Colombian police accused of using high-tech weapons against anti-government protesters


Police face anti-government protesters who are blocking a highway in Gachancipa, Colombia, Friday, May 7, 2021

COLOMBIAN police are indiscriminately using horizontal high-speed multiple-projectile launchers against anti-government protesters, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW executive director for the Americas, said that his organisation had never previously seen police using the tear-gas and stun-bomb launchers in that way.

Each launcher is mounted on an anti-riot armoured vehicle reported to cost about £84,000 each.

“This seems like a highly dangerous, high-risk procedure, and I believe that this type of practice is what causes the complaints about extreme police brutality,” Mr Vivanco said.

Colombian Defence Minister Diego Molano sought to justify the use of the weapons when disturbances “affect tranquillity and security” or there is a possibility of violence.

Mr Molano said that the weapons were being deployed to disperse protesters but that “in no way from those tanks can there be shots against any official or citizen.”

But Mr Vivanco told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that the explanation was “very poor,” adding that the defence minister “is not aware of the details” and “does not have much experience in security matters.”

Mr Molano was appointed in February after his predecessor died of Covid-19. He has promised to investigate viral footage of officers firing multiple shots from a tank at protesters.

According to local human-rights organisations, there have been about 1,900 cases of police using brutal force to crack down on the recent spike of protests. In those cases, 963 people were illegally detained, 111 people were injured by police bullets, 39 protesters were killed and 12 women were sexually assaulted by officers.

Last week, the unit responsible for searching for missing persons raised the alarm on the disappearance of 379 protesters who had not returned to their homes.

Protest organisers from the National Strike Committee are expected to meet President Ivan Duque today.

The group of organisations agreed to the meeting despite the president’s refusal to negotiate.

In a statement, they said that they would initially “demand respect and the guarantees for the free exercise of social mobilisation and protest, reject the militarisation of the country and the excessive use of force by the police, the Esmad [riot squad] and the national army against those who protest peacefully.”

THE MORNING STAR

Colombia state terror campaign broadcast live on Twitter

by Adriaan Alsema May 10, 2021

Colombia’s President Ivan Duque and the Anti-Communist Brigade death squad tweeted their allegedly joint terror campaign live in the city of Cali.

What the purpose of the military operation allegedly carried out with the paramilitary group was other than terrorizing locals in the south of Colombia’s city is unclear.

How many people were injured and may have been killed was also not immediately clear.

Once Duque was done terrorizing the students of the Valle University, the president said that he would “listen to you and talk about the issues you complain about.”


We want to tell the young people of Valle del Cauca that we know about their needs, complaints and proposals, and there will be a space to listen to them and talk about the issues that affect them. We invite them to join us and together we will reach quick and concrete solutions.
President Ivan Duque
Announcing the terror


Early Sunday evening, the far-right group warned the residents in Cali that “the night will be long and tortuous because of [opposition] Senator Gustavo Petro and his narco-terrorist” indigenous protesters.

“Those narco-terrorists don’t know what’s coming” the group said hours after regional indigenous organization CRIC said eight people were injured after Cali residents opened fire on them.

The native Colombians knew something was coming as the president ordered Defense Minister Diego Molano to embark on a major military operation south of Cali.
Duque orders more troops to Colombia’s southwest amid fears of civil war

What the indigenous didn’t know was that Duque would be also be involved in the military operation. The president didn’t fly to Cali until early in the morning.

The Anti-Communist Brigade tweeted that “they’re not counting on armed civilians. There will be more deaths” and urged people in the south of the city to stay inside.

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Anti-Communist Brigade

While the paramilitaries were recruiting, Molano was coordinating the operation with the local military commanders.

(Image: Defense Ministry)

Live terror

The Anti-Communist Brigade invited anyone to follow their terrorism campaign in alleged collusion with the local police and the National Army on Twitter with the hashtag #CaliEnAlertaRoja.

Around 8PM, Uribe called on his supporters to support the security forces in the event they would be criticized by “reckless national and foreign media” for allegedly colluding with death squads.

We, Colombians who ask for protection of our Armed Forces, in accordance with the Constitution, must be prepared to defend them from reckless national and foreign accusation.
Former President Alvaro Uribe

“Reckless national and foreign accusations” got Uribe in court for his alleged involvement in two massacres, a fate his puppet may be awaiting too unless he asks the paramilitaries to delete the evidence of their involvement in the Cali terror campaign.

A little after 10:30PM, the Anti-Communist Brigade tweeted “on alert” after which they said they were “on the job.”

A local reported that an army unit and a unit of anti-riot police unit ESMAD were entering the Melendez neighborhood in the south of the city 10 minutes later.

Minutes later, another residents from the neighborhood claimed that “they are attacking us.”

Duque arrived in the city at 11:30, according to journalist Ricardo Ospina of Blu Radio, the radio station run by the president’s brother in law.                                    

 

Minutes after Duque’s arrival, a local decried on Twitter that “they are assassinating people in the Melendez neighborhood in Cali!”

Reporters from the Valle University reported on the operation live.

Another unconfirmed video showed alleged locals from the neighborhood gathering injured neighbors, but the veracity of this video was later disputed.

Representatives of the Peace Commission, and peace observers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany traveled to Cali this morning to talk to locals.

How many people were possibly injured or killed between Sunday and Monday remained unclear around 2PM on Monday, but the most recent events triggered a response from US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg.

We regret the acts of violence that occurred in Cali and express our sincere condolences to the families and friends of those who died in the midst of them. The US reiterates our call for calm and our support for dialogue to address the current situation.
US Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg


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Colombia fighting violent repression of anti-government protests

UK

RCN says ‘army’ of 25,000 members are training to become activists to fight ‘pitiful’ 

1 per cent pay rise for NHS staff



UP TO 25,000 nurses are training to become activists so they can force Boris Johnson  to improve on his “pitiful” 1 per cent NHS p rise offer

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) hopes the move will help it achieve a turnout of 50 per cent in the strike ballot it has pledged to call if the Prime Minister continues to resist calls for a real-terms increase in England.

As part of its “don’t get angry, get organised” campaign, the union has enlisted the help of Jane McAlevey, a senior policy fellow at the University of California, who has been training nurses in the United States to unionise and win better pay and conditions for 25 years.

Ms McAlevey’s six-week course, the first of which started last week, will help nurses channel the “anger and frustration” they feel at the 1 per cent offer into creating an “army of activists,” the RCN said.

RCN council chairman Dave Dawes says the initiative will help rouse its 475,000-strong membership to back a strike ballot alongside undertaking local campaigns to win public support.

The NHS pay review body is due to report its recommendations on any rise for England later this month; health unions decide this week whether to accept the Scottish government’s offer of a 4 per cent rise for all health workers north of the border.

The RCN wants a restorative 12.5 per cent pay rise for all nurses after a decade of Tory cuts, while Unite and GMB have backed calls from grassroots groups such as NHS Workers Say No for a 15 per cent increase.

Mr Dawes said: “If we are going to be balloting for industrial action later this year, which looks increasingly likely, this training will make a huge difference in what the turnout of the ballot will be.

“No nurse wants to take industrial action. But if you’re going to do it, and successfully, you need to have the majority of the workforce on your side and you need to have the majority of the public understanding what this is about.”

Ms McAlevey said her course will identify and nurture non-unionised nurses who are natural or organic leaders and demonstrate an ability to move their colleagues through persuasion and action.

THE MORNING STAR

UK economy to suffer £700bn output loss due to Covid and Brexit, thinktank warns

NIESR says UK facing worse permanent damage than other rich nations due to ‘poor Covid response’

Containers at the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk. The thinktank said the UK would suffer from a lingering impact on world trade caused by the pandemic and Brexit. Photograph: James Veysey/REX/Shutterstock


Richard Partington Economics correspondent
@RJPartington
Mon 10 May 2021 

Britain’s economy is on track to suffer more than £700bn of lost output caused by Covid-19, made worse by the government’s mishandling of the health emergency and Brexit, one of the UK’s leading economics thinktanks has warned.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the UK was facing worse permanent damage than other rich nations due to a “poor Covid-19 response” from Boris Johnson’s government.

Despite an improving growth outlook thanks to rapid progress with the Covid-19 vaccination programme, it said the scale of the UK’s economic collapse last year – the worst annual performance for 300 years – meant Britain was further behind other major economies such as the US and Germany.

The UK’s oldest independent economic research institute said the level of GDP was on track to be almost 4% lower in 2025 than it would have been without the pandemic. Equivalent to £1,350 per person a year, it said the cumulative loss of economic output would be worth £727bn over the five-year period.

“While all countries have seen downgrades in their economic outlooks, those which have handled Covid-19 well are likely to find their long-term growth prospects downgraded by less,” it said.

In a critical report for the government, NIESR said a decade of austerity-driven cuts overseen by the Conservatives had left the UK’s health and social care capacity in a “weak state” as the pandemic struck.

Highlighting research showing the UK had among the lowest numbers of hospital beds and doctors per person among advanced nations, it said: “Too little spending previously is likely to have contributed to 2020’s high Covid-19 mortality rates.”

The UK economy shrank by 9.8% last year, the worst performance in the G7, as the government delayed the launch of lockdown and took longer to relax measures, as well as due to higher rates of social spending in the UK than other nations.

However, NIESR said improvements in public health prospects from rapid progress administering the coronavirus vaccine and the lifting of lockdown measures would support a recovery in consumer confidence and a strong rebound in economic activity this summer.

The thinktank said it expected the economy to grow by 5.7% this year and to recover its pre-pandemic level at the end of 2022, in a sharp upgrade from its previous estimates for growth of 3.4%. It is however significantly below forecasts from the Bank of England for a recovery to pre-crisis levels by the end of this year, with growth of 7.25% in 2021 – the fastest expansion since the second world war.

It said the UK’s open economy would suffer from a lingering impact on world trade caused by the pandemic, while “remaining negative consequences of Brexit” would also have an impact.

Dr Hande Küçük, deputy director at NIESR, said: “Beyond short-term optimism, the outlook for the UK economy is less certain given the economic and social challenges that existed before the pandemic. Our analysis at sectoral, regional, and household level shows that despite the rhetoric about ‘building back better’ existing inequalities could be exacerbated by the pandemic and an uneven recovery.”

Biden urges employers to boost wages but warns workers they’ll lose unemployment pay if they reject jobs

PUBLISHED MON, MAY 10 2021
Jacob Pramuk@JACOBPRAMUK

CNBC

KEY POINTS

President Joe Biden said his administration will distribute more coronavirus relief funds as it aims to help companies hire more workers.

While he urged companies to boost wages and make workplaces safe to entice workers, Biden also said people who do not take an offer for a “suitable job” would lose unemployment benefits unless they have a specific coronavirus-related concern.

Job growth slowed in April, and Biden disputed the notion that a $300 per week enhanced unemployment benefit deterred Americans from taking jobs.


US President Joe Biden speak about the Covid-19 response 

and the vaccination program in the State Dining Room 

of the White House on May 4, 2021.
Nicholas Kamm | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Monday urged U.S. companies to boost pay for workers as he outlined the steps his administration is taking to spur hiring after disappointing job creation in April.

The president said his administration will distribute more of the coronavirus relief funds included in Democrats’ $1.9 trillion aid plan as reopening businesses search for employees.


The federal government will start allowing state and local governments to apply for part of a $350 billion relief pool, push to streamline distribution of aid to child care centers and begin sending grants to 16,000 struggling restaurants and bars, among other efforts.




Biden said the White House does not “see much evidence” that the $300 per week federal unemployment benefit in place until September has deterred people from taking jobs, adding that “Americans want to work.”

VIDEO 09:53

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and economic recovery

Even so, he said, anyone “offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits” unless they have specific concerns related to Covid-19.

The president put the onus on employers who have accepted federal relief to offer good pay, protect workers from the virus and encourage vaccination so Americans feel comfortable taking jobs.

“My expectation is that as our economy comes back, these companies will provide fair wages and safe work environments,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “And if they do, they’ll find plenty of workers.”

Read more of CNBC’s politics coverage:
Infrastructure plan should cost up to $800 billion, McConnell says ahead of BIden meeting
Largest U.S. fuel pipeline remains mostly closed days after cyberattack with no timeline for reopening

U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew by 266,000 in April, well below expectations of about 1 million jobs created, as the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.1%. The report Friday raised questions about how companies can entice workers in a reopening economy and what role the government should play in encouraging hiring.

Biden downplayed the slow growth, saying the economy is “moving in the right direction.”

Yet the president has said the disappointing data showed the need to increase vaccinations against Covid-19 and pass his infrastructure and economic recovery plans. Democrats have said parts of his proposals, including provisions to expand affordable child care and paid leave, will make it easier for parents to accept jobs.

Increasing child care capacity, reopening schools and boosting the rate of vaccinations should help to mitigate hiring issues, Biden said Monday.

Republicans and business organizations have questioned the need for the $300 per week enhanced federal unemployment benefit as much of the country prepares to lift economic restrictions. The payments were extended as part of Democrats’ $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package.

Critics of the enhanced benefits contend they discourage Americans from taking jobs that may not pay them as much as unemployment insurance does. A lack of child-care options for job seekers and safety concerns as the virus lingers have likely played a major role, as well.

A White House fact sheet released Monday said “workers may not turn down a job due to a general, non-specific concern about COVID-19 and continue to receive benefits.” People could reject an offer and keep receiving unemployment if they have a child at home who cannot go to school due to the virus, or if an employer does not comply with federal or state health standards, among other reasons, the administration said.

As Democrats draft economic recovery legislation and Biden prepares for negotiations with Republicans, the president’s plans may not get through Congress for weeks or months. The White House may also have to scale back the proposals to win approval in the Capitol, even under special budget rules that would require only Democratic votes.

Another Biden priority that could make employers boost wages — a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage — did not make it into the coronavirus aid package earlier this year. A standalone bill to boost the pay floor faces long odds of Senate approval.

Mark Drakeford promises to be 'radical' after Labour re-election in Wales

16 & 17 YEARS OLDS GOT TO VOTE

By Heather Graham

Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford elbow bumps newly elected MS Labour candidates Elizabeth Buffy Williams, left, and Sarah Murphy

MARK Drakeford has vowed to be “radical” and “ambitious” in government as his party remains in power in Wales.

Labour has equalled its best ever Senedd election result by winning 30 seats – just one short of a majority – though it did not take any of the four regional seats declared yesterday.


With the final results in, the Welsh Conservatives have 16 seats, while Plaid Cymru have 13 and the LibDems have one.

Drakeford can now choose whether to form a minority government or invite members of other parties into a Labour-led administration, giving the party greater control of the Senedd.


Welsh Labour put the “extraordinary set of results” down to Drakeford’s leadership during the pandemic, which has seen the First Minister’s cautious and careful approach go down well with voters.

Asked if he planned to continue his cautious brand of politics during a new administration, Drakeford said: “Well, absolutely as far as coronavirus is concerned. The pandemic has not gone away. A government I lead will continue to follow the science ... that does mean doing things in a way that continues to keep Wales safe.


“But on other matters, our manifesto is a radical manifesto with a host of ideas that are ambitious for Wales.

“I’ll be very keen to ensure that we give that the most powerful sense of momentum behind it to get those things happening here in Wales.”

Drakeford returned to Labour’s offices in Cardiff for reserved celebrations after Friday night’s constituency results gave the party 27 seats.

He visited Porthcawl, Bridgend, yesterday afternoon to make a speech to party members.

Welsh LibDem leader Jane Dodds, who won a regional seat in Mid and West Wales, said she has yet to be approached by Drakeford to help form the next government.

She told BBC Radio Cymru: “I need to speak to other people within the party and we shall have to see.”

The Welsh Conservatives said they had secured the party’s “best ever result” in a Senedd election, winning 16 seats.

This included taking the Vale of Clwyd from Labour, and Brecon and Radnorshire from the LibDems.

Andrew RT Davies, Senedd leader for the Welsh Conservatives, said he was “delighted” to have secured those constituency seats as well as an increased number of seats on the regional list.

“It’s been an unconventional campaign and it’s clear incumbency and continuity has played a significant part,” Davies said.

He congratulated Drakeford and Welsh Labour on a successful campaign and said the election had been fought “in good spirit” by political parties across Wales.

Plaid Cymru now have 13 seats in the Welsh Parliament, though high-profile former leader Leanne Wood lost her Rhondda seat to Labour.

On her Facebook page, Wood said the result was “disappointing” but that her team could “hold our heads high in the knowledge that we ran a clean and honest campaign, we did not denigrate our opponents and we worked hard”.

Polling at the start of the campaign suggested Labour was facing its worst ever result and was at risk of winning as few as 22 of the Senedd’s 60 seats, a loss of seven from 2016, though later polls suggested a stronger showing.

Welsh Labour win stunning sixth victory in Welsh Parliament elections

THIS should have been the headline in all the newspapers in their reporting of the outcome of the Welsh elections. Instead, most of our rather lazy and London-centric media chose to report how Welsh Labour “hung on,” “failed to obtain a majority” or managed to “hold back a Tory onslaught.”

So let me put the record straight. It was a resounding and spectacular victory for Welsh Labour: our best result since the beginning of devolution.

At the start of the election campaign it was predicted we would suffer our worst ever results, possibly going as low as 22 seats. Nationalists and Tories gloated and predicted a Labour armageddon.

However, the outcome was totally different. We increased our number of seats from 29 to 30 — exactly half the total. Plaid Cymru former leader Leanne Wood lost Rhondda to Labour by two to one, and the Tories failed to make any significant dent in the so-called north-east Wales red wall.

Thirty seats might not seem a lot, but under our electoral system of 40 constituency and 20 party top-up seats, it is almost impossible for Labour to gain a majority. Labour has never obtained more than 30 seats, and even that only once.

Despite the electoral system, or perhaps because of it, we have nevertheless formed every government in Wales since the beginning of devolution 22 years ago.

To win exactly half the seats in the current political climate, post-Brexit, is a truly remarkable achievement, with increased majorities across Wales and former Brexit voters coming back in large numbers.

This has been a watershed moment for Welsh Labour, which has emancipated into a successful political movement and “brand” in its own right. Mark Drakeford will again be elected by the Parliament as First Minister and become the most senior Labour parliamentary figure in the UK.

So how is it that this proudly socialist, left-leaning politician, who was the only Welsh government minister to endorse Jeremy Corbyn, has risen to these political heights and become the most popular, best-recognised and respected Welsh politician in generations? How has Welsh Labour succeeded where others in the UK have failed?

The successful handling of the Covid pandemic in Wales has clearly played a part. Achieving the fastest vaccination rate in the whole of the UK, and in most of Europe, is one factor.

Mark’s ability to communicate the challenges and conflicts and to always steer a cautious but constructive course is another. On the streets during the election so many people came out of their homes to be photographed with him and to genuinely thank him for keeping them safe and for what he was doing for Wales. When has that happened to a politician before?

But it is more than that. Mark has built on the “clear red water” legacy of his Welsh Labour predecessors and enhanced the Welsh Labour “brand.” He has tapped into the underlying culture of Welsh radicalism and cultural identity with a message of confidence and hope, which contrasted starkly with the messages from opposition parties.

He has maintained and led a united party where Welsh Labour is a truly broad church, and the social partnership with the trade unions has built a solid foundation for what he openly describes as 21st-century socialism.

Covid of course has highlighted the benefits of devolution in a way that many previously did not understand. Standing up for Wales against some of the more reckless decisions of the Tories in Westminster when it was in Wales’s interest to do so has won over many voters.

He was able to build on a progressive Labour record in government. This included the investment of billions of pounds in new schools all over Wales through the imaginative 21st-century schools programme, developing programmes for investment in public transport and taking the railways into public ownership along with Wales’ only international airport, social partnership with the trade unions and businesses, historic levels of employment, creating over 100,000 apprenticeships, increased protection for tenants, animal welfare, organ-transplant legislation and much, much more.

A radical Welsh Labour manifesto for the election was one the party across Wales was able to unite behind. Progressive economic policy, investment, fair work and environmental protection created a political agenda that opposition parties found difficult to challenge. When people went out to vote, they liked what they heard and they knew what they were voting for, and that what was promised would be delivered.

There is much UK Labour can learn from Wales if they care to listen.

As the new Welsh Labour government is formed, the challenges ahead are immense: UK government austerity, NHS backlogs and economic recovery post-Covid. There are likely to be turbulent times ahead in Wales and the rest of the UK.

Although the issue of independence did not feature as a significant doorstep issue in the election, there is a growing undercurrent for change. Tory policies which are aimed at rolling back devolution and recentralising power in Downing Street will become an increasing source of conflict, not just in Wales but, as we have seen in recent months, in the regions of England.

Existing constitutional arrangements, such as they are, no longer work. Radical change is needed. The Welsh party now has a mandate for a radical federalist reform of the UK constitution: in effect, home rule.

The starting point is likely to be the creation of a Welsh constitutional convention to identify and build a consensus for change. Events in Scotland will almost certainly catalyse this process, but one thing is sure: Welsh Labour is no longer a junior partner to UK Labour. It has come of age. We have a radical agenda to implement and battles to fight — so get ready for a rollercoaster couple of years.

Mick Antoniw is the Senedd Member for Pontypridd.

THE MORNING STAR

Sheikh Jarrah: Facebook and Twitter silencing protests, deleting evidence

POSTED ON MAY 10, 2021 DIGITAL 

Facebook and Twitter are systematically silencing users protesting and documenting the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. We, the organisations listed below, demand Facebook and Twitter immediately stop these takedowns, reinstate affected content and accounts, and provide a clear and public explanation for why the content was removed.

Facebook and Twitter are systematically silencing users protesting and documenting the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. We, the organisations listed below, demand Facebook and Twitter immediately stop these takedowns, reinstate affected content and accounts, and provide a clear and public explanation for why the content was removed.

In the past days, people have taken to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to document and denounce Israeli police brutality and violent attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian activists and residents who are peacefully protesting against the imminent threat of being evicted from their homes.

In a rapid escalation, hundreds of posts and accounts documenting these violations were deleted on Instagram and Twitter. The scale of these content takedowns and account suspensions reported by users and documented by digital rights organisations is egregious and pronounced.

Facebook and Twitter have not provided any explanation to their users for these actions. Instagram, for instance, has removed hundreds of stories related to Sheikh Jarrah, including archived posts. The platforms’ arbitrary and non-transparent decisions constitute a serious violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights including their right to freedom of expression, and their right to freedom of association and assembly online, which both Facebook and Twitter have pledged to honour in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Though work is being done to escalate these cases with Facebook and Twitter, timing is critical — users from Sheikh Jarrah have made it clear that without the world’s attention they would be in even more danger. We demand Facebook and Twitter immediately stop censoring and to reinstate the accounts and content of Palestinian voices. These companies must open an investigation into the takedowns, and transparently and publicly share the investigations.

The removed content and suspended accounts on both Instagram and Twitter are related to the documentation and reporting of what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, as well as denouncing Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and persecution. These violations are not limited to Palestinian users, but also affect activists around the world who are using social media to raise awareness about the grave situation in Sheikh Jarrah.

This latest spate of content takedowns is part of a wider pattern of consistent censorship of Palestinian and allied voices and systematic efforts to silence them, which civil society organisations have documented for years. Similar past cases related to takedown of Palestinian speech on these platforms have been attributed to requests by Israel’s Cyber Unit, an internet referral unit whose mission is to submit “voluntary” requests to social media companies for content removal.

The content coming from Sheikh Jarrah illustrates the sheer number and severity of human rights violations requiring digital documentation and media awareness. Social media platforms provide a crucial space for communities with no other recourse to make their demands for freedom, justice and dignity heard. Online spaces should be available for organisations, activists and human rights defenders to expose and document human rights violations on the ground. This can only work when platforms build transparent and coherent content moderation policies based on international human rights standards, and apply them in a consistent, transparent and equitable way.

We, the undersigned organisations, urgently call on Facebook and Twitter to:
Immediately open an investigation into those cases, as well as transparently and publicly share reasons behind takedown of accounts and posts related to Sheikh Jarrah;
Immediately reinstate all accounts and content currently taken offline in breach of international standards on freedom of expression;
Provide transparency on the decision-making processes involved in content takedowns related to Palestine;
Publicly commit to resist government and court orders in breach of international standards on freedom of expression;
Publish detailed data on requests submitted by the Israeli Cyber Unit including numbers of complaints received, content removal, account suspensions and other content restrictions, together with details on the category of content that was removed and/or reinstated.
Commit to the baseline principles set forth in the Santa Clara Principles on Transparency and Accountability in Content Moderation.

Signatories

7amleh

Access Now

ARTICLE 19

Mnemonic

SMEX

INSMnetwork – Iraq

Pen Iraq

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Friends of Sabeel North America

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP)

Ranking Digital Rights

MPower Change

Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE)

Jewish Voice for Peace

MediaJustice

Masaar-Technology and Law Community

United Methodists’ Holy Land Task Force

Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)

Taraaz

Center for Constitutional Rights

MILEN – Media and Information Literacy Expert Network

Free Speech on Israel

Jewish Network for Palestine

Sanders Accuses McConnell of Hypocrisy and Corruption in Scathing KY Speech

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the GOP are motivated more by corporate money than providing help to the American people.BILL PUGLIANO, ROD LAMKEY-POOL / GETTY IMAGES

In a rally for the progressive movement in Kentucky on Sunday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) criticized Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) for “working overtime” for corporations and the wealthy, while working to “undermine” the lower and middle classes.

“I’m here today because Mitch McConnell is working overtime to represent the needs of the wealthy and the powerful and to undermine the needs of working families,” Sanders said, while drawing attention to McConnell’s leadership in opposing proposals like the American Rescue Plan, a $15 federal minimum wage, universal child care, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the For the People Act.

“The question, I think, that people should be asking is, ‘why is Mitch McConnell doing what he does?’” in blocking legislation that would improve the lives of working Americans while working to help the wealthy, Sanders said. “The answer is pretty simple: follow the money.”

Sanders pointed out that McConnell often receives large sums of money from Wall Street, health care companies, pharmaceutical companies, the National Rifle Association and fossil fuel companies. These groups oppose proposals like raising the minimum wage and reducing the cost of pharmaceutical drugs, among many things, he points out.

“Mitch McConnell’s top campaign contributors want to do exactly the opposite of what the American people want and need. And so does Mitch McConnell,” said Sanders.

Sanders went on to criticize McConnell’s hypocrisy in whingeing over government spending for the working class while working to provide tax breaks for the rich.

“This I will never forget: On New Year’s Eve, Mitch McConnell blocked legislation I was offering to provide working class Americans with a $2,000 direct payment because, get this, he claimed it was ‘socialism for the rich,’” said Sanders.

“In Mitch McConnell’s world, if you are a multi-millionaire campaign contributor, it’s okay to receive a $1.4 billion tax break,” as the Koch family received as a result of Republican tax cuts in 2017. “But if you are a working-class person, apparently, it’s not acceptable to get the help you so desperately need,” Sanders said. “If you are a teacher or a construction worker who makes $75,000 a year, a $2,000 direct payment is, according to McConnell, ‘socialism for the rich.’”

Sanders pointed out that the ideology of the GOP as a whole is not actually about limiting government, as they claim — rather, it’s about who can help them raise more money on the campaign trail.

“The difference in ideology between Senator McConnell and myself, between the Republican Party and the progressive movement, is not a question of big government versus small government,” the senator went on. “It’s a question of whose interests the government represents. It’s a question of whether you fight for the needs of the wealthy and large corporations who fund your campaigns, or the working families of our country.”

By contrast, Sanders said, the progressive movement is fighting for the interests of the working classes, who have suffered during the pandemic.

“What I want to do now — which, I think, as a nation, we don’t do enough — is to simply compare Senator McConnell’s ideology, his Republican ideology, his votes, his actions, and his vision for America with the progressive vision for America,” said Sanders. “And our vision is that the government should represent all of the people, not just the 1 percent. Our vision believes that the foundations of government should rest on the pillars of justice — economic justice, racial justice, social justice, environmental justice.”

“While tens of millions of Americans have been living in economic desperation, the wealthiest people in this country have become obscenely richer,” Sanders noted. “We have a worse level of income and wealth inequality today than we’ve had since the 1920s. In America today, two people now own more than the bottom 40 percent of our nation, while the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent.”

Indeed, economists have shown that the top 1 percent of households own a hugely disproportionate share of wealth in the U.S., and that share has continually been growing over many decades. A recent study showed that the billionaires’ profits from just the pandemic alone amount to over $1.6 trillion combined, or a growth of 55 percent in a little over a year.

“This is a pivotal moment in American history,” Sanders said. “In the coming months, we have a fundamental decision to make. Will we build a government, an economy and a society that works for all of us and not just the 1 percent? Or will we continue the drift towards oligarchy and authoritarianism in which a small number of incredibly wealthy and powerful billionaires own and control a significant part of the economy and exert enormous influence over the political life of our country?”

Paris court tries anti-racism activist for statue attack

ASSOCIATED PRESS | Monday, May 10, 2021 

AP
A worker from Paris’ City Hall cleans the statue of Jean-Baptiste Colbert in Paris on June 23, 2020.

PARIS — A French activist for Black rights went on trial in Paris on Monday for defacing a statue of a historical figure from France’s colonial, slave-trading past, calling the protest a political act to denounce deep-seated racism.

Franco Lollia said that rather than vandalize the statue, he improved it by spraying “state Negrophobia” in red paint on its pedestal.

The statue outside parliament honors Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a 17th-century royal minister who helped author rules governing slaves in France’s overseas colonies. Among other cruelties, Colbert’s notorious “Black Code” allowed for slaves to be branded, have their ears cut off and be executed for escape attempts.

Lollia told the court that, in his view, Colbert committed crimes against humanity. He said celebrating Colbert with a statue outside the National Assembly shows that the French state “is viscerally Negrophobic even today” and that the statue’s presence is “spitting in the face of all people who look like me.”

Lollia, who is Black, called the trial “an insult.”

“I am sad to see that history seems to be repeating itself and our voices are still not heard,” he said. “I am really disappointed that the justice system is still so blind.”

The trial coincided with France’s annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery. Lollia noted that the day isn’t marked with a national holiday, dismissing it as “a bone for a dog” that fails to adequately commemorate the horrors inflicted on millions of slaves. French President Emmanuel Macron marked the day of remembrance with a wreath-laying and a minute of silence at a Paris monument symbolizing broken chains.

Inside the courtroom, Lollia’s defense team put France on trial, detailing and denouncing centuries of colonial atrocities. They argued that in the wake of the worldwide wave of fury galvanized by the killing a month earlier of George Floyd, Lollia shone a necessary light on slavery and Colbert’s role.

AP
Franco Lollia, an activist from a group called the Anti-Negrophobia Brigade, arrives at the Paris courthouse on Monday.

Calling slavery “the greatest injustice in the history of humanity,” defense lawyer Guy Florentin said the paint on the statue represented “the blood of victims demanding reparations.”

“There was no degradation, it was just a bit of paint,” he said. “I would have left it as it was.”

The sweat-top and face mask that Lollia wore to the trial both had the words “Anti-Negrophobia Brigade” printed on them. The back of his T-shirt described “Negrophobia” as a “weapon of mass destruction that doesn’t admit its name” and said: “Let’s arm ourselves to the hilt to fight it.”

The judge said video footage of the graffiti attack showed him hurling paint at the statue and spray-painting its base.

“It was a political act,” Lollia said. “It wasn’t a degradation. It was a contribution. It was even an improvement.”

The charge of defacing property is punishable by a fine or community service. The prosecutor asked for a fine of $970. The judge said she would deliver her verdict on June 28.

Lollia’s lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense. His attorney Georges-Emmanuel Germany said the judge should consider France’s past behavior as “a criminal state” in weighing Lollia’s act.

“You are not only the judge of the accused,” the attorney said. “You are also the judge of the behavior of the victim” — meaning the French state.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Lollia said France’s colonial past is still feeding racial discrimination.

“Colbert is a major figure of this colonial past, this past where Black people were not recognized as human beings,” he said.

“The system itself is Negrophobic from the moment it doesn’t put into question the history,” he said. “France is capable of healing from its Negrophobia and from its state racism in general, but the French state must learn to face its history, and not only part of the history it likes.”

Indonesia says powerful underwater wave likely sunk submarine

Navy dismisses speculation of human error, involvement of foreign vessel

People throw flowers and petals with the names of the sunken KRI Nanggala-402 submarine crew members from a boat in sea near Labuhan Lalang, Bali, Indonesia, on Monday. © Reuters

ERWIDA MAULIA, Nikkei staff writer

April 27, 2021 

JAKARTA -- Indonesia's navy on Tuesday said that last week's fatal submarine sinking was likely caused by an underwater phenomenon known as an "internal solitary wave."

Officers said that differences in the density of waters off Bali and in the nearby Lombok Strait may have triggered a "massive movement" strong enough to pull down the submarine in seconds.

Iwan Isnurwanto, commander of the Navy Staff and Command School, said the presence of the wave around the location of the submarine at the time of the accident last Wednesday was confirmed from images produced by Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8.


"There was nothing that they could do, no time to do anything... if the sub was brought down by such a wave. It likely angled [downward], causing all the crew members to roll down [to the bottom of the vessel]," Isnurwanto told a news briefing at navy headquarters in Jakarta. "We have to do further investigation, but that is most likely what happened."

With large amplitudes that cause powerful currents, internal solitary waves are considered a major hazard to marine engineering and submarine navigation. They can impose unexpectedly large stresses on offshore oil rigs.

Naval officials said more surveys to detect potential internal solitary waves in Indonesia's waters will be needed to avoid similar incidents in future submarine operations.

Officials dismissed speculation about other possible causes. These included allegations of poor maintenance of the aging submarine, human errors, as well as a rumor circulating on social media that it had been shot by a foreign vessel.


The KRI Nanggala 402 is a German-built submarine that had been in service since 1981, and underwent a full refit in South Korea that was completed in 2012.

Muhammad Ali, assistant to the navy chief of staff, said the submarine had undergone regular checks, including its last "docking" last year, when the vessel was deemed seaworthy through September 2022.

He added all crew members on board the vessel were well trained, and it was not true that the submarine was over its crew capacity. The vessel was earlier reported to have a capacity of just 33 people, but Ali said that represented the number of beds available, and that subs operated by the navy commonly carried more than 50 personnel.

"[The rumor] that it had been shot by a passing foreign vessel is I think outrageous," Ali added. "We had many above-water ships during the time of the incident, and they have sonars, which could have detected an explosion if it happened."

The Nanggala vanished in the early hours of Wednesday while conducting a torpedo-firing exercise. The last detected signal from the vessel was from a depth of 850 meters, beyond its diving limit.

The last communication with the sub was at 4 a.m. on Wednesday. When the commander of the training task force tried to authorize the firing drill 25 minutes later, communication with the submarine could not be established. The vessel had been due to surface by 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday morning.

On Sunday, the Indonesian navy, with support from Singapore's MV Swift Rescue, a submarine support and rescue vessel, found large pieces of debris at a depth of 838 meters. The vessel was believed to have split into three major parts, including the ruptured main body, eroding all hopes that survivors would be found.

The navy said attempts to evacuate the sub and remains of the victims will continue, though it has not been decided how they were going to salvage the wreckage. The MV Swift could only lift smaller parts.

Navy deputy chief of staff Ahmadi Heri Purwono said Indonesia now has just four submarines to safeguard the vast archipelago. One, similar to the Nanggala, is also German built and has been in service for 40 years, and three newer ones were made in South Korea.

The navy said it was planning to procure a submarine rescue vessel following the incident.

But asked whether the purchase of more submarines will be accelerated, Purwono only said, "Let's pray we can have more submarines in the future."