UN expands arms embargo on Haiti to all types of arms and ammunition
EDITH M. LEDERERap
Fri, October 18, 2024
Haiti Kenya Bahamas Police
A Kenyan police officer, part of a UN-backed multinational force, stands guard on the tarmac during a ceremony to welcome police officers from the Bahamas at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to expand the arms embargo in Haiti to all types of weapons and ammunition, expressing grave concern at the extremely high levels of gang violence and criminal activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
The resolution authorizes the 193 U.N. member nations to take “appropriate steps to prevent the illicit trafficking and diversion of arms and related materiel in Haiti.” U.N. experts have said increasingly sophisticated weapons that end up in the hands of gang members and criminals are being trafficked from the U.S., especially from Florida.
The resolution also extends a travel ban and asset freeze on individuals on the U.N. sanctions blacklist for a year. In late September, the council committee monitoring sanctions on Haiti added two people to the list, which included five gang leaders.
One was Elan Luckson, leader of the Gran Grif gang, which killed at least 115 people in the town of Pont-Sondé in the Artibonite region next to the capital in early October in one of the biggest massacres in Haiti in recent history. The other was Victor Prophane, a former member of the Haitian parliament accused of being involved in arms trafficking.
The power of gangs in Haiti has grown since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, and they are now estimated to control up to 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince. They also have moved into surrounding areas.
The surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings has led to a violent uprising by civilian vigilante groups.
The Security Council voted unanimously in early October to extend the mandate of the Kenya-led multinational force trying to help the Haitian National Police quell the gangs.
The leaders of Kenya and Haiti last week urged international partners to honor their commitment to the U.N.-backed force in Haiti, saying the mission needs more resources and that its budget will run out in March 2025.
Kenyan President William Ruto, who met with Haiti Prime Minister Garry Conille in Nairobi a week ago, said Kenya would deploy 600 additional officers next month to join the 400 officers already in the country.
Nearly two dozen police officers and soldiers from Jamaica are also in Haiti, but the numbers fall significantly short of the 2,500 pledged by various countries, including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados, for the mission.
The council resolution adopted Friday, co-sponsored by Ecuador and the United States, also encourages the Haitian government to reinforce the management of police weapons, ammunition as well as seized arms and “to strengthen border and customs control to curb illicit trafficking and diversion.”
It extends the panel of experts monitoring the implementation of sanctions for 13 months.
Ecuador’s political coordinator, Irina Barba Bustos, told the council after the vote that sanctions are part of the comprehensive response that is essential to address the crisis in Haiti and promote a political solution and a peaceful and prosperous future for its people.
The arms embargo previously applied to “small arms, light weapons, and ammunition.” The resolution expands it to include “arms and related materiel of all types.”
Bustos said the expansion of the arms embargo “bolsters our efforts to combat transnational organized crime, which uses all forms of violence against the civilian population, particularly against women.”
Europe’s centrists are flocking to the right on migration. For some, it may be too late
Analysis by Rob Picheta, CNN
Sun, October 20, 2024 at 9:27 AM MDT·8 min read
One year after his election victory sparked a rare round of relief and optimism among Europe’s establishment, Poland’s leader made a startling announcement.
Donald Tusk, a former European Union Council president whose longstanding ties to Brussels have cast him as both a savior and a scapegoat in Poland’s toxic political landscape, said on Saturday he planned to temporarily halt the right to claim asylum in Poland – adding he’d fight the EU on the matter if he needed to.
“It is our right and our duty to protect the Polish and European border. Its security will not be negotiated. With anyone,” Tusk wrote on social media, in language more typically associated with the authoritarian populist bloc he defeated one year ago this week.
The move, unleashed for maximum impact on that anniversary, came in response to an intractable crisis at the Polish border with Belarus, which Europe says is fueled by Russia. At the same time, it seemed to fly in the face of one of the EU’s founding principles – and Tusk’s uncompromising tone took Europe by surprise.
But perhaps it shouldn’t have. Increasingly, Europe’s centrist figureheads are dropping their once-high-minded rhetoric on irregular migration, reaching instead for positions that were previously the preserve of the continent’s populist rabble-rousers.
Border checks at all of Germany’s frontiers were introduced last month. France’s new interior minister has hinted that immigration curbs are imminent. Both countries have been unsettled in recent months by high-profile murders in which migrants were identified as suspects, and by a surge in support for far-right parties.
Across the continent, countries are looking with serious interest at Italy’s controversial new agreement to ship migrants to Albania, which began this week.
And while European leaders expressed a catalog of competing concerns about a tenuous EU migration pact during a summit in Brussels on Thursday, those advocating for a more welcoming approach – like Spain’s Pedro Sanchez – were conspicuously outnumbered.
“Most politicians in Europe know that they can’t win on migration unless they propose something along the lines that Tusk is proposing,” Jacek Kucharczyk, the president of Warsaw-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, told CNN.
Tusk has the political capital in Europe to push the issue, and is keenly aware that the question of illegal migration can sink a centrist government if ground is ceded to the far-right. French President Emmanuel Macron narrowly avoided that outcome this summer and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz is slipping behind the far-right AfD in opinion polls.
In Poland, like in much of Europe, “voters across the board expect that border security and migration controls are the priority,” Kucharczyk said. “There is very little room for maneuver for any politician.”
A navy boat carrying migrants intercepted in Italian waters arrives at a port in Albania on Wednesday. - Adnan Beci/AFP/Getty Images
A Russia-fueled crisis
Tusk had been posturing for a fight this week, telling Poles he would “demand recognition” from Europe of his suspension of asylum. And at first, the European Commission gave him one; a spokesperson told CNN on Thursday that member states have “an obligation to provide access to the asylum procedure,” and Europe should seek a solution to Belarus border situation “without compromising on our values.”
But later that day, leaders instead expressed “solidarity” with Poland, and paved a path towards tougher bloc-wide measures, writing: “Exceptional situations require appropriate measures.”
The Belarus situation is certainly exceptional. Belarus has long been accused of encouraging migrants to reach the Polish border, at the behest of its ally Russia, in the hopes of exposing cracks in the EU’s border-free principles and common asylum system.
But Thursday’s victory for Tusk in Brussels underscores a broader, rightward shift across Europe on the issue of irregular migration. The continent’s new vocabulary includes concepts like external “return hubs” to which asylum seekers are sent – a fringe idea just two years ago that now holds serious weight.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Scholz, as well as Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer – the continent’s centrist flagbearers, each at one time hailed as counterweights to anti-migrant populism – have scrambled over each other to emphasize the consideration and thought they are giving to Italy’s arrangement with Albania.
German police check people arriving from France at the German-French border last month. Scholz introduced checks at frontiers with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark last month, adding to similar measures it had on its eastern flank. - Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images
Its architect, Italy’s right-wing leader Giorgia Meloni, was expected to be something of an outcast on the European stage when she took office two years ago. Now, more and more leaders are sounding more and more like Meloni.
European arrivals are in fact coming down; there have been around 140,000 this year, compared to a seven-year high of around 275,000 last year.
But instability and displacement in the Middle East, the success of populist parties in virtually every part of the continent this year and a number of violent attacks allegedly committed by migrants – which have been quickly pounced upon by right-wing politicians, sometimes aided by a flow of misinformation – mean that the potency of the topic is only mounting.
It has left migrant rights groups increasingly isolated. The International Rescue Committee called the opening of Italy’s offshore centers a “dark day for the EU’s asylum and migration policies” and said it hoped that the protocol would not be a blueprint for others. “Keeping people trapped behind barbed wire, deliberately out of sight and out of mind, is not a sustainable solution to Europe’s migration challenges,” IRC’s EU advocacy director, Marta Welander, said in a statement to CNN on Tuesday.
Scholz looks on as the far-right surges
Still, if Europe is heading in the same direction on illegal migration, it remains disunited.
A long-awaited new EU migration pact, aimed at sharing the burden of processing asylum claims more evenly across the bloc, has been picked apart from various angles by the 27 leaders. Some want it implemented sooner; others, including Tusk, have said they won’t accept relocated asylum seekers.
There is an evergreen issue at the heart of Europe’s latest divide; it is made up of 27 leaders who each have their own, domestic audiences at the front of their minds. But all of them have learned by now that public anger towards increasing legal and illegal migration is an indelible political force.
In Poland, Tusk is attempting to bend it towards his will. The veteran of centrist politics has banked some credit with voters one year after his election victory, but the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party he ousted last October remains a dangerous force, and its attacks on Tusk are primarily two-pronged: that he is a stooge of Brussels, and weak on the border.
There are caveats to Tusk’s plan. It is more targeted towards the Belarus border crisis than the initial language suggested; it is not immediate and its path to becoming law is tenuous. It is not entirely new – Finland has pursued a similar plan this year – and it is an escalation of, not a break with, Tusk’s stance on border security, which has always centered on efforts to repel the massing crowds in Belarus.
But tellingly, most of those details were missing from the prime minister’s initial announcement. “Tusk amplified the message (on asylum) on purpose to get attention,” Kucharczyk said. “The migration and security narrative was something that PiS has been using very successfully over the years; now Tusk has stolen it from them, and turned it against them.”
Tusk will hope this gambit sets the table for May’s election to succeed Poland’s PiS-aligned, veto-happy president – a contest that is absolutely pivotal to the government’s legislative hopes. “It’s an existential issue for this coalition, and they don’t want to take chances on issues like migration,” Kucharczyk said.
Scholz may be looking on with envy. Tusk has staked out a hardline position on the border before the issue tanks his popularity, but for the German leader, it may already be too late.
Scholz, whose SPD party is on course to lose power next year, has been slow to react to public anger, ignited most recently by a fatal stabbing in the western city of Solingen. The suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian man with alleged links to ISIS, who had been due for deportation.
Days later, the AfD scored the first far-right state election victory in the country since the Nazi era – a breakthrough that spooked Europe.
That context informed Scholz’s sudden move to introduce checks at Germany’s western borders, in addition to checks that had already existed on its eastern flank. Hungary and Slovakia have made similar moves.
The wider question is whether the longstanding principles of the border-free Schengen Area can survive an enduring era of rising migration and populist subversion.
Its answer may depend, in part, on how successfully Europe’s current crop of centrists can take the fight on migration to their populist rivals – and whether they can maintain a reputation for moderation while doing so.
On that, Tusk seems willing to chart the course. But from the left, there are risks. “Tusk’s voters may applaud the security dimension (of his asylum plan),” Kucharczyk said. “But they will also want to see how (he) is different from the hard right.”
CNN’s Barbie Latza Nadeau contributed reporting.
Moderate flooding is expected from a glacial dam outburst in Alaska's capital city
Associated Press
Updated Sat, October 19, 2024
FILE - The face of Mendenhall Glacier is seen from along the Mount McGinnis trail in Juneau, Alaska, Aug. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer, File)
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A flood warning was issued Saturday after an outburst from a glacial lake in Alaska's capital.
Suicide Basin is a side basin of the Mendenhall Glacier above the city of Juneau. Since 2011 it has released glacier lake outburst floods each year that cause inundation along Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River.
“We expect moderate flooding from this event, not major flooding,” said Nicole Serrin, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau.
Residents had 24 to 36 hours to prepare for flooding, she said. The flood warning was in effect until Monday.
The forecast called for the river to crest at around 11 to 11.5 feet (3.35 to 3.5 meters) early that day, the weather service said.
Officials warned people to stay away from the river. Recent snow has made the banks very slippery.
Suicide Basin fills with rainwater and snowmelt during the spring and summer and at a certain point builds enough pressure to force its way out through channels it carves beneath Mendenhall Glacier.
The basin started refilling with fall rain over the last couple of months, Serrin said. It was not certain how quickly it will drain or if it will empty completely.
In August, roughly 290 residences were damaged after the lake sent floodwaters into neighborhoods.
The Mendenhall River crested at 15.99 feet (4.9 meters) then, a new record, topping the level during last year’s flood by about a foot, and the water reached farther into the Mendenhall Valley, officials said.
Juneau, a city of about 30,000 people in southeast Alaska, is reachable only by plane or boat.
Harris goes to church, highlighting the absence of religion in the 2024 campaign
Alex Seitz-Wald and Katherine Koretski and Nnamdi Egwuonwu
Sun, October 20, 2024
Religion is making a rare appearance on the campaign trail this week in a presidential election that has dwelled less on candidates’ personal faith than any in recent memory.
Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to attend services and speak at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside Atlanta on Sunday, while her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will visit Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw, Michigan.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump on Thursday criticized Harris for skipping the Al Smith dinner in New York City, a high-profile fundraiser for Catholic charities, saying her absence was “very disrespectful to our great Catholic community.” Harris instead sent a video.
While candidates in both parties have traditionally sought to play up their piety to appeal to religious voters and signal their personal integrity, Harris, Trump and their running mates have not centered their faith this year.
That’s a marked contrast from President Joe Biden, a lifelong Catholic who regularly attends services, quotes hymns and figures like St. Augustine, and can be seen on Ash Wednesday with ash on his forehead.
Barack Obama’s religion was a major factor in his 2008 campaign, both for its influence on his oratory and the criticism of his relationship with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, a controversial figure whom Obama ended up rebuking.
Obama cut his teeth in Chicago as a community organizer working for a coalition of Catholic churches. And his comfort in religious settings was apparent throughout his presidency, from the five times he invoked God in his first inaugural address to his impromptu singing of “Amazing Grace” at Mother Emanuel AME Church after a white supremacist killed nine at the historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
But the United States has grown even more secular in the eight years since Obama left office, with a record 28% of U.S. adults now identifying as religiously unaffiliated, according to Pew, surpassing evangelical Protestants and Catholics to now be the largest religious group in the country.
As recently as 2007, when Obama was preparing his first presidential run, the religiously unaffiliated — who include people who identify as atheists, agnostics and “nothing in particular” — made up just 16% of the country in Pew’s data.
And presidential historian Michael Beschloss said Americans have grown more cynical about their politicians and what their religious affiliation might say about their character.
“We’ve learned a lot about a lot of politicians who seemed to be very religious but did not necessarily follow the tenets of their faith in one way or another,” said Beschloss, noting religion has become as much about policy as personality. “So for many people, religion may no longer say much about someone’s personal character.”
There’s now less incentive for candidates to play up their religiosity — and even potential peril with irreligious voters, especially on the left — said Massimo Faggioli, a Villanova University theology professor who wrote a spiritual biography of Biden.
And Harris and Trump, along with their running mates, have complicated religious backgrounds that are harder to “sell” politically than Biden’s familiar Catholicism, he said.
“There’s secularism on one side and a more complicated religious mix on the other side,” said Faggioli. “And for Harris, there’s a risk where religion is associated in the eyes of some voters as a form of oppression.”
Trump’s coalition is powered in large part by evangelical Christians, but their support for him is based more on a shared political agenda than a spiritual connection. Just 8% of people who had a positive view of Trump earlier this year thought he was “very” religious, according to Pew.
Trump was raised Presbyterian but in 2020 said he considers himself a nondenominational Christian, though he is not known to attend services regularly.
“There’s no pretense anymore that this is a true love story. It’s a marriage of convenience,” said Faggioli. “The relationship has become much more transactional.”
Indeed, at the Al Smith dinner, Trump made that plain: “Catholics, you’ve got to vote for me. You better remember: I’m here and she’s not.”
Harris, on the other hand, is a rare political figure who may have downplayed her spiritual life in public, given anti-religious sentiments in her native California Bay Area and a complicated personal religious journey.
Harris is a Baptist who was raised by a Black Anglican father and an Indian Hindu mother and is now married to a Reform Jewish husband.
She’s a longtime member of San Francisco’s historic Third Baptist Church and has a deep relationship with its pastor, the Rev. Amos Brown. As vice president, she has attended services at Baptist churches in the Washington, D.C., area and in 2022 spoke at the National Baptist Convention.
Brown was one of the first people Harris called after Biden decided not to run for re-election, and she managed his campaign for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1999.
“She’s a strong, spiritual person who comes from a strong, spiritual family that we’ve known for a very long time now,” Brown said in an interview with a newspaper in his native Mississippi earlier this year.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, said in his Democratic National Convention speech that “Kamala has connected me more deeply to my faith” and that they attend both synagogue and church on holy days.
In her 2019 memoir, Harris wrote about her mother making sure she was exposed to both Hindu and African American Christian religious traditions, adding that she and her sister, Maya, sang in the choir at the 23rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland.
“I believe we must live our faith and show faith in action,” she wrote.
But aside from asking Brown to give the closing prayer at the convention this summer and some occasional references to her church, especially when speaking with Black audiences, Harris rarely speaks of God, and her oratorical style is more prosecutor than preacher.
“I grew up in the Black church,” Harris told radio host Charlamagne tha God last week when a pastor asked about partnering with faith communities. “Our God is a loving God. Our faith propels us to act in a way that is about kindness and justice, mercy.”
She contrasted that with what she said was Trump’s belief that strength is “who you beat down,” which she called “absolutely contrary to the church I know.”
Walz, meanwhile, was raised Catholic but became Lutheran after marrying his wife, Gwen. Lutheranism is a major Protestant denomination, but in the U.S. it is almost entirely concentrated in the Upper Midwest, with little salience in the rest of the country, where it comprises just a small percentage of the population.
Walz rarely speaks about his religion, joking at times that his Midwestern sensibilities make it difficult to open up.
“Because we’re good Minnesota Lutherans, we have a rule: If you do something good and talk about it, it no longer counts,” Walz joked at a speech to trade unions this year.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, has written about his own personal journey. Raised evangelical but rarely attending services, he became an atheist as a young adult before converting to conservative Catholicism as an adult.
Vance’s wife, Usha, grew up Hindu in a “religious household,” and she and Vance were married in an interfaith ceremony that included both Bible readings and a Hindu pandit.
Those stories of conversion, intermarriage and back-seat religiosity reflect the spiritual life of Americans today, but may not make for tidy stories on the stump.
“If you are not comfortable talking about religion, it really shows, so it makes sense not to,” said Faggioli.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
VP Harris hosts campaign event at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb County
WSBTV.com News Staff
Sun, October 20, 2024
On Saturday evening, Vice President Kamala Harris held a campaign rally in Atlanta to encourage voters and drum up support in the final weeks of the 2024 election season.
Harris continued her campaign stop in the metro Atlanta area with a planned visit to the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest.
The event is part of what the campaign has called their Souls to the Polls event. After the church service at New Birth, Harris is expected to attend a second Souls to the Polls event at Divine Faith Ministries International in Jonesboro, where she will give brief remarks after the service.
While former President Donald Trump held his own events in Pennsylvania on Saturday, with a rally in Latrobe, Penn. that evening.
As far as events for the Trump-Vance campaign on Sunday, the former president remains in Pennsylvania, where he’ll be speaking at a 5 p.m. town hall in Lancaster.
In Georgia, Stevie Wonder is also expected to be in attendance at Divine Faith Ministries and will give a performance before the Vice President’s arrival, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Also on Sunday night, supporters of former president Trump’s reelection bid will host a “Women for Trump” town hall in Kennesaw with Congresswomen Ashley Hinson and Erin Houchin, as well as former Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
The Kennesaw event covers topics similar to Harris’ own, with a focus on issues impacting women and mothers in Georgia.
While Harris’ event focused on threats to reproductive rights and freedoms, and the associated health concerns in the state and across the U.S., the Women for Trump event is expected to focus on the prosperity and economic opportunity that the former president’s supporters say happened while he was in office.
Harris visits Black church in Georgia in ‘souls to the polls’ early voting push
Eric Bradner and Ebony Davis, CNN
Sun, October 20, 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a church service at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, on October 20, 2024.
Vice President Kamala Harris visited a church in the Atlanta suburbs on Sunday, urging congregants to cast early ballots as part of her campaign’s “souls to the polls” push to turn out Black voters.
The early voting push comes as Harris attempts to motivate Black voters, who are a critical part of the Democratic base. Her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, has targeted those voters — hoping to chip into Harris’ margins, especially with Black men.
“Our country is at a crossroads, and where we go from here is up to us as Americans and as people of faith,” Harris said at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia.
“We face this question: What kind of country do we want to live in?” she said. “A country of chaos, fear and hate, or a country of freedom, compassion and justice?”
Black churches have played a critical role in mobilizing Black voters since the Civil Rights Movement — and Democratic campaigns have long sought to reach those voters, particularly in early voting states like Georgia, where polls were open Sunday afternoon.
Despite holding an advantage over Trump among Black voters, Harris has fallen short in most polling of President Joe Biden’s numbers with the demographic when he won in 2020. In recent weeks, her campaign has made targeted media appearances and unveiled proposals aimed at Black men in a bid to strengthen her coalition. The vice president’s campaign’s “souls to the polls” effort, launched earlier this month with a board consisting of Black faith leaders from around the United States, also saw Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, attend service at Victorious Believers Ministries in Saginaw, Michigan.
On Sunday, the congregation in Georgia sang “Happy Birthday” to Harris, who turned 60 that day. The service was also attended by Opal Lee, known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” for the 98-year-old’s decades-long campaign to make the day commemorating the ending of slavery a federal holiday.
The vice president wore a black suit with a pink blouse in honor of the church’s “pink day,” aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer, and she highlighted her mother’s work as a breast cancer researcher.
Harris said that growing up, she often attended Sunday school and sang in the choir. She learned of a “loving God who asks us to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to defend the rights of the poor and the needy,” she said.
“For me, like for so many of us, church is then a place of growth and belonging and community; a place where we are reminded of the incredible power of faith and fellowship. And in moments of difficulty and uncertainty when the way is not clear, it is our faith that then guides us forward,” Harris said.
Trump on Sunday morning appeared on Fox News, where he said his closing message in the final stretch to Election Day on November 5 is focused on border security, inflation and transgender athletes.
“We’re a failing nation right now,” Trump said. “We’re failing at the borders. We’re failing with inflation and the economy. We’re failing with all of this woke stuff, like men playing in women’s sports and transgender operations and all of these things that are just terrible for our country and we just can’t let it happen.”
At a rally the night before, however, his closing pitch devolved into profane attacks and a lewd story about the late golfer Arnold Palmer.
His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, visited Kroll’s West sports bar in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sunday ahead of a Packers game.
“Go Pack, go Trump,” Vance said after taking a swig of beer.
CNN’s Aaron Pellish, Veronica Stracqualursi and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
Democrats Embrace Nuclear Power In Heated Senate Races
Alexander C. Kaufman
Sun, October 20, 2024
Democratic candidates in several key Senate races are breaking with a long-standing taboo among liberal voters: They’re increasingly embracing nuclear power as tech companies, banks and governments pour money into building new reactors to shore up a U.S. electrical grid that’s heaving under pressure from data centers, air conditioning and extreme weather.
Asked during last week’s televised debate against Republican Kari Lake what he would do to deal with Arizona’s rising temperatures, Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, pitched just one big solution: more nuclear power.
In Michigan’s final U.S. Senate debate this week, Democrat Elissa Slotkin listed nuclear reactors among the energy sources into which she said she wants to increase U.S. government investment.
In an interview with HuffPost on Wednesday, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, the Miami-area Democrat challenging Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), called atomic power “a good first step in transitioning to greener energy and to lower the cost for Floridians in the state.”
“I would support nuclear,” she said.
Colin Allred, the Texas Democrat making a spirited challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), confirmed his support on Friday for building more reactors.
“Texas is a proud energy state, and in the Senate, I will always work to keep it that way,” he said in a statement to HuffPost. “That includes responsible oil and gas production, renewable energy like wind and solar, as well as nuclear power.”
In virtually every democracy among the 32 countries with nuclear power plants — including Canada, the Netherlands, and South Korea — left-of-center parties traditionally oppose atomic energy, while those on the political right generally support it.
U.S. Senate candidates Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Republican challenger Kari Lake debate on Oct. 9, 2024, in Phoenix. via Associated Press
For decades, the American partisan gap tracked this axiom. Democrats’ coalition historically included environmentalists eager to clamp down on uranium mining and radioactive waste, as well as anti-war activists who saw opposing nuclear power plants as a way to take a stand against atomic weapons. Republicans, on the other hand, generally championed a major U.S. industry seen as a key to the country’s economic development and technological competition with the Soviet Union.
When former President Barack Obama took office in 2009, 54% of Democratic voters favored the use of nuclear power, the highest level of support Gallup has recorded since the pollster’s biannual surveys started in 2001.
Despite that, the newly inaugurated Democrat elevated Gregory Jaczko to the top job at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, putting the agency — which is in charge of overseeing the world’s largest fleet of atomic power stations — in the hands of a skeptic who went on to call for a global reactor ban and refashion himself as a leading anti-nuclear activist.
Soon after Obama took office, his administration canceled the permanent nuclear waste repository long under construction at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, an apparent concession to then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that the federal government’s independent watchdog found was driven by political, not technical, issues.
Since federal law requires the U.S. to complete Yucca Mountain before considering alternative sites, blocking the project without advocating for legal reforms effectively froze the American debate over radioactive spent fuel. It also likely contributed to the industry malaise that saw more than a dozen reactors shut down and dozens more planned units abandoned over the next decade.
While the nuclear waste issue remained unresolved, the Obama administration soon started work on federal programs that laid the groundwork for the new reactor technologies now coming to market.
In 2010, Obama’s climate czar, Carol Browner, announced her support for nuclear power for the first time at an event organized by the center-left think tank Third Way. The administration then established the Department of Energy’s Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear, a landmark program that helped give startups designing novel types of reactors access to national laboratories and other federal resources.
In this aerial view, the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stands in the middle of the Susquehanna River on Oct. 10, 2024, near Middletown, Pennsylvania. The plant’s owner, Constellation Energy, plans to spend $1.6 billion to refurbish the reactor that it closed five years ago and restart it by 2028 after Microsoft recently agreed to buy as much electricity as the plant can produce for the next 20 years to power its growing fleet of data centers. Chip Somodevilla via Getty ImagesMore
“It was the first time in a long time that a Democratic administration started to press the case that nuclear should be considered,” said Josh Freed, the senior vice president of energy and climate at Third Way.
It wasn’t long before another energy technology the Obama administration supported jeopardized the future of nuclear power. Hydraulic fracturing — the drilling technique known as “fracking” that uses pressurized water and chemicals to access previously unreachable deposits of hydrocarbons — took off, driving down the cost of natural gas and remaking the U.S. into one of the world’s top producers.
Since gas power plants were relatively inexpensive and quick to build, and the fuel to power them grew ever cheaper, nuclear projects could not compete. When it came time to renew power purchase agreements, buyers kept opting for deals with gas plants instead of renewing contracts with existing nuclear plants. That made maintaining nuclear plants too costly for utilities, prompting a cascade of shutdowns.
The 2011 Fukushima accident only soured investors on nuclear power even more. All but two planned reactors, a pair of units under construction at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle, were canceled.
While the Japanese government paid out compensation for just one death, an emergency worker who developed lung cancer years after the accident, scientists debate whether radiation exposure actually caused the illness. The forced evacuation of mostly elderly residents in the area, however, caused hundreds of deaths due to stress. In the years following the meltdown in Japan, the share of U.S. Democratic voters favoring nuclear power plunged as low as 34%.
Under former President Donald Trump, Congress passed bipartisan legislation to expand the Obama administration’s efforts to support next-generation reactor developers trying to commercialize technologies that, for example, use molten salt or high-temperature gas as a coolant instead of water.
By the time Gallup took its 2019 poll, support for nuclear energy began climbing again, reaching 46% in last year’s survey.
A Pew Research Center survey released in August found that nearly half of Democrats — 49% — backed an expansion of the existing nuclear fleet. By contrast, two-thirds of Republican-leaning and independent voters favored new reactors. But the 18-point partisan gap was the smallest in a list of energy sources that included solar panels, wind turbines, offshore oil and gas drilling, hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” and coal mining.
Perhaps more notably, nuclear power represented the only source of energy with growing support among voters in both parties.
After President Joe Biden took office in 2021 with slim Democratic majorities in Congress, his party enacted two major infrastructure spending laws that directed billions of dollars toward researching and deploying new nuclear reactors and keeping existing plants open.
Just months after the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan became the latest such facility to shut down over financial concerns, the Biden administration awarded the owners of California’s last atomic power station in Diablo Canyon $1.1 billion to keep the reactors running. Earlier this year, the Energy Department gave the owners of the Michigan plant $1.5 billion to reopen the facility, the first time in U.S. history a permanent closure is set to be reversed.
At the last United Nations climate summit, the White House led a pledge of more than a dozen countries vowing to triple global nuclear capacity by 2050. In September during the U.N. General Assembly, the world’s biggest banks announced their own pledge to begin financing nuclear projects again.
Aerial view of the core module of China's Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), installed on Aug. 10, 2023, in China's Hainan province. China News Service via Getty Images
Big tech companies, meanwhile, are throwing deep-pocketed support behind reopening other nuclear plants and building new ones. Last month, Microsoft unveiled a $16 billion deal to reopen the defunct reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to help power its data centers as artificial intelligence ramps up the server farm’s appetite for electricity.
This week, Google and Amazon announced their own deals with reactor startups that came through the federal programs established over the past decade. The Jeff Bezos-founded retailer even made a direct investment into X-energy, the Maryland-based company building small reactors cooled with high-temperature gas.
“If they do get built, this week will actually be a week that is taught in history books,” Freed said. “It is when the era of nuclear energy changed from being speculative and focused primarily on innovation and getting liftoff to having momentum and being focused truly on scale and accelerated deployment.”
To help make those investments real, Biden signed legislation aimed at easing the permitting process for advanced reactors like those Google and Amazon want. The bill passed in the Senate 88–2. Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were the lone nay votes.
“It’s counterintuitive to what the casual observer’s perspective is, but the most transformative president for nuclear in the last 50 years is a Democrat who got the largest part of the nuclear agenda enacted with a full Democratic majority in Congress,” Freed said. “The reality of energy security, energy demand and climate change have dramatically changed people’s perspectives, including a lot of policymakers.”
A Telegram group posted what it calls 'highly classified' US documents about Israel's attack plans against Iran
Katie Balevic,Lloyd Lee
Updated Sat, October 19, 2024
A Telegram group posted what it says is leaked US intel on Israel's attack plans against Iran.
Middle East Spectator shared the documents but couldn't verify their authenticity.
US officials have not yet commented publicly on the possible leak.
A Telegram channel posted what it says are "highly classified" US intelligence documents analyzing Israel's plans to attack Iran.
The channel for the "Middle East Spectator," which describes itself as an "open-source news aggregator" independent of any government, said in a statement that it had "received, through an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify himself, two highly classified U.S. intelligence documents, regarding preparations by the Zionist regime for an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran."
The Middle East Spectator said in its posted statement that it could not verify the authenticity of the documents.
No US or Israeli officials have publicly commented on the possible leak. Axios reported that intelligence officials declined to comment but did not dispute the veracity of the documents.
When reached for comment from Business Insider, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said, "We are looking into these reports."
The region is bracing for an expected Israeli attack on Iran. Israeli officials have said it plans to retaliate for Iran's October 1 missile attack. The US announced this month it would send troops along with "a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery" to Israel in response to Iran's attack.
Iran's missile attack on Israel came in retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in late September. Hezbollah is Iran's primary proxy in the region.
Sean McFate, a national security and foreign policy expert at Syracuse University, told Business Insider in a text that Israel's plan to attack Iran is "no surprise," and he senses a debate is going on within Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu's government as to which targets to choose.
He said the document leak is notable given that there are "not a whole lot of Iran sympathizers within the US government."
"It's also a tense time between Biden and Bibi right now," McFate said, "and all under the shadow of the election."
Business Insider
Details of how Israel's purported preparations for Iran attack leaked, explained
Adam Schrader
upi
Sun, October 20, 2024
Leaked U.S. documents purportedly indicate that Israel is preparing to attack Iran with ROCKS missiles, pictured in a promotional photo by developer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. File Photo by Rafael Advance Defense Systems
Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A team of independent bloggers in the Middle East who purportedly spread classified documents detailing Israel's plans for a strike against rival Iran have explained how the information leaked.
On Friday, the self-described "news aggregator" Middle East Spectator shared documents appearing to have originated from the U.S. intelligence community on Telegram. UPI has reviewed the documents but has not been able to verify their authenticity.
The documents were marked as "top secret" and appear to have come from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which generates intelligence from satellite and aerial imagery.
Markings on the documents indicate that they required special handling to protect data provided by a contributing foreign government, Israel, and could only be shared with America's "Five Eyes" allies - Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Specifically, the documents detail recent military activities by the Israeli Air Force including the purported launches of air-launched ballistic missiles, drones and air-to-surface missiles in preparation for an attack on Iran.
The documents specifically note the possible existence of previously unknown to the public weapons including "Golden Horizon" ABLMs. Another weapon mentioned, ROCKS, is developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the creator of the Iron Dome.
"We are independent journalists and are not tied to any government entity or organization," Middle East Spectator said in a post, hitting back at claims in American media that the collective has ties to Iran.
Middle East Spectator shared that one of its acquaintances had received the documents from an anonymous source on Telegram who refused to identify themselves after they first appeared in a private Telegram group with just 7,000 members.
"Middle East Spectator is not aware of any additional leaked classified U.S. documents. We also reiterate that we have no connection to the original source, which we assume to be a whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Defense," the collective said.
"As far as we are aware, the documents first appeared in a private Telegram group with just over 7,000 members, where the leaker was likely present. Somehow, the documents found their way out of the group."
The collective clarified that it does not know the identity of the original leaker, and also cannot verify the authenticity of the documents.
But American officials have confirmed the authenticity of the documents to news outlets including CNN, calling the leak "deeply concerning."
US investigates leak on intelligence about Israel's Iran attack plans: Updates
John Bacon, USA TODAY
Updated Sun, October 20, 2024
An investigation is underway into the "very concerning" leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing Israel’s plans for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday.
Johnson told CNN's State of the Union he would receive a briefing on the probe later Sunday. "There’s some serious allegations being made there," Johnson said. "We’re following it closely."
The documents, revealed on the Telegram messaging app last week, appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. They describe U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning using satellite imagery from Oct. 15-16. The Pentagon said it is looking into the leak.
Israel has pledged a firm response to Iran's ballistic-missile barrage on Israel Oct. 1, the second direct attack on Israel in six months. President Joe Biden, responding to questions from reporters, said last week he had a good understanding of when and how Israel would attack Iran.
But he also said he sees an opportunity to end the two enemies' back-and-forth strikes.
Developments:
∎ Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Sunday he had ordered his ministry to start legal proceedings against French President Emmanuel Macron after Paris banned Israeli firms from participating in an upcoming military naval trade show.
∎ The Israeli military said it was conducting "targeted activity" against Hezbollah infrastructures in southern Lebanon as both sides continued aerial attacks. Air Force fighter jets attacked dozens of militant targets and the launcher from which dozens of missiles were fired towards Western Galilee earlier Sunday.
Trump leak suggests Iran is hacking former president's campaign
Israel warns Lebanese civilians to evacuate ahead of attacks
Israel said Sunday it was preparing attacks on sites in Lebanon linked to the financial operations of Iran-backed Hezbollah and published maps with the likely targets warning civilians to evacuate the areas.
The warning came hours after Israel said it hit Hezbollah's intelligence headquarters in Beirut. The Hezbollah-linked financial institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 across central Beirut and its suburbs.
Avichay Adraee, an Israeli spokesperson for the Arab media, posted the maps on social media with a warning to those living near the targets.
"You are located near facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, which the (Israeli military) will work against in the near future," Adraee warned. "For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 500 meters."
UN blasts Israel for latest attack; Israel says report 'exaggerated'
The U.N. peace envoy for the Middle East on Sunday condemned continued attacks on civilians after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza's Beit Lahiya late on Saturday. The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 87 people were killed and at least 40 wounded.
"The nightmare in Gaza is intensifying" said Tor Wennesland, the U.N. Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. "Horrifying scenes are unfolding in the northern Strip amidst conflict, relentless Israeli strikes and an ever-worsening humanitarian crisis."
The Israeli military dismissed the Hamas-run ministry's numbers as "exaggerated," saying they “do not line up with the information available to the IDF, the precision munitions used, and the precise damage done."
Israel commander denies Sinwar killing was 'stroke of luck'
The attack that killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, widely reported as a chance encounter, was the result of professional soldiering and "not a stroke of luck,” Israeli Col. Sivan Bloch stressed on Sunday.
Bloch's Defense Force’s 828th Brigade was tasked with continuing mop-up operations in Rafah, including locating and demolishing leftover Hamas infrastructure, eliminating militants, and searching for signs of hostages.
Block told the Times of Israel that a vigilant soldier spotted suspicious movement several hundred meters away. The incident was almost given an all-clear after nothing was initially found, but trackers with the brigade searched the area and found fresh footprints on the ground, Bloch said.
Soldiers followed the footprints to a house where they found Sinwar and his guards. A gunfight ensued and the militants were killed and a soldier went into the building.
“Half jesting, we said, ‘Walla, it looks like Yahya Sinwar.’ We went up to him physically, and there was no doubt. His face is easy to recognize," Bloch said. "I can tell you that we didn’t even believe it at first."
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel war updates: US investigates leak on Israel's Iran attack plans
Purported leaked US intelligence docs appear to show Israel's plans for attack on Iran
MATT SEYLER, LUIS MARTINEZ and CINDY SMITH
Sat, October 19, 2024
Documents purported to show classified U.S. intelligence gathering on Israel's preparations for a potential retaliatory strike on Iran appeared on social media platforms this week. It is unclear what impact the potential leak may have on any Israeli military planning for a possible strike on Iran, or Israeli-American relations.
U.S. officials declined to provide comment when contacted by ABC News about the possible leak of highly-sensitive material.
ABC News could not independently verify the authenticity of the documents, which appear to show specific details about the types and number of munitions that Israel may be readying for a potentially large-scale strike on Iran in retaliation for the regime's late September barrage of almost 200 ballistic missiles aimed at Israel.
The documents posted on social media have markings that would indicate that they originated from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the U.S. agency that collects, analyzes and distributes intelligence gleaned from satellite and aerial imagery. ABC News is not quoting directly from or showing the documents.
PHOTO: In this Nov. 11, 2023, file photo, a cellphone is shown with seal of US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) in front of the agency's webpage. (imageBROKER/Timon Schneider/Newscom, FILE)
Analysis of overhead satellite imagery is just one of multiple intelligence collection tools that the U.S. intelligence community uses to make strategic assessments or risk evaluations.
"We are looking into these reports," a senior U.S. defense official told ABC News when asked about the purported intelligence documents.
The Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigation and a spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all declined to provide any comment when contacted by ABC News.
MORE: What comes next after Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s death?
If the posts prove authentic, it would signify a major intelligence breach, one reminiscent of the massive leak discovered last year after hundreds of classified documents were shared on the Discord social media platform.
PHOTO: IDF soldiers are continuing limited, localized, targeted raids based on precise intelligence against Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon, on Oct. 15, 2024. (IDF/GPO via SIPA via Shutterstock)
Earlier this year U.S. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information relating to the Discord leaks.
Axios first reported on the leaked documents.
"If it is true that Israel tactical plans to respond to Iran's attack on October 1st have been leaked, it is a serious breach," said Mick Mulroy, an ABC News national security and defense contributor, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
"Everyone that has access to this information has an obligation to keep it secure," said Mulroy. "The men and women of the IDF that would carry out this mission could be compromised because of this, the future coordination between the U.S. and Israel could be challenged as well."
"Trust is a key component in the relationship and depending on how this was leaked that trust could be eroded," he added.
Purported leaked US intelligence docs appear to show Israel's plans for attack on Iran originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
US investigates leak on intelligence about Israel's Iran attack plans
Reuters
Sun, October 20, 2024 at 7:48 AM MDT·2 min read
6
Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, visits the New York Stock Exchange to deliver an economic address in New York
(Reuters) -The United States is investigating the leak of a pair of highly classified intelligence documents describing Israel's preparations for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday.
The documents appear to have been prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, describing U.S. interpretations of Israeli Air Force and Navy planning based on satellite imagery from Oct. 15-16.
They began circulating last week on the Telegram messaging app. Israel has been planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, its second direct attack on Israel in six months. Israel has intensified its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Asked about the leak of the documents during an interview with CNN, Johnson, the U.S. House of Representatives' top lawmaker, said an "investigation (is) underway and I'll get a briefing on that in a couple of hours."
"...We are following it closely," Johnson added.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon said it was looking into the leak reports.
The New York Times reported that officials acknowledged privately that the documents were authentic, but that they likely only represent a portion of information the U.S. has on its close ally's planning.
The first document is titled: "Israel: Air Force Continues Preparations for Strike on Iran and Conducts a Second Large-Force Employment Exercise". It describes activities including ballistic and air-to-surface missile handling.
The second is titled: "Israel: Defense Forces Continue Key Munitions Preparations and Covert UAV Activity Almost Certainly for a Strike on Iran". UAVs are also known as drones.
U.S. President Joe Biden, responding to questions from reporters, said last week he had a good understanding of when and how Israel would attack Iran. But he also said he sees an opportunity to end the two enemies' back-and-forth strikes.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Sarah N. Lynch and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Exclusive: Inside the prison that executes people for supplying cannabis
Ivan Watson, Heather Chen, Rebecca Wright and Tom Booth, CNN
Sat, October 19, 2024
Though he is provided with a straw mat, Matthew says he prefers to sleep on the concrete floor of his cell in the maximum-security wing of Singapore’s Changi Prison.
“It’s more cooling that way,” says the 41-year-old former schoolteacher, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and seven strokes of the cane for selling methamphetamine.
CNN met Matthew, who spoke on condition that his last name be withheld, during an exclusive tour of Changi Prison provided by Singapore authorities as they defended the city-state’s uncompromising position on drugs.
In recent years, dozens of US states and countries ranging from Canada to Portugal have decriminalized marijuana.
But Singapore imposes a mandatory death penalty for people convicted of supplying certain amounts of illicit drugs – 15 grams (half an ounce) of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, 250 grams of methamphetamine and 500 grams of cannabis.
A 64-year-old man was hanged for drug offenses this week – the fourth person to be hanged so far this year.
The harsh sentencing puts the wealthy city-state in a small club of countries that includes Iran, North Korea and Saudi Arabia, which execute criminals convicted of drug offenses.
K Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs and Law, characterizes the country’s war on drugs as an “existential battle,” and claims any easing of the government’s hardline stance could lead to chaos.
“Look around the world,” Shanmugam says. “Any time there has been a certain laxity in the approach to drugs, homicides go up. Killings, torture, kidnappings … that goes up.”
A lucrative drugs market
Visitors to Singapore get a stark warning about the island’s zero tolerance for drugs as international flights descend for landing.
“Drug trafficking may be punishable by death,” a woman’s voice announces over the loudspeaker, amid instructions to passengers to buckle seat belts and stow away tray tables.
Many citizens of this Southeast Asian city-state are also aware that it is illegal for them to consume drugs overseas.
Returning Singaporeans and permanent residents run the risk of facing drug tests upon arrival.
“When you come back, and if there is a reason to believe you have taken drugs, you could be tested,” Shanmugam says.
Per capita, Singapore is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. With a population of nearly 6 million people, it has an annual GDP per capita of nearly $134,000.
This regional transport and financial hub has a reputation for safety, efficiency and strictness under de facto single-party rule.
The People’s Action Party, of which Shanmugam is a member, has governed Singapore since its independence nearly six decades ago.
Speaking from a balcony in the Home Affairs Ministry overlooking tidy neighborhoods of parks and villas, Shanmugam argues his country is a potentially lucrative market in a part of Asia he says is awash with drugs.
“If you are able to traffic into Singapore, the street price here compared to the street price in some other parts [of the world], it’s a magnet.”
K Shanmugam, Singapore’s Minister for Home Affairs, claims the death penalty acts as a deterrent to drugs offenses. - Rebecca Wright/CNN
Singapore stands in relatively close proximity to the notorious Golden Triangle, the mountainous intersection of Thailand, Laos and civil war-torn Myanmar. Last year, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) labeled the region the world’s largest source of opium. Production of methamphetamine in the region has also surged in recent years, outpacing heroin and opium.
Singapore’s anti-drug czar claims strict punishment serves as a deterrent to drug traffickers.
“Our philosophy on prisons is not the same as, say, the Scandinavian philosophy,” Shanmugam says. “We choose to make it harsh,” he adds. “It is not a holiday home.
“It is intended to be tough.”
Single cells in stifling heat
Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex is a walled compound of guard towers and imposing gates built in the shadow of the country’s main airport.
More than 10,000 prisoners are held here, and according to the prison’s latest annual report, most are serving time for drug offenses.
CNN was given access to one floor of a maximum-security wing that holds around 160 prisoners jailed for felonies ranging from drug dealing to violent crimes including manslaughter.
A network of security cameras mounted inside and outside individual cells and even over toilets allow just five guards to monitor the entire floor.
At mealtimes, the metallic clang of shutting gates echoes through the cell block, as a prisoner distributes meal trays through a ground-level hatch at the bottom of each cell door.
Food is delivered to prisoners in their cells through a small hatch. - Rebecca Wright/CNN
Authorities allowed CNN to interview only one prisoner, Matthew, the former schoolteacher, who said he was addicted to the same drug he was selling.
His single-occupancy cell is austere, measuring just 7 square meters (75 square feet), with a squat toilet beneath a shower. Inmates are not allowed to have furniture, so there’s no bed or anything to sit on.
It is also steam-bath hot year-round in Singapore’s tropical climate, where maximum daily temperatures regularly rise above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit).
The effect of extreme heat on prisoners has become more of a concern around the world as temperatures rise due to climate change.
“You will notice that there aren’t any fans or aircon,” Matthew explains. “There are some periods of time where it’s unbearable.”
Asked whether the threat of the death penalty had any deterrent effect on his drug dealing, Matthew says, “I would like to say yes.”
“But the truth is at that point in time I wasn’t thinking about it. In fact, I was actively avoiding the whole issue of consequences.”
‘Captains of lives’
The prison’s deliberately harsh conditions contrast sharply with abundant emotional wellness messaging in the facility’s common areas.
The workshop, where prisoners pack anti-dandruff shampoo and instant coffee for a small salary, is plastered with motivational quotes from luminaries such as Steve Jobs and Nelson Mandela.
Cartoon characters and photos of waterfalls decorate classrooms where prisoners get lessons in anger management and job training.
Officials from the Singapore Prison Service say they encourage guards to think of themselves as “Captains of Lives,” helping rehabilitate the prison population.
From an air-conditioned room known as “the fish tank,” they monitor inmates on live feeds from dozens of security cameras positioned around the prison.
Reuben Leong is in charge of the maximum-security correctional unit at Changi Prison. - Rebecca Wright/CNN
Reuben Leong, the officer in charge of the correctional unit, says the job is not without risk. Violent incidents – usually fights between inmates – take place every few weeks, he says.
“There will be periods of time where they can be demanding, they can be rude, they can be hostile to you,” he adds.
The Yellow Ribbon Project is a government program aimed at rehabilitating former convicts, with job placement and community engagement.
Despite these efforts, Singaporean officials say roughly one in five former prisoners will likely end up back behind bars within two years. By comparison, one in three return to prison within two years in the United States, which has some of the highest recidivism rates in the world.
Meanwhile, there is no rehabilitation for death row inmates.
Singapore executed 11 prisoners by hanging in 2022, and five last year, according to the latest figures. All were convicted of drug charges.
Officials did not allow CNN to visit Institution A1, where more than 40 death row inmates await the same fate.
‘Give my son a second chance’
Outside the prison walls, relatives of death row inmates hold an agonizing vigil awaiting the fate of their loved ones.
Halinda binte Ismail has a shock of bleach blond hair and sports a small stud in her left nostril.
By her count, the 61-year-old has been in prison at least seven times, always for drugs. Halinda says she was just 12 when she first smoked heroin.
Her last arrest was in 2017, when police raided the building where she lived with her eldest son, Muhammed Izwan bin Borhan.
Both mother and son were convicted for narcotics. But while Halinda ended up serving five years, her son was sentenced to death after police caught him with six packets of meth and heroin, according to court documents. He is still in prison, awaiting execution.
“I’m very angry with why the government doesn’t give [my son] a chance to change his life,” Halinda says.
“I always pray to the government ‘give my son a second chance.’”
Halinda is now part of a small movement of activists seeking to ban Singapore’s death penalty.
“It’s not solving anything, and it’s just disproportionately used against some of the most marginalized and weakest people in society,” says Kirsten Han, a journalist and activist with the Transformative Justice Collective, who lobbies on behalf of death row inmates.
“I just feel like it’s very morally wrong.”
Han’s outspoken criticism of Singapore’s system of executions has won her the personal enmity of Shanmugam, the Home Affairs minister.
“She is one of those who romanticizes the people on death row,” Shanmugam tells CNN.
However, Shanmugam confirms one of Han’s observations.
Around 40 prisoners are held in Institution A1, where they’re waiting execution by hanging. - Rebecca Wright/CNN
Among more than 40 inmates he says are currently on death row, most are in the “lower social-economic category.”
One of the 11 prisoners executed in 2022 for drug offenses was Nazeri bin Lajim.
“I was hoping that they [would] give him the life sentence, but they literally hanged my brother,” says his surviving sister Nazira.
Nazira says her brother was a life-long drug addict, but not a violent man.
She shows a series of portraits in her phone of Nazeri, dressed in a brightly printed T-shirt, smiling and holding up a victory sign for the camera.
Before each execution, authorities organize a professional photo shoot in which inmates trade their prison uniforms for civilian clothes.
Nazira doesn’t appreciate the gesture.
“It’s fake happiness,” she says.
She says she is encouraging her adult children to leave Singapore permanently to emigrate to Australia.
War on drugs
Singaporean officials point to surveys that show overwhelming public support for the government’s war on drugs.
In public appearances, Shanmugam often highlights public drug use on the streets of European and American cities to justify Singapore’s approach to the problem.
But it may be more fitting to compare Singapore’s record with Hong Kong, another former British colony that has a zero-tolerance approach to drugs.
Hong Kong’s population is around 25% larger than Singapore’s, and it does not impose the death penalty for drug offenses.
Yet despite its considerably larger population, Hong Kong made 3,406 drug arrests in 2023 – just a few hundred more than the 3,101 drug arrests in Singapore.
And according to Shanmugam, drug arrests in Singapore surged 10% in 2023 – suggesting that perhaps the threat of death is failing to act as a deterrent to crime.
“It’s a fight that you never say you’ve won,” Shanmugam says.
“It’s a continuous work in progress.”
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WAIT, WHAT?!
US writer Anne Applebaum appeals for arms for Ukraine as she accepts German peace prize
VANESSA GERA
Sun, October 20, 2024
Germany, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.(AP Photo/Martin Meissner, Pool)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The prominent American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum urged continued support for Ukraine as she accepted a prestigious German prize on Sunday, arguing that pacifism in the face of aggression is often nothing more than appeasement.
Applebaum made her appeal to an audience in Frankfurt, where she was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She was joined by her husband, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski, who like his wife is a strong voice on the international stage for supporting Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia's brutal invasion.
“If there is even a small chance that military defeat could help end this horrific cult of violence in Russia, just as military defeat once brought an end to the cult of violence in Germany, we should take it,” Applebaum said.
Many Germans have embraced an ethos of pacifism as a result of their nation's aggression under Adolf Hitler during World War II. And many have misgivings now about supplying weapons to Kyiv, fearing Russia and worried that it could cause the war to spread beyond Ukraine's borders to the rest of Europe.
“Some even call for peace by referring solemnly to the ‘lessons of German history,” Applebaum noted, according to a transcript of her speech published by the prize organization.
“As I am here today accepting a peace prize, this seems the right moment to point out that ‘I want peace’ is not always a moral argument," Applebaum said. “This is also the right moment to say that the lesson of German history is not that Germans should be pacifists."
"On the contrary, we have known for nearly a century that a demand for pacifism in the face of an aggressive, advancing dictatorship can simply represent the appeasement and acceptance of that dictatorship.”
She argued that the “real lesson” from German history should be that Germans "have a special responsibility to stand up for freedom and to take risks in doing so.”
The prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($27,185), was awarded in St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt — which is considered the birthplace of German parliamentary democracy — at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The prize has been awarded since 1950. It honours individuals who have contributed to turning the idea of peace into reality through literature, science or art. Last year’s prize was awarded to British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie for his perseverance despite enduring decades of threats and violence.
The German news agency dpa reported that Applebaum's strong support for continuing to arm Ukraine triggered some criticism, citing Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, the head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, which awards the prize.
Nonetheless she received strong applause for her speech, dpa reported from Frankfurt.
Following pacifism to its logical conclusion, Applebaum argued, would "mean that we should acquiesce to the military conquest of Ukraine, to the cultural destruction of Ukraine, to the construction of concentration camps in Ukraine, to the kidnapping of children in Ukraine.”
Applebaum writes for The Atlantic magazine. She has written books that focus on totalitarianism in Eastern Europe, including “The Gulag," and “The Iron Curtain” and “Red Famine,” about dictator Joseph Stalin's war on Ukraine. She recently published “Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.” In 2004, she was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize.
The prize jury said Applebaum’s analyses of communist and post-communist systems in the Soviet Union and Russia reveal “the mechanisms by which authoritarians grab hold of power and maintain their control.”
The laudation for Applebaum was delivered by the Russian historian Irina Scherbakova, a founding member of the human rights organization Memorial, which is now banned in Russia and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
US historian Anne Applebaum receives German literary Peace Prize
DPA
Sun, October 20, 2024
US author and journalist Anne Applebaum, reacts at a press conference. US historian Anne Applebaum is due to be honoured with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday. Boris Roessler/dpa
US historian Anne Applebaum is due to be honoured with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade at the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday.
The laudation was to be delivered in Frankfurt's Church of St Paul by Irina Scherbakowa, a Moscow-born Germanist, historian and one of Russia's best-known human rights activists.
"At a time when democratic values and achievements are increasingly being caricatured and attacked, her work embodies an eminent and indispensable contribution to the preservation of democracy and peace," the prize's selection jury said in a statement.
Appelbaum's work has revealed the mechanisms of authoritarian seizure and protection of power and shown how fragile democratic societies are, it added.
Endowed with €25,000 ($27,170), the Peace Prize has been awarded by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association since 1950.
It honours personalities who have contributed to the realization of the idea of peace in literature, science or art.
Applebaum was honoured with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2004.
Applebaum, 60, was born in the United States to Jewish parents. In addition to her US citizenship, she also holds Polish citizenship.
Married to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, she has authored such works as "Gulag: A History" (2003), "Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-56" (2012), "Twilight of Democracy: The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends" (2021) and "Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World" (2024).
Germany Book Fair Peace PrizeAmerican journalist and historian Anne Applebaum, left, is awarded with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, head of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association during a ceremony at the St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt,
Boeing exploring asset sales to boost finances, WSJ reports
Reuters
Updated Sun, October 20, 2024 at 5:42 AM MDT 1 min read
(Reuters) -Boeing is exploring asset sales in a bid to boost its fragile finances by shedding its non-core or underperforming units, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The planemaker last week reached an agreement to offload a small defense unit that makes surveillance equipment for the U.S. military, the paper reported, citing people familiar with the deal.
Boeing has lurched from crisis to crisis this year, ever since Jan. 5 when a door panel blew off a 737 MAX jet in mid-air. Since then, its CEO has departed, its production has been slowed as regulators investigate its safety culture, and in September, 33,000 union workers went on strike.
The Journal reported that in recent financial-performance meetings, new CEO Kelly Ortberg asked the heads of the company's units to lay out the value of those units to the company.
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Boeing's board recently met to discuss the next steps for the company, where directors questioned division heads and combed through reports to examine the state of each unit, the report said.
Boeing declined to comment on the report.
Striking machinists at the planemaker are set to vote Wednesday on a new contract proposal that includes a 35% pay hike over four years.
The work stoppage has halted production of the planemaker's best-selling 737 MAX and its 767 and 777 widebodies, putting added pressure on its already weak finances.
Earlier this month, Boeing announced it would cut 17,000 jobs, or 10% of its global staff, and take $5 billion in charges.
(Reporting by Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
