UN members politically pledge cash for peacekeeping amid budget crisis

By Aurélie Pugnet | Euractiv
Sep 23, 2024

“We have a shortfall which is higher than usual, and therefore the cash availability for our mission will be constrained this year,” Lacroix said about 2024. [EPA-EFE/STR]

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Despite strong backing from the UN General Assembly for well-funded peace and security operations, turning words into financial support remains challenging.

The Pact for the Future, adopted Sunday (22 September) by UN members, clearly states that “peace operations can only succeed when political solutions are actively pursued and they have predictable, adequate and sustained financing.”

However, the worldwide acknowledgment of the need for financial resources to continue peacekeeping operations and pay their staff and equipment follows another year of the UN struggling to make ends meet.

Despite UN members endorsing this non-binding declaration, the Pact is unlikely to spur a major change in the financial management of the operations and the UN’s budget in general.

Cash issues are a regular part of the UN’s struggles. Only earlier this spring, the organisation’s officials pressed for the budget gap to be filled, saying the UN ended last year with a “cash deficit of more than $400 million (€360 million).”

“There is currently a sort of cash crisis, particularly for peacekeeping, ” Jean-Pierre Lacroix, UN’s under-secretary-general for the peacekeeping operations, told reporters, including Euractiv, earlier this month.

“We have a shortfall which is higher than usual, and therefore, the cash availability for our mission will be constrained this year,” Lacroix said about 2024.

In addition, the peacekeeping chief suggested a contradiction between the political and security interests in maintaining the UN’s Blue Helmet operations and the lack of financial contributions.

“One thing we keep saying is that if [member states] give us a mandate, there has to be adequate financial resources for that,” Lacroix added, calling for “consistency” from member states.

The UN peacekeeping budget amounts to $6.1 billion (€5.9 billion) for 11 operations, according to official data. For the period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, the UN members agreed to spend $5.7 billion (€5.1 billion).

But the money agreed to on paper does not always come into the UN’s coffins.

While the organisation’s budget depends on national contributions, UN members often pay their bills late – including the United States, the largest contributor, Geneva Solutions News reports.

“At the same time, we are aware that the public finances of our member states are under pressure – and most of the biggest financial contributors are under pressure,” Lacroix said.

UN mandates tend to be very long documents and broad in scope. UN officials have regularly said this reduces the impact that few understaffed and underfinanced Blue Helmet operations could have.

For this reason, Lacroix calls for operations’ mandates to be “focused” and with “realistic priorities.”

“We cannot do everything, so tasks must be prioritised.”

[Edited by Martina Monti]

Leading Russian lawmaker threatens to nuke Strasbourg after European Parliament vote

Euractiv.com with Reuters
Sep 19, 2024

 
File photo. Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin attend the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, 11 July 2024. [Kremlin pool/EPA/EFE]

A close ally of President Vladimir Putin warned Western governments on Thursday (19 September) that a nuclear war would ensue if they gave the green light for Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia.

Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the lower house of parliament and a member of Putin’s Security Council, was responding to a vote in the European Parliament urging EU countries to give such approval to Kyiv.

The resolution, adopted on Thursday with 425 votes in favour, 131 against and 63 abstentions, states that without lifting current restrictions, Ukraine cannot fully exercise its right to self-defence and remains exposed to attacks on its population and infrastructure.

“What the European Parliament is calling for leads to a world war using nuclear weapons,” Volodin wrote on Telegram.

He said Europeans should understand that it would take Russia’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, known in the West as Satan II, just 3 minutes and 20 seconds to strike Strasbourg, where the European Parliament meets.

His message was entitled “For those who didn’t get it the first time” – an apparent reference to a warning by Putin last week that the West would be directly fighting Russia if it let Ukraine fire the long-range missiles onto Russian territory.

The Ukraine war has triggered the biggest confrontation between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which is considered to be the time when the two Cold War superpowers came closest to intentional nuclear war.

In a non-binding resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament asked EU countries to “immediately lift restrictions on the use of Western weapons systems delivered to Ukraine against legitimate military targets on Russian territory.”

The European Parliament underlines that insufficient deliveries of ammunition and restrictions on their use risks offsetting the impact of efforts made to date. MEPs reiterate their call for member states to fulfil their March 2023 commitment to deliver one million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, and to accelerate the delivery of weapons, air defence systems and ammunition, including TAURUS missiles.

Volodin wrote: “If something like this happens, Russia will give a tough response using more powerful weapons. No one should have any illusions about this.” He said it appeared to Moscow that the West had forgotten the vast sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in World War Two.

The outgoing head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, told The Times this week that the Kremlin leader had declared “many red lines” before but not escalated conflict with the West when they were crossed. Putin’s spokesman said his comment was dangerous and provocative.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

CLIMATE CRISIS

Hungary Danube waters reach decade high after Storm Boris

Euractiv.com with AFP
Sep 21, 2024

A photo taken with drone shows the flooded River Danube in central Budapest, Hungary, 21 September 2024. The rise of the water level is expected to peak in the capital city today. 

[EPA-EFE/Zoltan Mathe]

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The Danube peaked at a 10-year high in a heavily fortified Budapest on Saturday (21 September) with the water reaching the steps of parliament, after deadly Storm Boris lashed Europe.

Torrential rains and strong winds have led to widespread flooding in central and eastern Europe since last week, killing 24 people and devastating towns and villages.

As the swollen Danube waters have moved south, Hungarian emergency workers have lugged sandbags to fortify settlements, including Budapest, where the river has flooded the embankment up to the steps of parliament.

The water came close to 2013 record levels before it began to recede on Saturday.

“The last time it was this high I was only 10 or 11,” Beata Hargitai, a 22-year-old student, told AFP in downtown Budapest near the flooded area.

“To move around in the capital is a bit more tricky but manageable. I am happy to see that things seem to go pretty well, in an orderly manner,” she added.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has cancelled all his international travels this week and went to inspect Budapest’s flood protection work on Saturday, said the focus was “on controlling the flood” with some “hard days” ahead to make sure dykes hold.

Just north of Budapest, water has flooded the lower levels of houses near the Danube with people moving around on canoes in Szentendre town.

“The lower parts of our village are under water,” Vilmos Nemet, a 50-year-old cook who lives uphill in nearby Tahitotfalu village, some 25 kilometres north of Budapest, told AFP.

So far, 24 people have died in Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Romania as the flood waters have demolished houses and fields, and heavily damaged road and rail infrastructure.

The flooding damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 buildings and facilities in Poland, according to the first estimates announced by the government on Saturday.

Swollen rivers continued to threaten several settlements in western Poland, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk promising “massive aid” to the affected regions.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday announced 10 billion euros in funds for EU member nations reeling from the devastation.


Von der Leyen pledges billions of euros for flood-stricken regions

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged EU-funded aid to help repair the damage caused by recent floods as she visited the western Polish city of Wroclaw on Thursday.

Experts say climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activities is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as torrential rains and floods.

France or Finland – whose industrial policy should prevail in Europe?


By Jonathan Packroff | Euractiv
Sep 20, 2024



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When presenting her new team of Commissioners earlier this week, President Ursula von der Leyen highlighted that the whole executive should be “committed” to restoring Europe‘s competitiveness.

Even more tellingly, in von der Leyen’s new team economic responsibilities are spread across numerous comissioners and as many as four executive vice-presidents – reflecting the fact that “around 20 member states wanted a strong economic portfolio,” she said on Tuesday.

In her mission letters to each and every commissioner, von der Leyen asked them to “draw on” the contents of the competitiveness report presented by Mario Draghi earlier this month (alongside the earlier paper by Enrico Letta), which highlighted that Europe must keep its eyes on one prize: increasing productivity.

What can the new picks do to live up to that task?

The choice of Frenchman Stéphane Séjourné as executive vice-president for prosperity and industrial strategy hints at a more dirigiste industrial policy.

But this would require a lot of money, which is why EU officials expect a “big debate on funding” over the next few years – a forecast that chimes with Emmanuel Macron recently piling pressure on Germany to double the EU budget from 2028, to ignite an “investment shock” for the European economy.

However, this week also offered a sobering perspective on how far subsidies can get you.

In Berlin, Economy Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has already tried out some French-style industrial policy – encouraged by the loosened post-pandemic framework for state aid.

As it turns out, not even the promise of €10 billion in German state aid, the largest subsidy ever for an individual factory, could help secure the €30 billion of total investment needed for chipmaker Intel’s new factory in Magdeburg. The company announced it has “paused” its plans this week for approximately two years due to financial troubles.

Similar problems plague steelmaker ThyssenKrupp and battery producer Northvolt, which were also meant to play a crucial part in the country’s industrial strategy (and are still due to receive €2 billion and €900 million in state aid respectively).

Long-lived criticisms that governments are bad in picking winners were not so wrong after all, it would seem.

What is it, then, that Europe can do to get back on track?

Timo Jaatinen, Permanent Secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs, advocates a different approach. He believes Europe should secure funding for research and development (R&D), rather than subsidies, if it wants to shore up its economic standing in the world.

“In Finland, we see that research and innovation… are really, truly the heart of industrial policy and competitiveness policies,” Jaatinen said at an industry conference held by umbrella group BDI in Berlin on Wednesday (18 September), arguing that is a vital driver “if [Europe] really wants to solve the competitive gap it is are facing.”

According to Word Bank data from 2022, Finland is among the few EU countries (alongside Germany, Belgium and Austria) that can compete with the US on R&D spending as share of GDP (see Chart of the Week).

But Jaatinen stressed Europe should play a role, too.

“We want the European Union […] to be the champion, and therefore the EU’s competitiveness funding should be seen as the Champions League,” he pointed out, adding that “EU funding should focus on research and innovation based on excellence and open competition”.

Speaking to Euractiv in the margins of the conference, Jaatinen also voiced criticism towards Habeck’s approach.

“Instead of direct state aid and supporting such industries that compete in the marketplace, we should emphasise more research and innovation in new sectors,” he said.

“Why I mentioned this is, of course, because we are now discussing about the coming European budget,” he said, citing discussions on how to balance existing spending with new priorities such as defence.

Early negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), which will start in 2028, have already kicked off across capitals – with several German ministries holding a meeting on the issue on Thursday.

At the moment, European research spending mostly comes through the Horizon Europe programme, which at €95 billion amounts to around 8% of the overall EU budget for 2021-27. But it is currently dwarfed by the two largest funds – the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy – and at risk of being squeezed even further.

“In this very complex political puzzle, we have to ensure that there is enough funding for research and innovation,” Jaatinen stressed, before heading off to talks with the German government.

With Germany – as the largest net financial contributor – playing a decisive role in budget talks, Berlin will heavily influence the bloc’s upcoming industrial policy. It will soon have to take a stance on whether the French or the Finnish model should prevail.

Poland leverages industrial legacy for wind economic bet


By Nathan Canas | Euractiv


Poland is targeting 5.9 GW of offshore wind by 2030 and 17.9 GW by 2040. [Shutterstock/Voyagerix]
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Poland is leveraging its industrial heritage to reap the economic benefits of offshore wind, but the PiS-era political legacy is hampering efforts to develop the bigger prize of onshore wind.

Spurred by ambitious EU climate targets and the need to move away from Russian fossil fuels and diversify its energy pool, Poland is ramping up its renewable energy capacity.

Poland’s share of renewables in its electricity production has seen quite the uptake, increasing from 15% in 2019 to 27% in 2023, according to a report by NGO Bankwatch CEE.

Poland’s main focus is offshore wind in the Baltic Sea, not only because of the Baltic Sea’s energy potential of 33 GW, or about half of the country’s current installed power generation capacity, but also because of the associated economic and employment opportunities it brings to Poland’s heavily industrialised economy.

Speaking at a Euractiv-organised event on offshore wind in the Baltic Sea on 10 September, Maciej Gorski, COO of Polish state-owned utility Polska Grupa Energetyczna (PGE), spoke of the role of local companies, noting that they “are able to participate in the whole supply chain across the life cycle of those (offshore wind) projects.“
Sectoral agreement

Poland’s efforts to leverage the economic opportunities of offshore wind date back to 2021, when the government agreed to set up “a permanent platform for cooperation” on offshore wind that brings together the government, local authorities, investors, operators, supply and service chain representatives as well as research bodies to maximise the participation of Polish entrepreneurs in the country’s offshore wind farm supply chain.

The agreement includes explicit local content targets to stimulate local economic activity in the offshore wind sector.

The first offshore wind farms should have 20-30% of their value sourced from Polish companies, rising to at least 50% for projects deployed after 2030. The targets cover all aspects of wind farms, from pre-implementation to installation and operation.

The agreement aims to employ 30,000 Poles in the offshore wind sector by 2030 and generate €470 million in exports from the sector. By 2040 these figures should rise to 60,000 and €1.2 billion respectively.

Particular attention will be paid to Poland’s traditional shipbuilding industry as the agreement aims to reorient shipyards to build and repair vessels dedicated to offshore wind operations.
Offshore opportunities

Over the past year, several major offshore industrial investments have been announced in Poland, including by companies such as the Vestas factory, which will produce nacelles and blades for wind turbines, and factories such as Baltic Towers and Windar.

The only offshore wind farm currently under construction is Baltic Power, with a capacity of 1.2 GW.

More than 20% of the project’s lifecycle value is being sourced locally, including the construction of two offshore substations in the historic shipbuilding cities of Gdańsk and Gdynia, according to the developers.

The components for wind turbines’ steel foundations are being produced at four plants spread across Poland, and the power cables are being manufactured in the northern Polish city of Bydgoszcz.

According to the Polish Wind Energy Association, “the national metallurgical industry is able to supply most of the steel needed for towers and nacelles […] and can fully meet the demand for concrete, aluminium, copper and other essential raw materials.”

With its industry and resources, Poland aims to become a “true Baltic industrial hub for wind energy”, according to the same association.

In addition to Baltic Power, there are currently eight offshore wind projects with pre-construction permits in Poland, WindEurope confirmed to Euractiv.
Obstacles for onshore

Beyond Poland’s offshore potential, the country has even greater potential for the onshore market.

However, the mass deployment of on-land turbines is currently limited by planning restrictions that require turbines to be built at a minimum distance of 700 metres from buildings, compared to the lower EU standard of 500 metres.

While the centre-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is seeking to relax these requirements in 2023, Poland is grappling with the legacy of a 2016 decision to dramatically restrict wind turbines under the far-right PiS government.

“If the government does not significantly improve the regulatory environment in which onshore wind energy operates, not only will the sector not reach 19 GW of (onshore) installed capacity by 2030, but it will also not even reach 16 GW,” warns the Polish Wind Energy Association.

In addition, Poland’s energy mix is still largely dominated by fossil fuels (72.9% in 2023), and its electricity distribution network will need major upgrades to accommodate the energy from wind farms.

As a result, Poland still needs investment and political will if it is to deliver on its green energy aspirations.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Daniel Eck]

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Kenya: High Court to decide jurisdiction status in landmark Meta case



September 24, 2024

The Kenyan High Court is today hearing a case in which two Ethiopian citizens, Abrham Meareg and Fisseha Tekle, and Kenyan civil society organization The Katiba Institute are accusing Facebook’s parent company Meta of promoting content that led to ethnic violence and killings during the armed conflict in northern Ethiopia from November 2020 to November 2022.

The petitioners argue that the Facebook platform’s algorithmic recommendation systems prioritized and promoted inciteful, hateful and dangerous content on its platform during the conflict, contributing to significant human rights violations. The Kenyan court will decide if it has jurisdiction to hear the case.

Meta’s legal team has argued that the case should not be heard in Kenya because the company is registered in the US and that Meta’s terms of service require such claims to be filed in the US.

They also argue that the alleged human rights violations occurred in Ethiopia and therefore cannot be heard in Kenya.

Today’s hearing is focused on two critical procedural aspects: the petitioners’ application to have no fewer than three judges appointed to hear the case as it raises important substantial questions of law and whether Kenyan courts have jurisdiction to hear the case as challenged by Meta.Mandi Mudarikwa, the Head of Strategic Litigation at Amnesty International.

“Communities and individuals impacted by corporate human rights abuses committed by multi-nationals often struggle to access justice and effective remedies because of jurisdictional, practical and other legal challenges. As a result, Amnesty International is advocating for an approach to both cases that is informed by human rights obligations and corporate responsibilities that ensure justice and accountability.”

In Kenya, a single Judge presides over a case, but petitioners can request their cases to be heard by not less than three judges if it raises significant constitutional issues.

The petitioners, represented by Nzili and Sumbi Advocates and supported by the tech-justice organization Foxglove, argue, among other reasons, that because the content moderation operation reviewing Facebook content from Ethiopia was located in Kenya, the case can be brought to the Kenyan High Court. 

Other reasons cited for considering the case under Kenyan jurisdiction are Fisseha Tekle’s current residence in Kenya and safety concerns preventing him from returning to Ethiopia, the fact that The Katiba Institute is a Kenyan organization and the existence of a significant Facebook user base in the country.

Amnesty International is one of seven human rights and legal organizations involved as interested parties to the case. The organization submitted written responses in support of the petition and opposing the application challenging jurisdiction by Meta.

Background

Abrham Meareg is the son of Meareg Amare, a University Professor at Bahir Dar University in northern Ethiopia, who was hunted down and killed in November 2021, just weeks after posts inciting hatred and violence against him were posted on Facebook. 

He claims that Facebook only responded to reports about the posts eight days after Professor Meareg’s death, more than three weeks after his family had first alerted the company.

The second petitioner, Fisseha Tekle, an Amnesty International employee, has faced extensive online hate due to his human rights work in Ethiopia. Now living in Kenya, Tekle fears for his safety, underscoring the transnational impact of the content spread through Facebook’s channels.

Katiba Institute, the third petitioner, has brought the case in the public interest given the unchecked viral hate and violence on Meta’s Facebook platform and Kenya’s constitutional obligations.

The petition seeks to stop Facebook’s algorithms from recommending such content to Facebook users, to change Meta’s content moderation practices, and to compel Meta to create a 200 billion shilling ($1.6 billion USD) victims’ fund. 

The case will proceed to deal with the substantive questions relating to the extent, if any, to which Meta is accountable for the human rights violations and human suffering caused as a result of the content promoted on Facebook.

In October 2023, Amnesty International published the report, A death sentence for my father: Meta’s contribution to human rights abuses in northern Ethiopia, which shows how Meta contributed to human rights abuses suffered by the Tigrayan community during the conflict in northern Ethiopia two years ago.

Notes to Editors:

We expect this hearing to be heard in person and will provide further details before the court session on 24 September, 2024 once they become available.

Mercy Mutemi of Nzili and Sumbi Advocates represents the two individual petitioners and was Africa Legal’s Tech Lawyer of the Year for 2022. Foxglove, the tech-justice organization behind several cases against tech companies, are supporting the case. Backing the case as interested parties are a long list of major human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Global Witness, Article 19, Kenyan Human Rights Commission, Kenya’s National Integration and Cohesion Commission among others.

Bangladesh army chief vows support for Yunus' government 'come what may'

"I will stand beside him. Come what may. So that he can accomplish his mission," General Waker-uz-Zaman says of Muhammad Yunus.



Reuters

Bangladesh's Chief of Army Staff General Waker-uz-Zaman gestures during an interview with Reuters at his office in the Bangladesh Army Headquarters, in Dhaka


Bangladesh's army chief has vowed to back the country's interim government "come what may" to help it complete key reforms after the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, so that elections could be held within the next 18 months.

General Waker-uz-Zaman and his troops stood aside in early August amid raging student-led protests against Hasina, sealing the fate of the veteran politician who resigned after 15 years in power and fled to neighbouring India.

In a rare media interview, Zaman told the Reuters news agency at his office in the capital, Dhaka, on Monday that the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus had his full support and outlined a pathway to rid the military of political influence.

"I will stand beside him. Come what may. So that he can accomplish his mission," Zaman, bespectacled and dressed in military fatigues, said of Yunus.

The pioneer of the global microcredit movement, Yunus has promised to carry out essential reforms to the judiciary, police and financial institutions, paving the way to hold a free and fair election in the country of 170 million people.

Following the reforms, Zaman - who took over as the army chief only weeks before Hasina's ouster - said a transition to democracy should be made between a year and a year-and-a-half, but underlined the need for patience.

"If you ask me, then I will say that should be the time frame by which we should enter into a democratic process," he said.

Yunus, the interim administration's chief adviser, and the army chief meet every week and have "very good relations", with the military supporting the government's efforts to stabilise the country after a period of turmoil, said Zaman.

"I'm sure that if we work together, there is no reason why we should fail," he said.

Punishments and reforms

Born out of erstwhile East Pakistan in 1971 after an independence war, Bangladesh came under military rule in 1975, following the assassination of its first prime minister, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina's father.

In 1990, the country's military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad was toppled in a popular uprising, leading to the restoration of democracy.

A career infantry officer who served through these periods of turmoil, Zaman said that the Bangladesh Army that he leads would not intervene politically.

"I will not do anything which is detrimental to my organisation," he said, "I am a professional soldier. I would like to keep my army professional."

In line with sweeping government reforms proposed since Hasina was shunted from power, the army, too, is looking into allegations of wrongdoing by its personnel and has already punished some soldiers, Zaman said, without providing further details.

In the longer term, however, Zaman wanted to distance the political establishment from the army, which has more than 130,000 personnel and is a major contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions.

The weeks of instability in Bangladesh started as peaceful protests by students, who demanded an end to a quota system for government jobs.

However, the protests quickly morphed into an open revolt that ousted Hasina and her Awami League party from the 15-year rule.

 

BRICS helps build fairer, more equitable global governance system: Survey

The BRICS mechanism contributes to building a fairer and more equitable global governance system, said a survey published Monday.

The Global Survey: BRICS Cooperation in the New Era of Global Development 2024, conducted in 30 countries with 12,316 valid samples, showed the average recognition of the role of the BRICS mechanism in improving the global governance system reached 94.6 percent among the participants.

The respondents believed that the BRICS mechanism would enhance the representation of developing countries in global governance and enhance the reform and improvement of the global governance system, the survey said.

Such sentiment is stronger among developing countries, with recognition in the BRICS countries and other developing nations exceeding 95 percent, the survey noted, adding that countries like Russia, Brazil, Pakistan, Cuba, Peru and Mexico all have a recognition rate of over 96 percent.

The survey was conducted from May to July 2024 by the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies in collaboration with Beijing Dataway Technology Co. Ltd. It was released at the BRICS Seminar on Governance & Cultural Exchange Forum 2024 in Moscow.

WOMAN LIFE FREEDOM

Australian woman arrested on terror charges in Turkey, local media report


By Jorge Branco

Sep 24, 2024

An Australian woman has been arrested in Turkey on allegations of being part of a terrorist organisation, Turkish media report.

The woman, Cigdem Aslan, is accused of being active in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatist group's Australian arm.

She was arrested on Saturday in an operation carried out by the country's National Intelligence Organisation and Istanbul police's counterterrorism unit.

Cigdem Aslan (centre) was allegedly active in the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists group's Australian arm. (TRT)

Intelligence officers had reportedly been tracking her for some time and decided to act when they learned she was planning to fly back to Australia.

She later fronted court and was formally charged.

The PKK is fighting for an autonomous Kurdish state in south-east Turkey.

The insurgency has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s and Turkey and its Western allies, including Australia, have labelled it a terrorist organisation.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they are providing support.

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is providing consular assistance to an Australian woman detained in Türkiye," the spokesperson said.

"Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment."

- Reported with the Associated Press

ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

Missouri 

Supreme Court, governor refuse prosecutors' request to halt man's execution

New DNA testing does not link Williams to crime, prosecutor's say.

   

1 of 3 | The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday weighed whether to halt the execution of Marcellus Williams, who was convicted in the death of a local journalist, as prosecutors argued there was a lack of evidence against him and he received an unfair trial. Photo courtesy Marcelus Williams' legal team/Innocence Project

Sept. 23 (UPI) -- The Missouri Supreme Court on Monday denied a request to halt Tuesday's pending execution of Marcellus Williams as prosecutors filed to vacate his conviction for the 1998 murder of a local news reporter.

Monday's denial by Missouri's high court and the governor's refusal to act all but ensures Williams execution by lethal injection will proceed despite the last-ditch effort to get a death sentence reversed to a life sentence with no parole as clemency.

In six years so far as the state's chief executive, Gov. Mike Parson has not granted clemency to someone facing execution. Eleven people have been executed in Missouri during that time.

"Mr. Williams has exhausted due process and every judicial avenue, including over 15 hearings attempting to argue his innocence and overturn his conviction," Parson, a Republican, said Monday afternoon in a release obtained by KOMU in Missouri.

"No jury nor court, including at the trial, appellate and Supreme Court levels, have ever found merit in Mr. Williams' innocence claims. At the end of the day, his guilty verdict and sentence of capital punishment were upheld. Nothing from the real facts of this case have led me to believe in Mr. Williams' innocence."

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney for Williams, described Missouri in a statement Monday as being poised to execute an innocent man, "an outcome that calls into question the legitimacy of the entire criminal justice system."

"Given everything we know about Marcellus Williams' case -- including the new revelations that the trial prosecutor removed at least one Black juror because of his race, and opposition to this execution from the victim's family and the sitting prosecuting attorney, the courts must step in to prevent this irreparable injustice," Bushnell said.

The court took up the case Monday morning ahead of Williams' scheduled execution on Tuesday night

Williams, 55, was convicted of killing St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Felicia "Lisha" Gayle, 42, who was stabbed to death 42 times with a butcher's knife from her kitchen during an attempted burglary in her University City gated community.

However, St. Louis County's top prosecutor filed a motion to have his conviction vacated in January, citing a lack of forensics linking him to the crime and "overwhelming evidence" of an unfair trial.

The January motion to vacate was initially approved by a county trial judge but was reversed on Sept. 12 after Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey contested it.

The case came before Missouri's Supreme Court after prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell and attorneys representing Williams' filed a joint brief asking the court to send the case back to a lower court for a "more comprehensive hearing."

No forensic evidence had been able to tie Williams to the alleged crime nearly 30 years ago.

Yet despite this, Williams, a Black man, was convicted by an almost all-White jury in 2001 of Gayle's 1998 killing, according to Amnesty International, which is among the organizations that has called for Williams to receive leniency by Parson.

In the January motion, the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which handled the 2001 trial against Williams, said DNA testing from the murder weapon could potentially exclude Williams as a suspect in Gayle's killing but it was later revealed the weapon had been mishandled, throwing a wrench in that case.

The effort to reverse the fortunes of Williams has pitted the local prosecutor against Missouri's Republican state Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is up for re-election.

Bailey last month rejected a deal with prosecutors and Gayle's family to reverse Williams' sentence to first-degree murder and a resentencing to life in prison, instead appealing to the conservative Missouri Supreme Court comprised of five Republicans and two Democrats.

Other organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Council on American-Islamic Relations, joined Amnesty in calls for Parson to stop Williams' planned Tuesday execution.

The NAACP said executing Williams would "violate international law."

"Furthermore, a U.S. District Court in 2010 ordered that Marcellus Williams receive a new sentencing hearing, having found that his trial lawyer had failed to present any mitigating evidence of Marcellus Williams's violently abusive childhood," Amnesty wrote in a letter to Parson.

Gayle was in the shower on the morning of Aug. 11, 1998, when Williams allegedly broke into the gated community. Court documents said Gayle left her second-floor bathroom and was walking downstairs when she encountered her alleged killer on the landing. Her husband, Daniel Picus, found her body and called 911.

Among the evidence were bloody shoeprints and fingerprints, a knife sheath and hair from the suspected murderer that was collected from Gayle's shirt, hands and on the floor.

Four Missouri death row inmates in 40 years have been exonerated and since 1973, at least 200 American citizens have been spared from death row, a Missouri congresswoman cited the Death Penalty Information Center.

On Friday, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Miss., called on the governor to exonerate Williams "for a crime he didn't commit," she said.

Calling the death penalty "racist, flawed, inhumane," Bush, a co-sponsor of the Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act, claimed Parson and the courts are allowing the execution to be carried out "despite credible evidence of Williams' innocence and mass scrutiny over the fairness of his trial."

U.S. executions in 2023 were largely concentrated in the South. Texas and Florida accounted for more than half of last year's more than executions across the United States.

The Death Penalty Information Center called 2022 "the year of the botched execution" in a year in which questions over human practice of the death penalty became a renewed national focus.

Records say that Williams had a troubled youth that involved death, sexual and physical abuse, drugs and stints in jail and was described by an attorney as "a caring and loving father" during the penalty phase of his murder trial.

His most recent stay of execution was ordered by then-Gov. Eric Greiten who had appointed a board of inquiry to look into the case until that decision was later reversed last year by Parson.

By doing so, Parson's actions "have violated Williams' constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court's attention," Williams attorney had argued.

"St. Louis and I rise today to say that state-sanctioned violence has no place in a humane society," Bush added, "I am urging Governor Parson not to let another innocent man be murdered at the hands of the state. He must heed our call."

He originally had been sentenced to death for January 2015 and then August 2017. Both lethal injections were halted to conduct further DNA testing.

Williams had just started serving a 20-year prison sentence for robbing a downtown St. Louis donut shop at the time of his murder conviction.

A murder suspect was not immediately named by police and in May 1999 Gayle's family announced a $10,000 for information leading to an arrest. Williams became the main suspect after a girlfriend, Lara Asaro, and an inmate named Henry Cole claimed Williams was the culprit.