Peru's ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past










 Peru's ousted President Pedro Castillo is escorted by police at the police station where he is being held in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. Castillo was ousted by Congress and arrested on a charge of rebellion Wednesday after he sought to dissolve the legislative body and take unilateral control of the government, triggering a grave constitutional crisis. (AP Photo/Renato Pajuelo, File)


REGINA GARCIA CANO
Fri, December 9, 2022 at 10:03 PM MST·4 min read

LIMA, Peru (AP) — When Pedro Castillo won Peru’s presidency last year, it was celebrated as a victory by the country’s poor — the peasants and Indigenous people who live deep in the Andes and whose struggles had long been ignored.

His supporters hoped Castillo, a populist outsider of humble roots, would redress their plight — or at least end their invisibility.

But during 17 months in office before being ousted and detained Wednesday, supporters instead saw Castillo face the racism and discrimination they often experience. He was mocked for wearing a traditional hat and poncho, ridiculed for his accent and criticized for incorporating Indigenous ceremonies into official events.

Protests against Castillo’s government featured a donkey — a symbol of ignorance in Latin America — with a hat similar to his. The attacks were endless, so much so that observers from the Organization of American States documented it during a recent mission to the deeply unequal and divided country.

Castillo, however, squandered the popularity he enjoyed among the poor, along with any opportunity he had to deliver on his promises to improve their lives, when he stunned the nation by ordering Congress dissolved Wednesday, followed by his ouster and arrest on charges of rebellion. His act of political suicide, which recalled some of the darkest days of the nation’s anti-democratic past, came hours before Congress was set to start a third impeachment attempt against him.

Now with Castillo in custody and the country being led by his former vice president, Dina Boluarte, it remains to be seen if she, too, will be subjected to the same discrimination.

Boluarte, a lawyer who worked in the state agency that hands out identity documents before becoming vice president, is not part of Peru’s political elite either. She was raised in an impoverished town in the Andes, speaks one of the country's Indigenous languages, Quechua, and, a leftist like Castillo, promised to “fight for the nobodies.”

The Organization of American States, in a report published last week, noted that in Peru "there are sectors that promote racism and discrimination and do not accept that a person from outside traditional political circles occupy the presidential chair.”

“This has resulted in insults toward the image of the president,” it said.

After being sworn in as president Wednesday, Boluarte called for a truce with the lawmakers who ousted Castillo on charges of “permanent moral incapacity.”

Peru has had six presidents in the last six years. In 2020, it cycled through three in a week.

Castillo, a rural schoolteacher, had never held office before narrowly winning a runoff election in June 2021 after campaigning on promises to nationalize Peru’s key mining industry and rewrite the constitution, winning wide support in the impoverished countryside.

Peru is the second-largest copper exporter in the world and mining accounts for almost 10% of its gross domestic product and 60% of its exports. But its economy was crushed by the coronavirus pandemic, increasing poverty and eliminating the gains of a decade.

Castillo defeated by just 44,000 votes one of the most recognizable names among Peru’s political class: Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of former strongman Alberto Fujimori, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for the murder of Peruvians executed during his government by a clandestine military squad.

Keiko Fujimori's supporters have often called Castillo “terruco,” or terrorist, a term often used by the right to attack the left, poor and rural residents.

Once in office, Castillo went through more than 70 Cabinet choices, a number of whom have been accused of wrongdoing; faced two impeachment votes, and confronted multiple criminal investigations into accusations ranging from influence peddling to plagiarism.

Omar Coronel, a sociology professor at Peru’s Pontific Catholic University, said while the corruption accusations and criticism of Castillo’s lack of experience have merit, they were tinged with racism, “a constant in any Peruvian equation.”

“One can criticize his political inexperience, his clumsiness, his crimes,” Coronel said. But the way in which this was framed, that it was because Castillo was from a rural community with different customs, "is a deeply racist discourse and tremendously hypocritical,” because right-wing presidents have also faced corruption allegations.

“Social media networks have been flooded with visceral racism during all these 17 months,” Coronel said.

Some of Castillo's remaining supporters have protested and blocked roads across the country since his arrest. They have also gathered outside the detention facility where he and Alberto Fujimori are held.

“They have called him all sorts of discriminatory words," Castillo supporter Fernando Picatoste said Friday outside the prison. “It’s a racial issue. In Congress, lawmakers, who supposedly have national representation, ... have the audacity to insult the president.”

___

Associated Press writer Franklin Briceño contributed to this report.

Kenya's Maasai warriors gather to celebrate "Maasai Olympics," a rite of passage







Kenya's Maasai warriors gather to celebrate "Maasai Olympics," a rite of passageKenyas' Maasai community resumes "Olympics" rite of passage after pandemic hiatus in Kimana

Sat, December 10, 2022 

KIMANA SANCTUARY, Kenya (Reuters) - Hundreds of youths from the Maasai pastoralists in Kenya gathered on Saturday at a wildlife sanctuary to participate in "Maasai Olympics," a ceremony promoted by conservationists as an alternative rite of passage for young men in the community.

The spectacle, in which youthful morans or warriors compete in various games and takes place once every two years, was held in Kimana Sanctuary on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro near Kenya's border with Tanzania.

The games that include spear throwing, athletics and high jump were improvised as an alternative ritual of transition to manhood for Maasai boys who traditionally were required to fight and kill a lion to prove their bravery and manhood.

To curb the practice, Maasai cultural leaders partnered with Big Life Foundation, a conservation pressure group, to provide an alternative rite of passage, eventually giving birth to the "Maasai Olympics" in which young men compete to earn medals and cash prizes.

"We now co-exist perfectly with the wildlife," community leader Matasia Nerangas said at the ceremony on Saturday.

"We share the same grazing fields and watering holes with the wild animals, and we stand to benefit more now than before."

Craig Miller, Chief Operating Officer of Big Life Foundation said the games had helped reduce the danger to lion population in the area.

"(The) program has had a huge impact on the lion population and it is one of the few areas in Africa outside of protected areas where lion population is stable or growing," he said.

Government-run Kenya Wildlife Services says there are about 2,000 lions in the East African country, and that the biggest threat to them and other carnivores is conflict with humans.

(Reporting by Edwin Waita; Writing by Elias Biryabarema; editing by Clelia Oziel)

Weird weather hit cattle ranchers and citrus growers in 2022. Why it likely will get worse.

Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
December 8, 2022

This has been a year of extreme weather, including ruinous floods, horrific hurricanes, unrelenting heat, drought and massive rainfall events. Farmers, always at the mercy of the weather, have taken a hit.

In 2022, so far there have been over a dozen climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While harvests in the U.S. overall have been good, some crops were devastated.

In Texas, the cotton harvest was hit hard by drought. Hurricane Ian blew oranges off the trees in Florida. Rice farmers in California have left fields empty for lack of water, and cattle ranchers are sending more cows to slaughter because drought-stunted pastures can't support normal calving activity.

Climate change can't be directly blamed for every bad harvest or extreme weather event this year, but the effects of climate change – including drought and rainier hurricanes – hurt harvests across the nation in 2022. Climate models make clear more is coming.

It's a pattern scientists have been warning about for decades, that higher global temperatures will bring on "weather weirding."

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READ MORE: Latest climate change news from USA TODAY

Every year the farmers who feed our nation get smarter and more resilient, but it's increasingly stressful to adapt to the extreme variability they face, said Erica Kistner-Thomas, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

"One year they'll have the best year ever and then the next year they'll be hit with a major flooding event or drought," she said.

Here are some crops for which 2022 was a hard year:

Rice in California

The "megadrought" in the West, the worst in 1,200 years, has had an enormous impact on farming in California. Seven percent of the state's cropland went unplanted due to lack of water for irrigation.

Rice, which relies on surface water, was hardest hit. Over half the state's rice acres went unplanted, according to the USDA.

A fallow rice field near Dunnigan, California in 2022. Sean Doherty of Sean Doherty Farms was only able to plant four of his 20 rice fields in 2022 due to drought conditions.

"Rice is a major crop in California. We lead the nation in medium and short grain acres," said Gary Keough with the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

"A significant number of acres were not planted just because of a lack of water," he said.

In Colusa County north of San Francisco, fifth-generation rice farmer Sean Doherty was able to plant only four of his usual 20 rice fields.

"I've never experienced a year like this," he said. "There's just no comparison to other years whatsoever."

READ: What is climate change?

There was so little water that his fields, which normally would have held thousands of pounds of premium sushi rice, are instead bare dirt. "Just to keep my guys busy we re-leveled some fields to improve water efficiency," he said. But no amount of efficiency helps when there's simply no water to be had.

"You can't conserve your way out of an empty bucket," Doherty said.

At least for now Doherty is doing all right because he has crop insurance. But that won't help the businesses in his county that depend on farmers to survive. "My crop dusters don't have insurance; my parts store and fertilizer dealers, they've got no business," he said.

Citrus in Florida

Hurricane Ian hit John Matz's orange and grapefruit groves hard. He lost over 50% of his crop from it being blown off the trees.

"It's pretty disgusting to look at the amount of fruit that was on the ground," the grower in Wauchula, Florida, said.

Oranges in a Florida grove that were blown off trees after Hurricane Ian in October 2022. The state's citrus crop was significantly damaged by the hurricane and subsequent flooding.

The winds were only the beginning. Standing water damaged root systems. Even now, when the waters have receded and the fallen fruit has been counted for insurance purposes, more bad news is coming, said Roy Petteway, president of the Peace River Valley Citrus Growers Association.

"Trees are very sensitive; they're not like squash or cucumber," he said. "You might not see the full extent of the damage for eight months to a year."

He's not convinced that human-caused global warming is behind the weather shifts he's seeing, but there is definitely change in the land his family has held for generations in Zolfo Springs, Florida.

"I'm 36, and I've gotten through three once-in-a-lifetime storms." he said.

How is climate change affecting the US?: The government is preparing a nearly 1,700 page answer.

HURRICANES: Is climate change fueling massive hurricanes in the Atlantic? Here's what science says.

But after six generations in Florida, he's not about to give up. "We don't know how to fail. There's a reason there's an orange on our license plates."

Florida mostly grows citrus for juice, so there shouldn't be a big impact on consumer fruit prices, said Ray Royce, with the Highlands County Citrus Growers. But every time there's a storm that damages the crops, it's one more blow to U.S.-produced fruit.

"Replacement juice will be brought in from Brazil and Mexico," he said. "At some point for processors it's cheaper to ship it in. All the juice you drink now is a blended product of domestic and offshore juice."

Cattle in Texas

Look for beef prices to rise in 2023 and 2024 – in part because drought in Texas is forcing ranchers to send more cows to slaughter.

"There isn't enough grass to eat, and it's become too expensive to buy feed. We’ve had a large amount of culling this year because of drought," said David Anderson, a livestock specialist at Texas A&M University.

"We're sending young female heifer cows to feed lots because we don't have the grass to keep them," he said. Cows that would normally have a calf in the next few years are instead going to slaughter.

Beef slaughter is up 13% nationwide and in the Texas region, it's up 30%.

"In the short term, that means beef will be cheaper. This year we're going to produce a record amount of beef, over 28 million pounds," said Anderson.

But long term it will mean higher prices.

Those calves that might have been born in the spring of 2023 would be ready for slaughter in about 20 months. So in the fall of 2025, there will be fewer cattle to slaughter and higher prices.

"There's going to be a shortage of beef, and prices are probably going to go up," said the USDA's Kistner-Thomas. "This could also have a compounding effect on other meat prices as people switch from beef to chicken."

Today, Texas has about 14% of the nation's beef cow herd but as the climate changes, ranchers will face growing challenges.

"These events are getting more frequent," said Anderson. The state's experiencing more frequent severe droughts. And when the rains do come, they come differently than before, in intense bursts rather than over a longer period of time.

"You may get the same total rainfall, but you're going to get it all in one afternoon," he said. "The plants are adapted for one pattern, and we're not going to have that pattern anymore."

More: How a summer of extreme weather reveals a stunning shift in the way rain falls in America.

Almonds in California

This year's marzipan for Christmas won't be affected, but next year's might be, given the one-two punch California's almond groves took this year.

First, an unseasonable freeze in the last week of February killed some of the fruit just as it was forming. Then the ongoing Western megadrought forced farmers to choose between which trees could get enough water to actually produce.

A California almond orchard in bloom. In 2022, erratic weather and drought cut 11% out of the nation's almond harvest. An unseasonable cold snap in February kills some early fruit just after bloom while ongoing drought meant many growers didn't have enough water for their trees.

Some farmers are getting out of the business entirely or watering trees just enough to keep them healthy but not enough for good harvests — hoping for more water in the future, said Richard Waycott, CEO of the California Almond Board.

"Generally speaking, you grit your teeth and bear it."

The United States produces 82% of the world's almonds, almost all in California. In 2022, the harvest was down 11% from the year before. This year's production is expected to drop as much as 2.6 billion pounds.

Cotton in Texas

Texas is the largest cotton producer in the United States, but this year's drought has cut the harvest by at least a third, said John Robinson, a professor and specialist in cotton marketing at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.

"This year they're projecting less than 4 million bales; in an average year it's 6 million," he said. "Cotton was planted, then it just didn't even come up. There was a whole lot of land that was simply plowed up because the seeds never germinated."

That's called the "abandonment rate," the percentage of unharvested acres compared to total planted acres. This year's abandonment rate for cotton in Texas is 68%, "which is a record," said Robinson.
What does climate change mean for the future of US farming? Preparation is key.

Things would have been much worse if it weren't for advances in plant breeding, said Paul Mitchell, a professor of agriculture and applied economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

"Crops are more resilient to dry weather than they were 20 years ago," he said.

As the kind of severe weather events that can devastate crops become more frequent, better breeds won't necessarily be able to save farmers, said Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an economist at Cornell University who studies how agriculture is coping with environmental change.

"U.S. agricultural productivity is rising, but it's not becoming more resilient to extremes," he said. "When bad years start to line up, are we doing things to prepare for the unusual as it becomes more usual?"

Elizabeth Weise covers climate and environmental issues for USA TODAY. She can be reached at eweise@usatoday.com.

'Firmageddon': Researchers find 1.1 million acres of dead trees in Oregon

Evan Bush
Mon, December 12, 2022 

Drought-stricken Oregon saw a historic die-off of fir trees in 2022 that left hillsides once lush with green conifers dotted with patches of red, dead trees.

The damage to fir trees was so significant researchers took to calling the blighted areas “firmageddon” as they flew overhead during aerial surveys that estimated the die-off’s extent.

The surveyors ultimately tallied about 1.1 million acres of Oregon forest with dead firs, the most damage recorded in a single season since surveys began 75 years ago.

Oregon’s dead firs are a visceral example of how drought is reshaping landscapes in Western states that have been experiencing extreme heat conditions. In many areas, these firs might be replaced by more drought-hardy species in the future, reshaping how ecosystems function and changing their character.

“When I looked at it and crunched the numbers, it was almost twice as bad as far as acres impacted than anything we had previously documented,” said Danny DePinte, an aerial survey program manager for the U.S. Forest Service. “Nature is selecting which trees get to be where during the drought.”

Fir die-off as observed during this year’s aerial survey in the Fremont-Winema National Forest in southern Oregon. (Daniel DePinte / USFS)

Oregon is known for towering volcanic domes covered by a blanket of conifers that becomes sparse and patchwork on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains before it tucks into the high desert.

The people who know the trees best say there are many signs of problems in Oregon.

“We’re seeing forms of stress in all of our species of trees,” said Christine Buhl, a forest entomologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry. “We just need to shift our expectations of what tree species we can expect to be planted where.”

Researchers have been surveying Pacific Northwest forests by air since 1947. Little about the process has changed during that time, according to Glenn Kohler, an entomologist with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, which operates the program alongside the U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Department of Forestry.

Each summer, small high-wing planes soar about 1,000 feet above the tree canopy at about 100 mph. Trained observers peer outside both sides of the plane, looking for noticeable damage to trees.

Dead trees — conifers that are completely red or orange — are the easiest to spot, but the observers can also pinpoint trees that are barren of needles in some areas.

The observers rate the intensity of damage and map its location. Pilots fly in a grid pattern with flight lines about 4 miles apart to cover every swath of the forest.

“It’s literally like mowing the lawn,” Kohler said of the flight trajectory.

Paper maps of the past have been replaced today by Samsung Galaxy tablets that track the plane’s progress and make mapping easier — and probably more accurate.

Observers require a season of training, Kohler said. It can be a dizzying task.

Brent Oblinger, a plant pathologist on the Deschutes National Forest, while in the process of conducting a portion of the survey. (USFS)

“We’re analyzing 16-30 acres per second,” DePinte said, noting that small planes can offer a more turbulent ride. “You definitely have to have a stomach of steel.”

This year, the aerial observation program flew over about 69 million acres of Washington and Oregon forest in about 246 hours.

“We’re just really painting the picture. It’s not hard science. You’re not counting individual trees or inspecting individual trees. The purpose is — what are the major trends and to detect outbreaks,” Kohler said.

The scale of damage in Oregon, which was first reported by the environmental journalism nonprofit Columbia Insight, was staggering to the researchers and begs for a more thorough study.

“We had never seen anything to this level,” DePinte said. “It sets you back and makes you pause. Your scientific mind starts questioning why. We don’t always have the answers.”

Trees are susceptible to bark beetles, root diseases and defoliators like caterpillars. Aerial surveys help researchers capture the booms and busts of these pathogens.

Healthy trees typically can defend themselves against these threats. When beetles drill into a trees’ bark, for example, a healthy tree can push the beetles out by excreting pitch, a gooey substance, where they entered the tree, Kohler said.

Each summer, small high-wing planes soar about 1,000 feet above the tree canopy at about 100 mph, trained observers peer outside both windows of the plane, looking for noticeable damage to trees. (USFS)

But disturbances like drought, wildfire and windstorms can stress trees and weaken their defenses. Large numbers of dead and dying trees could allow bark beetles to lay eggs, feed their larvae and flourish.

Scientists still only have a coarse understanding of the factors that are causing widespread die-offs in Oregon, but many view drought as the underlying culprit.

“There are multiple factors at play here. One of the things most of us agree on: The primary factor we have going on here is hot drought,” Buhl said, meaning that the state has been hampered by higher-than-normal temperatures and also low precipitation.

DePinte said damage was most pronounced in White, Shasta and Red firs on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountain range’s crest, where the climate is drier.

Nearly half of Oregon is experiencing severe, extreme or exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The drought is worse in eastern Oregon.

Oregon’s average temperatures have risen about 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895, according to a 2021 state climate assessment delivered to the state’s Legislature. The severity of drought has increased over the past two decades in part because of human-caused climate change, the report says. Summers in Oregon are expected to become warmer and drier.

“We’ve been hearing about climate change for some time. Climate change is happening. We’re now feeling it,” Buhl said. “These summers are getting warm and long. We’re seeing evidence on the landscape. We needed to pay more attention decades ago, but we didn’t.”

Buhl said impacts to forest health are taking out roughly as many trees as wildfires, which are also now more likely and more intense by climate change.

Heat waves are a growing threat, too. On Oregon’s west side, trees were scorched by the June 2021 heat dome, which sent Portland’s temperature as high as 116. Scientists have said the intense heat wave was “virtually impossible” without climate change.

Fir die-off as observed during this year’s aerial survey in the Fremont-Winema National Forest in southern Oregon. (USFS)

Aerial assessments last year documented nearly 230,000 acres of heat scorch across Oregon and Washington, DePinte said. Most of the damage was on hillsides with south-facing aspects that soak up more sunlight because of the sun’s angle in the sky.

“It was the combination of the high temperatures in the afternoon with the sun boring down,” said Chris Still, a professor in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. “We think a lot of those leaves just cooked in place.”

Still speculated that the heat dome could have contributed to this year’s fir die-off, also, but more research and evidence is needed to examine any possible connection.

DePinte said the 2021 scorching was the largest ever recorded, which means the Pacific Northwest has now seen two events of record-breaking damage in its forests in as many years.

CORRECTION (Dec. 12, 5:18 p.m. ET): A photo caption in a previous version of this article misidentified a researcher. The photo is of Robert Schroeter, not Brent Oblinger. The photo has been replaced.

Far right protests targeting the LGBTQ community show a troubling correlation with violent attacks

Charles R. Davis
Sat, December 10, 2022 

The white nationalist group Patriot Front attends the March For Life on January 8, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.Kamil Krzaczynski/Getty Images

Right-wing extremists have held at least 55 protests targeting LGBTQ people this year, ACLED reported.

That is up from just 16 such protests in 2021, an increase of over 340%

According to ACLED, nonviolent anti-LGBTQ activity "strongly" correlates with violence.

Across the country, right-wing extremists with guns have been showing up at libraries and churches to intimidate parents and children attending drag queen story hours. Groups such as the Proud Boys conflate the reading of books by members of the LGBTQ community with the predatory "grooming" of kids.

Hospitals that provide gender-affirming care have received death threats after being targeted by social media influencers like Chaya Raichik, the former real estate agent who runs the "Libs of TikTok" account on Twitter, and featured in prime-time diatribes by Fox News's Tucker Carlson.

Other soft targets for the hard right have included gay pride parades. Over the summer, 31 members of the neo-Nazi Patriot Front were arrested in Idaho after a concerned citizen reported seeing them loading up a U-Haul with what looked to be a "little army" of men in riot gear.

By the end of November, far-right activists took part in at least 55 public actions targeting members of the LGBT+ community — up from 16 the year before, an increase of some 340% — with a corresponding rise in violent attacks on people perceived to be gay or transgender, according to a report released this week by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.

Open white nationalism is still the most common feature of far-right protests and militia activity, according to the group, which began monitoring the American far-right in 2020 after years of reporting on political violence abroad. Of the roughly 750 far-right events that have taken place this year — on track to exceed the 780 held in 2021 — some 21% have been explicitly racist in nature, a finding that comes after the FBI issued a report warning that white supremacists continue to "pose the primary threat" of domestic terrorism, account for more than half of all politically motivated killings over the last decade.

While racism remains the primary driver of the far right, anti-LGBTQ actions have "fueled the largest increase in far-right protest activity," the report states, with the rise in such activity "strongly" correlating with a rise in violent attacks, of which there have been no fewer than 20, including the murder last month of five people at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. Though we don't have a specific motive the suspect has a history of online and offline bigotry.

Such deadly attacks are often carried out by self-styled vigilantes who are not formally members of any far-right group, Roudabeh Kishi, director of research at ACLED, said in an interview. But where those groups are most active is tied to where attacks then take place.

"They have been inspired by the rhetoric that they might be seeing online, and by the mobilization they might be seeing offline," Kishi said. "Those people are then deciding to take matters into their own hands and engage in violence."

It is almost impossible to link any one act of violence to a specific instance of hateful propaganda to which the perpetrator was exposed. It is also hard to pinpoint the beginning of the latest moral panic: Are those on the extremist fringe doubling down on anti-LGBTQ activity because of its established salience as an issue among the mainstream right, or are they in fact driving the conversation?

"The reality is that there is a bit of a feedback loop here," Kishi told Insider. If a mainstream platform airs an attack on a minority group, then radicals will increase their activity around that sort of attack as a means of recruitment — while perhaps masking their other views, such as organizing under the guise of merely standing up for "free speech," a strategy known as entryism (ACLED's data shows that, despite such rhetorical appeals to the First Amendment, a far-right presence at a demonstration makes that protest "nearly five times more likely to turn violent or destructive").

The issue of the day will change over time. In 2020, it was pandemic restrictions, Black Lives Matter, and false claims of voter fraud. In 2021, anti-racism in education, dubbed "Critical Race Theory," was the issue that brought mainstream conservatives and right-wing extremists together. In light of a generally disappointing 2022 election for candidates who dwelled on issues of sex and gender, the next year will likely bring something different — if not altogether new (think "political correctness" in the 1990s becoming "wokeness" in the 2020s).

"It usually ends up being a resurgence of some kind of old narrative, packaged in a new way," Kishi said.

Israel's next finance minister brings religion to the front of economic strategy


Bezalel Smotrich the Israeli transportation minister arrives to attend a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem


December 8, 2022
By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel's incoming finance minister has said his economic strategy will be infused with religious beliefs laid out in the Torah, predicting that this would help the country prosper.

Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, said that as finance minister he would delve deep into the inner workings of the economy. However, taking a step back, he said the Torah - the first five books of the Hebrew Bible - taught that obeying God brought prosperity.

He also suggested a shift in spending priorities for the incoming government, including a significantly increased budget for religious study.

Smotrich was tapped by prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu to serve as finance minister for two years. He will then be replaced by Aryeh Deri, who heads an ultra-Orthodox party.

Netanyahu on Thursday secured a parliamentary majority following a Nov. 1 election win, but has still to finalize the coalition agreements. Until he does, a caretaker government remains in office.

Smotrich is more known for his hardline politics than his economic views, which, according to his party's platform, are fiscally conservative.

He spoke about his approach in an interview with an ultra-Orthodox magazine, Mishpacha. Excerpts of the interview were broadcast by Israel's Channel 12.

"They tried many economic theories, right? They tried capitalism, they tried socialism. There is one thing they didn't try: 'if you obey'," Smotrich said, referring to Jewish scripture that calls on people to follow God's will.

Smotrich said those of faith, himself included, believed that "the more Israel promotes more Torah, more Judaism, more of the commandment to settle the land, more kindness and solidarity, then the Lord will grant us great abundance".

A spokesman for Smotrich confirmed the comments.

In a separate interview with religious news website Kikar Hashabat, Smotrich said he expected the new government would bring new priorities, adding that state financing of religious seminaries would "grow significantly".

Instead of doing mandatory military service, many ultra-Orthodox men are given exemptions in order to study at religious schools, a point of contention among Israelis.

At the same time, only about half of ultra-Orthodox men work, according to government data. Many prefer to dedicate their time to Torah study.

Israel's central bank has said this is a drain on the economy and has recommended incentives to draw more ultra-Orthodox men into the workforce.

Ex-Twitter employee sentenced over spying for Saudi Arabia

Ahmad Abouammo was sentenced Wednesday to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Sundry Photography via Getty Images

Will Shanklin
·Contributing Reporter
Thu, December 15, 2022 

In a rare case of Twitter drama unrelated to its owner, a former employee convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia received a three-and-a-half-year sentence on Wednesday. Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty in August of taking bribes from an aide to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In return, he allegedly supplied sensitive account info that could help track and silence dissidents.

Abouammo, a US resident born in Egypt, received about half of the more than seven years prosecutors sought. The former Twitter media partnership manager said he was only doing his job, but evidence revealed that he received $300,000 and a $20,000 Hublot watch from bin Salman’s aide. A Twitter whistleblower suggested in late August that the scandal reflected a broader practice of lax data security at the company.

Two other men were charged in the scheme. Ali Alzabarah, a Saudi citizen, is another former Twitter employee who prosecutors say acquired personal info for over 6,000 accounts, including that of high-profile dissident (and Jamal Khashoggi ally) Omar Abdulaziz. A third man, Ahmed Almutairi, was also charged but didn't work at Twitter. Instead, he allegedly served as a contact between Twitter staffers and the Saudi government. Of the three, only Abouammo was in the US to face charge

Saudi Arabia signs Huawei deal, deepening China ties on Xi visit

December 8, 2022
By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Eduardo Baptista

RIYADH (Reuters) -Saudi Arabia and China showcased deepening ties with a series of strategic deals on Thursday during a visit by President Xi Jinping, including one with tech giant Huawei, whose growing foray into the Gulf region has raised U.S. security concerns.

King Salman signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership agreement" with Xi, who received a lavish welcome in a country forging new global partnerships beyond the West.

Xi's car was escorted to the king's palace by members of the Saudi Royal Guard riding Arabian horses and carrying Chinese and Saudi flags, and he later attended a welcome banquet.

The Chinese leader held talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto ruler of the oil giant, who greeted him with a warm smile. Xi heralded "a new era" in Arab ties.

The display stood in stark contrast to the low-key welcome extended in July to U.S. President Joe Biden, with whom ties have been strained by Saudi energy policy and the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi that had overshadowed the awkward visit.

The United States, warily watching China's growing sway and with its ties to Riyadh at a nadir, said on Wednesday Xi's trip was an example of Chinese attempts to exert influence around the world and would not change U.S. policy towards the Middle East.

A memorandum with China's Huawei Technologies, on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities, was agreed despite U.S. unease with Gulf allies over a possible security risk in using the Chinese firm's technology. Huawei has participated in building 5G networks in most Gulf states despite the U.S. concerns.

Prince Mohammed, with whom Biden bumped fists instead of shaking hands in July, has made a comeback on the world stage following the Khashoggi killing and has been defiant in the face of U.S. ire over oil supplies and pressure from Washington to help isolate Russia.

In further burnishing of his international credentials, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that the prince and the UAE president jointly led mediation efforts that secured the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner in a prisoner swap with Russia.

In an op-ed published in Saudi media, Xi said he was on a "pioneering trip" to "open a new era of China's relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia".

China and Arab countries would "continue to hold high the banner of non-interference in internal affairs", Xi added.

That sentiment was echoed by the crown prince, who said his country opposed any "interference in China's internal affairs in the name of human rights", Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said.

Xi, due to meet other Gulf oil producers and attend a wider gathering of Arab leaders on Friday, said China would work to make those summits "milestone events in the history of China-Arab relations", and that Beijing sees Riyadh as "an important force in the multipolar world".

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates have said that they would not choose sides between global powers and were diversifying partners to serve national economic and security interests.

"TRUSTED PARTNER"

China, the world's biggest energy consumer, is a major trade partner of Gulf states and bilateral ties have expanded as the region pushes economic diversification, raising U.S. hackles about Chinese involvement in sensitive Gulf infrastructure.

The Saudi energy minister on Wednesday said Riyadh would stay a "trusted and reliable" energy partner for Beijing and the two would boost cooperation in energy supply chains by setting up a regional centre in the kingdom for Chinese factories.

Chinese and Saudi firms also signed 34 deals for investment in green energy, information technology, cloud services, transport, construction and other sectors, state news agency SPA reported. It gave no figures, but had earlier said the two countries would seal initial agreements worth $30 billion.

Tang Tianbo, Middle East specialist at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) - a Chinese government-affiliated think tank - said the visit would result in further expansion of energy cooperation.

(Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh and Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Writing by Tom Perry and Dominic Evans; Editing by Ghaida Ghantous and Nick Macfie, William Maclean)

Iran's Water Crisis Will Make It Harder for the Regime to Regain Control

Ciara Nugent
December 8, 2022

IRAN-DAILY LIFE-HERITAGE
The Si-o-Se Pol bridge ("33 Arches bridge") over the Zayandeh Rud river in Isfahan, Iran, shown on April 11, 2018. Thanks to water extraction, the river runs dry by the time it reaches the city. 

Credit - ATTA KENARE/AFP— Getty Images

Iran’s government has spent this week trying to quell the protests that have rocked the country for the last three months. Officials put out several statements about unconfirmed plans to “review” the country’s hijab requirement for women and “disband” the morality police—two key factors in the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, which initially sparked the unrest.

So far, it hasn’t worked. On Monday, protesters launched a three-day general strike, designed to show that their uprising was never only about the restrictions placed on women. Iranians are also angry about poverty, economic dysfunction, corruption, a lack of freedom—a litany of government failings that mean many of the young people leading the rallies say they have “no future” as long as the Islamic regime remains in power.

Those failings also include the environment. The regime has disastrously mismanaged Iran’s water resources in the decades since the 1979 revolution. In a push for food self-sufficiency to shield the country from Western sanctions, authorities have championed a shift to unsustainable agricultural practices: they oversaw an expansion of water-intensive crops like sugar beet and a frenzy of poorly planned dam-building, and later well-digging, to collect water for irrigation. They also diverted rivers to provide water for heavy industries like steel manufacturing. These measures have overwhelmed the natural water cycle, drying up aquifers, rivers, and wetlands. The mismanagement, combined with climate change, caused the worst drought in half a century in 2021.

Read More: The Women of Iran are TIME’s 2022 Heroes of the Year

The water crisis is not the focus of the current demonstrations, which have mostly been led by city dwellers whose livelihoods are unlikely to be directly affected. But it is part of the accumulated anger now being unleashed. On the streets and on social media, protesters have referenced the dried up Urmia salt lake and Zayandeh Rud river, which have emerged as symbols of the regime’s incompetence. Other environmental problems, like air pollution, are cited as motivations for rebellion in viral protest anthem Baraye (“Because of”).

Environmental challenges can be a “uniting” factor for Iranians, says Kaveh Madani, a scientist who served as deputy head of the Iranian government’s environment department under former President Hassan Rouhani, before fleeing to the U.S. in 2018 amid a crackdown on environmentalists. “Everyone is unhappy when a big wetland dries up. It brings everyone together,” Madani says. “This is why the environmental activists have been targeted by Iran’s security agencies so much.”

Water’s growing threat to Iran’s regime

Even if the regime manages to stymie the current urban-led unrest, it won’t be long before the next June-August dry season carries the risk of new water shortages in rural areas, which for the last two years have triggered protests among farmers—potentially mobilizing a demographic that has not been as drawn to the women’s rights cause. In late November, hacking group Black Reward published what they claim is a leaked document from a news agency linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, in which officials express concern that water shortages could spark demonstrations in several provinces.

A picture obtained by AFP outside Iran, shows a motorcycle burning in the capital Tehran, during the current protests on October 8, 2022.AFP/Getty Images

Discontent over water is only likely to grow. Climate change is making Iran hotter and drier, exacerbating the human-made problems. A 2019 study on Iran’s climate outlook for 2025-2049, published in Nature, found “a grim picture” of increasingly severe droughts and floods, with the driest regions potentially becoming uninhabitable.

Climate campaigners say the government’s efforts to avert that situation, including a restoration program for Urmia, have largely relied on unsustainable solutions like diverting water from under-used basins. Truly ensuring water security for Iran would require radical reforms to diversify the economy from agriculture and other water-intensive industries—something today’s political system makes all but impossible, according to Madani. “No president within the current structure can address the environmental problems.”

All of that will make it harder and harder for the government to prevent unrest from boiling over in Iran in the future, Madani adds. “Water is affecting the resilience of the system. They’re close to their tipping point.”

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Mike DiMauro: Why does Brittney Griner's freedom offend you?


Mike DiMauro, 

The Day, New London, Conn.
Sat, December 10, 2022 

Dec. 10—Imagine this outlandishly utopian sentiment: a U.S. Olympian jailed in a Russian penal colony finally returns to American soil ... and for one shining moment there is the mere hint of unity across the political spectrum.

Ha. Good one.

Instead, we're left with the amusing irony that the plight of Brittney Griner, whose skin color, sexual orientation and politics repels so many Americans, completely captures the new American fancy of being ill-informed, mean and happy to trade basic human decency for political posturing.

Seriously. Reading the abject hatred tethered to Griner's rescue — the saving of a human life — made me think of Sen. Howard Baker's classic question to bagman Tony Ulasewicz during Watergate: "Who thought you up?"

Who thought these people up? Where do they come from? Have they always been here? All I know is they're helping us lose our humanity one keystroke at a time.

I've always found Socrates useful in such situations. (And not because he gulped hemlock.) His main memo, "know thyself," is open to many interpretations. Here's mine: Be smart enough to know what you don't know. And I must confess to knowing very little about international prisoner exchanges. I suspect I'm not alone, save perhaps those who have studied at the University of Facebook.

Still, I'm pretty sure that it doesn't work like baseball. I doubt Biden could call Putin and say, "give us Griner and we'll give you two assassins to be named later."

Ah, but the dreaded HCS (Human Comments Section) has taken talking out of one's tailpipe to Olympic levels.

It is hardly ideal that the U.S. had to fork over Viktor Bout, a Russian arms merchant serving time, in part, for endangering American lives. But two things: 1) Rescuing an American from a Russian prison should never, ever be considered bad news; and 2) Nobody in this country knew Paul Whelan from Waylon Jennings a week ago. Except that now Whelan's plight is The Greatest Injustice In The History Of America ... until next week when all the moralists will start growling about The Next Greatest Injustice In The History Of America.

How about we just be happy that one of ours is home? Is that, like, against the rules now or something? It amazes me how Griner's freedom and her pursuit of life, liberty and happiness is an affront. Can any of you spewers of moral outrage get morally outrageous and explain why Griner's freedom offends you?

Meanwhile, I wonder what Griner must have thought when she arrived home to the hatred. Her "drug" offense, tantamount here to the firing squad for a parking ticket, was patently absurd. And yet the number of commenters happy to see her rot in Russia underscores how toxicity is all the rage.

I maintain that if Sue Bird, not Griner, were imprisoned in Mordovia, Russia, the same zealots hating on Griner would go on a hunger strike to bring Suzy Q back home. But Griner? A Black, married Lesbian with tattoos who wouldn't stand for the national anthem? Why, she's not a real American.

"Racism, sexism and homophobia have become the new patriotism," wrote Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation, a longstanding biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news.

Zirin wrote a column on the Griner issue last week and then another column on the hate-filled responses he received.

"I was repeatedly told that because Griner used to take a knee during the national anthem, she is somehow not worthy of our support and our care, that she hates 'America' so she shouldn't count on 'America' to fight for her freedom," Zirin wrote. "And then the barrage of racism, sexism, and homophobia was more than I have received for any article in years of doing this work. It's been staggering. But this is their patriotism: the freedom to hate others and mock others' agony."

Indeed, "patriotism" is slowly becoming a pejorative. Maybe wrapping yourself too tight in the flag can cause brain injury. I mean, didn't they pay attention in history class about how protest is a tenet on which the good ol' U.S. of A was founded?

I'm happy Griner is home. I'm also happy that Griner's rescue illustrates that the WNBA Players' Association and the league in general has developed a voice. Their consistency of protest and message was heard. They should accept that as progress.

And the rest of you? Take (significantly) more time to know thyself.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says Biden Should Be Impeached for Bringing Brittney Griner Home

Nikki McCann Ramirez
December 8, 2022·

MTG-BG - Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called for President Joe Biden to be impeached following WNBA star Brittany Griner’s release from Russia in exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

“Another reason to impeach Biden,” the Georgia congresswoman tweeted. “The President of the United States traded Russian terrorist arms dealer, Viktor Bout, left a U.S. Marine in Russian jail, and brought home a professional basketball player.”

More from Rolling Stone

Brittney Griner Arrives Back in U.S. After Russian Prisoner Swap

Vin Diesel Rescued Brittney Griner, According to These Memes

Who Is Viktor Bout, the Notorious 'Merchant of Death' Swapped for Brittney Griner?



Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” is a former Soviet officer who was convicted in 2011 on several charges including conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, conspiracy to kill Americans, money launding, and wire fraud. Bout was ultimately sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Greene’s reaction mirrors criticism from other Republican lawmakers and prominent GOP commentators, who have condemned Griner’s release given that Russia has detained multiple U.S. nationals, most notably former Marine Paul Whelan, as well as teacher Marc Fogel.

Whelan, an ex-Marine working in corporate security, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2018 and accused of espionage. Whelan and U.S. intelligence agencies deny the accusation.

President Biden and administration officials have indicated that the Russian government treated the release of additional prisoners in the exchange as a non-starter. “This was not a choice about which American to bring home,” Biden said at a press conference announcing Griner’s release. “For totally illegitimate reasons Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittany’s […] We will keep negotiating in good faith for Paul’s release.”

“We have been in active discussions with the Russians on Mr. Whelan’s case for a very, very long time,” National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby told CNN. “Certainly those conversations accelerated in recent months and I can assure you that we are going to stay at those active discussions going forward.”

Former President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the prisoner swap was “a ‘stupid’ and unpatriotic embarrassment for the USA.”

House speaker hopeful Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Caifl.) called the exchange of Bout for Giner a “gift to Vladimir Putin,” that “endangers American lives.”

Several other GOP lawmakers have accused Biden of demonstrating “weakness” in allowing Russia to regain custody of Bout while Whelan remained detained. Tennessee Rep. Mark Green told Fox News that the exchange is a signal to U.S. military service members that the president does not prioritize their well being and safety. Florida Sen. Rick Scott called the terms of the exchange “weak & disgusting.”

Other lawmakers have focused on their concerns for Whelan. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote that while he appreciated the release of Griner, “we must not lose focus on the fact that Paul Whelan remains unjustly held in Russia.” Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted that “surely an arms dealer is worth two innocent people?”

Griner and her wife Cherelle Griner have advocated for the continued negotiation for other detained Americans, and requested no “special treatment” in her own case. Whelan’s family indicated that the Biden administration “made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to [happen].”

Speaking to CNN on Thursday, Whelan expressed his disappointment at the collapse of negotiations for his release. “They’ve put me at a level higher than what they did with Trevor [Reed] and Brittney,” he said regarding Russia’s treatment of his case. “I was arrested for a crime that never occurred … I don’t understand why I’m still sitting here.”