DEATH TO TYRANTS
Chun Doo-hwan, ex-South Korean dictator, dies at 90


Chun Doo-hwan, the former strongman president of South Korea who oversaw the brutal Gwangju massacre of pro-democracy activists in 1980, died Tuesday at 90 years old. File photo by Yonhap


SEOUL, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, a general who seized power in a 1979 military coup and brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising in the city of Gwangju a year later, died Tuesday at his home in Seoul. He was 90 years old.

Chun collapsed in his home on Tuesday morning, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported. He had been battling chronic ailments and was receiving treatment for multiple myeloma, a type of bone cancer, Yonhap said

The military commander rose to power in the wake of the 1979 assassination of President Park Chung-hee, the dictator who had ruled South Korea for 18 years.

In May 1980, Chun sent tanks, helicopters and troops to crush a pro-democracy student uprising in the southern city of Gwangju, an event that remains one of the most infamous and painful in modern Korean history. The massacre at Gwangju officially left some 200 dead, but accounts by witnesses, investigators and victims' families put the toll several times higher.

The strongman stayed in power until 1988, when he stepped down after enormous public pressure led to the country's first democratic elections. Chun's chosen successor, coup co-conspirator Roh Tae-woo, won the December 1987 vote by a plurality after candidates Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung -- both future presidents -- split the opposition ballots.

In 1996, Chun and his ally Roh were convicted on charges of treason and mutiny stemming from the coup and Gwangju massacre. Chun received a commuted death sentence but was pardoned the next year by President Kim Young-sam in an effort to bring the country together.

Chun was born in the rural southeastern county of Hapcheon on Jan. 23, 1931, and rose through the ranks of the South Korean military in the years after the 1950-53 Korean War. He took part in the 1961 coup by Park Chung-hee as an army captain and eventually became a major general in 1977.

Some credit Chun for the continued growth of the Korean economy in the 1980s and Seoul's successful hosting of the Summer Olympics in 1988, but his legacy is more widely considered one of ignominy, corruption and unapologetic brutality.

Chun never expressed remorse for his role in the Gwangju massacre and always denied direct responsibility. He also claimed that North Korean provocateurs were behind the uprising, a conspiracy theory that continues to swirl around some right-wing circles.

South Korea's presidential Blue House expressed regret on Tuesday that Chun died without an apology and said that it had no plans to send flowers or official condolenc

"We regret that [Chun] did not reveal the truth of history and that there was no sincere apology," Park Kyung-mee, spokeswoman for President Moon Jae-in, told reporters.

The Blue House offered prayers for the deceased and words of sympathy to the bereaved family, Park said.

Chun was convicted of libel last year for defaming a priest who had testified to seeing helicopters shooting at civilians during the massacre, calling him a "liar" and "Satan" in a 2017 memoir. He received an eight-month suspended sentence.

In 1996, the ex-president was also convicted on charges of massive bribery while in office and ordered to repay the government some $185 million. He claimed to not have the assets to pay the fine, famously sparking outrage in 2003 by testifying that he only had around $250 in his bank account.

Chun's death comes less than a month after that of his ally and successor Roh Tae-woo, who passed away on Oct. 23 at the age of 88.

REST IN POWER

Malikah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X, found dead in her NYC home


Malikah Shabazz and her twin sister were born in 1965 after their father's death. 

File Photo courtesy Library of Congress

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Malikah Shabazz, the daughter of Black civil rights leader Malcolm X, has been found dead in her New York City home, authorities said.

The body of Shabazz, 56, was found in her Brooklyn home on Monday by her daughter, the New York Police Department said.

Authorities said her death does not appear to be suspicious.

Malcolm X's wife Betty Shabazz was pregnant with Malikah and her twin sister Malaak when the civil rights icon was gunned down at a speaking event in New York City in 1965.

Malikah Shabazz, second from left, is seen with her sisters and Betty Shabazz, the widow of civil rights icon Malcolm X, at Riverside Church in New York City on June 29, 1997.

 File Photo by Roger Celestin/UPI

"I'm deeply saddened by the death of [Malikah Shabazz]," Bernice King, the daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. tweeted on Tuesday. "My heart goes out to her family, the descendants of Dr. Betty Shabazz and Malcolm X."

Shabazz's death came just days after her father's assassination was in the news. Two men who'd been convicted in his killing were exonerated after a two-year re-investigation of the crime.

Betty Shabazz, who had six children with Malcolm X, died in 1997.

MANDATES SHOULD BE MANDATORY
Biden asks appeals court to reinstate workplace vaccine mandate

Protester Kathy Guerra holds a sign reading "No Mandate" as Boeing workers stand across the street from executive offices, objecting to the company rule of a December 8 vaccination mandate for employees in St. Louis on October 20.

 File Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Tuesday asked a federal appeals court to revive his administration's workplace vaccine mandate, which was blocked earlier this month.

Biden announced in September that the administration was rolling out the rule requiring all private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing for the virus. Its formal rollout sparked immediate legal challenges from states, employers, labor unions and religious groups.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily halted the order, calling it "fatally flawed."

Since that ruling, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been unable to enforce the requirement.

The decision now rests with the Cincinnati-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which the administration has asked to lift the current court order blocking the mandate. The government has argued not allowing and enforcing the directive would be a "setback to public health."

A Washington, D.C. judicial panel used a lottery to decide which of the nation's 12 regional federal appeals courts would hear arguments on the case. Litigation from numerous legal challenges to the mandate was also merged into a single lawsuit.

The administration has argued the mandate is critical to boosting nationwide vaccination rates.

In their filing, government lawyers argued that delaying the vaccine mandate "would endanger many thousands of people and would likely cost many lives per day. With the reopening of workplaces and the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta variant, the threat to workers is ongoing and overwhelming."

Senators ask Joe Biden to urge WTO to open up vaccine production

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was one of nine senators who signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to call on the World Trade Organization to waive international intellectual property to increase vaccine production. 

Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Nine senators sent President Joe Biden a letter urging him to call for a waiver of international intellectual property rules for vaccines at the World Trade Organization ministerial conference.

The letter, signed by former presidential candidates Elizbeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said a "meaningful waiver" would lead to an increased production of coronavirus vaccines around the world, especially in developing countries.

"By securing a waiver agreement at the WTO Ministerial, your administration can demonstrate real and impactful American global leadership," the lawmakers said in the letter, according to The Hill newspaper.

"If the Ministerial Conference cannot deliver a solution, the WTO -- and the wealthy nations blocking the waiver -- will continue to lose credibility with the developing world. We urge you to seize this opportunity to engage actively and productively at the WTO [to] deliver on your promise to defeat the pandemic."

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., was one of nine senators who signed a letter to President Joe Biden urging him to call on the World Trade Organization to waive international intellectual property to increase vaccine production. 

File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Other Democratic senators signing the letter included Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.

The letter makes a similar plea that Human Rights Watch and other international groups made this week, asking Biden to address intellectual property rules to enhance vaccine production.

"Your leadership in securing a meaningful WTO waiver and helping to end the COVID-19 pandemic and the misery it is causing all of humanity is a moral necessity," said the Human Rights Watch letter to Biden which was signed onto by Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders and other organizations.

"It would help restore U.S. standing around the world and create a sense of relief among U.S. residents that their president was taking strong action to return normalcy to their lives."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Italy's antitrust authority fines Apple, Amazon $230 million


Apple's new iPhone 13 series are displayed in a store. Apple plans to appeal the Italian Competition Authority's decision to fine the company. File photo | License Photo


Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Italy's antitrust authority fined Apple and Amazon $230 million on Tuesday after finding that Amazon resold Apple and Apple-owned Beats kits and blocked other resellers.

The antitrust authority said that a restrictive agreement in 2018 between the two companies resulted in lower levels of discounts available to consumers buying Apple and Beats products on Amazon's Italian site.

The agreement effectively prohibited official and unofficial resellers of Apple and Beats products from using Amazon.

Amazon was hit with a $151 million fine while Apple has been ordered to pay $77.3 million by the Italian Competition Authority.

"The restrictions of the agreement have affected the level of discounts offered by third parties on Amazon.it, decreasing their size," the authority said, according to TechCrunch.

Competition authorities in Spain and Germany have launched similar proceedings. Spain opened an investigation against Apple and Amazon in the summer, and Germany has opened proceedings examining the market power of tech giants.

Amazon told TechCrunch that it would appeal the decision, stating that it strongly disagreed with the ICA. A statement given to TechCrunch said that Italian customers could benefit from finding the latest Apple and Beats products at better deals with faster shipping. Amazon has argued that the agreement helps consumers and that sellers have other platforms to conduct business both on and offline.

Apple will also appeal, citing the integrity of products provided to its customer.

"Non-genuine products deliver an inferior experience and can often be dangerous," Apple wrote to TechCrunch. "We respect the Italian Competition Authority but believe we have done nothing wrong and plan to appeal."

RELATED EU court rejects Google's appeal, upholds $2.8 billion antitrust fine

Survey: Most Americans say suffering comes from people -- not God


Forty percent of the respondents said the news triggers their desire to help those who are suffering. Photo by kaboompics/Pixabay

Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Most Americans believe that bad things happen because of random chance, people's own actions and the way society is structured -- rather than blaming God for human suffering, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The Pew Research Center said the survey of 6,485 adults gave respondents multiple opportunities to express their views on why bad things happen -- in their own words in response to an open-ended question, and by reading through a list of possible explanations for suffering.

When asked to explain suffering, 66 percent said that the statement "sometimes bad things just happen" described their own views very well (44 percent) or somewhat well (42 percent). Twenty-two percent said the statement "suffering is mostly a consequence of people's own actions" reflected their views very well, while 49 percent said it represented their views somewhat well.

Another choice of answers was "suffering is mostly a result of the way society is structured." For that, 19 percent said it reflected their views very well, while 50 percent said it echoed their views somewhat well.

RELATED Pew survey of 17 nations give U.S. mixed reviews on culture, democracy

Another question asked what Americans feel when they hear about human suffering and respondents were permitted to answer with multiple choices.

There, 71 percent said they were thankful for the good things in their own life, while 62 percent said they felt sadness for those suffering. Forty percent of the respondents said the news triggers their desire to help those who are suffering, and 24 percent said they just need to tune out the bad news because it's too much to take. Twenty percent said they need to make changes in their own lives to avoid ending up in similar situations.

Pew said the survey, conducted Sept. 20-26, was the first of its kind in assessing "philosophical questions" about things like the meaning of life.

RELATED People who don't believe in God may get better sleep, study says

Those questions, Pew said, "take on added significance amid a global pandemic that has killed 5 million people and recent natural disasters including floods, hurricanes and wildfires."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Jury says CVS, Walgreens, Walmart had role in opioid crisis


A federal judge could order Walgreens, CVS and Walmart each to pay billions.

 File Photo by Billie Jean Shaw/UPI


Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A federal jury on Tuesday said pharmacies at CVS, Walgreens and Walmart contributed to the influx of large quantities of pain pills in two Ohio counties, contributing to the deadly opioid crisis.

The case is considered to be a "bellwether" trial in determining how much of a role pharmacies have played in fueling the crisis. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs -- Lake and Trumbull counties -- said the pharmacies disregarded their legal duties to block suspicious orders of controlled substances such as prescription opioids.

"For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by the law," attorneys for the plaintiffs said in a statement, according to The New York Times.

"The judgment today against Walmart, Walgreens and CVS represents the overdue reckoning for their complicity in creating a public nuisance."

Two other pharmacy chains -- Giant Eagle and Rite-Aid -- settled with the counties ahead of the verdict.

The trial judge is expected to decide on a punishment during a hearing in the spring. He could order the companies to pay billions of dollars to help address the fallout from the opioid crisis. The counties said the hundreds of overdose deaths and other factors have cost each about $1 billion.

Representatives for CVSHealth and Walgreen Co. said they plan to appeal the verdict, according to CNBC.

RELATED Oklahoma Supreme Court overturns judgment against J&J in opioid case

"As plaintiffs' own experts testified, many factors have contributed to the opioid abuse issue, and solving this problem will require involvement from all stakeholders in our healthcare system and all members of our community," CVSHealth spokesman Mike DeAngelis said.

Opioids caused more than 183,000 overdose deaths in the United States between 1999 and 2015. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics released a report last week showing numbers spiked in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, with opioids causing more than 75,600 overdose deaths.

Jury holds pharmacies responsible for role in opioid crisis

CLEVELAND (AP) — CVS, Walgreens and Walmart pharmacies recklessly distributed massive amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said Tuesday in a verdict that could set the tone for U.S. city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.

Lake and Trumbull counties blamed the three chain pharmacies for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1 billion, said their attorney, who in court compared the pharmacies’ dispensing to a gumball machine.

How much the pharmacies must pay in damages will be decided in the spring by a federal judge.

It’s the first time pharmacy companies completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that killed a half-million Americans over the past two decades.

The counties convinced the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their communities.

“The law requires pharmacies to be diligent in dealing drugs. This case should be a wake-up call that failure will not be accepted,” said Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties.

“The jury sounded a bell that should be heard through all pharmacies in America,” Lanier said.

Attorneys for the pharmacy chains maintained they had policies to stem the flow of pills when their pharmacists had concerns and would notify authorities about suspicious orders from doctors. They also said it was doctors who controlled how many pills were prescribed for legitimate medical needs.

CVSHealth, Walgreen Co. and Walmart Inc. said they will appeal.

Walmart said in a statement that the counties’ attorneys sued “in search of deep pockets while ignoring the real causes of the opioid crisis — such as pill mill doctors, illegal drugs, and regulators asleep at the switch — and they wrongly claimed pharmacists must second-guess doctors in a way the law never intended and many federal and state health regulators say interferes with the doctor-patient relationship.”

Walgreen spokesperson Fraser Engerman characterized the case as an unsustainable effort “to resolve the opioid crisis with an unprecedented expansion of public nuisance law.”

The company “never manufactured or marketed opioids nor did we distribute them to the ‘pill mills’ and internet pharmacies that fueled this crisis,” Engerman said in a statement.

A statement from CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis noted: “As plaintiffs’ own experts testified, many factors have contributed to the opioid abuse issue, and solving this problem will require involvement from all stakeholders in our health care system and all members of our community.”

Two chains — Rite Aid and Giant Eagle — already had settled lawsuits with the two Ohio counties.

Lanier said during trial that the pharmacies were attempting to blame everyone but themselves.

The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social services agencies and law enforcement in Ohio’s blue-collar corner east of Cleveland, leaving behind heartbroken families and babies born to addicted mothers, Lanier told jurors.

Roughly 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone between 2012 and 2016 — equivalent to 400 for every resident. In Lake County, some 61 million pills were distributed during that period.

The rise in physicians prescribing pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone came as medical groups began recognizing that patients have the right to be treated for pain, Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens, said at the opening of the trial.

The problem, he said, was “pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into writing way too many pills.”

The counties said pharmacies should be the last line of defense to prevent the pills from getting into the wrong hands.

They didn’t hire enough pharmacists and technicians or train them to stop that from happening and failed to implement systems that could flag suspicious orders, Lanier said.

The committee of lawyers for the local governments suing the drug industry in federal courts called Tuesday’s verdict “a milestone victory” and “overdue reckoning.”

“For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by law,” the committee said in a statement. “Instead, these companies responded by opening up more locations, flooding communities with pills, and facilitating the flow of opioids into an illegal, secondary market.”

The trial before U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland was part of a broader constellation of about 3,000 federal opioid lawsuits consolidated under the judge’s supervision. Other cases are moving ahead in state courts.

Kevin Roy, chief public policy officer at Shatterproof, an organization that advocates for solutions to addiction, said the verdict could lead pharmacies to follow the path of major distribution companies and some drugmakers that have reached nationwide settlements of opioid cases worth billions. So far, no pharmacy has reached a nationwide settlement.

“It’s a signal that the public, at least in select places, feels that there’s been exposure and needs to be remedied,” Roy said.

The government claims against drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies hinge on state and local public nuisance laws.

Roy noted that courts haven’t been consistent on whether those laws apply to such cases. “There’s been a variety of different decisions lately that should give us reason to be cautious about what this really means in the grand scheme,” he said.

Two recent rulings went against the theory. More cases are heading toward rulings.

Trials against drugmakers in New York and distribution companies in Washington state are underway. A trial of claims against distribution companies in West Virginia wrapped up, but the judge hasn’t given a verdict.

Earlier in November, a California judge ruled in favor of top drug manufacturers in a lawsuit with three counties and the city of Oakland. The judge said the governments hadn’t proven that the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance.

Also this month, Oklahoma’s supreme court overturned a 2019 judgment for $465 million in a suit brought by the state against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.

Other lawsuits have resulted in big settlements or proposed settlements before trials were completed.

The jury’s decision in Cleveland had little effect on the stock of CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, which all closed higher Tuesday on Wall Street.

___

Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.

US jury awards $25m in damages over Unite the Right rally

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Richard Spencer, who coined the term "alt-right", was among the defendants

A US jury has awarded $25m (£19m) in damages against the organisers of a deadly far-right rally in August 2017.

The defendants were found liable in four out of six counts over the bloodshed at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The civil lawsuit was filed by nine people who suffered physical or emotional injuries in the rally.

A woman was killed and dozens were hurt after an avowed neo-Nazi drove a car into counter-protesters.

In court, the jury awarded $500,000 in punitive damages against 12 defendants, and $1m against five white supremacist organisations. Punitive damages are awarded at a court's discretion to punish a defendant for conduct judged to be especially harmful.

A total of $12m in punitive damages was also imposed against the driver of the car in the fatal incident.

The jury of 11 deliberated for over three days following nearly a month of testimony at the trial in Charlottesville.

The two federal conspiracy charges that jurors could not agree on alleged that the defendants had plotted to commit racially motivated violence.

Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said they plan to refile the lawsuit so a new jury can decide on those two charges.

The legal action alleged that the defendants "brought with them to Charlottesville the imagery of the Holocaust, of slavery, of Jim Crow and of fascism".

"They also brought with them semi-automatic weapons, pistols, mace, rods, armour, shields and torches," the lawsuit said.

The statue of General Robert E Lee was towed away from Market Street Park, Charlottesville

The defendants include several prominent figures in America's white nationalist and far-right sphere.

Among those found liable in the case were Jason Kessler, the rally's main organiser, and Richard Spencer, who came up with the term "alt-right" and spoke at the event.

Another defendant, Christopher Cantwell, became famous as "the crying Nazi" after an emotional YouTube video he posted once the rally went viral.

The lawsuit largely rested on an 1871 law passed after the US Civil War to protect black Americans, following their emancipation from slavery, from the Ku Klux Klan.

• US white supremacists face a legal reckoning

It allows private citizens to sue others believed to have committed civil rights violations - with the condition that the plaintiffs must prove that they conspired to do so.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs also collected more than 5.3 terabytes of data to help them make their case, including social media posts and chat exchanges.

The rally began as a protest against the removal of a Confederate statue.

Then-President Donald Trump came under fire after saying afterwards that there were "very fine people on both sides". In the same speech he also said neo-Nazis and white nationalists "should be condemned totally".

A counter-protester, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, was killed when James Alex Fields drove his car into a crowd. He was sentenced to life in prison in June 2019.

The civil case included testimony from survivors of the incident.

"It was a complete terror scene. It was blood everywhere," one of the plaintiffs, Marissa Blair, testified. "I was terrified."

The defendants sought to distance themselves from the violence and maintained that there was no conspiracy. They said none of them knew Fields and so they could not have predicted he would ram a vehicle into a crowd.

"None of these defendants could have foreseen what James Fields did," Mr Kessler's attorney said.

The defendants argued that their racist views were protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees free speech, and that their rhetoric before the rally was just bluster.

They also said they had acted in self-defence and that the police bore responsibility for failing to keep the two sides from fighting.

Court testimony, however, suggested that some of the organisers could have foreseen the violence.

Former extremist Samantha Froelich, for example, testified that the idea of using vehicles to target counter-protesters was discussed ahead of the event.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have said they hope the lawsuit acts as a deterrent against further extremist rallies.

Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, which backed the legal action, told the BBC in October that "a case like this can also have much broader impacts in making clear there will be very real consequences for violence extremism".

Dutch 'Bible Belt' targeted in Covid vaccine drive


Only around one-third of people have been jabbed in Urk as protests against vaccinations have spread across the Netherlands (AFP/Jeroen JUMELET)

Danny KEMP
Tue, November 23, 2021, 9:08 AM·4 min read

From his surgery in the remote Dutch fishing village of Urk, family doctor Wilco Bloed is trying to win over coronavirus vaccine hold-outs who believe that God is on their side.

Only around one-third of people have been jabbed in this community deep in the conservative Protestant "Bible Belt" region, fewer than anywhere else in the Netherlands.

But with Covid-19 cases soaring nationwide, doctors in Urk have started their own vaccination campaign to reach out and convince people to get the shot.


"We started the initiative because Urk is the place in the Netherlands with the lowest vaccination rate, under 30 percent, and because the contaminations were really going up," Bloed told AFP.

"So as family doctors we have decided to offer vaccinations in the practices (instead of vaccination centres)."

It will "offer a possibility to have a conversation (with a trusted person) and remove barriers, and to get the vaccination rate up", he added.

Rates have since risen to 35 percent since the scheme started at the beginning of November, but that is still far below the national adult vaccination rate of 84.7 percent.

"The aversion to vaccination was quite large... it is true that people in Urk can be quite stubborn," said the doctor, who moved to the village 15 years ago.

- 'God's providence' -

Urk was "ground zero" for the Netherlands' worst riots in decades, which erupted in January over a coronavirus curfew.

Since then the village has seen scuffles with journalists outside churches that held services during lockdown, and a small outbreak of unrest on Saturday night as fresh rioting gripped the country.

The village with its picture-postcard harbour and fishermen's cottages was an island until 70 years ago when it was joined to the Dutch mainland by a land reclamation project, and it maintains its isolated mentality.

"If the rest of the Netherlands does one thing, Urk does the other," said Jacob, a 21 year old from Urk fishing on the harbour with his friend, who did not want to give his full name.

Urk has above all retained the strict Calvinist beliefs of the so-called Bible Belt that stretches through the heart of the Netherlands.

The church's beliefs on vaccination too have long been a key factor in low uptake rates for all kinds of jabs, with a measles outbreak in Urk two years ago.

Vaccination is seen by some as intervening in God's will, but the issue is complex, says Reverend Alwin Uitslag, of the Christian Reformed Eben-Haezerkerk church in Urk.

"On the one hand the Bible says that you can take precautions. So you may prepare for certain crisis," such as coronavirus, Uitslag told AFP.

"Another part says vaccinating is not allowed because you intervene in God's providence."

- Not just religion -

He described his church as "strict", with rules that also include two church services on Sundays, on which shops are closed and people may not go to work.

Women are required to wear dresses and to put on headscarves for worship.

But when it comes to Covid vaccines, the final choice was left to people's "individual conscience", said the pastor.

"It is my job to give good information to the church members, it's not my job to give them direction to do it or not to do it," he said, without revealing whether he had been jabbed.

In this village where science and religion collide, doctors and pastors say they have been talking to try to find the best way forward.

Religion was however "actually a very small part" of the problem, said Bloed.

Instead it was "largely fear of side effects", coupled with Urk's isolation from the government in The Hague, disinformation, and a young population that is more likely to be resistant to vaccination.

The results of the campaign, being carried out with the Dutch GGD health authority and local municipality, have so far been encouraging although there is far to go.

"In the first week and a half, the same number of injections was given as the GGD did four weeks before, though we see it slow down a bit," said Bloed.

But the doctor, who is also a member of the village's Reformed churches, said he kept his own religious beliefs out of things.

"Look I'm also Christian. And yes you don't have to agree on everything," he said.

dk-jcp/gw

EU parliament greenlights farm subsidy plan


French farmers are again set to receive the biggest share of EU subsidies 

(AFP/JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER)

Tue, November 23, 2021, 9:11 AM·2 min read

The European Parliament gave its final green light on Tuesday to the EU's vast farm subsidy programme despite the opposition of environmentalists, who denounced its terms as "greenwashing".

The sums involved are huge. The common agricultural policy, or CAP, runs to 387 billion euros ($472 billion) over seven years -- a third of the EU's total multi-year budget -- with 270 billion euros going in direct aid to Europe's farmers.

The EU's spending bonanza will come into effect in 2023 and France remains the main beneficiary country. MEPs overwhelmingly voted in favour of the three texts that made up the total subsidy package.

The reform, which took months to conclude with EU member states, pays premiums to farmers who partake in greener activities, use more environmentally friendly techniques or help improve animal welfare.

In theory, member states will have to devote an average of 25 percent per year of direct payments to these "eco-regimes" between 2023 and 2027, with the possibility of devoting only 20 percent in the first two years.

"This is a first," said German MEP Peter Jahr, who led on one of the programme's three legislative texts.

"Our task was to have a coherent reform within the time limit and we have succeeded," he said.

Under the law, Brussels will verify that member states comply with the bloc's objectives of reducing greenhouse gases as well as reducing pesticides by half by 2030. A quarter of the land is also to be reserved for organic farming.

But climate campaigner Greta Thunberg said ahead of the vote that the plan was "disastrous to the climate and environment", while Greens MEP Benoit Biteau called it a "gift for the Eurosceptics, agribusiness and climate sceptics who have worked to ensure that this CAP serves the largest farms."

Critics argue that the vast majority of subsidies come without climate-friendly conditions or oversight and that the green aspects have been watered down since the previous multi-year package.

The proposal now goes back to EU member states for a final vote, before it officially goes into effect.

alm/arp/dc/tgb