Op-Ed: How local D.A.s can help protect immigrant families from dangerous federal policies

George Gascón and Miriam Aroni Krinsky
Thu, January 19, 2023 

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Escondido, Calif.

 (Associated Press )

In response to mounting pressure to address the influx of migrants attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, President Biden introduced a slate of new harsh policies earlier this month. That includes the expansion of a Trump-era policy to turn away asylum-seekers escaping persecution, an approach that Biden had previously criticized.

This decision comes amid historic levels of migration to the U.S. and at a time when the response to this crisis by federal and state elected officials has been cruel and chaotic. Rather than grapple with a serious and pressing problem, some have instead used migrants as political pawns by busing them across the country and initiated baseless efforts to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas.

As immigrants ourselves, we understand the devastation that inhumane and uncertain policies will bring. Like our own families, many migrants working their way through Latin America right now in the hopes of entering the U.S. may not have wanted to leave behind family, friends and the only homes they have known. They left because they had no other choice.

While immigration is an issue that can be solved only with bold federal leadership, local elected prosecutors have a critical role to play in responding to policies that can erode trust and thus endanger public safety.

One of us is currently a prosecutor, and the other is a former prosecutor. We know that anti-immigrant policies aren’t just inhumane; they’re also dangerous. Our criminal legal system depends on all members of the community to report crimes, cooperate with investigators, testify in court and join efforts to prevent future violence — but we cannot expect people to collaborate with a government they don’t trust.

Research has shown that Latinx people in the U.S., including both immigrants and U.S.-born citizens, are less likely to contact or offer information to the police if they have been the victim of, or witness to, a crime if they are afraid that officers will look into their or a loved one’s immigration status.

In Los Angeles, 60% of violent crimes never lead to an arrest. We must break down any barrier to detecting, solving and preventing crime, including cruel mandates that could deter participation from the third of the city’s residents who are immigrants, and the estimated 2.2 million non-citizens in the L.A. area who are at risk of deportation.

Elected prosecutors should prevent their local criminal legal systems from becoming a tool to target immigrants. They can do so by making sure immigrant victims, witnesses and defendants are able to enter courthouses without fear of being apprehended by immigration authorities, and by ensuring that witnesses aren’t asked about immigration status. And they can work with others to enact legislation or judicial orders barring immigration agents from making courthouse arrests; assign victims’ advocates to escort fearful undocumented witnesses or victims through the courthouse; and encourage law enforcement partners to refuse to participate in inhumane immigration arrests.

Further, noncitizens who are convicted of nonviolent misdemeanor convictions, which typically carry minimal penalties for citizens, often face a host of penalties beyond their actual sentences, such as apprehension by immigration authorities and deportation.

Several prosecutors’ offices, including the L.A. district attorney, have addressed this problem by requiring that prosecutors consider the immigration consequences of charging decisions and, wherever possible, try to avoid or mitigate immigration penalties. These policies are key in guaranteeing that immigrants, like other community members, are held accountable for what they’ve done, not punished for who they are.

District attorneys should also establish fair, transparent policies for U visas, which provide a legal pathway for noncitizens who report crimes to law enforcement to stay in the country. Federal law grants local prosecutors significant discretion to determine who is able to receive U visas in their jurisdictions, and they should use that power to make U visas widely accessible for eligible crime victims.

As our nation’s immigration debate rages on with no resolution in sight, we think about the individuals and decisions that made it possible for our own immigrant families to come to this country. While addressing national immigration challenges will require the president and Congress to grapple with needed reforms, there are others who have the power to make life-altering decisions that affect individuals now. We hope that every elected prosecutor will embrace their role in protecting and building trust with the immigrants in their communities, and promote everyone's safety and well-being.

George Gascón is the Los Angeles County district attorney. Miriam Aroni Krinsky is founder and executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution and a former federal prosecutor.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Locked up, stripped and tortured: Iran’s protesters reveal the price they pay for defiance

Borzou Daragahi
Thu, January 19, 2023 

Iranians have been protesting for weeks

 (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Sara* had barely begun to take part in the protest near a square in the western Iranian city of Kermanshah. She, her sisters and their mother took off their hijabs and began chanting slogans, “Death to the dictator,” they cried. That’s when plainclothes and uniformed security forces arrayed nearby swooped in. They grabbed them and shoved them into vehicles.

They resisted and tried to get away. But the police assured them they would be held for an hour if they came willingly and simply allowed authorities to record their names.

Instead, the 32-year-old and her family were eventually held for weeks in squalid detention centres in the wake of the protest at the back end of last year. She recounts being threatened, subject to abuse and humiliation before being charged with draconian offences and released on astronomical bails. They were roughed up, separated from each other, and taken one by one into an interrogation room.


“They took off the blindfold,” Sara says in a phone interview. “They told me to remove my clothes. I noticed there was a camera. They told me they would beat me if I didn’t strip.”

She was terrified. Many years earlier she said she had also been arrested as a Kurdish activist and brutally raped by security forces. “When they told me to take my clothes off, I thought five or six men would come rushing in,” she says of her latest ordeal.

Harrowing accounts of abuse and deprivation are emerging from inside Iran’s network of some 250 long-overcrowded detention centres. Tens of thousands of protesters and activists have been detained across four months of protests sparked by the death-in-custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been taken in by morality police for allegedly failing to wear proper Islamic clothing.

Protesters have demanded an overthrow of the Islamic Republic and called for the toppling of its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The response has been harsh. In addition to jailings, four young protesters have been executed after short, secret trials condemned as highly irregular by international observers.

Tehran has sent the message that no one is safe from prosecution. This week a court sentenced Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of former Iranian president Ali Akbar, Hashemi Rafsanjani, to five years in prison after she was arrested in September on charges related to the protests.

The Oslo-based monitoring group Hrana estimates that 20,000 protesters have been arrested, but some legal experts and activists suggest it could be even more. Every day hundreds of activists and family members of the detained gather in front of detention facilities in vigils, seeking to draw attention to those held inside.

Some attribute the relative decline in protests in recent weeks to the detention of the informal protest leaders who have emerged from the movement.

In an interview from Iran, a 30-something legal expert and activist in the city of Arak described to The Independent his own recent arrest and what it showed him about the determination to stamp out the protests.

I was told they would beat me if I didn’t strip
Iranian protester

He said he was abducted by security forces while sitting with friends at a restaurant in Arak in mid-October. He was shoved into a car, blindfolded, and taken to several detention centres over the course of the next several days.

Well-connected and media savvy, he was spared all but one beating throughout his ordeal — for refusing to give interrogators the password to his phone. But even while blindfolded. he heard prisoners weeping, in agony, begging to be released, and was eventually stuffed into a four-ward filled with some 50 prisoners, many of them visibly recovering from harsh beatings.

He described a lack of medical attention for injured, filthy conditions and inedible food.

Over days of hours-long interrogations, he learned that he had been arrested by the intelligence branch of the Revolutionary Guard. He also gleaned the extent to which the his activities had been monitored over the weeks of protest.

His interrogator quizzed him about specific Tweets and Instagram posts, as well as his comments to media outlets. He realised that security forces also had used his phone to track him being near the protests, though not in the heart of them, and accused him of being a ringleader. They knew whom he had met with and which other civil society figures were in his proximity.

“Why are you encouraging people to protest?” he says his interrogator demanded of him.

He was eventually charged with “propagandising against the regime” and freed on bail pending trial.

Solidarity protests have happened in countries all over Europe - including this one in Strasbourg, France (AP)

The legal consultant, who has been in and out of Iran’s prisons for much of his adult life, says the experience of arrests is often enough to discourage all but the most dedicated activists from protests.

He described the experience of one 40-year-old woman who was grabbed by security forces as she was walking home after a protest.

“In the car they pulled her hair and threatened to rape her,” he said. “They ordered her to say, ‘God is great. Khamenei is the leader.’ She thought they would rape and murder her.”

Once she was taken to a police station, the security forces completely changed their behaviour. They became polite and professional, formally charged her and freed her on an exorbitant bail. She continues to suffer nightmares about her ordeal and will likely never return to the protests, says the legal consultant.

Another prisoner, activist Sepideh Qolian – who has been locked up since 2018 – described the brutality of interrogators aiming to extract false confessions from detained protesters in a written account recently smuggled out of Tehran’s Evin prison.

"The exam room is filled with young boys and girls and the shouts of torturers can be heard," she wrote in a letter obtained by BBC.

She described overhearing a young man being pressured into admitting he had attacked one of the those deployed to suppress protests.

"It’s freezing cold and snowing. Near the exit door of the building, a young boy blindfolded and wearing nothing but a thin grey T-shirt sat in front of an interrogator,” she wrote. "He’s shaking and pleading: ‘I swear to God I didn’t beat anyone.’ They want him to confess. As I am passing I shout: ‘do not confess,’ and ‘death to you tyrants.’"

Sara, her mother and sisters say they were held in prison for weeks. They were separated and subject to repeated interrogations. Each was told the others had already been released. But eventually they all found themselves in the same general prison ward.

Sara’s husband lives in Europe, and based on evidence of money he had sent her, she was charged with “collaborating with hostile powers against the regime,” a charge that amounted to treason and carried a potentially heavy prison sentence.

A lawyer in Kermanshah advised the family to head to the Iraqi border and flee the country. She was under a travel restriction. So she and her family hired a smuggler to take them across. The path over the Zagros Mountains was gruelling, and she says she broke her leg along the way.

She and her relatives are now sheltering in Iraq. A veritable prisoner inside a small flat in an Iraqi jurisdiction with strong political and security ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, she is weighing whether to try to join her husband or wait for the right moment to return to Iran.

“My dream is to go back to Iran,” she says. “My hope is that the revolution succeeds.”

*Names have been changed to protect identities

World Court says it has received U.N. request for opinion on Israel occupation


General view of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague

Fri, January 20, 2023 

THE HAGUE(Reuters) - The International Court of Justice on Friday confirmed it had officially received a request from the United Nations General Assembly to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The ICJ is expected to draw up a list of states and organisations that will be able to file written statements, but the press release gave no further information about a timeline for that process. In previous advisory opinions the court also scheduled hearings but it is likely to take at least several months before they can be scheduled.

The Hague-based ICJ, also known as the World Court, is the top U.N. court dealing with disputes between states. Its rulings are binding, though the ICJ has no power to enforce them.

In a move condemned by Israel and welcome by Palestinians, the General Assembly asked the ICJ last month to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel's "occupation, settlement and annexation ... including measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and from its adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures."

The U.N. resolution also asks the ICJ to advise on how those policies and practices "affect the legal status of the occupation" and what legal consequences arise for all countries and the United Nations from this status.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the request for a World Court opinion a "despicable decision".

The ICJ last weighed in on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in 2004, when it ruled that an Israeli separation barrier was illegal. In the same ruling the ICJ judges said that Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory "have been established in breach of international law".

Israel rejected that ruling, accusing the court of being politically motivated.

(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Peru protests: What to know about Indigenous-led movement shaking the crisis-hit country

Eduardo Gamarra, Professor of Politics and International Relations, 

Florida International University
Fri, January 20, 2023 

A movement on the march. 

Carlos Garcia Granthon/Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Peru is in the midst of a political and civil crisis. Weeks of protest have culminated in thousands descending on the capital amid violent clashes and running battles with police.

Triggered by the recent removal from power of former leader Pedro Castillo, the protests have exposed deep divisions within the country and are being encouraged by a confluence of internal factors and external agitators.

The Conversation asked Eduardo Gamarra, an expert on Latin American politics at Florida International University, to explain the wider context of the protests and what could happen next.

What sparked the protests in Peru?

The immediate trigger was events on Dec. 7, 2022, that saw now-ousted President Castillo embark on what has been described as an attempted coup. But whether it was a “coup” is subject to debate. Castillo’s supporters say he was trying to head off a different type of coup, one instigated by Congress.

Castillo – a leftist, Indigenous former teacher from the country’s south – tried to shut down a Congress intent on impeaching him over corruption claims and accusations of treason. He called on the military to support him, and his intention was to form a constituent assembly to reform the country’s constitution. But his plan didn’t work. The military rejected Castillo’s ploy, and Congress refused to be dissolved and went ahead with its impeachment vote, removing him from power.

The events of that day set off the protests that have built in momentum over the subsequent weeks.

But while the events of Dec. 7 were the immediate trigger, it is important to understand that this crisis was long in the making.

What is the wider background of the political crisis?

The crisis is rooted in the nature of Peru’s political system. In part by design, the country’s constitution, which was adopted in 1993 but amended a dozen times since, creates ambiguity in who has the greater power – the president or Congress. Constitutionally, Congress is given enormous scope to limit executive power, including removal through impeachment. The idea was to serve as a bulwark against the excesses of authoritarian-minded presidents. But in reality, it encourages instability and a weak executive. The constitution is so ambiguously written that it also gives wiggle room for presidents who want to shut down Congress, as Castillo unsuccessfully tried to do.

Meanwhile, Peru has seen a dismantling of its old, established political party system. Once-powerful parties no longer exist or struggle to get support. As a result, the country’s party system has fractured – more than a dozen parties are represented in Congress, which makes it hard for any one leader or party to achieve a majority. In short, it makes it hard to govern when you have no legislative base to do so. For example, Castillo had the support of only 15 members of his own party in the 130-seat assembly.

On top of all that, the country is deeply polarized and divided along a number of different lines: ethnic, racial, economic and – as the protests have fully shown – regional.

Who is protesting and just how large is the movement?

First off, they are Castillo supporters. While he had no real power base in the country’s capital, Lima, Castillo – as the first real rural president the country has had – had significant support in the south.

The protests have been concentrated around the city of Puno, but support has come from the whole high Andes of southern Peru.

The area is predominantly Quechua and Aymara – the two major Indigenous groups in the Peruvian south. Peruvian Quechua and Aymara are “first cousins” to the same groups over the border in Bolivia. And this is important in the context of the current protests.

Evo Morales, the former president of Bolivia, has long talked about “runasur” – the concept of uniting Indigenous people across the Andes region.

Morales has been blamed by the Peruvian government for stirring up the protests – indeed he has now been banned from entering Peru. No doubt, Bolivian allies have been in Peru’s south mobilizing the movement, and some have been arrested.

But what you are really seeing is a “Bolivia-ization” of the protest movement in Peru. The tactics of the protest movement in Peru are similar to those of the forces behind the pro-Morales unrest in Bolivia of both 2003 and 2019 – the road blockades, the violence against police that has seen at least one officer killed and others injured. That in no way excuses the the brutal response by police, which has seen more than 50 demonstrators killed.

But even in the treatment of these deaths you see echoes of Bolivia. Just as in Bolivia, protesters are framing the anti-demonstration violence by authorities as a “genocide” – claiming that police are targeting Indigenous groups because of who they are.

In my view, that is incorrect. The police are obviously using excessive force, but the officers involved are themselves, in many cases, Indigenous.

What are the demands of protesters?

Primarily they are trying to force the government in Lima to agree to a constituent assembly to devise a new constitution; what that new constitution would look like is a secondary concern.

They are also trying to force the resignation of the woman brought in to replace Castillo, Dina Boluarte. I believe that is an achievable goal. Boluarte suffers from many of the same problems as her predecessor – she has little real support in Congress and no support in the streets. On top of that, having not been elected into office, she lacks democratic legitimacy in the eyes of many.

President Boluarte has said she will not resign. She is studying the possibility of calling early elections, but there is little chance of her agreeing to a constituent assembly at this time.

As to how this movement will advance the concept of a regional runasur, that is difficult to judge. Certainly the Peruvian situation is no longer just a Peruvian issue – it involves Bolivia, and the protest has vocal support from the Latin American left.

But it is tough to say how well supported the protest movement is within Peru, given how divided the country is. It certainly hasn’t got the backing of urban areas in the north of the country.

Nonetheless, it has shown the mobilizing capacity of Indigenous people – just as in Bolivia. And the goal of many is not to win support, but to demonstrate this strength.
Will Peru’s protest follow the course of past unrest in the region?

That is anybody’s guess. If you follow the logic of the Bolivian comparison you will see increasing turmoil, and potentially more violence – such as that country experienced in 2003 and 2019. If that is the case, returning Peru to the old style Lima-centric politics will be difficult. The deep divides in Peruvian society and the fracturing of its political system make it hard to envision a political force emerging that can deal with all of these issues. And that is what makes the current situation so difficult to resolve.

Meanwhile, comparisons to the protests in Peru that ousted Alberto Fujimori in 2000 may be misplaced. Those protests took place in a very different context – Fujimori was perceived by then as a dictator who had plundered the country of billions of dollars. It was an uprising to remove a dictator.

What you have now is an unpopular ex-president in jail and an unpopular president with contested claims to legitimacy in power. It is very different context. It isn’t a transition from authoritarianism to democracy; it is protest resulting from an inefficient democratic system at a time of a deeply divided country.

This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

It was written by: Eduardo Gamarra, Florida International University.

Read more:

Peru has a new president, its fifth in five years – who is Pedro Castillo?


Amid coup, countercoup claims – what really went down in Peru and why?

As an academic and as director of a university research center, I've received funding from foundations, US government agencies, and multilateral institutions.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERU PROTESTS 

Over 50 injured in Peru as protests cause 'nationwide chaos'






Fri, January 20, 2023 

LIMA (Reuters) -Dozens of Peruvians were injured after tensions flared again on Friday night as police clashed with protesters in anti-government demonstrations that are spreading across the country.

In the capital Lima, police officers used tear gas to repel demonstrators throwing glass bottles and stones, as fires burned in the streets, local TV footage showed.

In the country's southern Puno region, some 1,500 protesters attacked a police station in the town of Ilave, Interior Minister Vicente Romero said in a statement to news media.

A police station in Zepita, Puno, was also on fire, Romero said.

Health authorities in Ilave reported eight patients hospitalized with injuries, including broken arms and legs, eye contusions and punctured abdomens.

By late afternoon, 58 people had been injured nationwide in demonstrations, according to a report from Peru's ombudsman.

The unrest followed a day of turmoil in Thursday, when one of Lima's most historic buildings burned to the ground, as President Dina Boluarte vowed to get tougher on "vandals."

The destruction of the building, a near-century-old mansion in central Lima, was described by officials as the loss of a "monumental asset." Authorities are investigating the causes.

Romero on Friday claimed the blaze was "duly planned and arranged."

Thousands of protesters descended on Lima this week calling for change and angered by the protests' mounting death toll, which officially stood at 45 on Friday.

Protests have rocked Peru since President Pedro Castillo was ousted in December after he attempted to dissolve the legislature to prevent an impeachment vote.

The unrest has until this week been concentrated in Peru's south.

In the Cusco region, Glencore's major Antapaccay copper mine suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises - one of the largest in the country - for the third time this month.

Airports in Arequipa, Cusco and the southern city of Juliaca were also attacked by demonstrators, delivering a fresh blow to Peru's tourism industry.

"It's nationwide chaos, you can't live like this. We are in a terrible uncertainty - the economy, vandalism," said Lima resident Leonardo Rojas.

The government has extended a state of emergency to six regions, curtailing some civil rights.

But Boluarte has dismissed calls for her to resign and hold snap elections, instead calling for dialogue and promising to punish those involved in the unrest.

"All the rigor of the law will fall on those people who have acted with vandalism," Boluarte said on Thursday.

Some locals pointed the finger at Boluarte, accusing her of not taking action to quell the protests, which began on Dec. 7 in response to the ouster and arrest of Castillo.

Human rights groups have accused the police and army of using deadly firearms. The police say protesters have used weapons and homemade explosives.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Isabel Woodford; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Leslie Adler and William Mallard)

Glencore copper mine in Peru suspends operations after another attack


 The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company's headquarters in Baar

Fri, January 20, 2023 

LIMA (Reuters) -Glencore's Antapaccay copper mine in Peru suspended operations on Friday after protesters attacked the premises for the third time this month, the global commodity giant said, as social unrest in the South American nation continued.

Protesters set fire to the workers' area of the camp and began looting around noon local time, demanding the mine cease its operations and join the demonstrators' call for President Dina Boluarte's resignation, Glencore said in a statement.

Though the situation "was under control" by mid-afternoon, the company announced the "temporary stoppage of its operations" due to the "unacceptable risk" faced by its workers. The mine, located in southern Peru and among the country's largest, was also attacked twice last week.

Peru, the world's second-largest copper producer, has been gripped by growing unrest following weeks of sometimes violent anti-government protests triggered by the ouster of the country's former president last month.

Mines and other parts of Peru's extractive industry have faced disruptions due to road blockades set up by protesters.

The Antapaccay mine was operating at a "restricted" capacity due to the protests, the company said earlier this week. The mine has been unable to transport supplies to its facility due to the blockades since Jan. 4, with only 38% of its workforce in place.

Glencore added that the transport of mineral concentrates remains temporarily suspended.

Company installations and four vehicles suffered heavy damage during last week's protests. In one attack, a building was set on fire while at least one worker was inside.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Editing by Isabel Woodford, Marguerita Choy and Paul Simao)

Despite tear gas, Peru protesters vow to keep demonstrating


DANIEL POLITI and FRANKLIN BRICEÑO
Thu, January 19, 2023 

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Peru’s capital Friday and were met with volleys of tear gas for the second straight day, as demonstrators made clear they will keep up their mobilizations to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte.

Many of the protesters in Lima had arrived from remote Andean regions, where dozens have died amid unrest that has engulfed large portions of the country since Pedro Castillo, Peru’s first leader from a rural Andean background, was impeached and imprisoned after he tried to dissolve Congress last month.

“Dina, resign already! What is that you want with our Peru?” said José Luis Ayma Cuentas, 29, who traveled about 20 hours to get to the country’s capital from the southern Puno region, which has been the site of the deadliest state violence over the past month. “We’re staying until she resigns, until the dissolution of Congress, until there are new elections, otherwise we aren’t going anywhere.”

Until recently, the protests had been mainly in Peru’s southern region, with a total of 55 people killed and 700 injured in the unrest, largely in clashes with security forces.

Protesters now want Lima, home to around one-third of Peru’s population of 34 million, to be the focal point of the demonstrations that began when Boluarte, who was then vice president, was sworn into office on Dec. 7 to replace Castillo. The protests sparked the worst political violence in the country has seen in more than two decades.

At the beginning of the Friday’s protests, the demonstrators seemed more organized than the previous day and they took over key roads in downtown Lima waving flags while chanting, “The spilled blood will never ben forgotten,” “The people don’t give up,” and other slogans.

Police appeared more combative than the day before and after standing watch over protesters that had been blocked into downtown streets they started firing volleys of tear gas.

The firing of tear gas also appeared more indiscriminate. A group of protesters who were sitting in a plaza in front of the Supreme Court without causing a disturbance suddenly had to start running as approaching police fired round after round of tear gas that filled the area with smoke and a pungent smell permeated the air.

“I’m indignant, furious,” said Maddai Pardo Quintana, 48, as she offered water mixed with baking soda to protesters to flush their eyes from the tear gas. “They want us to respect them but if they led by example and respected us, we’d also respect them more.”

Pardo came to Lima to protest against Boluarte from the central province of Chanchamayo and vowed to stay in the capital until the president agrees to resign.

Anger at law enforcement was a constant throughout the march as demonstrators yelled “murderers” when they passed rows of police officers wearing helmets and holding up shields.

A few blocks away, Doris Pacori, 56, stood between police officers and protesters who had been blocked from reaching Congress.

“They are servants of the corrupt, cowards with them but abusive with the people,” Pacori, who held a sign that read, “Dina murderer.”

As night fell, protesters got locked into running battles with police while some demonstrators threw water bottles filled with rocks at officers.

Late Friday, Interior Minister Vicente Romero praised police action during the protests, saying that it “has been very professional.”

Protesters were particularly angry at Boluarte for a defiant speech she gave Thursday night in which she accused protesters of fomenting violence, vowed to prosecute demonstrators and questioned where they received their financing.

“You want to break the rule of law, you want to generate chaos so that within that chaos and confusion you take power,” Boluarte said Thursday night.

“The lady is very cold, she has no feelings, no compassion for other people,” Pardo said.

Boluarte has said she supports a plan to hold fresh elections in 2024, two years ahead of schedule, but protesters unanimously say that isn’t fast enough, particularly considering all the deaths in recent weeks.

Protests and clashes with law enforcement also took place in other parts of the country.

In Arequipa, Peru’s second city, police clashed with protesters that tried to storm the airport.

Also in southern Peru, multinational firm Glencore decided to temporary shut down its Antapaccay copper mine after protesters attacked the site.

Castillo, a political novice who lived in a two-story adobe home in the Andean highlands, eked out a narrow victory in elections in 2021 that rocked Peru’s political establishment and laid bare the deep divisions between residents of the capital and the long-neglected countryside.

Photographed through a fence, people who traveled to the capital from across the country camp out at San Marcos University during an ongoing protest against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte's government and Congress in Lima, Peru, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023. Protesters are seeking immediate elections, Boluarte's resignation, the release of ousted President Pedro Castillo and justice for up to protesters killed in clashes with police. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Peru Protesters Gather in Lima in Bid to Topple Boluarte Government



Stephan Kueffner
Thu, January 19, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Peruvian police in riot gear fired tear gas near congress Thursday as protesters massed in downtown Lima to try to topple the fragile government of President Dina Boluarte.

As the nation’s political crisis enters its seventh week, demonstrators from rural areas traveled hundreds of miles in trucks and buses for what some of them called the “takeover of Lima.”

Clashes between crowds and security forces also continued outside the capital, while more than 100 highway blockades remain in place, according to official figures.

The Andean nation has been roiled by its worst political violence in decades since Boluarte took office on Dec. 7, after her predecessor President Pedro Castillo was impeached. Lima had been relatively unscathed, but protest leaders are now taking their demonstrations to the capital in the hope that they will have more impact there than in impoverished rural areas.

In a national address on Thursday night, Boluarte said that her government remains “firm”, despite the protests. She called for talks, but also said that acts of violence committed during the protests will be punished.

Much of the unrest has been concentrated in the south where Castillo had much of his support, and which is also the heartland of the nation’s mining industry, as well as its tourism sector.

Growing Rage

The demonstrators have grown increasingly enraged as the bloodshed increases. Peru’s Public Ombudsman’s Office has confirmed more than 50 deaths related to the unrest.

Police deployed about 11,800 officers in the capital to try to maintain order. Authorities in Arequipa and Cusco closed airports again in response to the unrest.

Read more: Peru Extends Steepest-Ever Interest Rate Rises Amid Turmoil

Protesters are calling for Boluarte and her government to quit, and for fresh elections. Some also want to rewrite Peru’s market-friendly constitution and for Castillo to be released from detention, where he has been kept amid a criminal investigation due to his attempt to shut congress.

Boluarte’s caretaker administration has faced widespread calls to quit from the day it took office, since it has low approval ratings, took office without a clear mandate from voters and was sworn in by a deeply unpopular congress.

“If police repress the demonstration harshly there’s a risk that people could become much more radical, which would add to the pressure on Boluarte to resign,” Peruvian political analyst Andrea Moncada said in a phone interview.

What Bloomberg Economics Says

“Political instability is showing no signs of abating in Peru, and the economic cost is rising. Our analysis puts the total to date at around 2% of GDP. A large march in Lima planned for Thursday risks significantly escalating the problem.”

— Felipe Hernandez, Latin America economist

The protests are also likely to continue to undermine the country’s economic performance. The disruption caused by the protests will cause “significant headwinds” to economic activity, Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a note Tuesday.

UPDATE 2-Thousands march on Peru's capital as unrest spreads, building set ablaze

Thu, January 19, 2023 
By Marco Aquino

LIMA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters in Peru, many from the country's heavily indigenous south, descended on Lima, the capital, on Thursday, angered by a mounting death toll since unrest erupted last month and calling for sweeping change.

Police estimated the march at around 3,500 people, but others speculated it attracted more than double that.

Rows of police in riot gear faced off against rock-hurling protesters on some streets, and one historic building in the city's historic center caught fire late on Thursday.

The building, on San Martin Plaza, was empty when the massive blaze ignited from unknown causes, a firefighter commander told local radio.

Canada-based miner Hudbay said in a statement that protesters had entered the site of its Peru unit, damaging and burning key machinery and vehicles.

"This has not been a protest; this has been a sabotage of the rule of law," Prime Minister Alberto Otarola said Thursday evening alongside President Dina Boluarte and other government ministers.

Interior Minister Vicente Romero disputed claims circulating on social media that the Lima blaze had been caused by a police officer's tear gas grenade.

Over the past month, raucous and sometimes deadly protests have led to the worst violence Peru has seen in more than two decades, as many in poorer, rural regions vent anger at the Lima establishment over inequality and rising prices, testing the copper-rich Andean nation's democratic institutions.

Protesters are demanding the resignation of Boluarte, snap elections and a new constitution to replace the market-friendly one dating back to the days of right-wing strongman Alberto Fujimori in the 1990s.

"We want the usurper Dina Boluarte to step down and call for new elections," said protester Jose De la Rosa, predicting the street protests would only continue.

The protests have been sparked by the dramatic Dec. 7 ouster of leftist former President Pedro Castillo after he tried to illegally shutter Congress and consolidate power.

In buses and on foot, thousands journeyed to Lima on Thursday, carrying flags and banners blasting the government and police for deadly clashes in the southern cities of Ayacucho and Juliaca.

The unrest spread far beyond the capital.

In southern Arequipa, police fired tear gas at hundreds of protesters who tried to take over the airport, local television showed, leading officials to announce the suspension of operations at the Arequipa and Cusco airports.

Boluarte said on Thursday evening that the airports, as well as one in the southern city of Juliaca, had been attacked "in a concerted manner."

"All the rigor of the law will fall on those people who have acted with vandalism," Boluarte said.

The mounting death toll stands at 45, according to the government ombudsman, with the latest victim on Thursday coming from southern Puno region, a woman who succumbed to injuries from a day earlier. Another nine deaths are attributed to accidents related to protest blockades.

STATE OF EMERGENCY

Across the nation, road blockades were seen in 18 of the country's 25 regions, according to transport officials, underscoring the reach of the protests.

Police had increased surveillance of roads entering Lima and political leaders called for calm.

Last week, the embattled Boluarte government extended a state of emergency in Lima and the southern regions of Puno and Cusco, curtailing some civil rights.

Boluarte said the situation in the country was "under control." She called for dialogue.

The president has asked for "forgiveness" for the protest deaths, even as protester banners label her a "murderer" and call the killings by security forces "massacres." She has dismissed calls to resign.

Human rights groups have accused the police and army of using deadly firearms in the protests. The police say the protesters have used weapons and homemade explosives.

"We won't forget the pain the police have caused in the town of Juliaca," said one protester traveling to Lima, who did not give her name. She referred to the city where an especially deadly protest took place this month. "We women, men, children have to fight."

Other protesters pointed to strategic reasons for targeting the coastal capital.

"We want to centralize our movement here in Lima, which is the heart of Peru, to see if they are moved," said protester Domingo Cueva, who had traveled from Cusco.

"We have observed an increase in repressions everywhere," he added. (Reporting by Marco Aquino; Additional reporting by Anthony Marina and Alfredo Galarza; Writing by Adam Jourdan; Editing by Leslie Adler and Bradley Perrett)

RIGHT  WING LABOUR LIKE TORIES
SIR Keir Starmer tells Sadiq Khan there is ‘no case’ for UK to rejoin single market


Dominic Penna
Fri, January 20, 2023 

There is “no case” for Britain rejoining the EU single market, Sir Keir Starmer has said in a rebuke to Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London.

The Labour leader dismissed calls from Mr Khan for a debate on returning to pre-Brexit economic arrangements as he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Last week, Mr Khan called for a “pragmatic debate about the benefits of being a part of the customs union and the single market”.

But Sir Keir told BBC Newsnight: “We would accept that the deal [Boris] Johnson got is not a good deal, and you can see the impact it is having on our economy.

“And that is why we have been clear we want a closer relationship with the EU. That starts with the protocol in Northern Ireland. It then goes into a discussion about how close we can be.

“We can’t go back into the EU. There isn’t a political case for going back into the EU or the single market. But I am having discussions about what a closer trading relationship might look like.”

Sadiq Khan Mayor of London Brexit Labour politics - Leon Neal/Getty Images

Sir Keir has vowed to “make Brexit work” in a bid to win back the support of Red Wall voters – the majority of whom voted for Brexit and deserted Labour for the Tories at the last election.

He has said Labour would negotiate a new security pact with Brussels and implement measures that it says would ease tensions created by checks required by the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Earlier this month, he said a Labour government would introduce a “Take Back Control Bill”, echoing the language used by the Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum, with a view to transferring more powers from Westminster to local communities.

Mr Khan said in his remarks to business leaders at Mansion House that “Brexit isn’t working”, and claimed that “a shift from this extreme, hard Brexit” would help to improve Britain’s economic outlook.

The Mayor acknowledged that the public did not have the appetite for “a return to the division and deadlock” of the years between voting to leave the EU in 2016 and Brexit happening on Jan 31, 2020, but said leaving the blod had had detrimental effects “at a time when we can least afford it”.

The average level of support for staying out of the EU fell below 45 per cent for the first time in October.

CAPITALI$M IS UNSUSTAINABLE
The green revolution is fuelling environmental destruction

Matt Oliver
Fri, January 20, 2023 

A rare earth mine along Myanmar's border with China, an industry causing extreme environmental damage - Supplied by Global Witness

Roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire, the new generation of offshore wind turbines being built at Dogger Bank will be taller than some skyscrapers.

Along with masses of solar panels and electric cars, these feats of human engineering will become the backbone of a new, green economy that will emerge as we abandon fossil fuels.

Yet as we embrace net zero carbon emissions in the name of saving the planet, growing tensions are emerging over what must be done to achieve this goal.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Bank, the switch to “cleaner” renewable energy sources is going to require an unprecedented surge in the extraction of precious minerals from the earth.

Whether it is lithium and cobalt needed for batteries, or rare earth elements used for magnets that power wind turbines and electric car motors, we simply can’t make the green technologies we need without them.

Yet campaigners and researchers warn that the mines producing these minerals raise troubling environmental questions of their own, with the worst examples ravaging landscapes, polluting water supplies and desolating crops. The industry also poses geopolitical challenges for Britain and its allies, with China currently dominating the supply chains.

It means that without drastic improvements to global standards and greater engagement by the West, the switch to clean power risks becoming very dirty indeed.

Henry Sanderson, a business journalist and author of Volt Rush, a book that examines the complicated issues surrounding transition minerals, believes that overcoming these contradictions is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses and policymakers.

“Mining has an impact. And often local communities don't want it,” he says. “So how do you reconcile those facts with the fact we need mining for clean energy technologies?

“It is a hard question to answer. But we are seeing a lot of these trade-offs come up now.

“And if we don't want other countries to control the green transition, we need to grapple with and grasp these issues.”

'Explosion' of mining

The sheer quantity of minerals and metals needed for the green revolution - which entails the widespread electrification of transport and energy production - is staggering.

Minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel will go into batteries that store electricity and power billions of electric cars. Copper will be required for new power lines needed everywhere. Rare earth metals will be used to make magnets that are vital for the spinning parts in wind turbines and electric motors.

What’s more, they will be needed in much bigger quantities than ever before. Whereas a conventional car uses about 34kg of minerals, an electric car requires 207kg, or six times as much, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Meanwhile, a typical offshore wind turbine requires 13 times more minerals than a gas-fired power plant for each megawatt of capacity.

The IEA predicts this will cause demand for critical minerals to soar to 42.3m tonnes per year by 2050 - up from around 7m tonnes in 2020.

Per Kalvig, an expert at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, says this will require an “explosion” of mining in the coming years.

“They’re necessary for wind turbines, for electric vehicles. Europe needs these minerals, and it doesn’t want to continue relying on China to produce them”, he explains.

It is prompting difficult questions for the EU, which believes it will need five times as much rare earth minerals by 2030, a meteoric rise that will require a correspondingly rapid increase in extraction.

Whether the practice of actually mining the materials will be permitted within the bloc is another matter, however.

Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice president, has said there are 11 potentially viable lithium projects in Europe and that if they all become operational they could meet nearly two-fifths of EU demand by 2030. They include sites in Finland, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, the Czech Republic and Austria.

But in Portugal, for example, where large lithium resources exist, there has been persistent opposition from local communities against new mining schemes.

British company Savannah is among those trying to open a project in the northern region of Barroso by 2025 with EU funding. It plans to produce about 5,000 tons of lithium a year.

But despite the company’s protestations that it has been “specifically designed to minimise its impact on the natural environment and local communities wherever possible” – such as new ways of storing waste and recycling 85pc of its water – it has struggled to persuade naysayers.

In Sweden too, where Europe’s biggest ever discovery of rare earth oxides was recently made, progress is proving tricky.

Miner LKAB wants to start producing but needs to secure a string of permits. Meanwhile, a court battle is ongoing over the revocation of a licence in 2016, amid concerns that operations in Norra Karr, in the south of Sweden, were polluting local water supplies.

Given the strength of feeling in communities, Kalvig is doubtful there is the political will in Europe to push through many domestic mining schemes.

“Generally, we experience public resistance against mining projects,” he adds.

But if Europe is unwilling to extract minerals itself for the green transition, it will simply need to import them from somewhere else – and typically, that means Africa and Asia.

A handful of countries currently produce more than three quarters of the world’s supply of critical minerals and rare earth metals – with China chief among them.

The Democratic Republic of Congo was responsible for 70pc of global cobalt production in 2019, for example, while China produced 60pc of the rare earth metals.

Crucially, China dominates refining, with its plants processing 90pc of rare earth metals, between 50pc and 70pc of lithium and cobalt and 35pc of nickel. With the help of generous state subsidies, Chinese companies have spent years snapping up mines in other countries too, from Australia to Chile, the DRC and Indonesia, to further entrench their positions.

It means the question of how far governments are willing to go is not only domestic in nature but geopolitical as well. This is why some are examining the potential of mineral extraction from the sea bed - despite loud protestations from environmental groups.

While China has raced ahead producing critical minerals since the 1980s, the country also presents a cautionary tale of environmental destruction as well.

Lax oversight and poor standards have blighted landscapes and cost rural residents their lives, saddling provincial governments with massive cleanup operations in recent years.

Some of the most visible damage has been in Inner Mongolia, where local media described fields of wheat and corn “carpeted in black dust”, brown-coloured rivers and unusually high numbers of deaths in what became known as “cancer villages” near the mines.

Every year, millions of tonnes of toxic waste was discharged into a 10km wide lake not far from the Yellow River - leading to fears it could poison a source of drinking water used by 150m people.

But worryingly, as Beijing now cracks down on mineral mining at home, it is exporting these same toxic practices elsewhere.
Mining wastelands

In neighbouring Myanmar, parts of the mountainous area known as Kachin already resemble the ravaged wastelands in China.

There, violent militias - with the blessing of the military junta that usurped Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in 2021 - have set up a string of illegal rare earth mines, pock-marking the landscape with bright blue chemical pools, an investigation by the charity Global Witness found.

In a crude and ecologically devastating process, they remove vegetation, drill holes into mountains and inject an acidic solution to effectively liquidate the earth. This is then drained into chemical pools where the liquid evaporates, leaving behind the minerals.

Once the process is finished, the site is abandoned and the militias simply move on, starting all over again in a new location.

Just a few years ago, there were only a handful of these mines. But since then, satellite imagery has revealed hundreds of them - with nearly 3,000 pools recorded across an area the size of Singapore as recently as five months ago.

A RARE EARTH MINE IN NORTHERN MYANMAR, ALONG THE BORDER WITH CHINA (KACHIN SPECIAL REGION 1) IN EARLY 2022. - Supplied by Global Witness

The militia operations are being bankrolled by Chinese businesses, Global Witness claims, and have quickly turned Myanmar into one of the biggest rare earth minerals producers globally.

The price for local people has been poisoned water, chemically-blighted crops and a growing threat of landslides, with experts concerned that the mountains could collapse.

“We found that most of them [companies] are going to China for the production of magnets in green energy technologies, like wind turbines and electric vehicles,” says Hanna Hindstrom, a senior campaigner at Global Witness.

“Of course, it’s a great irony. Because although these technologies are essential to the green energy transition, we are fuelling demand for mining that is causing environmental destruction.

“What we’re seeing in Myanmar is probably the most egregious example of how it could be done, because there's no environmental regulation, no enforcement, nothing - and no cleanup afterwards.

“It is an inherently dirty business.”

Even in places where mining is done legally, the industry’s reputation is chequered.

Glencore, the FTSE 100 miner, was ordered by a High Court judge to pay £280m in fines and costs in November after pleading guilty to a sprawling bribery scheme in Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan.

Meanwhile, BHP, the world’s largest mining company, is battling the biggest group claim in British legal history after the collapse of a dam in southeastern Brazil spewed toxic mud and water over the landscape and residents.

Industry figures say that efforts are constantly under way to improve standards and make modern mining more efficient - but there remain inescapable drawbacks.

The process involves digging up large amounts of earth - which may only be 1pc lithium, cobalt or another kind of metal - crushing it into fine sand, then using chemicals to extract the target minerals.

Anything left over at the end is waste, known as “tailings” in trade jargon. This can be a mix of earth, chemicals, minerals and water - and can often be toxic or even radioactive.

Toxic mud smothering a village after the 2015 bursting of a dam at a mining site operated by Vale of Brazil and BHP Billiton -

 AFP PHOTO / Douglas MAGNODouglas Magno/AFP/Getty Images

What mining companies do with this sludge varies around the world. Some still dump tailings into the nearest water source - as has been done in China and Indonesia - but more standard practice today is to create tailing dams.

However, research has found that one in 100 tailing dams fail, largely due to poor maintenance and monitoring. The comparable figure for water dams is one in 10,000.

Gawen Jenkin, a geology professor at Leicester University, describes tailing dam failures as “appalling” and warns that they have “catastrophic” consequences for the environment and communities.

“We simply have to do better, if we are going to produce these metals at this scale,” he says.

Beyond environmental issues, mining can also take a terrible toll on workers. In the DRC, tens of thousands of children are pressed into working in dangerous, small mines, while research published in medical journal The Lancet has found that labourers working in the African “copperbelt” were at higher risk of having children with birth defects.

At the same time, the degree to which communities truly benefit is up for debate. Big mining projects do indisputably bring jobs, wages and development.

But Gavin Hilson, a professor at Surrey University, says smaller local operations - known as “artisanal miners” - are often muscled out by big multinational corporations in developing countries where state corruption is rife and officials tend to prefer quick wins.

“You just can't have a conversation with these governments about how if we formalise small scale mining and support them, down the road you'll be in a position to tax them. They don't want to hear that,” he says, citing years of field research.

“They want to see the large mining companies come in and set up shop, because then they get revenue from permit fees, from royalties, as well as from exploration companies whose work facilitates or leads to that mine being opened.

“All of that provides instantaneous revenue that can also be renewed.”

The London Mining Network, which monitors Glencore, Rio Tinto, Anglo-American and other miners listed on the London Stock Exchange, argues that the coming “wave of green extractivism” risks “reproducing the same dynamics and practices that caused the climate crisis in the first place”.

“Mining projects increase the threat that an unstable climate already poses,” a report by the group says.

Treasure in the desert

Nearly one in 10 barrels of oil come from Texas's Permian Basin - Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The arid plains of west Texas seem like the furthest place in the world from an ocean.

And yet this lunar-like landscape was once at the bottom of the sea, a huge glittering mass that stretched from the New Mexico border to the southern tip of the state forming what is now called the Permian Basin.

The fossilised remains of the organisms that inhabited this ocean 250 million years ago - now forming oil and gas reserves - have already brought vast wealth to this part of Texas. Nearly one in 10 barrels of oil produced globally come from the Permian field alone.

But Anthony Marchese, chairman of Texas Mineral Resources, thinks the landscape could hold yet more treasure still. His company hopes to develop one of North America’s largest rare earth mineral mines at Round Top mountain, 85 miles east of El Paso.

Marchese believes there is a huge and growing gap in US supply chains for rare earth minerals mined on domestic soil.

His scheme is one of several cropping up across the West, as American and European companies turn their hands once again to the kinds of mining and mineral processing activities that have not been done domestically for decades.

Another mine is already operational at Mountain Pass - the only one of its kind in North America, an hour’s drive from Las Vegas - where JHL Capital Group is extracting neodymium and praseodymium, two metals used to make magnets for electric vehicle powertrains.

There, Joe Biden’s administration has also provided federal funding to ensure a minerals processing facility is established nearby. Other similar initiatives are being pushed with money unlocked through the mammoth - and deceptively-named - Inflation Reduction Act.

In Marchese’s opinion, China’s grip on the market has left the US vulnerable - unable to independently produce even the materials needed for F-35 fighter jets and radar systems. But he acknowledges that ramping up domestic mining will be controversial too.

“It’s a very touchy political issue,” he says. “On the one hand you have a tremendous need for the material. And on the other hand, people don’t want mining of any kind in this country.”

Marchese says that the methods his company uses for mining are far less environmentally damaging then those used in China, and that in the US they are governed by the strictest environmental standards in the world. “If this stuff has to be produced, surely we should produce it here?” he says.

A similar ethos underpins proposals to establish minerals processing facilities in the UK, where multiple projects are progressing. Among the vanguard hoping to break our dependence on Beijing is Pensana, which is building a £125m rare earth minerals processing plant at the Port of Hull in Yorkshire.

Paul Atherley, the company’s chairman, who is also chairing a scheme to establish lithium refining in Teesside, says Pensana’s feedstock will come from a mine in Longonjo, western Angola. He is also seeking to source lithium from Australia for his other company.

“What we're arguing is that Australia, and South America and Africa should be doing what they are good at, which is mining and the extraction phase. And the processing should be done in Europe, in UK chemical parks hooked up to offshore wind, so we create these independent and sustainable supply chains, independent of China, so we can be absolutely sure about how it's mined and how it's processed.”

Many people in the mining industry also speak evangelically about the potential for recycling materials from existing electronics and batteries. Although the point at which a so-called infinite loop - a holy grail situation where all the material can be recovered - is still some time away. Glencore, which counts Tesla, BMW and Samsung among its customers, already has a huge lithium recycling business in North America, a spokesman noted.

Leicester University’s Jenkin says the mining sector is also working to improve the efficiency of processes and reduce the need for harmful chemicals. He has just returned from a trip to the Philippines where he has been helping to extract more useful minerals from tailings than before.

Even further into the future, he says scientists could develop chemical solutions that are harmless for the environment and even methods to extract ore that require circulating liquid through the ground rather than disturbing large amounts of earth.

“There are good sides,” he says. “The standards are ever-improving. And mining provides income to local economies, to national economies. There’s a nuanced debate that people need to have about this - but often it becomes very polarised and it just becomes ‘mining bad’.”

Sanderson too is hopeful about efforts to overhaul the murkier practices in green technology supply chains, arguing that businesses will come under more and more pressure from consumers to clean up their acts. Some efforts are already under way to create a global “battery passport” that would ensure supply chains are transparent and meet the same standards.

“Green products should have clean supply chains, because, by nature, they are supposed to be good for the environment,” Sanderson adds.

“For many years, most consumers were completely blind about how things got made and where the materials came from.

“But we are moving to a greater awareness. And there’s now a strong link between electric vehicle manufacturers and the mining industry - and EV producers do not want to wake up and see the minerals they are using splashed across the front pages or in an Amnesty International report.

“So there are strong incentives - if miners want to be part of the supply chain - to clean up.”

As Jacinda Ardern resigns as NZ prime minister, how do you know if your tank is empty?

Lauren Clark
·Contributor, Yahoo Life UK
Fri, January 20, 2023 

Jacinda Ardern announced this week that she was stepping down as the prime minister of New Zealand. (Getty Images)

Jacinda Ardern this week shocked the world by announcing that she was stepping down from her role as prime minister of New Zealand.

The politician, 42, who has lead the country since 2017, revealed during a press conference that she "no longer has enough in the tank" to do the role justice.

In an emotional speech, the mother of one explained that it was "time to step down", and confirmed that her final day would be no later than 7 February.

She was then seen leaving the New Zealand Labour party’s annual caucus meeting with her husband Clarke Gayford, with whom she shares four-year-old daughter Neve.

Read more: Sandra Bullock and five other celebs who've been open about experiencing burnout

Speaking on Friday outside an airport in the North Island city of Napier, Ardern told reporters that she had “slept well for the first time in a long time” after making the announcement.

The prime minister added that she had felt a “range of emotions”, including sadness and a "sense of relief".

What does it mean to have an 'empty tank'?

According to psychologist Suzy Reading, it's much more severe than a good night's shut-eye or a weekend off can facilitate.

Speaking to PA, she explained: “Having an empty tank is much more than just feeling stressed: when we’re overloaded and under pressure, we feel like we just need an extra day in the week and then we’d be back on track.

The politician shares a young daughter with husband Clarke Gayford. (Getty Images)

"Energetic bankruptcy is a feeling of total overwhelm, like there is nothing left and more time would achieve nothing. It’s a feeling of ‘stop the world, I want to get off’.

"It can be characterised by disengagement, the inability to muster any energy, feeling emotionally distant, numb or dulled, and a sense of helplessness and hopelessness.

"While the toll of stress might feel more physical, the toll of energetic bankruptcy feels more emotional."

Why does it happen?

Reading notes that everyone may be vulnerable to experiencing an "empty tank" at certain points in their life.

She explains: "No one is immune and we can’t always prevent it. There are some traumatic life experiences that result in this natural human response, and we need to take time out and heal.

Read more: Are you at risk of burnout? Signs, symptoms and how to deal with it

"Equally, there are times when it can completely creep up on you – a slow build that feels busy but normal, until suddenly, it’s all too much."
How can you prevent it?

If you’re noticing the feeling of retreat, and "being completely at capacity, unable to meet the demands of your day", then it's likely know you’re reaching your point of overwhelm. "Recharging at this point is essential," says Reading.

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. (Getty Images)

"Things that would normally replenish and recharge us might not touch the sides in this state of depletion, explains Reading. "Any self-care that requires effort or energy will feel too much, and this is a time for being cared for, and not having to do it all on your own."

Reading suggests reaching out to your support network to get help when you're feeling overwhelmed. "Don’t be afraid to reach out to those around you, she explains. :Being heard, validated and understood is helpful, and receiving hands-on comfort is helpful too, like massage or acupuncture."

Being kind to yourself in the recovery process is also key, she adds. "Pacing ourselves compassionately helps – prioritising sleep, rest, nutrition, hydration, movement, time in nature, breath work, and learning to soothe the nervous system all help.

"As does being brave enough to say it’s time to step back."

Additional reporting PA.

Watch: Jacinda Ardern confesses having a 'sense of relief' after stepping down as New Zealand PM

 

 

Israeli forces remove West Bank settler outpost, riling rightists in government


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich hold a news conference, in Jerusalem

Fri, January 20, 2023 

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli security forces on Friday evicted a small group of Jewish settlers from an outpost they erected hours earlier in the occupied West Bank, upsetting pro-settlement members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.

The group had built a handful of small, temporary structures on a rocky field near a larger Jewish settlement, according to pictures carried by Israeli media. Similar outposts have been built and removed many times over the years.

While there were no reports of violence or injuries between the settlers and security officers, Friday's eviction was a test for Netanyahu's new government, which took office about a month ago and includes senior ministers from the far right.

A member of Netanyahu's conservative Likud party heads the Defence Ministry, which runs the authority that coordinates policy in the West Bank, though it ceded some settlement policymaking to hardline politician Bezalel Smotrich.

Smotrich on Friday had instructed the authority that coordinates policy not to remove the outpost until after a discussion next week, according to a statement from his office.

The statement said that Defense Minister Yoav Galant went ahead regardless and ordered its removal, "completely contradicting the coalition agreements that form the basis for the government's existence."

Netanyahu issued his own statement afterwards, saying that "the government supports settlement but only when it is done legally and is coordinated in advance with the prime minister and security officials, which was not done in this case."

Most countries view settlements that Israel has built on land captured in a 1967 war as illegal and their expansion as an obstacle to peace, since they eat away at land the Palestinians claim for a future state.

Israel disputes that and cites biblical, historical and political links to the West Bank, as well as security interests.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry, before the outpost's removal, had condemned its building, calling it "a flagrant challenge to international and U.S. requests that Israel's unilateral and illegal measures must end."

There were minor clashes with stone throwing at the site between Jewish settlers and Palestinians from a nearby village, according to Palestinian witnesses.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)