2021: Changes in abortion laws worldwide

Poland has virtually banned abortion, and the United States is also looking at tightening restrictions. But other countries, like Thailand and Benin, have started to loosen their restrictive measures. An overview.

Around the world in 2021, people came out to march for abortion rights — as here in Bogota, Colombia in November

Access to abortion has become easier over the decades, according to Leah Hoctor, the senior regional director for Europe at the Center for Reproductive Rights. She said that, with some exceptions, the global trend clearly points at liberalization. Several countries saw developments on the controversial issue over the last year.
Mexico: Penalizing abortion ruled unconstitutional

In September, the Supreme Court in Mexico, Latin America's second most populous country, declared an absolute ban on abortion unconstitutional. The right of women to reproductive self-determination is to be valued more highly than the protection of the fetus, the court said. With the ruling, the judges overturned an abortion ban in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila.

The court ruled that abortion performed in the early stages of pregnancy — without defining that stage more clearly — as well as in cases of rape, or in cases of fetal viability or where the woman's health is in danger, may not be criminalized. As a result, many of the country's 31 states were forced to relax abortion legislation to comply with Mexico's first-ever nationwide regulation.

Elsewhere in Latin America, abortions are only legal in Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Guyana and French Guiana.

El Salvador: The case of Manuela

Abortion is prohibited in the small Central American country, and those who violate the law can be punished with long prison sentences.

Map accurate as of February 2021

But the case of a woman known only as Manuela has sparked some change. She suffered a miscarriage in 2008, and was sentenced to prison because authorities accused her of having had an abortion. The woman died of cancer while serving her 30-year sentence.

In a landmark ruling this year, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights said Manuela died because she did not receive proper health care while in prison, which violated her right to life, health and judicial protections. In its ruling, the court said the state must make full reparations to the woman's family and reform its legal and health care policies. Human rights activists have called the ruling a beacon of hope for women in El Salvador and other countries in the region with strict abortion laws.

According to Leah Hoctor, bans and restrictions don't really help lower abortion rates. Instead, they just raise the risk of people choosing to undergo riskier procedures, with women who can afford it going abroad for an abortion.
US: Ready to overturn Roe v. Wade?

In the United States, abortion is handled differently depending on the state. Abortion legislation in California is comparatively liberal, unlike in Texas, which passed legislation in September banning abortions after the detection of what anti-abortion campaigners call a fetal heartbeat, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The strict law provides no exceptions, even in the case of rape or incest.

US Supreme Court could restrict abortion

Both the new regulation in Texas and tightened laws in Mississippi and other states could still be overturned by the Supreme Court. In the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade case, the court declared unduly restrictive state regulation of abortion unconstitutional. That ruling stipulated that abortions are generally permitted until the fetus is viable outside the womb, which is about 24 weeks into pregnancy.

These days, however, a majority of justices on the Supreme Court are conservative, so it's doubtful whether the court will put conservative states in their place. The court might even overturn or restrict Roe v. Wade; a decision is expected in mid-2022.
Poland: Society split over restrictions

New Polish abortion legislation, among the most restrictive in Europe, came into force at the beginning of 2021. In a controversial ruling, the Constitutional Court said that terminating pregnancies due to fetal defects should be banned, essentially implementing a near total ban on abortion.

In Poland, activists took to the streets after the death of a pregnant woman

Polish society has been split over issue. Supporters of the right to abortion organized several mass protests throughout the year, most recently in early November after the death of a 30-year-old pregnant woman, who died of septic shock after being denied an abortion despite severe complications.

Abortion-rights activists and the Catholic Church want to further tighten the laws, and are pushing a legislative initiative that would ban terminating a pregnancy even if it results from rape, incest or if the mother's life is in danger. The Polish parliament recently rejected the bill in its first reading, but it's unlikely the country's conservative forces will be satisfied with that outcome.
Germany: Measures still 'stigmatize' women

Germany's criminal code outlaws abortion, but women do not face penalties for going through with the procedure — if they get mandatory counseling within 12 weeks after conception, if the pregnancy creates health risks, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape.

The new Social Democrat-led coalition government plans to get rid of a controversial law banning advertisement for abortions. Currently, doctors who want to inform women about the procedure online face legal consequences.

In Germany, abortion is still outlawed but generally not punished

Even if women in Germany technically have access to abortion, they still face obstacles, said Hoctor, arguing that these measures still serve to "stigmatize" women.
Thailand: Only legal in the first trimester

In early 2021, Thailand's parliament voted by a large majority to allow abortions up to the 12th week of pregnancy. Previously, with some exceptions, the procedure was considered a criminal offense and could carry prison time. Fines and imprisonment are still possible, if the 12-week period is exceeded.

Ahead of the vote, Shine Waradhammo, a Buddhist monk and LGBTQ activist, campaigned for the decriminalization of abortion. The move angered many people, in a country where Buddhism is by far the most widespread religion. Like many faiths, Buddhism is highly critical of abortion.

Benin: Groundbreaking law a rarity in Africa

Despite opposition from the Catholic Church, the Beninese parliament approved a new law in October that helped facilitate abortion. Ratification by the constitutional court is considered a formality.

Previously only allowed on a very limited basis, abortions in the West African country will now be legal if the pregnancy "is likely to aggravate or cause a situation of material, educational, professional or moral distress incompatible with the interest of the woman and/or the unborn child."

The law will "ease the pain of many women who, faced with the distress of an unwanted pregnancy, find themselves obliged to risk their lives by using unsafe abortion methods," said Health Minister Benjamin Hounkpatin. He estimated that unsafe abortions are responsible for 20% of maternal deaths nationwide.

In many neighboring countries in Africa, abortions are only possible under very strict conditions and are seen as a social taboo.

This article was originally in German

Germany's long anti-nuclear protest ends

Activists have been protesting in front of the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf, northern Germany for 35 years. But now that the plant is set to be removed from the grid, their vigil is finally over.

Protesters have gathered at the Brokdorf nuclear reactor every month since 1986

An icy wind is blowing across the Brokdorf nuclear power plant that stands between damp meadows and a dike covered in a thin layer of snow.

A small group of mostly elderly people have hung up a yellow banner on the guarded gate to the nuclear reactor which reads: "Shut down nuclear power plants."

Gathered on this wintry, gray day in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, the activists are mostly from the area — though some have come from Hamburg and beyond.

Singing peace songs and chatting while standing in a circle, the groups appear well-adjusted to the freezing cold, having met at the power plant's gate on the sixth day of each month for the last 35 years.

Today, the activists are once again holding a vigil to commemorate the victims of nuclear catastrophes while also demanding the shutdown of the nuclear reactor in their neighborhood.

Today is different, however. This 425th vigil will be the last. Later this month, the Brokdorf nuclear power plant will be shut down as part of Germany's 2022 nuclear phaseout.

The reactor has been both one of Germany's most controversial and one of the world's most productive.

"I'm glad it's being phased out," said Hans-Günter Werner, a pastor and co-founder of the activist initiative. "I'm not sad, but I am a little nostalgic because I know that we won't meet again soon.

"But for the most part, I feel relieved that the operation of the nuclear power plant is finally coming to an end," he added. "At the time, we didn't expect that we would need to stand here for so long."

First nuclear reactor after Chernobyl

Amid the growing anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s, hundreds of thousands protested against the construction of the nuclear plant in Brokdorf.

Time and again, the protesters clashed with the police — especially after the nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986 saw increased radiation levels in soil and foods across Germany.

"I had small children who were not allowed to play in the sandbox. We all panicked," said Werner at the sidelines of the vigil.

Opening in late 1986, Brokdorf was the first nuclear reactor in the world to go into operation after the Chernobyl disaster.

At that time, Werner and a few allies protested peacefully and decided to continue their protests in the future. They vowed to meet once a month until Brokdorf was shut down.

He said that "showing opposition" and protesting also "helped us to combat our own fears."

Police clashed with some of the 100,000 anti-nuclear demonstrators marching against the Brokdorf plant in February 1981

Increased cancer risk, and an ice rink

His fears weren't unjustified. In 2008, a study found that children growing up in close proximity to a German nuclear power plant face a higher risk of developing leukemia.

Yet plants stayed open amid such health threats. One reason might be the decades of high revenues earned by the Brokdorf municipality through a commercial tax on the plant. Local politicians were loath to give up this income.

The village, which has no more than 1,000 inhabitants, was able to fund a €7 million ($8 million) ice rink with the nuclear plant tax, and ticket prices for the public swimming pool with a 100 meter water slide were kept extremely low.

"It's a commercial activity in our municipality, and as a municipality we always support our local enterprises," said Brokdorf Mayor Elke Göttsche of the plant.

Göttsche would have preferred that the nuclear facility remain on the grid a while longer, arguing that this would have eased the transition to renewable energy. Now, however, the funding bonanza from the nuclear reactor is no more.

Werner has helped organize the monthly protests against the Brokdorf nuclear reactor since 1986

Nuclear power claims climate credentials

While Germany is phasing out all its remaining nuclear plants by the end of 2022, other countries like France, the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Russia and China continue to rely on nuclear energy.

Globally, around 440 nuclear reactors are still operating, providing around 10% of the global energy supply. Some 50 nuclear reactors were under construction this year, 18 of which are being built in China.

Three hundred more nuclear plants are currently in the planning phase. Meanwhile, the nuclear power lobby is promoting nuclear energy as an allegedly clean and, most importantly, climate-friendly alternative.

French President Emanuel Macron even announced this year that in order to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, France would restart plans to build new smaller nuclear plants for the first time in decades.

Emissions from nuclear energy are significantly lower than those from coal, oil and natural gas.

Yet, compared to power from wind and solar energy, the technology costs are much higher, and the construction of nuclear plants takes significantly longer.

Military motives

The fact that states still stick with nuclear power clearly also has another reason, said Andrew Stirling, professor of science and technology policy at the University of Sussex.

"Globally speaking, those countries that are the most truly dedicated to a civil use of nuclear energy either also have nuclear weapons or they are very keen on getting them," he said.

According to Stirling, the civil use of nuclear energy is often needed for the realization of nuclear weapons programs, a point admitted by nuclear armed France and the US.

Without the engineers and specialists working in the commercial nuclear power sector, it would be impossible to build nuclear-powered submarines, for example, Stirling explained.

"The reports from the USA are absolutely clear. Even if the costs of nuclear energy were twice as high, it would still make sense for them to build reactors because this allows them to keep up their military activities," he said.
Last vigil

Sharing coffee, cake and pumpkin soup, the Brokdorf activists look back together on 35 years of protests.

Photo collages are rolled out, including images from private photo albums.

Yet although Brokdorf will be removed from the grid on December 31, the plant will continue to serve as a temporary storage facility for nuclear waste for decades. There is still no final repository for radioactive waste.

"Therefore, our commitment is not yet over," said one of the activists. Shortly after, someone starts playing the guitar.

The protesters leave the Brokdorf plant singing. For the first time in 35 years, they're also leaving as winners.

Patti Smith: Poet with a punk heart turns 75

An icon for over half a century, Patti Smith remains an enigma to those who try to pigeonhole her. At 75 years young, Smith continues to find poetry in unlikely places. Happy birthday to the reluctant Godmother of Punk!

PATTI SMITH'S BIGGEST HITS
Poetry meets Rock'n'Roll
Patti Smith had French poetry and 1960s rock icons on her mind - a combination that became her very own style. Her songs were covered, mixed, and new lyrics were added all the time. By the means of poetry, she transported the wild, rebellious rock of the 1960s into a new era.
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Some have called her the Godmother of Punk, others the Grande Dame of Alternative Rock. But what Patti Smith really is, deep down in her heart, is a poet. Her music takes second.

Born on December, 30, 1946, in Chicago, Smith grew up in New Jersey together with three siblings. While her father was an atheist, her mother was a Jehovah's Witness, raising her kids to be religious.

She wanted to become a teacher. During her studies, she got pregnant and had the baby, but gave it up for adoption. Then she quit her studies, and — not even 20 years old — found her way to New York's art scene where she got involved in art, drugs, parties and music.

Back then, her idols were the poets Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, and the musicians Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison.

Poetry in a punk club

In clubs and bars, Smith opened for rock bands by reciting her poems on stage. She had her first big performance in February 1971. As part of a planned poetry series, Smith recited her work for New York stars like Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, Sam Shepherd and others, eventually publishing two volumes of poetry.

During that time she also jammed with guitarist Lenny Kaye and keyboarder Richard Sohl.

Patti Smith is seen here performing at the Rainbow Theatre in London in 1978

"Our songs consisted of three chords," she told the US radio magazine "Fresh Air" in 2006, "so that I could improvise on them."

The three musicians kept playing around with Van Morrison's song "Gloria" for a long time until Smith decided to work in her famous poem "Oath" into that song:

"Christ died for somebody's sins, but not mine (...) Christ, I'm giving you the goodbye, firing you tonight. I can make my own light shine."

The reference to her mother's suffocating religiosity could not be overlooked.

The birth of garage rock

In 1975, the Patti Smith Group was complete. The first album, "Horses," was created with the help of producer and Velvet Underground veteran John Cale. On the cover, Smith looks androgynous with dishevelled hair — slim, clad in a men's shirt and jacket, and wearing a black ribbon looking like a loose tie.

An iconic album cover

The album contained pure poetry, sometimes loud and uncontrolled, sometimes intense and enchanting. Smith made full use of her voice, implementing melody, rap, recitations and improvisations.

"Horses" made it into the charts as the very first so-called new underground album. The magazine "Rolling Stone" included the disc in its list of 500 best albums of all time.

Godmother of Punk?

Reacting to Smith's wild performances, the music world put her squarely in the punk box, and even called her the Godmother of Punk. In an interview with BBC, she later said she regretted having been given all kinds of titles, like "princess of piss," or "wild rock 'n' roll mustang."

She also said she and her band were never really punk. And yet, Smith definitely played a key role in punk - at least in the US. Yet the essence of Smith's music wasn't anarchism and nihilism, but rather the firm belief that rock 'n' roll could change the world - just as her rock heroes of the 1960s had demonstrated.

Even today, "Horses" still stands for music that comes from the streets, transports dirt and feelings, and is ruthless, honest, unsparing and uncomfortable. Smith said she speaks to those who are like her - the disenfranchised, the mavericks - and tells them, "Don't lose heart, don't give up."

A break after 'Frederick'

The second album of the Patti Smith Group, "Radio Ethiopia" (1976), wasn't quite as successful. According to some observers, Smith was overdoing it a bit with her intensity that at times bordered on "extravagant confusion" ("Rock Rough Guide"). At the same time, though, the album was respected for its rough rock sound.

In 1978, the album "Easter" followed with Smith's first big commercial hit. She released "Because the Night," with some support from Bruce Springsteen. It became her international breakthrough, and was followed by even more hits. The album "Wave" (1979) contained two famous songs, "Dancing Barefoot," and "Frederick," both lacking some of Smith's original wildness.

After that, Smith's musical life came to an end - for a while, at least. With her husband Fred Smith and their children, she withdrew into family life. Once again, she wrote poems, and in 1988 she produced a record with her husband that nobody wanted to listen to.

The mid 1990s were a dark period for her, as, within a few months only, she lost her husband, her best friend, and her brother. She also went broke - but was not forgotten. After all, she always continued to fascinate musicians, among them Kurt Cobain and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. So she started to perform again, here and there, as old friends started calling on her once again.

And then came Bob Dylan

Finally, Bob Dylan brought her back into the limelight. Smith reactivated her old band, and before they knew it they were opening for Dylan's show. The audience was thrilled. Twenty years after the release of "Horses," the band returned into the studio to produce the album "Gone Again" - a collection of somber and touching songs in memory of her deceased husband.

Smith still continues to produce music today. Her hair has turned grey but the power of her songs hasn't diminished a bit. Whether she sings her old hits, attempts to cover rock classics like "Smells like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, she remains a poet who transports her verses via music.

This story was originally written in German.

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Patti Smith to sing for Nobel winner Bob Dylan

Patti Smith will croon in place of Bob Dylan at the Nobel Award ceremony on December 10. Dylan himself will not be attending the event in Stockholm.  

Patti Smith's biggest hits

Patti Smith never wanted to be a punk rock icon, but her music had a strong influence on rock music in the 1970s. "Three chord rock merged with the power of the word" - that's how she described her style. (30.12.2016)  

Photographer Sabine Weiss dies aged 97

She was the last of the French humanist photographers. For nearly eight decades, she photographed social change with a unique eye.

Weiss was one of the people to define the 'Photographie Humaniste,' or humanist photography, genre

Swiss-French photographer Sabine Weiss has died at the age of 97, her family announced on Wednesday.

She was regarded as the last of the French humanist photography school of post-World War II. Her work covered eight decades, pioneering what was to become known as street photography.

Weiss photographed the condition of ordinary people in Paris, often at night, saying she wanted to immortalize "the snotty-nosed kids," "the beggars" and "the little piss-takers" in her photos.

"A good picture must move you, have a good composition and be sober," she told the French daily La Croix. "People's sensitiveness must jump out at you."

Weiss pioneered a style of work that was to become known as street photography

She captured scenes such as a stolen kiss, crowds rushing to the metro or construction sites. Her contemporaries included Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis and Brassai.

But she was also in high demand as a portrait photographer, particularly of other artists, including composers Benjamin Britten and Igor Stravinsky, renowned cellist Pablo Casals and French painter Fernand Leger.

Weiss has been the subject of many retrospective exhibitions

"From the start I had to make a living from photography — it wasn't something artistic," Weiss told AFP news agency in a 2014 interview. "It was a craft," she said. "I was a craftswoman of photography."

Her work is held in permanent collections of several leading museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Weiss coined the "photographie humaniste" with her everyday images, and traveled the world for magazines such as Vogue, Life, Time and Newsweek.

Born in Switzerland, she took French citizenship and worked in her studio in Paris from 1949.

aw/msh (AFP, dpa)

Looming mass extinction could be biggest 'since the dinosaurs,' says WWF

More plants and animals than ever before are on a global list of threatened species, with the World Wildlife Fund Germany warning that more than 1 million species could go extinct within the next 10 years


African forest elephants, and thousands of other species, could cease to exist within a few years, the WWF said


Ever-growing environmental threats are pushing many animals and plants to the brink of extinction — the scale of which hasn't been seen since dinosaurs died out, the German branch of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on Wednesday.

The stark warnings came as WWF Germany released its "Winners and Losers of 2021," an annual list of animals whose existence is now acutely under threat — as well as conservation victories.
Facing a mass extinction event 'within the next decade'

There are currently 142,500 animal and plant species on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) — 40,000 of which are "threatened with extinction."

It is the largest number of species to be included on the Red List since it was established in 1964, according to WWF Germany.

"Around one million species could go extinct within the next decade — which would be the largest mass extinction event since the end of the dinosaur age," the organization said in a statement.

WWF Germany director Eberhard Brandes said decisive environmental protection policies were urgently needed, particularly in the fight against climate change.

"Species conservation is no longer just about defeating an environmental problem, but is rather about the question of whether or not humanity will eventually end up on the Red List in an endangered category — and thereby become a victim of its own lifestyle," he said.
Polar bears and other species on thin ice in 2021

Among the animals most acutely threatened — and among the "losers" on this year's WWF list — are the African forest elephant, whose population has declined by 86% within just 31 years.

Polar bears made the list as well, as the rapid melting of pack ice in the Arctic Ocean is making it impossible for the animals to adapt. Experts estimate the Arctic Ocean could be completely ice-free in the summer of 2035, WWF Germany said.

The familiar green faces and loud summer chirping of Germany's tree frogs and toads are also under threat — with 50% of Germany's native amphibian species currently listed as endangered on the national Red List. Unabated construction is limiting their habitats while roads have become death traps.

Grey cranes and migratory fish that move on land also earned a spot on the 2021 "losers" list, as well as the noble pen shell — the largest clam in the Mediterranean Sea.
Lucky Bustards and other 2021 animal 'winners'

The WWF noted that there were some "rays of hope" in the world of environmental conservation this year.

One of the rarest big cats in the world, the Iberian lynx, saw a "successful comeback" in Spain and Portugal. In 2002, only 94 of the lynx were found. The population has grown more than tenfold, with the most recent count in 2020 showing over 1,100 are currently alive.

The population of great bustards in Germany saw significant progress in 2021, with their population reaching the highest level in 40 years. Researchers counted 347 of the birds this year — compared with just 57 birds in 1997.

The lavishly-feathered great bustard is making a comeback in Germany

The WWF also logged a success in efforts to conserve the Indian rhinoceros population in Nepal. As part of a cooperation with the government, stricter protection measures were implemented — which have helped the rhino's population grow by 16% since 2015.

Bearded vultures, blue whales and crocodiles in Cambodia also saw their population numbers grow.

rs/msh (epd, AFP)


SEEMINGLY EXTINCT ANIMALS WHO ARE BACK FROM THE DEAD
Bouvier's Red Colobus Monkey
This monkey is rated "endangered" on the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The twist: Until 2015, when some of the red monkeys were seen in the Congo, the species was believed to be extinct. This is called the Romeo error ― when a species is declared extinct while it is still alive, named after the tragically mistaken lover in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet."
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US names envoy to step up fight for Afghan women's rights



Rina Amiri, the newly appointed US envoy on women's rights, speaks at an event in Los Angeles in September 2021 (AFP/Randy Shropshire)


Shaun TANDON
Wed, December 29, 2021, 9:53 AM·3 min read

The United States on Wednesday appointed an envoy to defend the rights of Afghan women, stepping up efforts on a key priority as the Taliban ratchet up restrictions.

Rina Amiri, an Afghan-born US mediation expert who served at the State Department under former president Barack Obama, will take the role of special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.

Months after the United States ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, Blinken said that Amiri will address issues of "critical importance to me" and the rest of President Joe Biden's administration.

"We desire a peaceful, stable and secure Afghanistan, where all Afghans can live and thrive in political, economic and social inclusivity," Blinken said in a statement.

The Taliban imposed an ultra-austere brand of Islam on Afghanistan during their 1996-2001 regime toppled by a US invasion, including banning women from working and girls from education.

Despite Taliban pledges to act differently after their August takeover, many women remain barred from returning to work and girls are largely cut off from secondary schooling.

On Sunday, the Taliban said that women would not be allowed to travel long distances without a male escort.

- Return of 'draconian' policies -

Writing on Twitter shortly before her appointment, Amiri asked, "I wonder how those that rehabilitated the Taliban by reassuring the world that they had evolved explain the Taliban's reinstatement of regressive and draconian policies against women."

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice earlier asked television channels to stop showing dramas and soap operas featuring women actors and, while not barring female television journalists, called on them to wear headscarves.

Groups of Afghan women have persisted in speaking out, including through sporadic public protests.

Asked about Amiri's appointment, Mohammad Naeem, spokesman for the political office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, told AFP, "Strangers can't heal our people's wounds. If they could they would have done that in these 20 years."

He rejected linking aid to human rights, saying, "We want unconditional help for our people in the light of our Islamic values and national interests."

- 'Principled' engagement with Taliban -

Amiri left Afghanistan as a child, with her family settling in California. She became outspoken about Afghans living under Taliban rule, especially women, while still a student as the September 11 attacks prompted the US war.

She went on to become an adviser to Richard Holbrooke, the storied US diplomat whose last assignment was on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has also worked with the United Nations.

In a recent essay, Amiri called for "principled yet pragmatic diplomatic engagement" with the Taliban while continuing to hold off diplomatic recognition.

"The United States and Europe should also go beyond limiting engagement with the Taliban for the purposes of evacuating their citizens and allies and coordinating humanitarian access," Amiri, now at New York University, wrote in Foreign Affairs in September.

"Humanitarian aid alone will not prevent the collapse of the economy or forestall further radicalization and instability."

But she also doubted that Afghans, most of whom were born after the Taliban's last regime, would accept a return to the previous treatment of women, saying that the country has "internalized the progress and cultural changes of the past 20 years."

In a letter last month to Biden, all 24 women serving in the US Senate urged him to develop an "interagency plan" to support Afghan women's rights.

US policymakers frequently highlighted the treatment of women when then president George W. Bush ordered the invasion.

Biden was a longstanding critic of America's longest war. In a fiery exchange with Holbrooke recounted in George Packer's biography of the diplomat, the then vice president was quoted as shouting at him, "I am not sending my boy back there to risk his life on behalf of women's rights!"

sct-jds/md

Tutu remembered at Cape Town interfaith tribute





Kate BARTLETT
Wed, December 29, 2021

An interfaith, musical memorial to South Africa's revered anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu had a rabbi and a monk dancing in their seats on Wednesday as Cape Town said farewell to its first black Anglican Archbishop.

The colourful service at City Hall to Tutu, who died at the weekend, was attended by his family members and politicians, many wearing purple in honour of the Nobel peace laureate's famed purple robes.

The event peaked when the 1980 chart-topper "Paradise Road", which became an unofficial anthem for the struggle against apartheid, was emotionally performed by bare-footed South African singer Zolani Mahola.

Tutu died peacefully at a care centre on Sunday, just three months after his 90th birthday, prompting tributes to pour in from around the world.

Ahead of his funeral on Saturday numerous events are being held across South Africa to remember the apartheid foe and stalwart of the liberation struggle, who was also an outspoken critic of human rights abuses across the world.

He coined the phrase "Rainbow Nation" at the advent of South Africa's democracy, and that ideal was on full display at the memorial on Wednesday night.

Despite limited numbers due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was plenty of pomp and ceremony at the event, with music from the South African Youth Choir and guitarist Jonathan Butler, among others.

The Cape Town-born Grammy nominated Butler, who flew in from Los Angeles and whose music was popular during the apartheid struggle, had some in the audience -- including a rabbi and a Buddhist monk -- dancing in their seats.

- 'We will pick up your baton' -

Prayers were offered from Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Traditional African and Muslim leaders.

Indigenous Khoisan people, dressed in skins and holding aloft an animal skull, also presented a tribute to Tutu.

All week, Cape Town's famous Table Mountain and the City Hall building are being lit up in purple at night, also in honour of Tutu's robes.

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis told AFP the colour had darker historical relevance because during the years of white-minority rule in the 1980s police often sprayed pro-democracy protesters with water cannon and purple dye to make them easier to identify and arrest.

"The large part of his ministry was spent under oppression, harried and harassed," Hill-Lewis told the memorial service.

"In the years most recently when our fragile democracy took blow after institutional blow, he was there bringing rebuke."

Cheryl Carolus, an apartheid-struggle veteran member of the ruling ANC party attending the event, called on South Africans to keep striving for a better democracy.

"Freedom is not a spectator sport, it needs to be hands-on.... Tata, we will pick up your baton," she said, using Tutu's nickname.

"We give thanks for having 90 years of our father, almost against all odds," said Carolus.

"We know that he was not well over the last while, and that he himself was ready to go, and that he left us in peace".

On Thursday, the coffin carrying Tutu's remains will be brought in a procession to Cape Town's St George's Cathedral, where he once rallied against white minority rule.

There he will lie in state for two days for the public to say their final goodbyes before a private cremation.

His ashes will ultimately be interred inside the church, where bells have been ringing bells for 10 minutes at midday in his memory since Monday.

kb-sn/dl

Poland spyware cases 'tip of the iceberg': watchdog


Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices (AFP/JOEL SAGET)

Wed, December 29, 2021, 2:24 PM·2 min read

Recent allegations that Pegasus spyware was used against three Polish government opponents are likely the "tip of the iceberg," said a cyber expert Wednesday who helped identify the phone taps.

Evidence of the hacking, which has become a major scandal in Poland, was reported by the Canada-based cyber-security watchdog Citizen Lab.

"We think this is just the tip of the iceberg and there'll be more discoveries to come," John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with the group, told AFP.

"It's shocking and it looks very bad," he said. "Pegasus is a tool of dictators. Its use in these cases point to an authoritarian slide" in Poland.

Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target's messages, look through their photos, track their location, and even turn on their camera without their knowledge.

One of the victims, lawyer Roman Giertych, who is involved in several cases against the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, told Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza that the government was using the spyware "to fight the democratic opposition."

Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor and opposition figure, also said the spyware had been used against her, adding that she was first alerted by Apple.

Scott-Railton confirmed Wednesday that Citizen Lab had also advised Senator Krzysztof Brejza of the opposition party Civic Platform, that his smartphone was repeatedly infected over a six-month period during the 2019 election.

"Their lives were under close monitoring -- this was very invasive," Scott-Railton said.

The hacking allegations have been dubbed by Polish media as a "Polish Watergate" -- referring to the scandal that emerged after former US president Richard Nixon's reelection campaign, which ultimately led to his resignation in 1974.

Poland has rejected accusations that it had used Pegasus spyware for political ends.

But Stanislaw Zaryn, spokesman for the ministry in charge of the country's secret services, did not confirm or deny if Poland used Pegasus.

The NSO Group, the Israeli owner of Pegasus, told AFP it is sold "only to legitimate law enforcement agencies who use these systems under warrants to fight criminals, terrorists and corruption."

In July, controversy erupted around Pegasus, after a collaborative investigation by several media outlets reported that governments used Pegasus to spy on activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians.

US authorities last month blacklisted NSO by restricting exports to it from American groups over allegations the Israeli firm "enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression."

Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk on Tuesday said recent reports that the government spied on its opponents represented the country's biggest "crisis for democracy" since the end of communism.

Tusk, a former EU Council president, also called for a parliamentary inquiry into the allegations.

amc/des/bfm

Polish prosecutors decline to investigate phone hacking allegation

The logo of Israeli cyber firm NSO Group is seen at one of 

its branches in the Arava Desert, southern Israel

Wed, December 29, 2021, 9:54 AM·2 min read

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish prosecutors said on Wednesday they would not investigate an allegation that the phone of a high-profile government critic was hacked, amid accusations that opposition figures have been subject to illegal surveillance.

Reports that sophisticated spyware developed by the Israel-based NSO Group had been used against government opponents including prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek have led to accusations that special services are undermining democratic norms.

Wrzosek, a member of the group Lex Super Omnia which campaigns against what it says is the politicisation of the public prosecution service under the Law and Justice (PiS) party, received a notification in November from Apple that her phone could have been hacked using NSO Group's Pegasus software.

This month, the Associated Press reported that the Citizen Lab project at the University of Toronto found Wrzosek was one of three Polish government critics whose phones had been hacked.

"The only indication that a cyberattack could have occurred ... was a message from the telephone's manufacturer," Aleksandra Skrzyniarz, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, said in a statement explaining the refusal to investigate the case.

"However, the message did not categorically state that a cyberattack had occurred, but contained a disclaimer that the alert might be false," Skrzyniarz said, adding that Wrzosek had refused to hand over the phone for examination.

Wrzosek told private broadcaster TVN24 that she would appeal against the decision.

"I do not see the slightest legal prerequisite or justification for the decision to refuse to initiate this procedure," she said.

Polish security services do not comment on the methods they use or whether they have investigated particular people. However, spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn has denied any suggestion that Polish services were engaged in domestic political battles.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has dismissed suggestions that spyware was used by Polish services against opposition figures as "fake news".

NSO says it makes technology for use by governments and law enforcement agencies to combat crime and terrorism, and has safeguards to prevent misuse.

Digital rights researchers say Pegasus has been used to spy on civil society in several countries.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Anna Koper; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Tusk says hacking marks crisis of democracy in Poland


Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland's largest opposition party, Civic Platform, speaks to people joining a demonstration after the Polish parliament approved a bill that is widely viewed as an attack on media freedom, in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday Dec. 19, 2021. Poles flocked to city centers across the country to defend a U.S.-owned television network that is being targeted by the right-wing government. The protests Sunday evening are seeking to protect media freedom in a European Union nation where democratic norms are eroding. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)More

Tue, December 28, 2021


WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland's main opposition party, called Tuesday for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate surveillance after reports that powerful spyware was used against three people associated with the political opposition.

“This is an unprecedented thing in our history. This is the biggest and deepest crisis of democracy after 1989,” said Tusk, who served as Poland's prime minister from 2007-2014 and president of the European Council from 2014-2019.

He said that his party would apply for the establishment of a commission of inquiry in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, to examine surveillance with Pegasus, spyware which is made by the NSO Group of Israel and sold only to government agencies.

The ruling Law and Justice party has a majority in the parliament and it wasn't immediately clear if Tusk would succeed in his bid.

He argued that it was in the interest of all political forces in Poland to clarify the situation, saying he believed that nobody wants to be eavesdropped on with impunity.

The hacking of three people with Pegasus was reported recently after a joint investigation by The Associated Press and Citizen Lab, a cyber watchdog at the University of Toronto.

The hacking targeted Krzysztof Brejza, an opposition senator, at a time that he was the party's election campaign chief of staff in 2019; Roman Giertych, a lawyer who has defended Tusk and several other opposition figures in sensitive cases; and Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor who is fighting for the independence of prosecutors as the ruling right-wing party seeks to impose political control over all branches of the judiciary.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday reiterated his accusation that the reports were “fake news.”

He said he had no knowledge of any surveillance but also suggested that if there had been any, it wouldn't necessarily have been the work of Polish intelligence services. He said there were other security services in the world, some of who are “not entirely friendly toward Poland” and “act very ruthless.”

Destitute 'heir' of India's emperors demands royal residence



Sultana Begum lives in a cramped two-room hut nestled within 

a slum on the outskirts of Kolkata 

(AFP/DIBYANGSHU SARKAR

Sailendra SIL
Wed, December 29, 2021, 

A destitute Indian woman who claims she is heir to the dynasty that built the Taj Mahal has demanded ownership of an imposing palace once home to the Mughal emperors.

Sultana Begum lives in a cramped two-room hut nestled within a slum on the outskirts of Kolkata, surviving on a meagre pension.

Among her modest possessions are records of her marriage to Mirza Mohammad Bedar Bakht, purported to be the great-grandson of India's last Mughal ruler.

His death in 1980 left her struggling to survive, and she has spent the past decade petitioning authorities to recognise her royal status and compensate her accordingly.

"Can you imagine that the descendant of the emperors who built Taj Mahal now lives in desperate poverty?" the 68-year-old asked AFP.

Begum has lodged a court case seeking recognition that she is rightful owner of the imposing 17th-century Red Fort, a sprawling and pockmarked castle in New Delhi that was once the seat of Mughal power.

"I hope the government will definitely give me justice," she said. "When something belongs to someone, it should be returned."

Her case, supported by sympathetic campaigners, rests on her claim that her late husband's lineage can be traced to Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor to reign.

By the time of Zafar's coronation in 1837, the Mughal empire had shrunk to the capital's boundaries, after the conquest of India by the commercial venture of British merchants known as the East India Company.

A massive rebellion two decades later -- now hailed as India's first war of independence -- saw mutinous soldiers declare the now frail 82-year-old as the leader of their insurrection.

The emperor, who preferred penning poetry to waging war, knew the chaotic uprising was doomed and was a reluctant leader.

British forces surrounded Delhi within a month and ruthlessly crushed the revolt, executing all 10 of Zafar's surviving sons despite the royal family's surrender.

Zafar himself was exiled to neighbouring Myanmar, travelling under guard in a bullock cart, and died penniless in captivity five years later.

- Independence symbol -

Many of the Red Fort's buildings were demolished in the years after the uprising and the complex fell into disrepair before colonial authorities ordered its renovation at the turn of the 20th century.

It has since become a potent symbol of freedom from British rule.

India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru hoisted the national flag from the fort's main gate to mark the first day of independence in August 1947, a solemn ritual now repeated annually by his successors.

Begum's court case hinges on the argument that India's government are the illegal occupants of the property, which she says should have been passed down to her.

The Delhi High Court rejected her petition last week as a "gross waste of time" -- but did not rule on whether her claim to imperial ancestry was legitimate.

Instead the court said her legal team had failed to justify why a similar case had not been brought by Zafar's descendants in the 150 years since his exile.

Her lawyer Vivek More said the case would continue.

"She has decided to file a plea before a higher bench of the court challenging the order," he told AFP by phone.

- 'Justice will happen' -

Begum has endured a precarious life, even before she was widowed and forced to move into the slum she now calls home.

Her husband -- who she married in 1965 when she was just 14 -- was 32 years her senior and earned some money as a soothsayer, but was unable to provide for their family.

"Poverty, fear and lack of resources pushed him to the brink," she added.

Begum lives with one of her grandchildren in a small shack, sharing a kitchen with neighbours and washing at a communal tap down the street.

For some years she ran a small tea shop near her home but it was demolished to allow the widening of a road, and she now survives on a pension of 6,000 rupees ($80) per month.

But she has not given up hope that authorities will recognise her as the rightful beneficiary of India's imperial legacy, and of the Red Fort.

"I hope that today, tomorrow or in 10 years, I will get what I'm entitled to," she said.

"God willing, I will get it back... I'm certain justice will happen."

str/gle/ssy/ser

China's small Beijing-3 satellite can take high-resolution images of US cities within seconds, a speed its American counterparts can't match, scientists say



Matthew Loh
Tue, December 28, 2021, 11:13 PM·3 min read

The Beijing-3 captured high-resolution images that could identify individual vehicles over the San Francisco Bay within seconds, Chinese scientists said.Darwin Fan/Getty Images

The Beijing-3 snapped hi-res images of a 1,470 square-mile area of the US in 42 seconds.

The satellite can rotate rapidly in orbit without compromising image quality, researchers said.

This unprecedented feat means China can scan large areas in a single sweep, all in high definition.

A small, one-ton Chinese satellite can quickly snap high-resolution images of US cities that are so detailed they can identify individual military vehicles and the weapons they carry, Chinese scientists involved in the Beijing-3 satellite project said on Tuesday.

The commercial Beijing-3 satellite, launched by China in June, conducted an in-depth scan of a 1,470 square-mile area in the San Francisco Bay. The satellite captured the area within 42 seconds, The South China Morning Post first reported, citing results published this month in the Chinese peer-reviewed journal Spacecraft Engineering.

Beijing-3 has a unique advantage up its sleeve: It can pitch and yaw at up to 10 degrees per second while not compromising image quality as it orbits the Earth, said lead scientist Yang Fang, who headed the project run by DFH Satellite Company under the Chinese Academy of Space and Technology.

Normally, satellite cameras have to be kept still when they take high-definition images, and thus can only observe straight strips of land as they orbit above the area. So they sometimes have to fly over a region multiple times to scan the whole area or work in tandem with other satellites.

The Beijing-3's maneuverability means it only needs a single sweep to observe entire regions, such as the 3,915 mile Yangtze River, the longest river in Asia, which winds from China's east coast to the western Tibetan plateau, the researchers said in a CCTV-13 broadcast segment.



If the Beijing-3 is equipped with artificial intelligence, it can potentially observe up to 500 areas around the world with up to 100 revisits a day, they added, The Post reported.

Still, the quality of the Beijing-3's imagery isn't sharp enough to rival American-developed satellites, such as the Worldview-4, which was built by Lockheed Martin and could capture images at a resolution of 12 inches per pixel.

Beijing-3 can snap images with a resolution of 20 inches per pixel at best. But its researchers said the Chinese satellite's response time is around two to three times faster than that of Worldview-4 — which was retired in 2019, less than three years after its 2016 launch, because of a failure in its stabilizing system.

The report on Beijing-3 comes amid rising concerns in the US that China's space technology is growing at a breakneck pace. Gen. David Thompson, the vice chief of space operations in the US Space Force, said earlier this month that China could overtake the US in space capabilities by 2030.

"The fact, that in essence, on average, they are building and fielding and updating their space capabilities at twice the rate we are means that very soon, if we don't start accelerating our development and delivery capabilities, they will exceed us," Thompson said, CNN reported.