GREAT SERIES

Season 4 of 'Babylon Berlin' set in Germany's dark 1930s

"Babylon Berlin" is the most expensive German TV series to date. The new season featuring police inspector Gereon Rath is set in the chaotic last years of the Weimar Republic.

"Babylon Berlin," the TV series adapted from the novels of Cologne-based author Volker Kutscher, has created ripples worldwide.

It was sold in over 90 countries, including the US, where streaming giant Netflix bought the rights to the program. The first season cost producers €40 million ($40 million), becoming the most expensive series in German television history.

Season 4 of "Babylon Berlin" now launches on October 8 in Germany and the UK on Sky, and on HBO for Central and Eastern Europe. The series will be later available on Netflix for the United States, Canada and Australia

The story so far

"Babylon Berlin" tells the story of police inspector Gereon Rath, who is transferred from his home city of Cologne to Berlin in 1929 to investigate for a special department.

As a First World War veteran, Rath is a victim of post-traumatic stress syndrome and uses drugs to keep his symptoms under control. In Berlin, he meets the typist and prostitute Charlotte Ritter, and together they unearth an illegal weapons trade.

All this happens as two Communist groups, the Trotskyists and the Stalinists, engage in violent exchanges in 1920s Berlin.

Volker Bruch (left) as Gereon Rath with Liv Lisa Fries as Charlotte Ritter

In Season 2, Rath changes to the criminal investigations department and spies on unconstitutional right-wing extremists, albeit unsuccessfully. By the end of the season, Charlotte Ritter officially becomes a deputy homicide detective.

Together Rath and Ritter investigate the murder of a film star in the Babelsberg film studios. They solve the case, but Season 3 ends with the Wall Street collapse in 1929, heralding the global depression.

Controversy around actor Volker Bruch

The COVID pandemic followed the end of season 3. The series star actor, Volker Bruch, who plays lead character Gereon Rath, made headlines with his links to the "Die Basis" party, considered to be close to the "Querdenker" movement of COVID-skeptics in Germany. The party was founded by people who oppose restrictive measures during the pandemic. The constitutional police has been monitoring the "Querdenker" group closely for its ties to the far right.

At ARD Degeto, a media production company that is part of the public broadcaster, this information about the series' lead actor is considered a private matter. "We do not comment on political activities and attitudes, as long as they do not break current laws," a spokesperson told the Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Season 4 of the series is based on "Goldstein," the third novel in author Volker Kutscher's book series and takes place in the years 1930-1931, during the global economic depression.

It is a time when the SA ("Sturmabteilung," the paramilitary wing of the Nazi party) and the Communist Red Front Fighter's League ("Roter Frontkämpferbund" in German) battle on Berlin's streets. 

Rath is assigned to spy on the Jewish-American gangster "Abe" Goldstein as a favor to the FBI.

What really happened in Berlin in the 1930s

The story is aligned with historical events that took place in Berlin in 1931. After World War I, there were millions of decommissioned soldiers in Germany, many of whom joined fight clubs.

The Red Front Fighter's League was the paramilitary arm of the Communist Party, and the SA was part of the Nazi Party, or the NSDAP, led by Adolf Hitler. The SA's brown uniforms had earned them the epithet "Brown Shirts" in the 1920s, and in contrast to the communists, they avoided conflict with the state machinery of the Weimar Republic, choosing instead to terrorize Jews, social democrats and communists. They were rarely targeted by the police for their violent acts.

The onset of the Great Depression is depicted in the third season

In 1930, the SA attacked "Warenhaus Wertheim," a department store run by Jews and destroyed display windows of other shops that were supposedly run by Jewish owners — a preview of the terror that would end in the Holocaust.

Three years later, the SA and the SS ("Schutzstaffel"), which was responsible for the operation and administration of concentration camps and which also took over military tasks along with the Wehrmacht, stood in front of the store holding placards which read: "Germans! Protect Yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!"

A different ending 

As soon as the plot reaches the year 1933, the year when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the series will come to an end, according to director Achim von Borries. He is responsible for the content and creative execution of the 40 episodes, along with Tom Tykwer and Henk Handloegten.

But author Volker Kutscher wants his book series to continue and plans to end the novel series in the year 1938. 

"I must include the collapse of the German civilization of 1938, by which time even the last 'apolitical' person knew that the Nazi rulers were working towards a World War and the Holocaust, towards the great human catastrophe," he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.

"It [the ending] will be bitter, and it will not be a good ending for many of my characters, but only then can I close the series."

This means that "Babylon Berlin" fans can maybe hope for more seasons in the future.

IT REMINDS ME OF PHILIP KERR'S PRE WWII GERMAN POLICE TRIOLOGY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kerr

Philip Kerr - Wikipedia 

Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers.

https://berniegunther.com

The Bernie Gunther Novels of Philip Kerr - BernieGunther.com 

In 1989, first-time British author Philip Kerr introduced the world to Bernie Gunther, his sardonic, tough-talking fictional detective who was — as the New ...

https://crimefictionlover.com/2019/03/a-guide-to-philip-kerrs-bernie-gunther-series

A Guide to Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther series | Crime Fiction Lover 

Mar 28, 2019 ... Read our complete guide to the Philip Kerr's novels about wartime German detective Bernie Gunther including March Violets, the Berlin Noir ...

Opinion: 2022 Nobel Peace Prize a slap in the face for Vladimir Putin

Three laureates from three countries — and yet this year's Nobel Peace Prize delivers a strikingly clear message to Moscow, says DW's Miodrag Soric.

Since 1902, a 23-karat gold medallion has been awarded to all who have received the Nobel Peace Prize

The decision regarding this year's Nobel Peace Prize sends a clear message to people in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and the rest of the world: We're honoring those in eastern Europe who have the courage to call out the monstrous crimes of the Putin regime by name. We are honoring those who are willing to suffer for the truth, to risk their lives, to go to jail.

The prestigious honor will pain Putin, for it will be recorded for posterity. Russia's violent leader and his state propaganda machine can ignore it, rail against it, and criticize it as much as they want but they cannot undo this wise decision by the Nobel Committee.

Systematically plotted crimes

Putin's crimes did not appear out of thin air: Neither his invasion of Ukraine, nor his persecution of Russian and Belarus opposition figures. Putin has been systematically preparing them for decades.

DW's Miodrag Soric

One of today's Nobel laureates, Ales Bialiatski, began calling them out by name long ago. For instance, Moscow's attempts to destroy Belarus sovereignty. For decades, Bialiatski has been fighting to maintain Belarus' language and culture. That alone made him a thorn in Moscow's side.

Minsk's self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly had him jailed, purportedly for tax crimes. The charges were always made up. Bialiatski was penalized because he documented how Belarus security services tortured and jailed opposition figures. He stood up for demonstrators protesting rigged elections. In 2021, he was jailed again. Today's Nobel Prize will refocus attention on his fate and that of his homeland.

Documenting crimes is also the mission that Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties has taken upon itself. Recently, the organization gained notoriety for documenting crimes committed by invading Russian troops. Their hope is that their documentation will ensure such misdeeds do not go unpunished. For that to happen, evidence must be collected, and victims' names recorded. In the past, the center has been active in attempting to steer Kyiv toward Europe by seeking to strengthen Ukrainian civil society.

'Memorial' at odds with Putin's plans

The most well-known of today's laureates is the organization Memorial. It began shining a light on the darkest chapters of Soviet history back in the 1980s. One of its most famous associates was Andrei Sakharov.

President Putin has reviled the organization — a role model for many NGOs around the world — for years. Back in 2003, during his first term as Russian president, Putin said the nation's schoolbooks should inspire pride in students. The great detail with which Memorial documented the millions of crimes committed by the Soviet Union's Communist leadership ran counter to the president's wishes. Moreover, the NGO — as it had during Soviet times — continued to fight for free elections and the rights of persecuted opposition figures. Late last year, Putin had Memorial banned.

In the early 1990s, Memorial actually influenced legislation written in the Duma. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the organization sought to ensure that no new authoritarian regime would ever be allowed to control the country again. That inspired Memorial to call for perpetrators from the Communist Party as well as those from the intelligence services to be brought to justice through a system modeled after the Nuremberg Trials.

Unfortunately, that idea failed when Communists distanced themselves from their own crimes during the days of the Soviet Union. If Memorial had succeeded back then, Vladimir Putin may have never come to power.

This article was translated from German by Jon Shelton.

Belarus opposition leader says her people 'are ready to fight for our country'

Speaking to DW, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said she believed that a Russia weakened by the Ukraine war offers pro-democracy Belarusians an opportunity — as long as the international community doesn't abandon them.

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: "If we feel the weakness of Lukashenko there 

will be hundreds of thousands of Belarusians on the streets"

Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya fled to Lithuania after Russian ally Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a disputed 2020 election that was viewed in the West as fraudulent, and which many thought she won. 

Speaking at the Warsaw Security Conference earlier this week, she said she believed Russia's setbacks in Ukraine could loosen Lukashenko's grip on power. "We have a distracted Russia that is about to lose this war. It won't be able to prop Lukashenko up with money and military support as in 2020,'' she said. 

DW: Are there people in Belarus who, in your opinion, would be ready to fight if Lukashenko were to decide to support Russia in the war against Ukraine? 

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: The Belarusian people are ready to fight for our country. And they have been proving this for two years. Yes, maybe now you don't see beautiful rallies on the streets, but this is not because the Belarusian people have given up. It's because we live in a Gulag, in an atmosphere of tyranny and terror and repressions. Any person can be detained for any comment on Instagram, anti-war comments or anti-regime comments, and our task is to keep people safe, to keep people prepared for new opportunities. 

If there is a trigger or we feel the weakness of Lukashenko, and Lukashenko will be weak when Putin is weak, then believe me, there will be hundreds of thousands of Belarusians on the streets.

You recently established a temporary executive body for your country. Could you tell us more about its objectives?

The United Transitional Cabinet was formed as a response to the war because we see that our independence is in danger. This transitional cabinet would be like a central decision-making institution. Those people who are on the side of the regime now, even people in militia or military, will see an organized place where they can enter and change sides. People around Lukashenko might support the regime because it's convenient for them, they are paid, but those people absolutely don't support the war. This cabinet was organized also at the request of the Belarusian people. They want to see critical forces united within a structure. 

Belarusian volunteers have been supporting Ukrainian army units in the war against Russia

We also want to have a military person in this transitional cabinet, a representative of defense, a colonel who can speak the same language as our soldiers and knows how to assist our military volunteers in Ukraine. 

We also have a representative focused on national revival. We tend to overlook this very important part of our work on language, on identity, on promoting our culture but this is the core of every nation and our language. Our identity has been ruined for 27 years and now it's necessary to explain why it's important. In 2020, the Belarusian people felt that we are Belarusians and now more and more of them start more to speak Belarusian. We are going to restore our identity; we are going to fight for our identity. 

We will also shortly appoint a representative for social affairs who will address social problems. 

You have lived in Lithuania for more than two years. It must be difficult to be abroad with your children while your husband, Siarhei, is in prison in Belarus. How do you deal with this situation? 

Of course, I can't say that it is easy. He's been in a cell for many, many days. It's an awful place without bedclothes, without normal food. The temperature in the cell is the same as the temperature outside, it's very cold and he's physically humiliated. They want to ruin him. He is a strong person, but of course every day I wake up thinking about him. I also understand that he's not the only one suffering; there are thousands of people. You feel pain every day. 

And every day you see your children who are demanding to have their dad back and you can't do anything about that. Again, there are thousands of children that are split from their mothers or fathers. It's like a snowball, it's becoming bigger and bigger. But you find strength to move forward because you are not alone. I really feel the presence of millions of Belarusians who are with me. I see how people don't give up inside the country. They can rely on those who fled Belarus because they continue to fight because they really want to return home.

The people in Belarus are self-organized, they don't need a dictator or another person to tell them what to do. They themselves create different initiatives in order to help. Some of them help prisoners, others help elderly people, there is job for everyone. I feel they showed us how to do it and we are in contact with people on the ground. I feel the energy. Yes, people are afraid, they are scared, but they say: Look, now we need to be quiet. But when the moment is right, we will be on the streets, we will do our part of the job. 

But now we need more attention from the international community. People want to be sure that at a particular moment we will not be abandoned, we will not be forgotten. There's so much pain in Belarus, but the people move forward. The same as the Ukrainians. We feel that both our nations are enduring very difficult times. But at the same time we feel the support and solidarity from powerful countries. 

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is the leader of the Belarusian democratic movement. She ran in the 2020 Belarusian presidential election as the main opposition candidate. After Alexander Lukashenko declared himself the winner of the disputed elections, she fled to Lithuania.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Edited by: Rob Mudge

Brazil's grassroots football tournament from the slums: More than just a game

In Brazil, the "Taca das Favelas" is one of the most popular sports tournaments around. Held in the Rio de Janeiro slums, it's not just about the game but also unity and respect.

The 'Taca das Favelas' can be a chance for young players to catch the eye of talent scouts

The small stands in the stadium in Rio de Janeiro's Realengo neighborhood are full. Spectators are banging drums, holding up signs and singing loudly, in the heart of Brazil's most famous city.

Anyone who travels here passes by half-built bus stops that should have been finished for the Olympics in 2016. They are just one sign of the state's many unrealized ambitions, a state that promised to use the Olympics to improve living conditions for the people living in the slums here. Instead it just engendered more corruption. 

Six years later, the Favela World Cup is taking place here in Realengo. It is a tournament especially for the slums of the city, also known as favelas. There is a similar tournament in Sao Paulo. It's an "Olympics for the poor," a grassroots movement in Brazilian football that has developed a charismatic character of its own.

Local pride

"This is the World Cup of the favelas," defender Julian Henrique Lopes told DW.

When he plays for his favela, Vila Croacia, he goes by the nickname "Hulk", given to him because of his physical stature.

"We give our life for this and we represent our slum," the 18-year-old said proudly.

The tournament is extremely popular and, after a break due to the pandemic, returned this year for the tenth time.

"We are back" is written on the blue signs around the arena. There are no VIP boxes here, just a lot of honest enthusiasm. One of the most noticeable differences to the professional game is that before the game all those involved — from subs and coaches to staff — gets together for a team photo. Everyone is included, everyone plays a part.

The games are always competetive, with local pride at stake

In the small stadium, banners specifically tailored to the audience fly high. The organization that runs the event, the CUFA, also makes its presence felt. It is a message of unity: In this district, a place often neglected by the state, there is untapped potential.

The message is that if the state or the official football association does nothing, then the people here will organize themselves.

An historic accomplishment

"This favela tournament is a chance for young people, and one that should always be there," said Elaine Pereira dos Santos, coach of Vila Croacia. "This tournament is an historic accomplishment," the 40-year-old told DW. "This is the only thing that welcomes people from the favelas."

Sometimes the tournament is also the first step for young talents that eventually go on to play professional football.

Ronaldo Cesar Sores dos Santos was a teenager at one of these tournaments and now he plays for a Bulgarian team, Levski Sofia.

It's not just the players who get involved

"I played in two 'Taca das Favelas'. One when I was really young, just 14 or 15," dos Santos recalls. "The games there were a calm moment, a moment when we were all friends."

The feelings may have been sweet but, the 21-year-old admitted, in sporting terms, they were a tough lesson. "Whoever played badly was dropped."

Today, scouts looking for the next international soccer star attend the games. 

Sadly, Vila Croacia only made it to the quarter finals. In Saturday's final, Complexo do Muquico triumphed over CRB Dick 1-0, while the women's final was won by Sapo de Camara, who beat Complexo da Coreia, also 1-0.

This article was adapted from German.

Vietnam's VinFast targets US market in 'preposterously hard' gamble

Alice PHILIPSON
Sat, October 8, 2022


Having conquered most industries at home, optimistic chiefs at conglomerate Vingroup are setting their sights much higher as they ramp up plans to sell the first ever Vietnamese car in the mighty US market.

The pivot is a bold move by chairman Pham Nhat Vuong -- Vietnam's richest man -- who started out selling dried noodles in the former Soviet Union before amassing his $5 billion fortune in a range of sectors including real estate, tourism and education.

His firm's auto unit VinFast already has electric vehicles (EVs) on the streets of Hanoi, though the attraction of the lucrative United States market is too good to ignore.

However, the firm admits that competing in the crowded and difficult US market, which is dominated by Tesla, will be a huge but worthwhile task.

"If we can make it there, we can make it anywhere," CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy told AFP from the factory site where the finishing touches were being made to the VF8, a mid-size SUV with a sleek design by Italy's Pininfarina, which worked with Ferrari for decades.

But, she added, "we want to show people who might not have the correct understanding of Vietnam that Vietnam today is quite different to Vietnam during the war, or even to Vietnam 10 years ago".

While the aim of getting Americans driving its cars by Christmas may seem a huge ask, Vingroup -- Vietnam's biggest private firm -- has a track record of delivering.

Within two years, Pham transformed a muddy patch of swampland near the northern port city of Haiphong into a state-of-the-art factory -- complete with 1,200 robots, German, Japanese and Swedish machinery, and a global team from auto giants including BMW and General Motors.

- Public scepticism -

The company has already invested heavily in its American dream.


In July, VinFast opened six showrooms in California, including a flagship store at one of the trendiest malls in upmarket Santa Monica, though for now it is only taking orders as vehicles are not yet available.

It plans 30 in total by the end of the year, while it has also broken ground on a $2 billion electric vehicle and battery plant in North Carolina that it says will produce 150,000 cars a year when it is fully up and running.

The factory aims to create more than 7,000 new jobs, prompting US President Joe Biden himself to tweet the announcement back in March.

"I always joke that he is the best salesperson we have," says Thuy.

But the American public will likely be far more sceptical, said Karl Brauer, a Los Angeles-based analyst with iSeeCars.com, a vehicle comparison site.

"It's been typical for it to take a couple of decades for brand new automakers to the US market to become ingrained," he said, referencing South Korea's Hyundai and Kia, which struggled through the 90s and early 2000s.

They are now among the most popular car makers in the United States.

Americans' perception may be "this is some unheard-of-brand I've never had any experience with, and I'm not sure I have any faith in the quality", he added.
- Push into Europe -

To hook customers, VinFast is pushing a highly unusual monthly battery-leasing model for the two cars headed to the United States -- the VF8 and VF9 -- lowering the cost of the upfront payment to $42,000 and $57,500 respectively. Tesla's SUVs start at around $65,000.

Once the battery life goes down to 70 percent, VinFast replaces it for free, and aims to repurpose or recycle the old one.

"The theory behind that is we're giving you a vehicle that is priced similarly to an internal combustion engine vehicle," Thuy explained.

The scale of VinFast's ambition, which extends to Europe, where they plan to open the first of 20 showrooms by the end of the year, has stunned many in the business.

"It is preposterously hard to build a car and sell it, at least to a global audience, as seems to be the ambitions of VinFast," said Matthew Degen, senior editor at Kelley Blue Book, a car shopping and research site.

"It usually takes years and years to get a car from a design on paper into something that's in your hands and you're actually driving it."

However, VinFast developed three cars in just 21 months.

And although the regular car market is already saturated, he says, there may be a "brief window" for them to make their mark in the still developing electric vehicle sector.

For Brauer, VinFast's success will largely come down to millennials.

They will "have trouble with people over 50 years old... but younger consumers in this country are getting more and more open to new vehicles".

aph/pdw/dan/smw

Vietnam to restrict which social media accounts can post news

Rita Liao



With the rising tide of fake news on social media platforms, the debate over how much control a government should have on online information is a perennial one. In Vietnam, the government is intensifying its control over the internet regime. The country is formulating new rules to control which types of social media accounts are allowed to disseminate news in the country, Reuters reported, citing sources.

The decision, according to Reuters, results from the government's concerns over users mistaking social media accounts for authorized news outlets.

While citizens might want the government to boot genuinely misleading information, the risk of more regulatory oversight is a loss of freedom by the people. Vietnam already has one of the world's most restrictive internet governance regimes and was given an "internet freedom score" of 22 out of 100 by the pro-democracy nonprofit Freedom House. That makes its internet freedom worse than that of Russia (30/100) and Saudi Arabia (24/100).

The authorities are also weighing new measures that would ask social media platforms to remove content that is illegal or deemed to harm national security, according to Reuters.

The approach would put the burden on the likes of Facebook, Instagram, ByteDance-owned TikTok, and Tencent-backed messenger Zalo to purge content unwanted by the authorities. Western giants are already showing obedience to stay operational in the country of 100 million people.

In its annual report, the Vietnamese Human Rights Network said "several media platforms, especially Facebook, have complied with the Vietnamese government’s escalating demand to censor dissidents." The American social networking behemoth was caught between a rock and a hard place. In 2020, when it balked at the country's request to remove posts critical of the government, the authorities used their control over local internet providers to slow its traffic to unusable levels.

Vietnam's restriction on social media news dissemination is reminiscent of a recent move by China to crack down on unauthorized news publishers. Last year, Beijing said social media accounts posting news must hold the relevant media licenses. Press accreditation in China is almost exclusively reserved for state-owned outlets, meaning the millions of content creators would have to shun all things newsworthy.

Indeed, some have likened Vietnam's grip over the internet to China's censorship model. When Vietnam rolled out its cybersecurity law in 2021, many saw the Southeast Asian country as following in China's footsteps. For example, the law requires foreign tech giants like Facebook and Google to store user data locally and allows the government to block access to content that could be defined as dangerous to national security, similar to China's request to have Apple's and Tesla's local user data kept within its borders.

Facebook agrees to restrict anti-government content in Vietnam after months of throttling

Families Leave Offerings for Children Slain at Thai Day Care

• BY ERISIAN
• OCTOBER 9, 2022

"The Police are the Murderers of the People" 

UTHAI SAWAN, Thailand — Families offered flowers and dolls, popcorn and juice boxes to children massacred at a day care center in Thailand, part of a Buddhist ceremony held Sunday just paces from where the slaughter began that was meant to guide the young souls back to their bodies.

“Come back home” and “come back with us,” the relatives called into the empty day care center, many with tears in their eyes.

The gun and knife attack on the Young Children’s Development Center in Uthai Sawan was Thailand’s deadliest mass killing, and it robbed the small farming community of much of its youngest generation. The former police officer who stormed the building killed two dozen people at the day care before taking more lives as he fled, including his wife and child, police said. He then killed himself.

Ceremonies were held Sunday at three temples, where the 36 victims — mostly preschoolers — were taken ahead of funeral rites and cremation on Tuesday.

Maneerat Tanonethong — whose 3-year-old Chaiyot Kijareon was killed at the day care center — said the rituals were helping her with her grief.

“I am trying not think about horrible images and focus on how lovely he was. … But I don’t know what I will do with myself once this is all over,” she said. “I am determined that I will try let go of this, that I won’t hold any grudge against the perpetrator and understand that all of these will end in this life.”

At Rat Samakee temple, family members sat in front of the tiny coffins while Buddhist monks chanted prayers. They placed trays of food, toys and milk along the outside of the temple walls as offerings to the spirits of their slain children.

Later, they headed to the day care center and gathered in front of a makeshift memorial there to receive the slain children’s belongings. They made offerings of their kids’ favorite foods and lit incense and candles as they implored the children’s souls to return to their bodies.

Many Buddhists in Thailand believe that in cases of unnatural death, the soul becomes stranded in the place where the person perished and must be reunited with the body before eventual rebirth.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is expected to attend evening prayers at the three temples where bodies were brought later Sunday.

Police identified the attacker as Panya Kamrap, 34, a police sergeant fired earlier this year after being charged with a drug offense.

An employee at the day care told Thai media that Panya’s son had attended the center but hadn’t been there for about a month. Police have said they believe Panya was under stress from tensions between him and his wife, and money problems.

The attack has left no one in the small community untouched, and brought international media attention to the remote, rural area. Thai authorities on Sunday fined two CNN journalists for working in the country on tourist visas but cleared them of wrongdoing for entering the day care center, saying they had filmed inside believing they had obtained permission.

Deputy national police chief Surachate Hakparn said the journalists were waved into the building by a volunteer or a health officer and did not know the person was not authorized to allow them inside.

In a statement, Mike McCarthy, CNN International’s executive vice president and general manager, said the team sought permission to enter the building but “now understands that these officials were not authorized to grant this permission.”

Mass killings in Thailand are rare but not unheard of.

In 2020, a disgruntled soldier opened fire in and around a mall in the northeastern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, killing 29 people and holding off security forces for some 16 hours before being killed by them.

Prior to that, a 2015 bombing at a shrine in Bangkok left 20 people dead. It was allegedly carried out by human traffickers in retaliation for a crackdown on their network.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

Canada's economy has scope to slow with 'exceptionally high' vacant jobs, central-bank governor says

Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem walks outside the Bank of Canada building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada June 22, 2020. 

REUTERS/Blair Gable/File Photo

TORONTO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem said there is scope to slow the economy based on an "exceptionally high number" of job vacancies in the labor market.

In an interview aired on CBC Radio on Sunday, Macklem said the current inflation fight is the biggest test the central bank has faced since it started targeting inflation 30 years ago.

But he assured Canadians that monetary policy is working and he expected inflation to return to the central bank's 2% target by 2024. Canada's headline inflation rate dropped to 7.0% in August, with core inflation running at about 5%. read more

"We need to cool the economy, (but) we don't want to over- cool the economy," Macklem said.

"When we look at the economy right now, there is an exceptionally high number of vacant jobs ... that's a clear signal that there is scope to slow the economy, without a lot of people put out of work," he added.

Canadian employers were actively looking to fill nearly 1 million jobs as of July, data released on Friday showed, while the job vacancy rate dropped to 5.4% in July, from a peak 6.0% in April 2022. read more

The Bank of Canada has raised its benchmark interest rate by 300 basis points since March, one of its steepest and fastest tightening cycles ever. Economists and money markets are leaning toward a 50-basis-point increase on Oct. 26.

Macklem said parts of the economy that are sensitive to interest rate increases are starting to slow.

"Let me be clear, what we don't want is ... inflation and wages to become unmoored to our 2% objective, because if that happens, then we are actually going to need to slow the economy a lot more to get the inflation back to 2%. That's what we have been what we call front-loading our interest rate increases," Macklem added.

Thousands in US demonstrate for abortion rights as midterm elections approach

Thousands marched in cities across the United States on Saturday to protest the Supreme Court's overturning of the federal right to abortion and to urge voters to turn out in a Democratic "blue wave" in next month's key midterm elections.


Thousands in US demonstrate for abortion rights as midterm elections approach

© Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, Reuters

In Washington, a crowd of mostly women chanted "We won't go back" as they marched.

They carried posters calling for a "feminist tsunami" and urging people to "vote to save women's rights."

"I don't want to have to go back to a different time," Emily Bobal, an 18-year-old student, told AFP.

"It's kind of ridiculous that we still have to do this in 2022," she said, adding that she is concerned that the conservative-dominated high court might next target same-sex marriage.

"The majority of us are ready to get out and fight for democracy and fight for people's bodily autonomy, women and men," said Kimberly Allen, 70.

With Democrats battling to maintain their narrow control of Congress, the midterm elections could have a decisive impact on the future of such rights, she said.

Related video: Abortion and the November election
Duration 2:48   View on Watch

Several marchers wore armbands or scarves of green, a color symbolizing abortion rights.

Others wore blue -- the color of the Democratic Party -- and carried huge flags and banners calling for a symbolic "blue wave" of voters to go to the polls on November 8.

A few counter-protesters made their presence known, some of them urging the crowd to "find Jesus Christ," while others shouted that "abortion is murder." They were met with boos.

Similar rallies took place in cities including New York and Denver, Colorado.

"The #WomensWave is coming for EVERY anti-abortion politician, no matter where they live," Rachel O'Leary Carmona, executive director of the nonprofit Women's March organization, said on Twitter.

She urged people to elect "more women" as well as male candidates who support abortion rights.

Polls show Democrats only have a slim possibility of maintaining control of the House of Representatives, but their chances are better in the evenly-divided Senate, where Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is the tie-breaking vote.

While Republicans have been campaigning largely on soaring prices, immigration concerns and urban crime, Democrats led by President Joe Biden want to shift the debate to abortion rights and the defense of American democracy.

The Supreme Court in June ended the decades-long federal protection of abortion rights, leaving it to individual states to set their own rules.

Since then, several Republican-led states have banned or severely curtailed access to the procedure, provoking a series of legal challenges.

In the latest development, an appeals court in the southwestern state of Arizona on Friday blocked -- at least for now -- a near-total ban on abortions.

(AFP)

Abortion Rights Protesters Turn Out Ahead Of 'Roevember' Midterm Elections

See photos from the nationwide demonstrations.

By Sara Boboltz
Oct 8, 2022, 


A "VOTE" sign appears outside the U.S. Capitol.
SHANNON FINNEY VIA GETTY IMAGES

With exactly one month until the 2022 midterm elections, supporters of abortion rights turned out Saturday in places across the country to highlight the gravity of the issues at stake.

Control over the Senate and the House, both currently in the hands of Democrats, is considered to be up for grabs ― and with it, the future of reproductive health care in America.

Republican lawmakers have been taking increasingly tough stances against abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. This 1973 ruling made abortion legal nationwide. Some states, such as Texas and Oklahoma, now do not even allow abortion in cases of rape or incest; exceptions to their abortion bans can only be made in very limited circumstances to save the pregnant patient’s life. Criminal penalties in certain states mean that medical practitioners might be risking their freedom and livelihood if they perform an abortion in a case that does not conform to lawmakers’ restrictions.

What’s more, a conservative movement is underway to grant fetuses rights that would inevitably clash with women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions.

With all that in mind, demonstrators appeared united behind a push to get out the vote on Nov. 8 at a series of “Women’s Wave” events organized by the Women’s March.

Some demonstrators came with signs casting this coming November as “Roevember,” a referendum on abortion. Already the abortion issue has upended midterm races and forced some conservative candidates to tone down their rhetoric in the aftermath of what has proven to be a widely unpopular Supreme Court decision.

Have a look at some of the events below.

Thousands of protesters turn out in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 8.
SHANNON FINNEY VIA GETTY IMAGES


Supporters of abortion rights demonstrate outside of the Harris County Courthouse in Houston, Texas.
MARK FELIX VIA GETTY IMAGES


Women's Wave marchers showed up to demonstrate in Houston, Texas.
MARK FELIX VIA GETTY IMAGES


Demonstrators appear in New York City's Foley Square.
BRYAN R. SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES


A woman picks out a button in Washington, D.C.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT VIA GETTY IMAGES




Thousands gathered in the nation's capital to rally for reproductive rights.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT VIA GETTY IMAGES

A Texas protester holds a sign with the Margaret Sanger quote, "No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body."
MARK FELIX VIA GETTY IMAGES

A New York City demonstrator yells at anti-abortion protestors.
BRYAN R. SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES


A detail of a protester's hat is seen at the Washington, D.C., event.
SHANNON FINNEY VIA GETTY IMAGES


A demonstrator in New York City holds up a photo of Mahsa Amini in solidarity with protesters in Iran fighting for women's rights. The 22-year-old Amini was killed in the custody of Iran's religious police for improperly wearing her headscarf. Her death in mid-September has sparked weeks of heated protests.
BRYAN R. SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES



Demonstrators hold signs criticizing the U.S. Supreme Court in New York City.
BRYAN R. SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES


New York City demonstrators hold signs saying, "THIS ROEVEMBER: ROE, ROE, ROE YOUR VOTE TO TURN THE TIDE!" Another reads: "ROEVEMBER IS COMING. VOTE."
BRYAN R. SMITH VIA GETTY IMAGES


A young girl surveys the crowd from up high in Washington, D.C.
SHANNON FINNEY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Jailed Duterte critic held hostage during deadly breakout attempt

By AFP
09 October 2022 | 


Former Philippine senator and human rights campaigner Leila de Lima (C) leaves after attending her hearing at the Muntinlupa Trial Court in Metro Manila on September 30, 2022. (Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP)

Jailed Philippine human rights campaigner Leila de Lima was briefly taken hostage Sunday during an attempted breakout by three detained militants who were shot dead by police, authorities said.

The incident happened at the national police headquarters, where de Lima, a former senator, has been held for more than five years with other high-profile detainees.

A police officer handing out breakfast was stabbed with a fork by an inmate, who then freed two others from their cells.

Two of the prisoners were shot dead by a sniper, Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos told reporters.

The third prisoner ran to de Lima’s cell. He tied up and blindfolded the 63-year-old, before a police officer shot him in the head, Abalos said.

Police said de Lima was safe and the situation inside the detention facility had “returned to normal”. An investigation was underway.

Police chief General Rodolfo Azurin said the three inmates were members of the militant group Abu Sayyaf, which has been accused of kidnapping and beheading several foreigners.

De Lima did not appear to have been the target, Azurin told local radio station DZBB.

“They saw her as an ideal cover. Their intention really was to escape,” he said.

De Lima was unhurt, Boni Tacardon, her lawyer, confirmed to AFP.

“She was brought to the hospital for the standard medical check-up,” Tacardon said.

“But based on the information given to us by our staff who’s with the senator now, she appears OK.”

Calls to free de Lima

De Lima, an outspoken critic of former president Rodrigo Duterte and his deadly drug war, is due to appear in court on Monday.

She has been behind bars since 2017 on drug trafficking charges that she and human rights groups have called a mockery of justice and payback for going after Duterte.

Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took power in June, there have been renewed calls from diplomats and rights defenders for de Lima to be released.

The latest incident underscored the need for her to be “freed immediately”, said Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch.

Marcos tweeted that he would speak to de Lima “to check on her condition and to ask if she wishes to be transferred to another detention center”.

But Tacardon said de Lima did not want to be transferred.

For now, de Lima and her defence team were considering their options, including the hospital inside the national police headquarters.

Before her arrest on February 24, 2017, de Lima had spent a decade investigating “death squad” killings allegedly orchestrated by Duterte during his time as Davao City mayor and in the early days of his presidency.

She conducted the probes while serving as the nation’s human rights commissioner, then from 2010 to 2015 as justice secretary in the Benigno Aquino administration that preceded Duterte’s rule.

De Lima won a Senate seat in 2016, becoming one of the few opposition voices as the populist Duterte enjoyed a landslide win.

But Duterte then accused her of running a drug trafficking ring with criminals inside the nation’s biggest prison while she was justice secretary.

De Lima lost her bid for re-election to the Senate in May and Duterte stepped down in June.

The lawyer and mother of two has been held in a compound for high-profile detainees, rather than one of the Philippines’ notoriously overcrowded jails.