Tunisia votes in presidential election against a backdrop of repression

Incumbent Kais Saied looks set to win another term in office in Sunday’s presidential election featuring just two opposition candidates: a former lawmaker who supported Saied’s 2021 power grab and a businessman who was recently jailed. Tunisia’s election commission barred 14 hopefuls from running during a campaign season marred by a crackdown on dissent.


Issued on: 06/10/2024 - 

Tunisian soldiers deliver ballot boxes to a polling station in Ariana near Tunis a day before the October 6, 2024 vote. © Fethi Belaid, AFP

Tunisia holds a presidential election Sunday with no real opposition to incumbent Kais Saied, widely tipped to win as his most prominent critics, including a key contender, are behind bars.

Three years after a sweeping power grab by Saied, the election is seen as a closing chapter in Tunisia's experiment with democracy.

The North African country had prided itself for more than a decade for being the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings against dictatorship.

Polling stations open at 8:00 am (0700 GMT) and close at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT). Preliminary results should come no later than Wednesday but may be known earlier, according to ISIE, the electoral board.

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In the lead-up to polling day, there have been no campaign rallies or public debates -- and nearly all of the campaign posters in city streets have been of Saied.

With little hope for change in a country mired in economic crisis, the mood among much of the electorate has been one of resignation.

"We have nothing to do with politics," Mohamed, a 22-year-old who gave only his first name for fear of retribution, told AFP in Tunis.

Anti-Saied demonstrators scuffle with security forces during a protest in Tunis on October 4 © Fethi Belaid, AFP

Neither he nor his friends planned to vote, he said, because they believed it was "useless".

After rising to power in a landslide in 2019, Saied, now 66, led a sweeping power grab that saw him rewrite the constitution.

A burgeoning crackdown on dissent ensued, and a number of Saied's critics across the political spectrum were jailed, sparking criticism both at home and abroad.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that more than "170 people are detained in Tunisia on political grounds or for exercising their fundamental rights".

Jailed opposition figures include Rached Ghannouchi, head of the Islamist-inspired opposition party Ennahdha, which dominated political life after the revolution.

Also detained is Abir Moussi, head of the Free Destourian Party, which critics accuse of wanting to bring back the regime that was ousted in 2011.
Little enthusiasm

ISIE said about 9.7 million people are expected to turn out, but the near certainty of a Saied win and the country's mounting hardships have inspired little to no eagerness to vote.

President Kais Saied pictured on December 24, 2023. © Fethi Belaid, AFP

The International Crisis Group think tank said on Friday that "the president's nationalist discourse and economic hardship" have "corroded any enthusiasm ordinary citizens might have felt about the election".

"Many fear that a new mandate for Saied will only deepen the country's socio-economic woes, as well as hasten the regime's authoritarian drift," it said.

Voters are being presented with almost no alternative after ISIE barred 14 hopefuls from standing in the race, citing insufficient endorsements among other technicalities.

Hundreds of people protested in the capital on Friday, marching along a heavily policed Habib Bourguiba Avenue as some demonstrators bore signs denouncing Saied as a "Pharaoh manipulating the law".

Standing against him Sunday are former lawmaker Zouhair Maghzaoui, a supporter of the power grab Saied staged in 2021, and Ayachi Zammel, a little-known businessman who has been in jail since his bid was approved by ISIE last month.

Zammel currently faces more than 14 years in prison on accusations of having forged endorsement signatures to enable him to stand in the election.

In a speech on Thursday, Saied called for a "massive turnout to vote" and usher in what he called an era of "reconstruction".

He cited "a long war against conspiratorial forces linked to foreign circles", accusing them of "infiltrating many public services and disrupting hundreds of projects" under his tenure.

The International Crisis Group said that while Saied "enjoys significant support among the working classes, he has been criticised for failing to resolve the country's deep economic crisis".

(AFP)

Vietnam's young coffee entrepreneurs brew up a revolution

Hanoi (AFP) – Ditching a lucrative career in finance, Vu Dinh Tu opened a coffee shop without telling his parents and joined a wave of young Vietnamese entrepreneurs using espressos to challenge family expectations around work.

Issued on: 06/10/2024 -

Vu Dinh Tu opened a coffee shop in Hanoi without telling his parents

 © Nhac NGUYEN / AFP

Traditionally taken black, sometimes with condensed milk, or even egg, coffee has long been an integral part of Vietnamese culture.

But starting a cafe is not a career that many of Vietnam's growing group of ambitious middle-class parents would choose for their children.

"At first my family didn't know much about it," 32-year-old Tu told AFP.

"Gradually they found out -- and they weren't very supportive."

Tu's parents repeatedly tried to convince him to stay in his well-paid investment banking job.

But he persevered and opened four branches of Refined over four years in Hanoi.

Each is packed from morning till night with coffee lovers enjoying Vietnamese robusta beans -- in surroundings more like a cocktail bar than a cafe.

His parents "saw the hard work involved in running a business -- handling everything from finances to staffing, and they didn't want me to struggle", explained Tu.
Coffee has become a byword in Vietnam for creativity and self-expression © Nhac NGUYEN / AFP

Vietnam was desperately poor until the early 2000s, pulling itself up with a boom in manufacturing, but many parents want to see their children climb the social ladder by moving into steady, lucrative professions such as medicine and law.

Coffee, on the other hand, has become a byword for creativity and self-expression.

Like an 'artist'

In Vietnam, "cafes have become a way to break norms around family pressure to do well in school, go to college, get a degree... work in something that is familiar and financially stable", according to Sarah Grant, an associate professor at California State University.

"They have also become spaces of possibility where you can bring together creative people in a community, whether that's graphic designers... musicians, other kinds of do-it-yourself type people," said Grant, an anthropologist specialising in Vietnam.

A former journalist, Nguyen Thi Hue now thrives in Hanoi's dynamic coffee industry 

© Nhac NGUYEN / AFP

Coffee first arrived in Vietnam in the 1850s during French colonial rule, but a shift in the 1990s and early 2000s to large-scale production of robusta -- usually found in instant brews -- made the country a coffee production powerhouse and the world's second largest exporter.

A passion for the coffee business is often linked to that history, Grant told AFP.

Coffee entrepreneurs are "really proud that Vietnam is this coffee-producing country and has a lot of power in the global market", she added.

Down a tiny alley in the heart of the capital, 29-year-old Nguyen Thi Hue is mixing a lychee matcha cold brew in her new glass-fronted shop -- a one-woman "Slow Bar" coffee business.

"When making coffee, it's almost like being an artist," said Hue, who had her first cup as a young child thanks to a neighbour who roasted his own.

But coffee is also hugely trendy, and there is money to be made if a cafe appeals to selfie-loving Generation Z.

"No-one dresses poorly to go to a cafe," notes Hue, herself decked out in stylish bright-blue-rimmed glasses and matching neck-tie.
Coffee 'a serious career'

Relaxing at a rival shop nearby, Dang Le Nhu Quynh, a 21-year-old university student, is typical of the new generation of customer -- she says the cafe's style is what counts for her more than the brews.

"I don't like coffee that much," she admits.

Vietnam's coffee shop industry is worth $400 million and is growing up to eight percent a year, according to branding consultancy Mibrand.

There are also thousands of shops not officially registered with authorities, says Vu Thi Kim Oanh, a lecturer at Vietnam's RMIT university.

"If we have problems with a job at the office, then we quit and we think: let's get some money together... choose one place, rent a house and then open a coffee shop," she said.

Global coffee brands have struggled to gain a foothold in Vietnam 

© Nhac NGUYEN / AFP

"If it goes well, then you continue. If it doesn't, you change."

Global brands have struggled to gain a foothold and Starbucks accounted for just two percent of the market in 2022, according to Euromonitor International.

Earlier this year it announced it would shut down its only store in Ho Chi Minh City selling speciality brews.

Unlike most local ventures, the coffee giant uses exclusively "high-quality" arabica beans, which have a distinctly different flavour from Vietnamese robusta.

For Tu, his parents eventually came around -- and he plans further shops, wanting to create a workforce that loves coffee as much as he does.

"I want to build the mindset that this is a serious career," he said.

© 2024 AFP

Austrian rapper channels anti-racist rage in Romani hip-hop songs

Vienna (AFP) – Alone in front of her laptop, Gilda-Nancy Horvath composed and recorded her first angry rap, "Trushula" -- the anthem of an artist railing against the racism suffered by her Roma people in her native Austria and beyond.


Issued on: 06/10/2024 -

Austrian Roma rapper Gilda-Nancy Horvath, known as Nancy Black, wants to 'denounce the lies of the far right' © Joe Klamar / AFP

Eight years later, her quest has gained fresh relevance with the resurgence of the European far-right -- several of whose figureheads she assails in that early track, pounding out her rhyming verses to the rhythm of keyboards and drums.

With the Nazi-rooted Freedom Party (FPOe) topping the polls for the first time in Austria's national elections last weekend, the activist told AFP she is set on "denouncing the lies of the far right".

Besides wanting to "settle scores" with racists targeting her community, Horvath raps in Romani -- under her stage name Nancy Black -- to keep the language alive and to "stop the suffering".

Across Europe, Roma -- estimated to number 14 million -- face poverty and discrimination at school and work, according to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA).

Horvath is descended from the Lovara, a group of Roma who worked as horse-dealers under the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In Austria, Roma officially account for 30,000 of the country's nine million people, but this is thought to be an underestimate since many do not declare themselves for fear of discrimination.

"The Nancy Black project gives them the courage not to hide," she said.
Netflix Roma hip-hop drama

Wearing round glasses and dressed all in black, Horvath chooses to sing in Romani, an endangered language which is orally transmitted. She has also released Romani lullabies.

"With the death of this language we are also forgetting a large part of our history," she said.

When she raps in Romani, she said, it "touches young people".

Last year, Netflix launched a series about a 17-year-old Roma girl torn between her family's strict rules and her dream of making a name for herself in hip-hop.

Horvath also fights for Roma artists to appear on Spotify and iTunes to be able to "penetrate and find their place in mainstream culture".

Roma singers are starting to break into pop culture, according to Anna Piotrowska, a musicologist at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

Horvath chooses to sing in Romani, an endangered language which is orally transmitted © Joe Klamar / AFP

She cites the example of Polish artist Viki Gabor, who won the Junior Eurovision in 2019.

"Roma have always assimilated (Western) fashions and reworked them in an innovative way", Piotrowska told AFP. And "protest rap is very popular" among young people.

Women in particular are breaking down barriers, Piotrowska added.

Previously, Roma music was "a man's job", she added, with men accounting for 99 percent of those playing the cymbal -- a popular Roma instrument.
Roma Holocaust memory

But discrimination and inequality endure, Horvath said, even in Austria where the constitution protects Roma as a minority present since the 15th century.

It gives Roma the right to their own broadcasts and bilingual establishments, and a fund to finance associations.

Horvath herself worked for years as a journalist for the Romani programmes of the public television channel ORF.

Horvath seeks to make her audience understand stigmatisation © Joe Klamar / AFP

At one of her recent stage shows, she used satire to make her audience understand the stigmatisation Roma people suffer.

In front of an audience of about a hundred, almost entirely non-Roma -- or "gadje" in Romani -- she read between songs a text that turned a vicious sterotype on its head, making the "gadje" a "discriminated minority".

"I use the same pseudo-scientific language" as that used in public discourse to make people believe that because the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich exists, and rapes are committed there every year, Germans are all alcoholics and violent, she said.

"That is not representative of German society, and yet it is how the Roma are spoken about in the media," she said.

She also writes poems about the killing of at least 500,000 Roma by the Nazis -- an atrocity also referred to in her early song "Trushula".

Roma call it the "Porajmos", which literally means "devouring".

"Our ancestors were murdered. That is a reality," said Horvath, who has visited Auschwitz several times to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust.

"But in my family's daily life, as in most families, there was silence."

© 2024 AFP

Is music finally reckoning with #MeToo?

New York (AFP) – The music industry has long evaded a #MeToo reckoning like that experienced in Hollywood or the media, but the blockbuster charges against hip hop magnate Sean Combs could finally prove an inflection point.


Issued on: 06/10/2024 - 03:13
4 min

Sean 'Diddy' Combs, shown here at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, pleaded not guilty to racketeering and sex trafficking charges © ANGELA WEISS / AFP/File

Federal prosecutors say the artist known by various monikers including "Diddy" ran a criminal sex ring that preyed on women and blackmailed them into silence -- accusations that have activists and industry watchers hoping music's moment of accountability has arrived.

Their hope has been bolstered by a massive class action suit that followed Combs's federal charges, as well as a new lawsuit against country star Garth Brooks.

When an explosive series of accusations against R&B hitmaker R. Kelly went public five years ago, outlets including AFP asked if that was the beginning of a sea change in music.

Kelly was convicted and sentenced to more than 30 years of prison for child sex crimes, sex trafficking and racketeering.

It was indeed a milestone for the #MeToo movement as the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of accusers were Black women.

Singer R. Kelly, pictured during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago, Illinois in 2019, was convicted of leading a decades-long sex crime ring on September 27, 2021 © Antonio PEREZ / POOL/AFP/File

But wider cultural shifts in the industry long-cliched as a bastion of sex, drugs and rock and roll didn't seem to crystallize.

The shock rocker Marilyn Manson, the music mogul Russell Simmons, the DJ Diplo, the producer Dr. Luke -- over the years women have made serious accusations against these and many other powerful men in the industry. Few repercussions have followed.

"There's this whole pass we give rock stars because of the rock star trope," said Caroline Heldman, an Occidental College professor and co-founder of the Sound Off Coalition, which is focused on sexual violence in the music industry.

"A lot of survivors that I've spoken with from the music industry, they've internalized the rock star idea -- that they should have expected" bad behavior, "because he was a rock star," she told AFP.
'Keep survivors quiet'

Kate Grover -- a women's and gender studies professor at Washington and Lee University, who has researched intersections of gender and the music industry -- said the notion of "geniuses" is also particularly pronounced in music.

"Once we have labeled someone as a genius," she said, "it kind of creates a scarcity model," where they're seen as too big to fail.

Rocker Marilyn Manson -- whose real name is Brian Warner -- was 37 when he began dating 18-year-old Evan Rachel Wood © SUZANNE CORDEIRO / AFP/File

But women "are seen as much more disposable within the music industry than men," she added.

Many experts including Grover and Heldman say race is a clear factor when considering which cases are taken seriously by the wider public. Celebrity also plays a major role.

The victims in Kelly's lawsuits were young Black girls and women who "did not have the kind of star power that a lot of the actresses who came forward against Harvey Weinstein did," Grover said.

And pop's top musicians are frequently empires in their own right, said Heldman, "who employ a people who help them in their years of perpetration."

Since the initial lawsuit against Combs by his longtime partner Cassie Ventura, many similar lawsuits have followed. He is imprisoned on federal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, awaiting trial.

The volume of the class action suit against him that followed this week "really speaks to the power of certain people in the music industry to marshal their fame and their resources to keep survivors quiet," said Heldman.
'Systemic issues'

A burst of litigation against other powerful men in music, from artists to CEOs, also followed Ventura's suit.

The myriad allegations underscored "the gravity of the situation" wrote singer-songwriter and activist Tiffany Red, who has worked with Ventura, in an open letter to Combs last December.

"The systemic issues of rape culture and misogyny deeply entrenched in the music industry pose a real threat to so many people's safety every day in this business," Red wrote.

"How can we expect meaningful change when senior leadership and superstars face accusations of these crimes?"

Country music star Garth Brooks is one of the most successful male artists of all time © Valerie MACON / AFP/File

Heldman also pointed to "perverse market incentives:" Kelly's sales jumped more than 500 percent after his racketeering conviction, with streams jumping 22 percent over the week that followed.

Similiarly Diddy's music saw an average 18.3 percent increase in on-demand streams the week of his arrest compared to that prior, according to industry data company Luminate.

Some of that might be curiosity after a name is in the news, but Heldman also pointed to the intense fandoms musicians enjoy.

"In years of doing this work with survivors in different industries, I've never seen anything like the fan dedication to musical artists," she said

Still, Heldman said, "it feels like we are on the crest of something."

"I would anticipate any rapist artist who has been operating with the idea that he can silence survivors now knows that the jig is up."

© 2024 AFP

MAGA IS THE CONFEDERACY REBORN

'Secret to winning!' MAGA fans cheer as Trump pledges to put Confederate names on bases

Matthew Chapman

RAW STORY
October 4, 2024

President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Phoenix, photo by Gage Skidmore.

Former President Donald Trump kicked off a North Carolina campaign rally with a pledge to slap the names of Confederate generals on military bases — and was met with overwhelming cheers.

Trump's promise to re-instate the name of Fort Bragg — stripped from the base after the violent death of George Floyd, a Black man, under a police officer's knee — was met with cries of celebration, video of the event shows.

"Should we change the name from Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg?" Trump asked the crowd. "I'm doing it. And we're leading in all the polls, we should get elected. Remember this, they cheat like hell. Too big to rig. We need too big to rig."


Gram Slattery, a reporter for Reuters, explained the fort was named after Braxton Bragg, who was "widely considered among the Confederacy's worst generals and a very stern slaveowner."

Trump went on later in the speech to add, "I think I just learned the secret to winning absolutely and by massive margins. I'm gonna promise to you ... that we're gonna change the name back to Fort Bragg."

The former president appeared delighted that a soldier had faced jeers for referring to the North Carolina base by its official name.

"This great looking soldier just accidentally said Fort Liberty," Trump said. "He almost got booed the hell out of the place!"

Many social media commenters professed themselves shocked both by Trump's promise and the overwhelming response he received.

Independent congressional reporter Jamie Dupree argued Trump was obsessed with a past defeat.

"Trump is still mad that the Pentagon changed the names of military bases named for Confederate generals," wrote Dupree. "He vetoed a major military policy bill with that provision, but Congress overrode his veto."

Retired Marine fighter pilot and former Senate candidate Amy McGrath was blunt in her criticism of Trump and the crowd.

"He’s really going after the racist, un-enlightened, clinging to the lost cause of the confederacy vote," wrote McGrath. "That’s actually a minority of the military/veteran community in 2024. There are old guys who care about base names. Post 911 vets either don’t care or welcome the change."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Thousands march for ceasefire ahead of Oct 7 anniversary

London (AFP) – Thousands of protesters marched in cities around the world on Saturday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon as the war in the Palestinian territory neared the one-year mark.

Issued on: 05/10/2024 -

Pro-ceasefire supporters from across the UK marched from Russell Square to Downing Street © JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP

Kicking off a planned wave of demonstrations worldwide, pro-Palestinian supporters gathered in cities in Europe, Africa and the Americas to demand an end to the conflict, which has killed nearly 42,000 people in Gaza.

Dozens of protests and commemorations are set to take place ahead of the anniversary Monday of Hamas's attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,825 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the territory's health ministry and described as reliable by the United Nations.

With Israel now mounting a ground operation in Lebanon and vowing to respond to a barrage of missiles fired by Iran this week, there are fears the conflict could spiral into a wider war.

Underlining international polarisation over events in the Middle East, demonstrations in support of both Israel and the Palestinians are planned worldwide -- sometimes with rival events scheduled in the same city.
'Worse and worse'

A pro-Palestinian protest in Rome that drew thousands of people turned violent, as dozens of young demonstrators threw bottles and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon.
Police officers clash with protestors during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Rome © Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

At least one policeman was wounded and two protestors detained, AFP journalists said.

"Israel is a criminal state!" the demonstrators shouted.

In Berlin, police said they had detained 26 people who shouted insults at a pro-Israeli commemoration attended by around 650 people.

Meanwhile, a pro-Palestinian demonstration drew just over 1,000 protestors in the German capital, police said.

At the "National March for Palestine" in London, chants of "stop bombing civilians" were joined by shouts of "hands off Lebanon".

Zackerea Bakir, 28, said he has attended dozens of marches around the United Kingdom. Large numbers continue to turn up because "everyone wants a change", he told AFP.

Demonstrators in Madrid march in solidarity with Palestinian and Lebanese people © Thomas COEX / AFP

"It's continuing to just get worse and worse, and yet nothing seems to be changing," said Bakir, joined at the rally by his mother and brother.

While the rally in London was largely peaceful, at least 15 people were arrested, including three on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker and one on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation.

In Dublin, several hundred people took to the streets, waving Palestinian flags and chanting: "Ceasefire now!".

In France, thousands of people marched in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Strasbourg to express solidarity with Palestinians, AFP journalists said.

Around 5,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in Madrid, brandishing signs with messages such as "Boycott Israel".

A pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Swiss city of Basel drew several thousand people, the Keystone-ATS news agency reported.

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators also marched on the Israeli embassy in Athens, which was heavily guarded by riot police.
Soaring tension

In Cape Town in South Africa, hundreds walked to parliament, chanting: "Israel is a racist state" and "We are all Palestinian."

A woman wears a dress in the colours of the Palestinian flag as she takes part in a pro-Palestinian march in Cape Town © RODGER BOSCH / AFP

Pro-Gaza marches were also planned Saturday in Johannesburg and Durban.

In Caracas, hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside the United Nations's headquarters for Venezuela, carrying a giant Palestinian flag.

They delivered a petition to the UN calling for an end to the "genocide" of the Palestinians.

"Where are the UN peacekeepers? Why haven't they intervened?" university professor Jesus Reyes, 53, told AFP.

Other pro-Palestinian protests were planned over the weekend and on Monday in cities including New York, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Manila, and Karachi.

Pope Francis has called for a day of "prayer and fasting for peace" on the anniversary of the attack, amid soaring tension in the Middle East.

An official anniversary ceremony will be held in Jerusalem on Monday.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog will lead a memorial service at Sderot, one of the cities hardest hit during the onslaught by Palestinian militants.

burs-aks-jhb/gv

© 2024 AFP

Marches across US mark Gaza war anniversary

Washington (AFP) – Thousands marched in US cities from Washington to Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding an immediate ceasefire as the war in Gaza nears the one-year mark, with a man attempting to self-immolate in protest.

Issued on: 06/10/2024 - 
T

he pro-Palestinian protest began and ended outside the White House in Washington, with demonstrators demanding an end to US aid to Israel 

© MATTHEW HATCHER / AFP

The marches were part of a worldwide day of action against the devastating war, which has recently seen Israel intensify its military operations into Lebanon.

The war was sparked on October 7 when Palestinian armed group Hamas attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

More than 41,825 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The UN has acknowledged the figures as reliable.

In Washington, more than a thousand angry protesters demonstrated outside the White House, with many demanding an end to US military and other aid to its strategic ally, Israel.

In New York, pro-Palestine demonstrators walked in the city's Midtown neighbourhood, waving flags and holding signs © Leonardo Munoz / AFP

"The US government has really shown what side of history it is on," Zaid Khatib, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement, told AFP.

"The US government has performed and co-signed the most evil atrocities that we've seen of this century."

Protesters waved Palestinian and Lebanese flags, among others, with many holding up signs and chanting in unison to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

Almost two hours into the protest, a man approached the demonstration site and attempted to set himself on fire, AFP journalists saw.

He succeeded in lighting his left arm ablaze before bystanders and police rushed to his aid, dousing him with water and extinguishing the flames using their keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian scarves.

"I'm a journalist and we neglect it, we spread the misinformation," he shouted, in between screams of pain as the fire on his arm was put out.

Police said the man was being treated for "non-life threatening injuries."
'Ethnic cleansing'

In New York, thousands marched in the city's famed Times Square neighborhood, some carrying pictures of people killed by Israel's military offensive in Gaza, which has left much of the territory in rubble.

Among those marching was Cornel West, a prominent rights activist and an independent candidate running in the US presidential election.

"I'm here to forever be in solidarity with people undergoing a vicious genocide," he told AFP. "Dealing with ethnic cleansing it's getting worse, it's been a whole year now. You know, we got to keep fighting."

The United States is one of Israel's closest allies, providing billions in military assistance -- a subject that protesters in both cities focused on.
Police at the protest in Washington maintained a perimeter around the demonstration © Ting Shen / AFP

"As an American we're tired of our tax money going to Israel to bomb kids in Palestine and then Lebanon," said Daniel Perez, a New York resident.

Protesters also took to the street in Los Angeles, many holding signs calling for an end to "genocide" in Gaza.

In Washington, protesters' cries for "justice" and "peace" reverberated off office buildings in downtown, with the crowd animated by a mix of righteous anger and raucous solidarity.

Laila, an American of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, told AFP the past year had left her disillusioned with her country's leaders -- so much so that she was unlikely to vote in November.

"It all disgusts me now," she said. "It's all a lie."

© 2024 AFP

Protests in Berlin and many major cities as October 7 

People in Berlin rallied in support of both Israelis as well as Palestinians and Lebanese in rival demonstrations almost a year after Hamas' October 7 attack. Protesters mobilized in many other cities the world over.

Police kept space between participants in a number of rallies across Berlin on Saturday

Police in Berlin said 500 officers were in action on Saturday amid a series of rival protests in the German capital, some showing support for Israel and others for Palestinians or Lebanese people.

Several participants at a demonstration in front of Humboldt University in the city center carried Israeli flags and signs and placards showing their support for Israel.

Berlin police were on hand at demonstrations around the cityImage: Christian Mang/REUTERS

Nearby, a series of empty chairs bearing the photographs of people taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 and still in captivity was on display, with the caption "kidnapped" written in German above each portrait.

Rival rallies in other parts of Berlin

In other parts of the city, around a thousand protesters called for a halt to fighting in Gaza and in Lebanon, many waving Palestinian flags and carrying banners, some accusing Israel of "genocide" in Gaza.

These protesters gathered near the memorial to the Cold War Berlin Airlift, near Tempelhof AirportImage: Jörg Carstensen/dpa/picture alliance

At one point, scuffles broke out between police and pro-Palestinian protesters, news agencies reported.

Berlin police reported one case of people at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Kreuzberg district "repeatedly chanting forbidden slogans," which it said would be prosecuted.

The politician in charge of interior affairs in the city-state of Berlin, Senator Iris Spranger, told the dpa news agency that what German authorities deem antisemitic would be prosecuted by police in the coming days. More and larger events are expected on Sunday and Monday as the October 7 anniversary approaches.

"My position is clear: Hatred, defamation and antisemitism do not belong on the streets of Berlin," Spranger told dpa while appealing to participants to "express their opinions, their personal concerns and their protests peacefully, respectfully and without violence."

The Lebanese flag joined the Palestinian one at several of the protests around Europe on Saturday, including this one in Rome

 Yara Nardi/REUTERS

Jewish group official says October 7 an unsuitable date for pro-Palestinian protests

The president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, said in a newspaper interview on Saturday that some recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations had been a "low point" for German society.

He cited "the scenes of celebration on German streets after Iran's rocket attack against Israel" earlier this week, and "the calls for open protests of hate towards Israel around the anniversary" of Hamas's October 7 terror attack.

Schuster told the RND network of newspapers that anyone who was unable on that anniversary "to feel at least a little empathy for Jewish people, for Israeli people, will never be able to do so — and that person has a serious problem."

Schuster said Germany's open society set up after World War II and the Holocaust in which the first article of the constitution begins, "Human dignity shall be inviolable," was at risk unless the rest of Germany recognized this problem.

The German government's commissioner tasked with combating antisemitism, Felix Klein, said he was observing with alarm not just rapidly rising cases of antisemitic crimes in Germany, but also protests "where hatred of Israel and antisemitic positions are expressed."

Meanwhile, the commissioner tasked with combating racism, Reem Alabali-Radovan, said it was not acceptable to place Palestinians or their supporters under general suspicion either.

Israel-Hamas-war: Berlin demonstrations ahead of October 7

October 7 is the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel, in which hundreds of Israelis were killed and kidnapped and which led to the Israel-Hamas war. Berlin already saw pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protests.

Pro-Israeli demonstration in Berlin

On Saturday, October 5, two days before the anniversary of the terrorist attack on Israel, there was a pro-Israel demonstration in Berlin. 

People gathered in front of Humboldt University to protest against antisemitism.

Image: Christian Mang/REUTERS

Pro-Palestinian protest at the same time
At the same time, a pro-Palestinian demonstration is taking place elsewhere in Berlin. At the Platz der Luftbrücke, many demonstrators are carrying Palestinian flags, as well as a large banner soaked in fake blood saying "Stop Israel's bloody genocide."

Hundreds of police on the streets

A lot of police are deployed to prevent violence. On the social media platform X, police said 500 officers were on site. The police estimated the number of participants in the pro-Palestinian rally at around 500 and the pro-Israeli demonstration at around 650.I

More demonstrations coming up



There were pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian demonstrations not only in Berlin but also in other German cities and around the world. Further demonstrations have been announced for Sunday and Monday — and the number of participants will likely be larger than on Saturday.Image: Christian Mang/REUTERS

She said that while antisemitism should not be tolerated at any protests, "There must also be a space for people, where they can point to the suffering of the people in Gaza or in the region."

Germany's government has also faced criticism for what some deem an overzealous attempt to police and regulate antisemitism, likely rooted at least in part in its 20th century history.

From Cape Town to Copenhagen — other demonstrations around the world

People also took to the streets in countries including Denmark, the UK, the Republic of Ireland, France, Switzerland and Italy on Saturday, mostly calling for a halt to fighting in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Rome, police fired tear gas and water cannons after clashes broke out. Around 6,000 protesters defied a ban to march in the city center.

Some 40,000 people attended the "National March for Palestine" in central London, organizers said.

Police were on hand in numbers, after some demonstrators had said they planned to target businesses and institutions they deemed to support Israel in the city center, including the British Museum.

In London, counter-demonstrators waved Israeli flags as pro-Palestinian marchers walked by. There were 15 arrests on the sidelines of the protests, according to police, who did not specify whether those detained were from either group.

A simultaneous demo took place in the Republic of Ireland's capital, Dublin, with some calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden "war criminals."

Some demonstrators in Dublin accused both the leaders of Israel and the US of being war criminalsImage: Clodagh Kilcoyne/REUTERS

In Cape Town, protesters marched towards South Africa's parliament in a protest organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Similar demos took place in other major European cities including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Paris and Basel on Saturday.

mm, msh/sms (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Volunteers risk lives to retrieve pets from bombed out south Beirut

Agence France-Presse
October 5, 2024 

A kitten wanders on the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs on October 4 (AFP)

After Israeli bombardment forced them flee their homes in haste, displaced Lebanese have been asking volunteers to enter their bombed out neighbourhoods to retrieve their pets.

Maggie Shaarawi, vice president of the Animals Lebanon charity, is one of the rescuers.

"A lot of people had to evacuate their homes in a hurry. In most cases, cats stressed by bombing hide," making it impossible to scoop them up quickly, she said.

"Our goal is to just enter, rescue and leave."

On Thursday, Shaarawi and two others helped a resident of Beirut's southern suburbs retrieve her eight traumatised cats.

Through a video call, the worried woman in a white headscarf guided them to the living room where she had herded Fifi, Leo, Blacky, Teddy, Tanda, Ziki, Kitty and Masha as she left.

"We were able to find them all," Shaarawi said triumphantly.

Doing their best to hurry, they managed to entice the petrified felines out from under a green velvet sofa and gently lift each of them into a holding crate.

"Luckily we got them out, because (then) most of that area was destroyed," she said.


A strike hit the suburbs as they were preparing to go to another home.

"It's the first time we had a hit very close to us. We're lucky to have left alive," Shaarawi said.

- 'Just waiting for their owners' -


Israel has sharply intensified its air strikes against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah since September 23, killing more than 1,000 people and pushing more than a million more to flee their homes, according to Lebanese figures.

Many of the displaced have taken their pets with them.

A teenager was seen clutching a ginger cat to his chest as he fled his southern village this week.


Some people have even ignored evacuation warnings to stay with their pets, Shaarawi said.

"So far, we've retrieved from the Beirut suburbs around 120 animals, and from the south another 60," she said.

Despite their close call with the Israeli air strike, Shaarawi and her team were back in the southern suburbs Friday to try to retrieve more pets.


"Cats turn into tigers when they're scared," she said.

Parking their car on the outskirts of the heavily bombarded Hezbollah bastion, they briefly zipped in on mopeds.

"The war is traumatizing for both animals and people. They're being bombed every day, and they don't know what's happening," she said.


"They're just waiting for their owners to come back."

Sometimes the team does not get to the pets in time.

On a mission to retrieve three cats on Thursday, they found one of them dead, its limbs stiff and its fluffy white coat caked in dust.


The other two were nowhere to be found, but Shaarawi said she was sure they did not survive. "The house was totally destroyed."

UAW slams Trump-Vance as 'menace to the working class'

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams
October 5, 2024 

The United Auto Workers this week reiterated its warning that the Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance is a threat to working-class Americans in response to a refusal by Vance to commit to honoring a $500 million federal grant for an electric vehicle plant in Michigan.

Both Trump and Vance—a venture capitalist turned U.S. senator from Ohio who often postures as a working-class ally—are campaigning in Michigan, a key swing state, this week.

The Detroit Newsreported Wednesday that on the campaign trail, Vance was "noncommittal" about the promised funding, part of $1.7 billion distributed by the Biden administration. The $500 million grant would help General Motors convert its Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant into an EV facility.

The UAW, one of several labor unions that have endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, fired back Thursday, echoing its previous criticism of Trump and Vance.

"Donald Trump was the job-killer-in-chief while in the White House," the powerful union said in a statement. "His failed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement—or Trump's NAFTA as we prefer to call it—has led to the mass exodus of good, blue-collar jobs from the United States. In sharp contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has bet on the American worker and thanks to their policies, hundreds of thousands of good manufacturing jobs are returning to the United States."

"Now, Trump and JD Vance are invading Michigan and threatening the $500 million investment the Biden-Harris administration made in the General Motors Grand River Assembly Plant and the union jobs that investment would provide," the UAW continued. "The bottom line is that Donald Trump and JD Vance are a menace to the working class and are openly threatening to double down on Trump's legacy of job destruction."

In a potential boost to Democrats ahead of November 5, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that in September federal unemployment hit 4.1% and the U.S. economy added 254,000 jobs, over 100,000 more than economists projected.

UAW president Shawn Fain, who led a major strike against Big Three auto companies last year, is set to join U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for weekend events in Michigan to support Harris. The pair plans to visit Warren, Grand Rapids, and East Lansing to discuss "the American healthcare system, the fight against corporate greed, and shoring up Michigan's manufacturing future."



Harris was in Michigan on Friday for events in Detroit and Flint, where she was set to "meet with leaders from the Arab American community," according toReuters. "Meeting participants include leaders from the Muslim advocacy group Emgage, which recently endorsed Harris, the American Task Force on Lebanon, and a long-standing friend of Harris, Hala Hijazi, who has lost dozens of family members in Gaza."

"Other such as Jim Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute and a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee, said he declined the invitation," Reuters reported. "Leaders from the Uncommitted National Movement protest campaign said they have not been invited to the meeting."

Vance draws ire for not backing federal funds for Lansing GM EV plant

Jon King, Michigan Advance
October 5, 2024 

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).\u00a0(Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says comments made in Michigan Wednesday by vice presidential candidate U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) are a “middle finger to Michigan auto workers.”

Whitmer was responding to comments reported by The Detroit News when Vance was asked while stumping in Michigan whether a second former President Donald Trump administration would commit to upholding a $500 million federal grant from the Biden administration that would convert the General Motors Lansing Grand River Plant, which currently makes Cadillac sedans, into a future electric vehicle plant.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer speaks at a Lansing event announcing that a future expeditionary fast transport ship will be named “USS Lansing,” July 22, 2024 | Lucy Valeski

Officials say the conversion would save an estimated 650 jobs while creating up to 50 new positions.

Despite that, Vance twice declined to say whether a commitment would be forthcoming, instead claiming the grant came with “ridiculous strings and no protections for American jobs,” which he claimed could get shipped overseas as the minerals needed to produce electric batteries are produced in China.

“[S]o, when we write massive checks on American taxpayer expense to these companies, a lot of times what we’re doing is selling American middle class jobs to the Communist Chinese, and we ought to be doing exactly the opposite,” Vance said, as reported by the Detroit News.

The News, however, reported that GM says the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would be produced at the new battery plant currently under construction in Delta Township, just west of Lansing.

Whitmer and other Democrats criticized the remarks. She said they were akin to the Trump campaign turning its back on Michigan workers, noting that in 2016, Trump promised auto workers in Warren that if elected, they would “not lose one plant,” although during his administration GM ended up closing the 78-year-old plant in 2019.

“When you have a chance to save hundreds of good-paying Michigan auto jobs and create more, you take it,” said Whitmer. “Instead, the Trump-Vance ticket is giving the middle finger to Michigan auto workers by refusing to support their jobs at GM. The Biden-Harris administration acted to save this plant. But all Donald Trump cares about is billionaires like Elon Musk, not Michigan auto workers.”

Whitmer, a co-chair of the Harris campaign, said that the Biden administration had worked to secure thousands of good-paying jobs, including in Michigan, to manufacture cars, batteries and semiconductor chips.

“On Donald Trump’s watch, Michigan lost 280,000 jobs and the companies that sent those jobs overseas got huge tax breaks. Donald Trump turned his back on Michigan the last time he was in the White House, and he’s telling us loud and clear that he will do it again if he wins this November,” said Whitmer.


Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.

Crime is down, FBI says, but politicians still choose statistics to fit their narratives

Murders and intentional manslaughter, known as non-negligent manslaughter, fell by 11.6% from 2022. Property crime dropped by 2.4%.

Amanda Hernández, Stateline
October 5, 2024

Blue light flasher atop of a police car. City lights on the background (Shutterstock).

Violent crime and property crime in the United States dropped in 2023, continuing a downward trend following higher rates of crime during the pandemic, according to the FBI’s latest national crime report.

Murders and intentional manslaughter, known as non-negligent manslaughter, fell by 11.6% from 2022. Property crime dropped by 2.4%.

Overall, FBI data shows that violent crime fell by 3%.

Violent crime has become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump claiming that crime has been “through the roof” under the Biden administration.

On the campaign trail, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has cited findings from a different source — the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey — to argue that crime is out of control.

While the FBI’s data reflects only crimes reported to the police, the victimization survey is based on interviews conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and includes both reported and unreported crimes. Interviewees are asked whether they reported the crime to the police. But the survey does not include murder data and only tracks crimes against individuals aged 12 and older.

The victimization survey, released in mid-September, shows that the violent crime victimization rate rose from 16.4 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 per 1,000 in 2023. The report also notes that the 2023 rate is statistically similar to the rate in 2019, when Trump was in office.

Despite what some politicians say, crime rates are decreasing

Many crime data experts consider both sources trustworthy. But the agencies track different trends, measure crimes differently and collect data over varying time frames. Unlike the victimization survey, the FBI’s data is largely based on calls for service or police reports. Still, most crimes go unreported, which means the FBI’s data is neither entirely accurate nor complete.

The victimization surveys released throughout the peak years of the pandemic were particularly difficult to conduct, which is a key reason why, according to some experts, the FBI and the survey may show different trends.


As a result, these differences, which are often unknown or misunderstood, make it easier for anyone — including politicians — to manipulate findings to support their agendas.

Political candidates at the national, state and local levels on both sides of the aisle have used crime statistics in their campaigns this year, with some taking credit for promising trends and others using different numbers to flog their opponents. But it’s difficult to draw definitive conclusions about crime trends or attribute them to specific policies.

“There’s never any single reason why crime trends move one way or another,” said Ames Grawert, a crime data expert and senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s justice program. The Brennan Center is a left-leaning law and policy group.


“When an answer is presented that maybe makes intuitive sense or a certain political persuasion, it’s all too natural to jump to that answer. The problem is that that is just not how crime works,” Grawert told Stateline.

At an August rally in Philadelphia, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said: “Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”

During Trump’s first three years in office, the violent crime rate per 100,000 people actually decreased each year, according to the FBI, from 376.5 in 2017, to 370.8 in 2018, to 364.4 in 2019.


It wasn’t until 2020 that the rate surged to 386.3, the highest under Trump, which is when the country experienced the largest one-year increase in murders.


We live in a world of sound bites, and people aren't taking the time to digest information and fact check. The onus is on the voter.


– Alex Piquero, criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics

Walz’s comments overlook the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval following George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. And despite the increase that year, the violent crime rate in Trump’s final year remained slightly lower than in the last year of President Barack Obama’s administration. In 2016, the rate was 386.8 per 100,000 people.


Following the release of the FBI’s annual crime report last month, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican running for attorney general in North Carolina, shared and later deleted a retweet on X that falsely claimed the FBI’s data showed zero homicides in Los Angeles and New Orleans last year. In fact, FBI data showed that the Los Angeles Police Department reported 325 homicides, while New Orleans police reported 198 in 2023.
Voters worry

Crime has emerged as a top issue on voters’ minds.

A Gallup poll conducted in March found that nearly 80% of Americans worry about crime and violence “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” ranking it above concerns such as the economy and illegal immigration. In another Gallup poll conducted late last year, 63% of respondents described crime in the U.S. as either extremely or very serious — the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.

Crime data usually lags by at least a year, depending on the agency or organization gathering and analyzing the statistics. But the lack of accurate, real-time crime data from official sources, such as federal or state agencies, may leave some voters vulnerable to political manipulation, according to some crime and voter behavior experts.

There are at least three trackers collecting and analyzing national and local crime data that aim to close the gap in real-time reporting. Developed by the Council on Criminal Justice, data consulting firm AH Datalytics and NORC at the University of Chicago, these trackers all show a similar trend of declining crime rates.

Politicians love to cite crime data. It’s often wrong.

“We live in a world of sound bites, and people aren’t taking the time to digest information and fact check,” Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, said in an interview with Stateline. “The onus is on the voter.”

Crime trends and limitations

In 2020, when shutdowns in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic kept people at home, homicides surged by nearly 30% — the largest single-year increase since the FBI began tracking crime.

In 2022, violent crime had fallen back to near pre-pandemic levels, and the FBI data showed a continued decline last year. The rate of violent crime dropped from about 377 incidents per 100,000 people in 2022, to around 364 per 100,000 in 2023, slightly below the 2019 rate.

The largest cities, those with populations of at least 1 million, saw the biggest drop in violent crime — nearly 7% — while cities with populations between 250,000 and 500,000 saw a slight 0.3% increase.

Rape incidents decreased by more than 9% and aggravated assault by nearly 3%. Burglary and larceny-theft decreased by 8% and 4%, respectively.

Motor vehicle theft, however, rose by 12% in 2023 compared with 2022, the highest rate of car theft since 2007, with 319 thefts per 100,000 people.

Although national data suggests an overall major decrease in crime across the country, some crime-data experts caution that that isn’t necessarily the case in individual cities and neighborhoods.

“It can be sort of simplistic to look at national trends. You have to allow the space for nuance and context about what’s happening at the local level too,” said Grawert, of the Brennan Center.

Some crime experts and politicians have criticized the FBI’s latest report, pointing out that not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their crime statistics.

The FBI is transitioning participating agencies to a new reporting system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System or NIBRS. The FBI mandated that the transition, which began in the late 1980s, be completed by 2021. This requirement resulted in a significant drop in agency participation for that year’s report because some law enforcement agencies couldn’t meet the deadline.

In 2022, the FBI relaxed the requirement, allowing agencies to use both the new and older reporting systems. Since the 2021 mandate, more law enforcement agencies have transitioned to the new reporting system.

Reporting crime data to the FBI is voluntary, and some departments may submit only a few months’ worth of data.

Although the FBI’s latest report covers 94% of the U.S. population, only 73% of all law enforcement agencies participated, using either reporting system, according to Stateline’s analysis of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program participation data. This means that 5,926 agencies, or 27%, did not report any data to the FBI.

The majority of the missing agencies are likely smaller rural departments that don’t participate due to limited resources and staff, according to some crime data experts.

But participation in the FBI’s crime reporting program has steadily increased over time, particularly after the drop in 2021. Many of the law enforcement agencies in the country’s largest cities submitted data for 2023, and every city agency serving a population of 1 million or more provided a full year of data, according to the FBI’s report.


Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.

Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers

Agence France-Presse
October 5, 2024 

Houses in the village of Thame lie abandoned in the aftermath of a flood caused by a glacial lake outburst (Migma NURU SHERPA/AFP)

Mingma Rita Sherpa was not home when the muddy torrent roared into his village in Nepal without warning, but when he returned, he did not recognise his once beautiful settlement.

It took just moments for freezing floodwaters to engulf Thame in the foothills of Mount Everest, a disaster that climate change scientists say is an ominous sign of things to come in the Himalayan nation.

"There is no trace of our house... nothing is left," Sherpa said. "It took everything we owned.

Nepal is reeling from its worst flooding in decades after ferocious monsoon rains swelled rivers and inundated entire neighbourhoods in the capital Kathmandu, killing at least 236 people.

Last weekend's disaster was the latest of several disastrous floods to hit the country this year.

Thame was submerged in August by a glacial lake that burst high in the mountains above the small village, famous for its mountaineering residents.

It was once home to Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, the first person to climb the world's highest mountain Everest, along with New Zealander Edmund Hillary.

"We are afraid to return, there are still lakes above," Sherpa said.

"The fertile land is gone. It is hard to see a future there," he added, speaking from the capital Kathmandu, where he has moved.

A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is the sudden release of water collected in former glacier beds.

These lakes are formed by the retreat of glaciers, with the warmer temperatures of human-caused climate change turbocharging the melting of the icy reservoirs.

Glacial lakes are often unstable because they are dammed by ice or loose debris.

- 'Rebuild or relocate' -

Thame was a popular stop during the trekking season, perched at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,470 feet) beneath soaring snow-capped peaks.

But in August, during the monsoon rains, the village was largely empty.

No one was killed, but the flood destroyed half of the village's 54 homes, a clinic and a hostel. It also wiped out a school started by Hillary.

Sherpa, like many in the village, ran a lodge for foreign trekkers. He also worked as a technician at a hydropower plant, a key source of electricity in the region. That too was damaged.

"Some are trying to rebuild, but the land is not stable," he said. "Parts continue to erode."

Thame's residents are scattered, some staying in neighboring villages, others in Kathmandu.

Local official Mingma Chiri Sherpa said the authorities were surveying the area to assess the risks.

"Our focus right now is to aid the survivors," he said. "We are working to help the residents rebuild or relocate".


- 'Predict and prepare' -

Experts say that the flood in Thame was part of a frightening pattern. Glaciers are receding at an alarming rate.

Hundreds of glacial lakes formed from glacial melt have appeared in recent decades.


In 2020, more than 2,000 were mapped across Nepal by experts from the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), with 21 identified as potentially dangerous.

Nepal has drained lakes in the past, and is planning to drain at least four more.

ICIMOD geologist Sudan Bikash Maharjan examined satellite images of the Thame flood, concluding it was a glacial lake outburst.


"We need to strengthen our monitoring... so that we can, at least to some extent, predict and prepare," he said.

"The risks are there... so our mountain communities must be made aware so they can be prepared".

Scientists warn of a two-stage impact.


Initially, melting glaciers trigger destructive floods. Eventually, the glaciers will dry up, bringing even greater threats.

Glaciers in the wider Himalayan and Hindu Kush ranges provide crucial water for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions.

Another 1.65 billion people depend on them in the South Asian and Southeast Asian river valleys below.

- 'Himalayas have changed' -

Former residents of Thame are raising funds, including Kami Rita Sherpa, who climbed Everest for a record 30th time this year.

Kami Rita Sherpa said the locale had long been a source of pride as a "village of mountaineers", but times had changed.

"The place has no future now", he said. "We are living at risk -- not just Thame, other villages downhill also need to be alert."

The veteran mountaineer said his beloved mountains were under threat.

"The Himalayas have changed," he said. "We have now not only seen the impact of climate change, but experienced its dangerous consequences too."