WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

'Silent strike' to oppose military coup empties streets across Myanmar

An empty street is seen Friday in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, during a "silent strike" to protest against the military rule. Photo by EPA-EFE

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Opponents to the military government in Myanmar protested in a grand show of unity on Friday -- a national "silent strike" that emptied streets and businesses across the country on international Human Rights Day.

The strike was the largest nationally coordinated protest effort in Myanmar in months. Those who participated by staying home and closing their businesses did so to reject the military coup in February that removed the civilian government.

Organizers said the aim of the strike was to support a movement in Myanmar to return the government to civilian control.

The demonstration was expected to last for several hours.

Opponents to the junta rule held a similar strike in March when streets in Yangon and other urban centers were deserted.

The military seized power in Myanmar on Feb. 1 and arrested civilian leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi, claiming that the election a year ago that kept them in power was fraudulent.

Suu Kyi was sentenced this week to four years in prison on charges of inciting dissent and violating COVID-19 protocols.

Over the past 10 months, the junta have been quick to crack down on dissenting activity, which has resulted in a number of deaths. Last week, troops rammed a vehicle into a crowd of protesters, killing five.

Study: Toxins in wildfire smoke may make their way into the brain

By HealthDay News

Toxins from wildfires, such as the Caldor fire near Meyers, Calif., in August, could make their way into the brain, according to new research. File Photo by Peter DaSilva/UPI | License Photo

The smoke from wildfires is dangerous for your lungs, but tiny particles from the smoke can also enter your brain and cause lifelong neurological issues, a new animal study suggests.

Once that happens, the particles may put people at risk for everything from premature aging and various forms of dementia to depression and even psychosis, researchers say.

"These are fires that are coming through small towns and they're burning up cars and houses," said Matthew Campen, a professor at the University of New Mexico's College of Pharmacy.

Campen and his team conducted research last year at Laguna Pueblo, an area 41 miles west of Albuquerque and roughly 600 miles from the source of wildfires.

They found that mice exposed to smoke-laden air for nearly three weeks under closely monitored conditions showed age-related changes in their brain tissue.

Microplastics and metallic particles of iron, aluminum and magnesium in wildfire smoke sometimes travel thousands of miles. As smoke rises higher in the atmosphere heavier particles fall out, Campen said.

"It's only these really small ultra-fine particles that travel a thousand miles to where we are. They're more dangerous because the small particles get deeper into your lung, and your lung has a harder time removing them as a result," Campen said in a university news release.

The particles lodge themselves into lung tissue, triggering the release of inflammatory immune molecules into the bloodstream, which carries them into the brain.

They start to degrade the blood-brain barrier and trigger the brain's immune response, Campen said.

In the mice, the researchers found neurons showed metabolic changes suggesting that wildfire smoke exposure may add to the burden of aging-related impairments, though research on animals does not always produce the same results in humans.

"It looks like there's a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier that's mild, but it still triggers a response from the protective cells in the brain -- astrocytes and microglia -- to sheathe it off and protect the rest of the brain from the factors in the blood," Campen said.

"Normally, the microglia are supposed to be doing other things, like helping with learning and memory," Campen added.

The findings were published online this month in the journal Toxicological Sciences.

More information

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has more on how wildfire smoke can affect your health.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

WORLD HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

U.N. General Assembly ratifies several resolutions against Israel

An Israeli flag is seen in the Ma'aleh Adumim settlement annexed to the controversial E1 area in the West Bank, outside Jerusalem, Israel, on October 16. 

File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 10 (UPI) -- The United Nations General Assembly has formally approved several resolutions that criticize Israel for a variety of positions, including building Jewish settlements and acting against Palestinian rights.

The UNGA formally ratified six resolutions against Israel.

Some of the resolutions condemn Israeli settlement activity, call for a withdrawal from the Golan Heights and affirm the work of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

One resolution calling for financial aid for Palestinian refugees passed by a vote of 16-1, with only Israel in dissent.

Many of the UNGA parties who opposed the resolutions abstained from voting.

The UNGA resolutions call for the cessation of all unlawful Israeli settlement activities and the construction of a wall in the Gaza strip. It also orders Israel to end military operations against Palestinian and Syrian civilians.

One resolution that accuses Israel of building settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, passed 146-7. Another calling for Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights passed 149-2.

All six resolutions were adopted last month, but formally ratified on Friday. They are part of a package of 14 texts on Israel that the assembly is expected to pass by the end of 2021.

Oil-covered snowy owl rescued from recycling plant in Wisconsin


Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Animal rescuers in Wisconsin said a snowy owl is recovering after being found covered in diesel and an oil-based substance at a recycling plant.

The Wisconsin Humane Society said its Wildlife Rehabilitation Center was contacted about a large bird at the recycling center in Milwaukee on Friday, and a photo sent to staff identified the avian as a snowy owl.

A rescue volunteer captured the owl and brought it to the center, where staff determined it was covered in diesel and an oil-based substance.

"The contaminants had rendered her hypothermic, she had been ingesting the oily mix in a desperate attempt to clean herself, and she was in respiratory distress," the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center said in a Facebook post.

The owl was given a deep cleaning by rescuers.

"Snowy owls have a tremendous amount of insulative feathers, and hers required meticulous cleaning -- even all the way down her legs, feet, and toes," the post said.

The center said the bird is now being treated for "additional injuries and abrasions."

The post said the owl is now recovering and "beginning to show appropriate wild animal sass and attitude toward us."
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The AP Interview: 'We want justice' on climate, Nakate says

By CARA ANNA2 

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The capital of Uganda coughs itself awake on weekdays under a soft blanket of smog. Kampala’s hills come into sharper focus as the morning rush of minibuses and motorbikes fades. It is this East African city that one of the world’s most well-known climate activists, Vanessa Nakate, calls home.

The 25-year-old’s rise in profile has been quick. Not even three years have passed since she set out with relatives in Kampala to stage her first, modest protest over how the world is treating its only planet.

In an interview this week with The Associated Press — which last year drew international attention and Nakate’s dismay by cropping her from a photo — she reflected on the whirlwind. She spoke of her disappointment in the outcome of the U.N. climate talks in Scotland and what she and other young activists plan for the year to come.

“We expected the leaders to rise up for the people, to rise up for the planet” at the talks known as COP26, she said. Instead, the world could be on a pathway to warm 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.

That’s well above the goal of limiting warming to 1.5C — and would be “a death sentence for so many communities on the front lines of the climate crisis,” Nakate said.





Globally, the signs are dire. The Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the planet. The dramatic drop in carbon dioxide emissions from COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns has almost disappeared. This year, forests burned in Siberia’s weakening permafrost, while record-shattering heatwaves in Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest and deadly flooding in Europe brought the climate threat home to some who once thought they could outspend it.

But many of the most-affected communities are in Africa, whose 1.3 billion people contribute the least to global emissions, less than 4%, but stand to suffer from it most.

That suffering, in some cases, has already begun: Deadly drought fells wildlife and livestock in parts of East Africa, water scarcity hits areas in West and Southern Africa, and hunger affects many millions of people, from Madagascar to Somalia, as a result.

And yet the $100 billion in financing per year promised by richer nations to help developing countries deal with the coming catastrophe has not appeared.

“We cannot to adapt to starvation,” Nakate said, her voice soft but firm as the introvert in her gives way to the convictions that have brought her this far. “We cannot adapt to extinction, we cannot adapt to lost cultures, lost traditions, to lost histories, and the climate crisis is taking all of these things away.”

The next big climate conference will be in Africa, in Egypt, a chance for the spotlight to fall squarely on the continent.

It will be a test for activists and negotiators from Africa’s 54 countries who have long jostled for space at global climate events.

“Many times, activists in Africa have been called missing voices. But we are not missing,” Nakate said. “We are present, we are available, we are just unheard.”

She watched as some activists from African countries faced the challenges of securing funding, accreditation or access to COVID-19 vaccinations as they sought to attend COP26. She has spoken of feeling erased herself when she was cropped out of an AP photo of climate activists last year at the World Economic Forum. The AP apologized for its error in judgment and the pain it caused her.

But it is not enough to simply listen to Africa’s climate activists, Nakate said this week. People with power must act on those demands.

“We don’t want to just hear sweet phrases from them, sweet commitments,” she said. “Commitments will not change the planet, pledges will not stop the suffering of people.”

Specifically, Nakate said, drastic action is needed by the leaders in government and business that continue to fund the extraction of fossil fuels, like coal and oil.

She chose not to call out anyone by name, but when asked whether Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, had replied to a letter she wrote about a controversial oil pipeline project to ship crude from Uganda to neighboring Tanzania, she said no.

In fact, the 77-year-old leader has never been in contact with Nakate, who became one of the world’s most well-known Ugandans not long after graduating from university with a business degree and becoming inspired by climate activism.

In her recent book “A Bigger Picture,” Nakate reflects on how leaders’ decisions on climate have real-life consequences far beyond the data that often dominate the conversation.

She worries about how farmers who lose their crops to climate shocks will feed their families, and how lost income can force children out of school and young women into early marriage.

“This isn’t just about us wanting a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions,” Nakate said. “We want justice that centers the protection of the planet and the protection of the people because the climate crisis exacerbates poverty first of all. We cannot eradicate poverty if climate change is pushing millions of people into extreme poverty and keeping them in poverty traps.”

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate splashes the water as she explains the changing water levels of Lake Victoria, on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Asked how young climate activists can make sure that they are central to decision-making worldwide, Nakate expressed confidence that they are making themselves heard, creating their own platforms on social media and elsewhere.

“If the table is not given to you, you make one for yourself,” she said — a message she could well tweet to her 230,000-plus followers.

In 2022, Nakate’s work will be closer to home as she pursues a project to provide schools in Uganda with solar panels and eco-friendly cookstoves to reduce the amount of firewood consumed.

“I can’t believe how fast this journey has been,” she said as she realized that within weeks it will be the third anniversary of her first climate protest in Kampala. “Activism can be very hard, a lot of work, but it takes love and grace to continue to speak.”

It also takes a certain hope, she said, and as a born-again Christian she finds that hope in God. It helps her believe that “the future you’re fighting for is actually possible and you can achieve it.”

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate walks along the shore of Lake Victoria on the outskirts of Kampala, Uganda Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Hajarah Nalwadda)

Footprints show some two-legged dinosaurs were agile

By EMMA H. TOBIN

In this October 2020 photo provided by Alberto Labrador, a researcher measures a 120 million year-old fossilized dinosaur footprint the in the La Rioja region in northern Spain, while doing research about dinosaur running speeds. Scientists discovered one of the quickest sets of theropod tracks in the world through this research. (Alberto Labrador via AP)


NEW YORK (AP) — Not all two-legged dinosaurs were like the lumbering Tyrannosaurus rex.

An analysis of dinosaur tracks from 120 million years ago unearthed in Spain adds to growing evidence that these meat-eating prehistoric beasts belonging to the same group as T.rex could be highly agile.

The findings, published Thursday in Scientific Reports, reveal one of the fastest known sets of fossilized dinosaur footprints.

These tracks join the ranks of other speedy sets found in Utah and Texas, one of which shows dinosaurs running at speeds over 30 mph. The Spanish footprints showed speeds of nearly 28 mph.

To calculate the running speed, scientists measured the length of the footprint and took into account the dinosaur’s hip height and stride length — the distance between two consecutive footprints of the same foot.

All of the fastest known sets of prints come from a family of dinosaurs called theropods. These carnivorous dinosaurs stood on two legs and could not fly, like the famed velociraptor. The animals that created the most recent impressions were probably 5 to 6 1/2 feet tall and 13 to 16 feet long from mouth to tail, the researchers estimated.

Scientists think there may be other faster dinosaurs, but the tracks of theropods have been easier to track down.

“Behavior is something very difficult to study in dinosaurs,” said lead author Pablo Navarro-Lorbés of the University of La Rioja. “These kind of findings are very important, I think, for improving that kind of knowledge.”

Scientists typically predict dinosaur behavior through computer modeling of the creatures’ movement. Physical examination of fossilized footprints confirm the results.

These are “clearly active, agile animals,” said Smithsonian paleontologist Hans Sues, who had no role in the study.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Neil Young rebuilds a Rockies barn and reunites Crazy Horse
By ANDREW DALTON

Neil Young poses for a portrait at Lost Planet Editorial in Santa Monica, Calif. on Sept. 9, 2019. Young had a barn rebuilt in the Rockies and used it to reunite with his old backing band Crazy Horse. The little log structure from the 1850s lends its name to the album that resulted, just called “Barn.” It will be released Friday along with a documentary of the same name directed by Young's wife Daryl Hannah. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP, File)

A horse needs a barn.

Neil Young didn’t rebuild a log barn from the 1850s that was falling into the ground in the Colorado Rockies just so he could make an album in it with Crazy Horse, his frequent collaborators for more than 50 years, but that was a big part of the inspiration.

“We got some people to restore it back to the original greatness, with ponderosa pines, it’s just beautiful, just a beautiful building,” Young told The Associated Press via Zoom from the property there that he shares with wife Daryl Hannah. “I felt like it was going to be a great place to make music.”

The space was so significant to the process that “Barn” became the name of both the album and a companion documentary, directed by Hannah, being released Friday.

It was also an ideal spot for Young to cautiously reunite with drummer Ralph Molina, bassist Billy Talbot and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren.

“It’s remote,” Young said. “With the pandemic and everything we felt like we could get everybody there safely and have everybody vaccinated and pure.”

Crazy Horse has always taken Young, now 76, to remote places musically too. He says they still provide the same “cosmic vibe” they did on 1969′s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” 1975′s “Zuma,” 1979′s “Rust Never Sleeps” and 1990′s “Ragged Glory.”

“It’s just a place where we get to that I don’t get with anybody else, with Crazy Horse’s ability to jam and the ability to carry on and keep going with not a care in the world,” Young said. “They are as happy to play a song for 20 minutes as they are for three minutes.”

This cover image released by Reprise Records shows "Barn," the latest release by Neil Young & Crazy Horse. (Reprise Records via AP)

A “barn” is normally musicians’ shorthand for a cold, cavernous room. But this one brought only audial warmth.

“It sounds like God because there’s no square to it, it has no standing waves, because it’s all the insides of these big logs one on top of another,” Young said. “It’s a bunch of round surfaces. From an acoustic standpoint, it’s flawless.”

They built a stage inside and played in their live-and-loose style to a recording truck known as Le Mobile, where engineer Guy Charbonneau and producer Niko Bolas sat parked outside.

“It had just been converted to digital. We took all the digital stuff out and put the analog back in,” he said with a smile.

Beyond barn-raising, Young stayed busy during the coronavirus pandemic, writing all nine songs for the album and assembling the next wave of recordings for release through his archives website.

“There were no distractions,” he said. “And we didn’t have any superfluous jobs to do, none of the trappings of keeping everything going and keeping touring, all that all went away. It was fine with me. I have so much to do.”

Volume three of the career-spanning archives, covering a period in the mid-1970s, was collected with an assist from fans who write in with their memories of his music, at times pointing him to things he didn’t remember existed.

“It’s really a beautiful piece of work, all of the songs that made me feel so good to hear, and things that I’ve never heard in my life that we’ve uncovered,” Young said. “There’s a Crazy Horse record, a live Crazy Horse performance that opens up volume three, which I think is the best thing ever recorded with Crazy Horse.”

Hannah’s film patiently lets the album process play out, with slow gazes of the barn at sunset, a pair of dogs lazing outside, and long shots of the band’s jams unfolding.

“I’m very lucky,” Young said of Hannah. “She’s the other side of everything. We create it and turn around and we see what she saw when we were creating.”

The album has songs celebrating love, memory, and old friends, but it’s darkened by the state of a world that stokes Young’s sadness and anger.

The pandemic feels present on the long signature song, “Welcome Back.”

“For the world has closed us in but we must allow for changes to be made,” Young sings. “Welcome back, welcome back, it’s not the same. The shade is just you blinking.”

His anger over lethargic global action on climate change is felt on “Human Race,” in which he sings of “children of the fires and floods today’s people have left behind.”

“It pisses me off that we’re not doing as much and that we’re so distracted,” he said. “We’re losing track of what we’re supposed to be doing. I guess, you know, the Earth is challenged if we want to have a place for our children, for our grandchildren, we better get our stuff together.”

He sighed and said “the best thing I can do is create art or music or something that gives people a place to go.”

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

#ENDFURFARMING

Interfaith coalition urges Louis Vuitton to shed fur items

BOSTON (AP) — A group of Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders is urging luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton to stop using animal fur in its clothing and other products.

In a joint statement, Orthodox Christian priest Stephen Karcher, Hindu activist Rajan Zed, Jewish rabbi ElizaBeth Webb Beyer and Buddhist priest Matthew Fisher said selling items trimmed with fur is inconsistent with the ethics and values of parent company Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

“Louis Vuitton should explore new boundaries of fur-free creative design and discontinue selling all products made from animal fur,” the clerics said Thursday, calling the trend “cruel, outdated and unnecessary.”

“Animals should not be made to suffer and killed to make fashion and glamorize bodies when there are other valid fashion alternatives at our disposition. Cruelty should never become fashionable,” they said.

Paris-based Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Zed, who is president of the Nevada-based Universal Society of Hinduism, urged LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and other executives — as well as the fashion industry as a whole — to review the practice.

It’s not the first time Zed’s group has targeted Louis Vuitton. Last year, it called on the luxury goods maker to pull a yoga mat made partly of cowhide leather, calling it insensitive to practicing Hindus, who regard cows as sacred symbols of life.

San Francisco and Los Angeles are among U.S. cities with vibrant fashion sectors that have banned the sale of fur products.

Sao Paulo, Brazil, has banned the import and sale of fur since 2015, and fur farming has been outlawed in the United Kingdom for more than two decades.

DANISH FARMED MINK KILLED DUE TO COVID INFECTIONS

Metropolitan Museum of Art cuts Sackler name amid opioid ire


A sign with the Sackler name is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2019. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is dropping the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces amid growing outrage over the role the family may have played in the opioid crisis. 

(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The Metropolitan Museum of Art is dropping the Sackler name from seven exhibition spaces amid growing outrage over the role the family may have played in the opioid crisis.

The New York museum and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the institution and their once-deep-pocketed benefactors would part ways, removing the Sackler name from the iconic building, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur. The wing is named after brothers Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, who donated $3.5 million for it in the 1970s.

“Our families have always strongly supported The Met, and we believe this to be in the best interest of the Museum and the important mission that it serves,” Sackler descendants said in a statement.

Arthur, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler have all died, but descendants of Mortimer and Raymond Sackler currently are principal owners of Purdue Pharma, the company that developed OxyContin, a widely prescribed and widely abused painkiller.

In September, a bankruptcy judge conditionally approved a settlement in which the Sacklers agreed to pay $4.5 billion and give up ownership of Purdue Pharma, which would be reorganized. They would in turn receive immunity from future lawsuits. Victims’ families and a group of states criticized the deal. Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to criminal charges in late 2020.

Foundations run by members of the Sackler family have given tens of millions of dollars to museums, including the Guggenheim in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and funded work at Oxford and Yale.

In recent years, the Guggenheim, the Louvre in Paris, the Tate in London and the Jewish Museum in Berlin have all distanced themselves from the family. In 2019, the Met itself announced it would stop taking monetary gifts from Sacklers connected to Purdue Pharma.

UPDATED

Rights Groups Warn Extradition of Assange Would Have 'Dangerous Implications for Future of Journalism'

The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders called on the U.S. and U.K. governments to "stop to this more than decade-long persecution once and for all."


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange holds a press conference at Park Plaza Hotel on October 23, 2010 in London. A series of leaks of American military documents, nearly 400,000 in total, were released by the whistleblowing website Wikileaks. The files detail torture and the abuse of Iraqi detainees. (Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)


ANDREA GERMANOS

December 10, 2021

A chorus of international human rights and press freedom groups roundly condemned a British court's Friday ruling that WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States where he could face torturous conditions and life in prison.

"Julian Assange should be immediately released, and steps taken to ensure no journalist, publisher, or source can ever be targeted in this way again."

"This is a travesty of justice," said Nils Muižnieks, Europe director for Amnesty International.

Muižnieks was part of a chorus of condemnation that swiftly followed the High Court decision, which blocks a lower court's January ruling rejecting the U.S. government's attempt at extradition because it would be "oppressive by reason of Assange's mental health" and create "substantial" risk of him dying by suicide.

The new ruling marks in a win for the U.S. government—which has charged Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act related to his publication of classified documents exposing American war crimes. Critics like Reporters Without Borders (RSF), however, say the ruling represents a far-reaching and alarming attack on journalistic freedoms.

"We condemn today's decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons," said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.

"We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world," Deloire said. He also called for "a stop to this more than decade-long persecution once and for all."

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Press Freedoms Under 'Grave Threat' as British Court Rules Assange Can Be Extradited to US

The Committee to Protect Journalists drew attention to ruling coinciding with the close of President Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy and the awarding of Nobel prizes to journalists Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov.

Robert Mahoney, the group's deputy executive director said, "The U.S. Justice Department's dogged pursuit of the WikiLeaks founder has set a harmful legal precedent for prosecuting reporters simply for interacting with their sources."

"The Biden administration pledged at its Summit for Democracy this week to support journalism," said Mahoney. It could begin "by removing the threat of prosecution under the Espionage Act now hanging over the heads of investigative journalists everywhere."



RSF director of international campaigns Rebecca Vincent similarly said the ruling represents "a bleak moment for journalists and journalism around the world, on the very day when we should be celebrating the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to two journalists and urging states to uphold the commitments to media freedom they have just reaffirmed at the U.S.-led Summit for Democracy."

“The U.S. government's indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad."

The U.S., she added, should "truly lead by example and close this case now before further damage is done. Julian Assange should be immediately released, and steps taken to ensure no journalist, publisher, or source can ever be targeted in this way again."

Muižnieks—who rejected as "deeply flawed" U.S. assurances to the court that Assange wouldn't be held in solitary—likewise warned of wide reverberations of the attack on Assange.

“The U.S. government's indictment poses a grave threat to press freedom both in the United States and abroad," he said. "If upheld, it would undermine the key role of journalists and publishers in scrutinizing governments and exposing their misdeeds would leave journalists everywhere looking over their shoulders."

The legal team for Assange, who's been jailed at the U.K. high-security Belmarsh Prison since 2019, has vowed to appeal.

Warning of "deeply concerning implications for press freedom," Daniel Gorman, director of English PEN, said the decision "must be reviewed by the Supreme Court."

"The legal charges filed against Julian Assange contain activities that are central to the work of investigative journalists," he said, "and his extradition could therefore set a devastating precedent for journalists worldwide. We continue to call on U.S. authorities to drop these deeply problematic charges and call on the Home Secretary to block this extradition."

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Court ruling puts Julian Assange a step closer to US extradition

Stella Moris, partner of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaks to media outside 

the Royal Courts of Justice following the appeal against Assange's extradition in

 London on Friday, December 10. Photo: REUTERS/Henry Nicholls


Tom Pilgrim

December 11 2021 

British appellate court opened the door yesterday for Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States by overturning a lower court’s decision that the WikiLeaks founder’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the US criminal justice system.

The High Court in London ruled that US assurances were enough to guarantee Mr Assange would be treated humanely and directed a lower court judge to send the extradition request to Britain’s interior minister for review.

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who oversees law enforcement in the UK, will make the final decision.

“There is no reason why this court should not accept the assurances as meaning what they say,’’ the High Court ruling stated. “There is no basis for assuming that the USA has not given the assurances in good faith.”

Mr Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, called the decision a “grave miscarriage of justice” and said Mr Assange’s lawyers would seek to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

“We will fight,” Ms Moris said outside court, where supporters gathered with banners demanding Mr Assange’s release.

“Every generation has an epic fight to fight and this is ours, because Julian represents the fundamentals of what it means to live in a free society,” she said.

Mr Assange (50) is currently being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison. The High Court ordered that he remain in custody pending the outcome of the extradition case.

In January, a lower court judge refused the US request to extradite Mr Assange to face spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser denied extradition on health grounds, saying the Australian citizen was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US prison conditions.

James Lewis, a lawyer for the US government, said Mr Assange “has no history of serious and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself.

US authorities have told British judges that if Mr Assange is extradited for prosecution, he would be eligible to serve any US prison sentence he receives in his native Australia. The authorities also said he wouldn’t be held at the supermax penitentiary in Florence, Colorado, the highest-security prison in the United States.

The US has indicted Mr Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, although Lewis said “the longest sentence ever imposed for this offense is 63 months.”

Human rights and press freedom groups have condemned a High Court ruling that Mr Assange can be extradited as a “travesty of justice” and “hammer-blow to free expression”.

Responding to the decision Christophe Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said: “We condemn today’s decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons.

“We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world.”

Nils Muiznieks, Amnesty International’s Europe director, said: “This is a travesty of justice. By allowing this appeal, the High Court has chosen to accept the deeply flawed diplomatic assurances given by the US that Assange would not be held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison.

“The fact that the US has reserved the right to change its mind at any time means that these assurances are not worth the paper they are
written on.”

He added: “If extradited to the US, Julian Assange could not only face trial on charges under the Espionage Act but also a real risk of serious human rights violations due to detention conditions that could amount to torture or other ill-treatment.”