BACKGROUNDER
Indian farmers intensify protests, testing Modi's promised market miracle

Issued on: 09/12/2020 - 

A policeman stands in front of protesters during a nationwide strike called by farmers in Mumbai, India, on December 8, 2020. AFP - INDRANIL MUKHERJEE

Text by: Leela JACINTO

If Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government calculated that the pandemic would enable it to rush through reforms deregulating the agricultural sector, it was a miscalculation. Protesters have descended on the capital in an extraordinary mobilisation that presents the Hindu nationalist government with one of its biggest challenges.

In late March, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted the world’s toughest nationwide coronavirus lockdown, it sparked a deadly mass exodus from Indian cities to villages that shocked the nation. With no work, money or ability to survive in shutdown cities, millions of migrant workers took to their feet, setting off on the only path out of destitution available: long journeys back to their villages.

Rural India has consistently provided a counter narrative to the headlines trumpeting the country’s economic boom for decades. More than half of India’s 1.3 billion people still depend in some way on farming, but agriculture accounts for only 17 percent of the economy. Shrinking farm plot sizes, poverty, harvest uncertainties and indebtedness drive tens of thousands of Indian farmers to suicide every year and forces millions to migrate to cities.

But when a harsh lockdown was suddenly imposed, millions of Indians calculated that their villages – with tiny plots of cultivable land and informal networks of support and loans – were their only survival option.

Months later, some of the highways that led migrant workers in New Delhi to their villages to weather the lockdown are blocked by a reverse wave of farmers descending on the Indian capital to protest against three new farm laws.

Driving mud-splattered tractors, trailers, trucks and minivans packed with produce, pots, pans and blankets, tens of thousands of angry farmers, mainly from the northern states of Punjab and Haryana, have blocked the arterial roads into the country’s capital since November 26.

Setting up a giant sit-in, the farmers have braved the North Indian winter and defied government attempts to move them to outlying grounds, while protests have spread to neighbouring states, presenting one of the biggest challenges to the Modi administration since it came to power in 2014. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist government has a record of brutally stifling dissent. But farmers are a critical voting bloc in India and though the government and its supporters have tried to vilify and downplay the protests, they have not succeeded.

On Tuesday, railways and highways were blocked across India as farmers, trade unions and opposition parties answered a nationwide solidarity shutdown call. The widespread action saw Home Minister Amit Shah call for a meeting with farming leaders late Tuesday, ahead of a sixth round of talks on Wednesday.

Protesters are demanding a total repeal of the new laws, which make farmers sell their produce on the open market – including agribusiness corporations and supermarket chains – instead of through state-run institutions that guarantee a minimum price.

Modi maintains the “reforms are needed for development,” warning that, “we cannot build the next century with the laws of the previous century."

But as the curtain falls on a year that saw a pandemic ravage lives and livelihoods, India’s farmers are not persuaded by the promise of markets providing next-generation solutions to longstanding problems.

The resolve of the farmers and their extraordinary mobilisation, gathering supporters across sectors, has caught the Modi administration by surprise and is a cautionary tale for governments managing post-pandemic economic recoveries.

Using ‘the cover of the pandemic’

The latest crisis was sparked in September, when the government crammed complex legislative changes into three new laws and pushed them through parliament during an opposition walkout. They were passed as Covid-19 rages through India, with the country reporting the world’s second-highest number of cases.

“In the midst of a pandemic, laws with far-reaching impact on more than 50 percent of the population and on 100 percent of the food security of India were passed. The government used the cover of the pandemic to push through the laws, believing they would not be resisted. This has been bulldozed through parliament with no debate, no discussions,” explained Amandeep Sandhu, a writer who documented agricultural practices in Punjab in his book, “Panjab: Journeys Through Fault Lines”.

Since he came to power in 2014, Modi has opted for shock announcements with little preparedness that have left the populace scrambling to cope with the fallout – humanitarian and economic – of his populist moves.

On November 8, 2016, for instance, the prime minister made a surprise evening television appearance to announce that, starting after midnight, the nation’s 500 and 1,000-rupee notes would be demonetised or no longer considered legal tender. Economists estimate the move wiped at least one percent off India’s GDP and cost at least 1.5 million jobs.

Four years and a pandemic later, Indian farmers are sceptical of the Modi administration’s rushed, pro-business panaceas. “Neoliberalism has hollowed out state sectors. The health sector has collapsed, the education sector has collapsed. Now the government is fronting a crony capitalist move to agriculture,” said Sandhu.

‘Villainous’ state markets and middlemen

Economists agree India’s agricultural sector needs repair. The pressure of a growing population is shrinking land holdings, with more than 68 percent of farmers owning less than one or two hectares of land. Yields are often so low that economists estimate more than half of India’s farmers do not cultivate enough to sell.

But the urban manufacturing and service sectors have not produced enough jobs to get the working age population off the land. With unemployment rising in the aftermath of the pandemic, the situation is likely to deteriorate.

The new laws promise farmers freedom from “villainous and exploitative” government-regulated wholesale markets – called mandis – and commissioning agents who act as middlemen, managing sales, storage, transportation and even finance deals.

These middlemen – known as arhtias – also extend credit to farmers, serving as “bankers of the last resort” for desperate farmers, but levying crippling interest rates and repayment conditions in the process.

Loans for night trips to hospitals

News footage in recent days of farmers demonstrating to retain arhtias – viewed by the urban middle class as loan sharks driving the most hapless to suicide – has been another shocker for Indians not living off the land.

But Sandhu – who spent childhood vacations making trips to mandis with farming family members – explains that arhtias are part of the social and economic landscape in rural Punjab.

“They provide easily accessible credit for farmers that banks do not: if a sudden crop disease needs pesticides, a family illness in the middle of the night requires money to go to hospital, an urgent vet call for a sick cow... they play a pivotal role,” said Sandhu.

“What we need is regulation of interest rates and a recovery course for middle men who are extending credit. There is a need for ombudsmen,” he explained. “Now the entire system is being discarded for what, we don’t know. What we do know for sure is it would throw out millions of people from their livelihoods.”

Slick presentations with no answers

The government has attempted to downplay the protests as outbursts by poorly educated farmers who do not understand what’s in their best interests.

But in media interviews after successive rounds of talks, farm union members have proved to be better informed than the government.

In an interview with a Punjabi language TV station earlier this month, for instance, Rajinder Singh, vice president of a farmers union, explained how Indian Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar displayed a slick presentation to union representatives at recent talks. But when asked about details of the laws, including implementation across states, the minister was unable to provide answers.

Tuesday’s nationwide blockade has triggered another round of negotiations, but with both sides unwilling to back down so far, few can predict how the latest crisis will end.

“The government is really worried because farmers are an important vote bank, North Indian farmers are unhappy and the government didn’t gauge their resilience. Now it’s a deadlock and it’s a matter of who blinks first,” explained Sandhu. “Modi sees himself as a strongman, he has never backed down on anything – it’s part of his strongman image that appeals to voters.”

But the people of Punjab and Haryana also have a long, celebrated history of toughness and bloody-minded intransigence that is gaining increasing respect in a country with a vast appetite for strongmen. The winter of discontent in North India looks set to be a long one.

‘A lack of public trust’: France mulls reform of country’s police watchdog

Issued on: 07/12/2020 

Police officers drag a man on the ground during a protest against government plans to give the police wider powers in Paris on November 28, 2020. © Ameer Al-Halbi, AFP

Text by:Jean-Luc MOUNIER

Outrage over high-profile cases of police brutality has revived talk of a culture of impunity in French law enforcement and heightened scrutiny of the country’s police watchdog, the IGPN, which critics say is hamstrung by a lack of independence.

In June of this year, at the height of protests against violence and racism in the police, France’s outgoing human rights ombudsman raised the alarm over a "crisis of public confidence in the security forces" in a wide-ranging report that made for grim reading.

In a parting shot after five years in the job, Jacques Toubon urged a reversal of what he described as a “warring mentality” that has driven a wedge between the police and the public. He denounced a culture of impunity in the force, lamenting the lack of accountability in French law enforcement.

Long-standing grievances over French policing returned to the fore in recent weeks following a string of high-profile incidents and a hugely controversial government proposal that critics say will make it more difficult to document cases of police abuse.

The incidents, which included the brutal clearing of a migrant camp in Paris and the beating of Black music producer Michel Zecler, have heightened scrutiny of the Inspection générale de la police nationale (IGPN), the police’s widely criticised internal disciplinary body. 

Amid a fierce backlash that has seen tens of thousands rally in cities across the country calling for greater police accountability, government members – including the hardline interior minister, Gérald Darmanin – have been forced to concede shortcomings in the IGPN and examine ways to reform the police watchdog.

Accountable to the top cop

According to Mathieu Zagrodzki, a researcher at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin, the IGPN’s problems stem largely from a concurrent deficit of independence and public trust.

“There’s widespread suspicion that the agency does not carry out its investigations as thoroughly and diligently as it should,” Zagrodzki explained in an interview with FRANCE 24.

“As a result, there’s a lack of public trust in the watchdog,” he added. “A lot of people don’t even bother complaining to the IGPN because they figure it is pointless.”

When it comes to cases of police brutality, the IGPN is routinely accused of downplaying the facts and siding with the police. Critics point to a flawed structure that inherently creates bias. The agency’s head is directly appointed by – and accountable to – the interior minister, who is frequently referred to as the “premier flic de France” (the top cop).

>> Racism, sex abuse and impunity: French police’s toxic legacy in the suburbs

It’s not just the leadership that is exposed to accusations of bias. The entire agency is largely composed of police officers. In 2019, they accounted for 72 percent of its 285 staff members.

“You essentially have police officers investigating other officers: That’s why people are suspicious of the IGPN, because they sense that abuses are settled in private,” Jean-Michel Schlosser, a sociologist at the University of Reims who formerly served in the police, told FRANCE 24.

Brigitte Jullien, the current head of the IGPN, has vehemently rejected criticism of her agency, describing it as an “insult to the ethics and professionalism” of her colleagues. In June, days after the release of Toubon’s report, she assured that the disciplinary body was “dreaded by all officers in France”.

“All professions, whether lawyers, doctors or journalists, have internal control mechanisms, and they never get criticised,” Jullien told French media, claiming that her agency is no less independent than others.

‘No power to punish’

Founded more than a century ago, the IGPN performs a number of duties with limited powers and resources. It inspects police services, evaluates practices and rules of engagement, and investigates complaints of abuse.

As Schlosser said, “it can make recommendations, but does not have the power to punish.”

IGPN investigations are either administrative or judicial. Administrative inquiries can be requested by the national police chief, the interior minister or the prefect (the local head of police). In judicial investigations, on the other hand, the agency can act on its own initiative or at the request of prosecutors and magistrates.

Ordinary citizens can also petition the disciplinary body via an online platform, though it is not obliged to act upon their complaints.

The trouble, said Schlosser, is that the IGPN’s powers are strictly curtailed during administrative inquiries.

“It can do little more than oblige officers to face questioning, which often results in a highly incomplete investigation,” the sociologist explains. “In contrast, judicial inquiries offer the IGPN much greater latitude. It can issue search warrants, for instance, and is only accountable to a magistrate.”

According to its latest annual report, the police inspectorate completed 1,322 judicial investigations in 2019. A further 238 administrative inquiries were carried out, leading to 276 “sanction proposals”. While the report does not specify how many of those “proposals” actually led to penalties, it notes that IGPN-recommended sanctions accounted for just 16 percent of all punishments meted out by the police.

A French exception

As critics are quick to point out, France’s police watchdog differs considerably from its counterparts elsewhere in Europe, both in its composition and its assignments.

Sebastien Roché, a political analyst and police expert, compared the French model with the practice in countries including the United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands.

In those countries, Roché told French weekly Télérama, “[T]he first thing the authorities did was to appoint a magistrate – not a police officer – to head their police watchdogs.”

Schlosser noted that police watchdogs in such countries are headed by independent figures, who are often appointed by local legislatures. They operate as independent administrative authorities and are not answerable to the interior ministry.

“Furthermore, their investigators are not police officers, but most often legal experts and magistrates,” Schlosser added. “Police officers are present in a consultative capacity, based on their knowledge of their job.”

He pointed to the case of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), in England and Wales, as emblematic of this culture of independence. The IOPC’s director is legally required to have never worked for the police. Its investigative units are mixed, including retired officers – who never make up more than a quarter of staff – and legal experts.

“The advantage with such a system is that you get a comprehensive understanding of situations,” said Zagrodzki. “On the one hand, there’s the police officer who knows the system and is familiar with procedural matters. And on the other, you get the perspective from the outside. That way, an action that may seem proportionate to officers can be flagged as socially unacceptable in a democracy.”

Greater autonomy ... within the interior ministry

In its most recent 12-month report, relating to 2018-19, the IOPC registered a total of 31,097 complaints from members of the public – more than three times the number recorded by France’s IGPN over the same period. It’s a significant discrepancy for countries with comparable population sizes, one that experts attribute to different cultures of interaction with the public.

“UK police officers are no more violent than their French counterparts,” Zagrodzki observes. “The difference is that there is far greater trust in the institution [in England and Wales], meaning people are more inclined to file complaints.”

He says appointing an independent head of the IGPN – an idea recently mooted by French Prime Minister Jean Castex – would mark a step in the right direction, though it would not be enough to change the culture of the French watchdog.

“Changing the leadership alone will not alter the structure of the agency, even though it could improve its image and encourage people to step forward with their complaints,” he explains.




For substantive change to take place, Zagrodzky added, the entire IGPN would need to become an independent body – a move the French government is unlikely to push for.

Challenged on the subject in an interview last week, President Emmanuel Macron advocated “greater transparency” in investigations and more scope for the IGPN to penalise malpractice.

However, he remained vague on the subject of the watchdog’s institutional independence, suggesting it should remain closely linked to police authorities and its tutelary minister, “top cop” Darmanin.

This article was adapted from the original in French.

French parliament drops controversial draft law curtailing right to film police

Issued on: 30/11/2020 - 

The President of the LREM Parliamentary Group, Christophe Castaner, 

on November 30, 2020 in Paris, France. © Anne-Christine Poujoulat, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24

The French parliament has dropped a controversial bill that would have curbed the right to film police officers in action, the speaker of parliament and leader of President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party announced on Monday.

In an apparent effort to quell criticism, Christophe Castaner, head of Macron's LREM (La République en marche) party, said Monday that “there is a need to clarify the measure”.

"The bill will be completely rewritten and a new version will be submitted," he told a news conference. 

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had refused to simply withdraw the controversial article, saying before a parliamentary commission on Monday that police “are not protected enough". 

The draft bill had prompted protests across the country called by press freedom advocates and civil rights campaigners. Tens of thousands of people marched Saturday in Paris calling for the government to drop the measure, including families and friends of people killed by police. 

Critics feared that the proposed law would have deprived journalists and others of a potent weapon against police misconduct – including videos of police actions – and threaten efforts to document cases of police brutality, particularly in immigrant neighbourhoods.

A provision in the draft law known as Article 24, which factored into Macron’s plans to court right-wing voters with a law-and-order message ahead of his 2022 re-election bid, had sparked outrage in the media and on the left flank of his own party.

Article 24 did not completely ban sharing images of the police, but made it a crime to share them with an “obvious intention to harm” – such as inciting violence against officers – punishable by a year in prison and a €45,000 ($54,000). 

The bill aimed to prevent recognisable images of police officers from appearing on social media for fear they would face retribution for doing their jobs. The proposed "global security" law, as it was called, was partly a response to demands from police unions, who said it would provide greater protection for officers.

But the importance of documenting police activity was underscored again last week by the brutal beating of a Black man in Paris. 

“I was lucky enough to have videos, which protected me,” said Michel Zecler, a Black music producer who was beaten by at least four police officers. Videos first published Thursday by French website Loopsider have been seen by more than 14 million viewers, resulting in widespread outrage.

Two officers remain in custody but two others have been released on bail as the investigation continues. 

Controversial security bill: 'Macron and the French government blinked'

Hardening of police tactics in France

Abdoulaye Kanté, a Black police officer with 20 years of experience in Paris and its suburbs, is a supporter of the proposed law who also strongly condemns police brutality.

“What people don’t understand is that some individuals are using videos to put the faces of our colleagues on social media so that they are identified, so that they are threatened or to incite hatred,” he said.

“The law doesn’t ban journalists or citizens from filming police in action ... It bans these images from being used to do harm, physically or psychologically,” he argued, adding: “The lives of officers are important.”

A “tiny fraction of the population feeds rage and hatred” against police, said Jean-Michel Fauvergue, a former head of elite police forces and an LREM lawmaker who co-authored the bill, in comments at the National Assembly (lower house). 

“We need to find a solution."

Critics noted a hardening of police tactics during protests or while arresting individuals. Hundreds of complaints have been filed against officers during the Yellow Vest movement for economic justice that erupted in 2018 and saw weekends of violent clashes.

Interior Minister Darmanin has countered that, out of 3 million police operations per year in France, some 9,500 end up on a government website that denounces abuses – a mere 0.3 percent.

"Protecting police and preserving freedom of the press are not in competition," he told deputies in his remarks to parliament on Monday.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

France debates human rights at home while still selling weapons to oppressive regimes

“France is one of the least scrupulous arms sellers on earth, even the US is a little more restrictive about their arms sales.”

Issued on: 11/12/2020 - 

Technicians work on French made Rafale jet fighter at the workshops of Dassault-Aviation in Merignac near Bordeaux on October 8, 2019. © Georges Gobet, AFP

Text by: Monique El-FaizyFollow


As the French President Emmanuel Macron faces accusations that he is moving to curtail the civic rights in his country and reduce transparency, the recent state visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi underscored France’s longstanding willingness to turn a blind eye to systemic oppression in the countries it sells weapons to.

When Sisi came to France for a state visit this week, less than a month after prominent human rights workers in Egypt were arrested and slapped with terrorism-related charges following a meeting with French and other European diplomats, Human Rights Watch called for arms sales to Egypt to stop and activists were looking to French President Emmanuel Macron to make a strong statement.

They had, perhaps, reason to be hopeful. After the November arrests, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing its “deep concern” about developments in the Arab nation. “France maintains a frank, exacting dialogue with Egypt on human rights issues, including individual cases,” the statement said.

In the end, not only were activists disappointed by Macron’s reception of Sisi, they were outraged by it. Far from taking a firm line on abuses and demanding that Egypt do better if it hoped to continue receiving military aid, Macron went out of his way to disassociate the purchase of arms with the respect of human rights.

“I will not condition matters of defence and economic cooperation on these disagreements [over human rights],” Macron said in a press conference. "It is more effective to have a policy of demanding dialogue than a boycott that would only reduce the effectiveness of one of our partners in the fight against terrorism."

“The whole way he framed the human rights debate in the press conference was horrific,” said Timothy Kaldas, Nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “Arresting human rights workers and oppressing Egyptians is not fighting terrorism. Quite the contrary.”

A double standard

Macron’s stance was particularly salient given that his own government has been under fire over a proposed security law that critics charge would limit civic liberties in France. At the same time that he has defended France’s commitment to freedom of speech in the wake of the killing of a teacher who showed his class caricatures of the prophet Mohammed. Macron called the teacher, Samuel Paty, a “quiet hero” dedicated to preserving French values.

Macron’s position with Sisi this week was notably softer than the one he took in January 2019, when he told his Egyptian counterpart that security could not be considered separately from human rights, noting that oppression jeopardises stability rather than enhance it.

“It’s a double standard,” said Rim-Sarah Alouane, a Researcher in Public Law, University Toulouse Capitole. “We are in the middle of this hypocrisy about how we are supposed to be the country of the enlightenment, of human rights – we are supposed to have basically created human rights – and yet we have no problem making deals with the devil and closing our eyes to what should be the most important thing: the protection of the human.”

Kaldas agreed: “[Macron] will be adamant about how much France cherishes its values in one context and then be completely unwilling to prioritise those values in his relations with authoritarians.”

Marcon has shown himself similarly willing to ignore abuses in other parts of the region as well. When several European countries, including Germany, called for the suspension of arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Macron dismissed those concerns as “demagoguery”, saying the weapons had nothing to do with the murder. “I understand the connection with what’s happening in Yemen, but there is no link with Mister Khashoggi,” he said.

Saudi Arabia leads a coalition that has been engaged in a war in Yemen that has had devastating effects on the humanitarian situation there. “The only reason [Macron] cites Yemen is to dismiss the other argument, but then he continues to provide the arms that fuel the war in Yemen,” Kaldas said.

Key to sovereignty

France has a vested interest in batting away the issue of rights abuses. Arms sales are big business for the country, which is third in global military exports, coming behind the United States and Russia. The defence sector in France employs 200,000 people, roughly 13 percent of the total industrial workforce, according to a report by the country's parliament.

France is one of the few countries in the world capable of independently producing advanced military systems, and arms sales are key to the survival of the defence sector.

“It’s important for France to maintain its own arms industry,” both to be a significant player on the world stage and to be self-sufficient, said Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher in the Arms and Military Expenditure Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. “To be able to do that, you need to have export clients, because otherwise you won’t be able to afford it.”

As Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly put it in 2018: “Arms exports are the business model of our sovereignty.”

And the industry is growing. Arms sales can vary widely from year to year, so researchers look at extended periods of time. Comparing the years 2015-2019 with 2010-2014, French arms exports grew 72 percent, representing 7.9 percent of the global arms market. Over the past decade, the Middle East has accounted for roughly 48 percent of French exports, said Guy Anderson, Associate Director of the Industry and Markets division at Jane's, publisher of Jane's Defence Weekly.

“France has been very prolific in providing weapons to a wide range of people,” Wezeman said.

France has been known to ignore arms embargos as well. In his autobiography “No Room for Small Dreams,” the late Israeli politician Shimon Perez said that France secretly sold weapons to Israel back in the 1950s, when few nations would. And it was the French who gave Israel its nuclear capacities, Perez wrote.

The illicit arms sales have continued. The French found ways to supply weapons to the apartheid regime in South Africa despite restrictions on such exports and press reports said that military material found in Libya in 2019 indicated that France had violated the arms embargo there.

“France is one of the least scrupulous arms sellers on earth,” said Kaldas. “Even the US is a little more restrictive about their arms sales.”

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

 

‘It’s our turn!’ French youths unite against anti-Semitism, racism

Hanna ASSOULINE

40 min

Two years ago, a group of young French Jews and Arabs decided to put up a united front against anti-Semitism and racism, through an SOS Racisme initiative. Through their different backgrounds and religions, they set out on a nationwide awareness campaign in a bid to open up an unfiltered dialogue in communities where these topics have become completely taboo. Reporter Hanna Assouline followed the youths on their mission to make people open up and talk.

Pope says fraternity the watchword 'at this moment in history'

LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY

THE PAPCY OPPOSED THESE IDEAS WHEN THEY WERE EXPRESSED IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Issued on: 25/12/2020 -

Pope Francis highlighted the plight of children caught up in war, singling out victims in Syria, Yemen and Iraq in his Christmas message Handout VATICAN MEDIA/AFP

Vatican City (AFP)

Pope Francis said in his Christmas message Friday that fraternity was a watchword for these unusually troubled times exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

"At this moment in history, marked by the ecological crisis and grave economic and social imbalances only worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, it is all the more important for us to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters," he said in his "Urbi et Orbi" message.

He said this call for solidarity was especially aimed at "people who are the most fragile, the sick and all who at this period find themselves without work or in grave difficulty due to the economic consequences of the pandemic and to women who have been subjected to domestic violence during these months of confinement."

The pontiff also touched on the plight of children caught up by war, singling out victims in Syria, Yemen and Iraq in his Christmas message.

"On this day, when the word of God became a child, let us turn our gaze to the many, all too many, children worldwide, especially in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, who still pay the high price of war," he said.

"May their faces touch the consciences of all men and women of good will, so that the causes of conflicts can be addressed and courageous efforts can be made to build a future of peace," he said.

Pope Francis will make a historic visit to Iraq in March, the Vatican said Monday, the first ever by a pontiff and which will include a trip to the city of Mosul, a former jihadist stronghold.

The pope has long spoken of his desire to visit the Middle Eastern country, where two decades of conflict has taken a heavy toll on Christian communities.

The Argentinian-born pope called for peace and reconciliation in Libya and Iraq, "particularly to the Yazidis, sorely tried by these last years of war."

© 2020 AFP

REGULAR READERS KNOW THE YAZIDI'S ARE THE FIRST ARYAN RELIGION, MISTAKENLY CALLED SATANISTS

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Ohio protests after police fatally shoot black man
Updated / Friday, 25 Dec 2020 
 

People marched in protest over the killing of Andre Maurice Hill

The fatal shooting of a black man by police in Columbus, Ohio - the US city's second such killing this month - sparked a fresh wave of protests on Christmas Eve against racial injustice and police brutality.

Andre Maurice Hill, 47, was in the garage of a house on Monday night when he was shot several times by a police officer who had been called to the scene for a minor incident.

Seconds before the gunfire, bodycam footage shows Mr Hill walking towards the policeman holding a mobile phone in his left hand, while his other hand cannot be seen.

Columbus police chief Thomas Quinlan announced yesterday that he was moving to sack the officer, Adam Coy, on allegations of "critical misconduct".

"We have an officer who violated his oath to comply with the rules and policies of the Columbus Division of Police," Chief Quinlan said in a statement. "This violation cost an innocent man his life."

According to local media reports, Officer Coy had previously received complaints of excessive force.

He and his colleague waited several minutes before approaching Mr Hill, who was still alive, but died later.

Mr Hill, the second African-American killed by police in Columbus in less than three weeks, was not carrying a weapon.

Casey Goodson Jr, 23, was shot several times on 4 December while returning home. His family has said he was holding a sandwich which law enforcement mistook for a gun.

Several dozen protesters gathered yesterday, waving Black Lives Matter signs and calling for justice for people killed in police shootings.





The killings in Columbus come after a summer in which the US was rocked by historic protests against racial injustice and police brutality, sparked by the May killing of African-American man George Floyd.

Mr Floyd, also unarmed, suffocated beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

"Once again officers see a black man and conclude that he's criminal and dangerous," said lawyer Ben Crump, who defends several families of police brutality victims including Mr Floyd's, on Wednesday.

He denounced a "tragic succession of officer-involved shootings."

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said he was "outraged" by Mr Hill's death.

He was "known to the residents of the home where his car was parked on the street," he said Wednesday at a press conference, describing him as a "guest... not an intruder."

Mr Ginther said he was "very disturbed" that the two police officers did not give first aid to Mr Hill and called for Officer Coy's "immediate termination."

China launches antitrust probe into Alibaba 

and Ant Group for "picking one from two" strategy
China's competition landscape is changing

By Adrian Potoroaca on December 25, 2020


The big picture: The future looked bright ahead for Alibaba only months ago, with its share price climbing steadily amid the pandemic. However, in a first for China, the State Administration for Market Regulation has started an antitrust investigation into Alibaba and sister company Ant Group, signaling an end to the hands-on approach typically practiced by the Chinese government.

The Chinese government announced it has started an antitrust investigation into Alibaba, the country's largest tech company, which extends to sister company of Ant Group that was recently targeting an IPO at a valuation of $37 billion.

Last month, regulators suspended Ant Group's initial public offering just two days before shares were to begin trading in Shanghai and Hong Kong, in a move that is part of an ongoing crackdown on anticompetitive behavior in the country's booming tech sector.

Shares in Alibaba fell more than 8 percent to their lowest level since July. Even its largest competitors -- JD.com and Meituan -- were affected by the news.



While the full scope of the investigation is not yet clear, China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it's looking into Alibaba's alleged practice of forcing merchants to sign exclusivity contracts ("picking one from two"), which has generated a lot of complaints and lawsuits over the years. Regulators are meeting with Ant Group in the coming days to discuss the implementation of proper financial supervision and protections for consumers.

Both Alibaba and Ant Group said they would "comply with all regulatory requirements," and reassured investors that there's been no impact on normal day to day operations. However, if the two companies are found to be guilty of monopolistic behavior, they could be fined up to 10 percent of their annual revenue.

State-run local paper People's Daily wrote in an editorial that the investigation "is an important step in strengthening antimonopoly oversight in the internet sphere. [...] This will be beneficial to regulating an orderly sector and promoting the long-term healthy development of platforms."

Last month, the Chinese government revealed the first draft of new antitrust legislation that came as a direct response to Alibaba and Ant Group founder Jack Ma, who made a speech in Shanghai where he criticized the country's e-commerce and banking regulations.

Foreign companies like Google also face antitrust investigations, but SAMR is currently focusing on China's largest 27 e-commerce companies, including Alibaba, JD, Meituan, and Pinduoduo.

Ripple Is Not the Only Crypto Giant Sued by SEC, Here Are Some More

Ripple is not the only company or individual from the crypto industry sued by the SEC in recent years, including blockchain giants; here are some of the others

Cover image via stock.adobe.com

Earlier this week, the US regulator on securities and exchanges, the SEC, officially filed a legal suit against the blockchain behemoth Ripple.

The SEC accused the decocorn of spreading unregistered securities in the form of XRP.

The U.Today editorial team wants to remind readers that, in the span of the last couple of years, including 2020, the regulator has pressed charges against other companies and individuals from the crypto industry, including crypto giants and crypto influencers.
2019: The SEC sues Block.One

On Sept. 30 of last year, the securities regulator published a note saying that the creator of EOS, Block.One, had agreed to settle a fee on SEC charges.

The commission accused Block.One of the same crime as Ripple—raising funds by selling unregistered securities and raising billions of U.S. dollars.

The fine totaled 0.58 percent of that sum raised during an ICO in 2017: $24 million.

In response, Block.One agreed to pay the penalty, without admitting to the accusation or denying it. The company's press release, however, mentioned that the ERC-20 token is no longer in circulation (after EOS migrated onto its own mainnet from Ethereum in mid-2018), and they have nothing to register as a security with the SEC.
2020: The SEC sues John McAfee for shilling ICOs

On Oct. 5, CNBC published an article stating that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the crypto baron John McAfee with promoting crypto offerings on Twitter over the past few years.

According to data from the SEC, McAfee earned more than $23.1 million for recommending ICOs on his Twitter page.

Those token offerings were "materially false and misleading," CNBC wrote.

At the moment, McAfee is waiting for a court decision in a Spanish prison as to whether he will be extradited to the U.S. or not. He is charged with averting tax payments to the American IRS.

Image via Twitter

The crypto tycoon has been avoiding tax payments for the last few years. At the moment, according to tweets by his wife, Janice McAfee, John is experiencing health issues in prison. However, he has not yet been provided with medical help, despite his wife's constant requests.
Other companies sued by the SEC in 2019, 2020

It has been recently announced that the Kik crypto platform had settled a lawsuit initiated by the SEC in 2019 by paying a $5 million penalty.

The regulator has acknowledged that the platform's native token, KIN, was a non-security asset. A similar "pass" has been granted to Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Kik team sent a message to Ripple on Twitter, expressing its sympathy with the latest company the SEC has sued.

Image via Twitter

Founder of crypto fund Virgin Capital, Stefan Qin, has also been accused of crypto fraud by the SEC.

ER doctor who spoke out against Trump

 to be removed from Walter Reed

Dr. James Phillips has been removed from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's work schedule starting in January 2021.

DeMicia Inman
December 10, 2020

According to a new report, Dr. James Phillips will no longer be employed at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center beginning next year.

Read More: CDC officials ‘directed to destroy’ records of potential ‘political interference’ by Trump

CBS News reported Phillips has been removed from the schedule beginning in January 2021, according to sources close to the situation. The news outlet stated the emergency room doctor is chief of disaster medicine at George Washington University and works on a contract basis for Walter Reed.


The doctor publicly criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the facility and ride in a motorcade around the grounds of the facility after his COVID-19 diagnosis. According to CBS, Phillips shared a now-deleted tweet that called the behavior “insanity.”

Image via George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

“Every single person…in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential “drive-by” just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity,” the tweet said.

Walter Reed officials deny that Dr. Phillip’s exit is in response to the Twitter statement. A spokesperson informed CBS News that the hospital “provides requirements for contract positions. Schedules are determined by the contractor. There was no decision made by anyone at WRNMMC to remove Dr. Phillips from the schedule.”

Lisa Anderson, the assistant director of media relations at George Washington University School of Medicine informed the outlet that Phillips is still on staff at GWU Hospital in downtown Washington D.C.

“While we cannot comment on the scheduling assignments of our providers, we can confirm that he continues to be employed at the GW Medical Faculty Associates,” Anderson said.

As theGrio reported both doctors and non-medical staff at Walter Reed were asked by POTUS to sign an NDA before they could treat him while hospitalized in 2019. Two doctors declined to sign the document so they were not included on Trump’s treatment team.

“Any physician caring for the President is bound by patient-physician confidentiality guaranteed under HIPAA, and I’m not going to comment on internal procedures beyond that,” said White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere, according to the report.

Dr. Phillips appeared on CNN International to share his experience as a frontline worker treating patients with COVID-19.

“This is a unique situation. For me, I’ve been lucky that I’ve had a public health platform through the media to be able to talk and try to educate the general public about how to stay safe,” he remarked. “It does at times feel like screaming into a void when half the people you’re trying to speak to don’t want to listen and think you’re a liar and the president calls you a fraud.”

#ENDFURFARMING

Mink on second B.C. farm test positive for COVID-19

Health officials have detected COVID-19 at a second mink farm in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

© HENNING BAGGER/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images In this file photo, minks are seen at a farm in Gjol, northern Denmark on October 9, 2020.

In a media Christmas Eve media release, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries said three mink had died at a second farm in the province.

Subsequent testing revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans. No workers have tested positive so far.

The farm has been put under quarantine preventing the movement of animal or materials from the property, the ministry said.

The mink were tested after some animals at the farm experienced diarrhea, the ministry said. Twenty-three of the farm's 1,000 animals have died between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23.

COVID-19: hundreds of mink die at Fraser Valley farm

It remains unclear how the mink contracted the virus. The farm is not being identified.

No worrying COVID-19 mutations at B.C. mink farm, say health officials

Health officials said Wednesday that genetic sequencing has found no worrying mutations in samples of COVID-19 taken at the first B.C. farm to have an outbreak of the virus.

At least 17 workers and their contacts and five mink at the farm, which has not been publicly identified, have tested positive for the virus. Another 200 mink died at the site earlier in December.

Video: Fraser Valley mink farm COVID-19 outbreak raises concern about virus mutation

The B.C. Centre for Disease Control said samples of the virus were examined by both its own Public Health Laboratory, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease Laboratory in Winnipeg.

"One common mutation was detected in both the animals and the farm workers," said the BCCDC.

Read more: Hundreds of mink dead from COVID-19 on Fraser Valley farm in B.C.

"This mutation is not in the spike protein of the coronavirus and has been reported in mink previously. Neither the mutation nor the outbreak present an increased risk to human health at this time."

The tests also revealed that the workers and the mink were infected with an "identical or nearly identical" strain of the virus, which has been circulating in B.C.

The BCCDC said that indicates the virus spread from people to the mink, not the other way around.

The agency said further human testing was underway, and that more samples would also be collected from mink.

Read more: Containing COVID-19 outbreak to single B.C. mink farm essential, say experts

The outbreak at the farm has been contained, the BCCDC said, adding that public health and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries continue to monitor mink farms.

The outbreak was the first in Canada on a mink farm, but followed multiple outbreaks in Europe and the U.S.

Mutation concerns rise over COVID-19 outbreak at B.C. mink farm

In Denmark, scientists discovered that the virus had been contracted by mink, mutated, then spread back to humans -- raising concerns it could affect the efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The country subsequently culled 17 million of the animals.

Research has since found the Danish mutations were less worrisome than originally thought, but could potentially affect how well antibody therapies work on the virus, according to Dr. Jan Hajek, a UBC infectious disease specialist.