Myanmar lawyer accused of helping army slain by guerrillas


FILE - A supporter shows a portrait of former leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest marking the two-year anniversary of the military takeover that ousted her government outside the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, on Feb. 1, 2023. Lawyers for Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is serving a 33-year prison sentence on charges widely considered contrived by the military who overthrew her elected government, have been denied meetings with her even though they are in the process of making several appeals. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More


GRANT PECK
Sat, March 25, 2023

BANGKOK (AP) — A veteran corporate lawyer has been shot dead in Myanmar’s biggest city by self-proclaimed urban guerrillas, highlighting the bloody struggle between the military government and its foes in the country’s cities as well as the remote countryside.

Min Tayza Nyunt Tin was shot multiple times while driving his car in Yangon on Friday, according to a business colleague, media reports and a statement from the guerrilla group.

The group, calling itself Urban Owls, accused him of being a business associate of the country’s military leaders who seized power two years ago, and claimed he helped them launder money in order to buy real estate and business assets abroad in deals totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Its claims could not be independently verified, and a colleague of Min Tayza denied the guerrillas’ allegations. The victim was the founder and CEO of BIZ Law Consult Myanmar, a law firm specializing in intellectual property and trademark law.

Media outlets sympathetic to the military reported on the Telegram messaging app that the 56-year-old was shot by members of the People’s Defense Force.

It's a loosely organized armed wing of the pro-democracy National Unity Government, which opposes the military government that was established when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Many of the opposition forces operate autonomously of the National Unity Government.

The army takeover triggered widespread peaceful protests that were quashed with lethal force, triggering armed resistance that U.N. experts now characterize as civil war.

Urban guerrillas have carried out targeted killings, arson and small bombings since 2021. Victims included officials and members of the military as well as people believed to be informers or military collaborators. In November 2021, a former navy officer who was the chief finance officer of Myanmar’s military-linked telecommunications company was fatally shot on a Yangon street.

The army has clamped down harshly on opponents in the cities, arresting thousands and using deadly force even against nonviolent demonstrators. According to a detailed list by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organization, at least 3,160 civilians have been killed by security forces since the army seized power.

The statement issued by the Urban Owls guerrillas cited what it claimed were social media postings by Min Tayza, including one that expressed gratitude to former air force commander Myat Hein for helping him make his fortune.

The guerrillas’ statement also claimed Min Tayza “has publicly announced on Facebook that he shall ‘only provide services to reliable friends and supporters of the military’ shortly after the 2021 coup took place.”

The citations could not be verified, because the Facebook account where the comments allegedly were posted is marked as a private one.

The guerrillas' statement said the shooting is “yet another warning to all business tycoons and associates” of the country's military.

“We are among many guerrilla groups in Yangon who are aware of your money laundering schemes and blood money deals, and shall spare no one standing against the Spring Revolution of Myanmar,” it said.

A member of BIZ Law Consult Myanmar company confirmed Min Tayza’s death to The Associated Press on Friday night but denied the allegation of his military links. The person spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest by the military and attacks by urban guerrillas.

“I want to say that none of the allegations are correct. We only give services for intellectual property for business firms. We are not associated with them (the military),” the person said.

The firm’s Facebook page also promotes opening bank accounts, buying property and getting retirement visas in neighboring Thailand, where the company has an office. Well-to-do Myanmar residents, not just supporters of the military, have sought to transfer assets to Thailand, which they consider a safe haven.

Myanmar’s economy has been in shambles due to civil disobedience, mismanagement by the military and economic sanctions imposed by Western nations as a consequence of the army’s seizure of power and human rights abuses.

On Friday, the U.S. government announced a new set of sanctions against two individuals and six companies meant to stem the supply of jet fuel to Myanmar. Activists say blocking the supply of jet fuel can hinder Myanmar’s military from carrying out air strikes in the countryside, which often cause civilian casualties.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M SMUGGLING
Bolsonaro's legal woes deepen with undeclared diamond gifts





Lawyer Paulo Cunha, left, accompanied by adviser Osmar Crivelatti, arrives to return weapons received by Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro at the Federal Police headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, March 24, 2023. Representatives of Bolsonaro on Friday returned weapons he received from the United Arab Emirates and a set of jewels from Saudi Arabia, both of which he received during his presidency, as he was ordered to do by a Brazilian government watchdog. 

(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE
Fri, March 24, 2023 

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Undeclared diamond jewelry brought into Brazil from Saudi Arabia has deepened the legal jeopardy of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. An investigation into two sets of jewels reportedly worth millions is only the latest scandal threatening the far-right politician. But an extensive paper trail and even videos could make the case particularly daunting for Bolsonaro.

WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE DIAMONDS?

Federal police and prosecutors are investigating whether Bolsonaro tried to sneak two sets of expensive diamond jewelry into Brazil without paying taxes — and whether he improperly sought to prevent the items from being incorporated into the presidency’s public collection. Authorities are also looking into whether he enlisted public officials to try to bypass customs.

The first set of jewels, composed of earrings, a necklace, a ring and a watch by Swiss brand Chopard, arrived in Brazil in October 2021 through Sao Paulo’s international airport with an adviser to the then minister for mines and energy, Bento Albuquerque, according to the newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo, which first reported the case in early March.

Customs authorities seized the jewels, which are reportedly worth $3 million. A video released by television network Globo shows Albuquerque at customs later the same day stating that the jewels were for Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelle.

A second set of jewels, also made by Chopard and including a watch, a pen, a ring, cuff links and a piece resembling a rosary, slipped past authorities and ended up in Bolsonaro’s possession. The watch is worth about $150,000, the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported.

A government watchdog on March 22 ordered Bolsonaro to turn the jewelry over to the state-owned Caixa Economica Federal bank, as well as firearms he received as a gift from authorities in the United Arab Emirates. Bolsonaro's representatives did so on Friday.

Brazil requires its citizens arriving by plane from abroad to declare goods worth more than $1,000 and, for any amount above that exemption, pay a tax equal to 50% of their value. The two sets of jewelry would have been exempt from tax had they been a gift from the state of Saudi Arabia to the nation of Brazil, but would not have been Bolsonaro's to keep.

Bruno Dantas, a member of Brazil’s government watchdog, said a president could receive a gift for personal use without paying taxes as long as it was of low value, such as a T-shirt of a country’s national football team. Expensive jewelry does not meet the criteria, he said.

The watchdog said it will audit all gifts received by Brazil’s presidency during Bolsonaro’s term.

WHAT DID BOLSONARO DO ABOUT THE CONFISCATED JEWELS?

Documents and video footage appear to show Bolsonaro making multiple unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the seized jewelry.

A letter from the presidential office was sent to Albuquerque requesting that the jewels be released, O Estado de S.Paulo reported. The ministries of foreign affairs and mines and energy also sent letters pressuring customs authorities. Then Bolsonaro sent a personal letter to customs, O Estado de S.Paulo said.

A last attempt came in the closing days of Bolsonaro's presidency. According to a document viewed by O Estado de S.Paulo, on Bolsonaro's orders a sergeant took a military plane to Sao Paulo’s airport in a failed effort to force the release. Globo released a video of the sergeant speaking with custom authorities.

WHAT LEGAL ISSUES HAS THE CASE RAISED?

The Senate’s transparency commission is investigating whether the sale of a refinery by Brazil's state-controlled oil giant Petrobras to the United Arab Emirates’ Mubadala Capital was related to the jewels. Mubadala didn't respond to a request for comment sent Friday.

Petrobras completed the sale for $1.65 billion one month after the first set of jewels was seized in Sao Paulo. The price was “way below” fair market value, an oil workers’ union said in a recent statement.

Rodrigo Sánchez Rios, a law professor at Pontifical Catholic University in the city of Curitiba, said Bolsonaro could potentially face trial on several counts, including influence peddling, embezzlement, money laundering and corruption.

“This is potentially the crime with the most evidence currently implicating Bolsonaro,” said legal expert Wallace Corbo from the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank and university.

WHAT HAS BOLSONARO SAID ABOUT THE JEWELRY?

“There was no intention on our part to disappear with this material,” Bolsonaro told television network Record on Wednesday during an event in Florida. He previously told CNN Brasil that he neither asked for nor received the confiscated jewelry.

Bolsonaro’s attorney Frederick Wassef said in a statement on March 7 that the former president “officially declared personal property received on trips,” and is the target of political persecution.

WHAT ARE BOLSONARO’S OTHER LEGAL PROBLEMS?

The former president has denied any wrongdoing in all of the various cases under investigation, most recently whether he incited the Jan. 8 riots in which his supporters ransacked the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress one week after leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president.

Bolsonaro is the subject of a dozen investigations by Brazil’s electoral court into his actions during the presidential election campaign, particularly related to his unsubstantiated claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system is susceptible to fraud. If Bolsonaro were found guilty in any of those cases, he would lose his political rights and be unable to run for office in the next election.

Separately, Bolsonaro and his allies are also under investigation in a sprawling Supreme Court-led investigation on the spread of alleged falsehoods and disinformation in Brazil.

Federal police are also investigating Bolsonaro and his administration for alleged genocide of the Indigenous Yanomami people in the Amazon rainforest by encouraging illegal miners to invade their territory and thereby endangering their lives. He has called the accusation a “hoax from the left.”

——-

Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

Opinion: From Mexico to Brazil, Latin America's democracies face a common threat from within


Will Freeman and Beatriz Rey
Sun, March 26, 2023 

Then-Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro posing with soldiers during annual military exercises. 

(Eraldo Peres / Associated Press)

Thirty years ago, Latin America’s nascent democracies did what had once seemed impossible: They confined the militaries that had regularly overthrown them to their barracks.

But now presidents from Mexico to Brazil are coaxing the generals back out — and undermining their democracies in the process. By invitation of elected leaders, militaries across the region are reemerging as a political force: resolving election disputes, putting down protests and taking top government jobs.

In contrast to the region’s Cold War-era militaries, modern Latin American armed forces aren’t governing directly. Often, they’re reluctantly heeding civilian leaders’ calls to wade into politics and governance. But their resurgence nevertheless threatens democracies already beset by election deniers, economic hardship and civil unrest.

Less than a half-century ago, military rule was the norm in Latin America. From Brazil’s 1964 military coup until the fall of the Berlin Wall, generals habitually ousted elected presidents and formed authoritarian juntas, often with U.S. support and in the name of fighting communism. By 1977, repressive military regimes ruled all but four countries in the region.

But by the 1990s, with the lone exception of Cuba, Latin America had embraced democracy. Coup attempts dwindled as military officers accepted civilian rule. In Argentina, junta leaders faced trial. In Chile and Guatemala, where militaries clung to control of some government agencies and offices, elected leaders slowly but surely reformed them. It was a rare and remarkable story of democratic progress in a region with a long history of uncertain rule of law.

But once militaries are firmly under civilian control, it’s up to civilians to manage them responsibly. Most of Latin America’s elected leaders failed that test.

Driven by a combination of pragmatism and opportunism, politicians leveraged military forces to bolster their governments as de facto police forces, state bureaucracies and electoral tribunals. This trend started slowly but quickly gained steam.

Facing governance challenges ranging from rising crime to climate-accelerated natural disasters, elected governments leaned on their armed forces to perform tasks that weaker state institutions couldn’t. Militaries’ competence, loyalty and public trust across the region — second only to the church’s — made them useful to political leaders.

During the 2000s, Latin American leaders used professional soldiers in place of ill-equipped local police forces, putting armies in charge of fighting crime.

In the 2010s, as the region’s economies slowed to a crawl, democracies got messier. Protests and election disputes proliferated, and elected leaders frequently called in the military for backup. The presidents of Chile and Ecuador used troops to enforce curfews and restore order after uprisings in 2019. In Venezuela, Honduras, Nicaragua and, most recently, Peru, troops cracked down on protesters with lethal force.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Latin American governments have dispatched militaries to produce masks in Argentina, enforce stay-at-home orders in Chile and cajole people into quarantine centers in El Salvador.

The region’s politicians have also increasingly enlisted militaries as unofficial political referees. Honduras’ military, at the urging of its Congress, forced then-President Manuel Zelaya into exile in 2009. Bolivia’s military successfully “suggested” President Evo Morales leave office as antigovernment protests raged in 2019. And El Salvador’s populist president, Nayib Bukele, pushed his 2020 agenda through the legislature by filling its halls with gun-toting troops.

Political opportunism has been another driving factor. As the region’s traditional political parties broke down, power-hungry presidents turned to the military in their stead. The late Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chávez, a former military officer, took the tactic furthest, filling the government with generals.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, himself a former army captain, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have both taken pages from his playbook. Bolsonaro, who staffed a third of his Cabinet with military figures, roped top brass into a fruitless hunt for evidence of fraud in last year’s election. López Obrador, who once promised to rein in the military, has instead given its officers roles in security, infrastructure and tourism while creating a new, military-staffed National Guard.

While the risk to Latin American democracy once came from from generals disobeying orders, it now comes from their tendency to follow them. Today’s generals don’t want to replace civilian governments. They’re more focused on safeguarding privileges, budgets and authority.

That doesn’t mean these democracies are safe. Although it’s unlikely that other militaries in the region will go as far as Venezuela’s by fusing with an autocratic ruling party, the militarization of governance and politics is already taking a toll on democracies’ health in a few ways.

First, militarization stifles critical voices in civil society even when it’s not undermining election integrity. Militaries’ capacity for secrecy and intimidation serve them well on the battlefield but don’t mix with healthy democratic politics. Mexican journalists recently revealed that military officials had accessed a reporter’s private messages by infecting his phone with spyware, the latest in a string of similar cases exposed since 2017. After the Peruvian armed forces killed 10 protesters and injured scores more in December, demonstrations began to decline.

Militarizing aspects of governance that are properly left to civilians can also lead to mismanagement, corruption and waste. After the military took over Venezuela’s state-run oil company, its output nosedived. Military officials made costly mistakes as they rolled out Brazil’s pandemic response, sending some 78,000 vaccine doses to the wrong state; they did no better as an ad hoc police force tasked with halting the destruction of the Amazon. And in Mexico, López Obrador’s decision to put the military in charge of building and operating infrastructure shields government contracts from scrutiny.

Finally, militaries sometimes protect their own from accountability. While Colombia convicted 800 soldiers and put 16 generals under investigation for extrajudicial executions between 2002 and 2008, Mexico’s Supreme Court appears to have put all major rulings affecting the military on hold since López Obrador took office. Under a 2017 law, Brazil allows officers accused of abusing civilians to face trial in special military courts.

Brazil’s recently elected president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, offers hope for rolling back militaries' role in government. Since his inauguration in January, he has replaced military figures with civilians in more than 100 government posts. A general who vocally opposes an activist military, Tomás Paiva, became the army’s top commander.

At the same time, Lula is carefully building bridges to avoid alienating the generals. Ten years ago, that might not have been necessary. Today it’s a must — and a testament to how much ground Latin America’s democracies have lost.

Will Freeman is a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Beatriz Rey is a senior researcher at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Gandhi says disqualification 'politically motivated'

BBC
Sat, March 25, 2023 

Rahul Gandhi speaks to the media in Delhi on Saturday, a day after being disqualified from parliament

The leader of Indian's opposition Congress party Rahul Gandhi has said his disqualification by parliament was politically motivated.

On Friday, India's parliament stripped Mr Gandhi of his MP status a day after he was sentenced to two years in prison in a defamation case.

He was convicted by the court for 2019 comments about PM Narendra Modi's surname at an election rally.

The governing BJP says his expulsion conformed with parliamentary rules.

A 2013 Supreme Court order says that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail stands disqualified from the parliament with immediate effect.

Speaking at a news briefing on Saturday, Mr Gandhi said: "It makes me no difference if I'm disqualified... Disqualify me for life.... I will keep going, I will not stop."

Although India's opposition parties don't always agree on political issues, many of them have supported Mr Gandhi over his disqualification. On Friday, 14 parties approached the Supreme Court, alleging that the federal government was misusing investigative agencies to target BJP's opponents.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the action against Mr Gandhi was a consequence of his demand for a parliamentary investigation to probe allegations against the Adani Group.

The huge conglomerate was accused of decades of "brazen" stock manipulation and accounting fraud by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research earlier this year. The Adani Group has denied allegations of financial fraud.

"My job as I see it is to defend the democratic nature of this country," Mr Gandhi said after his disqualification.

"That means defending the institutions of this country, that means defending the voice of the poor people of this country, that means telling the people of this country the truth about people like Mr Adani, who are basically exploiting the relationship they have with the prime minister," he said.

"I was disqualified because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of my next speech on Adani... I can see it in his eyes."

Mr Gandhi's supporters say his disqualification is a sign that India's democratic system is weakening, and more protests against the government are planned in the coming days.

He will not be allowed to take part in national elections due next year, unless his sentence is suspended or he is acquitted in the case.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, said the decision to disqualify Mr Gandhi was in accordance with parliamentary laws, and criticised his party for questioning the verdict.

Federal Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said Mr Gandhi had insulted members of the caste grouping known as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under which the name "Modi" falls.

"Insulting any surname is not freedom of speech," he said.

But some experts have questioned the severity of Mr Gandhi's sentence.

Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor of information at the University of Michigan, said that it was "highly unusual" for a first-time offender like Mr Gandhi to be given the maximum possible punishment of two years' imprisonment.

"Both low-level politicians and parliamentarians in India are known to engage in extreme speech on social media and in their public meetings. A conviction of this scale, with the consequence of removing the primary challenger to Modi, is practically unheard of," Prof Pal added.

India's Rahul Gandhi says he won't stop asking Modi questions


Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of India's main opposition Congress party, arrives at the New Delhi airport

Sat, March 25, 2023 
By YP Rajesh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday he had been disqualified from parliament because he has been asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi tough questions about his relationship with Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani conglomerate.

Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party responded saying Gandhi had been punished under the law for a defamatory comment he made in 2019 and it had nothing to do with the Adani issue.

Gandhi, a former president of India’s main opposition Congress party who is still its main leader, lost his parliamentary seat on Friday, a day after a court in the western state of Gujarat convicted him in a defamation case and sentenced him to two years in jail.

The court granted him bail and suspended his jail sentence for 30 days, allowing him to appeal.

The defamation case was filed in connection with comments Gandhi made in a speech that many deemed insulting to Modi. Gandhi's party and its allies have criticised the court ruling as politically motivated.

"I have been disqualified because the prime minister is scared of my next speech, he is scared of the next speech that is going to come on Adani,” Gandhi told a news conference at the Congress party headquarters in New Delhi.

"They don’t want that speech to be in parliament, that’s the issue,” Gandhi said in his first public comments since the conviction and disqualification.

Gandhi, 52, the scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, did not elaborate on why Modi might not like his next speech.

Gandhi's once-dominant Congress controls less than 10% of the elected seats in parliament's lower house and has been decimated by the BJP in two successive general elections, most recently in 2019.

India's next general election is due by mid-2024 and Gandhi has recently been trying to revive the party's fortunes.

"I am not scared of this disqualification ... I will continue to ask the question, 'what is the prime minister’s relationship with Mr Adani?’,” Gandhi said on Saturday.

OPPOSITION QUESTIONS

Modi's rivals say the prime minister and the BJP have longstanding ties with the Adani group, going back nearly two decades when Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat. Gautam Adani is also from Gujarat.

The Congress party has questioned investments made by state-run firms in Adani companies and the handover of the management of six airports to the group in recent years, even though it had no experience in the sector.

The Adani group has denied receiving any special favours from the government and government ministers have dismissed such opposition suggestions as “wild allegations”, saying regulators would look into any wrongdoing.

Congress, and its opposition allies have called for a parliamentary investigation.

"The life of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an open book of honesty," BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told a news conference called in response to Gandhi's statements on Saturday.

"We don’t have to defend Adani, BJP never defends Adani, but BJP doesn’t target anyone either," Prasad said, accusing Gandhi of habitually lying.

A former federal minister, Prasad listed international business deals the Adani group had signed when a Congress-led coalition government ruled India from 2004 to 2014 and its investments in Indian states ruled by Congress.

"So how is Adani group investing 650 billion rupees ($7.89 billion) in a state ruled by your party," Prasad asked, referring to an announcement by the conglomerate in October that it would invest in the solar power, cement and airport sectors in the western state of Rajasthan, which is ruled by Congress.

Adani's group is trying to rebuild investor confidence after U.S. short-seller Hindenburg Research accused it of stock manipulation and improper use of tax havens - charges the company has denied.

Hindenburg's Jan. 24 report eroded more than $100 billion in the value of the company's shares.

($1 = 82.3340 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by YP RajeshEditing by Robert Birsel and Frances Kerry)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Venezuela: 21 officials, businessmen arrested in oil scheme




Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab arrives for a news conference about corruption cases with the state run oil company, PDVSA, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, March 25, 2023. Venezuela's oil czar, Tareck El Aissami, who announced his resignation on Twitter on Monday, March 20, 2023, pledged to help investigate any allegations involving PDVSA. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)


Associated Press
Sat, March 25, 2023 

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s attorney general said Saturday that 21 people, including senior officials in the government of President Nicolás Maduro and business leaders, have been arrested in connection with a corruption scheme involving international oil sales.

Prosecutor Tarek William Saab said the alleged scheme involved selling Venezuelan oil through the country’s cryptocurrency oversight agency in parallel to the state-run Petróleos de Venezuela SA.

The oversight agency allegedly signed contracts for the loading of crude on ships “without any type of administrative control or guarantees,” violating legal regulations, Saab said, without mentioning the amounts involved. Once the oil was marketed, “the corresponding payments were not made” to the state oil company.

The attorney general’s statement comes five days after Venezuela’s once-powerful oil minister, Tareck El Aissami, resigned amid allegations of corruption against some of his closest associates.

El Aissami said he resigned to “accompany and fully support” the investigations. For now, El Aissami, who was one of Maduro’s trusted ministers, is not facing charges.

The U.S. government designated El Aissami a narcotics kingpin in 2017 in connection with activities in his previous positions as interior minister and governor. El Aissami's resignation was announced two days after the Public Ministry appointed five prosecutors to probe the alleged crimes investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Police.

Among the 10 officials arrested, according to the attorney general, are Col. Antonio Pérez Suárez, the vice president of trade and quality supply at PDVSA; Hugbel Roa, the former minister of food; and Joselit Ramírez, the national superintendent of cryptocurrencies.

Also arrested were 11 businessmen, who will be charged with appropriation or diversion of public assets, influence peddling, money laundering and criminal association, Saab said, adding that the crime of treason against the country will be added to public officials’ charges.

Corruption has long been rampant in Venezuela, which sits atop the world’s largest petroleum reserves. But officials are rarely held accountable — a major irritant to citizens, the majority of whom live on $1.90 a day, the international benchmark of extreme poverty.

Spiking violence strains sectarian ties in Iraqi province




Abdullah Tamim stands next to a poster of his brother Abdel Amir Tamim while holding his brother's graduation robe in Muqdadiyah, Iraq, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Abdel was killed in a sniper attack earlier this month. It is not known who carried out the attack. Diyala province has seen a spike in killings, some connected to sectarian hatreds but others believed linked to rivalries among Shiite factions.

 (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

YASMINE MOSIMANN
Sat, March 25, 2023 

MUQDADIYAH, Iraq (AP) — Hussein Maytham and his family were driving past the palm tree grove near their home after a quiet evening shopping for toys for his younger cousins when their car hit a bomb planted on the moon-lit road.

“I only remember the explosion,” Maytham, 16, said weakly from his hospital bed, his pale arms speckled brown by shrapnel. The attack took place earlier this month in the Shiite-majority village of Hazanieh. The force of the blast hurled the teenager out of the vehicle, but his family – his parents, an aunt and three cousins - perished in the fiery carnage. Residents say gunmen hidden nearby in irrigation canals opened fire, killing two others.

This is the latest in a series of attacks witnessed over the last month in the central Iraqi province of Diyala, located north and east of Baghdad. Security officials say at least 19 civilians have been killed by unidentified assailants, including in two targeted attacks.

The violence is pitting communities against each other in the ethnically and religiously diverse province. It also raises questions whether the relative calm and stability that has prevailed in much of Iraq in the years since the defeat of the extremist group Islamic State can be sustained.


Iraq as a whole has moved on from the conditions that enabled the rise of the Islamic State group and the large-scale bloody sectarian violence that erupted after the U.S.-led invasion 20 years ago, according to Mohanad Adnan, a political analyst and partner at the Roya Development Group.

But some parts of the country, including Diyala, remain tense, with occasional waves of violence reopening old wounds. “There are a few villages, especially in Diyala, where they have not overcome what happened in the past,” said Adnan.

Officials, residents, and analysts say at least one instance of violence in Diyala appears to be a sectarian reprisal by Shiites against Sunnis over an IS-claimed attack. But they say other killings were carried out by Shiites against Shiites, as rival militias and their tribal and political allies that control the province struggle over influence and lucrative racketeering networks. Diyala, bordering both Iran and Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, is a prime conduit for smuggling, including drugs.

The Iranian-backed Badr Organization, a state-sanctioned militia within the Popular Mobilization Forces with a political wing, wrested control of the province from IS in 2015. Since then, it has asserted its dominance over several Shiite political parties and their associated paramilitaries, as well as Sunni groups.

Although most Sunni residents displaced during the war against IS have returned to the province, they say they are often viewed with suspicion by authorities and neighbors due to their perceived affiliation with the extremists. When remnants of the group stage attacks on civilians or security forces, it often prompts a spiral of retaliatory attacks.

In the Sunni village of Jalaylah, nine people, including women and children, were killed in a gruesome attack in late February, two months after they were blamed for allowing an IS attack on a neighboring village, according to security officials.

The attackers moved openly through the area, said villager Awadh al-Azzawi. “They didn’t wear masks. Their faces were clear,” he said.

Residents accuse members of the nearby Shiite village Albu Bali, where IS killed nine in December, of carrying out the attack in revenge. They say the perpetrators belong to local militias using weapons given to them by the state. Security officials affiliated with the armed groups declined to comment.

Banners calling for the blood of the attackers are hoisted on the walls of Jalaylah.

Maytham’s relatives less readily voice their suspicions of who killed their family members, who were Shiite.

“Only God can be certain who is behind this attack,” said Sheikh Mustaf, the teenager’s grandfather, in his reception hall surrounded by guests offering their condolences for the eight killed in the March 3 attack, only describing the attackers as “terrorists.”

A local leader of the Bani Tamim, one of the most prominent Shiite-majority tribes in Diyala, Sheikh Mustaf has called for calm. But tribe members say their weapons are at the ready if authorities do not bring the assailants to justice.

Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani visited Diyala days after the attack, sending military reinforcements to the area. Several have been arrested on terrorism charges and caches of weapons, including mortars, missiles, and ammunition, have been uncovered, according to the security media cell.

“We blame the security forces and the government because they have to secure the area. It’s their responsibility,” said Sheikh Maher, another relative of the deceased and prominent member of the tribe. He blamed “foreign hands” that he said “are trying to return our province back to the days of sectarianism and chaos.”

A provincial security official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said, “what is happening in Diyala is not only terrorism” – a term generally used for attacks by Sunni militant groups like IS – “but also a struggle for influence between armed factions linked to political blocs.”

Experts say internal rifts are emerging within the Bani Tamim clan, who are split in their support among the competing forces of the Badr Organization, the movement of influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and the Iranian-affiliated paramilitary group Asaib Ahl Al-Haq.

“There is a struggle within the tribe in order to impose power and to obtain important positions in Diyala, positions in the Diyala government, and security positions,” the official said.

Iraq analyst Tamer Badawi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Kent, said armed groups are also carrying out attacks to destabilize the area and undermine a crackdown launched by the government against smuggling networks that they have operated for years.

“Now, after cracking down on smuggling, crime is increasing, namely murder and kidnapping for the sake of money,” said the security official.

Residents of Diyala say regardless of the cause of the attack, they feel unsafe and blame Iraqi authorities for letting the attacks happen. “This is terrorism. It’s not about tribes, or sectarianism, it’s terrorism,” said Azzawi.

Voting rights effort targets those held in jails across US
 

GARY FIELDS and MICHAEL TARM
Sat, March 25, 2023 

CHICAGO (AP) — The voting precinct could have been any one of hundreds throughout Chicago, except that these voters in the first round of the mayoral election were all wearing the same beige smocks. And the security at this polling place wasn’t intended to keep disrupters and campaigners out, but the voters in.

When first-time voter Tykarri Skillon finished studying the list of nine candidates, looking for those who shared his priorities on jobs and affordable housing, he marked his ballot and then was escorted with other voters back to their cells in the Cook County Jail.

The 25-year-old, awaiting trial on a weapons charge, is part of a group not always mentioned in discussions about voting disenfranchisement. People serving sentences for felony convictions lose their right to vote. Detainees awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences do retain that right, but face barriers to exercising it in many parts of the United States.

The Cook County Jail, with more than 5,500 inmates and detainees, is one of the largest such facilities in the nation. It is one of several lockups where voting rights advocates have worked with local election and jail officials to offer voting for those held there. The list includes jails in Denver; Harris County, Texas; Los Angeles County; and the District of Columbia.

Expanding jailhouse voting is one of the latest steps to combine voting rights with criminal justice changes.

“It feels good to have a voice,” Skillon said after casting his ballot during early voting, before the race went to an April 4 runoff. “We’re going home someday, so we should have a voice in our community.”

Candidates he chose from included the current mayor, Democrat Lori Lightfoot. Among the issues that damaged her politically was rising crime. She eventually came in third in the election, bumping her from an April 4 runoff between the two top vote-getters, also Democrats.

The most recent survey from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, released last December, showed that 451,400 of the 636,300 people held in jails across the country had not been convicted and thus should retain their right to vote.

Voting rights for pretrial detainees and inmates serving sentences for misdemeanors were upheld in a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 1974, in a case from New York, O'Brien v. Skinner.

Despite that ruling, voting rights advocates say a “de facto disenfranchisement” exists because of mistakes over eligibility and the difficulties that detainees and prisoners face in registering or voting.

In a 2020 report, the Prison Policy Initiative focused on three main reasons: registration is difficult due to issues such as mail-in ballot deadlines and voter ID laws; detention does not meet the criteria for absentee voting in some jurisdictions; and the churn of the jail populations.

At least one state, Tennessee, had a bill introduced this year to address one of the barriers. Being in jail as a pretrial detainee is not one of the reasons considered valid for granting a mail ballot request, said Democratic state Sen. Jeff Yarbro, the bill's sponsor. Yabro, who recently announced he was running for mayor of Nashville, wants that changed.

“Being a full citizen should be the default," he said. "Everybody ought to have the expectation of fully participating in a democracy."

In Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston, about 75% of the nearly 10,000 people held in jail are pretrial. The sheriff's department established a polling place there in 2019, working with the county elections office, and has allowed voting during the past two election cycles. Before that, detainees voted only by mail.

The move started in 2017 with the Houston Justice Coalition and an initiative known as Project Orange that has helped register thousands of detainees and taught them how to navigate the mail ballot process, Nadia Hakim, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Elections Administration, said in an email.

“Previously if detainees wanted to vote, they had to do the legwork,” she said. “They had to know their registration status and make the request for the mail ballot application.”

In-person voting has multiple advantages. The mail ballot application deadline is April 25 for this year's May 6 election. Someone booked after the deadline would not be able to request a mail ballot, Hakim said. With the in-jail polling place, all detainees can vote, as well as members of the staff and public because machines are available in secure and public spaces. In last November's election, 528 people checked in to vote there, including detainees, employees and members of the public, she said.

In California, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Capt. Roel Garcia said staff members let pretrial detainees know they can register and vote and hold voter registration drives. Garcia, who oversees the inmate reception center, said the department works with groups such as the League of Women Voters to get information to the detainees about candidates and issues on the ballot.

The department and the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk have teamed up on a pilot program since 2020 that allows voting in two jails. There are plans to expand it to all eight county jails in 2024.

Registrar Dean Logan said as many as 11,700 people could be eligible at a given time when the voting goes countywide. He said it could serve as a model for other counties.

“I think the in-person vote centers is something where people are watching to see how that’s going to work and whether or not they have the infrastructure, the equipment and the capacity to offer that,” Logan said.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in an interview that giving detainees a sense of empowerment and finding ways to get them to rethink their place in the world and to inspire them to change are constant challenges. He said engaging them as elections approach presents an opportunity to accomplish that.

“If you are trying to get inside someone’s head … what better way to do that than to say we want you to be a real decision-maker?" he said. “I’m not saying it is magic fairy dust. … But all (these) things start moving the dial.”

A 2019 state law required that jails take steps to enable voting by detainees who have not been convicted. Smaller jails aren't required to have polling stations but must arrange for absentee ballots.

Dart said the jail helps organize classes overseen by university staff and other organizations to instruct inmates and detainees, before they vote, on everything from the electoral process to the rationale behind judicial elections. Detainees also are able to tune into televised debates between candidates.

“Their election IQ is off the charts,” Dart said. “Participation level, turnout — is higher than it is outside.”

The sheriff's office said about 1,500 inmates and detainees — or roughly 27% of the jail's population — voted during the first round of the Chicago mayoral election.

The Chicago Board of Elections brought in several voting booths this year along with a large ballot-collection machine and put them in a section of the jail called “the chapel,” which is normally used for religious services and small concerts.

With just a few guards looking on, half a dozen board of elections staff managed the jail polling stations, first helping with registration.

Among the voters was 20-year-old Tony Simmons, who marked his ballot while a dozen others sat in an adjoining room, waiting their turn. For safety reasons, just four were brought into the polling station at a time.

Simmons, who is awaiting trial on burglary, robbery and other charges in Cook County, said he had seen campaign ads on jail televisions featuring tough-on-crime messages. It didn’t bother him, he said, adding that crimes rates should come down.

Asked what kinds of candidates he voted for, he answered: “Ones who were more lenient” on issues surrounding the law and crime.

First-time voter Skillon, the one awaiting trial on a weapons charge, said he believed what many jaded voters outside the walls don't.

“Your vote matters," he said. "One vote can most definitely make a difference.”

___ Fields reported from Washington.

Tykarri Skillon, an inmate at the Cook County, Ill., jail votes in a local election at the jail's Division 11 Chapel on Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Associated Press coverage of democracy receives support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Ammonia Security Risks Could Harm Energy Transition Plans

Editor OilPrice.com
Sat, March 25, 2023

With the recent publication of the IPCC report warning of the devastating effects of global warming and the need for action, the push for energy transition away from hydrocarbons faces new challenges. While green hydrogen and green ammonia are being touted as viable substitutes for hydrocarbons in a low-carbon or Net-Zero future, security risks associated with their transportation and storage are being increasingly acknowledged. This poses a potential threat to Europe's green energy strategies, as NGOs and citizens may oppose these plans due to the higher risks involved.

A report by Berenschot, Arcadis, and TNO suggests that more needs to be done to set up the right policy, law, and regulations to mitigate these risks. The report also indicates that the maritime transport of green ammonia is more cost-effective, leading to an influx of this product in European ports, particularly the Port of Rotterdam. However, this also means that the overall transport volumes of ammonia will be exponentially higher, increasing the risks of a potential disaster involving ammonia.

One potential solution to mitigate these risks is the construction of a new pipeline infrastructure or ammonia-crackers, which would require significant investment and time. Until then, conventional transportation will likely remain the main source.

The current legal and policy arrangements or quotas per transportation volume are already showing major constraints, making it crucial for governments and the EU to act quickly. Failure to do so may result in insufficient transportation volumes for high-risk products, causing the expansion of green ammonia projects to hit a brick wall. Similarly, green hydrogen may also face challenges due to its inherent risk profile and higher emission risks when compared to CO2/CH4.

While the push for a green transition away from hydrocarbons is supported by green and environmental activism, this may change if more reports about security risks are published. This could result in increased societal pressure and opposition, especially considering the higher costs and environmental risks associated with green hydrogen. With the potential for increased opposition, it is unclear whether a green transition without hydrocarbons in the long term is feasible.

In summary, while the push for energy transition away from hydrocarbons to green hydrogen and green ammonia continues, the security risks associated with their transportation and storage pose significant challenges. Governments and the EU need to act swiftly to establish the right policy, law, and regulations to mitigate these risks and ensure sufficient transportation volumes for high-risk products. Otherwise, the expansion of green ammonia projects and the adoption of green hydrogen may face significant opposition and challenges.

By Cyril Widdershoven for Oilprice.com

Black holes may be swallowing invisible matter that slows the movement of stars


Robert Lea
Fri, March 24, 2023 

An illustration of a supermassive black hole ringed with a fiery orange accretion disk ending in a thick ring of black dust

For the first time, scientists may have discovered indirect evidence that large amounts of invisible dark matter surround black holes. The discovery, if confirmed, could represent a major breakthrough in dark matter research.

Dark matter makes up around 85% of all matter in the universe, but it is almost completely invisible to astronomers. This is because, unlike the matter that comprises stars, planets and everything else around us, dark matter doesn't interact with light and can't be seen.

Fortunately, dark matter does interact gravitationally, enabling researchers to infer the presence of dark matter by looking at its gravitational effects on ordinary matter "proxies." In the new research, a team of scientists from The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) used stars orbiting black holes in binary systems as these proxies.

Related: What's the biggest black hole in the universe?

The team watched as the orbits of two stars decayed, or slightly slowed, by about 1 millisecond per year while moving around their companion black holes, designated A0620–00 and XTE J1118+480. The team concluded that the slow-down was the result of dark matter surrounding the black holes which generated significant friction and a drag on the stars as they whipped around their high-mass partners.

Using computer simulations of the black hole systems, the team applied a widely held model in cosmology called the dark matter dynamical friction model, which predicts a specific loss of momentum on objects interacting gravitationally with dark matter. The simulations revealed that the observed rates of orbital decay matched the predictions of the friction model. The observed rate of orbital decay is around 50 times greater than the theoretical estimation of about 0.02 milliseconds of orbital decay per year for binary systems lacking dark matter.

"This is the first-ever study to apply the 'dynamical friction model' in an effort to validate and prove the existence of dark matter surrounding black holes," Chan Man Ho, the team leader and an associate professor in the Department of Science and Environmental Studies at EdUHK, said in a statement.

The team's results, published Jan. 30 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, help to confirm a long-held theory in cosmology that black holes can swallow dark matter that comes close enough to them. This results in the dark matter being redistributed around the black holes, creating a "density spike" in their immediate vicinity that can subtly influence the orbit of surrounding objects.

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Chan explained that previous attempts to study dark matter around black holes have relied on the emission of high-energy light in the form of gamma rays, or ripples in space known as gravitational waves. These emissions result from the collision and resulting merger of black holes – a rare event in the universe that can leave astronomers waiting a long time for sufficient data.

This research gives scientists a new way to study dark matter distributed around black holes that may help them to be more proactive in their search. The EdUHK team intends to hunt for similar black hole binary systems to study in the future.

"The study provides an important new direction for future dark matter research," Chan said. "In the Milky Way Galaxy alone, there are at least 18 binary systems akin to our research subjects, which can provide rich information to help unravel the mystery of dark matter."

Scientists Find New Way To Make Hydrogen Directly From Seawater

Editor OilPrice.com
Sun, March 26, 2023 at 9:00 AM MDT·4 min read

RMIT University researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater. In a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry the new method splits the seawater directly into hydrogen and oxygen. The new process skips the need for desalination and its associated cost, energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The new method has been detailed in a lab-scale study published in the Wiley journal, Small.

Hydrogen has long been touted as a clean future fuel and a potential solution to critical energy challenges, especially for industries that are harder to decarbonise like manufacturing, aviation and shipping.

Almost all the world’s hydrogen currently comes from fossil fuels and its production is responsible for around 830 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year*, equivalent to the annual emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.

But emissions-free ‘green’ hydrogen, made by splitting water, is so expensive that it is largely commercially unviable and accounts for just 1% of total hydrogen production globally.

Lead researcher Dr Nasir Mahmood, a Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT, said green hydrogen production processes were both costly and relied on fresh or desalinated water.

Mahmood elaborated, “We know hydrogen has immense potential as a clean energy source, particularly for the many industries that can’t easily switch over to be powered by renewables. But to be truly sustainable, the hydrogen we use must be 100% carbon-free across the entire production life cycle and must not cut into the world’s precious freshwater reserves.

“Our method to produce hydrogen straight from seawater is simple, scaleable and far more cost-effective than any green hydrogen approach currently in the market. With further development, we hope this could advance the establishment of a thriving green hydrogen industry in Australia.”

Splitting the difference: a catalyst for seawater

To make green hydrogen, an electrolyser is used to send an electric current through water to split it into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen.

These electrolysers currently use expensive catalysts and consume a lot of energy and water – it can take about nine liters to make one kilogram of hydrogen. They also have a toxic output: not carbon dioxide, but chlorine.

Mahmood continued, “The biggest hurdle with using seawater is the chlorine, which can be produced as a by-product. If we were to meet the world’s hydrogen needs without solving this issue first, we’d produce 240 million tons per year of chlorine each year – which is three to four times what the world needs in chlorine. There’s no point replacing hydrogen made by fossil fuels with hydrogen production that could be damaging our environment in a different way.”

“Our process not only omits carbon dioxide, but also has no chlorine production,” he added.

The new approach devised by a team in the multidisciplinary Materials for Clean Energy and Environment (MC2E) research group at RMIT uses a special type of catalyst developed to work specifically with seawater.

The study, with PhD candidate Suraj Loomba, focused on producing highly efficient, stable catalysts that can be manufactured cost-effectively.

“Our approach focused on changing the internal chemistry of the catalysts through a simple method, which makes them relatively easy to produce at large-scale so they can be readily synthesized at industrial scales,” noted Loomba.

Mahmood added, “These new catalysts (Nitrogen-Doped Porous Nickel Molybdenum Phosphide) take very little energy to run and could be used at room temperature. While other experimental catalysts have been developed for seawater splitting, they are complex and hard to scale.”

Mahmood explained the technology has the promise to significantly bring down the cost of electrolysers – enough to meet the Australian Government’s goal for green hydrogen production of $2 AU/kilogram, to make it competitive with fossil fuel-sourced hydrogen.

The researchers at RMIT are working with industry partners to develop aspects of this technology. The next stage in the research is the development of a prototype electrolyzer that combines a series of catalysts to produce large quantities of hydrogen.

A provisional patent application has been filed for the new method.

*Source: https://www.iea.org/fuels-and-technologies/hydrogen

***

This looks really good for areas where there is lots of sunshine or wind power with easy access to seawater. That situation just might be competitive to the fossil production sources. There would be quite an impressive investment for the power and the process system. But would it last for the decades needed to drive to good profits is a serious question.

The RMIT group’s work looks like the most successful highly innovative hydrogen production system and process we’ve seen so far. Low temp and relatively low power with seemingly no water prep involved is surely a big step forward.

It will be interesting to see how a “series of catalysts” might impact the production costs.

By Brian Westenhaus via Newenergyandfuel.com