Hong Kong pro-democracy figures set for largest national security trial

Mon, June 6, 2022


Hong Kong's largest national security case was sent to trial on Tuesday, after lingering 15 months in pre-trial procedures during which most of the 47 defendants were denied bail.

Under the security law, which Beijing imposed in 2020 following huge, sometimes violent democracy protests, the pro-democracy figures are charged with "conspiracy to subversion" for organising an unofficial primary election.

Subversion is one of the four major crimes under the security law and can carry a punishment of up to life in prison.

The defendants, aged between 24 and 66, include democratically elected lawmakers and district councillors, as well as unionists, academics and others, whose political stances range from modest reformists to radical localists.

The case was first brought to court in March 2020, when most of the 47 were denied bail after a four-day marathon hearing before a judge handpicked by the government to try national security cases.

Most of the pre-trial hearings over the past 15 months, though held in an open court, have been subject to reporting restrictions -- with the court repeatedly refusing applications from defendants and journalists for them to be lifted.

Family members and legal representatives have told AFP that the opaqueness has made the defendants "frustrated and depleted", and allowed the prosecution to "move the goalposts".

After a three-and-half-day hearing that began Wednesday and Thursday last week and finished Tuesday, all but one of the 47 defendants were committed to a senior court by Principal Magistrate Peter Law, one of the national security judges.

Last Wednesday, Law announced that seventeen defendants had been committed for trial.

They included veteran activists "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, barrister Lawrence Lau, and journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho.

Twenty-nine others -- including legal scholar Benny Tai, who was also one of the leaders of the "Occupy Central" movement in 2014 -- were committed on Monday and Tuesday.

Defendants who submit a non-guilty plea are committed for trial, and those who plead guilty committed for sentencing, according to the Magistrates Ordinance.

The one outstanding defendant will join the cohort later after further proceedings before the magistrate.

Hong Kong faces scrutiny over whether its legal system can maintain its independence as China cracks down on dissent with the security law.

More than 180 people have been arrested over the past two years since the security law came into force -- the bulk of them activists, unionists and journalists -- and 115 have been prosecuted.

Three men have been convicted and sentenced to jail for 43 months to nine years. One of them sought to appeal his 69-month sentence on Tuesday, with the court reserving judgement until early September.

The 47 defendants form the largest group in one single case under the law.

Authorities say the security law has successfully returned stability to the financial hub, which was upended for seven straight months by large and sometimes violent protests in 2019.

But critics say it has eviscerated civil liberties and the political plurality the city used to enjoy.

su/reb/lb

Tunisia expert drafting new constitution says no reference to Islam

Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert appointed last month to head a committee to draft a new constitution, said the new document would contain no reference to Islam - FETHI BELAID

by Ezzedine Said and Aymen Jamli
June 6, 2022 — Tunis (AFP)

The legal expert charged with rewriting Tunisia's constitution said Monday he would present President Kais Saied with a draft stripped of any reference to Islam, in order to confront Islamist parties.

The first article of a constitution adopted three years after the North African country's 2011 revolution says it is "a free, independent and sovereign state, Islam is its religion and Arabic is its language".

But Sadeq Belaid, the legal expert appointed last month to head the committee drafting the new constitution, told AFP that "80 percent of Tunisians are against extremism and against the use of religion for political ends".

"That's exactly what we want to do, simply by erasing Article 1 in its current form," he said in an interview.

Belaid, 83, confirmed there would be no reference to Islam in the draft, which will be presented to Saied ahead of a planned July 25 referendum.

- 'Parties with dirty hands' -

The document is at the heart of Saied's unilaterally announced roadmap for rebuilding Tunisia's political system, after he sacked the government last July and later dissolved parliament, in moves described by rivals as a coup.

Belaid's comments are likely to spark heated debate in the Muslim-majority country, which has a strong tradition of secularism, but where Islamist-inspired parties such as Saied's arch-rival Ennahdha have played a major role since the 2011 revolution.

Belaid said he wanted to take those parties on.

"If you use religion to engage in political extremism, we will not allow that," he said. "We have political parties with dirty hands. Whether you like it or not, French or European democrats, we won't accept these dirty people in our democracy."

He accused Ennahdha and others of being "backed by foreign powers, states or mini-states with lots of money to spend, and who use it to interfere in this country's business. That's treason."

Belaid, a constitutional law professor who once taught Saied, now heads the president's "National Consultative Commission for a New Republic".

As well as redrafting the constitution, the commission is charged with leading a "national dialogue" which began Saturday and excludes political parties.

The powerful UGTT trade union confederation was invited but it questioned the dialogue's legitimacy, saying its outcomes have already been determined, and refused to take part.

- Empowering the president -

Belaid on Monday urged the UGTT to change course.

"The door is still open: whether you come or not, the train will leave on time," he said.

Many Tunisians have welcomed Saied's moves against political parties and a mixed presidential-parliamentary system seen as corrupt and inept, but others have warned that he risks scrubbing out the country's democratic gains over the last decade.

The president, himself a former constitutional law professor, has long called for a system with a powerful presidency.

Asked about the system he would propose, Belaid said that "the president of the republic could have greater powers -- or more useful ones".

The 2014 constitution, a hard-won compromise between leading party Ennahdha and its secular rivals, created a system where both the president and parliament had executive powers.

Under that arrangement, the president "only had powers to block, and that's very bad", Belaid said. "The president is the commander in chief. So he shouldn't just have the power to put on the brakes but also the power to lead -- moderately."

But the new system should be structured so the president cannot be "driven or attracted by the temptations of dictatorship, tyranny or abuse of power", he added.

Belaid is to present the new draft by June 15 to Saied, who is then to sign off on a final text ahead of a popular vote.

Sudan anti-coup protester killed as civilian bloc reject talks

Mon, June 6, 2022


Sudanese security forces killed a protester Monday during anti-coup rallies, medics reported, as the main civilian bloc rejected UN-facilitated talks with the military aiming to resolve the protracted crisis.

The latest killing brings to 100 the death toll during the crackdown on protests against the October military coup led by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the pro-democracy Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said.

The protester was reported to have been hit in the chest "by coup forces in Omdurman" the capital's twin city, the committee said.

The protests, the latest in months of unrest, comes as the United Nations, African Union and regional IGAD bloc push for Sudanese-led talks to solve the impasse since the military power grab in October that ousted the civilian Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

The FFC said it received an invitation from the UN-AU-IGAD trio for a technical meeting with the military on Wednesday, but "conveyed its apologies" and said they would not attend.

The October coup derailed a fragile transition to civilian rule that had been established following the 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir.

The meeting "does not address the nature of the crisis" and any political process should work on "ending the coup and establishing a democratic civilian authority", the FFC said in a statement.

"This cannot be done by inundating the political process with parties representing the coup camp or linked to the former regime," it added.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric urged factions to take part in the talks "in good faith" and to "continue to work towards establishing a conducive environment for a constructive dialogue."

Burhan also called on political blocs to "engage in the talks".

- Tear gas -

Anti-coup protests broke out in several parts of Khartoum on Monday, with crowds demanding civilian rule.

They were met by a heavy deployment of security forces, firing a barrage of tear gas canisters, witnesses said.

Since the coup, Sudan has been rocked by near-weekly protests and a violent crackdown that has killed 100 people, according to pro-democracy medics.

Last week, Burhan lifted a state of emergency in force since the coup to set the stage for "meaningful dialogue that achieves stability for the transitional period."

Military officials have agreed to launch "direct talks" between Sudanese factions.

Authorities have in recent weeks also released multiple civilian leaders and pro-democracy activists arrested since the coup.

However, the FFC on Monday said that other activists still remain in prison and the iron-fisted suppression of protests continues.

On Saturday, the UN human rights expert Adama Dieng, on his second visit to Sudan since the coup, denounced the killing of protesters and "the excessive use of force" by security forces.

On Sunday, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee arrived in Sudan to "support the Sudanese-led process to resolve the crisis."

Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, was already reeling from a plunging economy due to decades of international isolation and mismanagement under Bashir.

But the turmoil has intensified since the coup amid international aid cuts.

In separate unrest in eastern Sudan, crowds blocked main roads leading to Port Sudan, the country's main Red Sea trade hub, to protest a 2020 peace deal.

Protesters from Sudan's eastern Beja people say the fragile peace deal does not represent them.

ab/bha/mz/pjm

UK PM Johnson wins Conservative Party confidence vote by 211 to 148

Issued on: 06/06/2022 
Text by: NEWS WIRES

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday survived a vote of no confidence from his own Conservative MPs, after a string of scandals that have left the party’s standing in tatters.

Just over two years after he won a landslide general election victory, the Brexit figurehead again proved his ability to escape political hot water to maintain his grip on power.

But the “Partygate” controversy over lockdown-breaking events at Downing Street, which saw him become the first serving UK prime minister to have broken the law, has still severely weakened his position.

While 211 Tory MPs backed him, 148 did not.

Johnson, 57, needed the backing of 180 MPs to survive the vote—a majority of one out of the 359 sitting Conservatives in parliament.

Defeat would have meant an end to his time as party leader and prime minister until a replacement was found in an internal leadership contest.

In previous Tory ballots, predecessors Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May both ultimately resigned despite narrowly winning their own votes, deciding that their premierships were terminally damaged.

Rebuild trust

Johnson has steadfastly refused to resign over “Partygate”.

He earlier defended his record on delivering Brexit, fighting the Covid pandemic and Britain’s hawkish support for Ukraine against Russia.

“This is not the moment for a leisurely and entirely unforced domestic political drama and months and months of vacillation from the UK,” he told Tory MPs, according to a senior party source.

“We have been through bumpy times before and I can rebuild trust,” the prime minister told his parliamentary rank and file, according to the source, adding: “The best is yet to come.”

Supporters could be heard cheering and thumping their tables in approval.

The source said Johnson had indicated tax cuts could be in the offing as Britain contends with its worst inflation crisis in generations.

But the scale of Tory disunity was exposed in a blistering resignation letter from Johnson’s “anti-corruption champion” John Penrose and another letter of protest from long-time ally Jesse Norman.

The prime minister’s rebuttals over “Partygate” were “grotesque”, Norman wrote, warning that the Tories risked losing the next general election, which is due by 2024.

>> No-confidence vote likely ‘beginning of the end’ for UK’s Johnson

Ex-cabinet member Jeremy Hunt, who lost to Johnson in the last leadership contest in 2019 and is expected to run again if Johnson is deposed, confirmed he would vote against him.

“Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve,” Hunt tweeted.

Jubilee booing

After a dismal showing in May local elections, the party is expected to lose two by-elections this month, one of them in a previously rock-solid Conservative seat.

That is focusing the minds of Tory lawmakers, who fear their own seats could be at risk if Johnson leads them into the next election, which is due by 2024 at the latest.

In a snap poll by Opinium Monday of 2,032 people, 59 percent of respondents said the Tories should ditch him as leader.

Among Conservative members, 42 percent want MPs to fire Johnson, according to another poll by YouGov.

Johnson was booed Friday by sections of an ardently patriotic crowd gathered outside St Paul’s Cathedral, ahead of a religious service for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

For wavering Tories, the barracking at a televised national occasion reportedly marked a turning point. Some said they had held back on public criticism of Johnson until after the jubilee.

But cabinet ally Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the booing as “muted noise” and insisted that Johnson could survive with the slenderest of majorities.

“He has shown himself to be a good, strong leader who gets the big decisions right, and he has a mandate from the British people,” Rees-Mogg told reporters.

Graham Brady, who heads the backbench committee of Conservatives which oversees party challenges, had earlier confirmed that the threshold of 54 Tory lawmakers seeking a confidence vote—or 15 percent of its MPs—had been met.

Squabbling

Brady told reporters that he had informed Johnson early on Sunday—as four days of jubilee celebrations ended—and that the prime minister had not objected to a rapid ballot.

In a message of thanks for the celebrations of her record-breaking 70-year reign, the queen had expressed hope that “this renewed sense of togetherness will be felt for many years to come”.

Conservative MPs had other ideas, as they openly squabbled on Twitter in often-scathing terms following Brady’s announcement.

Dozens have broken ranks and criticised Johnson after an internal probe into “Partygate” said he had presided over a culture of Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.

Some ran late into the night, and one featured a drunken fight among staff, at a time when the government’s pandemic rules forbade ordinary Britons from bidding farewell in person to dying loved ones.

(AFP)

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/06/given-haircut-boris-johnson-wins-no.html

New Zealand Rugby makes public apology to top woman player

Mon, June 6, 2022, 


New Zealand Rugby publicly apologised on Tuesday to Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate, whose criticism of the environment in the women's national team led to a scathing review and overhaul of its coaching staff.

The experienced hooker had accused management of overseeing a culture that failed to support player wellbeing on their unsuccessful tour of Europe last year, during which she said she suffered a mental breakdown.

The 30-year-old's social media post in December highlighting her treatment -- including accusations that coach Glenn Moore made disparaging remarks to her -- sparked an independent review.

The review backed up Ngata-Aerengamate's claims and found staff made culturally insensitive comments to the country's top players and indulged in favouritism and body-shaming.

Moore stood down in April, within a week of the review's release, and was replaced by former All Blacks coach Wayne Smith, six months out from the World Cup being staged in New Zealand.

NZR had previously accepted the review's findings and apologised privately to Ngata-Aerengamate.

But in a statement on Tuesday it said that it was important to say sorry again, publicly, coinciding with the resolution of mediation between the player, NZR and Moore.

"NZR now wishes to repeat that apology... and reiterates its commitment to ensuring Te Kura receives the appropriate mental wellbeing and training support required to help her continued recovery."

Ngata-Aerengamate accepted the apology via a social media post, saying the fallout from the tour had been "emotional" but the Black Ferns and women's rugby would benefit from the action taken.

"NZR thank you for engaging and acting; together we got there," she said.

"I'm on the mend, enjoying my footy again with a free spirit."

dgi/pst

Rugby-New Zealand apologises to player for wellbeing 'failings'

(Reuters) -New Zealand Rugby has issued a public apology to Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate more than six months after the national women's hooker complained of suffering a mental breakdown following alleged criticism from her former coach Glenn Moore.

© Reuters/ANDREW BOYERS Women's International - England v New Zealand

A social media post by Te Kura in December triggered an independent cultural review which found New Zealand Rugby (NZR) had failed to sufficiently support the women's high-performance programme.

NZR said on Tuesday it had concluded a "mediated restorative process" with Te Kura.

"NZR has formally apologised directly to Te Kura and her whanau (family) for the experiences that led to a decline in hauora (wellbeing) for her.

"NZR has taken responsibility for the systemic failings that led to this decline."

Long-serving Black Ferns coach Moore was originally part of the mediation process but resigned while it was ongoing, saying he did not agree with "misleading allegations" made against him by Te Kura.

Wayne Smith and Graham Henry, who guided the All Blacks to a men's World Cup triumph on home soil in 2011, have since joined the Blacks Ferns coaching team.

Te Kura thanked NZR on social media for "engaging and acting".

"Together we got there," she wrote. "I'm on the mend, enjoying my footy again with a free spirit ... Free to be me - stand up, speak up, know your worth."

NZR said it was committed to ensuring Te Kura received the appropriate "mental wellbeing and training support" to help her with her recovery.

"NZR further reiterates its acceptance of the Review's recommendations ... and to ensuring that the Black Ferns will strive to deliver a performance culture and environment that is safe and rewarding for all."

The Black Ferns began their preparations for hosting the Women's World Cup with a 23-10 win over Australia in the Pacific Four tournament at Tauranga Domain on Monday.

(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Fallen Football Chiefs Blatter And Platini Face Fraud Trial

By Coralie FEBVRE
06/06/22 

Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, once the chiefs of world and European football, face trial on Wednesday over a suspected fraudulent payment that shook the sport and torpedoed their time at the top.

Former FIFA president Blatter, 86, and Platini, 66, start a two-week trial at Switzerland's Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona, following a mammoth investigation that began in 2015 and lasted six years.

The pair are being tried over a two million Swiss franc ($2.08 million) payment in 2011 to Platini, who was then in charge of European football's governing body UEFA.

They are accused of having, to the detriment of FIFA, illegally obtained the payment, plus social security contributions of 229,126 francs, in favour of Platini.

The former French football great "submitted to FIFA in 2011 an allegedly fictitious invoice for a (alleged) debt still existing for his activity as an adviser for FIFA in the years 1998 to 2002," according to the court.

The defendants are both accused of fraud and forgery of a document. Blatter is accused of misappropriation and criminal mismanagement, while Platini is accused of participating in those offences.

The indictment was filed by the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG).

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter (L) and ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini (R) will go on trial Wednesday in Switzerland Photo: AFP / STF

The trial will conclude on June 22, with the three judges delivering their verdict on July 8.

The defendants could face up to five years' imprisonment or a fine.

Both FIFA and UEFA are headquartered in Switzerland, in Zurich and Nyon respectively.

Platini and retired Swiss football administrator Blatter were banned from the sport at the very moment when Platini seemed ideally-placed to succeed Blatter at the helm of world football's governing body.

The two allies became rivals as Platini grew impatient to take over, while Blatter's tenure was brought to a swift end by a separate 2015 FIFA corruption scandal investigated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Chronology of the saga involving Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini, ex-presidents of FIFA and UEFA respectively, who will appear before Swiss prosecutors on charges of fraud from June 8-22 

Photo: AFP / Kenan AUGEARD

In the Bellinzona trial, the defence and the prosecution agree on one point: Platini was employed as an adviser to Blatter between 1998 and 2002. They signed a contract in 1999 for an annual remuneration of 300,000 francs.

"The compensation agreed in accordance with this contract was invoiced by Platini on each occasion and paid in full by FIFA," said the OAG.

However, more than eight years after the end of his advisory role, the former France captain "demanded a payment in the amount of two million francs", the OAG alleged.

"With Blatter's involvement, FIFA made a payment to Platini in said amount at the beginning of 2011. The evidence gathered by the OAG has corroborated that this payment to Platini was made without a legal basis. This payment damaged FIFA's assets and unlawfully enriched Platini," the federal prosecution alleges.

The men insist that they had, from the outset, orally agreed to an annual salary of one million francs.

"It is outstanding salary, owed by FIFA, under oral contract and paid under conditions of the most perfect legality. Nothing else! I acted, as in all my life and career, with the utmost honesty," Platini said in a statement sent to AFP.

As a civil party, FIFA wants to be reimbursed the money paid in 2011 so that it is "returned to the one and only purpose for which it was intended: football", its lawyer Catherine Hohl-Chirazi told AFP.

Joseph "Sepp" Blatter joined FIFA in 1975, became its general secretary in 1981 and the president of world football's governing body in 1998.

He was forced to stand down in 2015 and was banned by FIFA for eight years, later reduced to six, over ethics breaches for authorising the payment to Platini, allegedly made in his own interests rather than FIFA's.

Platini is regarded among world football's greatest-ever players. He won the Ballon d'Or, considered the most prestigious individual award, three times -- in 1983, 1984 and 1985.

Only Lionel Messi (seven) and Cristiano Ronaldo (five) have won more Ballons d'Or than Platini.

Platini was UEFA's president from January 2007 to December 2015.

Platini appealed against his initial eight-year suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which reduced it to four years.

Women's hockey struggling in Canada

Marion Thibaut and Anne-Sophie Thill

Mon, 6 June 2022,


In Canada, hockey is king but there are few queens. In many regions, women's teams do not exist and there is no women's professional league. But many are fighting to change that.

"The next five years will make up for the last 15. I think now is the time," said Daniele Sauvageau, former Canadian national team coach and now director of the high performance center.

"We're going to see changes and more visibility, probably more women's sports on TV than we've seen," she added.

It's quite the paradox that despite another Olympic gold medal in Beijing, Canadian female hockey players are still not very visible in their country and hockey remains mainly a sport for men. Women still represent less than 20 percent of players in Canada (less than 10 percent in Quebec).

The introduction in 2017 of a form of salary in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) could have marked a turning point. But barely two years later, the announcement of its bankruptcy put an end to the professionalization movement that seemed to have begun.

"We come back to the forefront with the Olympic Games. But everything has to be redone every four years," said Marie-Philip Poulin, captain of the Canadian team and three-time Olympic champion.

The latter founded, together with other Canadian and American players, the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). Their goal: to create a cross-border league where female athletes can be paid as professionals without having to work on the side.

"We believe in it. We are fighting to create a league not only for ourselves, but for the next generations of players. It takes patience," she added.

- 'Boys can be mean' -

In the women's clubs, the girls know little about these champions.

"There's still the perception of only boys playing hockey, but I think it's started to change now," said Kim McCullough, head of a women's hockey club in Toronto.

According to a recent poll, more than 92 percent of Canadians believe that girls should be encouraged to play sports as much as boys, but more than 33 percent still consider that certain sports are not suitable for women.

In recent years, "we've seen growth at a lot of different levels, which I think is awesome. The more players we can get, the better it is for our sport," added McCullough, wearing a red Team Canada cap.

On the ice, beginners aged seven to 14, green or pink jerseys on their backs, skated at full speed from one end of the rink to the other, forwards and backwards, sometimes falling, under the watchful eyes of their parents, who capture the moment in images on their smartphones from behind the safety glass that surrounds the rink.

Jamie Bliss, 43, accompanied his daughter Kira, 12, to training: "It's great having all the girls on ice but also having the coaches being women. I think it's great for them to see others girls and women coaching them, encouraging them, that really helps to build their confidence."

Having a role model is what motivated 10-year-old Hallae. "I was inspired by my dad's girlfriend, she did a lot of hockey," she said, adding that she loves the sport.

At this all-girls club in Toronto, many say it makes them feel more comfortable.

"It's easier because some boys can sometimes be mean when you mess up," said eight-year-old Riley.

But not all provinces offer the opportunity for girls to play on women's teams to discover hockey. In Quebec, most of the time the girls are integrated into the boys' teams.

A recent report, commissioned by the Quebec government on the hockey system of the French-speaking province, focused in particular on the promotion of women's hockey and recommended better supervision of the development and career of players. And for more women in key positions within Hockey Quebec.

ast-tib/amc/jh

Black Fire could soon become second largest blaze in New Mexico history. Here's the latest.

Leah Romero, Silver City Sun-News
Mon, June 6, 2022

The glow from the Black Fire in the Gila National Forest is visible in the morning hours of May 30, 2022.

GILA NATIONAL FOREST – The Black Fire grew steadily over the weekend — gaining over 20,000 acres in size — and is on its way to being the second largest fire in New Mexico’s history.

As of Monday morning, the wildfire had consumed 287,283 acres of mostly uninhabited Gila National Forest land.

However, fire crews increased containment considerably over the weekend, from 29% on Friday to 49% on Monday.

Gila's Whitewater-Baldy Fire of 2012 was the state's largest before this year, having burned 297,845 acres. If the Black Fire burns another 10,000 acres, it will become the largest fire ever in the Gila and the second largest in the state's history.

The Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest surpassed 300,000 acres last month to become the state's largest ever blaze.

Flames from the Black Fire have been charring timber and tall grass since first reported May 13. The exact cause is still under investigation but is reported to be human caused. Over 800 fire personnel are currently working on suppression.

Crews from the Yoder Volunteer Fire Department out of Wyoming work on the Black Fire in the Gila National Forest May 30, 2022.

According to the U.S. Forest Service’s daily update Monday, the increased containment was largely achieved on the northeast and northwest sides of the wildfire. The most active area of the fire is along the southeastern edge near Round Mountain and McKnight Canyon.

Fire crews are working near Round Mountain, Dunn Place, Apache Peak and the Seco Creek drainages. A hotshot crew also built a hand line along the trail system by hiking into the Rabb Park area. Other ground crews are continuing with chipping debris along containment lines.

More: Black Fire moves quickly through the Gila National Forest in New Mexico

Only two structures have been lost to the fire. To protect the Wright’s, Noon Day cabins and Hillsboro Peak Lookout, firefighters covered the building in aluminum wrap.

A temporary fire spike camp was established in Kingston with an increase in personnel working in the area. Drivers are asked to use caution when driving on Highway 152 as fire crew traffic has increased, but the roadway is not closed.

Highway 59 remains closed from Mud Hole to the 59/150 intersection. Forest Road 150 is closed at the North Star Helispot. Portions of the Gila National Forest are closed due to fire danger. The temporary flight restriction also remains in place. Violators will face potential criminal charges.

Dry weather and warm temperatures are anticipated for Monday. Relative humidity is expected to be in the mid to single digits. Southwest winds may bring gusts up to 30 miles per hour. Overnight humidity recovery will continue to be poor.

An updated map shows the distance the Black Fire in the Gila National Forest is from surrounding communities June 6, 2022.

The blaze is now about 12 miles north of Mimbres, about seven miles north of Kingston, 21 miles west of Truth or Consequences and 26 miles from Silver City.

Real-time updates to evacuation orders can be found online at https://nifc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d375d3d880a649aa914f693db309b892 via an interactive map. Communities near the northern end of the fire are in the planning and Ready stages while communities in Sierra and Grant counties south of the fire are in Set and Go stages. More localized questions can be directed to local jurisdiction’s emergency management agencies, including county sheriff’s offices.

U.S. Forest Service personnel will hold a community meeting Monday night at 6 p.m. at Camp Thunderbird, 3951 Highway 35, Mimbres at mile marker 13.5.

Biden to visit New Mexico in wake of historic wildfire season. A look at this year's blaze

Leah Romero, Las Cruces Sun-News
Mon, June 6, 2022,

NEW MEXICO – President Joe Biden will be traveling to New Mexico this week in the wake of multiple record-breaking wildfires scorching hundreds of thousands of acres of the state’s forest land this year.

Biden will meet in Santa Fe Saturday, June 11 at the New Mexico State Emergency Operation Center with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, first responders and emergency personnel.

New Mexico is still battling two of the largest wildfires in its history — the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire in the Santa Fe National Forest and the Black Fire in the Gila National Forest. They are burning over 605,000 acres collectively and are the first and third largest wildfires in the recorded history of the state.

The Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire started out as two separate fires and merged in mid-May. The Hermits Peak Fire started as the Las Dispensas prescribed burn in the Pecos/Las Vegas Ranger District. Strong winds caused the fire to jump containment lines and then grew exponentially. The Calf Canyon Fire was traced back to a pile burn holdover from January. The collective fire is still showing moderate fire behavior, though containment has increased to 65%.

Lujan Grisham has been critical of the federal government, calling on the Biden Administration to take responsibility for initiating a natural disaster that has destroyed at least 330 homes and left a financial toll in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Black Fire started in mid-May due to human causes, though the specifics are still under investigation. When this wildfire started, the northern New Mexico fire was already reaching historic acreage. However, the Black Fire, in a mostly uninhabited part of the Gila National Forest, grew at an even faster rate than the Calf Canyon-Hermits Peak Fire.

View above the Black Fire on May 16, 2022.

By the time Biden visits, the Black Fire will likely be the second largest in state's history. Though its growth has slowed, it's possible the Black Fire will have burned more acreage than its northern New Mexico counterpart. As of Monday, 49% of the Black Fire's perimeter was contained.

Apart from these two historically large fires, New Mexico has also experienced several other notable wildfires.

The McBride and Nogal fires in the Lincoln National Forest threatened Ruidoso and surrounding communities in mid-April — early for the New Mexico fire season. Hundreds of homes were burned and families were displaced. Community members are still working to recover from losing everything in the blazes.

Two people were reported to have died in the McBride Fire, making it the only fatal wildfire in the state so far this year.


South Baptist Disaster Relief New Mexico volunteers clean up a mobile home that was destroyed in the McBride fire in Ruidoso on Friday, May 6, 2022.

The Cerro Pelado Fire started in late April in the Santa Fe National Forest near Bandelier National Monument, Jemez Pueblo and Los Alamos National Laboratory is now 95% contained. The blaze has burned over 45,000 acres and required evacuations of nearby areas.

West of Socorro, in the Cibola National Forest, the Bear Trap Fire started in early May and has burned over 38,000 acres of land and is 98% contained.

More recently, the Foster and Cinnamon Fires ignited in the New Mexico bootheel at the end of May. They have collectively burned over 8,500 acres of land and are contained or nearly contained.

The most recent wildfire to gain attention is a small 37-acre fire ignited in the Lincoln National Forest June 3 by a lightning strike. The Cienegita Fire is only about four miles northwest of the already hard-hit Village of Ruidoso.

An aerial view of the Foster Fire May 30, 2022 burning in New Mexico's bootheel in the Coronado National Forest near the border of Arizona.

While containment percentages may be increasing, this does not mean that the fires are extinguished. Rather, fire crews have portions of the perimeters contained and under control. The state’s fire season is still underway and while the North American monsoon season technically begins in mid-June, New Mexico will likely not experience the precipitation that comes with it until later in the summer.

As the rainy season approaches, officials are worried about flash flooding, landslides and destructive ash from burn scars, according to reporting from the Associated Press. Lightning strikes brought to the area by thunderstorms also may very well start new fires New Mexicans will have to deal with.

Biden will travel to New Mexico following the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles from June 8-10.

More wildfire coverage:

Black Fire could soon become second largest blaze in New Mexico history. Here's the latest.


Two of the largest wildfires in New Mexico history are burning right now. Here's a look at the 10 largest.


Foster Fire reassessed at 7,500 acres in the New Mexico bootheel


This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Joe Biden to visit New Mexico in wake of historic wildfire season

Israeli nationalists (ZIONISTS) wage battle against Palestinian flag


A Palestinian man argues with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against the removal of Palestinian flags by Jewish settlers in Hawara checkpoint, near the West Bank city of Nablus, Friday, May 27, 2022. In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have gone out of their way to challenge the hoisting of the Palestinian flag. Palestinian citizens of Israel see the campaign against the flag as another affront to their national identity and their rights as a minority in the majority Jewish state.

 (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed, File)More

TIA GOLDENBERG
Mon, June 6, 2022, 

JERUSALEM (AP) — It’s not a bomb or a gun or a rocket. The latest threat identified by Israel is the Palestinian flag.

Recent weeks have seen a furor by nationalists over the waving of the red, white, green and black flag by Palestinians in Israel and in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Yet the fracas over the flag tells a broader story about how much hopes for peace with the Palestinians have diminished and about the stature of the fifth of Israelis who are Palestinian. They for long have been viewed as a fifth column because of their solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Palestinian citizens of Israel see the campaign against the flag as another affront to their national identity and their rights as a minority in the majority Jewish state.




“The Palestinian flag reminds Israelis that there is another nation here and some people don’t want to see another nation here,” said Jafar Farah, who heads Mossawa, an advocacy group promoting greater rights for Palestinian citizens of Israel.

In recent weeks, Israeli authorities have gone out of their way to challenge the hoisting of the Palestinian flag. Police at a funeral in east Jerusalem last month for the well-known Palestinian-American Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh snatched Palestinian flags from mourners, reportedly following an order from a district police chief to make sure the Palestinian colors don’t fly at the politically-charged event.

Two Israeli universities were slammed by nationalists for allowing Palestinian flags to be waved at campus events. Israel Katz, a senior opposition lawmaker, urged flag-waving Palestinian-Israeli students to remember the war leading to Israel's establishment in 1948, saying Jews “know how to protect themselves and the concept of the Jewish state.”

A group promoting coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis raised the Palestinian flag alongside the Israeli one on a high-rise outside Tel Aviv, only to have authorities remove the Palestinian flag hours later.




Those events culminated in a push by opposition legislators to ban the waving of the Palestinian flag at institutions that receive state funding, which would include universities and hospitals, among others. The bill passed overwhelmingly in its first reading on Wednesday, 63-16, although several parties in the governing coalition were absent and the coalition may seek to block the bill from moving forward.

“In the state of Israel there is room for one flag: the Israeli flag, this flag,” Eli Cohen, the legislator who sponsored the bill, said from the dais of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, as he pointed to an Israeli flag hung behind him. “This is the only flag there will be here,” he said to applause from some legislators.

According to Adalah, a legal rights group for Palestinian Israelis, waving the flag is not a crime under Israeli law. A police ordinance grants officers the right to confiscate a flag if “it results in disruption of public order or breach of peace.”

Israel’s Palestinian citizens make up 20% of the population and they’ve had a turbulent relationship with the state since its creation in 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee in the events surrounding the establishment of the state.

Those who remained became citizens, but have long been viewed with suspicion by some Israelis because of their ties to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. That sense deepened last year when mob violence erupted in mixed Jewish-Arab cities, with looting and attacks scarring residents on both sides.

Palestinian citizens have carved a life for themselves in Israeli society, reaching the highest echelons in various spheres, including health, education and public service. An Arab Islamist party for the first time in history is now a member of a governing coalition. But Palestinians in Israel are generally poorer and less educated than Jewish Israelis and they have long suffered discrimination in housing, government funding and public works.

While there have been efforts in recent governments to address that socio-economic gap, the nationalist rights of Palestinians have been slowly eroded over the years, especially as Israeli nationalist sentiment has grown.

“It is our right to raise our Palestinian flag,” said Alin Nasra, an activist and student at Tel Aviv University. “This is something that distinguishes us as a minority inside Israel.”

Yitzhak Reiter, president of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Association of Israel, said the uproar against the flag is part of a feeling by nationalists and some mainstream Israelis that they are “losing the state,” to Palestinian nationalism from within Israel's borders.

He cited previous laws that bar municipalities or institutions from marking Israel’s Independence Day as a day of mourning or the Jewish state law that tried to strengthen Israel’s character as a Jewish state but which Palestinian citizens saw as a further downgrade of their status and a blow to their national identity. Israel’s national symbols — a biblical candelabra, the star of David on its flag — do not include Palestinian or Arab emblems and Israel's anthem speaks of the yearning of the Jewish soul.

The flag, Reiter said, “symbolizes the enemy, but waving the flag, for those who oppose it, is harmful to Israeli sovereignty.”

Israel once considered the Palestinian flag that of a militant group, no different than the Palestinian Hamas or the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah. But after Israel and the Palestinians signed a series of interim peace agreements known as the Oslo Accords, the flag was recognized as that of the Palestinian Authority.

The left-leaning daily Haaretz chided the bill against the flag, saying Israel had an “obsession” with it because it reminds the country of “the sin of the occupation” of lands the Palestinians want for a future state.

With peace talks a distant memory and the occupation dragging on, the battle over the flag shows how far from reality Palestinian statehood is, with the nationalist narrative in Israel increasingly going mainstream.

Ronni Shaked, of Jerusalem's Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, said he remembers a time when politicians wore lapel pins that bore both the Israeli and Palestinian flags and that even hawkish former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the current head of the opposition and Israel’s longest serving leader, had a Palestinian flag hanging behind him during events with the Palestinian leadership when relations between the sides were less frosty.

“If we are afraid from the Palestinian flag,” he said, “it means that we are afraid to make any kind of peace with the Palestinians.”

Palantir CEO travels to Ukraine for Zelensky meeting


Olafimihan Oshin
Mon, June 6, 2022

Alex Karp, the CEO of American software company Palantir Technologies, traveled to Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials as Russia’s invasion of the country continues.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov shared the news of Karp’s visit with Zelensky, saying that both sides agreed on principles such as a Palantir office opening in Ukraine and digital support of the army.

“Today me and President @ZelenskyyUa hosted Alex Karp CEO @PalantirTech. Alex is the first CEO, who came to Kyiv after the start of the full-scale war,” Fedorov wrote in a tweet on June 2. “Impressive support and faith in credibility of investments: agreed on office opening and digital support of Army.”

In a separate statement, Palantir confirmed the meeting between the two sides, noting that discussions were based on the invasion and how Western security can play a pivotal role.


“We are honored to have met with @ZelenskyyUa, @FedorovMykhailo and other officials in Kyiv today to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine, and the pivotal role of software to Western security,” the software company said in a tweet.