying the claims of abuse, according to her family. When she rejected doing so, she was kept in solitary confinement.

Al-Hathloul has long been an outspoken defender of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, drawing numerous calls from U.S. lawmakers and others around the world for her unconditional release.

In 2014, she was detained for more than 70 days after she attempted to livestream herself driving from the UAE to Saudi Arabia when it was still illegal for women to drive in the kingdom. She was arrested by Saudi authorities as she attempted to cross the border in protest and later released without trial.

Al-Hathloul’s family say in 2018, shortly after attending a U.N.-related meeting in Geneva about the situation of women's rights in Saudi Arabia, she was kidnapped by Emirati security forces in Abu Dhabi, where was residing and pursuing a master's degree. She was then forced on a plane to Saudi Arabia, where she was barred from traveling abroad before her arrest months later.

When asked about her case last month, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said she and the other women on trial were not detained because of their human rights activity and that they are “charged with serious crimes.” He defended Saudi courts as independent, and said her release is up to the courts, not the government.

UN agency: Israel's Gaza blockade has devastated economy

JOSEF FEDERMAN
Wed, November 25, 2020

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and sent poverty and unemployment skyrocketing, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the closure.

The report by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development echoed calls by numerous international bodies over the years criticizing the blockade. But its findings, looking at an 11-year period ending in 2018, marked perhaps the most detailed analysis of the Israeli policy to date.

Israel imposed the blockade in 2007 after Hamas, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel’s existence, violently seized control of Gaza from the forces of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The Israeli measures, along with restrictions by neighboring Egypt, have tightly controlled the movement of people and goods in and out of the territory.

Israel says the restrictions are needed to keep Hamas from building up its military capabilities. The bitter enemies have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes over the years.

But critics say the blockade has amounted to collective punishment, hurting the living conditions of Gaza’s 2 million inhabitants while failing to oust Hamas or moderate its behavior. Gaza has almost no clean drinking water, it suffers from frequent power outages and people cannot freely travel abroad.

“The result has been the near-collapse of Gaza’s regional economy and its isolation from the Palestinian economy and the rest of the world,” the U.N. agency said in a statement.

The report analyzed both the effects of the closure, which has greatly limited Gaza’s ability to export goods, as well as the effects of the three wars, which took place in 2008-2009, 2012 and 2014.

The last war was especially devastating, killing over 2,200 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, and displacing some 100,000 people from homes that were damaged or destroyed, according to U.N. figures. Seventy-three people, including six civilians, were killed on the Israeli side, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, and indiscriminate Hamas rocket fire brought life to a standstill in southern Israel.

Using two methodologies, the report said that overall economic losses due to the blockade and wars ranged from $7.8 billion to $16.7 billion. It said Gaza’s economy grew by a total of just 4.8% during the entire period, even as its population grew over 40%.

These economic losses helped propel unemployment in Gaza from 35% in 2006 to 52% in 2018, one of the highest rates in the world, UNCTAD said.

It said the poverty rate jumped from 39% in 2007 to 55% in 2017. Based on Gaza’s economic trends before the closure, the report said the poverty rate could have been just 15% in 2017 if the wars and blockade had not occurred.

“The impact is the impoverishment of the people of Gaza, who are already under blockade,” said Mahmoud Elkhafif, the agency’s coordinator of assistance to the Palestinian people and author of the report.

Israel has long accused the U.N. of being biased against it. The report, for instance, included only a brief mention that indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli civilian areas is prohibited under international law. “Palestinian militants must cease that practice immediately,” it said.

Israel's Foreign Ministry accused UNCTAD of failing its mission to assist developing economies and presenting a “one-sided and distorted depiction" that disregards ”terrorist organizations’ control over the Gaza Strip and their responsibility for what occurs in the Gaza Strip."

“In light of all this, we cannot take the findings of the reports it publishes seriously, and this report is no different,” it said.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the report revealed “the level of the crime” committed by Israel.

“This siege has amounted to a real war crime and pushed all services sectors in the Gaza Strip to collapse,” he said. “These figures also reveal the international inability to deal with the illegal siege on Gaza.”

Gisha, an Israeli human rights group that pushes for freedom of movement in an out of Gaza, said it was Israel’s “moral and legal obligation” to lift the closure. “The true price paid by Palestinians in lost time, opportunities, and separation from loved ones is inestimable,” it said.

The U.N. agency said it compiled the report at the request of the U.N. General Assembly and noted that it did not include other costs of Israeli occupation over the Palestinians. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, though it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

UNCTAD, a technical agency that seeks to reduce global inequality, recommended that Israel lift the blockade to allow free trade and movement. It also called for reconstruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, addressing Gaza’s electricity and water crisis, allowing the Palestinians to develop offshore natural gas fields and for the international community to push Hamas and the Palestinian Authority to reconcile.

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Associated Press writer Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza City, Gaza Strip.


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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian boy sells bananas on a donkey carte in an alley in the Shati refugee camp, in Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian woman stands next to her house in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian girl walks next to a donkey carte loaded with rocks in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)



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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian family prepares tea in their house in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
Palestinian children eat while sitting on the ground in their house in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
Palestinians are seen looking on from their house in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
A Palestinian elderly man walks in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

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UN Israel Gaza Blockade
Palestinian children fly kites in a slum on the outskirts of Khan Younis Refugee Camp, in the southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. Israel's blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has cost the seaside territory as much as $16.7 billion in economic losses and caused its poverty and unemployment rates to skyrocket, a U.N. report said Wednesday, as it called on Israel to lift the 13-year closure. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

UK

Unemployment to rise to worst level since financial crash by mid-2021

Tony Diver
Wed, November 25, 2020, 

Rishi Sunak announced a package to ease unemployment but warned he could not save every job - SIMON DAWSON/REUTERS

Unemployment is set to rise to its highest level since the financial crisis by the middle of 2021, official forecasters have predicted.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said 2.6 million people, or 7.5 per cent of the workforce, would be out of work by the middle of next year if Tier 2 or 3 restrictions remain until the vaccine.

The forecaster suggested the rate could be as high as 11 per cent if vaccines are not effective and the Government’s test and trace system does not work as planned.


The worst of the impact of the pandemic had fallen on hospitality, transport, and entertainment, while financial services, energy, and agriculture were “spared the worst economic consequences,” it OBR said.

The latest dire set of statistics came as Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, announced more than £4bn of support measures to target joblessness.

Measures include an extension to the Government’s apprenticeship hiring incentive that pays employers £2,000 for every new apprentice they take on, £2.9billion for a “Restart” scheme to help the long-term unemployed and £1.4billion for Job Centres.

For those in work, the national living wage will increase by 2.2 per cent to £8.91 an hour and the minimum wage will also rise.

Mr Sunak said that the OBR’s modelling predicted unemployment would fall in every year after 2021, reaching 4.4 per cent by the end of 2024.

The rate currently stands at 4.8 per cent, its highest level since 2016. Unemployment peaked at 8.5 per cent during the financial crisis, in the third quarter of 2011.

The previous highest peak was 10.7 per cent at the end of 1992, following the Black Wednesday crash.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the Chancellor noted that the UK’s rate was lower than Italy, France, Spain, Canada and the United States, but warned: “We cannot protect every job.”

Mr Sunak said the Government had taken “extraordinary measures to protect people’s jobs and incomes,” adding: “It is clear those measures are making a difference”.

The OBR also warned that employment would suffer further in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The forecaster added another 0.8 per cent to its unemployment forecast if no deal is reached before the end of the transition period, bringing the total to 8.3 per cent by the third quarter of 2021.

Mr Sunak’s latest measures to target unemployment were welcomed by industry leaders. Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Measures to help people return to work at this challenging time will help limit long-term unemployment, but Government must waste no time in putting these plans into action.

"Government and business will need to work together to re-train and re-skill the UK workforce. Investment in the Kickstart Scheme, in which Chambers are playing a leading role, and the launch of the Restart scheme, will be critical in helping to achieve that.

"With an uncertain winter ahead, the Government will need to maintain an open mind on providing further support to businesses struggling to survive."

Rain Newton-Smith, chief economist at the Confederation of British Industry, said stark forecasts pointed to "tough times ahead", adding: "The Chancellor has made some bold autumn decisions to power a spring recovery.”

But Anneliese Dodds, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, accused Mr Sunak of taking a “sledgehammer” to consumer confidence.

Job search support “ultimately only works if sufficient new jobs actually exist,” she said.

Labour called for “ambitious action to boost our economy and to support our businesses,” including in the green sector.

Money promised to combat US overdose crisis sits unused

GEOFF MULVIHILL
Wed, November 25, 2020

Opioid Crisis Victims FundJill Cichowicz, an advocate for opioid addiction treatment, displays a photo of her and her brother, Scott Zebnwski, who died of an opioid overdose at age 38, in her home in Midlothian, Va., Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)More

When it filed for bankruptcy last year, Purdue Pharma agreed to an innovative plan: It would make $200 million available immediately to help those those harmed by its signature painkiller, OxyContin, and ease the effects of the opioid crisis.

More than a year later, with the crisis worsening, not a penny has been spent.

“The money is just sitting in Purdue’s bank account collecting dust,” said Ed Neiger, a lawyer representing opioid victims. “It’s a travesty of epic proportions.”

It's not Purdue that is holding up the money. Instead, it's lawyers representing the wide range of entities suing the company who cannot agree how best to use it. The main disagreement is between nearly 3,000 local governments and advocates for those hurt by opioids.

Advocates want the money funneled mostly to local nonprofits that provide emergency services to people with addictions. State attorneys general say doing so would dilute the money so much it would not be effective. Because Purdue is undergoing the long process of distributing its assets, the states also see the prospect of distributing billions of dollars over time as more important than the $200 million.

“You see the state AGs come in and block the money, and you’re not understanding why,” said Jill Cichowicz, who lost her twin brother to an overdose and sits on a committee advocating for victims in Purdue’s bankruptcy case. “We’re all baffled.”

Purdue filed for bankruptcy last year as part of an effort to settle thousands of lawsuits seeking to hold the company accountable for the crisis that has been linked to 470,000 deaths in the U.S. since 2000. In a separate case, it pleaded guilty Tuesday as part of a broader settlement with the Department of Justice.

The proposal being considered in bankruptcy court calls for members of the Sackler family, which owns Purdue, to pay at least $3 billion and give up ownership of the company. Purdue would then become a public benefit corporation, with its profits going to ease the overdose crisis, including by increasing treatment capacity and providing other addiction services.

The company says the total value of the deal over time could be more than $10 billion.

State attorneys general, all of whom have sued Purdue, disagree over whether that’s the right approach.

They are not the only ones who will need to be persuaded. A committee of creditors that includes people in recovery or who have lost loved ones to overdoses must also agree. It was that group that proposed the $200 million relief fund after Purdue filed for bankruptcy in September 2019.

The fund was inspired by one adopted last year in the case of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the giant California utility that landed in bankruptcy because of lawsuits blaming it for California wildfires.

Neiger, who represents a committee of victims in the complicated legal battle, says the relief fund idea is so novel that it’s not even recognized by bankruptcy law but was accepted by federal bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain.

The plan called for distributing money to groups trying to help people with addictions by providing shelter, connecting them to services and supplying overdose antidote drugs. It was left to parties in the case to work out the details.

With disagreements on where the money should go and who should control it, that has not happened.

In a statement read during a hearing in April, a group of lawyers said they were pausing talks on how to use the relief money while they focus on broader mediation about how Purdue’s assets will be used.

The statement asserted that “despite the best intentions on all sides,” the players in the case had a “deeply held, fundamental difference in view" about the best use of the money. They said talking about it was straining efforts to figure out what to do with the billions that could ultimately flow from Purdue. They planned to revisit the issue later.

Since then, the broader question of where settlement money would go was resolved through mediation. State and local governments agreed to put their full shares toward programs to alleviate the crisis. That's a significant development, but it does not bring the quick help called for with the $200 million fund. And there are no indications when the relief fund discussions will resume.

Advocates for people with substance abuse disorders say local nonprofits could have used the money to assist more people immediately.

“If you gave them a million dollars, they would be able to do so much more than if you just gave it to a state agency,” said Cichowicz, whose twin brother, Scott Zebrowski, fatally overdosed in 2017 on a counterfeit OxyContin pill containing fentanyl. The former gym manager was 38.

Cichowicz, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, said her brother became addicted after being prescribed OxyContin for back pain in 2014.

While the case plays out, the addiction problem only deepens. The U.S. had a record 71,000 overdose deaths last year, most of them from opioids. Preliminary data shows an even higher death toll is likely this year. Experts say that could be in part because of the loss of in-person counseling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Brandon George, director of the Indiana Addictions Issues Coalition, said the pandemic has taken almost all the energy of county health departments and left local recovery organizations to distribute naloxone, an overdose antidote. He expects mental health services to be cut as state and local tax revenue decreases.

George said he never expected the Purdue relief fund to get money to groups quickly, but it might have made a difference.

“That money certainly could have been put to good use,” he said. “Right now, our health care systems are very strained.”

___

Mulvihill reported from Davenport, Iowa. Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill.

They're baaack: Trump and allies still refuse election loss

COLLEEN LONG, ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ZEKE MILLER
Thu, 26 November 2020, 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Monday seemed like the end of President Donald Trump's relentless challenges to the election, after the federal government acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden was the “apparent winner” and Trump cleared the way for cooperation on a transition of power.

But his baseless claims have a way of coming back. And back. And back.

By Wednesday, Trump was phoning into a local Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers' meeting that had been orchestrated by his campaign to assert falsely, again, that the election was tainted.

“This election was rigged and we can’t let that happen," Trump said by phone, offering no specific evidence.

The 2020 presidential race is turning into the zombie election that Trump just won’t let die. Despite dozens of legal and procedural setbacks, his campaign keeps filing new challenges that have little hope of succeeding and making fresh, unfounded claims of fraud.

But that’s the point. Trump’s strategy, his allies concede in private, wasn’t to change the outcome, but to create a host of phantom claims about the 2020 presidential race that would infect the nation with doubt and keep his base loyal, even though the winner was clear and there has been no evidence of mass voter fraud.

“Zombies are dead people walking among the living — this litigation is the same thing,” said Franita Tolson, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. “In terms of litigation that could change the election, all these cases are basically dead men walking.”

It's a strategy tolerated by many Republicans, most notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who are clinging to Trump as they face a test of retaining their own power in the form of two runoff elections in Georgia in January.

“This really is our version of a polite coup d’etat,” said Thomas Mann, senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. “It could end quickly if the Republican Party acknowledged what was going on. But they cower in the face of Trump’s connection with the base.”

A day after Trump said his administration should begin working with Biden's team, three more lawsuits were filed by allies attempting to stop the certification in two more battleground states. In Minnesota, a judge did not rule on the suit and the state certified the results for Biden. Another was filed in Wisconsin, which doesn't certify until Tuesday. Arizona Republicans filed a complaint over ballot inspection; the state certification is due Monday.

And the campaign legal team said state lawmakers in Arizona and Michigan would hold meetings on the election “to provide confidence that all of the legal votes have been counted and the illegal votes have not been counted in the November 3rd election.”

In Pennsylvania, where state Republican lawmakers met at Gettysburg on Wednesday to air grievances about the election, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani attended in person and Trump dialed in from the Oval Office.

“We have all the evidence," Trump asserted. “All we need is to have some judge listen to it properly without having a political opinion.”

But the strongest legal rebuke yet came from a conservative Republican judge in federal court in Pennsylvania, who on Saturday dismissed the Trump team's lawsuit seeking to throw out the results of the election. The judge admonished the Trump campaign in a scathing ruling about its lack of evidence. The campaign has appealed.

Trump's allies have privately acknowledged their plan would never actually overturn the results, but rather might provide Trump an off-ramp for a loss he wasn't owning up to and an avenue to keep his base loyal for whatever he does next.

“And then our governing and politics will be hellish, because he will continue doing what he’s doing from his private own perch,” Mann predicted.

Emily Murphy, the top official at the General Services Administration, declared Biden the “apparent winner” Monday, a procedural yet critical step that allowed for the transition to begin in earnest. She made the determination after Trump's efforts to subvert the vote failed across battleground states. She cited “recent developments involving legal challenges and certifications of election results.”

Michigan certified Biden’s 154,000-count victory Monday, despite calls by Trump to the GOP members to block the vote to allow for an audit of ballots in Wayne County, where Trump claimed he was the victim of fraud. Biden crushed the president by more than 330,000 votes there.

“The board’s duty today is very clear,” said Aaron Van Langevelde, the Republican vice chair. “We have a duty to certify this election based on these returns.”

Still, the Trump legal team dismissed the certification as “simply a procedural step” and insisted it would fight on.

Trump and his allies have brought at least four cases in Michigan that sought — unsuccessfully — to block certification of election results in part or all of the state.

In Pennsylvania, after Gov. Tom Wolf certified Biden as the winner, an appeals court judge ordered state officials to halt any further steps toward certifying election results. The state has appealed to Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.

In Arizona, just as lawyers for a woman in the Phoenix area dropped a case alleging that equipment was unable to record her ballot because she completed it with a county-issued Sharpie pen, Trump’s campaign filed its own lawsuit echoing some of the same complaints. As that suit was about to be dismissed, lawyers for the woman filed a new case reviving the claims and demanding that she be allowed to recast her ballot. All three of the cases have now been dismissed.

“The legal process seems to be unfolding the way it’s supposed to, but the Trump campaign has made clear its desire to throw wrenches in the system wherever it can,” said Lisa Marshall Manheim, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law.

___

Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and Steve Karnowski in St. Paul, Minnesota, contributed to this report.

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Election 2020 Pennsylvania
Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference on legal challenges to vote counting in Pennsylvania, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Philadelphia. At left are Eric Trump, son of President Trump, and his wife Lara Trump. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

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Election 2020 Michigan
FILE - In this Monday, May 18, 2020 file photo, Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, speaks in downtown Grand Rapids, Mich. Shirkey on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, sought to downplay his recent meeting with Donald Trump amid the president's efforts to challenge Joe Biden's win in Michigan, saying Republicans told Trump that state law clearly does not give legislators a say in awarding electoral votes.(Cory Morse/The Grand Rapids Press via AP, File)

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Trump
Vice President Mike Pence, right, listens as President Donald Trump, left, makes a statement from the briefing room at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)



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Election 2020 Pennsylvania
Supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside of the Wyndham Hotel where the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee is scheduled to meet, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Gettysburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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Election 2020 Pennsylvania
Supporters of President Donald Trump, left, gather as a counter protester holds a sign outside of the Wyndham Hotel where the Pennsylvania State Senate Majority Policy Committee is scheduled to meet, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Gettysburg, Pa. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

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Trump
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk out of the Oval Office and towards the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Washington, to pardon Corn, the national Thanksgiving turkey. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)



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Election 2020 Georgia
Workers sort and stack ballots in preparation for scanning during a recount, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, in Lithonia, Ga. County election workers across Georgia have begun an official machine recount of the roughly 5 million votes cast in the presidential race in the state. The recount was requested by President Donald Trump after certified results showed him losing the state to Democrat Joe Biden by 12,670 votes, or 0.25% (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

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Trump
Dusk settles over the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

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Trump Biden
FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer for President Donald Trump, speaks during a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Thailand protesters face draconian charges of insulting the monarchy


Mayank Aggarwal
Wed, 25 November 2020, 

The popular three-finger protest gesture during a student rally in Bangkok on 21 November(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Thailand’s authorities are facing severe criticism for charging pro-democracy leaders who criticised King Maha Vajiralongkorn during protests in September and October, even as activists started gathering in Bangkok on Wednesday for another major rally.

At least 15 protest leaders have been summoned on lese majeste charges (laws related to insulting the monarchy) over their comments regarding the king's behaviour, lifestyle and spending.

The pro-democracy protesters who have been summoned by police include the high-profile human rights lawyer Anon Nampa, as well as Parit Chiwarak, Panupong Chadnok, Tattep Runagprapaikitseree, Piyarat Chongthep, Juthathip Sirikan, and Pasarawalee Thanakitwibulpol, among others.

Human rights groups and activists have urged the authorities to refrain from prosecuting the protest leaders under the lese majeste charges, which come with strict punishments.

“After failing to deter peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations with unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, the Thai government is now using lese majeste to silence protesters. The international community must urge the Thai government to handle the ongoing protests through dialogue and within the framework provided by international human rights standards,” said Adilur Rahman Khan, who is the secretary-general of the International Federation for Human Rights.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, in a statement from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, said that “no one should be arrested or imprisoned merely for criticising public officials or a system of government."

But government spokeswoman Rachada Dhnadirek said the Thai government has been “open-minded to rights and freedoms despite many imprudent expressions which offend the majority”, adding that the government was entitled to use “its authorised powers.”

On Wednesday, the protesters are scheduled to gather at the headquarters of Siam Commercial Bank to ask the king to give up the control he assumed of the palace fortune, which runs into the tens of billions of dollars. The king has a stake of more than 23 per cent in the bank, which makes him the largest shareholder.

Thai police have also been preparing to manage the protesters with thousands of policemen blocking roads with shipping containers and razor wire.

The Thai government’s decision to take action against protesters under the law that bans criticism of the monarchy is a clear change in the stance of the authorities as no legal action has been taken under the lese majeste charges for over three years – since July 2017.

It follows a statement from Thailand’s prime minister a few days ago who said that the government has been trying to find a peaceful solution to protests but tensions have not abated. He had warned that if the trend continued it would damage the country and risk public safety.

Despite the risk of Covid-19, for a major part of 2020 student-led protests have continued in Bangkok demanding a new constitution, the resignation of the military-backed prime minister and former general Prayut Chan-o-cha, and a reduction in the powers of the monarchy.

In October, the government had imposed a state of emergency, which was later lifted.

Additional reporting by agencies

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AOC and Ilhan Omar sign petition calling on Biden not to give Bruce Reed administration role


Matt Mathers
Wed, 25 November 2020

Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(Getty Images)

Progressive lawmakers Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar have signed a petition calling on president-elect Joe Biden not to appoint Bruce Reed to his administration.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez, representative for New York's 14th congressional district, and Ms Omar, representative for Minnesota's 5th district, are supporting efforts to have Mr Reed, Mr Biden's former chief of staff, frozen out of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Reports emerged earlier this week suggesting that Mr Reed, who also served in the Obama administration, was top of the president-elect's list to head up the OMB.

But campaigning organisations and some on the left of the Democrat Party - congresswomen Ocasio-Cortez and Omar some of the most high-profile among them - oppose the move.

They say Mr Reed is a "deficit hawk" who presided over social security and Medicare cuts during the Obama years.

Following the news that Mr Reed was the frontrunner to take up the OMB role, Justice Democrats, a political action committee, launched a petition calling on the Biden/Harris transition team to "prioritize working people, not Wall Street deficit scaremongers".

"Joe Biden must not repeat Obama’s mistake," the petition reads. "Rejecting Reed will be a major test for the soul of the Biden presidency."

The petition was also signed by fellow Democrat "squad" member and representative for Michigan’s 13th congressional district, Rashida Tlaib, according to Axios. They are the first sitting members of Congress to sign it, the outlet reported. Incoming representatives Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush also put their names to the document.

"If the Biden administration is serious about protecting Medicare and social security, they must not appoint one of the biggest champions of cuts to lead their budget agency," congresswoman Omar said after sharing the petition on Twitter.

Tensions between the two wings of the Democratic Party have been simmering in recent weeks following their poor showing in House elections, with each side blaming the other for a loss of seats while the Republicans made gains.

The left of the party is calling on Mr Biden to include some of its representatives in his top team, arguing that it was support for more progressive candidates that put him in the White House.

Centrist Democrats believe such moves could put off voters at upcoming elections who were spooked by what they said was the party's "socialist messaging" during the presidential election.

Mr Biden announced his first round of Cabinet picks on Tuesday and it did not include any figures from the left of the party. But the nomination of Anthony Blinken for the secretary of state role went down well.

Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign manager, said the section was a "solid one". The nomination of John Kerry to a climate change role and Janet Yellen, Mr Biden's choice for Treasury secretary, were other picks viewed positively.

Elsewhere, Alejandro Mayorkas was announced as Department of Homeland Security secretary and Avril Haines was pickled for director of National Intelligence.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield was chosen as UN ambassador in what vice president-elect Kamala Harris described as a Cabinet that "looks like America".

Mr Biden insists that he is determined to pursue a "progressive" agenda. Last night, he said, "there's nothing really off the table" when asked if he had consulted senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders about Cabinet choices.

Those comments came during his first sit-down interview since the election. Speaking to NBC News's Lester Holt, Mr Biden vowed that his administration would not be "a third Obama term".

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Erika Hilton, Sao Paulo's first

 Black trans city councillor

Thu, 26 November 2020, 8:35 am GMT-7

"Brazil is a racist, LGBT-phobic country, and I've got it all in my body, in my political platform," says Erika Hilton, recently elected city councillor in Sao Paulo. The 27-year-old Black trans woman was in the 'top 10' most-voted councillors across the whole country in the 15 November municipal elections, and was the most-voted woman.

VIDEO

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/erika-hilton-sao-paulos-first-153535886.html

Trans woman violently beaten, stoned and left to die by the road as violence spirals in Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil

Josh Milton
Thu, 26 November 2020, 

A trans woman was beaten, pummelled with stones and left to die by a highway in Maranhão, Brazil, earlier this month.

Estefane ‘Stephanie’ Borges, 20, was found unconscious by a resort along the BR-222 in the northeastern state.

Passers-by, local authorities said according to local media, found Borges in a wooded nook near the resort of Juçara in Chapadinha, just outside a corner lock room entrance. She was found to be in “agonising pain” activists said.

Loved ones rushed to the scene and sped her to a nearby Unidade de Pronto Atendimento, a healthcare facility, where she is in a serious condition at the time of writing. The Polícia Civil, the country’s investigative state police agency, has opened an investigation.

Trans violence has soared in a Brazil led by Jair Bolasonaro – and it’s getting worse each passing year

She was gunned down after masked men burst into a bar. She was shot seven times as she stood outside her apartment. She was thrown out of a 7th-floor building.

Around 152 trans people have been killed in Brazil in the last year, monitoring groups say, as transphobic violence swells with a ferocity that is deeply alarming activists. The death toll is a startling and sobering figure for a nation now seemingly inured to transphobia, and it has been swelling for years.

But the figures may be even higher, activists say. Many killings of trans Brazilians are mishandled by the authorities – victims misgendered and deadnames used in police records, rippling into media reports – meaning that deaths can do unreported, so such data, in fact, fails to grasp the full severity of the deaths.

Last year, Brazil was found to be the deadliest country for trans people, with some tallies suggesting that a trans person dies almost every day in a nation of 200 million.

Unsurprising, activists say, considering the rise of Jair Bolasonaro, the country’s president who is a self-described “proud homophobe”. He often singles out LGBT+ people for the kind of vitriol once directed by populists towards migrants in the last decade.

 

Brazil police arrest supervisor in deadly beating of Black man in Carrefour supermarket

Tue, 24 November 2020, 

Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested the supervisor of a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre where security guards beat a black man to death, and accused her of collaborating with the killers.

Supervisor Adriana Alves Dutra had the authority to stop the guards from beating 40-year-old Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas on November 19, said homicide investigator Vanessa Pitrez with the Civilian Police.

"She had authority over the two guards," and because of that "the law sees her as a homicide co-conspirator," Pitrez said at a press conference, as cited by the news site UOL.

Pitrez has asked that the woman be temporarily jailed.

Alves Dutra appears in a video that went viral standing by as Silveira Freitas is punched in the face and head in the supermarket parking lot by one security guard as the second guard restrains him.

According to the preliminary investigation Silveira Freitas was beaten for more than five minutes before being immobilised by his attackers and dying of asphyxiation.

Both security guards have been arrested.

'Contradictory statements'

Alves Dutra, who also was seen recording the incident, apparently lied to police in her initial account, saying that she did not hear Silveira Freitas pleading for help.

She also claimed that one of the guards was a store customer, hiding the fact that he was a Carrefour employee.

According to Globo TV, citing the supervisor's initial account to police of the incident, Alves Dutra claimed that she asked the guards several times to release the Black man.

However in parts of the video she instead warns Silveira Freitas to calm down so he can be released, but also tells him that he won't be released until the police arrive.

Police chief Roberta Bertoldo said that Alves Dutra gave "contradictory statements."

It will be up to the investigation to see "if these contradictions were motivated by something that she wanted to cover up or not."

The video of the beating quickly went viral online and triggered of demonstrations on Friday as the country marked Black Consciousness Day. More protests were held across the country over the weekend.

On Monday police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up a crowd of protesters that blocked a street and stopped traffic in front of a Carrefour branch in Porto Alegre, located in southern Brazil.

Supermarket chain Carrefour has faced a wave of boycott calls and sometimes violent protests outside its stores across Brazil, drawing comparisons with the killing of George Floyd in the United States in May and the ensuing protests.

On Monday shares in the French group's Brazilian unit were down six percent in afternoon trading on the Sao Paulo stock exchange, and in Paris Carrefour shares closed down 2.2 percent.

The supermarket chain promised to earmark some $5 million to fight against racism.

In Brazil, the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery -- in 1888 -- more than half of the country's 212 million residents identify as Black or mixed-race.

(AFP)