RELIGION KILLS
Report: Fatal assisted living fire linked to cleaning ritual


FILE - Firefighters work on extinguishing hotspots from a fire that burned down the Evergreen Court Home for Adults, Tuesday, March 23, 2021, in Spring Valley, N.Y. A published report says a father and son charged in the deadly fire at the suburban New York assisted living facility had been performing a pre-Passover cleaning ritual that involves heating kitchen utensils to burn off traces of forbidden food. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)


SPRING VALLEY, N.Y. (AP) — A father and son charged in a deadly fire at a suburban New York assisted living facility had been performing a pre-Passover cleaning ritual that involves heating kitchen utensils to burn off traces of forbidden food, the Journal News reported.

It remains unclear what specific role Rabbi Nathaniel Sommer of Monsey and his son, Aaron Sommer, allegedly played in the March 23 fire at Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley that killed a resident and a firefighter, the newspaper reported.

The Sommers were arraigned Tuesday on charges of manslaughter, assault and arson in connection with the fire and are due back in court Friday. Information on their attorneys wasn’t available.

Volunteer firefighter Jared Lloyd and a 79-year-old resident of the facility were killed in the fire, which caused a partial collapse of the building.

Records show that the Evergreen Court fire was reported about 90 minutes after the Nathaniel and Aaron Sommer had left the facility after preparing the kitchen for Passover, the Journal News reported.

Observant Jews refrain from eating anything with leavening during the eight-day Passover holiday. Preparing kitchens for Passover involves removing any trace of bread or other foods that contain a leavening agent, including subjecting utensils to high heat.

Evergreen officials said after the fire that Nathaniel Sommer had been performing the cleaning ritual at the facility for 15 years.

The Sommers were among six people charged in connection with the fire. Two other men who prosecutors said worked in the town’s buildings department were charged with filing false documents and falsifying business records, while a woman who worked at the facility was facing a misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and another man faced a misdemeanor criminal impersonation charge.

Under presssure, company cancels Tennessee pipeline

Clyde Robinson, 80, speaks with a reporter while standing on his acre-sized parcel of land on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in Memphis, Tenn. Robinson fought an effort by two companies seeking a piece of his land to build part of an oil pipeline that would run through the Memphis area into north Mississippi, and over an aquifer that provides clean drinking water to 1 million people. The pipeline builders said Friday, July 2, they will not continue to pursue the pipeline project.(AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)


MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Environmentalists and activists claimed victory Saturday after a company canceled plans to build an oil pipeline through southwest Tennessee and north Mississippi, and over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million people.

Byhalia Connection said it will no longer pursue plans to build a 49-mile (79-kilometer) underground artery that would have linked two major U.S. oil pipelines while running through wetlands and under poor, predominantly Black neighborhoods in south Memphis.

A joint venture between Valero and Plains All American Pipeline, Byhalia Connection had said the pipeline would bring jobs and tax revenue to the region — and it had given to Memphis-area charities and tried to build goodwill in the community. But, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Friday, Byhalia Connection said it was canceling the project “due to lower U.S. oil production resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

“We value the relationships we’ve built through the development of this project, and appreciate those that supported the project,” Byhalia Connection’s statement said.

Byhalia Connection would have linked the east-west Diamond Pipeline through the Valero refinery in Memphis to the north-south Capline Pipeline near Byhalia, Mississippi. The Capline, which has transported crude oil from a Louisiana port on the Gulf of Mexico north to the Midwest, is being reversed to deliver oil south through Mississippi to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf.

Byhalia Connection also would have run through well fields above the Memphis Sand Aquifer, which provides slightly sweet drinking water to the Memphis area. Environmentalists, activist groups, lawyers, property owners, national and local elected officials, and even former Vice President Al Gore opposed the project. They feared an oil spill would have endangered waterways and possibly contaminated the water being pumped out of the ground through wells located along the planned route.

Opponents said the plans reminded them of environmental racism — the practice of placing toxic factories, landfills and other polluters in minority neighborhoods and indigenous areas, where voiceless residents only realize the danger after people get sick.

The pipeline would have run under Memphis neighborhoods such as White Chapel, Westwood and Boxtown, which began as a community of freed slaves in the 1860s and where homes had no running water or electricity as recently as the 1970s.

Justin J. Pearson, a leader of the Memphis Community Against the Pipeline activist group, called the decision “an extraordinary testament to what Memphis and Shelby County can do when citizens build power toward justice.”

Byhalia Connection had said the pipeline would be built a safe distance from the aquifer, which sits much deeper than the planned pipeline route.

Byhalia Connection also has said the pipeline route was not driven by factors such as race or class. The company denied accusations of environmental racism that emerged after a Byhalia Connection land agent said during a community meeting that the developers “took, basically, a point of least resistance” in choosing the pipeline’s path.

Project officials had reached deals with most landowners on the planned pipeline’s route to use their land for construction. A few holdouts were taken to court.

The pipeline’s lawyers sought eminent domain, long invoked by governments to claim private property for public-use projects. Lawyers for the holdouts argued that eminent domain could not be used in the case of a private company seeking to build an oil pipeline in Tennessee.

In April, Byhalia Connection said it was going to pause the legal action after the Memphis City Council began considering an ordinance that would have made it harder for the company to build the pipeline.

No vote has been held on the ordinance, which was one of several strategies meant to put public pressure on Plains and Valero.

Activists held community rallies, including one attended by Gore. Lawyers sued in federal court, challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the pipeline under a nationwide permit. The Shelby County Commission refused to sell to the pipeline builder two parcels of land that sit on the planned route.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, and about two dozen other members of Congress sent a letter asking the administration of President Joe Biden to reconsider the permit approval.

A Byhalia Connection spokesman did not respond to an emailed question asking whether the community’s resistance influenced the decision to end the project.

But Amanda Garcia, a Southern Environmental Law Center attorney who helped landowners in their legal battle against the pipeline, said the community’s fight was inspiring.

“The cancellation of the Byhalia Pipeline is a victory for the people of Southwest Memphis, for the city’s drinking water, and perhaps most monumentally, it a triumph for environmental justice,” Garcia said.

As Lebanon nears collapse, EU debates sanctions

The Lebanese want the EU to sanction political leaders they say are responsible for the country's crisis. Some EU nations are in favor, but experts warn sanctions could be dangerous.


Protests about deteriorating living conditions have erupted around the country


Lebanon continues to unravel as its economic and political crisis worsens. The country has not had a government for almost a year now and its economy is in the process of collapsing after decades of mismanagement and corruption.

Over the past month, there have been stories both absurd and horrifying coming out of the small Mediterranean nation.

For instance, at the same time that the Lebanese army announced it would be offering tourists $150 (€126) helicopter rides in order to make some money, reports came from the northern city of Tripoli that gunmen were roaming the streets and setting up roadblocks.

Sad record

It is estimated that almost half of all Lebanese now live below the poverty line thanks to the ongoing crisis. An assessment released by UNICEF yesterday found that around 77% of Lebanese households don't have enough food or enough money to buy food.

At the beginning of this month, the World Bank reported that, on a global scale, the Lebanese crisis might well be one of the three most severe since the mid-nineteenth century.


Children search rubbish bins in Beirut for anything they can sell on

Since 2018, Lebanon's gross domestic product (GDP) has plummeted, along with the informal exchange rate, World Bank researchers said. "Such a brutal and rapid contraction is usually associated with conflict or war," they noted.

The Lebanese lira, or pound, is pegged to the US dollar, but that fixed exchange rate is not widely available, which has led to an informal currency market with unfavorable rates.

Watch video 01:31 Lebanon's pound plumbs new depths as economic crisis deepens

Most Lebanese blame their leaders for the crisis. After the end of Lebanon's almost 15-year-long civil war in 1990, peace negotiations divided power between 18 religious sects there. The peace deal effectively set the stage for decades of corruption and the resulting near-collapse of the Lebanese banking system.
'Hold them responsible'

"I believe they should be held responsible as they are the ones who led this country down this path," one Beirut local, Gilbert Kfoury, told DW about Lebanese politicians. "We now have a bankrupt country with no electricity, infrastructure that is deteriorating by the day, widespread famine, no fuel and no security. Despite all this, they still sit in their chairs, with no accountability."

"I think the EU should impose sanctions on Lebanese politicians on the assumption that the majority are corrupt," agreed another Beirut man, Moustapha Mourad. "It is the only way they will start bargaining [to form a government]," he argued.

The lives of wealthy Lebanese are far removed from those of many compatriots

Some politicians in the European Union agree with the angry Lebanese locals. Since May, officials working for the 27-nation bloc have been preparing potential sanctions on Lebanese politicians.

Many of Lebanon's elite and the rich travel regularly to Europe and have homes and money there. In mid-June, news agency Reuters said journalists had seen a diplomatic note indicating that sanctions would be imposed on those Lebanese suspected of "corruption, obstructing efforts to form a government, financial mishandling and human rights abuses."

Desperation and frustration

Visiting Lebanon last month, the EU's foreign policy representative, Josep Borrell, confirmed this. "We stand ready to assist, if this what you want," he said after the visit. "But if there is further obstruction to solutions to the current multi-dimensional crisis in the country, we will have to consider other courses of action … including targeted sanctions."

There has been no further official word on when, or even if, sanctions could be used against Lebanese leaders. However both France and Germany appear to support the idea. During a conference calling for further investigation into Beirut's deadly port blast, the German Embassy in Lebanon confirmed that the EU was looking into sanctions against Lebanese leaders.

France had already taken some steps unilaterally and began blocking visas for some Lebanese officials in April this year.

Josep Borrell (left) met with Lebanese Prime Minister-Designate, Saad Hariri, in June to discuss progress

"I think European governments feel pretty desperate and there's a lot of frustration," Julien Barnes-Dacey, head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said. "But I don't think the question is really one of whether [imposing sanctions] is tough enough, it's a question of whether they will be effective."
Lebanese elite are 'laughing'

The entire Lebanese system needs fundamental change, Barnes-Dacey told DW. "But the Lebanese political elite would probably be willing to see the country deteriorate further [rather] than undertake steps that would threaten their own hold on political and economic power," he argued.

Joseph Bahout, the director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs based at the American University of Beirut, agreed.

There have been more power cuts in Lebanon as the price of fuel rises

"The Lebanese political class is very cynical," he said. "They have seen worse and they're laughing at this." As an example, he cited the French ban on visas. "They [the members of the Lebanese elite] usually have two or three passports and they just enter Europe through another country, like Italy," Bahout noted. "Then we see pictures of them shopping in Paris or Nice."
Potential danger

Imposing sanctions could also be dangerous, added Shahin Vallee, head of the geo-economics program at the German Council on Foreign Relations, who authored a September 2020 policy brief on Lebanon's crisis. "Because either you sanction all Lebanese politicians as a block or you do targeted sanctions," he said. "But then you could create an imbalance in the political system. Sanctions could backfire."

"In choosing politician X over politician Y, the EU would be setting some against others," Bahout agreed.

Both Bahout and Vallee believe there are better ways forward than sanctions. They recommend putting more pressure on the Lebanese financial system instead. Vallee argues for more transparency within it and Bahout believes that European financial agencies could do a lot more to facilitate this.

As fuel prices rose, so did queues at local petrol stations

Banking secrecy in EU, Switzerland

"Frankly, what would be more useful for Lebanese people than sanctions is better access to banking information from countries like France or Switzerland," Bahout explained, adding that that is where many of the allegedly corrupt Lebanese are suspected to have shifted their money.

"It's a little bit hypocritical. Those places have evidence of what has been 'stolen' from the Lebanese public. I think it would be better for the EU to say, 'look we know what you did and we will help the Lebanese expose you'."

At the same time though, the EU should also continue to provide support to the country's most vulnerable as well as local advocates for change, the experts said.

"I continue to believe that the best thing the EU can do is support domestic civil society and the youth organizations that are trying to change the political system from the bottom up," Vallee concluded.

Watch video 28:36 Lebanon in freefall: Crisis at Europe's gates

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THE CHRISTIAN FALANGE ARE FASCISTS
Pope: Lebanon must remain a ‘land of tolerance, pluralism’
By NICOLE WINFIELD

July 1, 2021

1 of 7
The Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, second from left, the head of the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Aram I, third from left, Pope Francis, fourth from left, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, firfth from left, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East for the Syriac Catholic Church, Ignatius Youssef III Younan, right, arrive in St. Peter's Basilica to attend a prayer for Lebanon at the Vatican, Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis insisted Thursday that Lebanon must remain a “land of tolerance and pluralism” as he welcomed the country’s Christian patriarchs to the Vatican to pray for an end to the economic and political crisis that has thrown the country into chaos and threatened its Christian community.

Francis presided over an evening prayer service in St. Peter’s Basilica with the leaders of Lebanon’s Christian churches, which featured prayers and hymns in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean. Members of the Lebanese community in Rome and the diplomatic corps filled the pews.

During the service, Francis insisted that Lebanon’s vocation was to be an “oasis of fraternity where different religions and confessions meet, where different communities live together, putting the common good before their individual interests.”

“Lebanon cannot be left prey to the course of events or (to) those who pursue their own unscrupulous interests,” he said. “It is a small yet great country, but even more, it is a universal message of peace and fraternity arising from the Middle East.”

The Mediterranean nation of 6 million, including an estimated 1 million refugees, has the largest percentage of Christians in the Middle East and is the only Arab country with a Christian head of state. Christians make up a third of the population, and the Vatican fears the country’s collapse is particularly dangerous for the continued presence of its Christian community, a bulwark for the church in the Mideast.

Lebanon is going through an unprecedented economic and financial collapse, coupled with an 11-month political deadlock over the formation of a new government. The developments pose the gravest threat to its stability since the end of its civil war three decades ago. It is also trying to recover from the devastating Beirut port explosion last summer — and the coronavirus pandemic.

Francis invited the religious leaders for a day of prayer that began with a silent meditation at the tomb of the Apostle Peter and was followed by closed-door talks about how to help Lebanon emerge from what the World Bank has described as likely to be one of the worst crises the world has witnessed over the past 150 years.

In his final remarks at the ecumenical prayer service, Francis urged political leaders to find solutions and appealed to the international community to help the country recover.

“Stop using Lebanon and the Middle East for outside interests and profits!” he said. “The Lebanese people must be given the opportunity to be the architects of a better future in their land, without undue interference.”

Embattled Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri, who met with Francis at the Vatican in April, said from Beirut that he hoped the meeting would call on all Lebanese to preserve their coexistence.

“It is no surprise that the pontiff keeps it in his heart through this invite to 10 spiritual leaders with the aim of getting Lebanon through its difficult reality,” he tweeted Thursday, repeating the words of St. John Paul II that “Lebanon is more than a country, it is a message.”

The Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, was blunt in explaining the Holy See’s “strong concern about the collapse of the country” during a briefing with journalists last week.

He said Francis had invited the religious leaders to Rome in an acknowledgment that the Christian community had been particularly hard-hit by the crisis, which has sent the well-educated middle classes fleeing power cuts, fuel shortages, soaring prices and now sporadic acts of violence.

The crisis, Gallagher said, “risks destroying the internal balance and Lebanon’s own reality, putting at risk the Christian presence in the Middle East.”

Noting the potential for Lebanon to fall into conflict, he said the country must be helped economically and to keep the peace, saying it “remains the final vanguard of an Arab democracy that welcomes, recognizes and coexists with a plurality of ethnic and religious communities that in other countries aren’t able to live in peace.”

“It must be helped to maintain this unique identity, to ensure a pluralist, tolerant and diversified Middle East,” he said.

Francis has said he hopes to visit Lebanon once a government is formed. Gallagher said if that happens soon, Francis could make a trip early next year.

___

AP correspondent Zeina Karam contributed from Beirut.

Gunmen take to streets in Lebanese city over economic crisis

By BASSEM MROUE

June 30, 2021

A man rides his scooter through the burning, that were set on fire by protesters to block a road, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, June 24, 2021. Dozens of angry protesters, angered by deteriorating living conditions and government inaction, partially blocked Beirut's main highway to the capital's only airport, turning trash bin over and setting tires on fire. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)


BEIRUT (AP) — Gunmen took to the streets in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Wednesday, firing in the air and at times throwing stones at soldiers amid rising anger at power cuts, fuel shortages and soaring prices.

The anger was fueled by rumors that a young girl died after electricity cuts stopped a machine that supplied her with oxygen. A Lebanese security official denied the rumors and reports on social media about the girl. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Tripoli, Lebanon’s second largest and most impoverished city, has witnessed acts of violence in recent days linked to the country’s severe economic and financial crisis. The World Bank has described the crisis as one of the worst the world has witnessed over the past 150 years. It is coupled with a political deadlock that has left Lebanon without a government since August.

The economic crisis has been the most serious threat to Lebanon’s stability since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990. Tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs since October 2019 in the small nation of 6 million, including a million Syrian refugees.

Lebanon’s 20-month economic and financial crisis has led to severe shortages in fuel, medicine and medical products. Electricity cuts last for much of the day and lack of diesel has led the owners of some private generators to cease supplying power.

After the rumors spread in Tripoli on Wednesday, armed men deployed in the streets of some poor neighborhoods and opened fire in the air. Soldiers briefly pulled out from some areas, apparently to avoid a clash with the gunmen.

Later in the day, the army patrolled the areas that witnessed gunfire, state-run National News Agency reported.

A Tripoli resident told The Associated Press that he closed his shop and went home when the shooting started, adding that it lasted for about four hours. Later in the afternoon, shooting was heard again in the city.

Hundreds of people have tried to migrate to Europe from northern Lebanon due to harsh economic conditions over the past two years and some have died before reaching their destination.

In the capital Beirut, protesters closed several roads Wednesday to express their anger over harsh living conditions.

Riots in Tripoli over the weekend left at least 20 people injured, half of them soldiers.

The army on Sunday said rioters on motorcycles threw stun grenades at troops in Tripoli injuring nine soldiers, while another was injured when hit by a rock. Protesters attacked several state institutions in the city.

In recent years, Tripoli has witnessed rounds of fighting between supporters and opponents of Syria’s government.

US Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts suffer huge declines in membership

By DAVID CRARY

June 30, 2021

In this June 10, 2021 photo provided by Barry Bedlan, members of Troop 298 of Frisco, Texas are among the first to embark a 12-day trek across the Philmont Scout Ranch, outside Cimarron, N.M. Boy Scout and Girl Scouts’ leadership say their summer camps are full, special events are sold out, and they’re expecting many thousands of families – some new to scouting, some who left during the pandemic – to sign up now that activities are occurring in-person rather than virtually. (Barry Bedlan via AP)

America’s most iconic youth organizations – the Boy Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the USA – have been jolted by unprecedented one-year drops in membership, due partly to the pandemic, and partly to social trends that have been shrinking their ranks for decades.

While both organizations insist they’ll survive, the dramatic declines raise questions about how effectively they’ll be able to carry out their time-honored missions -- teaching skills and teamwork, providing outdoor adventure, encouraging community service.

Membership for the BSA’s flagship Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA programs dropped from 1.97 million in 2019 to 1.12 million in 2020, a 43% plunge, according to figures provided to The Associated Press. Court records show membership has fallen further since then, to about 762,000.

The Girl Scouts say their youth membership fell by nearly 30%, from about 1.4 million in 2019- 2020 to just over 1 million this year.

Both groups, like several other U.S. youth organizations, have experienced declining membership for many years. The Girl Scouts reported youth membership of about 2.8 million in 2003. The BSA had more than 4 million boys participating in the 1970s.

Reasons for the drop include competition from sports leagues, a perception by some families that they are old-fashioned, and busy family schedules. The pandemic brought a particular challenge.

In Lawrence, New Jersey, 8-year-old Joey Yaros stopped attending meetings while most in-person gatherings were shut down, and might not go back, even though his father and three brothers all earned the elite Eagle Scout rank. Joey was already struggling with virtual school classes, and the family didn’t pressure him to also participate in virtual Cub Scout activities.

“If there are den meetings in the fall, we’ll see if he gets back in the swing of it,” said his father, high school history teacher Jay Yaros. “There are a lot of interesting things for kids to do these days, and scouting doesn’t seem to be keeping up.”

The Boy Scouts’ problems are compounded by their decision to seek bankruptcy protection in February 2020 to cope with thousands of lawsuits filed by men who allege they were molested as youngsters by scout leaders. The case is proceeding slowly in federal bankruptcy court as lawyers negotiate creation of a trust fund for victims that will likely entail hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from the BSA and its 252 local councils.

To provide those funds, some councils may have to sell cherished camp properties, the BSA’s president and CEO, Roger Mosby, told the AP.

“We understand that this is a difficult and often emotional decision, but in some instances may be a necessary step as we work toward our shared imperatives of equitably compensating survivors and continuing Scouting’s mission.” Mosby said in a written reply to AP’s queries.


The pandemic, the membership drop and rising costs of liability insurance have strained BSA finances. A disclosure statement in the bankruptcy case says its gross revenues dropped from $394 million in 2019 to $187 million last year.

In response, the Boy Scouts’ annual youth membership fee will rise from $66 to $72 on August 1. The BSA also says some councils may merge to consolidate resources.

The Girl Scouts have bureaucratic complications of their own. There is ongoing litigation pitting the national headquarters against two of the 111 local councils— based in Fairbanks, Alaska, and Nashville, Tennessee — which refuse to implement a nationwide technology platform.

Despite the varied challenges, Mosby and other Boy Scout officials, as well as the Girl Scouts’ leadership, say there’s reason for optimism. They say their summer camps are full, special events are sold out, and they’re expecting many thousands of families – some new to scouting, some who left during the pandemic – to sign up now that activities are occurring in-person rather than virtually.

“We knew some girls would take a pause,” said Girl Scouts spokeswoman Kelly Parisi. “But as the pandemic goes in the rear-view mirror, we’ve seen a substantial rebound... We feel really good going into the fall recruitment.”

Membership in the Boy Scouts’ Longhorn Council, which serves parts of Central and North Texas, dropped by 44% from 2019 to 2020, said its chief executive, Wendy Shaw. But she is buoyed by surging interest this year from families considering their first foray into scouting; the council has scheduled 12 special events for them.

Manny Ramos, chief executive of the BSA’s Seattle-area council, said pandemic-related restrictions on group activities were rigorous in his area -- a factor in recruiting only 500 scouts last fall instead of the normal 3,000 or more. To maintain interest, his staff held numerous outdoor activities, including winter camping, and now anticipates a large influx of families who skipped scouting last year.

Bryan Koch of Madison, Wisconsin, has been an adult leader for more than a decade as two sons went through Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. He believes the programs have invaluable benefits: teaching leadership skills, offering adventures such as a 78-mile hike at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico that his eldest son completed as a 14-year-old.

“I’m a firm believer in what scouting can be,” Koch said. “It helps us develop more well-rounded and aware young men and women. That’s sorely needed in our country right now.”

Yet he says membership in his Boy Scout troop dropped by 30% in recent years as boys and parents turned to other activities.

“There’s not really a passive way to go through scouting and get the full experience,” Koch said. “It takes a lot of time for the scout, for the parents.”

Josh Garner has been scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 30 in Jackson, Mississippi, for six years; his oldest son will soon be an Eagle Scout. Troop membership has dropped by 25% during his tenure, and even more sharply in the Cub Scout pack that’s also sponsored by St. Richard Catholic Church.

Garner said the BSA’s national leadership “has a lot of baggage right now” and needs to devise better recruitment strategies. Yet he’d hate to see the organization fold.

“I’ve watched boys learn all kinds of skills, from welding to giving speeches,” he said. “It’s a fantastic program -- too important to a lot of people for it to just go away.”

FILE - This June 7, 2021 file photo shows the headquarters of Girl Scouts of New Mexico Trails in Albuquerque, N.M. The Girl Scouts say their youth membership fell by nearly 30%, from about 1.4 million in 2019-2020 to just over 1 million in 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy plans anger some, welcomed by others.

FILE - In this Feb. 18, 2020, file photo, Boy Scouts of America uniforms are displayed in the retail store at the headquarters for the French Creek Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Summit Township, Pa. An $850 million agreement by the Boy Scouts of America to compensate sex-abuse victims prompted outrage Friday, July 2, 2021, from some abuse survivors and their advocates, while others were encouraged and saw it as the best outcome that could be achieved under the circumstances. (Christopher Millette/Erie Times-News via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — An $850 million agreement by the Boy Scouts of America to compensate sex-abuse victims prompted outrage Friday from some survivors and their advocates, while others were encouraged and saw it as the best outcome that could be achieved under the circumstances.

The agreement, filed in court late Thursday as a step toward resolving a complex bankruptcy case, includes the BSA national leadership, abuse victims, local Boy Scout councils and lawyers appointed to represent victims who might file future claims.

Lawyer Tim Kosnoff, whose Abused in Scouting legal team says it’s representing thousands of clients, called it “a lousy deal — a sellout of tens of thousands of brave men” because it did not press local councils to contribute the bulk of their unrestricted assets.

Chris Anderson, an accountant from southern California who says he was abused by a Boy Scout troop leader for more than three years in the 1970s, complained about a lack of detail regarding council finances.

“It’s a farce,” he told The Associated Press. “There’s no certainty for the victims at all.”

However, some lawyers representing survivors welcomed the agreement as the best that could be gotten. They noted that negotiations remain to be resolved with the Boy Scouts’ insurers, who potentially could be required to contribute billions of dollars to the compensation fund.

“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said lawyer Ken Rothweiler, whose firm says it’s representing more than 16,000 survivors. “Now we go after the next step and see what happens with the insurers.”

The BSA sought bankruptcy protection in February 2020, moving to halt thousands of lawsuits by men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders. The filing was intended to try to reach a global resolution of abuse claims and create a compensation fund.

Richard Mason, an attorney and chairman of an ad hoc committee representing local councils in the case, said this week’s restructuring agreement is the result of hard-fought negotiations and plaintiffs’ attorneys “pushed very hard.”

Mason, who is also president of the Greater New York Councils of the BSA, said the councils are contributing “the most that is achievable.”

Irwin Zalkin, whose law firm represents about 150 surviors, warned against reading too much into the agreement, given that many questions remain unanswered.

Those include what percentage of their worth local councils will contribute; what, if anything, local sponsoring organizations such as churches and civic groups might contribute; and how much will be set aside to cover future claims.

“I think it’s a disservice to the victims to put out a media release saying they’ve reached an agreement for $850 million, especially the way they’re taking a victory dance about it,” he said. “To me, I find it just reprehensible.”

Lawyer Paul Mones, who represents hundreds of abuse victims and supports the restructuring agreement, said plaintiffs’ attorneys pushed the BSA and local councils as far as they could.

“We believe this is the best that could have been done,” he said, while acknowledging that abuse survivors could still vote to reject the agreement.

Zalkin and other critics note that the councils have more than $1.8 billion in unrestricted assets but are contributing only $600 million to the victims’ fund. Mones pointed out, however, that many council properties have land-use or donor restrictions making them unavailable to compensate abuse victims.

Regardless of how much the BSA and the local councils contribute or how much insurance companies might be forced to pay, no amount can compensate the abuse victims for their suffering, Mones said.

“This is not a victory for anybody,” he said. “We are dealing in the aftermath of a disaster in these peoples’ lives, and we are trying to build things back with whatever raw materials we have left.”

The Associated Press contacted numerous local scout councils across the U.S. on Friday. Most of the leaders who responded said they did not yet know the amount they’d be asked to contribute and were hopeful they would not have to sell off cherished properties, such as camps.

Doug Stone of the Indian Waters Council in South Carolina said it would not have to sell its camp or any other assets.

“We own Camp Barstow outright,” he said. “We’re not going to put a mortgage on it. We’re not going to sell it. It’s going to stay.”

However, the BSA’s president and CEO, Roger Mosby, told the AP earlier this week that some councils would face “a difficult and often emotional decision” regarding camp sales.

Some councils have already taken steps in that direction.

The Greater Hudson Valley Council, which serves several counties near New York City, placed three of its camps up for sale earlier this year as part of its obligation to the fund. The largest is the Durland Scout Reservation, a 1,385-acre property in Putnam Valley that includes two lakes.

Another is Camp Bullowa in Stony Point, where a local official has inquired as to whether the town could purchase it and maintain it for scouting and other recreation.

In Maine, the Pine Tree Council has proposed selling two camps to raise money for the fund, according to the Kennebec Journal. The council did not immediately reply to emails and phone messages Friday seeking an update.

The BSA, in a statement Friday, praised the agreement and said it would help local councils contribute “without additional drain on their assets.”

“There is still much to be done to obtain approval from the Court to solicit survivors to vote for the BSA’s amended Plan of Reorganization,” it said. “Our intention is to seek confirmation of the Plan this summer and emerge from bankruptcy late this year.”

Membership in the BSA has declined sharply since 2019, from more than 1.9 million scouts in its two flagship programs to less than 770,000.

WHITE NATIONALISTS INTERNECINE WAR
UN documents prisoners’ torture, abuse in Ukrainian conflict

By YURAS KARMANAU


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FILE - In this Thursday, April 16, 2020 file photo, Ukrainian war prisoners wearing masks to protect against coronavirus cross a mine barrier during a prisoner exchange, near the village of Mayorske, Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine. The United Nations human rights agency said in a report released Friday, July 2, 2021 that prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have faced systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses. (Yevgen Honcharenko, Pool Photo via AP, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Prisoners taken by the warring parties in the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine have endured systematic torture, sexual violence and other abuses, the United Nations human rights agency said in a report released Friday.

The report issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that prisoners’ abuse was particularly rampant in the initial stage of the seven-year conflict, but noted that it continues to this day.

“Seven years since the outbreak of the conflict, it is unacceptable that such egregious human rights violation remain largely unaddressed,” said Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. “The prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment is absolute. Torture can never be justified.”

The conflict in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called the Donbas erupted in April 2014 weeks after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula that followed the ouster of the country’s former Moscow-leaning president. Russia-backed separatists took control of large areas in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, established the so-called ‘people’s republics’ and fought the government forces attempting to reclaim control. More than 14,000 people have been killed.

The OHCHR estimated the total number of conflict-related detentions from April 14, 2014 until April 30, 2021 at 7,900-8,700 , including 3,600-4,000 by the government side and 4,300-4,700 by separatists.

It said in the report that both sides used secret detention facilities immune from any prosecutorial oversight or access by rights monitors. The government side stopped using them in 2017 but the separatists continue to hold prisoners incommunicado, denying access to their relatives and monitors to that moment, the OHCHR said.

The OHCHR analyzed more than 1,300 individual cases of conflict-related detention. It said that in cases that occurred only between 2014-2015, 74% of detainees held by government forces and 82.2% to 85.7% of those held by the rebels in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions respectively were frequently subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

It estimated the total number of conflict-related detainees subjected to torture and ill-treatment in 2014-2021 at around 4,000 - 1,500 at the hands of government agents and about 2,500 by separatists. They included an estimated 340 victims of sexual violence.

The OHCHR said that both in the government-controlled and separatist-held territories “torture and ill-treatment, including conflict-related sexual violence, were used to extract confessions or information, or to otherwise force detainees to cooperate, as well as for punitive purposes, to humiliate and intimidate, and to extort money and property.”

Methods of torture and ill-treatment used by both sides included beatings, dry and wet asphyxiation, electrocution, rape, forced nudity, water, food, sleep or toilet deprivation, mock executions, hooding, and threats of death or further torture or sexual violence, or harm to family members.

Stanislav Aseyev, a journalist who worked for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and spent 28 months in the Izoliatsia (Isolation) separatist prison in Donetsk, said the facility had an elaborate system of torture that put emphasis on electric shock.

“They would strip a person naked tied to a metal chair with a band and then apply electric shock to different body parts,” Aseyev, who was released in a 2019 prisoner swap, told The Associated Press.

Aseyev, who was also subjected to torture, said that hearing others screaming in pain under torture in a nearby cell has added to the trauma. “It’s unbearable to hear a person crying from torture in a neighboring room,” he told the AP.

OHCHR pointed to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) as the most common perpetrator of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment on the government side, adding that volunteer battalions were also responsible at the initial stages of the conflict.

On the rebel side, the report said that various armed groups and later members of separatist ‘ministries of state security’ were responsible for prisoner torture and abuse.

The report noted that most of the abuses have remained unpunished.

“We have observed a lack of political will and motivation to investigate the cases allegedly perpetrated by government actors, as well as misuse of procedures to avoid proper investigation of such cases,” Bogner said. “While we can count victims in the thousands, perpetrators brought to account only number in the dozens.”

MALE SUPREMACY
Hard lessons for lawyers in Cosby case; tougher for victims

STILL GUILTY

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Bill Cosby reacts outside his home in Elkins Park, Pa., Wednesday, June 30, 2021, after being released from prison. Pennsylvania's highest court has overturned comedian Cosby's sex assault conviction. The court said Wednesday, that they found an agreement with a previous prosecutor prevented him from being charged in the case. The 83-year-old Cosby had served more than two years at the state prison near Philadelphia and was released.(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The seven justices who reversed Bill Cosby’s conviction this week spent months debating whether he had a secret agreement with a prosecutor that tainted his 2018 criminal sexual assault conviction.

In the end, Pennsylvania’s highest court ruled that a district attorney had induced Cosby to give incriminating testimony in 2005 for a lawsuit, with the promise that no criminal charges would be filed. Then, a decade later, another prosecutor used it against him — a fundamental violation of his Fifth Amendment rights. “America’s Dad” walked out of prison Wednesday and won’t face any further trials in the case.

The public outcry over Cosby’s sudden release three years into a potential 10-year sentence was swift, with #MeToo activists worried it would have a chilling effect on survivors. And lawyers for another high-profile man convicted of sexual assault, Harvey Weinstein, praised the decision.

But criminal law experts believe the court acted reasonably in finding that a prosecutor’s word should be honored, even by a successor. One called the ruling a wakeup call for prosecutors who might try to quietly resolve a case without a paper trail, or make a deal over a handshake.





“It probably would have been much better lawyering to get it all in writing,” Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor, said of the hidden deal in the Cosby case. “It’s a teachable moment, I think, for prosecutors across the nation. It’s a big lesson.”

Levenson, too, fears the quick takeaway is that “another celebrity gets away with a crime.” More deeply, she said, the case illustrates the need for legal agreements that are “open, fair and transparent.”

“For survivors of sexual assault, it’s got to be another incredibly upsetting, frustrating moment,” she said. “So (there are) good lessons for prosecutors and hard lessons for survivors.”

The court heard arguments in December. On Wednesday, a majority of the justices, 6-1, found Cosby’s case should be overturned. But the justices split 4-2 on whether he should go free or face a third trial. The two dissenting justices questioned if Cosby had ever really been promised immunity — or whether an abuse of power led to former Montgomery County prosecutor Bruce Castor’s “odd and ever-shifting explanations” of his promise to Cosby.

They urged their colleagues to condemn the tactics, lest others follow suit and make promises that later entrap defendants who agree to talk.

“We should reject Castor’s misguided notion outright and declare that district attorneys do not possess this effective pardon power,” Justice Kevin Dougherty wrote in a partial dissent.

Castor, testifying for the defense soon after Cosby’s arrest in late 2015, said he had promised Cosby’s lawyer in 2005 that the actor would never be charged over his encounter with Andrea Constand, in part so that he could help her wage a lawsuit against Cosby.

No legal documents were drafted. No immunity agreements went before a judge. Even Castor’s top assistant, who had led the initial investigation, said she knew nothing about it. Neither did Constand’s lawyer, according to testimony at the sometimes surreal preliminary hearing in February 2016.

Castor said he discussed the agreement with a Cosby lawyer who had since died. And he said he issued a signed press release to announce the end of the investigation. Several courts have since parsed the wording of that press release, which opines that both parties in the case could be seen “in a less than flattering light,” and cautions that Castor would “reconsider this decision should the need arise.”

Constand, in the wake of that decision, sued Cosby in federal court.

In the depositions that followed, the trailblazing actor made lurid admissions about his sexual encounters with a string of young women. He acknowledged giving them drugs or alcohol beforehand, while he stayed sober and in control. The list included Constand, who said she took what she thought were herbal products at Cosby’s direction, only to find herself semiconscious on his couch.

Cosby, in the deposition, famously said he ventured “into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection” as Constand lay still.

Neither he nor his lawyers ever asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself during four days of sworn testimony.

“Cosby would’ve had to have been nuts to say those things if there was any chance he could’ve been prosecuted,” Castor testified at the 2016 hearing. He said his goal in steering the case to civil court was to find Constand an alternate form of justice.

“I was hopeful that I had made Ms. Constand a millionaire,” said Castor, who later represented former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, where he was acquitted of inciting the violent mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

In 2015, a federal judge unsealed some of Cosby’s testimony upon a request from The Associated Press, and Castor’s successor reopened the case. Judge Steven O’Neill allowed some of the statements to be used at trial.

It was that unusual sequence of events that troubled the Pennsylvania high court — even though O’Neill and a lower appeals courts had found Castor’s talk of a non-prosecution agreement not credible.

Whatever their view of such blanket promises, the Supreme Court justices found that Cosby and his lawyers relied on it in giving the deposition.

Therefore, “the principle of fundamental fairness that undergirds due process of law in our criminal justice system demands that the promise be enforced,” Justice David N. Wecht wrote for the four-person majority, which included all three of the high court’s female judges.

The panel avoided ruling on the thorny issue of how many witnesses should be allowed to testify about a defendant’s prior bad acts in a criminal case — an issue many lawyers hoped they would clarify.

O’Neill had allowed just one other accuser to testify at Cosby’s first trial in 2017, but upped the number to five at the retrial the following year, when Cosby was convicted.

“Everyone was watching this case for the ‘other evidence’ ruling. This (ruling) came out of the blue,” said Jules Epstein, a Temple University law professor.

At least one justice, Thomas Saylor, would have sent the case back for a new trial over the “other accuser” issue, according to his solo opinion. But it become moot when the majority agreed to bar any future prosecutions in the case.

Washington lawyer Joseph Cammarata represented several accusers in defamation suits filed against Cosby, which his insurer settled after the 2018 conviction. He regrets that some people see the ruling as a vindication of the actor.

“They haven’t rejected the allegations of the 60-plus people who asserted that Cosby assaulted them. They haven’t rejected the five people that testified. Nor have they rejected the jury’s verdict that Cosby was guilty of sexual assault-related charges,” Cammarata said.

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Follow Maryclaire Dale on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Maryclairedale

France probes claims that retailers used forced Uyghur labor

By ANGELA CHARLTONyesterday

FILE - In this Monday, March 29, 2021 file photo, visitors to a shopping mall wearing masks stand before a Uniqlo store in Beijing. French prosecutors have on Friday, July 2 opened an investigation into alleged involvement in crimes against humanity based on accusations that global retailers, including Uniqlo and the makers of Skechers shoes and Zara clothes, rely on forced labor of minorities in China. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors have opened an investigation into alleged involvement in crimes against humanity based on claims that global retailers, including Uniqlo and the makers of Skechers shoes and Zara clothes, rely on forced labor of minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.

The Chinese government on Friday reiterated denials of any forced labor in Xinjiang, and lashed out at what it called interference in its internal affairs.

The investigation was opened last month by the crimes against humanity unit of France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, a judicial official said Friday. The office has special universal jurisdiction to prosecute crimes beyond French borders.

The probe was based on a legal complaint filed in France earlier this year by a Uyghur worker in exile and three human rights groups: Sherpa, the Uyghur Institute of Europe and Ethics on the Label Collective.

The investigation doesn’t name a suspected perpetrator, but is aimed at determining who might be at fault and face eventual charges of involvement in crimes against humanity, the judicial official said. Such a procedure is standard under French law. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

The complaint names Japanese retailer Uniqlo, U.S. shoemaker Skechers, French company SMCP and Spanish retailer Inditex, owner of Zara. The rights groups say the companies are benefiting from a Chinese system of repression against Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

China has come under criticism and sanctions for detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and and other Muslim minorities for political re-education in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, and for imprisoning or intimidating into silence those it sees as potential opponents from Tibet to Hong Kong.

Uniqlo said in a statement to The AP on Friday that it hadn’t been formally notified of the investigation, but would cooperate fully with French authorities “to reaffirm there is no forced labor in our supply chains.”

The company said none of its production partners are located in Xinjiang. “There has been no evidence of forced labor or any other human rights violation at any of our suppliers. If there is evidence, we will cease to do business with that supplier,” it said.

Skechers said earlier this year that regular audits of its facilities in China have found no sign of forced labor.

Inditex says on its website that it takes “a zero-tolerance approach towards forced labor in any of its manifestations and we implement policies and procedures to ensure that this practice does not take place anywhere in our supply chain.”

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said Friday: “We have repeatedly stressed that the so-called ‘forced labor’ in Xinjiang is a lie concocted by a small number of anti-China elements from the U.S. and a few other countries, with the aim of disrupting Xinjiang and containing China.”

“We firmly oppose any external forces interfering in China’s internal affairs through Xinjiang-related issues,” he continued.

The human rights groups celebrated the French investigation and expressed hopes it will help shine a light on what is happening in Xinjiang.

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Joe McDonald in Beijing and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed.