It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, March 11, 2022
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N.Ireland ministers to apologise for institutional abuse
Ministers from Northern Ireland’s five main political parties are on Friday to issue a public apology for historical, institutional abuses in children’s homes after years of delays.
The apology will be offered at the seat of Northern Ireland’s devolved government at Stormont, and mirrored by religious institutions that ran the homes and were found to have committed systemic failings.
A four-year inquiry into abuses in care homes in Northern Ireland found widespread mistreatment in its final report, which was rendered in 2017.
Among the report’s recommendations was a call for a public apology to survivors.
The apology was due to be delivered by the executive’s first and deputy first ministers but was thrown into jeopardy when the power-sharing government collapsed last month.
Margaret McGuckin, chairwoman of SAVIA (Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse), told AFP the apology had become a “political football” over the years but remained deeply important.
“There are many people who needed it and to hear: ‘I’m sorry, it’s not your fault’,” she said.
She compared the significance of Friday’s apology to that issued by the UK government after nearly 40 years for “Bloody Sunday,” when troops shot dead 13 civil rights protestors in Londonderry in 1972.
McGuckin survived abuse at one of four homes run by the Catholic Sisters of Nazareth order which attracted the highest number of complaints during the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) inquiry.
Her brother, Kevin, has said he was sexually abused at a children’s home run by a Catholic order from the age of 11 after the four children were taken into care.
A total of 493 people came forward to report abuses, with testimonies gathered in Northern Ireland, the rest of Britain, Ireland and Australia. The report was particularly scathing over serial failures by police to investigate allegations and the role of the Catholic Church in protecting perpetrators. It found “evidence of sexual, physical and emotional abuse, neglect and unacceptable practices” from 1922 to 1995 in most of the institutions it investigated. These included 22 care homes run by state, church and charitable bodies.
On Wednesday, the UK government’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said it was “only right” that victims of historical institutional abuse would receive the formal apology.
“For too many years the voices of victims and their appeals for help went unheard. On March 11 they will receive a full and unconditional apology that is so deserved for them,” Lewis said during a session of questions on Northern Ireland in the UK parliament.
WHO frustration two years on since pandemic declaration
Robin MILLARD Thu, March 10, 2022
Friday marks two years to the day since the World Health Organization first described Covid-19 as a pandemic, shaking countries into action as the disease ripped around the planet.
The once-in-a-century pandemic has turned the world upside down, claiming more than six million lives and infecting at least 450 million people.
But the WHO voiced its frustration at people marking the second anniversary of March 11, 2020, insisting that the real alarm came six weeks earlier -- but few people bothered to sit up and take notice.
The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) -- the highest level of alarm in the global health regulations -- on January 30, 2020, when, outside of China, fewer than 100 cases and no deaths had been reported.
But it was only when WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the worsening situation as a pandemic on March 11 that many countries seemed to wake up to the danger.
The WHO is not marking the anniversary -- and two years on is still irked that governments did not heed the original alert.
"The world was possessed with the word pandemic," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.
"The warning in January was way more important than the announcement in March.
"Do you want the warning to say you've just drowned, or would you like the warning to say the flood is coming?" - World 'well warned' -
Ryan said the PHEIC declaration fell on deaf ears.
"People weren't listening. We were ringing the bell and people weren't acting," he told a live interaction on the WHO's social media channels on Thursday.
"What I was most stunned by was the lack of response, the lack of urgency in relation to WHO's highest level of alert in international law, as agreed by all our member states. They agreed to this!"
He said the declaration of a pandemic was simply stating the obvious once it had already happened -- and insisted countries had plenty of advance notice.
"There's a lot of people in the media and everywhere have this big argument, WHO declared a pandemic late. No!" said Ryan.
"The world was well warned about the impending pandemic.
"By March, I think there was such frustration that it was, 'OK, you want a pandemic, here's your pandemic'."
By March 11, 2020, the number of cases outside China had increased 13-fold, with more than 118,000 people having caught the disease in 114 countries, and 4,291 people having lost their lives, following a jump in deaths in Italy and Iran.
- 'Wrong anniversary' -
Tedros's use of the word came at around 5:30 pm during a press conference on Covid-19, which by this stage was already being held largely online via Zoom.
He said it six times in quick succession -- and 10 times in all.
"We're deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction," Tedros said.
"We have therefore made the assessment that Covid-19 can be characterised as a pandemic. Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly."
Ryan was alongside him that day, as was Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid-19.
Two years on, she said that this Friday, people would be marking the "wrong anniversary".
"It is fundamentally incorrect," she insisted.
"You hear the frustration in our voices because we still haven't corrected the narrative.
"It will happen again! So when are we actually going to learn?
"More than six million people have died, that we know of. I don't think we've even begun to grieve this, at a global level."
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Poll: Some in U.S. gained better habits during the COVID-19 pandemic
By HealthDay News About one-quarter of people in the United States say they developed better habits during the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new poll found.
About one-quarter of Americans say they made positive changes to their daily habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new poll shows.
As U.S. states ended masking mandates and infection numbers dropped this year, most (64%) respondents said their mood had been stable since January and that the pandemic either hadn't affected their daily habits (49%) or had changed them for the better (26%).
But 28% said their mental health was fair or poor, 17% said they were smoking more, and 18% said they were drinking more, according to the latest American Psychiatric Association monthly survey of 2,500 adults, conducted Feb. 18-19, 2022.
"While many Americans seem to have emerged from the pandemic feeling good about their new habits, there are some points of concern here, such as those who've started using substances more than before," said Dr. Vivian Pender, president of the APA.
She also cited the need to keep an eye on financial concerns.
Respondents making less than $50,000 a year (35%) were 7% more likely than all adults to rate their mental health as fair or poor. They were more than three times as likely to do so as respondents making $100,000 or more (11%).
"People's finances can matter to mental health, which is important to monitor while the nation's economy is in flux," Pender said Monday in an APA news release.
Fathers (37%) were nearly two times more likely than mothers (19%) and all adults (18%) to say their mood had changed for the better in the past month.
Dads were also much more likely (45%) than moms (29%) and all adults (26%) to say time at home had changed their daily habits for the better.
The survey also found differences between racial/ethnic groups, with 20% of Hispanic adults saying their mood was worse in February than in January, compared to 15% of all adults.
But 32% of Hispanic adults and 36% of Black adults said their daily habits improved during the pandemic, compared with 24% of adults of other ethnicities.
Respondents who said they felt better than in January attributed the improvement to generally feeling good (45%) and the weather (27%).
Those who felt worse cited finances (20%), inflation (10%), financial stress (10%), money (10%) and COVID-19 (20%).
Men were more likely than women to say they had increased the amount they exercise, shower, drink alcohol, and smoke or use drugs.
Hispanic adults (36%) and Black adults (33%) were more likely than those of other ethnicities (27%) to report an increase in how much they talk about their mental health.
About a third of adults (35%) said they often wonder if their habits might be related to a more significant mental health issue, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety or substance use disorder.
That concern was higher among Hispanic respondents (46%) than among White adults (34%), Black adults (40%), or people of another ethnicity (36%).
'We couldn't leave them': Ukraine refugees flee with pets in tow
Many women crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland have brought animals with them
At an animal shelter near the city of Przemysl, Joanna Puchalska-Tracz welcomed 38 dogs and 32 cats from Ukraine on Wedesday, taken from Kyiv by the German organisation White Paw in several cars
(AFP/Louisa GOULIAMAKI)
Jan FLEMR Thu, March 10, 2022, 7:26 PM·3 min read
Lea and Keks are among the latest refugees arriving in Poland from war-torn Ukraine, both jumping at their master's feet and visibly relieved after crossing the border.
The two Yorkshire terriers are a part of a large contingent of dogs, cats and parrots fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
"At home, they live on the pillow, they are small and their body and health are not really fit for this trip," said their owner, Anna Zatsepa.
"But they're like children and you just can't leave them behind," she told AFP as Keks sniffed around curiously, while Lea cautiously followed him.
"They were scared crazy for sure, because they don't understand what's happening and why it is happening to us," said Zatsepa, one of more than two million refugees who have left Ukraine.
At the Medyka border crossing, Zatsepa said she, Lea and Keks were planning to rest in Poland a bit before pondering their future.
Tatiana Tymchuk, who lives near Kyiv, arrived with her mother and little brother, as well as a turtle named Cherep and a Snowshoe tomcat called Simon.
"We couldn't leave them behind so we took them with us. We also have dogs, but they stayed at home with grandpa," she told AFP.
"We lived 10 kilometres (six miles) from Kyiv, they were free in a happy house there," Tymchuk said.
A grey cat carefully watching the world outside her blue and white cage, Mara came from Kyiv with Liana Getman and her two daughters.
"She was really scared and I guess now she understands all the disasters happening and she supports us as she can," Getman said.
"She was crying while we were evacuated from Kyiv, she was crying half of our trip, but then she understood that she's OK, she's with us and now she's calm."
- 'Tired and scared' -
Many women crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland at Medyka carry or lead animals besides their sometimes bulky suitcases, but there are also more efficient ways of taking cats and dogs into safety.
At an animal shelter on the outskirts of the nearby city of Przemysl, Joanna Puchalska-Tracz welcomed 38 dogs and 32 cats from Ukraine on Wednesday, taken from Kyiv by the German organisation White Paw in several cars.
"They are tired and scared and they don't want to eat yet, they must rest and look around and maybe get better here," she told AFP over the barking and miaowing of the canine and feline refugees.
Melanie Vogelei from White Paw is evacuating not only animals from Ukrainian shelters, but also the organisation's Ukrainian volunteers to the west.
"They used the chance to flee and they took all the animals," Vogelei told AFP at the sprawling shelter.
"We have a little sanctuary in Germany and we'll bring all our Ukrainian people and all their animals there," Vogelei said.
The Przemysl shelter will soon increase its capacity, said Puchalska-Tracz, adding that she had also established a 24/7 animal help point next to a large refugee centre in central Przemysl.
"Many owners travel with their dogs and cats and they don't have anything for them. They are leaving home so fast. So after work here I go to the centre to bring some food to those animals," she said.
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TANTRA Let's talk about sex: Paralympian breaks taboo
The 39-year-old and his non-disabled Spanish girlfriend Triana Serfaty have published a practical guidebook called "Sexistimos" -- a nod to the Spanish term for "we exist" --about disability and sex.
Friday, March 11, 2022 Argentinian alpine skier Enrique Plantey (right) and his Spanish girlfriend Triana Serfaty pose for photos after a race during the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing on March 10, 2022. He is the "sex gentleman" of the Beijing Paralympic Games, where many athletes come to ask him for advice: Argentinian skier Enrique Plantey wants to break the taboos on sexuality of people with disabilities. Ludovic Ehret | AFP
They hope it sparks an open conversation on what is a difficult topic for many.
Athletes at Beijing's Winter Paralympics are not just breaking down sports barriers on the slopes and ice -- Argentinian skier Enrique Plantey is pushing for a bedroom revolution.
The 39-year-old and his non-disabled Spanish girlfriend Triana Serfaty have published a practical guidebook called "Sexistimos" -- a nod to the Spanish term for "we exist" -- about disability and sex.
They hope it sparks an open conversation on what is a difficult topic for many.
"People are afraid to talk openly about it," Plantey, who is a paraplegic, told AFP.
"The main problem is that many people with a disability think they can no longer have a sex life and give pleasure, and this is not the case," added Plantey, who came fourth in the giant slalom alpine skiing sitting category.
Some people living with disabilities experience anxiety about sex -- such as whether a partner will find them attractive, pain issues, concerns about fertility and a lack of confidence.
For some there's also worries about logistical issues such as getting from a wheelchair into a bed. Society often considers people with physical or intellectual disabilities as "non-sexual" -- many live in isolation and don't have long-term romantic partners, according to Disabled World, an independent organisation that provides health resources. Signs of change
But there are signs that attitudes are changing. The issue broke new ground when Hollywood actress Helen Hunt starred in 2012 film The Sessions, about a polio survivor's quest to lose his virginity with the help of a sex surrogate.
Dating websites specifically for people with disabilities are also helping many find romance.
Plantey, a three-time Paralympian, has used a wheelchair since sustaining a spinal cord injury as an 11-year-old.
Growing up he lamented a lack of information and resources about how to have a healthy sex life as a young man using a wheelchair.
He uses Viagra but does not have sensations below his waist.
Nevertheless, he said it was possible to "find sources of pleasure in all parts of the body, not just the genitals". Open conversation
Serfaty said it was important couples try to communicate honestly about their practical needs and desires, without fear, judgement or embarrassment.
"This information exists. The problem is that it is often not disseminated," said the 29-year-old. Some medical professionals were giving people with disabilities incorrect information about sex function, Serfaty noted.
"His doctor had told him he couldn't have sex," she said.
"But since he got to know his body, he realised that wasn't true. You have to see for yourself what you're capable of. No one can decide for you." The couple have turned to tantric sex techniques and their book and corresponding Instagram account draws on their personal experiences.
Argentina's flagbearer said the couple's efforts to promote the topic of sex and disabilities was paying off -- generating a lot of interest in the Athletes' Village in Beijing. "Many in the Paralympic village come to me to talk about sex and ask questions," Plantey said.
"Just the other day, someone -- I won't say who -- came to find me, in front of my room, to ask me for Viagra," he laughed.
In About-face, Guatemala President Calls For Strict Abortion Law To Be Shelved
The bill introduced as well a reform to the Civil Code, which, if signed by the president, would "expressly prohibit same-sex marriages" in Guatemala.
By Henry MORALES ARANA 03/10/22 AT 11:08 PM
Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei on Thursday called on Congress to shelve a new law ramping up prison sentences for women who choose to have an abortion, while banning both gay marriage and teaching on sexual diversity. Giammattei called on the speaker to shelve the law, passed by his allies in Congress this week, saying he would veto it if it came to his desk because it violates the Constitution and international agreements signed by the country. "If that law reaches my office, it will be vetoed, therefore, I recommend to the Congress of the Republic, with all due respect, that it please archive the decree," Giammattei said in a televised message.
The so-called Life and Family Protection Law punishes women who "have induced their own abortion or given their consent to another person to carry it out" with 10 years behind bars -- more than three times the current sentence of three years.
Abortion is only authorized in Guatemala when there is a threat to the mother's life.
The bill was passed by Congress on International Women's Day on Tuesday.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has distanced himself from a strict anti-abortion law he had earlier hailed
Photo: AFP / Johan ORDONEZ
The bill introduced as well a reform to the Civil Code, which, if signed by the president, would "expressly prohibit same-sex marriages" in Guatemala.
It would also ban public and private teaching initiatives on sexual diversity, which it describes as "promoting in children and teenagers policies or programs that tend to lead to diversion from their sexual identities at birth."
Giammattei's rejection of the law came a day after the Christian Ibero-American Congress for Life and Family, which brings together conservative groups opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage, called the Central American country the "pro-life capital of Ibero-America."
"This is a day to celebrate that we have a country that learns, that teaches and does everything possible to respect life from conception to natural death," the president declared. But on Thursday, he distanced himself from the law, saying it had not originated in his office.
"I want to clarify that this initiative was not sent by the executive... We cannot agree, despite the fact that Guatemala has been declared the Ibero-American Capital for life," he said.
Chile's millennial president takes office with big plans for change
Gabriel Boric, 36, becomes Chile's youngest-ever president, and one of the youngest in the world
(AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)
Miguel SANCHEZ Thu, March 10, 2022
Leftist former student leader Gabriel Boric will be sworn in Friday as Chile's youngest-ever president, with plans to turn the country that for decades has served as a neoliberal laboratory into a greener, more egalitarian "welfare state."
Aged 36, Boric takes over the reins of a country clamoring for change following mass protests in 2019, which he supported, against deep-rooted inequality in income, healthcare, education and pensions.
The revolt, which left dozens dead and hundreds injured, was the catalyst for a process now under way to rewrite Chile's dictatorship-era constitution.
Boric has vowed to relegate "to the grave" Chile's neoliberal economic model, which dates from the era of military despot Augusto Pinochet and is widely seen as sidelining the poor and working classes. One percent of Chile's population owns about a quarter of its wealth.
Despite concern over his Frente Amplio (Broad Front)'s political alliance with the Communist Party in a country that traditionally votes for the center, Boric won a surprise runaway election victory last December.
He succeeded in mobilizing women and the youth, with a record voter turnout giving him nearly 56 percent of the vote to beat far-right Pinochet apologist Jose Antonio Kast.
The men, polar opposite political outsiders, had polled neck-and-neck ahead of the vote.
As the stock exchange dropped on news of Boric's victory, he vowed in his first official address to "expand social rights" in Chile, but to do so with "fiscal responsibility."
- Generational change -
A lawmaker since 2014, millennial Boric inherits an economy ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak.
Much of 2021's GDP growth was fueled by temporary pandemic grants and stop-gap withdrawals allowed from private pension funds.
The central bank has been hiking interest rates to curb inflation.
Boric has promised to introduce a European-style social democracy to Chile, boosting taxes to pay for social reform, and all while putting the brakes on spiralling debt.
He will tackle these challenges with a cabinet comprised mainly of women and young people -- their average age is 42.
The team includes two comrades with whom Boric, as a student, had led countrywide protests in 2011 for free, quality education.
Boric's defense minister is Maya Fernandez, the granddaughter of Salvador Allende, Latin America's first elected Marxist president who was ousted in Pinochet's coup d'etat of 1973.
Six cabinet members were born, lived or studied in exile during the Pinochet years. - 'Fragmented political climate' -
Analysts say Boric's daunting task will be further complicated by a Congress just about equally split between left- and right-wing parties.
This means that much negotiation and compromise will be required to pass laws to bring his plans to fruition.
"This is a government that comes to power in a very fragmented political climate, which does not have a parliamentary majority and therefore cannot make very radical reforms in the short term," political analyst Claudia Heiss of the University of Chile told AFP.
The new president's Broad Front party has never been in government.
Boric replaces the conservative Sebastian Pinera, who completes his second term with a disapproval rating of 71 percent, the worst recorded by a president since the return of democracy in 1990.
More than 20 international guests are due to attend the investiture ceremony in Valparaiso Friday, including Alberto Fernandez and Pedro Castillo -- the presidents of neighboring Argentina and Peru -- King Felipe VI of Spain, and famed Chilean author Isabel Allende.
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Leftist Gabriel Boric, the president breaking new ground in Chile
Miguel SANCHEZ Thu, 10 March 2022 Gabriel Boric has vowed to relegate Chile's neoliberal economic policies, widely seen as sidelining the poor and working classes, 'to the grave'
(AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI) Gabriel Boric hails from Punta Arenas in Chile's far south, where his parents Luis Javier Boric and Maria Soledad Font still live
(AFP/CLAUDIO REYES) Supporters of Chilean President-elect Gabriel Boric celebrate following the official results of the runoff election, in Santiago on December 19, 2021
(AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)
Boric's father Luis told AFP the new president was politically minded from a young age (AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)
As he is sworn in as Chile's youngest ever president, leftist Gabriel Boric will be breaking new ground in more ways than one on Friday.
The 36-year-old, one of the youngest heads of state in the world, has vowed to send Chile's once-lauded neoliberal economic model -- which dates back to the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship -- to the "grave" but that is not the only way he will ruffle the establishment's feathers.
Whether refusing to wear a tie, shunning the upscale neighborhoods of Chile's political elites or naming a majority woman cabinet, Boric has already shown his presidency will be a clean break from what has come before in the South American country.
The former student activist only just met the required minimum age to run in last year's presidential race, seven years after being elected to his first political job as a member of Chile's Chamber of Deputies.
But his promise to install a "welfare state" in one of the world's most unequal countries, coupled with a progressive social, ecological and feminist agenda, saw him prevail over far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast in December's election run-off. - 'Tremendously fractured' -
"If Chile was the cradle of neoliberalism in Latin America, it will also be its grave," Boric said on the campaign trail.
The millennial leader of the Approve Dignity coalition that includes Chile's Communist Party, Boric has already aroused suspicion in a country where communist doctrine has few fans.
Despite those fears, his social welfare program proved popular enough to see him trounce Kast in the run-off.
He has distanced himself from other leftist governments in Latin America accused of authoritarianism.
"Venezuela is an experience that has failed and the main proof is the six million strong Venezuelan diaspora," said Boric in January.
He has also slammed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the repression of opposition figures in Nicaragua.
Boric has promised to reduce the work week from 45 to 40 hours, to advance "green development" and to create 500,000 jobs for women.
His 24-member cabinet even has a majority of 14 women.
He has also vowed to reform Chile's pension and healthcare systems to promote access for the poor in a country where one percent owns 25 percent of the wealth, according to one UN agency.
"His honesty and transparence, his openness to dialogue are two of Gabriel's greatest virtues," said his 33-year-old journalist brother Simon.
Boric backed the 2019 anti-government revolt that resulted in dozens of deaths in clashes with police, and prompted a referendum that resulted in a process to rewrite Chile's pro-business, dictatorship-era constitution. - 'Let's do the impossible' -
In 2011, he led student protests for free schooling.
His detractors say Boric is inexperienced in politics, and he himself has conceded he has "much to learn."
But supporters say his lack of ties to the traditional ruling elite, increasingly viewed with hostility, counts in his favor.
He also cemented that difference by choosing to live in the largely dilapidated but historic neighborhood of Yungay -- on a road called "Orphans" that sits between others called "Liberty" and "Hope."
Boric, of Croatian and Catalan descent, has abandoned the unkempt, long hair of his activist days, seeking to build a more consensual and moderate image.
But while he has adopted jackets, he shuns ties and makes no attempt to hide his tattoos.
He supports marriage of same-sex couples and abortion rights.
Boric was born in Punta Arenas in Chile's far south. He is the oldest of three brothers and moved to the capital to study law, though he never sat for his bar exam.
He lives with his political scientist girlfriend Irina Karamanos -- has no children and is an avid reader of poetry and history.
"It relaxes me to read a lot," he told AFP.
"I come from the south of Patagonia where the world begins, where every story and the imagination meet."
His father, Luis Boric, told AFP a few months ago that the new president had been politically minded from a young age, painting messages such as "let's be realistic, let's do the impossible" and "reason makes strength" on the wall of his childhood bedroom.
"He wants to produce real change in society. He wants to eliminate many injustices that we have today," said the 75-year-old.
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Sealed with a kiss: Chile celebrates first same-sex weddings Sealed with a kiss: Chile celebrates first same-sex weddingsJaime Nazar (L) and Javier Silva became the firs same-sex couple to legally tie the knot in Chile
(AFP/CLAUDIO REYES)
Thu, March 10, 2022, 9:49 AM·2 min read
Two same-sex couples became the first Thursday to legally tie the knot in Chile, which joined a handful of countries in majority Catholic Latin America to allow LGBTQ couples to marry.
Under a law approved by Congress in December and signed by outgoing President Sebastian Pinera, they can also now adopt children.
"We never imagined we would experience this moment in Chile," Jaime Nazar, 39, declared proudly after marrying his partner of seven years Javier Silva, 38, in a Santiago suburb.
The pair's two young children were there for the historic event.
"Now, yes, we can say we are a family," said Silva.
"Our children have the same conditions (as those of straight couples) and will have a better future without discrimination for having two dads who love each other," he added.
Silva carried the couple's 18-month-old son in his arms, while Nazar bore their daughter of four months.
The children are the product of surrogate pregnancies abroad that used the sperm of one of the couple. Until now, they had only one legally recognized father -- the biological donor. - 'Super proud' -
From 2015 until Thursday, same-sex couples wishing to formalize their relationship had only the option of civil union agreements, which confer most of the same rights that marriage does, but without the possibility of legal adoption.
"This is a very important step for the country. We feel super proud, privileged to be here," said Nazar, who is a dentist.
Consuelo Morales and Pabla Heuser, both 38, said they decided to get married mainly for their two-year-old daughter Josefa. "Today Josefa ceases to be an illegitimate daughter," said Morales. Heuser, who carried the child in her womb, had been the girl's sole legal parent until now.
In total, three same-sex weddings took place in Chile Thursday -- the day the law took effect.
It came on the eve of the swearing-in of leftist Gabriel Boric as Chile's youngest-ever president.
Chile had been awaiting the passage of the marriage bill since then-president Michelle Bachelet sent it to Congress in 2017.
In a surprise move, her conservative successor Pinera announced last year he would seek the urgent passage of the bill -- supported by a majority of Chileans -- through Congress.
Pinera signed it into law just two days after lawmakers gave the green light ahead of presidential elections in which Boric and his far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast polled neck-and neck.
Kast vehemently opposed broadening access to marriage rights, unlike Boric who supported the move.
Chile is now one of 30 countries in the world that allow same-sex marriage, and seven in Latin America along with Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and some states in Mexico.
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Desperate relatives seek news from Ukraine port siege Liz COOKMAN Fri, 11 March 2022, eFootage from the National Police of Ukraine on March 9 shows the damage caused to a children's hospital in Mariupol by Russian air strikes
(AFP/Handout)
Residents trapped inside Ukraine's besieged port city Mariupol pleaded for help on Friday as family members desperately tried to contact them amid a communications blackout.
The city is without water, gas and electricity, with communications down since March 2.
A few patches of weak phone signal remain the only way for most residents to get news out, and the connection is unreliable.
Channels on messaging app Telegram have sprung up, with friends and family posting pictures and information about their loved ones, hoping that others may know something of their fate.
Yulia, a 29-year-old teacher who fled Mariupol on March 3, said her mother-in-law was able to call only by walking to a tower far from her home and it was "really dangerous for her to get there".
But she had managed to call Yulia's husband today to let them know she was still alive.
"She said she was OK but the attacks don't stop. There are many corpses on the street and nobody buries them. They lie there for days. Sometimes utility services collect them and bury them all together in one huge grave," she said.
- Constant bombardment -
Yulia and her husband are among the few people to have escaped Mariupol since the siege began, having to face checkpoints manned by Russian troops to leave.
After a shell fell 50 metres from a crowd of people hoping to evacuate, some started to beg drivers to take them out, she said, but few people had spare seats.
"On the road, we saw burnt-out civilian cars, some were overturned on the side of the road. We understood that Russians had shot them," she said.
"Two kilometres from Mariupol, we saw Russians, their military equipment marked with the letter 'Z'. We thought that was our end, that they would kill us."
Mariupol has been under constant bombardment for 10 days from artillery shells, and Grad, Smerch and Tochka U rockets, according to city council member Petro Andriushchenko.
Rough estimates by the regional military administration put the number killed in Mariupol at 1,207, but it is thought there could be more under the debris.
Attempts to establish a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians and to take in supplies have failed on multiple occasions, as Ukrainian officials accuse Russia of not abiding by agreed ceasefires.
On Wednesday, three people -– including one child –- were killed and 14 others injured in an attack on a children's and maternity hospital, causing international outrage.
- 'Help us' -
Yana Karban, 30, has not spoken to her parents, who live on Mariupol's Left Bank, since March 2 but spends most hours of the day trying to find news.
Their neighbours managed to find a patch of phone signal for long enough to call their own daughter, who passed on news to Karban.
She received a message that said: "It's a total disaster in the building. They were just hit by shelling and eight apartments are on fire.
"My parents were crying, saying 'help us'. They want to leave the city but it's impossible as the shelling is everywhere –- it's impossible even to get out."
Her parent's neighbours are now unreachable again and Karban is unable to contact anyone in the city herself -– she is just waiting for news about the fires, or if there were any victims.
Images sent to AFP show green and blue-tinged shrapnel that Karban says were found in a wardrobe in her parent's building after attacks in the morning, shared by the sister of another neighbour.
Karban, a PR manager for a tech company, lives in Kyiv but fled on the second day of the war to Zurich via Poland.
The stress means she is now taking Phenibut and her therapist has her practicing Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), a psychotherapy treatment, to alleviate her distress.
"I couldn't even stay in Poland as I was always seeing our flag flying and couldn't stop crying. I never thought that I'd become a war refugee," she said.
"It's more than horrible, your brain just can't process emotionally what is happening. But who cares about mental health –- you just want your parents to stay alive."
str-dc/er/yad
Odessa, a Russian-speaking port city in southwest Ukraine and an important strategic target in the Russian military offensive, is preparing for war. Fighting has not yet started in the city but the war is already creating rifts within families and among friends. FRANCE 24’s Gwendoline Debono report
Jews once again forced into exile from beloved Odessa
The century-old Chabad Synagogue in Odessa used to serve up to 150 worshippers a day before the Ukraine war but now only two or three come
Forced yet again into exile, as so many times in their tormented history, Jews are leaving in droves from the Ukrainian city of Odessa, threatening the last traces of a once-vibrant culture.
The Black Sea port, a place steeped in Jewish history, now sees many joining the throngs as they pack buses and trains heading for Moldova or Romania.
Some will go on to Germany, the United States, or Israel.
Many are old, knowing that they may well never return.
Some have already experienced exile, like Gallina Dimievitch, 87, "a child of war" who fled the Nazis with her parents in 1942, and who is now returning to Israel to one of her sons.
Her husband died on February 24, the day of the Russian invasion.
"I thank God that he didn't see this," sighs the former engineer in a small and seedy Odessa hotel where departing Jews are gathered.
"Today I have to leave the land of my husband and my parents, leave their graves behind me," she says.
There was little choice: her town of Mykolaiev, 100 kilometres east, has been under heavy Russian bombardment.
"I remember my mother telling me about having to flee from the Nazis. I guess I feel like her today," says 72-year-old Clara.
- 'Disintegration' -
For Russia, Odessa has strategic and symbolic importance.
It is Ukraine's largest port and a commercial hub, but also holds a powerful place in Russian history, from its founding by Catherine the Great to its resistance against the Nazis to violent clashes between Ukrainian nationalist and pro-Russian protesters in 2014.
Odessa was home to a very large Jewish community until the 1940s, when it was decimated by massacres and deportations during World War II.
Some 40,000 Jews still lived there before the latest invasion, out of a million inhabitants, according to Rabbi Avraham Wolff, head of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad community in Odessa.
Since the start of the war, around 20 percent have already left, the rabbi told AFP by phone from Germany where he has gone to oversee evacuations.
"It's one of the most difficult times of my life, seeing this disintegration of the Jewish community.
"It has happened just as the community was starting to grow again, with nurseries, schools, orphanages, a university...
"The pain is very great, but now the only thing that matters is to get out and save Ukraine's Jews."
- 'Sick' -
The century-old Chabad Synagogue in Odessa, closed during the Soviet period, used to serve up to 150 worshippers a day before the war.
Now only two or three come to pray.
Olexsander Klimanov, 64, retired, with a grey cap on his head, is one of them.
His family was evacuated, but he has decided to stay.
"My whole life is in Odessa, I'm old, I can't adapt like young people, learn a new language," he says.
"This is not the first time that we have seen Jews take the road to exile," he adds, recalling the discrimination and mass emigration faced by Jews during the period of Soviet rule.
But to leave is to abandon a history, roots, a Jewish heritage that makes this city and its region "invaluable" for the community.
Important figures were born or lived here, such as the poet Haim Bialik and Israeli Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky, and it is home to a huge Jewish cemetery.
"We must preserve the heritage," says Anna Bartaret, a young mother about to be evacuated with her two girls aged eight and 10.
A marketing manager, she was very involved in the Jewish community of Mykolaiev.
Her great-grandfather was a rabbi and she fears for the old books of the synagogue, including an 18th century Torah that she kept at her home.
Her face hardens at the mention of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his desire to "de-nazify" Ukraine whose president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is himself Jewish.
"Putin is sick," she says simply.
She plans to go only as far as neighbouring Moldova, she adds, determined that she will "return to Ukraine on foot when everything is over".
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HATE SPEECH OK AGAINST RUSSIA, NOT
Facebook eases rules to allow violent speech against ‘Russian invaders’
Facebook said Thursday that due to the invasion of Ukraine it has temporarily eased its rules regarding violent speech to allow statements like “death to Russian invaders,” but not credible threats against civilians.
Moscow’s internationally condemned invasion of its neighbor has provoked unprecedented sanctions from Western governments and businesses, but also a surge of online anger.
“As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders,'” Facebook’s parent company Meta said in a statement.
“We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians,” it added.
Facebook made its statement after a Reuters report, citing the firm’s emails to its content moderators, which said the policy applies to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Facebook and other US tech giants have moved to penalize Russia for the attack on Ukraine, and Moscow has also moved to block access to the leading social media network as well as Twitter.
Russia thus joins the very small club of countries barring the largest social network in the world, along with China and North Korea.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last month, Russian authorities have stepped up pressure against independent media even though press freedoms in the country were already rapidly waning.
Blocking of Facebook and restricting of Twitter last week came the same day Moscow backed the imposition of jail terms on media publishing “false information” about the military.
In this context, Facebook had played a key information distribution role in Russia, even as it endures withering criticism in the West over matters ranging from political division to teenagers’ mental health.
The war is, meanwhile, taking place during a period of unprecedented crackdown on the Russian opposition, with has included protest leaders being assassinated, jailed or forced out of the country.
Big US tech firms like Apple and Microsoft have announced halting the sale of their products in Russia, while other companies have made public their “pauses” of certain business activities or ties.
Last week, US internet service provider Cogent Communications said it had “terminated its contracts with customers billing out of Russia.”
The Washington Post reported Cogent has “several dozen customers in Russia, with many of them, such as state-owned telecommunications giant Rostelecom, being close to the government.”
It’s exactly the kind of measure Ukrainian officials have been campaigning heavily for as they ask Russia be cut off from everything from Netflix to Instagram.
TRUMP LET PUTIN TAKE SYRIA Russia tactics in Ukraine war mirror Syria testing ground: experts sA combination of file pictures shows an apartment building in Ukraine's Kharkiv on March 8, 2022 (L) and a destroyed building in Syria's old city of Aleppo on December 17, 2016
(AFP/Sergey BOBOK, YOUSSEF KARWASHAN)Less
SURE OBAMA FUMBLED AT THE RED LINE IN SYRAI BUT IT WAS TRUMP WHO AFTER GETTING HIS ROCKS OFF BLOWING UP A DESERTED SYRIAN BASE, LEFT THE COUNTRY TO PUTIN. Hashem Osseiran Thu, March 10, 2022, 6:58 AM·4 min read
Besieging cities, shelling civilian infrastructure and arranging "safe corridors": the tactics used by Russia in its war on Ukraine mirror those it tested and fine-tuned to drain resistance in Syria's conflict.
But unlike its Syria play book, the challenge Russia faces from a Western-backed army in Ukraine dwarfs that of Syrian rebels who lacked military might or broad international backing, analysts said.
Russia entered Syria's civil war in 2015 on the side of President Bashar al-Assad's regime, allowing Damascus to clock up decisive victories in the decade-long conflict.
Since President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion on February 24, tens of thousands of Russian troops have swarmed into Ukraine, where they have shelled urban centres and forced people to flee, sparking international outrage.
Moscow denies targeting civilian areas in Ukraine, despite widespread evidence suggesting otherwise, with Western powers and rights groups accusing it of committing possible war crimes.
A French military source said Russia's operations in Ukraine marked a "change of scale".
"Syria was a small theatre," he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
But many of the tactics deployed in Ukraine draw from Russia's battles in Syria, where it tested weapons systems and gained vital combat experience.
"For Russia, Syria is a training ground for men and equipment," said analyst Fabrice Balanche.
- Strategy to 'terrorise' -
Russia has long been accused by rights groups of supporting Syria's regime in besieging civilian populations and bombing infrastructure to draw rebels out of key areas.
To bolster Assad, "Russia's first goal in Syria was to reconquer big cities," including the economic hub of Aleppo and rebel-held districts around Damascus, Balanche said.
In Ukraine, Russia's push towards major cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odessa follows a similar pattern but is meant to strip legitimacy from authorities there, he said.
Balanche said indiscriminate Russian bombing of hospitals and schools is another aspect of the Syrian conflict playing out in Ukraine as part of a strategy to "terrorise" civilians.
At least 270 medical facilities in Syria have been attacked by Russia and Assad's regime since 2011, according to the Syrian Archive, a non-profit organisation that archives digital material from the war.
Russia also targeted schools and markets during a blistering Aleppo offensive in 2016 and a devastating 2019-2020 campaign against rebels in neighbouring Idlib province, the country's last major opposition bastion, according to rights groups.
"Russia bombs military targets... then health and energy infrastructure to make life impossible for civilians and to push them to leave," Balanche told AFP.
"Once the civilians are gone, it is easier for the army to move forward."
Last month, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accused Russia of using cluster munitions on a hospital and school in Kharkiv, saying the attacks could constitute war crimes.
On Wednesday, Russian forces reportedly bombed a children's hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol that Kyiv says killed three people, including a girl.
That attack sparked international outrage with many global powers accusing Russia of committing an atrocity.
- Different battlefield -
In another parallel strategy, Russia has announced so-called safe corridors to allow civilians to exit Ukrainian cities it has laid siege to.
It is a strategy tried and tested in Syria, sometimes resulting in the death, injury and detention of civilians who try to escape besieged rebel districts without international guarantees, according to experts.
But Russia faces a different landscape in Ukraine, where it has deployed a much larger contingent, in a high-stakes intervention.
"In Syria, Russia primarily relied on its air power and certain specialised units to advise and assist the pro-Assad forces," said Nicholas Heras of the Newlines Institute in Washington.
"Whereas in Ukraine the Russians are the (main) fighting force," he added.
Another key difference, according to Heras, concerns the capabilities of Russia's opponents.
In Ukraine, Russia is confronted by an army that is armed and supported by Western nations, Heras said, flagging its anti-air and anti-armour capabilities.
Meanwhile, "Russia was involved in a minor league war in Syria where it had total dominance," he added.
According to Anton Mardasov, a non-resident expert at the Russian International Affairs Council, Moscow now has a sharper sense of its weapons systems.
It has "corrected many of the shortcomings of high-precision ground, sea and air-based weapons that were identified during the use of missile systems in Syria," he told AFP.
"In Ukraine, high-precision weapons are used quite actively and accurately."
