BEFORE RUSSIA & PUTIN THREATENED THE ICC
International court says it’s ‘undeterred’ by US threats

By KATHY GANNON

September 11, 2018


In this Monday, Sept. 10, 2018 file photo, National Security Adviser John Bolton speaks at a Federalist Society luncheon at the Mayflower Hotel, in Washington. Afghan rights workers are warning that Bolton's blistering attack on the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes allegations will strengthen a climate of impunity in Afghanistan, prolong the war and embolden those carrying out acts of violence. In a speech Monday, Bolton said Washington would not cooperate with The Hague-based court and threatened it with sanctions, saying it put U.S. sovereignty and national security at risk

. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Afghan rights workers warned Tuesday that a blistering U.S. attack on the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes allegations will strengthen a climate of impunity in Afghanistan, prolong the war and embolden those committing acts of violence.

In a speech Monday, U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said Washington would not cooperate with The Hague-based court and threatened it with sanctions, saying it put U.S. sovereignty and national security at risk.

The CIA and U.S. forces have been accused of committing war crimes in Afghanistan.

“It’s very unfortunate because delivering justice to victims will help to facilitate the peace process in Afghanistan,” said Sima Samar, head of Afghanistan’s Human Rights Commission. “Justice is not a luxury. It is a basic human right.”

In The Hague, the ICC said it will continue to do its work “undeterred,” despite Bolton’s condemnation.

The court said in a statement that it was established by a treaty supported by 123 countries. It says it prosecuted cases only when those countries failed to do so or did not do so “genuinely.” Afghanistan is a signatory.

During a three-month period that ended in January, the court received a staggering 1.7 million allegations of war crimes from Afghanistan, although some of those accusations involved entire villages.

Still, thousands of individual statements as well as those filed on behalf of multiple victims were received by the ICC in The Hague. The statements were collected by organizations based in Europe and Afghanistan.

Bolton’s speech came as an ICC judge was expected to announce a decision soon on a request from prosecutors to formally open an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network militants as well as U.S. forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003.

While the Bolton speech “was shocking in many parts,” Washington was not expected to embrace the investigation, said Amal Nasser, permanent representative of the International Federation of Human Rights to the ICC.

Still, “the ICC prosecutor has not hesitated before in demonstrating that it will prosecute major powers,” Nasser said.

“I think what the U.S. is promoting is a sense of the ‘righteousness’ and being above the law,” she said in an email interview, noting the ICC has yet to decide whether there will be an investigation or its scope.

The 181-page prosecution request, dated November 2017, said “information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that members of United States of America armed forces and members of the Central Intelligence Agency committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other locations, principally in the 2003-2004 period.”

Washington’s unequivocal rejection of the court seems likely to embolden Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government, which refused Tuesday to respond directly to Bolton’s outburst, but similarly dismissed war crimes allegations against Afghan National Security Forces as well as its intelligence agency.

President Ashraf Ghani’s deputy spokesman, Shahussain Murtazawi, said the Taliban, the Islamic State group affiliate and as many as 21 other anti-government groups have committed war crimes. He dismissed allegations against Afghan security forces, saying “government forces are always trying to save the people. It is the insurgents who are the killers of civilians.”

The prosecutor’s request says there is “a reasonable basis to believe that members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), in particular members of the National Directorate for Security (NDS) and the Afghan National Police (ANP), have engaged in systemic patterns of torture and cruel treatment of conflict-related detainees in Afghan detention facilities, including acts of sexual violence.”

For human rights activists in Afghanistan, Bolton’s assault dealt a punishing blow to their efforts to end a culture of impunity that has hampered efforts to bring those who committed crimes to justice.

“The solution to put an end to war is by making everyone accountable, whether it is the Taliban or the Haqqani network or whether it is the Americans or the Afghan army or Afghan government,” said Ehsan Qaane, of the Kabul-based Transitional Justice Coordination Group, which represents 26 organizations working in Afghanistan.

The coordination group helped many who wanted to file a claim with the international court.

Victims need to see justice done if they are to begin to heal, Qaane said. He added that some insurgents turned to the Taliban after being detained, tortured and released. Their fight is more about revenge than ideology, he said.

“These people will perhaps stop fighting if they feel they have justice,” Qaane said.

Samar said rights groups cannot dispense justice.

“There is a difference between a human rights defender and a judge,” thus the need for the ICC, she said in a telephone interview. “My concern is that to deny justice is to deny a basic human right and human dignity.”

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Associated Press writers Amir Shah in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Michael Corder in The Hague contributed.

US Supreme Court rules for deaf student in education case

By JESSICA GRESKO

People leave the Supreme Court after oral arguments in Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, Jan. 18, 2023, in Washington. The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled unanimously for a a deaf student who sued his public school system for providing an inadequate education, a case that's significant for other disabled students. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday for a deaf student who sued his public school system for providing an inadequate education. The case is significant for other disabled students who allege they were failed by school officials.

The case the justices ruled in involves Miguel Luna Perez, who attended public school in Sturgis, Michigan. Perez’s lawyers told the court that for 12 years the school system neglected the boy and lied to his parents about the progress he was making, permanently stunting his ability to communicate.

The justices ruled that after Perez and his family settled a complaint against the school system — with officials agreeing to pay for additional schooling and sign language instruction — they could pursue money damages under a different federal law. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in a eight-page opinion for the court that the case “holds consequences not just for Mr. Perez but for a great many children with disabilities and their parents.”

It remains difficult for Perez, who emigrated to the United States from Mexico at age 9, to make himself understood. Perez’s lawyers say the school system failed him by providing an aide who was not trained to work with deaf students, did not know sign language and in later years left him alone for hours at a time. After over a decade, Perez did not know any formal sign language and communicated through invented signs that anyone unfamiliar with his unique signing did not understand, his lawyers have said.

Meanwhile, the school awarded him inflated grades and his parents believed he was on track to earn his high school diploma. Just before graduation, however, his family was told he qualified only for a “certificate of completion.”

His family responded by pursuing claims under two laws: the broad Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination against disabled people, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The latter guarantees children with disabilities a free public education that is tailored to their specific needs.

Perez’s family and the school district ultimately settled the IDEA claims. The district agreed to pay for extra schooling and sign language instruction for Perez and his family, among other things, and he graduated from the Michigan School for the deaf in 2020. After the settlement, the family went to federal court and, under the ADA, sought monetary damages, which are not available under the IDEA.

Lower courts said Perez was barred from pursuing his ADA claims because of language in the IDEA, but the Supreme Court disagreed. Gorsuch wrote: “We clarify that nothing” in the IDEA “bars his way.”

Perez’s lawyer Roman Martinez said in an emailed statement: “We are thrilled with today’s decision. The Court’s ruling vindicates the rights of students with disabilities to obtain full relief when they suffer discrimination. Miguel and his family look forward to pursuing their legal claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

The superintendent of Sturgis Public Schools, Arthur Ebert, who joined the district after the settlement, said in an email that he was “not in a position to comment on the details or the outcome of the case.” But he said that he believes “that every experience provides us with an opportunity to learn and grow.”

“Through this too,” he said, “we will gain knowledge, insight, and understanding that will help us maximize every student’s true potential.”

The Biden administration had also urged the court to side with Perez. The case is Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools, 21-887.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court

US Supreme Court seems split in Navajo Nation water rights case

By JESSICA GRESKO

March 20, 2023

The Colorado River in the upper River Basin is pictured in Lees Ferry, Ariz., on May 29, 2021. The Supreme Court appears to be split in a dispute between the federal government and the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The high court heard arguments Monday, March 20, 2023, in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe. 

(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed split Monday as it weighed a dispute involving the federal government and the Navajo Nation’s quest for water from the drought-stricken Colorado River.

States that draw water from the river — Arizona, Nevada and Colorado — and water districts in California that are also involved in the case urged the justices to rule against the tribe. Colorado says siding with the Navajo Nation will undermine existing agreements and disrupt the management of the river.

But, arguing on behalf of the Navajo Nation, attorney Shay Dvoretzky told the justices that the tribe’s current water request is modest. The “relief that we are seeking here is an assessment of the nation’s needs and a plan to meet them,” he said.

Arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, attorney Frederick Liu said that if the court were to side with the Navajo Nation, the federal government could face lawsuits from many other tribes.

Four of the court’s justices, including its three liberals, seemed sympathetic to the tribe’s case. But other conservatives including Justice Samuel Alito were skeptical during nearly two hours of arguments at the high court.

Alito asked about “some of the real world impacts” of the decision and suggested he’d seen figures indicating that “per capita water on the Navajo Nation is greatly in excess of per capita water for residents of Arizona.” He pointed out that the Navajo Nation’s original reservation was hundreds of miles away from the section of the Colorado River it now seeks water from.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh also asked about the potential consequences of siding with the Navajo Nation, pointing to a brief that said more water for the tribe would necessarily mean less water for Arizona, striking “at the heart of the social and economic livelihood” of the state “with dire consequences.”

The facts of the case go back to two treaties the tribe and the federal government signed in 1849 and 1868. The second established the reservation as the tribe’s “permanent home” — a promise the Navajo Nation says includes a sufficient supply of water. In 2003 the tribe sued the federal government, arguing that it had failed to consider or protect the Navajo Nation’s water rights to the lower portion of the Colorado River.

 A sign marks Navajo Drive, as Sentinel Mesa, homes and other structures in Oljato-Monument Valley, Utah, on the Navajo Reservation, stand in the distance, on April 30, 2020. The Supreme Court appears to be split in a dispute between the federal government and the Navajo Nation over water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The high court heard arguments Monday, March 20, 2023, in a case that states argue could upend how water is shared in the Western U.S. if the court sides with the tribe. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

A federal trial court initially dismissed the lawsuit, but an appeals court allowed it to go forward.

“Is it possible to have a permanent home, farm and raise animals without water?” Justice Neil Gorsuch asked at one point during arguments, suggesting sympathy for the tribe’s case.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, participating in the case via telephone because she wasn’t feeling well, said the government was making the argument that the Navajo Nation can’t do anything to force the government to protect its water rights, something she suggested would have been an “odd agreement” for the tribe to make.

The Colorado River flows along what is now the northwestern border of the tribe’s reservation, which extends into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Two of the river’s tributaries, the San Juan River and the Little Colorado River, also pass alongside and through the reservation. Still, a third of the some 175,000 people who live on the reservation, the largest in the country, don’t have running water in their homes.

The federal government says it has helped the tribe secure water from the Colorado River’s tributaries and provided money for infrastructure including pipelines, pumping plants and water treatment facilities. But it says no law or treaty requires the government to assess and address the tribe’s general water needs. The states involved in the case, meanwhile, argue the Navajo Nation is attempting to make an end run around a Supreme Court decree that divvied up water in the Colorado River’s Lower Basin.

A decision in the case is expected by the end of June when the Supreme Court typically breaks for its summer recess.

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This story has been corrected to show that the court seems split on the dispute, not that the court appeared to be leaning toward the government argument.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT

Macron wants French pension plan implemented by end of year

By SYLVIE CORBET

 French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during the National Roundtable on Diplomacy at the foreign ministry in Paris, Thursday, March 16, 2023. President Macron will explain how he will seek to overcome tensions prompted by his plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron will appear on national television on Wednesday, March 23, 3034 for the first time since his government forced through the bill age amid mass protests. 

(AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the pension bill that he pushed through without a vote in parliament needs to be implemented by the “end of the year.”

Macron, who made the comments in an interview broadcast on national television, said the bill that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 will “continue its democratic path.”

The Constitutional Council needs to review the bill in the coming weeks, and it can only be turned into law after the body gives its approval.

It was the first time that Macron had spoken publicly since his government forced the pension bill through parliament last week, prompting scattered protests in Paris and across the country, some degenerating into violence. His government survived two no-confidence votes at the lower chamber of parliament on Monday.

The 45-year-old French president repeatedly said that he was convinced that the retirement system needed to be modified to keep it financed.

“That reform is not a luxury, it is not fun, it’s a necessity for the country,” he said.

Macron “condemned” violence after his decision last week prompted daily, scattered protests in cities around France, some degenerating into scuffles with police, including in Paris.

He insisted that he “respects” unions and protests organized by opponents to show that they disagree with the pension plan.

Dock workers in Marseille on Wednesday blocked access to the city’s commercial port — France’s biggest — preventing trucks and cars from entering amid a heavy police presence.

Garbage was still piling up on some Paris streets as sanitation workers entered their 17th day of the strike. Authorities issued an order in recent days requiring some garbage employees to ensure a “minimum service” for health reasons.

Oil shipments in the country were partially disrupted amid strikes at several refineries in western and southern France. Gas stations in the country’s southeast region are currently the most affected by shortages.

Unions have called for new nationwide protests and strikes on Thursday to demand that the government simply withdraw the retirement bill. High-speed and regional trains, Paris metro and other public transportation in major cities were expected to be disrupted.

Dock workers stand in front of a burning barricade next the port of Marseille southern France, Wednesday, March 22, 2023.The bill pushed through by President Emmanuel Macron without lawmakers' approval still faces a review by the Constitutional Council before it can be signed into law. Meanwhile, oil shipments in the country were disrupted amid strikes at several refineries in western and southern France. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Reborn Ringling Bros. circus to leap on tour — minus animals

By MARK KENNEDY

This combination of photos shows art renderings for the reimagined Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, reborn without animals. The show, which will offer highwire tricks, soaring trapeze artists and bicycles leaping on trampolines, kicks off its 2023 North American tour this fall. (Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey via AP)


NEW YORK (AP) — The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus has been reimagined and reborn without animals as a high-octane family event with highwire tricks, soaring trapeze artists and bicycles leaping on trampolines.

Feld Entertainment, which owns the “Greatest Show on Earth,” revealed to The Associated Press what audiences can expect during the show’s upcoming 2023 North American tour kicking off this fall.

The 75 performers from 18 countries will include performers on a triangular high wire 25 feet off the ground, crisscrossing flying trapeze artists, a spinning double wheel powered by acrobats and BMX trail bikes, unicycle riders and skateboarders doing flips and tricks.

The tour kicks off in Bossier City, Louisiana, from Sept 29-Oct. 1 and then goes to Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and ends the year in Oklahoma. It restarts in 2024 in Florida, home to Feld Entertainment.
The show is a complete rethink of a modern circus. Feld Entertainment has been working on everything from how to integrate clowns, the branding and the merchandise over the past four years.


“We knew we were going to come back. We didn’t know exactly how,” says Kenneth Feld, chair and chief executive officer of Feld Entertainment. “It took us a long time to really delve in and take a look at Ringling in different ways. It became a re-imagination, a rethinking of how we were going to do it.”

The circus took down its tents after years of declining ticket sales as customers became conflicted about the treatment of circus animals. Costly court battles led to the end of elephant acts in 2016. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals have praised the “animal-free revamp.”

The rebirth extends the circus’ long run that dates back to a time before automobiles, airplanes or movies, when Ulysses S. Grant was president and minstrel shows were popular entertainment.

“There is no substitute for live entertainment. You cannot get an emotional response from people looking at a two-dimensional screen as you can when they are experiencing ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’ or any kind of live entertainment,” says Feld.

The new production design includes moveable staircases and two main stages. Audiences will have a 360-degree view with live camera feeds and virtual reality, and lighting and sound design that tracks the performer.

“The technology in the show is about enhancing experience, not just technology,” said Juliette Feld Grossman, chief operating officer of Feld Entertainment. “We have so much activity and action so we want to make sure that we never miss the biggest moments in the show.”

Grossman said that when she and her team were rethinking what the circus could be, they landed on the concept of fun and a sense of play being critical. She promises to “give the audience something that they haven’t seen or that they didn’t even know to anticipate.”

The Feld family, which bought the circus in 1967, has branched out, buying and creating other large-scale touring shows, such as Disney on Ice, Marvel Live and Monster Jam. Feld said that there is something about the circus that people hold dear.

“Why there is a circus and a form of circus literally every place on the planet is that people emotionally are basically the same,” he said.

“When you’re on a high wire and you’re doing a backward somersault on the wire or you’re doing something really extraordinary, I don’t care where you are. You appreciate that. You understand the danger of it, the thrill of it.”

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERIKA

School library book bans are seen as targeting LGBTQ content

By SCOTT McFETRIDGE, ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE and SARA CLINE

March 20, 2023

1 of 7
Books are displayed at the Banned Book Library at American Stage in St. Petersburg, Fla., Feb. 18, 2023. In Florida, some schools have covered or removed books under a new law that requires an evaluation of reading materials and for districts to publish a searchable list of books where individuals can then challenge specific titles. (Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Teri Patrick bristles at the idea she wants to ban books about LGBTQ issues in Iowa schools, arguing her only goal is ridding schools of sexually explicit material.

Sara Hayden Parris says that whatever you want to call it, it’s wrong for some parents to think a book shouldn’t be readily available to any child if it isn’t right for their own child.

The viewpoints of the two mothers from suburban Des Moines underscore a divide over LGBTQ content in books as Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds pushes an especially sweeping crackdown on content in Iowa school libraries. The bill she’s backing could result in the removal of books from school libraries in all of the state’s 327 districts if they’re successfully challenged in any one of them.

School boards and legislatures nationwide also are facing questions about books and considering making it easier to limit access

“We’re seeing these challenges arise in almost every state of the union,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “It’s a national phenomenon.”

Longstanding disagreements about content in school libraries often focus this year on books with LGBTQ themes as policymakers nationwide also consider limiting or banning gender-affirming care and drag shows, allowing the deadnaming of transgender students or adults in the workplace, and other measures targeting LGBTQ people.

The trend troubles Kris Maul, a transgender man who is raising a 12-year-old with his lesbian partner in the Des Moines area and wants school library books to reflect all kinds of families and children. Maul argued that those seeking to remove books take passages out of context and unfairly focus on books about LGBTQ or racial justice issues.

LGBTQ people are more visible than even five years ago, Maul said, and he believes that has led to a backlash from some who hope limiting discussion will return American society to an era that didn’t acknowledge people with different sexualities.

“People are scared because they don’t think LGBTQ people should exist,” Maul said. “They don’t want their own children to be LGBTQ, and they feel if they can limit access to these books and materials, then their children won’t be that way, which is simply not true and is heartbreaking and disgusting.”

In Louisiana, activists fear a push by Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry to investigate sexually explicit materials in public libraries — and recently proposed legislation that could restrict children and teens’ access to those books — is being used to target and censor LGBTQ content.

Landry, who is running for governor, launched a statewide tip line in November to field complaints about librarians, teachers, and school and library personnel. Landry released a report in February that listed nine books his office considers “sexually explicit” or inappropriate for children. Seven have LGBTQ storylines.

In Florida, some schools have covered or removed books under a new law that requires an evaluation of reading materials and for districts to publish a searchable list of books where individuals can then challenge specific titles.

The reviews have drawn widespread attention, with images of empty bookshelves ricocheting across social media, and are often accompanied by criticism of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican expected to run for president.

The state’s training materials direct the reviews to target sexually explicit materials but also say that schools should “err on the side of caution” when selecting reading materials and that principals are responsible for compliance.

Florida’s largest teachers union is challenging the law, arguing its implementation is too broad and leading to unnecessary censorship. An education department spokesperson did not immediately comment.

DeSantis said the state has not instructed schools to empty libraries or cover books. He said 175 books have been removed from 23 school districts, with 87% of the books identified as pornographic, violent or inappropriate for their grade level.

The Iowa legislation comes amid efforts there to keep a closer eye on public school curriculums and make taxpayer money available to parents for private school tuition. Reynolds, the governor, has made such proposals the core of her legislative agenda, telling a conservative parents group that their work was essential to guarding against “indoctrination” by public school educators.

Under a bill backed by Reynolds, the titles and authors of all books available to students in classrooms and libraries would be posted online, and officials would need to specify how parents could request a book’s removal and how decisions to retain books could be appealed. When any district removes a book, the state Education Department would add it to a “removal list,” and all of Iowa’s 326 other districts would have to deny access to the book unless parents gave approval.

At a hearing on Reynolds’ bill, Republican lawmakers, who hold huge majorities in both legislative chambers, said they might change the proposal but were committed to seeing it approved. The bill has passed a Senate committee and is awaiting a floor vote.

“The parents are the governing authority in how their child is educated, period,” said Sen. Amy Sinclair. “Parents are responsible for their child’s upbringing, period.”

Patrick, a mother of two, expressed befuddlement about why anyone would want to make sexually explicit books available to children.

“I have to believe that there are books that cater to the LGBTQ community that don’t have to have such graphic sexual content in them,” said Patrick, a member of a local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group that has gained national influence for its efforts to influence school curriculum and classroom learning. “There are very few books that have ever been banned and what we’re saying is, in a public school setting, with taxpayer-funding money, should these books really be available to kids?”

Hayden Parris, a mom of two from a suburb only a few miles away, understands the argument but thinks it misses the point.

“A kindergartner is not wandering into the young adults section and picking out a book that is called like, “This Book is Gay,” said Hayden Parris, who is leading a parents group opposed to Iowa’s proposed law. “They’re not picking those books, and the fact that they can pick one out of several thousand books is not a reason to keep it away from everyone.”

Sam Helmick, president of the Iowa Library Association, said communities should decide what’s in their libraries and that it’s important for children to have access to books that address their lives and questions. Helmick didn’t have that ability as a child, and students shouldn’t return to that time, she said.

“Can we acknowledge that this will have a chilling effect?” Helmick asked. “And when you tell me that books about myself as an asexual, nonbinary person who didn’t have those books in libraries when I was a kid to pick up and flip through, but now publishing has caught up with me and I can see representation of me — those will be behind the desk and that’s not supposed to make me feel less welcome, less seen and less represented in my library?”

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Izaguirre reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Cline from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

German group sues Facebook owner Meta over death threats

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent German environmental group said Wednesday that it’s suing Facebook’s parent company Meta over persistent death threats posted on the social network against its staff.

Environmental Action Germany, known by its German acronym DUH, says Meta has failed to take steps to stop the threats of violence regularly directed at DUH director Juergen Resch and others in a Facebook group with more than 50,000 members.

DUH has conducted high-profile campaigns demanding that German cities enforce air quality rules by banning certain heavily polluting vehicles. This has drawn ire from car enthusiasts.

Meta said in a statement that it actively works to stop hate speech on its platforms.

“We are constantly investing in technology and reporting tools so that hate speech can be identified and removed even faster,” the company said. “In this case, we have removed the content that was reported to us.”

German lawmaker Renate Kuenast won a case against Facebook last year forcing the company to remove fake quotes attributed to her from its site and pay damages. Facebook is appealing the ruling.

Amazon cuts 9,000 more jobs, bringing 2023 total to 27,000

By HALELUYA HADEROMarch 20, 2023

An Amazon logo appears on a delivery van, Oct. 1, 2020, in Boston. Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, the company's CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff on Monday, March 20, 2023. The job cuts would mark the second largest round of layoffs in the company's history, adding to the 18,000 employees the company said it would lay off in January. 

(AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon plans to eliminate 9,000 more jobs in the next few weeks, CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to staff on Monday.

The job cuts would mark the second largest round of layoffs in the company’s history, adding to the 18,000 employees the tech giant said it would lay off in January. The company’s workforce doubled during the pandemic, however, in the midst of a hiring surge across almost the entire tech sector.

Tech companies have announced tens of thousands of job cuts this year.

In the memo, Jassy said the second phase of the company’s annual planning process completed this month led to the additional job cuts. He said Amazon will still hire in some strategic areas.

“Some may ask why we didn’t announce these role reductions with the ones we announced a couple months ago. The short answer is that not all of the teams were done with their analyses in the late fall; and rather than rush through these assessments without the appropriate diligence, we chose to share these decisions as we’ve made them so people had the information as soon as possible,” Jassy said.

The job cuts announced Monday will hit profitable areas for the company including its cloud computing unit AWS and its burgeoning advertising business. Twitch, the gaming platform Amazon owns, will also see some layoffs as well as Amazon’s PXT organizations, which handle human resources and other functions.

Prior layoffs had also hit PXT, the company’s stores division, which encompasses its e-commerce business as well as company’s brick-and-mortar stores such as Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, and other departments such as the one that runs the virtual assistant Alexa.

Earlier this month, the company said it would pause construction on its headquarters building in northern Virginia, though the first phase of that project will open this June with 8,000 employees.

Like other tech companies, including Facebook parent Meta and Google parent Alphabet, Amazon ramped up hiring during the pandemic to meet the demand from homebound Americans that were increasingly buying stuff online to keep themselves safe from the virus.

Amazon’s workforce, in warehouses and offices, doubled to more than 1.6 million people in about two years. But demand slowed as the worst of the pandemic eased. The company began pausing or cancelling its warehouse expansion plans last year.

Amid growing anxiety over the potential for a recession, Amazon in the past few months shut down a subsidiary that’s been selling fabrics for nearly 30 years and shuttered its hybrid virtual, in-home care service Amazon Care among other cost-cutting moves.

Jassy said Monday given the uncertain economy and the “uncertainty that exists in the near future,” the company has chosen to be more streamlined.

He said the teams that will be impacted by the latest round of layoffs are not done making final decisions on which roles will be eliminated. The company plans to finalize those decisions by mid to late April and notify those who will be laid off.

Oregon lawmakers approve $200M for housing, homelessness

By CLAIRE RUSH

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Mass timber affordable home prototypes are shown at the Port of Portland in Portland, Ore. on Jan. 27, 2023. Oregon lawmakers are expected to approve $200 million in spending to tackle the state's homelessness and housing crises. The package will be voted on by the state Senate on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, after passing the House with bipartisan support. 

(AP Photo/Claire Rush, File)



PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon lawmakers passed a sweeping $200 million housing and homelessness package on Tuesday, displaying a bipartisan will to tackle two of the state’s most pressing crises.

The vast majority of the funding — about $157 million — is aimed at boosting homelessness and eviction prevention services. The money will go toward increasing shelter capacity, addressing youth homelessness, and funding rapid rehousing efforts and rental assistance programs.

“This bill will help us build more housing, get people off our streets and make our communities more safe,” Democratic state Sen. Aaron Woods, who carried one of the two bills in the package, said on the Senate floor.

Like much of the U.S. West, Oregon has struggled with a surge in homelessness driven in part by high costs and a lack of affordable housing options. Analysts and agencies estimate Oregon is short 140,000 housing units, and federal data shows its homeless population has increased by 22% since 2020.

The crises are affecting both cities and rural regions. About 4,000 of the nearly 18,000 homeless people in the state live in rural areas, according to the latest 2022 federal point-in-time count.

The Senate approved the package Tuesday night, with half of the chamber’s Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, voting in favor. The legislation passed the House last week with support from both parties.

Lawmakers pointed to the package’s investments outside cities — nearly $27 million is earmarked specifically for rural areas to combat homelessness — as the fruits of cross-aisle negotiation.

“I have rural communities in my district as well that need this housing opportunity for our homeless. Homeless don’t just reside in urban communities,” Republican state Sen. David Brock Smith, who represents a rural southern Oregon district, said on the Senate floor. “I’m going to be a yes vote so that I can be a part of the solution.”

The package will also direct $20 million to ramp up factory-produced modular housing, in a bid to meet Gov. Tina Kotek’s housing construction target of 36,000 units per year — an 80% increase over current production.

Republican state Sen. Daniel Bonham, who voted against the package, said cutting bureaucratic red tape and creating more incentives for housing developers would better address the issue.

Some members of the public submitted written testimony opposing the high spending. But most nonprofits and housing groups expressed support, saying it would help communities that are disproportionately impacted by homelessness and the affordable housing shortage.

“Promoting stability in the state’s housing laws will increase the wellbeing of communities of color in Oregon,” Jenny Lee, deputy director of the Coalition of Communities of Color, said in written testimony.

The package will now head to Kotek’s desk for her signature.

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Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Retired soldiers, policemen try to storm government headquarters in Lebanon

By BASSEM MROUE

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Retired army soldiers and other protesters who are protesting demanding better pay, clashes with Lebanese army and riot police, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Lebanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to break through the fence leading to the government headquarters in downtown Beirut Wednesday amid widespread anger over the harsh economic conditions in the country.

(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese security forces fired tear gas on Wednesday to disperse hundreds of protesters, mainly retired soldiers, who tried to break through the fence leading to the government headquarters in downtown Beirut.

The violence came amid widespread anger over the harsh economic conditions in the country, where mismanagement by the ruling class has been rampant for years, preceding the economic meltdown that started in late 2019.

The retired soldiers and policemen demanding better pay clashed with riot police and troops. Several people suffered breathing problems from the tear gas. The protesters hurled stones at the officers protecting the government headquarters and repeatedly tried to break through the fence.

There was no immediate information about any injuries during the violence. The protest was called for by retired soldiers and depositors who have had limited access to their savings after local banks imposed informal capital controls amid the crisis.

The controls restrict cash withdrawals from accounts to avoid folding amid currency shortages. People with dollar accounts can only withdraw small sums in Lebanese pounds, at an exchange rate far lower than that of the black market.

Since early Wednesday, riot police and army special forces were deployed around the government headquarters, an Ottoman-era three-story building known as the Grand Serail of Beirut.

The Lebanese pound hit a new low on Tuesday, selling for more than 143,000 pounds to the dollar before making some gains. The pound has lost more than 95% of its value over the past three years. The official rate is 15,000 pounds to the dollar.

“My monthly salary is $40. How can I survive,” screamed a retired army officer.

Most people in Lebanon get paid in Lebanese pounds and have seen the value of their salaries drop over the past years as the pound crashed.

With trust in the pound declining, most grocery stores, restaurants and other businesses have opted to start pricing their goods and services in dollars. While this “dollarization” aims to ease inflation and stabilize the economy, it also threatens to push more people into poverty and deepen the crisis.

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean nation of 6 million people, including 1 million Syrian refugees, is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by a political class that has ruled the country since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

The political class has also resisted the implementation of reforms demanded by the international community. Since the economic meltdown began, three-quarters of the population, which includes 1 million Syrian refugees, now lives in poverty and inflation is soaring.

Lebanon has also stalled on reforms agreed to with the International Monetary Fund to enable access to $3 billion in a bailout package and unlock funds in development aid to make the economy viable again.