Serbian democracy activists feel betrayed as freedoms, and a path to the EU, slip away

JOVANA GEC and DUSAN STOJANOVIC
Tue, December 12, 2023
 

KRALJEVO, Serbia (AP) — When Serbia began talks to join the European Union in 2014, pro-Western Serbs were hopeful the process would set their troubled country on an irreversible path to democratization. A decade later, that optimism is gone, replaced by feelings of betrayal — both toward their government, which has slid toward autocracy, and the EU, which has done little to stop it.

Predrag Vostinic, 48, says he became a democracy activist by necessity — his way of pushing back against the rising authoritarianism, government corruption and organized crime gripping the Balkan nation. Since May, a grassroots movement he founded in the central city of Kraljevo has joined weekly protests against the government of President Aleksandar Vucic, part of a wider movement.

He and other members of the group faced threats in the streets and on social media. Other government opponents, in Kraljevo and elsewhere, have been sidelined at work or sacked from their jobs in state-run companies, he said.


Still, he said, it’s worth it: “You become sort of a public voice for people.”

Pro-Western Serbs like Vostinic hoped the EU would act as a counterweight, drawing Serbia back to a more democratic path. Instead, Brussels has held back, as Serbia diverted from the EU's stated values, activists say.

“This is one of the reasons why EU’s losing credibility and why the pro-European part of the Serbian society is in a defensive position, because there is nothing to defend," said Vladimir Medjak, deputy head of the European Movement in Serbia and a former member of the EU membership negotiation team.

Even before Vucic came to power in 2012, Serbia was slow to complete the reforms needed to qualify as an EU candidate, such as ensuring the rule of law and a market economy that could integrate with the bloc. And in recent years, after declaring EU membership a strategic goal, it has instead sought stronger ties with Russia and China.

STRUGGLE FOR DEMOCRACY

Serbia’s struggle for democracy began with the fall of Communism in the late 1980s and the wars that followed the violent breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Strongman Slobodan Milosevic’s warmongering in the 1990s turned Serbia into an international pariah, while NATO bombed the country in 1999 to stop the war in the breakaway province of Kosovo.

Milosevic was ousted in 2000 by pro-democracy parties openly backed by the West, setting the stage for reintegration into the international community and the start of democratic reform.

“It wasn’t good enough … but you still had a country where things started to resemble European standards,” said Dragan Djilas, a former mayor of Belgrade who is now one of the leaders of a pro-European coalition that is challenging Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party in parliamentary and local elections on Dec. 17.

“We had free elections, we had the possibility of change (of power) in elections … No one threatened you for thinking differently and no one blackmailed you,” he said. “Today’s Serbia ... would not even be allowed to become a candidate for EU membership.”

Public support in Serbia for joining the EU stands at about 40%. Under the circumstances, pro-democracy activists say, that counts as a success.

EU DEALS CAUTIOUSLY WITH SERBIA

The EU’s enthusiasm for enlarging the bloc waned after 2013, when Serbia’s neighbor Croatia became the newest country to join. The EU had accepted 13 new member states since 2004, most of them in Central and Eastern Europe and needing substantial injections of financial support. The prospect of taking in additional members who would be a drain on the EU budget was hardly enticing.

And then there was Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008. The move was not recognized by Belgrade — nor by some EU member countries with separatist movements of their own, such as Spain, or with close ties to Serbia, such as Cyprus and Greece. The wars of the 1990s had subsided, but Serbia’s unresolved final borders left a huge question mark over its suitability to join the EU.

The EU paid lip service to further enlargement with regular membership updates but made little response as Vucic steadily took over the levers of power in Serbia. Over the years, he and his authorities installed loyalists in key government positions, including the military and secret service, and imposed control over the mainstream media while stepping up pressure on dissent.

“Problem is that all this happened during the EU’s watch,” Medjak said.

With war raging in Ukraine, analysts say the EU has been careful not to push Serbia further away, even as Belgrade refused to join Western sanctions against Moscow. The U.S. and EU have worked closely with Vucic to try to reach a deal in Kosovo, where tensions at the border have threatened regional stability.

ANTI-DEMOCRATIC TIDE RISES

Vucic dismisses criticism that his government has curbed democratic freedoms while allowing corruption and organized crime to run rampant. Pro-government tabloids and state-run media, such as the broadcaster RTS, give scant coverage to the opposition, while dozens of rights groups have faced investigations into their finances.

Vucic regularly blasts Djilas and other opposition leaders as enemies of the state and “thieves” who are taking instructions from Western embassies. Mainstream pro-government media give them no opportunity to respond to the allegations.

During the wars of the 1990s, Vucic was an extreme nationalist who supported Milosevic’s aggressive policies toward non-Serbs. After Milosevic fell, Vucic reinvented himself as a pro-European, helping to found the Serbian Progressive Party in 2009 and pledging to take the country into the EU.

He never delivered on his promises.

Since 2014, Serbia has dropped down the international rankings on democracy. Reporters Without Borders says journalists are threatened by political pressure, while Transparency International ranks Serbia below most countries in the region when it comes to fighting corruption.

In recent years, Serbia's ruling party has "steadily eroded political rights and civil liberties, putting pressure on independent media, the political opposition, and civil society organizations," said the monitoring group Freedom House in its most recent report.

Serbia’s Ministry for European Integration did not grant an interview to the AP, citing the upcoming elections. EU officials also declined to comment.

While activists lament the stagnation of its EU membership bid, Serbia recently received a strong vote of confidence from Italy’s far-right premier, Giorgia Meloni.

Flanked by Vucic, Meloni praised his statesmanship, saying, “Europe isn’t a club who decides who is and who is not European.’’

A CHALLENGE TO SERBIA'S PRESIDENT

In recent months, Vucic has faced a new challenge to his authority. In May, 19 people, many of them children, were killed in two back-to-back mass shootings. The attacks shocked the public, galvanizing protests against a climate of fear and intolerance promoted by the ruling elite.

As he has done in the past when he felt he was losing his grip on power, Vucic called snap parliamentary and local elections for dozens of Serbian towns and cities, including Belgrade.

In response, the protesters formed their own electoral coalition, fielding candidates across the country. Vucic himself is not a candidate this time, but the opposition has hopes of denting his authority by taking control of some local councils.

Political activist Vostinic, who braved pressure from the ruling party in Kraljevo to lead protests there, said Serbia’s society had taken a wrong turn, allowing “people with bad intentions to fill in the gap.”

The EU, he said, is no longer an ally in defending its own values but has focused on economic and other interests, more concerned about countering Russia and China.

Public disappointment is such that “we who support the respect of European values are starting to feel uneasy," Vostinic said.

Opposition leader Djilas is even harsher, saying that “EU politicians largely are allies of Aleksandar Vucic.”

“As a student, my dream was Serbia as a part of Europe, of the European Union,” he said. “I have to admit that now the dream is sometimes turning into a nightmare.”

___

AP writer Frances D’Emilio contributed from Rome.

____

This story, supported by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, is part of an ongoing Associated Press series covering threats to democracy in Europe.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a pre-election rally of his ruling Serbian Progressive Party in Belgrade, Serbia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. When Serbia formally opened membership negotiations with the European Union, back in 2014, it was a moment of hope for pro-Western Serbs, eager to set their troubled country on an irreversible path to democratization. Those days are long gone. Now, they feel betrayed, both by the government and the EU. 

(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

El Nino appears to be on verge of rapid collapse

Andrew Wulfeck
Updated Thu, December 14, 2023

El Nino appears to be on verge of rapid collapse


The climate pattern known as El Niño, which quickly strengthened into a strong event, appears to be on the brink of a major decline, which would send the world into what is known as a neutral status.

When sea surface temperature anomalies in parts of the Pacific reached a mean temperature of 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) in June 2023, the first El Niño in nearly four years was considered to be underway.

According to data compiled by NOAA, the event became strong, with average anomalies reaching nearly 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) during the fall, with the latest reading now on the cusp at 1.9 degrees C (3.42 degrees F).

A status of at least 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) would have pushed the event’s standing into a Super-Niño status, the first since 2015-16. Based on cooling trends, odds are trending down of reaching that level, though NOAA forecasters still give a 54% chance of reaching Super-Niño levels.

El Nino computer model outlook.

Many climate models and sub-surface data show an El Niño that could be on its last legs, with the average dipping below the 0.5 degrees C (0.9 degrees F) threshold during the spring, baring another round of warm water propagation.

NOAA’s latest forecast now suggests El Niño may be over as soon as April — a month earlier than last month’s forecast. The probability of El Niño conditions remaining in April has dropped from 62% to 37%.

Some of the most vigorous climate models show certain regions dipping below the El Niño threshold as early as January. Still, like any weather event, forecasts that greatly deviate from the consensus are not considered to be outliers and not reliable.

WHAT ARE EL NINO AND LA NINA CLIMATE PATTERNS?

A tool that some forecasters use to determine the status of El Niño and La Niña events is the Southern Oscillation Index, or what is commonly referred to as the SOI.

The index measures pressure differences in the southwest Pacific, and when the gauge turns substantially positive, a La Niña event is likely happening or on the way. The reverse is also true, and when figures are markedly negative, an El Niño event is likely in progress.

Recent values provided by Australia’s Queensland Government show a streak of positive figures that have impacted the SOI count. In fact, at times, during the last 30 and 90 days, the figure has weakened below what is typically considered an El Niño event.

Latest Southern Oscillation Index values.

El Niños are known to exist when figures are at -8 on the index scale, and La Niñas exist when the average figure is around a positive 8.

The latest SOI values were -7.86 for the last 90 days and -3.88 for the last 30 days, which at a glance would argue against there being an El Niño around, but values change daily and could easily reach El Niño status again.

LITTLE-KNOWN WEATHER PATTERN WHEN EL NINO AND LA NINA ARE NO LONGER IN CONTROL

Despite pressures in Darwin and Tahiti indicating that El Niño could be on its last leg, NOAA data depictions from satellites show no evidence of an emerging neutral or La Niña signal.

A large amount of real estate from South America to the south of Hawaii has anomalies that are 1-2 degrees C (1.8-3.6 degrees F) above average.

Without other observations, the depiction to an untrained eye would say El Niño is robust, but what is happening below the surface has forecasters abuzz.

An animation of water anomaly trends below the surface shows the warm water does not run deep, especially as you head further west from South America.

A large extent of cold water around the international date line has formed and is slowly creeping upwards towards the surface and sliding eastward.

According to long-term climate models, this cool pocket should expand and intensify, especially in the eastern Pacific, where cold water is virtually nonexistent right now.

Pacific Ocean water temperature anomalies.

Climate models such as the Climate Forecast System Version 2 (CFSv2) from NOAA show a stunning flip in the pattern from an El Niño to neutral and even a La Niña within months.

As one ventures out in time, the reliability and accuracy of models tend to diminish, but there is no getting around the fact it is now a question of when, not if, the world will exit the El Niño pattern in 2024.

"Model systematic errors arise because state-of-the-art climate models are still imperfect representations of reality. The complexity of the processes involved (is an additional challenge for models as small errors in one aspect can quickly amplify," climate scientist Eric Guilyardi previously stated in an ENSO blog.

So, if the majority of the members are correct and the world is to enter a neutral pattern, the question then becomes how long will the neutral phase will last.

Neutral phases have been known to last just a few months to several years.

Computer model animation for the coming months from tropicaltidbits.com.

EL NINO, CLIMATE CHANGE TO LIKELY MAKE NEXT 5 YEARS HOTTEST RECORDED ON EARTH, WMO SAYS

The future, the apparent downfall of El Niño, would complicate climate outlooks even further, as the length of the lag between when the weather changes and its associated neutral pattern is a not well-understood concept.

A fast-corresponding change would lead to fewer kinks in the jet stream, meaning more regional patterns dominate local weather.

A lag in the associated weather would keep El Niño-looking patterns around despite the world not officially being in an El Niño.

A lag is rather common as one pattern transitions into another. The world typically experiences a lag during large-scale events.

Take the summer solstice, for example; even though it occurs every June in the Northern Hemisphere, oceans and land usually don’t peak in temperature until July and August.

So, when the world would start feeling the impact of a neutral status would be anyone’s guess.

A neutral pattern typically means a busier spring severe weather season and hurricane season than typically experienced during an El Niño, but it all comes down to timing.

A pattern that flips during the late spring or summer would miss the heart of the severe weather season but catch the hurricane season in order to show its effects. A pattern change in September or beyond would miss out on impacting the 2024 hurricane season but would be in place for next winter.




Original article source: El Nino appears to be on verge of rapid collapse

The last residents of a coastal Mexican town destroyed by climate change

DANIEL SHAILER
Updated Thu, December 14
 

EL BOSQUE, Mexico (AP) — People moved to El Bosque in the 1980s to fish. Setting out into the Gulf of Mexico in threes and fours, fishermen returned with buckets of tarpon and long, streaked snook. There was more than enough to feed them, and build a community — three schools, a small church and a basketball court on the sand.

Then climate change set the sea against the town.

Flooding driven by some of the world’s fastest sea-level rise and by increasingly brutal winter storms has all but destroyed El Bosque, leaving piles of concrete and twisted metal rods where houses used to line the sand. Forced to flee the homes they built, locals are waiting for government aid and living in rentals they can scarcely afford.


The U.N. climate summit known as COP28 finally agreed this month on a multimillion-dollar loss-and-damage fund to help developing countries cope with global warming. It will come too late for the people for El Bosque, caught between Mexico's economically vital national petroleum company and the environmental peril that it fuels.

A rusting sign at the town’s entrance says over 700 people lived in El Bosque two years ago. Now there are barely a dozen. In between those numbers lie the relics of a lost community. At the old, concrete fishing cooperative, one of the few solid buildings left, enormous, vault-like refrigerators have become makeshift storage units for belongings — pictures, furniture, a DVD of Guinness World Records 3 — that families left behind.

Guadalupe Cobos is one of the few still living in El Bosque. A diabetic, she improvises a cooler for her insulin after each flood cuts power. Residents’ relationship with the sea is “like a toxic marriage,” Cobos said, sitting facing the waves on a recent afternoon.

“I love you when I’m happy, right? And when I’m angry I take away everything that I gave you,” she said.

Up to 8 million Mexicans will be displaced by climate change-driven flooding, drought, storms and landslides within the next three decades, according to the Mayors Migration Council, a coalition researching Mexican internal migration.

Along with rapidly rising water levels, winter storms called “nortes” have eaten more than one-third of a mile (500 meters) inland since 2005, according to Lilia Gama, an ecology professor and coastal vulnerability researcher at Tabasco Juarez State University.

“Before, if a norte came in, it lasted one or two days,” said Gama, sitting above the university’s crocodile enclosure. “The tide would come in, it would go up a little bit and it would go away.”

Now winter storms stay for several days at a time, trapping El Bosque’s few remaining locals in their houses if they don’t evacuate early enough. A warming climate spins up more frequent storms as it slams into ultra-cold polar air, and then storms last longer — fueled by hotter air, which can hold more moisture.

Local scientists say one more powerful storm could destroy El Bosque for good. Relocation, slowed by bureaucracy and a lack of funding, is still months away.

As the sun sets over the beach, Cobos, known as Doña Lupe to neighbors, pointed to a dozen small, orange stars on the line of the horizon — oil platforms burning off gas they have failed to capture.

“There is money here,” she said, “but not for us.”

As El Bosque was settled, state oil company Pemex went on an exploration spree in the Gulf — tripling crude oil production and making Mexico into a major international exporter.

As the international community clamors for countries to wind down fossil fuel use, the single leading cause of climate change, Mexico next year plans to open a new refinery in its biggest oil-producing state, just 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of El Bosque.

Gulf of Mexico sea levels are already rising three times faster than the global average, according to a study co-authored by researchers from the United Kingdom’s National Oceanography Center and universities in New Orleans, Florida and California this March.

The stark difference is partly caused by changing circulation patterns in the Atlantic as the ocean warms and expands.

The acceleration has also strengthened massive coastal storms like hurricanes Sandy and Katrina, researchers said, and doubled records of high-tide flooding from the Gulf up to Florida.

“In the 10 years before the acceleration, you might have had a period of rather slow sea-level rise. So people might have gotten a feeling of safety along the coastline, and then the acceleration kicks in. And things change very rapidly,” said lead scientist Sönke Dangendorf.

When Eglisa Arias Arias, a grandmother of two, moved to El Bosque alone, she was excited to have her own garden for the first time, and it was rarely troubled by the sea. Her house was flooded in a storm on Nov. 3 and she has rented an apartment a short drive inland.

“I miss everything. I miss all the noise of the sea. I mean the noise of this sea,” she said.

Swathes of the coast known as the Emerald Coast in the state of Veracruz are storm-battered, flooded and falling into the sea, and a quarter of neighboring Tabasco state will be inundated by 2050, according to one study.

Around the world, coastal communities facing similar slow-motion battles with the water have begun beating what is called "managed retreat.” Locals on the Gaspé peninsula of Quebec have been gradually fleeing the coast for over a decade, and just last year New Zealand’s government promised financial aid for some of the 70,000 homes it said will soon need to seek higher ground.

Very little, however, seems managed about the retreat from El Bosque. When the Xolo family fled their home on Nov. 21, they left in the middle of the night, all 10 children under a tarpaulin in pouring rain.

Now they practice math on an app. In the carcass of El Bosque’s primary school, attendance books are still on the floor with sodden pages and, in the preschool, alphabet cutouts cling to the wall.

First Áurea Sanchez, the Xolo family matriarch, took her family to a shelter at the local recreation center inland. Then, a few days later, a moving van arrived unannounced to remove the center’s only fridge and the shelter was closed.

“It can’t be,” Sanchez remembers thinking. “They can’t leave us without food without telling us right?”

Later that afternoon, an official arrived to announce the closure.

When The Associated Press visited El Bosque at the end of November, a moderate storm had flooded the one road to the community so that it was accessible only by foot, or motorbike. That same day the shelter was closed, apparently permanently, with papered-over windows and a government sign advertising “8 steps to protect your health in the event of a flood.”

The national housing department, responsible for operating the shelter, did not respond when asked why it was closed, or if it would reopen.

Meanwhile, new houses will not be ready before fall 2024, according to Raúl García, head of Tabasco’s urban development department, who added that, “I wish we could do it faster.”

Advocates, and García himself, said the process is too slow, and that Mexico needs new laws to cut through bureaucracy and quickly make money available for victims of climate change. Mexico does have a fund for climate adaptation, but for 2024 most of it will be spent on a train project already widely criticized for destroying parts of the Yucatan jungle.

Instead, President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, born just a few hours inland, has made oil development a key part of his nationalist platform. That might change if polls prove accurate and former Mexico City Mayor and accomplished scientist Claudia Sheinbaum is elected president next year. Despite being Lopéz Obrador’s protégé, she pledges to commit Mexico to sustainability, a promise which is more urgent than ever.

Since she fled her home on Nov 3. Arias spends some afternoons with her niece, helps her neighbors with the dishes or bakes upside-down pineapple cake with them. These are welcome distractions from the now-daily deliberation between buying food and paying rent.

More difficult still, however, are her memories of El Bosque and her home by the waves.

“I would go to sleep listening to the sea's noise and I would wake up with that, with that noise. I would always hear his noises and that’s why when I would talk to him I would tell him I know I’m going to miss you because with that noise you taught me how to love you.”

When the flood came for Arias’ house, she only asked the sea for enough time to collect her things, and it gave her that.

“And so, when I left there, I said goodbye to the sea. I gave him thanks for the time he was there for me.”


In El Bosque, a small fishing community in the Gulf of Mexico, a long, one-sided battle against the sea is nearly at an end. (Dec. 13) 

One storm away from total obliteration: Inside the Mexican town that’s being swallowed by the sea

Ruth Wright
Thu, December 14, 2023


“I would go to sleep listening to the sea’s noise. I would tell him [the sea] I know I’m going to miss you because with that noise you taught me how to love you.”

When the flood came for Eglisa Arias Arias’ house, she asked the sea for enough time to collect her things, and it gave her that.

“And so, when I left there, I said goodbye to the sea. I gave him thanks for the time he was there for me.”

Arias had to flee her home in the beachside town of El Bosque in early November. She was one of many who moved to the Gulf of Mexico in the 1980s in search of work, mostly in fishing.

Now less than a dozen residents are left as the ocean swallows up El Bosque due to brutal winter storms and some of the world's fastest rising sea levels.

By 2050 millions more Mexicans will be displaced by climate change, according to the Mayors Migration Council, a coalition researching internal migration.

An aerial view of the coastal community of El Bosque, in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 - AP Photo/Felix Marquez

Just one storm away from obliteration

El Bosque is a mass of twisted piles of concrete where houses used to be. Forced to flee the homes they built, locals have moved to rental properties, desperately awaiting government aid.

Guadalupe Cobos is one of the few still living in town. Residents’ relationship with the sea is “like a toxic marriage,” Cobos says, watching the waves.

“I love you when I’m happy, right? And when I’m angry I take away everything that I gave you,” she said.

Along with rapidly rising water levels, winter storms called "nortes” have moved the shoreline by more than 500m since 2005, according to Lilia Gama, coastal vulnerability researcher at Tabasco Juarez State University.

“Before, if a norte came in, it lasted one or two days,” said Gama. “The tide would come in, it would go up a little bit and it would go away.”

Now, fueled by warming air which can hold more moisture, winter storms stay for several days at a time.

Local scientists say one more powerful storm could destroy El Bosque for good. Relocation, slowed by bureaucracy and a lack of funding, is still months away.

Search is on for pipeline leak that may have spilled more than 4m litres of oil into Gulf of Mexico

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Mexico shoots itself in the foot with its oil industry

As the sun sets over the beach, Cobos, known as Doña Lupe to neighbours, points to a dozen small, orange stars on the horizon - oil platforms burning gas.

“There is money here,” she says, “but not for us.”

As El Bosque was settled, state oil company Pemex went on an exploration spree in the Gulf - tripling crude oil production and making Mexico into a major international exporter. The country has a new refinery planned in Tabasco, just 50 miles (80 kilometres) west of El Bosque.

Gulf of Mexico sea levels are already rising three times faster than the global average, according to a study co-authored by researchers from the UK, New Orleans, Florida and California this March.

Debris from collapsed home and felled trees litter the shore line of the coastal community of El Bosque, in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023.

- AP Photo/Felix Marquez

Mexicans are being left behind

Coastal communities around the world facing similar slow-motion battles with the water, from Quebec to New Zealand, have begun beating a “managed retreat.”

Very little, however, seems managed about the retreat from El Bosque. When the Xolo family fled their home in late November they left in the middle of the night, all 10 children under a tarpaulin in pouring rain.

When the Associated Press visited El Bosque during a storm at the end of November, the community was accessible only on foot or motorbike.

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Climate migrants: How even rich Bavaria cannot provide shelter from global warming

New houses will not be ready before fall 2024, says Raúl García, head of Tabasco’s urban development department, who himself said the process is too slow.

While advocates call for specific climate adaptation laws, President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, born just inland, has made oil development a key part of his platform.

That might change if former Mexico City Mayor and accomplished scientist Claudia Sheinbaum is elected president next year. Despite being Lopéz Obrador’s protégée, she pledges to commit Mexico to sustainability, a promise more urgent than ever.

APTOPIX Mexico Swallowed by the Sea
Debris from collapsed home and felled trees litter the shore line of the coastal community of El Bosque, in the state of Tabasco, Mexico, Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023. Flooding driven by a sea-level rise and increasingly brutal winter storms destroyed the Mexican community. 

(AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

James Patterson awards $500 bonuses to 600 employees at independent bookstores

Associated Press
Wed, December 13, 2023 

Author James Patterson poses for a portrait in New York

. . (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Six hundred employees at independent bookstores — from Chapter One in Victoria, Minnesota, to The Cloak & Dagger in Princeton, New Jersey — will be receiving $500 holiday bonuses from author James Patterson.

Employees were able to nominate themselves, or be recommended by store owners, managers, peers, community members and others.

“I’ve said this before, but I can’t say it enough — booksellers save lives," Patterson said in a statement Wednesday. "What they do is crucial, especially right now. I’m happy to be able to acknowledge them and their hard work this holiday season.”

One of the world’s most popular and prolific writers, Patterson has given millions of dollars to booksellers, librarians and teachers. In 2015, the same year he began awarding employee bonuses, he was presented an honorary National Book Award for “Outstanding Service to the America Literary Community.”

Patterson has even co-authored a tribute book, “The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians,” which Little, Brown and Company will release in April.

“We all continue to be awed by, and grateful for, Mr. Patterson’s continuing support of independent booksellers," Allison Hill, CEO of the American Booksellers Association, said in a statement. "It means so much to have him recognize the valuable role booksellers play in the industry and we appreciate his financial generosity as well as his generosity of spirit.”

China condemns Canada's support for Philippines on South China Sea incidents

Reuters
Wed, December 13, 2023 

Chinese militia vessels operate at Whitsun Reef in South China Sea

(Reuters) - China condemned Canada's support for the Philippines over what it said were violations of China's sovereignty in the South China Sea, according to a statement by a Chinese embassy spokesperson in Canada.

"The South China Sea is the common home of countries in the region and should not become a hunting ground for Canada, the United States and other countries to pursue their geopolitical interests," the statement said.

Over the past few months, China and the Philippines have had several confrontations centred around the Second Thomas Shoal, an atoll in the South China Sea.

"As a country outside the region, Canada has emboldened the Philippines' violation of China's sovereignty, violated the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter, and jeopardised regional peace and stability," the Canadian embassy spokesperson said.

Manila has accused Chinese coast guard and maritime militia vessels of repeatedly firing water cannon at its resupply boats and deliberately ramming a vessel near the disputed waters.

The United States has voiced opposition to the run-ins and sided with the Philippines.

Over the weekend, a confrontation in the disputed waters drew condemnation from Canada in a government statement denouncing "the actions taken by the People's Republic of China against Philippine civilian and government vessels in the South China Sea."

China, which claims nearly the entire South China Sea as its own, has repeatedly said Philippine vessels were encroaching on its national sovereignty.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Bernard Orr; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Edmund Klamann)


Philippines summons Chinese ambassador over South China Sea 'harassment'

Reuters
Mon, December 11, 2023 

Chinese Coast Guard ship uses water cannon against a Filipino resupply vessel

MANILA (Reuters) -The Philippines' foreign ministry said on Tuesday it has summoned China's ambassador to Manila to protest "back-to-back harassments" in the South China Sea at the weekend, as longstanding geopolitical tensions continue in the strategic waterway.

Manila has asked China to direct its vessels to cease and desist from what it said were illegal actions and dangerous manoeuvres against Philippine vessels, and stop interfering in legitimate Philippine activities, the ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro verbally delivered the protest against the Chinese manoeuvres that led to a collision, and against use of water cannons against Philippine vessels sending supplies to troops stationed in an ageing warship at the Second Thomas Shoal.

"The actions of the Chinese vessels within the Philippine exclusive economic zone are illegal and violate the freedom of navigation," the ministry said.

It also protested China's use of water cannons against three fisheries bureau vessels on their way to send oil and groceries to fishermen near the Scarborough shoal.

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The two neighbours traded accusations on Sunday, and the Philippines called China's actions a "serious escalation".

China's foreign ministry protested over what it said was a collision on Sunday, but the Philippines said Chinese coastguard and maritime militia repeatedly fired water cannons at its resupply boats, causing "serious engine damage" to one, and "deliberately" ramming another.

The United States, the Philippines' treaty ally, and the United Kingdom, both expressed support for the Philippines and condemned the actions of China, which claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, have competing claims. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China's claims had no legal basis.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty, Kanupriya Kapoor and)

Amazon rift: Five things to know about the dispute between an Indigenous chief and Belgian filmmaker

DIANE JEANTET
Wed, December 13, 2023 


RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The renowned chief from the Amazon rainforest and the Belgian filmmaker appeared to be close friends at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Far from the flashing cameras, however, their decades-long partnership was nearing its end.

With his feathered crown and wooden lip plate, Chief Raoni of the Kayapo tribe is instantly recognizable the world over. He has met with presidents, royals and celebrities to raise funds for Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and to protect their lands. Almost always in the background was a less familiar face, that of Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, whose documentary about Raoni was a 1979 Oscar nominee. In the years since, he has acted as Raoni's gatekeeper abroad and brokered meetings with leaders and luminaries. But many Kayapo and others who crossed Dutilleux's path harbored growing suspicions about him.

The Associated Press interviewed dozens of people over nearly a year — including both Raoni and Dutilleux — to provide an inside look at the falling out and what it signals about efforts to preserve the Amazon.


HOW DID THEY RAISE MONEY?

The two repeatedly traveled to Europe, meeting with leaders including French Presidents Jacques Chirac and Emmanuel Macron, Leonardo DiCaprio, Monaco’s Prince Albert II, the Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg and even Pope Francis. At each of those encounters, they sought contributions to help Raoni's people and other Indigenous groups in the Amazon — and secured pledges for hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. They also hosted galas, charity dinners and auctions for private donors.

Dutilleux launched the Rainforest Foundation with music legend Sting, who put down his guitar to travel the world with Raoni and Dutilleux to spotlight the plight of Indigenous people. Their efforts largely contributed to the Brazilian government’s recognition -– and, theoretically, protection -– of the Menkragnoti Indigenous Territory, an area of 5 million hectares (19,000 square miles). Several films and books about the Indigenous chief, including one about their tour with Sting, yielded royalties. Dutilleux also raised money in Raoni’s name through Association Forêt Vierge, one of the several non-profit groups created to receive donations during his tour with Sting.

WHAT ARE THE ACCUSATIONS?

The tribal leader, two other members of his non-profit group, the Raoni Institute, and Raoni’s future successor as leader of the tribe all said Dutilleux over the last two decades repeatedly promised them large sums of money to fund social projects but only delivered a fraction of it. They said he also refused to be transparent about money raised in Raoni’s name on their tours of Europe, or from his books and films about the Kayapo.

“My name is used to raise money,” Raoni told The Associated Press in an interview in Brasilia. “But Jean-Pierre doesn’t give me much.”

Others who have come to work with Dutilleux in the Amazon over the years have also expressed concerns about the filmmaker's relationship with Raoni. In interviews with the AP, many have complained about his lack of transparency when it came to raising funds for Indigenous peoples.

Some directly suffered from it, including Spanish photographer Alexis de Vilar, whose non-profit group was in charge of organizing a charity gala for the U.S. premiere of Dutilleux's “Raoni” documentary in 1979. The funds were supposed to go to Indigenous peoples in Brazil and the U.S. Dutilleux had been in charge of collecting money from ticket sales for the event, but never turned over any amount, de Vilar said. “There was no money, not even to build a school,” de Vilar said.

Sting accused Dutilleux in 1990 of keeping all royalties from the book about their tour, rather than giving them to the Rainforest Foundation as was promised on the book’s cover. As a result, the Rainforest Foundation removed him as a trustee.

HOW MUCH OF THE TOTAL RAISED WAS PROVIDED TO INDIGENOUS PEOPLE?

AP was not able to determine the amount of money raised over the last five decades.

Association Forêt Vierge president Robert Dardanne told the AP that the group gave the Raoni Institute all the money that it was owed. The organization provided records indicating it sent 14,200 euros ($15,300) after a 2011 fund-raising trip and a little over 80,000 euros ($86,000) after a 2019 campaign. But it did not supply records for at least four previous campaigns, saying that under French law it was only required to retain such records for a decade.

Raoni and others close to him say these amounts pale in comparison with the millions of dollars that Dutilleux has repeatedly promised them.

Dardanne said he believed a lack of communication between the chief and the Raoni Institute was at the root of the chief’s discontent. “There is sometimes a gap between the expectations of Indigenous communities and reality,” he said.

WHAT DOES DUTILLEUX SAY?

Dutilleux told the AP that he never had access to the money raised and denied Raoni's claims that he had failed to deliver.

“He can sometimes say things like that, it has to do with age. Maybe it’ll happen to me too, to say stupid things," Dutilleux, now 74, said in an interview in Paris. “I want nothing to do with money. It doesn’t interest me. I’m a filmmaker, I’m an artist. I’m not an accountant.”

He maintains that the gala in Mann’s Chinese Theatre did not generate any profit and said his relationship with Sting had broken down due to their “different visions,” without elaborating.

Dutilleux said criticism of his legacy in the Amazon involved "three or four people" who were trying to take him down. The AP spoke to more than two dozen people for this story.

WHY DID RAONI KEEP FUNDRAISING WITH DUTILLEUX FOR SO LONG?

Despite the Kayapo’s suspicions that stretch back nearly 20 years, Raoni’s inner circle believed he could not abandon Dutilleux. It was a decision, they said, rooted in the centuries-old power imbalance that exists when an Indigenous tribe partners with an influential white man. In short, Raoni needed help from someone — anyone — for preservation of the Amazon, and Dutilleux was willing and able to open doors to international donors.

“He sees far beyond petty quarrels between egos and clans,” said French environmentalist Philippe Barre, who has worked with Raoni in the past. “What matters to him is that the important subjects emerge … even if some feather their own nests in the process.”

How the deep friendship between an Amazon chief and Belgian filmmaker devolved into accusations

DIANE JEANTET
Wed, December 13, 2023 



RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — It was considered to be among the world’s most productive partnerships between an Indigenous chief and a Westerner.

For five decades, the Amazonian tribal leader and Belgian film director enlisted presidents and royals, even Pope Francis, to improve the lives of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and protect their lands. The pair befriended celebrities and movie stars. Sting, the musical legend, was one of their greatest champions.

Just a few months ago, their bond seemed as strong as ever. Chief Raoni Metuktire, sporting his iconic lip plate and an emerald feathered crown, and tuxedo-clad filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux were at the Cannes Film Festival to promote the Belgian’s latest documentary: “Raoni: An Unusual Friendship.” Standing on the red carpet, amid a flurry of camera flashes, the two clasped hands, as if old friends.


Behind the scenes, however, the relationship was nearing its end. Not long after returning to Brazil in May, the chief of the Kayapo severed ties with his Belgian acolyte.

Raoni and those closest to him told The Associated Press they had long distrusted Dutilleux, suspecting the filmmaker of failing to deliver funds raised for the Kayapo. They also accused Dutilleux of exploiting the chief’s image and reputation to enhance his influence and film career.

“My name is used to raise money,” Raoni said in an interview with AP in Brasilia. “But Jean-Pierre doesn’t give me much.”

The tribal leader, two other members of his non-profit group, the Raoni Institute, and Raoni’s successor all said Dutilleux repeatedly pledged to give them large sums of money to fund social projects but only delivered a fraction of it. They said he also refused to be transparent about money raised in Raoni’s name on their tours of Europe, or from his books and films about the Kayapo.

Dutilleux denied any wrongdoing, repeating that he never had access to the money.

“He can sometimes say things like that, it has to do with age. Maybe it’ll happen to me too, to say stupid things," Dutilleux, now 74, told the AP in an interview in Paris, adding that money “doesn’t interest me. I’m a filmmaker, I’m an artist. I’m not an accountant.”

Despite the Kayapo’s long-running suspicions, which stretch back nearly 20 years, Raoni’s inner circle believed he could not abandon Dutilleux. It was a decision, they said, rooted in the centuries-old power imbalance that exists when an Indigenous tribe partners with an influential “kuben,” the Kayapo word for white man.

THE CHIEF

Raoni was born sometime in the 1930s — nobody knows the precise year — in the Metuktire branch of the Kayapo tribe. By then, the first Amazon rubber boom had ended after nearly three decades of often brutal exploitation of Indigenous populations.

His family and tribe members were semi-nomadic and spent their days hunting and fishing in the basin of the Amazon’s Xingu River, an area the size of France and home to dozens of Indigenous groups.

Their first contact with kubens was in 1954. By then, Raoni was a charismatic warrior and shaman, respected for his political acumen and bravery in combat against rival tribes and those seeking to exploit their resources.

He learned to speak Portuguese — but not to read or write — and became his tribe’s main interlocutor with the outside world, as well as a leading voice in the protection of Indigenous rights in Brazil.

By the 1970s, Indigenous peoples were under increasing pressure from Brazil’s military dictatorship, which in an effort to develop the Amazon constructed highways, sponsored colonization programs and offered generous subsidies to farmers. Raoni and others were doing everything they could to halt the destruction of their ancestral lands.

That’s also about when Raoni saved Dutilleux’s life.

THE FILMMAKER

Born into a bourgeois family in a provincial town in Belgium, Dutilleux dreamed of distant landscapes, and at 22 took off for Brazil, where he would direct an ethnographic film about Indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest.

There, a group of Kayapo tribesmen mistook him for a highway construction worker who typically brought death and disease to the region and threatened to kill him. Raoni stepped in to prevent any violence, and the two men became friends.

A few years later, Dutilleux returned to the Xingu to shoot a documentary focusing on the shaman. Dutilleux convinced Marlon Brando to narrate the American version, which was a 1979 Oscar nominee. The film’s success turned Raoni into one of the leading figures among Indigenous peoples, and Dutilleux became his gatekeeper.

Almost right away, some advocates and Kayapo leaders were concerned that Dutilleux was more interested in profiting off Raoni than in helping the Indigenous cause.

One of those who was suspicious of Dutilleux is Alexis de Vilar, a Spanish photographer who founded the Tribal Life Fund, a non-profit group dedicated to the protection of Indigenous peoples.

The Tribal Life Fund sponsored the documentary’s U.S. premiere with a gala at Mann’s Chinese Theatre, a landmark Hollywood venue. The black-tie ceremony was hosted by Jon Voight and Will Sampson, who starred in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” and it drew an A-list crowd.

“All Hollywood was there,” de Vilar recalled. With some guests spending several thousand dollars for a ticket, de Vilar expected his non-profit to collect at least $50,000, which the Tribal Life Fund had said would finance various social projects.

But the Tribal Life Fund didn't receive any of that money. Dutilleux had been in charge of collecting payments for tickets but never turned over any it, de Vilar said. “There was no money, not even to build a school,” de Vilar said.

Dutilleux maintains that the gala did not generate any profit.

THE MUSICIAN

A decade later, Dutilleux introduced the Indigenous chief to Sting, the former lead singer of The Police — an encounter that would turn Raoni into an even greater celebrity. After playing a concert in Rio de Janeiro, Sting traveled to the Amazon and became a passionate ally of Raoni and the Kayapo. He and Dutilleux launched Rainforest Foundation, a non-profit group that to this day promotes forest protection worldwide.

In 1989, Sting put down his guitar to travel the world with Raoni and Dutilleux to spotlight the plight of Indigenous people. Their efforts largely contributed to the Brazilian government’s recognition -– and, theoretically, protection -– of the Menkragnoti Indigenous Territory, an area of 5 million hectares (19,000 square miles).

Despite the victory, the trio had already fallen out.

Dutilleux was pushed out of Rainforest Foundation after Sting accused the filmmaker of trying to profit off the charity by keeping royalties from a book about their tour. According to the book’s cover, those royalties were supposed to go toward Indigenous peoples.

In his interview with the AP, Dutilleux said his relationship with Sting had broken down due to their “different visions."

Dutilleux continued to raise money in Raoni’s name through Association Forêt Vierge, one of the several non-profit groups created to receive donations during his world tour with Sting. Dutilleux served as its president from 1989 to 1999 and as “honorary president” since then.

In 1991, Dutilleux organized a campaign in Europe to raise $5 million to create a vast Brazilian national park and protect an area three times the size of Belgium.

The project, he told a Belgian newspaper, had been conceived by a director at Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency.

But the Brazilian official, Sydney Possuelo, denied any involvement in the effort. He called Dutilleux’s plans for the park “stupid” and described the calculations as “absurd.”

Possuelo, 83, a globally respected expert on isolated tribes, told the AP he believed Dutilleux was “harmful to Indigenous peoples.”

“He is a freeloader,” he added. “To him, the Indigenous question is a business. Every time he shows up, it’s to somehow take advantage of people like Raoni.”

Raoni skipped the tour, and it’s unclear how much money Dutilleux raised. Dutilleux told the AP the campaign was called off and blamed Possuelo’s criticism for its demise.

Despite the setback, Dutilleux returned to the Xingu — “my tribal heart,” as he has described it. On his visits to Raoni and other Indigenous tribes, Dutilleux tried to engage them in new fund-raising proposals, whether a book, movie or tour.

“He’s always using him,” said Raoni’s nephew, chief Megaron Txucarramãe.

Megaron, who is likely to be Raoni’s successor, says he has repeatedly advised his uncle against teaming up with Dutilleux. “This lack of clarity, of transparency with money happens every time he travels with him,” Megaron said.

Raoni has confronted Dutilleux about the absence of payments on many occasions. In 2002, following a tour during which then-French President Jacques Chirac committed to help launch the Raoni Institute, the chief filed a petition with Brazilian prosecutors, asking that measures be taken so that the money would not be funneled through Dutilleux. The complaint went nowhere, lost in the morass of the Amazon’s overloaded judicial system.

THE DAM

The two men made peace after Dutilleux offered to write Raoni’s biography, which was published in 2010. That year and in 2011, they went on tour to promote the book and raise money for the Kayapo.

At the time, construction of the mammoth Belo Monte hydroelectric dam was underway, raising alarms in Indigenous communities over concerns it would dry up vast stretches of the Xingu River.

For decades, Raoni and other tribal leaders had aggressively fought construction of the dam, saying it would displace tens of thousands of people.

In meetings with European leaders during the 2011 campaign, however, Raoni and Dutilleux did not really discuss Belo Monte, said Christian Poirier, who was leading the non-profit Amazon Watch’s campaign to halt the construction.

Poirier, who had heard of Dutilleux’s dubious track record in the Amazon, investigated and came to believe that the chief had been provided with poor translations and kept away from anti-dam advocates, and that Dutilleux intentionally downplayed Raoni’s objections.

Even though Raoni was desperate to stop the project, Dutilleux told local reporters that it was not the focus of their tour.

In an email obtained by AP, Dutilleux wrote to members of his non-profit group that it was too risky for them to fight the dam. Criticism might harm their ability to raise funds and jeopardize a potential meeting with a powerful French energy company, he wrote.

When Raoni returned to Brazil and learned that advocates were upset he did not speak out about the dam project, he and other Kayapo leaders were furious.

They issued a statement saying Dutilleux was no longer authorized to receive donations on their behalf. They pointed out that they had received little of the money Dutilleux had promised them if Raoni accompanied him to meetings with influential people in France in 2011.

Association Forêt Vierge president Robert Dardanne told the AP that the group gave the Raoni Institute all the money it was owed. The organization provided records indicating it sent 14,200 euros ($15,300) after the 2011 fund-raising trip and a little over 80,000 euros ($86,000) after the 2019 campaign.

But it did not supply records for at least four previous campaigns, stipulating that under French law it was only required to retain such records for a decade.

Raoni and others close to him say these amounts pale in comparison of the millions that Dutilleux has repeatedly promised them.

Raoni publicly accused Dutilleux in 2016 of having tricked him into signing a document that had been poorly translated, to hamper fundraising efforts led by a rival non-profit group. The chief also accused Dutilleux of using his likeness for commercial purposes.

Dutilleux was not fazed by the allegations. In 2019, he approached Raoni and offered to broker a meeting between the chief and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as other powerful European figures.

During the meetings, Macron agreed to give a million euros to the Raoni Institute and another tribe from the Xingu.

The Raoni Institute and others involved in talks with Macron’s representatives told the AP that government officials desperately sought alternatives to bypass Dutilleux’s group. The money was eventually sent to the Raoni Institute through the French Development Agency and the non-profit Conservation International.

THE RUPTURE

Last year, Dutilleux visited Raoni and sold him on what would be their final tour to help promote his latest documentary, promising the chief they would raise significant money for his tribe.

Raoni reluctantly accepted the pitch. The situation had become more dire in the Amazon. Illegal loggers and miners thrived under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, with deforestation rising dramatically. Even with a newly elected president who has vowed to end all illegal deforestation, an estimated 585 acres (236 hectares) of Brazil’s Amazon are being hacked away each day.

Raoni and Kayapo leaders were skeptical of Dutilleux’s promises. But those who know the chief said they were not surprised that he decided to join him in Europe.

“He sees far beyond petty quarrels between egos and clans,” said French environmentalist Philippe Barre, who has worked with Raoni in the past. “What matters to him is that the important subjects emerge … even if some feather their own nests in the process.”

Kayapo people in Raoni’s inner circle told the AP the chief is finally done with Dutilleux. As evidence, they noted he skipped the October premiere in Rio of Dutilleux’s film "Raoni: An Unusual Friendship."

In another interview with the AP that same month, Raoni spoke at length about his legacy and the people who helped his cause over the years. He could not bring himself to say the filmmaker’s name.

___

AP journalists John Leicester and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this story.












 Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, stands next to Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire after his swearing-in ceremony at Planalto palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 1, 2023. For five decades, the Amazonian tribal Chief Raoni Metuktire and Belgium filmmaker Jean-Pierre Dutilleux enlisted presidents and royals to improve the lives of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples and protect their lands. 

(AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)