Belarus: Amnesty accuses security forces of torture

The NGO says it has photos, video recordings and testimony that can be used as evidence of rights violations. The UN also accused Belarus of torturing detainees, a charge the government denies.



Belarusian riot police block the road to stop demonstrators during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk

Detained protesters in Belarus have been systematically tortured, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released on Wednesday.

Belarusians have been taking to the streets against President Alexander Lukashenko, once dubbed Europe's last dictator, since his disputed re-election in August.

More than 30,000 protesters have been arrested, many killed and hundreds injured in the demonstrations.

Belarus President Alexander Lukaschenko says he won August's disputed vote

What does the report say?

The Amnesty report cites testimonies from detainees who say they were stripped naked, beaten and deprived of food, drinking water or medical care for days.

Amnesty says it has photos, video recordings and testimony of detainees, victims and witnesses that can be used as evidence of rights violations.

But Marie Struthers, the group's director for eastern Europe and central Asia, said the country's justice system "not only protects police with anonymity, but also encourages intimidation and further violence against victims and witnesses."

Watch video 04:57 Lithuania offers protection from Lukashenko

She said an international investigation was needed into "the unprecedented scale of the ongoing human rights violations" and the perpetrators must be prosecuted. 

Pressure from the UN

Last month, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged the government to release all people unlawfully arrested in post-election protests and investigate some 2,000 complaints of torture or ill-treatment in custody.

The Belarusian government has repeatedly all of the allegations.

Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, claimed victory in the elections with 80.1% of the vote.

Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the international community, including the EU and the US, contest the results.

Belarus: Amnesty accuses security forces of torture | News | DW | 27.01.2021

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF BIG PHARMA NOW!

2021 Access to Medicine Index: No profit, no pharma?

A new pharmaceutical company ranking has said the industry is slowly improving access to medicine in low and middle-income countries. But it only mobilized on COVID once the pandemic threatened rich countries.



The Index ranks companies on what they are doing to improve access to their medicines in poorer countries.

Pharmaceutical companies "continue to inch forward" to improve access to medicines in poorer countries, said a report published by the Access to Medicine Foundation on Tuesday.

The Netherlands-based nonprofit organisation said there has been progress, but that progress is slow. And profit appears still to be the main driver for research and development (R&D) in medicines and vaccines.

In the foundation's 2021 ranking of the pharmaceutical industry, it said that most of the products approved since 2018 have targeted "more profitable non-communicable diseases [than less profitable] communicable diseases."

It continues: "The 2021 analysis showed that only two recently approved products target neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)."

And on COVID-19, the "industry only mobilized once it became clear that the outbreak affected rich as well as poor countries," because that opened up the potential for "substantial recurring pharmaceutical revenues."


"The state of infectious disease research today is, if I can put it mildly, on thin ice," said Dr. Jayasree Iyer, executive director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, in an interview with DW.

"It's heavily reliant on public funds and the goodwill of a few pharmaceutical companies. Many companies have actually left infectious disease R&D," said Iyer.

"But when we talk about the scale of some of these issues and the knowledge to develop a product, to produce it at scale, efficiently, and deploy it in countries, the world relies on the pharmaceutical industry," she said.

The industry might also argue that it needs recurring revenues in order to be able to respond to public health emergencies, such as a pandemic.
Conditions that get the most attention

Access to Medicine's Index ranks pharmaceutical companies on what they are doing to improve access to their medicines — their products — in poorer countries.

The ranking uses three main criteria: governance of access, research and development, and product delivery.

Our graph focuses on the top 10 companies in the ranking of 20.

GlaxoSmithKline has held onto the top position since the last Access to Medicine Index was published in 2018. Pfizer has entered the top five.

Non-communicable diseases, such as cancers, continue to dominate R&D at the top companies. Cancers account for more than two-thirds of all projects.

Among the infectious diseases, HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria continue to receive the most attention from companies, with COVID-19 joining them in 2020.

Research into maternal and neonatal health conditions increased, but "only slightly," says an accompanying report. That was by 1% of all R&D projects.
Less action on neglected tropical diseases

Access for Medicine said there has been "notable progress" in planning during R&D to make future products accessible.

"Eight companies are developing approaches for systematically ensuring all R&D projects are paired with plans to increase access in poorer countries soon after launch," wrote the report authors.

But projects targeting neglected tropical diseases have decreased from 90 to 86.

Dracunculiasis, or guinea-worm disease, is contracted by drinking contaminated water

NTDs include dengue, rabies, trachoma, yaws and guinea-worm disease. The latter two have been identified as candidates for disease eradication or disease control.

There are other diseases, such as Ebola, of which there have been a number of recent outbreaks in western Africa.

Those outbreaks, said Iyer, have provided a platform for renewed interest in Ebola, but that interest needs to be maintained and prioritized.

"The more disease priorities are well-defined, the easier it is to engage industry," said Iyer. "And the greater the public funding, and assistance to deploy [medicines], the likelier it is that we see a group of companies engaging on particular issues."

That can also come as a result of public sentiment through awareness campaigns and activism, said Iyer. That has been seen with HIV, for instance.
Planning for the next pandemic

Access to Medicine's findings also show so-called "empty pipelines" for 10 out of 16 of the emerging infectious diseases in the world. Basically, nothing's happening there — no research, no development.

One such example, said Iyer, is Nipah, an infectious disease that transmits from animals to humans, a "zoonotic" virus.

It has been found in Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa, with recent outbreaks affecting Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India and Thailand. And there is no vaccine.

"Large research-based pharmaceutical companies have a critical role to play in preparing for the next pandemic," wrote the report authors. "The lag in access planning, despite hefty public funding for much R&D, suggests that pharmaceutical companies must do more."

That includes demonstrating a sustained commitment to investing more in emerging infectious disease R&D, embedding equitable distribution into their strategies and showing greater flexibility on sharing intellectual property.

EU pins hope on Norway raw materials discovery

Norway has discovered a huge deposit of critical raw materials. This could make the EU less dependent on China and Russia and boost the bloc's energy transition. DW's Mikhail Bushuev has this exclusive report.


Norge Mining is working feverishly to get the Dalane deposit project off the ground


Michael Wurmser was a banker, investor and strategic consultant before he met new business partners from Norway. They offered the Swiss national five licenses for a lucrative phosphate deposit in Norway which had previously caught the attention of local scientists.

What sounded rather unspectacular at first has turned into one of Europe's most fascinating discoveries. Norway does not belong to the EU. Its huge deposit has certainly piqued the interest of the 27-member bloc and China. Wurmser's company claims to have discovered the biggest deposit of its kind globally, which could produce 70 billion to 80 billion tons of ore-containing material.
Phosphate, vanadium and titanium

After backing from Swiss and German investors, Wurmser and his partners founded Norge Mining in the UK in 2018. They started taking soil samples in the Dalane region in sparsely populated southwestern Norway.

Besides phosphates, two other important minerals were found: vanadium and titanium. Vanadium is tipped to become the most important raw material of the future. About a tenth of all globally mined vanadium is currently used to produce high-performance batteries that store renewable energy.


Soil samples from the Dalane deposit have shown a high content of rare raw materials

Vanadium batteries are far superior to conventional lithium-ion batteries. They can be charged faster and survive 10 times more recharging/discharging cycles without losing performance. Besides that, recycling them is easier. Titanium is important for the steel industry, while phosphates are required for the production of fertilizers.

Electromagnetic field tests, carried out from a helicopter in 2019, produced a 3D visualization of the whole ore deposit. At first, Norge Mining only expected the raw materials to reach a depth of 300-400 meters (984-1,312 feet). Further test drilling and lab studies helped them calculate that the mineralization of the ore deposit reaches at least 2,200 meters (7,217 feet) deep. The company now believes the depth could be up to 4,500 meters.


"At first, we didn't expect the deposit to have such gigantic dimensions," Wurmser told DW. Norge Mining says it has since secured six licenses for the development of an area four times the size of Paris, some 420 square kilometers (261 square miles). In 2012, the Geological Survey of Norway put the value of the deposit at some €30 billion ($36.4 billion). But that estimate assumed the ore deposit would have a depth of just 100 meters.

British consulting firm SRK calculated that the total ore body contains 70-80 billion tons of phosphate-containing material, which would make it the world's largest phosphate deposit, ahead of Morocco's 50 billion and China's 30 billion tons. Added to this is some 3.5 billion tons of ore-containing rock material, which contains 2.45 million tons of vanadium. Norge Mining didn't provide any details on the titanium deposit.

Critical raw materials for the EU

The Norwegian mega deposit has spurred the European Union's interest, all the more since phosphate, vanadium and titanium are on the European Commission's list of critical raw materials. The list contains 30 rare earths and other minerals which are classified as crucial for the bloc's economic and climate protection policies but predominantly need to be imported. Often, importing these materials is risky or complicated. China, for instance, has reserved the right in its latest five-year plan to curtail exports of rare raw materials should they be needed for domestic production.


Michael Wurmser is confident that the Norwegian deposit can help the EU become less dependent on China

Over 60% of the EU's phosphate, vanadium and titanium supplies come from China, along with 20% from Russia and the rest from Kazakhstan, Morocco and other African nations. By 2030, demand is likely to soar — up to 58% for vanadium alone, according to Berlin-based consortium EIT RawMaterials.

Seeking to reduce the risk of supply bottlenecks, Brussels has created the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA). The initiative is backed by 160 companies, including Norge Mining, to make raw-material supply chains resilient.

But the company hasn't specified just how much vanadium, titanium and phosphates it aims to supply to the bloc, arguing it's too early to say. After all, it will take about five years to begin extraction. The EU doesn't see an immediate bottleneck in the supply of critical raw minerals, but the Economic Council of Germany's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has called for the creation of reserves just in case.
Alternative to oil exports

The European Commission is in talks with Norwegian authorities about potential supplies. Oslo, with its dwindling oil reserves, is already readying itself for the post-fossil fuel era. Extracting and exporting rare earth minerals could become a new pillar of economic growth.

Odd Stangeland, the mayor of Eigersund where the huge deposit is located, told DW the locals are happy about the discovery, especially as Norge has pledged to adhere to strict environmental protection standards. Such is the backing for rare earth minerals, a highway may be rerouted so as not to be in the way of future mines, despite costing €330 million. Wurmser thinks that is a relatively small sum, given the expected yields. He says the Dalane deposit could be a multigenerational project, lasting for more than a century.

Norge Mining's drilling activities have already started, with actual extraction to kick off in a couple of years

China calling

Wurmser noted how rare earth minerals have become a political hot potato. As well as the EU, China's state-run enterprises are taking a keen interest in its Norwegian project. "Every 10 days, there's a call from China," Wurmser told DW, sensing an unspoken wish to buy his firm, which he insisted is out of the question. "We only see them as potential recipients [of our minerals]."

In contrast, Norge sees the EU as a key partner, as it will help the bloc realize its ambition of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. This goal cannot be achieved without green technologies and long-lasting batteries, produced with the help of rare raw minerals that are mined responsibly, he told DW.

Adapted from German

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Scientists in Greece find 20 million year-old petrified tree

By Elias Marcou

© Reuters/ELIAS MARCOU Rare fossilised tree, part of a petrified forest, unearthed on the island of Lesbos

LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) - Greek scientists on the volcanic island of Lesbos say they have found a rare fossilized tree whose branches and roots are still intact after 20 million years.

The tree was found during roadwork near an ancient forest petrified millions of years ago on the eastern Mediterranean island and transported from the site using a special splint and metal platform.

© Reuters/ELIAS MARCOU Rare fossilised tree, part of a petrified forest, unearthed on the island of Lesbos

It is the first time a tree has been found in such good condition complete with branches and roots since excavations began in 1995, said Professor Nikos Zouros of the Museum of Natural History of the Petrified Forest of Lesbos.

© Reuters/ELIAS MARCOU Rare fossilised tree, part of a petrified forest, unearthed on the island of Lesbos

"It is a unique find," he said. "[It] is preserved in excellent condition and from studying the fossilized wood we will be able to identify the type of plant it comes from."

Lesbos' petrified forest, a 15,000-hectare, UNESCO-protected site, is the result of a volcanic eruption 20 million years ago which smothered the island's then subtropical forest ecosystem in lava.

© Reuters/ELIAS MARCOU Rare fossilised tree, part of a petrified forest, unearthed on the island of Lesbos

The fossilized tree, about 19 metres long, was preserved by a thick layer of volcanic ash after it fell. A large number of fruit tree leaves were found in the same spot, adding to the picture along with animal bones from the general area.

© Reuters/ELIAS MARCOU Rare fossilised tree, part of a petrified forest, unearthed on the island of Lesbos

"During the excavations the various forests that existed between 17 and 20 million years ago on Lesbos are being uncovered and we can reconstruct the ecosystem that existed during that period," said Zouros.

(Writing by Deborah Kyvrikosaios; editing by James Mackenzie and Alexandra Hudson)

CANADA HAS THE LARGEST SIKH DIASPORA 

Calgary Punjabis take to the highway to support Indian farmers

© Dan McGarvey/CBC Cars and trucks with stickers and posters supporting Indian farmers made the trip Tuesday morning to Edmonton in support of the cause.

Dozens of cars and trucks braved the icy highway between Calgary and Edmonton on Tuesday to show support with farmers protesting controversial new agriculture laws in India.

The car convoy left CrossIron Mills headed for the legislature to raise awareness of the situation that's been unfolding in India since last September. Cars were flying flags and displaying stickers and homemade posters.

New legislation came into effect in India last year changing the rules around the sale, pricing and storage of produce from India's agricultural regions.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the changes will allow farmers to set prices and allow them to sell crops to private businesses and corporations, giving them more freedom.

Farmers are worried it will leave them open to being exploited and devastate them financially, and they say they weren't consulted

.

© Dan McGarvey/CBC Cars and trucks covered with signs, decals and flags travelled up the highway in a convoy to Edmonton.

Until now, farmers had relied on selling crops direct to the government at guaranteed prices.

Some families in Calgary still own land in rural India and the change in laws has direct implications for some.

Half of India's vast population is employed in the agriculture sector in some form.

"We want to give our memorandum in support of farmers protesting, that's the purpose," said Vik Sahiwal.

"Opening up the market is the intention, but with such small land holdings, just two acres on average, those farmers are not educated and equipped to deal with the free market," said Sahiwal.

"We want the government to repeal these laws," he said.

© Dan McGarvey/CBC Vik Sahiwal says the car rally is a way for Punjabis in Alberta to express their support and passion for the farmers’ protests happening in India.

Tens of thousands of farmers travelled to the Indian capital, Delhi, late last year from rural regions like Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, with many making the journey in tractors and other farm equipment. They've been there for months,

In the past 24 hours, those peaceful protests turned violent, with farmers breaching police barricades and storming Delhi's historic Red Fort complex.

The protesters were part of a rally being held to mark India's Republic Day and were given routes to stick to by police, but some ignored the guidance leading to chaotic scenes and clashes.

"It's heartbreaking for everyone," said Sahiwal. "Last night, watching those scenes, you're worried about the safety or older people and women and children. We hope things calm down and sense prevails, peace prevails," he said.

He says Calgarians have been glued to TV screens and devices following the news back home minute by minute.

"We're scared for our families back home," said Paramjit Singh.

"This cold, it's nothing compared to what they're facing. We have heaters in our cars, they have nothing," said Singh, who has also been following events.

© Dan McGarvey/CBC Paramjit Singh says Punjabis in Calgary support the farmers protests in Delhi after new laws were passed that farmers say will their kill their livelihoods.

"We were watching and we were all scared," he said.

Leaders of farmers unions issued appeals to protestors and have condemned the recent violence.

The government offered to put the laws on hold last week, but farmers say they want a full repeal.

#NOFARMERSNOFOOD

Heavy security, roads closed after Delhi farmer riots

Issued on: 27/01/2021 - 

The farmers want new agricultural reforms scrapped 

Money SHARMA AFP

New Delhi (AFP)

Indian police imposed heavy security and closed several main roads around New Delhi on Wednesday a day after farmers went on the rampage the capital, leaving one person dead and dozens injured.

The violence marked a dramatic escalation in a standoff between the government and thousands of farmers camped out on the outskirts of the city since late November.

The farmers, mostly from northern Indian states including Punjab, want new agricultural reforms scrapped that they fear will leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

On Tuesday -- during annual Republic Day parade -- convoys of farmers on tractors smashed through barricades to converge on the city centre, seeing off police baton charges and volleys of tear gas.

One farmer was killed in what police said was an accident after his tractor overturned after hitting a barricade. At least 86 police were injured, an official statement said.

Around the city, security forces fought running battles with demonstrators. Farmers also laid into police with branches and metal bars and hijacked buses used to block their convoys.

At the historic Red Fort landmark farmers broke through police lines and put up their own emblem on the flagpole to cheers from the large crowd before being dispersed from the ramparts by security forces.

On one main road, people on rooftops threw petals on the tractor convoys. Elsewhere people cheered and applauded as farmers went past waving Indian flags and blowing horns.

As night fell, the farmers retreated to the camps outside the city where they have been braving Delhi's chilly winter nights since late November.

Home Minister Amit Shah ordered 15 companies of paramilitaries to boost security forces in the capital, according to media reports.

On Thursday morning a number of major roads were blocked by police and security forces set up barricades, leading to major traffic congestion. Riot police were stationed near the Red Fort.

- Blow for Modi -

Smaller farmer demonstrations were held in Mumbai and Bangalore and in the rural state of Haryana on Tuesday.

The unrest was a major embarrassment for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government, for whom the farmer protests represent the biggest challenge since coming to power in 2014.

Farming has long been a political minefield, with nearly 70 percent of the population drawing its livelihood from agriculture in the vast nation of 1.3 billion people.

The government has offered to suspend the reforms for 18 months, but farmer unions -- who insist they did not condone Tuesday's violence -- want nothing short of the laws being binned.

The government says that the farmers have been manipulated by opposition parties which have largely backed the protests.

It insists the reforms will allow farmers to sell to private buyers instead of just at state markets.

Ten rounds of talks between farm unions and ministers have failed to break the deadlock.

"We're ready to die. This government has been ignoring us for long but they can no longer do that," Singh told AFP at the 400-year-old fort.

Majid Ali, 55, who lives near the Red Fort said he was appaled by what happened at the landmark but backs the farmers.

"I've never seen this much security in my life... If the farmers don't fight for their rights and lives, how will we eat? I am with the farmers," Ali told AFP.

ja-grk-abh-ash/stu/je

© 2021 AFP

India: Farmers mount fresh protests in New Delhi

Tens of thousands of Indian farmers protesting agricultural reforms have driven a convoy of tractors into New Delhi as the capital celebrates Republic Day. DW's India correspondent Nimisha Jaiswal reports from the scene.

#NOFARMERSNOFOOD

UN survey uses Angry Birds to reveal Canadian, global opinions on climate policies

Canadians are "Angry Birds" when it comes to climate change, shows a survey the United Nations calls the largest ever taken on the issue

The mammoth survey, which drew respondents through the use of popular online games, ranked Canada seventh out of 50 countries in its perception of how important the problem is — and tops in the gap between men and women on the issue.

"Canada was at the top end of the group of countries we surveyed in terms of the recognition of the climate emergency," said Steve Fisher, an Oxford University sociologist who helped run the survey on behalf of the United Nations Development Program.

The novel survey found respondents through games such as Angry Birds and Dragon City. As people played the games, a questionnaire would pop up instead of an ad.

Project director Cassie Flynn, who is with the UN program, said the idea came to her while riding the subway in New York.

"Every single person was on their phone," she said. "I started looking over people's shoulders and the huge majority was playing games. I thought, 'How do we tap into that?'"

Two years, 1.2 million responses (in 17 languages) and a great deal of innovative statistical thinking later came the People's Climate Vote. It is an attempt, said Flynn, to gauge the public's sense of urgency on climate change and how people feel about different policies.

"The decisions (on climate) are going to affect every single person on the planet. What we wanted to do is to bring public opinion into that policy-making."

As the federal Liberal government advances on its ambitious climate program, it seems Canadians are more concerned about the issue than most.

Three-quarters of those surveyed agreed that climate change is an emergency compared with the global average of 64 per cent.

That belief topped out at 83 per cent for respondents under 18. But, at 72 per cent, it wasn't much weaker among those over 60.

The survey also found that Canadians who believed climate change is an emergency believed it strongly. Three-quarters said action should be urgent and on many fronts.

They really liked solutions based in conservation. Support for nature-based climate policies was higher in Canada at 79 per cent than in any other countries with high carbon emissions from land use.

They also wanted polluters to pay. Some 69 per cent favoured policies that regulate company behaviour. Only the United Kingdom, at 72 per cent, registered stronger among high-income countries.

And, at 81 and 80 per cent respectively, respondents in the U.K. and Canada were virtually tied at the top in support of ocean and waterway protection.

Canada also had the largest gap between men and women in their assessment of the importance of climate change. Canadian women and girls surveyed were 12 per cent more likely to rate it an emergency than men and boys. Globally, there wasn't much difference.

Fisher, who researches political attitudes and behaviour, said climate change is a more partisan issue in Canada, the United States and Australia than elsewhere on the globe.

"It is related to partisanship in those countries," he said. "Women are much more likely to vote for the more climate-conscious left parties."

Fisher said the use of cellphone games gave researchers access to groups that are hard for pollsters to reach, such as young people.

"It was kind of new to do the fieldwork in this way," he said. "It reached an awful lot of people."

Each respondent was asked to complete the survey only once. The team used 4,000 different games, some popular with children, some with older people.

Still, the sample skewed young. The statisticians had to adjust the sample to ensure all groups were given appropriate weight.

The survey is considered accurate to within two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 26, 2021.

— Follow @row1960 on Twitter

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

'Angry Birds Toons' Acquired by Canada's Teletoon | Hollywood Reporter

From Italy to Japan: The life and crimes of mafia groups around the world



Issued on: 26/01/2021 - 

PERSPECTIVE © FRANCE 24
By:Eve IRVINE

https://vod-france24.akamaized.net/en/vod/2021/01/26/ANGL210126-0840-Live_CS0840.mp4

Earlier this month, a mega-trial got underway in Italy with more than 300 defendants and 900 witnesses, the biggest mafia trial of its kind in decades. The main crime family in question has allegiances with gangs in South America and Albania. We speak to Federico Varese, a professor of criminology and the author of a number of works on the Russian mafia, Soviet criminal history and the globalisation of mafia groups. He shares his perspective on the trial in his homeland and on mafia groups around the world.

>> Italy targets 'Ndrangheta crime group in biggest mafia trial in decades

Mitch McConnell Is Reportedly ‘Scared To Death’ Of Corporate America’s Response To Riots

SAMUEL CORUM / GETTY IMAGES

Tyler MacDonald
THE INQUISITER
January 23, 2021

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was allegedly rattled by corporate America’s response to the Capitol riots that sparked former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment, The New Yorker reported.

GOP strategist Stuart Stevens spoke to the publication and suggested that this fear played a role in McConnell’s decision to break with Trump after the storming of the historic U.S. building.

“He’s scared to death, too, at how corporate America is responding. Supporting the overthrow of the U.S. government isn’t good for business,” the Lincoln Project founder said.

As noted by The New Yorker, dozens of some of the largest corporate GOP donors cut ties to the coalition’s lawmakers who opposed the certification of President Joe Biden’s election after the riots.

“McConnell, who once infamously declared that the three most important ingredients for political success in America are ‘money,’ ‘money,’ and ‘money,’ was reportedly alarmed,” the publication wrote.

Per CTV News, many Wall Street businesses and banks have severed ties with not just Trump’s campaign but the “broader Republican Party.” Notably, American Express’ CEO Steve Squeri emailed employees about the attacks on the Capitol and said that it was not aligned with the company’s values.

Following the riots, several technology companies also severed ties with Trump, including Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Elsewhere, Shopify removed the Trump campaign’s merchandise website, and the financial tech company Stripe allegedly halted payments for the former president’s campaign.

THE GRIM REAPER
 

Alex Wong / Getty Images

The blowback comes in the lead-up to the forthcoming impeachment trial in the Senate and a CNN report suggesting that former top Trump administration officials and influential Republicans near Washington are lobbying the politician to convict the former head of state.

Despite the financial damage, Stevens claimed that McConnell doesn’t want to impeach and convict Trump.

“It would split his base and cause members of his caucus to face primary challengers.”

According to Stevens, McConnell expressed openness to convicting Trump — he has not yet publicly revealed whether he would — to avoid a breakdown in the Republican Party.

Elsewhere, CNN claimed that McConnell has privately said he wants the former president convicted.

“Mitch said to me he wants Trump gone,” one Republican member of Congress told the publication.

“It is in his political interest to have him gone. It is in the GOP interest to have him gone. The question is, do we get there?”

As The Inquisitr reported, McConnell was reportedly happy when the Democratic Party began to work on a plan to impeach Trump, which eventually came to fruition on January 13, 2021.

#MeTooGay: French male gay victims break taboo on sexual abuse

Issued on: 25/01/2021 - 

The #MeTooGay hashtag has allowed many French gay male victims of sexual abuse to come forward and share their stories. © Jeff Pachoud, AFP

Text by: Louise NORDSTROM

Video by:FRANCE 24


A week after French incest victims took to Twitter to break the country’s taboo on inter-family sexual abuse, male gay victims of sexual violence have followed suit by using the #MeTooGay hashtag to speak out about abuse they have never before dared to share for fear it would trigger a homophobic backlash against France’s already vulnerable LGBT+ community.

“I was 11, and had the body of a child. He was 16-and-a-half and had the body of an adult. It started with blackmail. Then by forced penetrations, humiliations, and disgust as my body entered puberty. It lasted for 6 years.”

Since Thursday, Twitter has seen an outpouring of heartbreaking testimonies like these from French gay men who have finally chosen to break the silence on the abuse they suffered as children, young men, or even as adults.

The public declarations come on the heels of the publication this month of a book accusing prominent French intellectual Olivier Duhamel of sexually abusing his step-son.

The revelations, which led to a preliminary investigation into the case and to Duhamel's resignation from several prestigious posts, helped break the French taboo on incest, with the creation of a #MeTooInceste hashtag, and has since also lifted the lid on other hushed subjects, such as sexual abuse targeting male gays.

Flora Bolter, co-director of the Paris-based rights group l'Observatoire LGBT+ de la Fondation Jean Jaurès, told FRANCE 24 that many gay victims of sexual abuse have felt forced to stay silent about their experiences for fear it would cause a backlash against the LBGT+ community itself.

“We’re [already] experiencing strong discrimination because people have this shortcut of stereotyping, and linking LGBT persons to sexual predators,” she said.

“So it’s always been very difficult to broach and address the question of sexual violence within the LGBT+ community because there has been this fear of speaking out and [thereby] fuelling homophobia.”

‘No one believed me’

Matthieu Foucher, a French journalist who already in September published an article calling for the creation of a #MeTooGay hashtag under which male gay victims of sexual abuse would feel safe to finally come forward, was one of the first to share his story on Twitter.

“I was 10 or 11. No one believed me when I told them. It partially messed up my teens and my family, [and] delayed my coming out for I don’t know how many years. It’s taken me years to be able to talk about it.”

Others also testified about the difficulty of speaking out about such abuse as a gay male man. “It’s so hard to talk about. It’s so hard when you’re raised amid homophobia, when you have to fight to be who you are, when you try to create a safe space for yourself, and then find yourself a victim all over again,” Twitter-user Matthias Parveau wrote.

Alexandre Rupnik, a local politician in Marseille, shared how he had been abused in a dark staircase in France’s second largest city in 2018 but had chosen to never report it to police “because it felt useless, I was convinced I would never be listened to because I don’t fit the image of a victim of sexual violence.”

Harsh climate in France

In her interview with FRANCE 24, Bolter said that the climate for French male gays is harder than in many western English-speaking countries, not the least because not enough effort is made to collect reliable data on the subject. “There’s also much more done in terms of procedures and practices – in the UK there are helplines for male survivors of sexual violence – that we do not have in France.”

Bolter welcomed the use of the hashtag saying “we’re just now breaking the surface of this silence and this taboo.”

French rights group SOS Homophobie has hailed the flood of testimonies that have come to light since the creation of the #MeTooGay hashtag, saying it “marks a necessary liberation of speech for victims of sexual violence. These people need to be listened to, and protected.”