UN's top woman in Afghanistan for talks on Taliban crackdown


Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, arrives at United Nations headquarters, on Sept. 20, 2021, during the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Mohammed, speaking to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, urged countries to urgently consider Haiti’s request for an international armed force to help restore security in the country troubled by gang violence. A U.N. special envoy said intentional killings and ransom kidnappings have increased sharply, armed gangs control the main roads entering or leaving the capital, the police force is shrinking, and a third of schools are closed. 

(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Tue, January 17, 2023

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The highest-ranking woman in the United Nations arrived in Kabul on Tuesday at the head of a delegation promoting the rights of women and girls, a response to the recent crackdown by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister and a Muslim, was joined by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women, the U.N. agency promoting gender equality and women’s rights, and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Haq said he could not disclose their schedule or specific meetings in Kabul for security reasons.

U.N. officials have held a series of high-level consultations across the Gulf, Asia and Europe “to discuss the situation in Afghanistan in an effort to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights, peaceful coexistence and sustainable development,” the spokesman said.

Members of the delegation met with leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Islamic Development Bank, groups of Afghan women in Ankara, Turkey, and Islamabad, and a group of ambassadors and special envoys to Afghanistan based in Doha, the capital of Qatar, he said.

“Throughout the visits,” Haq said, “countries and partners recognized the critical role of the U.N. in finding a pathway to a lasting solution as well as the need to continue to deliver lifesaving support” and asked that efforts be intensified “to reflect the urgency of the situation.”

A Dec. 24 order from the Taliban barring aid groups from employing women is paralyzing deliveries that help keep millions of Afghans alive, and threatening humanitarian services countrywide. As another result of the ban, thousands of women who work for such organizations across the war-battered country are facing the loss of income they desperately need to feed their own families. The Taliban previously banned girls from attending secondary schools and women from attending universities and issued restrictions on foreign travel and their movements within the country.

The Taliban took power again in August 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces after 20 years in Afghanistan. As it did when it first ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, the militant group has gradually reimposed Islamic law, or Sharia, driving women out of schools, jobs and aid work, and increasingly into their homes.

The officials of other nations with whom the U.N. leaders met said it was important for the international community to unite and speak with one voice, Haq noted.

“The need for a revitalized and realistic political pathway was consistently highlighted and all remained firm on the fundamental principles, including women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and public life in Afghanistan,” he said.

Haq said the groups agreed in principle to hold an international conference on women and girls in the Muslim world in March.

Israel deports Italian activist arrested in West Bank raid


Mourners carry the body of 14-year-old Palestinian Omar Khumour during his funeral in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. The Palestinian Health Ministry said Khumour died after being struck in the head by a bullet during an Israeli military raid into Dheisha refugee camp near the city of Bethlehem. The Israeli army said that forces entered the Dheisha camp and were bombarded by Molotov cocktails and rocks. It said soldiers responded to the onslaught with live fire. 

(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) 

ISABEL DEBRE
Tue, January 17, 2023 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel deported an Italian activist to Italy after security forces detained her during a raid in the occupied West Bank, Israeli authorities said Tuesday, accusing her of having links to a Palestinian militant group.

The Israeli military arrested Stefania Costantin during a pre-dawn incursion Monday into the the Dheisha refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

Footage shared on social media shows an Israeli soldier picking up Costantini and flipping her over his shoulders as she shrieks. A group of soldiers drag her out of the camp and shove her into a military vehicle, videos show. Israeli forces fatally shot a 14-year-old boy in the head during the same raid as they opened fire on Palestinians throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Italian media described Costantini as an advocate for Palestinian rights. Israel's Shin Bet security service said Costantini was arrested on suspicion of belonging to, and transferring funds to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The militant group, known as the PFLP, was involved in hijacking passenger planes in the 1960s and 1970s and later claimed responsibility for suicide attacks during the Second Intifada, or Palestinian uprising, in the early 2000s. It is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

The Shin Bet said Costantini arrived in Israel on May 2 last year on a tourist visa and was summoned for interrogation last September about her alleged involvement with the PFLP. Costantini did not report to authorities “and even continued her activities" for the militant group, the security agency said. Israel deported her on Monday afternoon, the Interior Ministry said.

The COBAS leftist labor union in Pisa, Italy, to which Costantini belongs, expressed “consternation” at the news of her arrest and deportation. The union said it was concerned for Costantini's “health and safety.”

The group described Costantini as a specialist working with students with disabilities who has long sought to defend "those whose rights are denied.” Several months ago, the group said, Costantini left her life in Italy and moved to a Palestinian refugee camp. It made no mention of the Israeli security agency's allegations.

The Italian consulate in Jerusalem did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Israeli and Italian foreign ministries also did not comment.

But on Monday, the day of Costantini's deportation, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen wrote on Twitter that he held a phone conversation with his Italian counterpart. The readout of the call focused on the countries' joint efforts to “fight terrorism” and boost their “political cooperation." It made no mention of Costantini’s case.

Israel has stepped up its fight in recent years against Palestinian activists and rights groups. Last summer, the Israeli military raided and shuttered the offices of Palestinian human rights organizations that it designated as terrorist groups over their alleged links to the PFLP. Nine European countries rejected Israel's charges against the rights groups, citing a lack of evidence.

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

New Israeli power broker seeks to rewrite history to justify violence against Palestinians


Curtis Hutt, Executive Director,

 Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights,

 University of Nebraska Omaha
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Right-wing Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir has a long history of anti-Palestinian efforts. AP Photo/Oded Balilty

A right-wing Israeli politician is trying to recast a key part of American history.

That’s not a usual subject for an Israeli Cabinet member. But Itamar Ben-Gvir is trying to make his anti-Palestinian movement seem less extremist and more appealing to Jews and the international community. A rewrite of American history could help him do it.

In a November 2022 speech in Jerusalem after the recent Israeli elections, Ben-Gvir memorialized Rabbi Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist leader from the U.S. who moved to Israel and was both elected to Israel’s Parliament and convicted of terrorism before being assassinated in 1990. Ben-Gvir declared that Kahane and his followers saved Jews from the Soviet Union’s antisemitism during the 1970s and 1980s.

Kahane is best known in the U.S. as the founder of the Jewish Defense League, which was originally headquartered in New York City. From the 1960s through about 2001, this group was responsible for numerous terrorist and racist attacks against African Americans, Muslims, Jewish academics and public figures, as well as foreign diplomats.

The Conversation U.S. asked Curtis Hutt, the executive director of the Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights at the University of Nebraska Omaha – an academic unit supported by donors who fought to free Soviet Jewry – to review Ben-Gvir’s claim and his motivations.
Who is this person?

Itamar Ben-Gvir is a newly elected member of the Knesset, Israel’s national legislature. He has also been appointed national security minister in the right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who in December 2022 again became Israel’s prime minister, a post he previously held from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021.

Ben-Gvir is a longtime supporter of Israeli Kahanist movements fighting for a theocratic Jewish state. The members of those movements support Israeli dominion over the territory they call “greater Israel,” which includes not only present-day Israel but also the Palestinian territories.
What role and power does he have in the Israeli government?

Ben-Gvir is a critical part of the Knesset’s majority coalition led by Netanyahu. As the new minister of national security with an expanded portfolio, he is now in charge of Israel’s police and border police in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Other members of the political party he leads, Otzma Yehudit, or “Jewish Power,” now hold ministry positions charged with expanding Jewish development in the Galilee and Negev regions, as well as overseeing cultural and religious heritage.
What constituencies does he represent?

In 1971, Kahane came to Israel from the U.S. and founded the Kach Party to bring his views to the voting public, but it was disqualified from participating in electoral politics in 1987 when changes to Israeli law banned groups that incited racism.

In 1994, Kach member Baruch Goldstein, who had also been a member of the Jewish Defense League, massacred 29 Muslim worshippers in a mosque at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As a result, both Israel and the U.S. declared Kach to be a terrorist organization.

In 2007, Ben-Gvir was convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization – Kach. He also once had a portrait of Goldstein hanging in his living room.

In the 2009 election that brought Netanyahu back into power from the opposition, Kahanist disciple Michael Ben-Ari was elected to the Knesset for the first time. Four years later, he formed a new Kahanist party, Otzma Yehudit, which didn’t win any Knesset seats in the 2013 elections. In 2019, Ben-Ari was banned from running for public office because of his alleged extremist activity.

In the Palestinian-dominated Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir, center, with arm extended, argues with demonstrators objecting to forced evictions of Palestinian residents. Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images

At that time, Ben-Gvir, who was seen as being more moderate and more politically skilled than Ben-Ari, took over party leadership.

In 2022, an alliance between Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party and Bezalel Smotrich’s messianic Religious Nationalists resulted in their candidates’ winning 15 Knesset seats, becoming the third-largest political bloc in Israel and Netanyahu’s primary coalition partner.

Ben-Gvir’s position as co-leader of this extreme right-wing alliance is so strong that his agreement to join Netanyahu’s coalition government includes a commitment to remove the clause in Israel’s Basic Law disqualifying a person from serving in the Knesset for inciting racism – for which Kahane was first banned, and of which Ben-Gvir has also been convicted.
What is Ben-Gvir saying about Rabbi Kahane and his activity?

In his November 2022 speech in honor of Kahane, Ben-Gvir credited Kahane and the Jewish Defense League for leading the successful fight against antisemitism and, specifically, in freeing Jews from the USSR.

During the Cold War, it was extremely difficult for Soviet citizens to leave the country. This put religious minorities like Jews, Protestants and Roman Catholics – all of whom were persecuted by the atheist regime – at great risk. In the 1970s and 1980s, Jewish communities across the U.S. mobilized on behalf of Soviet Jews, seeking to get them safely out of the country, often to Israel.

Throughout this period, the Jewish Defense League repeatedly physically attacked Soviet officials and cultural figures in the U.S. The group took over a New York City synagogue to demonstrate against Soviet diplomats whose offices were across the street.

Members poured blood on a Soviet official in Washington, D.C. They also set off an explosive device during a performance by a Soviet dance troupe. A bomb planted in the office of an agent finding work for Soviet entertainers killed the secretary, Iris Kones.

In my view – and the views of many Jewish leaders at the time – these efforts did not encourage the Soviet Union to change its policies or to release imprisoned dissidents. They were also exclusively focused on Russian Jews, rather than other religious minorities in the USSR, who were in a similar position as Roman Catholics and evangelicals. For the Jewish Defense League and others in Israel like new Israeli Cabinet member Avi Maoz, it was a battle to protect Jews from threats, not a struggle to improve human rights for all.

Sen. Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, and Shirley Goldstein, an advocate for Jewish and human rights, speak while working on a federal law aimed at freeing Soviet Jews from oppression. Goldstein Family Archives in the Criss Library at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

At the same time, the human rights aspect of the struggle in the USSR was a central focus of a U.S. political movement. A wide range of groups, including the Jewish community and its allies, but also Christians in the United States who were likewise aware of abuses against their own churches in the USSR, pushed Congress to act.

In 1975, that effort – not the work of the Jewish Defense League – achieved the enactment of the Jackson-Vanik amendment, which curbed U.S. trade with countries that restricted freedom of movement and other basic human rights. As a result of Jackson-Vanik, by the year 2000, 573,000 refugees, including large numbers of Jews, were able to come to the U.S. Another million Jews made their way to Israel.
What is Ben-Gvir trying to claim credit for?

Ben-Gvir wants to rehabilitate Kahane’s terrorist legacy to gain support among the larger Jewish public in Israel and the U.S. For Ben-Gvir, Kahane’s so-called past successes – as exemplified in the fight to free Soviet Jewry – justify contemporary violent Kahanist tactics on behalf of Israeli Jews against Palestinians, political and religious opposition, the LGBTQ community and others.

He claims that the Jewish Defense League’s violence, even against innocent people, freed the Soviet Jews. In doing so, he is seeking to take credit for what was really a human rights effort. In the meantime, Ben-Gvir and his allies claim that human rights organizations and activists are a danger to Israel because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Ben-Gvir wants people to think that Kahanists were responsible for rescuing Jews from the USSR. History shows that this is not true. Kahanists acted at odds with the human rights activists and politicians responsible for the victory. Ben-Gvir and his allies act to only protect the rights of those they consider to be observant Jews in Israel. In my view, Ben-Gvir, as Israel’s new national security minister, sees Kahane-style aggressions as the best way to protect the Jewish nation-state.

Just as Kahane was uninterested in advocating for the rights of non-Jews in the USSR or elsewhere, I see Ben-Gvir promising aggressive “Jews First” governance for Israel, and a Jewish state expanded at the expense of Palestinians.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Curtis Hutt, University of Nebraska Omaha. 

Read more:

Israel’s new hard-line government has made headlines – the bigger demographic changes that caused it, not so much

A stunning political comeback for Israel’s Netanyahu may give way to governing nightmare ahead

I am the Executive Director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Leonard and Shirley Goldstein Center for Human Rights.

Peru protests highlight rural-urban divides – and a desire to belong

Mitra Taj
Tue, January 17, 2023 

Peru is living through it’s worst conflict this century, and the scenes in many ways are reminiscent of its internal conflict of the 1980s and ’90s: Indigenous villagers carry coffins through the streets, parents wail for children taken too soon, and human rights groups decry excessive government force.

The wave of violent anti-government protests, sparked when interim President Dina Boluarte took office last month, also highlights historic dividing lines in Peru: between the rural, mostly Indigenous poor, and the ruling elites in the capital, Lima.

Many protesters support former leftist President Pedro Castillo, who was arrested in December for trying to illegally take control of Congress and the courts. Mr. Castillo is the son of illiterate farmers from a poor Andean region, and despite his transgressions, he is someone many protesters in rural and Indigenous Peru identify with. Instead of seeing him as a would-be dictator, they see him as the victim of racist elites who never wanted to share power with him – and by extension, them.

Now, they are agitating for President Boluarte’s resignation, the closure of Congress, new general elections, and a new constitution. As death tolls climb, reaching 50 victims nationally since protests exploded in December, the need to identify a peaceful path ahead, starting with healing historic divisions, has grown more urgent.


“We feel we’re hated by those who govern Peru,” says Lucas Pari, a representative of the National Union of Aymara Communities, which supports the protests. “That hatred was always there, but now people are getting organized to demand respect for our fundamental rights to life, to equality, and to our identity.”
“Equal citizens”

At the heart of the current crisis is a long-standing division between those living in the capital, Lima, and rural and Indigenous Peruvians who have faced historic marginalization. Southern Andean regions tend to prefer anti-establishment politicians promising big change, and have produced several campesino uprisings.

After Peru’s independence from Spain, Peruvian campesinos continued to toil as indentured servants on plantations owned by elites up until 1969, when a leftist dictator redistributed land. Many were barred from voting for another decade due to literacy requirements, and scores of communities in Peru’s southern Andes were caught in the crosshairs of bloody battles between leftist insurgents and state security forces and paramilitary groups. Despite a rapid economic expansion during the commodities boom in the early 2000s, extreme poverty has persisted in many rural villages, which frequently lack access to basic sanitation, paved roads, schools, and hospitals.

The pandemic further exposed Peru’s geographic inequality. When the government imposed a strict lockdown, thousands of migrant workers in Lima and other urban hubs were left to trek home en masse after losing their jobs.

Though he had no prior experience governing, Mr. Castillo promised to remedy historic injustices with a new constitution and heavy spending on health and education. Instead, his 16 months in office were marked by corruption scandals, political and managerial missteps, and growing polarization as he blamed his troubles on Lima elites, many of whom tried to overturn the results of his election with unfounded claims of voter fraud.

“When people in Lima saw Castillo’s sombrero they said, ‘No, the son of an illiterate farmer!’ But here people felt ‘he’s one of us. He’s on our team,’” says Rolando Pilco, an anthropologist from Puno, who is Aymara.

Mr. Pilco says the lack of Indigenous representation in national politics is part of the problem. Unlike neighboring Bolivia, where former President Evo Morales passed a constitution that empowered Indigenous groups and introduced quotas for Indigenous representation in Congress, in Peru decision-makers are disproportionately part of the country’s white and mestizo elite.

“People want change. They want to feel like equal citizens in the country,” he says.
Deepening the fury

While Ms. Boluarte was elected alongside Mr. Castillo as his vice president, many who once voted for her now see her as a traitor. They remember her promises to resign when Mr. Castillo faced his first impeachment attempt five months into his administration, and they criticize her for forming a center-right Cabinet backed by Congress, the least popular institution in the country.

A shocking spate of deaths in clashes between security forces and protesters in regions outside of Lima has only deepened the fury.

Last month, protesters blocked dozens of roads, attacked regional airports, and vandalized prosecutors’ offices, courthouses, and factories. Protests were suspended for the holidays but resumed on Jan. 4, and over the past week, the death toll doubled to 50, according to the country’s ombudsman’s office. The worst of the violence unraveled in Juliaca, a highland town in the region of Puno, near Lake Titicaca and the border with Bolivia.

There, in a single day of clashes between police and protesters trying to take control of the airport, 17 civilians were killed, all shot with projectiles from firearms, including multiple bystanders.

“We just want to live in peace,” says Jakeline Zapana, the head of a local animal rights group in Juliaca. One of her group’s young volunteers, Yamileth Aroquipa, was shot dead while making her way to a local market when clashes broke out.

Ms. Aroquipa was 17 years old, bilingual in Spanish and Quechua, and had just started studying psychology. “We’re all in shock,” says Ms. Zapana, who isn’t hopeful military or police officers will be held accountable. The deaths of protesters – especially when they are killed far from Lima – are rarely solved, she says.

The massacre in Juliaca was “the largest registered attack [on] civilians by police since Peru returned to democracy,” says Jo-Marie Burt, a human rights advocate and professor at George Mason University in Virginia. Police are “shooting to kill, aiming at the heads and upper bodies of protesters,” she says.

Ms. Boluarte’s government says it didn’t give orders to fire on protesters and would cooperate with prosecutors. But, in a late-night message to the nation on Friday, she blamed radicals for stirring up unrest, comparing recent vandalism at protests to terrorist attacks by the Shining Path insurgency in the 1980s and ’90s.
“The only way” to take part in politics?

Thousands of Indigenous people were “disappeared” by government-backed death squads without trial during that time period, and for many living in these historically repressed areas, the comparison to the Shining Path was deeply offensive. It’s part of the stigmatization of leftists and Indigenous people that many in Peru have embraced since its return to democracy in 2000.

“We’re not terrorists. We’re people who know that this system has to be changed to bring true representation,” says Janyce Garcia, a protester in her late 50s, marching alongside thousands of demonstrators in Lima on Saturday.

As protesters made their way through Lima’s upscale district of Miraflores, some locals shouted “communist” and “terrorist” at them. A man told a truck full of riot police officers to “burn them all,” referring to the protesters.

“These messages are not innocuous. On the contrary, they contribute to creating an environment of permissiveness and tolerance towards discrimination, stigmatization, and institutional violence against this population. Especially when they come from public authorities,” said Stuardo Rolán, the head of an Inter-American Human Rights Commission delegation that visited Peru last week.

In times of political crisis, peaceful protests can be “the only way for communities that face structural discrimination or political and social exclusion to take part in politics,” he said in a press conference.

Initial hopes for dialogue to end the crisis have faded amid growing polarization. Counterprotesters have launched “marches for peace,” backed by the police, occasionally clashing with demonstrators.

Ms. Boluarte proposed early elections for April 2024, but doing so requires a constitutional reform that lawmakers are reluctant to pass. That has led to growing calls for Ms. Boluarte’s resignation, which could force Congress to schedule a new vote without the need for reforms.

Even with new elections, high levels of polarization could lead to a result similar to the outcome of the 2021 vote, when Mr. Castillo faced a far-right politician in a divisive runoff race.

“There is no promising scenario,” says Peruvian political analyst Fernando Tuesta. “But elections are always an opportunity.”

Peru braces for new rally in Lima despite state of emergency

Mon, 16 January 2023 


Lima was bracing for a new rally against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Monday as thousands of demonstrators began mobilizing in the capital following weeks of deadly unrest.

Protesters from all over the country began heading to Lima over the weekend in a bid to maintain the pressure on authorities, even as a state of emergency war declared in a bid to maintain order.

At least 42 people have died in five weeks of clashes between protesters and security forces, according to Peru's human rights ombudsman.

Supporters of ousted president Pedro Castillo -- who was arrested and charged with rebellion amongst other offenses after trying last month to dissolve parliament and rule by decree -- have set up burning roadblocks, attempted to storm airports and staged mass rallies.

They are demanding Boluarte's resignation, the closure of Congress and fresh elections.

"We're going to be in the capital to make our protest voice heard," Jimmy Mamani, an Aymara indigenous leader from Puno region, told AFP.

Mamani, the mayor of a small village near the border with Bolivia, said peasants from all over Peru had arranged to meet up in Lima for a "peaceful" demonstration.

Protesters are set to defy a state of emergency in the capital.

"It's not right that the executive cannot listen to our demands, they turn a deaf ear," added Mamani, who ruled out dialogue with authorities.

At least 3,000 protesters from Andahuaylas in southeastern Peru were heading for Lima on Monday in a caravan of trucks and buses.

In Cusco province, dozens of peasants were organizing themselves to leave for the capital.

The government extended by 30 days a state of emergency from midnight Saturday for Lima, Cusco, Callao and Puno, authorizing the military to back up police actions to restore public order.

The order also suspended constitutional rights such as freedom of movement and assembly, according to a decree published in the official gazette.

In protest epicenter Puno, the government declared a new night-time curfew for 10 days, from 8:00 pm to 4:00 am.

Almost 100 stretches of road remained blockaded Sunday in 10 of Peru's 25 regions -- a record, according to a senior land transport official.

Castillo, a former rural school teacher and union leader, faced vehement opposition from Congress during his 18 months in office and is the subject of numerous criminal investigations into allegations of widespread graft.

His December 7 ouster sparked immediate nationwide protests, mainly among the rural poor.

- 'Terrible cruelties' -

In the run-up to Monday's demonstrations, attitudes among both protesters and government officials appeared to harden.

"We ask that Dina Boluarte resign as president and that Congress be shut down. We don't want any more deaths," Jasmin Reinoso, a 25-year-old nurse from Ayacucho, told AFP.

Prime Minister Alberto Otarola called for protesters to "radically change" their tactics and opt for dialogue.

"There is a small group organized and paid for by drug trafficking and illegal mining that wants to take power by force," Otarola said on local television.

Defense Minister Jorge Chavez said the government would do everything in its power "to avoid a violent situation" in Lima.

But he also pleaded with protesters to demonstrate "peacefully without generating violence."

An Ipsos poll published Sunday said Boluarte had a 71 percent disapproval rating.

The unrest has been largely concentrated in the southern Andes, where Quechua and Aymara communities live.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has said that in order to end the crisis, these groups need to be better integrated into Peruvian society.

- Radical groups? -

Peru has been politically unstable for years, with 60-year-old Boluarte the country's sixth president in five years.

Castillo has been remanded in custody for 18 months, charged with rebellion and other crimes.

Authorities insist radical groups are behind the protests, including remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group.

As proof, they have presented the capture this week of a former member of that organization, Rocio Leandro, whom the police accuse of having financed some of the unrest.

cm/ljc/dga/bc/mlm

The rich and powerful flocked to Davos via private jet to discuss climate change, study finds

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Tue, January 17, 2023 

CANADIAN MADE

A new Bombardier Global 7500 business jet.

 (Pierre Albouy/AFP via Getty Images)

At the World Economic Forum, which started Monday in Davos, Switzerland, the global business and political elite will discuss how to combat climate change, but their own private jet travel to attend the conference will cause a spike in planet-warming carbon emissions, according to a new study from Greenpeace International.

The research, released last Thursday, which was compiled by the Dutch environmental consultancy CE Delft, found twice as many private jets flew to and from airports serving Davos during the 2022 WEF meeting compared with an average week. The carbon dioxide emissions from these extra flights were equal to putting roughly 350,000 gasoline-powered cars on the road for the same weeklong period.

In recent weeks, Europe has been contending with a number of extreme weather events related to climate change. A heat wave over New Year’s weekend broke records in locations such as Warsaw, Poland, where a temperature of 66 degrees Fahrenheit was 9°F warmer than the previous all-time high. Parts of Switzerland saw temperatures upwards of 68°F, and some ski resorts in the Alps closed due to a lack of snow. In 2022 — the fifth-hottest year on record — heat waves in Europe smashed records for temperatures and wildfire prevalence.

A ski lift in the French Alps is closed temporarily on Jan. 5 due to a lack of snow.

 (Laurent Cipriani/AP)

“Europe is experiencing the warmest January days ever recorded and communities around the world are grappling with extreme weather events supercharged by the climate crisis,” said Klara Maria Schenk, transport campaigner for Greenpeace’s European mobility campaign, in a statement. “Meanwhile, the rich and powerful flock to Davos in ultra-polluting, socially inequitable private jets to discuss climate and inequality behind closed doors.”

The study found that of the 1,040 private jet flights in or out of airports near Davos, 53% were shorter than 466 miles and 38% were under 310 miles. The shortest flight recorded was only 13 miles. Short-haul flights are especially polluting because airplanes are less efficient during landing and takeoff.

For the sake of comparison, the distance between Washington, D.C., and New Haven, Conn., is 305 miles, and between Boston and Washington, D.C., is 440. While it is not uncommon for Americans to fly such distances, Europe has a much more comprehensive, affordable, fast and reliable train network, which serves Davos.

A Rhaetian Railway train pulling into the station at Davos, Switzerland. 

(Gettty Images)

France recently became the first country to ban short flights between cities that are connected by a rail trip of less than two and a half hours. A spokesperson for the French government said at the time that France won’t ban private jets, but it will produce a plan that would reduce private jet usage through taxation and regulation.

Environmentalists are increasingly arguing that the European Union should ban such private flights. Last November, at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, 700 climate activists staged a sit-in on the tarmac in front of 13 private jets preparing for takeoff, grounding all of them for more than six hours.

“The superrich have got used to polluting as they please with a total disregard for people and planet, and private jets are the pinnacle of these luxury emissions that we simply cannot afford,” Jonathan Leggett, one of the activists, later told the Intercept.

On Monday, activists from the Swiss Debt for Climate group held a similar demonstration with a four-hour blockade at the airport in Altenrhein, Switzerland, near Davos.

Climate activists block an airport in Altenrhein, Switzerland, on Monday. 

(Debt for Climate Switzerland/Handout via Reuters)

Attendees at this year’s WEF include European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Philippine President Bongbong Marcos. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz, and Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp were among those meeting with a group of business leaders, including Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri, in Davos on Monday.

In the past, Kerry has been criticized for hypocrisy by conservative media outlets such as Fox News for flying by private jet. Kerry had previously defended his private flights, arguing that his extremely busy travel schedule in the service of combating climate change makes it necessary and noting that he buys carbon offsets to mitigate the impact. But last November, he flew commercial to Egypt to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP27.

Former Vice President Al Gore spoke in Davos on Monday about climate change, arguing that multilateral lending institutions like the World Bank need to make more funding for a clean energy transition available to developing countries. Gore has said that sometimes he has flown by chartering a private jet but that he usually flies commercial. Kerry struck similar notes in his Tuesday speech in Davos.

“I’m convinced we will get to a low-carbon, no-carbon economy — we’re going to get there because we have to,” Kerry said. “I am not convinced we’re going to get there in time to do what the scientists said, which is avoid the worst consequences of the crisis. So how do we get there? ... Money, money, money, money, money, money, money.”

Climate envoy John Kerry speaking at the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.

 (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)

Greenpeace argues that the private jet use makes a mockery of the WEF’s stated commitment to helping prevent catastrophic climate change.

“Davos has a perfectly adequate railway station, still these people can’t even be bothered to take the train for a trip as short as 21 kilometers,” Schenk said. “Given that 80% of the world’s population has never even flown, but suffers from the consequences of climate-damaging aviation emissions, and that the WEF claims to be committed to the 1.5°C Paris Climate Target, this annual private jet bonanza is a distasteful master class in hypocrisy. Private jets must be consigned to history if we are to have a green, just and safe future for all.”

There are other climate-focused protests expected at the forum this week. High-profile youth activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate will be in town to demand an end to new oil and gas drilling projects. Thunberg has made a point of avoiding flying at all when possible, including by sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, but she has flown when alternatives are unavailable.

The WEF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2019, when a previous study of private jet usage for flying to and from the forum sparked criticism, the organization responded that participants are taking fewer private flights each year.

“We have been offering incentives to participants to use public transport for some years,” the WEF said in a statement in 2019. “We also ask that they share planes if they have to use them, something that has been gaining popularity in recent years.”

Amazon will not cut jobs in Italy, unions say after meeting

Tue, January 17, 2023 

MILAN, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Amazon does not plan to cut any jobs in Italy despite a drop in volumes last year, trade unions said on Tuesday after a video meeting with a company representative.

Amazon.com Inc said earlier this month it planned to cut over 18,000 jobs globally and later disclosed it would shut three warehouses in Britain, sparking concerns there could be workforce reductions in other European countries.

Italian trade unions FIT-CISL, Filt-CGIL and UIL Trasporti said in separate statements that during the meeting, called in response to news reports, an Amazon Italy manager said there was no reason for Italian workers to worry.

The manager added that there would likely be cuts in the workforce in Britain and Spain, according to FIT-CISL.

Amazon Italy declined to comment on the meeting but said the company stood by the comments made by Chief Executive Andy Jassy on Jan. 5 about its plans to cut over 18,000 jobs.

 (Reporting by Elvira Pollina, writing by Federico Maccioni; editing by Alvise Armellini, Jon Boyle and Jonathan Oatis)

Microsoft to cut thousands of jobs across divisions - reports

Tue, January 17, 2023 

(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday.

The expected layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook.

Microsoft's move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs.

"From a big picture perspective, another pending round of layoffs at Microsoft suggests the environment is not improving, and likely continues to worsen," Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff said.

U.K broadcaster Sky News reported, citing sources, that Microsoft plans to cut about 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 roles.

The company plans to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported, according to a person familiar with the matter, while Insider reported that Microsoft could cut recruiting staff by as much as one-third.

The cuts will be significantly larger than other rounds in the past year, the Bloomberg report said.

Microsoft declined to comment on the reports.

The company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally, as of June 30, according to filings.

Microsoft is under pressure to maintain growth rates at its cloud unit Azure, after several quarters of downturn in the personal computer market hurt Windows and devices sales.

It had said in July last year that a small number of roles had been eliminated. In October, news site Axios reported that Microsoft had laid off under 1,000 employees across several divisions.

Shares of Microsoft, which is set to report quarterly results on Jan. 24, were marginally higher in late afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Sriraj Kalluvila)

Microsoft to Cut Engineering Jobs This Week as Layoffs Go Deeper

Dina Bass
Tue, January 17, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp. plans to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the matter, joining the ranks of technology giants that are scaling back as the industry prepares for a prolonged slump in demand.

The magnitude of the cuts couldn’t be learned, but the person, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters, said the reduction will be significantly larger than other rounds at Microsoft in the past year. Those cuts impacted less than 1% of the software giant’s workforce of more than 200,000.

Microsoft most recently shrank its workforce in October and July, and has eliminated open positions and paused hiring in various groups. While technology peers such as Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc. and Salesforce Inc. have announced cuts by the thousands in the past few months, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft has so far been taking smaller steps to deal with a worsening global economic outlook and the potential for a protracted slowdown in demand for software and services.

A representative for Microsoft declined to comment. The shares, which have dropped 23% in the past year, were little changed at $240.16 at 3:06 p.m. in New York on Tuesday. Sky News earlier reported the company was planning to cut thousands of jobs, and Insider reported that Microsoft could reduce its recruiting staff by as much as a third.

Microsoft is forecast to post a sales gain of 2% in the fiscal third quarter when it reports earnings on Jan. 24. That would be the slowest revenue increase since fiscal 2017. Since then, Microsoft’s cloud-computing business has fueled a resurgence in growth, but even that business has begun to decelerate in the past year.

Still, the company has waited longer than many other technology leaders to significantly slash staff. Cloud rival Amazon is laying off more than 18,000 employees — the biggest reduction in its history. Facebook parent Meta announced widespread job cuts last fall, and beleaguered social network Twitter Inc. has slashed about half its workforce. Corporate cloud-software maker Salesforce laid off about 10% of workers earlier this month.

SCI FI

‘Unstoppable’ nuclear torpedo built by Russia to devastate cities with radioactive tsunamis

Joe Barnes
Mon, 16 January 2023 

The new torpedoes would be carried on the Belgorod nuclear submarine - Twitter

Russia has built the first examples of an “unstoppable” nuclear torpedo intended to devastate coastal cities by creating radioactive tsunamis, state media has claimed.

"The first set of Poseidons have been manufactured, and the Belgorod submarine will receive them in the near future," Tass, a Russian state news agency reported, quoting an unnamed defence source.

The Poseidon nuclear torpedo has its roots in Soviet plans for a weapon that would be able to render coastal cities on the shores of the United States uninhabitable.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Kremlin propagandists have often threatened to destroy London using the torpedo.

First unveiled by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, in 2018, both US and Kremlin officials believe that the torpedo is a new breed of retaliatory weapon.

The 24 metre long torpedo was designed to travel up to 80mph underwater carrying a two megaton nuclear warhead - more than 100 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

Christopher Ford, then US assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, warned in 2020 that the weapons were being designed to “inundate US coastal cities with radioactive tsunamis".

The US Naval Institute, a military think tank, said the development of Poseidon turned assumptions about submarine-launched nuclear weapons upside down.

The weapon is expected to enter into service around 2027, but has reportedly been blighted by technical difficulties.

In November last year, US intelligence officials reported that initial sea tests had failed.

The torpedo had been due to be tested in the Arctic on the Belgorod - which, at 178 metres long, is the largest submarine in the world.

But the vessel returned to port at Severomorsk, the Russian Northern Fleet base, without any evidence the Poseidon had been tested, according to reports.

Tass reported that the submarine's crew had since completed tests with models of the torpedo.

Analysts, however, say the Kremlin has a history of exaggerating the capability of newly developed weapons.

Justin Crump, of Sibylline, an intelligence and geopolitical risk company, said: “While the Poseidon is certainly a new form of weapon, it is principally a deterrent in nature, designed to avoid missile defence mechanisms.

"Kremlin-sponsored rhetoric about the weapon has often been overblown, particularly the claims aimed at the UK."

There are very few confirmed public details of the weapon apart from apparent Russian simulations of it striking enemy aircraft carriers and coastlines.

Last year, a Russian broadcaster played an animated video which purported to demonstrate how a Poseidon torpedo could "plunge Britain into depths of the sea".

On his Sunday evening prime time show, Dmitry Kiselyov, a leading Kremlin propagandist, said the weapon could be used to turn Britain into a wasteland by drowning it in a 500 metre tsunami of radioactive seawater.

And in response to Britain's decision to send 14 Challenger II tanks to Ukraine, retired general Andrey Gurulev, another Putin loyalist, said the country should be "demolished from the face of the Earth".

 

Russia supposedly produces first Poseidon nuclear torpedoes


Ukrainska Pravda
Mon, 16 January 2023 

Russian media outlets have stated, citing their sources, that the occupiers have produced the first set of Poseidon nuclear torpedoes that are to be deployed at the Belgorod nuclear submarine.

Source: Kremlin-aligned news outlet TASS referring to their own sources; Ukrainian portal Militarnyi

Quote: "According to the source, separate tests of main components, including a nuclear power unit, have been successfully completed."

Details: Nevertheless, it is reported that there is no official confirmation of this information yet.

In June 2022, the source of the Kremlin-aligned news outlet said that the Belgorod was running through tests in the Barents Sea.

The first carrier of Poseidon nuclear submarine UAVs is the Belgorod submarine of the 09852 project. It was launched on 23 April 2019.

American outlets stated in the beginning of November 2022 that some possible tests of a new nuclear-powered torpedo could be prepared.

At the time, the US said that the Belgorod submarine was among the vessels that were taking part in preparing tests for a nuclear weapon.

However, the US detected that Russian vessels left their training ground in the Arctic Ocean and returned to the port without conducting any tests.

The US Intelligence reported that this could indicate Russians having some troubles.

For reference: The Poseidon torpedo is a nuclear-powered unmanned underwater vehicle capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear munitions. Its nuclear propulsion system gives the Poseidon virtually limitless range. It is essentially a nuclear torpedo.

American officials said earlier that the Poseidon’s main purpose is to cause a massive nuclear tsunami that would flood and irradiate coastal cities.

There is no detailed information regarding parameters of this weapon.

The tests of the torpedoes are conducted on the K-329 Belgorod nuclear submarine; after this, the vessel will join the Pacific Fleet of the Naval Forces of the Russian Federation.

One of the Belgorod's main tasks is to carry Poseidon nuclear torpedoes.

A defined assignment of this nuclear torpedo is to carry nuclear munition to the coast of a possible enemy and hit infrastructure and guaranteed unacceptable damage: radiation, tsunami, etc.

The Poseidon can develop the speed over 200 kilometres per hour and the immersion depth of not less than 1 kilometre.

Probable appearance of the Poseidon nuclear torpedo

PHOTO FROM MILITARNYI

EU ombudsman urges parliament 'culture change' over graft scandal


Jerome CARTILLIER
Mon, 16 January 2023 


The EU's ombudsman on Monday said a graft scandal roiling the European Parliament must bring a cultural shift in the bloc's legislative system, to avoid similar alleged misdeeds happening in future.

"We might be witnessing new rules, obviously, we'll have to see whether they are properly enforced –- that's very important," Emily O'Reilly, whose office investigates complaints against EU institutions, told AFP in an interview.

"Then we'll have to see whether there is a culture change."

O'Reilly said there needed to be a push to ensure that lawmakers work only for the public interest and not for themselves, third countries or companies.

"Fundamentally, it comes down to culture," she said.

The head of the European Parliament vowed Monday that MEPs will be subject to new rules against "corruption" and "foreign interference" after a graft scandal linked to Qatar and Morocco.

Roberta Metsola pledged to ensure "more transparency" and "accountability" -- with a "first-step approach" that would include greater scrutiny of "those representing third countries and their interests".

"President Metsola and other leaders need to seize this opportunity, seize this panic and push through genuine reforms," the ombudsman said.

O'Reilly insisted that "the vast majority of MEPs work with a good ethic" as allegations of bribery by Qatar and Morocco have hammered the parliament's image.

"But the thing is that the rules are so lax, or at times not being enforced, that for people who wish to behave badly, they can," she said.

"There is a sense in which the parliament as a whole has resisted the sort of scrutiny that there is on other institutions."

- 'Time will tell' -

The so-called "Qatargate" corruption scandal has grabbed international headlines as a Belgian probe has seen MEP's homes raided, bags full of cash uncovered and senior lawmaker Eva Kaili detained.

Metsola's proposed reforms include more checks on who gets access to parliamentary premises and barring MEPs' activities with non-EU countries "that could create confusion" with their official duties.

Lawmakers' finances will be declared publicly and there will be "more training on whistleblowing", the parliament chief said.

"Time will tell whether they actually do make a difference and whether they are enforced and whether citizens can trust them,” O'Reilly said of the reforms.

A key moment will come when the European Parliament faces its next bloc-wide elections in 2024.

"It's a risk, but it's also an incentive for the parliament and other institutions to do something," she said.

"In a way, the timing is fortuitous because the elections will be happening in less than a year and half's time therefore there is an imperative for the parliament to get its acts together."

jca/maj/del/rox

Brazil capital's security boosted, 39 charged over uprising

Mon, 16 January 2023 


Brazilian authorities moved Monday to upgrade security at government buildings ransacked by rioters, and formally charged 39 people with crimes against the state in the violent January 8 uprising.

District authorities of the capital Brasilia said they would more than double the security deployment at the Esplanade of Ministries and Three Powers Square where the government presence is concentrated.

Eight days earlier, thousands forced their way into the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court, smashing windows and furniture, destroying priceless works of art, and leaving behind graffiti messages calling for a military coup.

Acting district governor Celina Leao told reporters Monday a military police battalion in charge of security would be boosted from 248 to 500 members on a permanent basis for "maximum peace of mind."

Leao is standing in for Ibaneis Rocha, who is the target of an investigation into possible links to the riots and was relieved of his duties for 90 days.

Brazil's deputy justice minister Ricardo Cappelli told the same press conference that investigators were seeking to determine whether there were any "professionals" among the rioters, who clamored for a military coup.

Delegated by the executive to take charge of security in Brasilia after the violence, Cappelli cited witness testimony of "men... with knowledge of the terrain, combat tactics" among the demonstrators.

Leftist new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his justice minister have both said the unrest could not likely have happened without inside help, including from the security forces.

The district of Brasilia has been under federal control by presidential decree since the riots by followers of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro.

Forty-four military police were injured while defending the buildings from rioters, said Cappelli.

The full extent of the damage to national heritage is still being determined.

- 'Anti-democratic acts' -

The public prosecutor's office brought formal charges against 39 people -- among the 1,200 or so still under arrest for the rioting -- for armed criminal association, damage to patrimony, violence against the democratic state, and coup mongering.

"Our concern is that these acts are never repeated again," Attorney General Augusto Aras said.

Aras also ordered a freeze on 40 million reales (US$7.7 million) of assets belonging to the 39 individuals.

Bolsonaro, who is in the United States, has denied any connection to the uprising.

The ex-leader, who for years had sought to cast doubt on Brazil's internationally-hailed election system, has been included in an investigation into the origins of the riots.

Bolsonaro, who offered muted condemnation of the uprising hours after it occurred, appeared in a video released Monday by the Metropoles news website speaking to supporters near his Orlando holiday lodging.

"I regret what happened the 8th, it was something incredible," Bolsonaro is heard to say.

Bolsonaro's former justice minister Anderson Torres -- who was in charge of security in Brasilia when the uprising happened -- was arrested on Saturday.

According to the Federal Police, 1,159 people out of more than 2,000 suspected rioters initially detained remained under arrest.

The public prosecutor's office meanwhile said more than 800 have made initial custody hearing appearances.

The Federal Police (PF), for its part, said a special operation dubbed Ulysses yielded the arrest of one person Monday.

The goal of Ulysses was to track down "persons investigated for anti-democratic acts after the second round of presidential elections" in October "as well as the acts that took place on January 8."

One of three arrest warrants was executed successfully, the PF said in statement without providing details.

Two individuals remain at large.

msi/pr/mlr/tjj/mlm