Argentine fans demonstrate to demand 'justice' for Diego Maradona

Wed, 10 March 2021, 


Claudia Villafane (C), the ex-wife of Diego Maradona, marches with her children and others to demand "justice" after his death

Hundreds of Argentine football fans demonstrated on Wednesday in Buenos Aires to demand justice for superstar player Diego Maradona, who died on November 25 in circumstances under investigation.

"Maradona has been left to die and it is not fair, it is not fair that a person who gave us Argentines so much ends up like that," Abel Chorolque, a 44-year-old cab driver, told AFP at the protest.

Maradona, who was 60, died of a heart attack just weeks after undergoing brain surgery on a blood clot.

Investigators are looking into the health treatment he received prior to his death to determine whether or not to bring a case of wrongful death, a conviction for which would result in a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The "10M" demonstration was organized on social media by different Maradona fan groups under the slogan "Justice for Diego, he did not die, he was killed."

Two of his adult daughters, Dalma and Gianinna, as well as the youngest of his five children -- Diego Fernando, 8 -- were at the protest, though they had to leave as the atmosphere turned tense.

As darkness fell some in the crowd chanted death threats against Matias Morla, Maradona's last lawyer, who would have appointed the medical team that treated him at the end of his life.

Maradona underwent surgery on November 3, just four days after he celebrated his 60th birthday at the club he coached, Gimnasia y Esgrima.

However, he appeared in poor health then and had trouble speaking.

Maradona had battled cocaine and alcohol addictions during his life. He was suffering from liver, kidney and cardiovascular disorders when he died.

A panel of experts, made up of 10 official specialists and 10 more selected by the interested parties, is due to deliver its findings on his cause of death in two or three weeks.

Maradona's neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov and psychologist Carlos Diaz are under investigation as well as two nurses, a nursing coordinator and a medical coordinator.

ls/cl/st/bgs

Giant fresco appears in floating Benin village

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Giant fresco appears in floating Benin villageGuillaume Legros, also known as Sype, painted vast joined hands in Benin as part of a chain of similar works around the world


Josue Mehouenou

Wed, March 10, 2021,

On a small island surrounded by hundreds of wooden huts on stilts, in the middle of Lake Nokoue in southeast Benin, a giant painting is taking shape.

For the past three hours, in 41 degrees Celsius (106F) heat, French artist Saype has been busy transforming a playground in the floating village of Ganvie.

Shapes gradually appear on the grass in grey and black paint from the nozzle of his sprayer.


Fishermen, women selling fish, and children from the village are gathered around him, observing the scene with wonder as a drone hovers above their heads.

"No one knows yet what this man is doing," resident Sonagnon Dagbedji says, his eyes fixed on Saype.

The 33-year-old says he's seen paintings before in a local gallery, "but painting on the grass? That's a first."

It's not just the art attracting curious residents -- the artist himself intrigues many.

"Seeing a white man coming to Ganvie to paint, that's an event in itself," said another resident, Sokin Agodokpedji.

"We were told the final result would be special so we are waiting," said the eager 25-year-old fisherman.

At last, the fresco is ready. Onlookers congregate to watch a video from the drone's camera on a small screen.

The strokes of paint have formed into two giant interlaced hands.

For Saype, whose real name is Guillaume Legros, this painting is part of "the largest human chain in the world."

The "Beyond Walls" project started in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower and has over several years travelled around the world, reaching Andorra, Berlin, Geneva, Ouagadougou, Yamoussoukro, Turin, Istanbul and Cape Town before coming to Benin's floating village of Ganvie.

"We are at a point in history where the world is polarising, and where a part of people are more and more turning in on themselves," Saype wrote in a presentation on the project.

The interlaced hands are "a symbol of kindness and goodwill between people," he says, "to try and build bridges."

str/cma/lhd/tgb/oho

For Serbia's LGBT community, same-sex unions are progress but not equality

Issued on: 11/03/2021

A gay couple kiss during the Pride Parade in Belgrade in 2014 Andrej ISAKOVIC AFP/File

Powerful Photos Show The First Gay Pride March In Serbia In Four Years (buzzfeednews.com)

Belgrade (AFP)

When Andjela dropped to her knees and proposed to the love of her life two years ago, she thought that officially tying the knot with her partner Sanja was just a fantasy.

But the couple is now planning their wedding at home in their Balkan country, with the promise of a new law that will recognise same-sex partnerships marking an important victory for the LGBT community that faces widespread homophobia.

"At first, we thought it would be a small, intimate wedding, but when we realised how many people we need to invite, it turned out it will be a gala ceremony", Andjela Stojanovic, a 27-year-old postal worker, said with a laugh next to her partner Sanja Markovic, 30, who works in graphic design.

Despite being one of few nations to have an openly gay prime minister, Serbia's machismo-heavy culture leaves many LGBT people living in fear.

Holding hands in public remains a taboo for same-sex couples in a country where almost 60 percent of LGBT people have reported physical or emotional abuse in the course of a year, according to a survey by human rights organisations IDEAS and GLIC published in 2020.

"To all those who oppose the law, I can only say -- if you don't like same-sex partnerships, don't live in one," Minister of Human and Minority Rights Gordana Comic, who has championed the law, told AFP.

Yet even among the new generation of high schoolers, only 24 percent of those surveyed expressed support for LGBT rights such as adoption, according to a study by the Helsinki Committee.

Sonja, a 17-year-old high school student who declined to give her surname, told AFP that she doesn't know anyone her age who is openly gay, while those who show support for LGBT rights get "ridiculed or attacked".

"Most of my class believes it's fashionable to hate gay people, especially boys", she lamented.

- Church 'understands' -

Expected to be passed this spring, the legislation would grant LGBT couples legal benefits such as joint healthcare and inheritance rights -- but not the option to adopt children.

"It's far from equality, but is a step forward", LGBT activist Vladan Djukanovic told AFP.

Elsewhere in the Western Balkans, only Croatia and Montenegro have passed similar laws.

While the bill has not stirred up significant protests in Serbia, in recent history violence has trailed every inch of progress for the LGBT community, from hooligan attacks on Belgrade's Pride parade a decade ago to tense stand-offs with the police over an art exhibit in 2012 that presented images of Jesus among transgender people.

The influential Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) has historically played a key role in shaping public opinion, such as branding the annual Belgrade Pride march "a parade of shame".

However, the tide seems to be turning inside the conservative institution too.

The church's new leader, Patriarch Porfirije, has shifted away from the usual discriminatory rhetoric by stating that, while the Church does not consider same-sex unions as marriages, he sympathises with the frustrations the community faces.

"I can understand people with that kind of sexual orientation, their countless administrative problems, challenges and pressures, and their need to regulate their status", Porfirije recently told public broadcaster RTS.

Having an openly gay Prime Minister for the past four years may have also made an impact, although Ana Brnabic has been criticised for failing to be a more vocal advocate of expanding LGBT rights.

Brnabic has previously underlined that her mission is not to be a "gay prime minister", but a leader of a country.

Yet some accuse the 45-year-old of failing to use her position of power to help the rest of the community.

While the prime minister's female partner gave birth to a baby boy in 2019, months later artificial insemination was banned in Serbia for couples who have "recent history of homosexual relations".

"Serbia remains a country in which the prime minister, despite receiving congratulations, still can't be listed as a parent of her son, cannot enroll him in kindergarten, take him on a vacation abroad, nor visit him in hospital as member of the family", Labris, a lesbian human rights organisation, said at the time.

Activists also carried a sign that read: "For all the victims of violence in Serbia."

Pinkwashing -

Some gay activists also see the new law as the government's latest form of "pinkwashing" -- the practice of promoting some progressive ideas in order to overshadow other illiberal ones.

Serbia's government has come under heavy criticism in recent years for cracking down on political critics and independent media.

"It's a practice to allow certain rights for the LGBT community, in order to mask general deterioration of human rights in the country", activist Djukanovic said.

Minority rights minister Comic rejected the notion, saying that "human rights are not a distraction".

The "hardest task is to actually bring them to life", she added.

For now, Stojanovic and Markovic, who is in a wheelchair, plan on building a family in Serbia after undertaking artificial insemination that will have to be conducted abroad.

"I think (our children) will be in high school before their status is regulated", Markovic told AFP.

"The children will be ours in every sense, apart in the eyes of the law."

© 2021 AFP

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar 

on 'Queen's Gambit' success

Daniel BOSQUE
Wed, 10 March 2021

1/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Rechapados Ferrer, a small family-run business, is struggling to keep up with demand since its boards appeared in the hit miniseries "The Queen's Gambit"

2/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Today, 98 percent of their chessboards are exported, some of which are used in tournaments

3/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
Making chessboards is a slow process -- a worker first selects high-quality wood that is trimmed into long thin sheets of light and dark colours



4/4

Spain chessboard maker's sales soar on 'Queen's Gambit' success
The company, which has just 14 employees, was founded in the 1950s to supply veneer -- or slender pieces of wood -- for furniture, but a decade later it also expanded into making chessboards


At David Ferrer's factory, workers are busy cutting, trimming and stitching together fine sheets of wood to make chessboards to meet a surge in orders in the wake of the runaway success of the Netflix series, "The Queen's Gambit".

Rechapados Ferrer, a small family-run business, is struggling to keep up with demand since its boards appeared in the award-winning miniseries about an orphaned chess prodigy.

"We have never experienced such a strong boom in demand for chessboards," says David Ferrer, 30, who runs Rechapados Ferrer in La Garriga, the industrial belt that surrounds Barcelona.

The company usually makes around 20,000 chessboards annually, but has already received orders for more than 40,000 so far this year, thanks both to the Netflix series and renewed interest in board games during lockdown.

"And there are still many months left until the end of the year," he told AFP.

Rechapados Ferrer, which has just 14 employees, was founded in the 1950s to supply veneer -- or slender pieces of wood -- for furniture, but a decade later it also expanded into making chessboards.

"If my parents could only see this," smiles Joan Ferrer, David's father and the son of the firm's founder.

Although retired, he often visits the factory and can still remember how his parents made the first chessboards in "a small room, stitching and trimming the strips of wood".

- 'Demand is crazy' -

They initially only worked with a nearby maker of chess pieces, but eventually expanded to sell their products across Spain and then the world.

Today, 98 percent of their chessboards are exported, some of which are used in tournaments, so they were not surprised when they learned their products had been used in "The Queen's Gambit".

Miquel Berbel, who heads the company's chessboard division, spotted one of their sets in the final episode of the show.

In the nail-biting finale, chess prodigy Beth Harmon goes to Moscow to take on Russian world champion Vasily Borgov in a match played on an elegant black-framed board with a decorative red-and-yellow border.

"There are very particular boards that only we make and that board was 100 percent one of ours," said Berbel.

The board was custom-made for the company's first international customer, a board games distributor in Berlin where the series was partially filmed.

When Ferrer heard about it, he was excited, but it wasn't the first time that their boards had featured in films or TV series.

"I was excited... but I didn't expect this sort of response at all," he said.

"Demand is crazy. We're getting a huge amount of emails and we can't answer them all."

- 'Seek perfection' -

Orders began to increase early last year when the pandemic first hit and the lockdowns began, but they really took off after "The Queen's Gambit" premiered in October 2020, prompting the firm to hire three new workers.

"To meet demand, we ought to be doubling or tripling the workforce. And we don't want to go down that route because we don't know how long it's going to last," says Ferrer.

Making chessboards is a slow process. A worker first selects high-quality wood that is trimmed into long thin sheets of light and dark colours.

With the help of a machine, another craftsman sews the sheets tightly together with a sticky thread, checking constantly to make sure there is not the slightest gap between them.

The board is then varnished before being packaged.

"We check the finishings a lot, we try to seek perfection," says Oscar Martinez, a 40-year-old craftsman.

Even if he wanted to, Ferrer says it would be hard to find more workers to help given the shortage of skilled craftsmen, whose training lasts "four or five years".

"We want to grow naturally. It is very skilled work and everything takes time," he says.

"It's real craftsmanship."

dbh/ds/hmw/spm/oho

Eritrea's murky role in Ethiopia conflict
Issued on: 09/03/2021 - 






Nairobi (AFP)

Eritrea, one of the world's most repressive and secretive states, has played a major role in a military operation that Ethiopia launched last year against the dissident leaders of its northern Tigray region.

Soldiers from Eritrea, which borders Tigray, have been accused by residents and rights groups of massacres in several locations that figure among the worst atrocities recorded in the conflict.

Eritrea is a bitter enemy of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) -- the party which dominated Ethiopian politics for nearly three decades before falling by the wayside with the appointment of Abiy Ahmed as prime minister in 2018.

- Animosity -

However the current leaders of Eritrea and the TPLF were not always foes.

In 1991 they were allies when a coalition of Ethiopian fighters led by the TPLF ousted dictator Mengistu Hailemariam with the key support of separatist rebels from Eritrea -- then still a part of Ethiopia.

Eritrea gained its independence in 1993, rendering Ethiopia landlocked as it lost access to its crucial Red Sea ports.

Relations between the two rapidly deteriorated over territorial and economic disputes.

In May 1998, Asmara and Addis Ababa went to war over the disputed town of Badme, a conflict that would be marked by trench warfare and large-scale pitched battles.

A peace deal signed in December 2000 put an end to the war which left 80,000 dead and instilled deep distrust and enmity between the leaders of the two countries as the issue of Badme remained unresolved.

- Peace -

Abiy's appointment in 2018 led to a spectacular and unexpected about-turn in relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara.

He had risen through the ranks of the EPRDF governing coalition, in place since 1991, to become the first premier from the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos.

His appointment came after Oromos and Amharas, the second largest ethnic group, led several years of anti-government protests over their perceived marginalisation, which pushed former premier Hailemariam Desalegn to resign.

Abiy, who embarked on a series of democratic and economic reforms, announced in June 2018 that he wanted to end the border dispute with Eritrea.

Within weeks he and Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki signed a declaration putting an end to the war.

The rapprochement, which won Abiy the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, placed the powerful TPLF in a difficult position with their enemy to the north now allied with Addis Ababa, with whom tensions had been brewing.

Abiy had begun to sideline the Tigrayan elites whom he saw as a main obstacle to his reforms, and they retreated to their stronghold in Tigray.

The TPLF refused to join Abiy's new ruling Prosperity Party after he dissolved the EPRDF coalition, and held its own elections in defiance of a national postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic.

- Eritrea steps into Tigray -

After Abiy launched his military operation to oust the TPLF, widespread reports emerged that Eritrean troops were in the region.

Even the new local authorities appointed by Abiy have admitted they are there and demanded they leave the country.

However Addis Ababa and Asmara continue to deny their presence.

Amnesty International said Eritrean troops had killed hundreds in the town of Axum, while AFP spoke to residents of the village of Dengolat, where the church counted 164 dead.

Roland Marchal, an expert from the Centre for International Research in Paris, said Eritreans were taking advantage by "occupying territory they see as theirs and by forcefully repatriating Eritrean refugees who they have always seen as a potential threat."

Before the conflict, Tigray was home to almost 100,000 Eritrean refugees who had fled the authoritarian country and its system of forced military service.

The Hitsats and Shimelba camps have been reported by the UN and other sources to have been destroyed in the fighting.

Marchal said Eritrea was not just settling scores.

"When you look at what they are doing in Eritrea there is a sense of collective punishment," he said.

"They are busy settling a series of what they see as historic defiances by massacring the civilian population."

© 2021 AFP

ROFLMAO

Russia restricts Twitter for failing to remove banned content
Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Russia's communications regulator warned that if Twitter continued to "ignore the requirements of the law", it would be blocked. 

Olivier Douliery, AFP/Archives

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Russia’s state communications watchdog said on Wednesday it was restricting the use of Twitter by slowing down its speed, accusing the social media platform of repeatedly failing to remove banned content from its site

Roskomnadzor threatened to block the service completely and said there were more than 3,000 posts containing illegal content on it as of Wednesday.

Twitter, like other U.S. social media, is used widely inside Russia by allies of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny whose jailing last month prompted nationwide protests.

“The slowing down will be applied on a 100% of mobile devices and on 50% of non-mobile devices,” the regulator said in a statement on its website.

“If (Twitter) continues to ignore the requirements of the law, the enforcement measures will be continued in line with the response regulations (all the way to blocking),” it said.

Twitter did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Wednesday’s move comes amid mounting efforts by Moscow to exert greater influence over U.S. social media platforms and frustrations over what authorities say is their failure to follow Russian laws.

Last December, parliament’s lower house backed big new fines on platforms that fail to delete banned content and another bill that would allow them to be restricted if they “discriminate” against Russian media.

(REUTERS)

Myanmar security forces surround striking rail workers opposed to military coup

Issued on: 10/03/2021 

Anti-coup protesters retreat from the frontlines after discharging fire extinguishers towards a line of riot police officers in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 10, 2021. © Stringer, AP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Myanmar security forces surrounded the staff compound of striking railway workers opposed to the military junta on Wednesday as ousted lawmakers appointed an acting vice president to take over the duties of detained politicians.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup in Myanmar, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider “further measures.”

Talks on the statement would likely continue, diplomats said, after China, Russia, India and Vietnam all suggested amendments late on Tuesday to a British draft, including removal of the reference to a coup and the threat to consider further action.

The railway staff in Yangon are part of a civil disobedience movement that has crippled government business and included strikes at banks, factories and shops since the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a coup on Feb. 1.

Security forces have cracked down with increasing force on daily, nationwide protests, leaving the Southeast Asian nation in turmoil.

More than 60 protesters have been killed and 1,900 people have been arrested since the coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group, has said.

Footage posted on social media showed security forces near the railway staff compound. One person involved in the strike said by telephone they feared an imminent crackdown.

“I think they are going to arrest us. Please help us,” said the person, who asked to be identified only as Ma Su rather than their full name.

In a Facebook live broadcast from the area people chanted:

“Are we staff united? Yes, we are united” and a commentator claimed police were trying to remove barricades and threatening to shoot.

Details could not be independently verified. Police and army officials did not respond to requests for comment.

In Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, protesters staged a sit-in protest on Wednesday, chanting: “The resolution must prevail”.

On Tuesday, Zaw Myat Linn, an official from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), died in custody after he was arrested, the second party figure to die in detention in two days.

“He’s been participating continuously in the protests,” said Ba Myo Thein, a member of the dissolved upper house of parliament. The cause of death was not clear. In a Facebook live broadcast before he was detained, Zaw Myat Linn urged people to continue fighting the army, “even if it costs our lives”.

Crackdown on media

In a symbolic gesture, an announcement posted on the NLD’s Facebook page on Tuesday said ousted lawmakers had appointed Mahn Win Khaing Than, who was the upper house speaker, as acting vice president to perform the duties of arrested President Win Myint and leader Suu Kyi. Mahn Win Khaing Than’s whereabouts were not known.

Police on Tuesday also cracked down on independent media, raiding the offices of two news outlets and detaining two journalists.

At least 35 journalists have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar Now reported, of which 19 have been released.

Some police have refused orders to fire on unarmed protesters and have fled to neighbouring India, according to an interview with one officer and classified Indian police documents.

“As the Civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by anti-coup protesters at different places we are instructed to shoot at the protesters,” four officers said in a joint statement to police in the Indian city of Mizoram.

“In such a scenario, we don’t have the guts to shoot at our own people who are peaceful demonstrators,” they said.

The United States is “repulsed” by the Myanmar army’s continued use of lethal force against its people and is continuing to urge the military to exercise “maximum restraint,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday.

The army has justified the coup by saying that a November election won by the NLD was marred by fraud - a claim rejected by the electoral commission. It has promised a new election, but has not said when that might be held.

               BOYCOTT DICKENS & MADISON CANADA

The junta has hired an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist for $2 million to “assist in explaining the real situation” of the army’s coup to the United States and other countries, documents filed with the U.S. Justice Department show.

Ari Ben-Menashe and his firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, will represent Myanmar’s military government in Washington, as well as lobby Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Russia, and international bodies like the United Nations, according to a consultancy agreement.

International powers have condemned the takeover, which derailed a slow transition to democracy in a country that has been ruled by the military for long periods since independence from Britain in 1947.

The military has brushed off condemnation of its actions, as it has in past periods of army rule when outbreaks of protest were forcibly repressed.

(REUTERS)

‘Longyi Revolution’: Why Myanmar protesters are using women’s clothes as protection

Protesters in Myanmar have taken to stringing up traditional women's skirts, called longyis, on clothes lines across streets as a way to protect themselves from security forces. According to old Myanmar traditions, walking beneath clothes that cover women’s private parts is considered bad luck.

BYE BYE BOLSONARO

‘Brazil has no government’: Lula tears into Bolsonaro in comeback speech

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 

Text by: FRANCE 24

Brazil's former leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva came out swinging against President Jair Bolsonaro's "imbecile" handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday as he made his return to the political stage, two days after a judge reinstated his right to run for office.

Lula, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, has emerged as a leading contender to face the far-right incumbent next year after a Supreme Court justice annulled his convictions on Monday and reinstated his political rights.

In his first comments since the ruling, Lula, 75, gave a scathing take-down of Bolsonaro's management of the economy and signature policies.

He was especially biting on Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 266,000 people in Brazil – the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States.

"This country has no government," Lula told a news conference. "This country doesn’t take care of the economy, of job creation, wages, health care, the environment, education, young people."

Bolsonaro has repeatedly downplayed the new coronavirus, flouted expert advice on containing it and fuelled vaccine scepticism.

"Don't follow any imbecile decisions by the president of the republic or the health minister: get vaccinated," Lula said.

The former president "managed to sound both serene and angry, both radical and conciliatory," said FRANCE 24's correspondent Tim Vickery. "This is an experienced politician showing that he is still at the top of his game."

Lula, a former metal worker and union leader, led Brazil through an economic boom and is remembered for social programmes that helped lift tens of millions of people from poverty.

Recent opinion polls suggest he is the best-placed politician to unseat Bolsonaro in the October 2022 elections.

>> Lula's return opens door to Bolsonaro showdown in polarised Brazil

But he remains a highly controversial figure after being sentenced to a total of 26 years in jail on corruption charges stemming from a sweeping investigation into a scheme in which top politicians and business executives systematically siphoned billions of dollars from state oil company Petrobras.

He spent more than 18 months in prison, before being released in 2019 pending appeal.

Campaign launch in all but name

Lula called himself the victim of "the biggest judicial lie in 500 years," repeating his claim that the graft charges against him were fabricated to sideline him from the 2018 presidential race, paving the way for Bolsonaro's victory.

He said he planned to "fight tirelessly" for Brazil and that he wanted to resume touring the country once he is vaccinated against Covid-19 next week.

But he declined to say whether he would run in the elections, saying, "My head doesn't have time to think about a 2022 candidacy now."

Still, "his speech was a campaign launch" in all but name, according to political analyst Creomar da Souza, of the consulting firm Dharma.

"He presented his project for the country, which involves a lot of references to his legacy as president," da Souza told AFP.

Lula is still seen as a hero on the left, which argues he was the victim of a conspiracy.

Supporters point to the fact that the lead judge in the anti-corruption probe that ensnared him, Sergio Moro, went on to accept the post of justice minister under Bolsonaro, and that hacked phone messages suggest Moro conspired with prosecutors to ensure Lula was sidelined.

Lula still faces a series of corruption and influence-peddling charges, including the ones he was jailed for, which will now be transferred to a federal court in Brasilia.

But it may already be too late for other courts to rule him out of the 2022 race, said FRANCE 24's Vickery: "In order for him to lose his political rights again he would have to be convicted and then lose again on appeal, and there may not be time for that to happen before the next presidential campaign in October of next year."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

US Congress passes $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in key win for Biden

Issued on: 10/03/2021 - 20:16

Text by :FRANCE 24

The House of Representatives gave final approval on Wednesday to one of the largest economic stimulus measures in US history, a sweeping $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that gives President Joe Biden his first major legislative victory in office.

Approval in the Democratic-controlled chamber came without any Republican support after weeks of partisan debate and wrangling in Congress.

The measure provides $400 billion for $1,400 direct payments to most Americans, $350 billion in aid to state and local governments, an expansion of the child tax credit and increased funding for vaccine distribution.

Hailing its passage, Biden said the stimulus bill would give American workers a "fighting chance".

"This legislation is about giving the backbone of this nation – the essential workers, the working people who built this country, the people who keep this country going – a fighting chance," Biden said in a statement.

The US president plans to sign the bill on Friday, the White House said.

Democrats have described the legislation as a critical response to a pandemic that has killed more than 528,000 people and thrown millions out of work.

"This is a historic day. It is the beginning of the end of the great Covid depression," Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky said.

Republicans said the measure was too costly and was packed with wasteful progressive priorities. They said the worst phase of the largest public health crisis in a century has largely passed and the economy is headed toward a rebound.

"It's the wrong plan at the wrong time for so many wrong reasons," Republican Representative Jason Smith said.

Democrats were eager to get the final bill to Biden's desk for his signature before current federal unemployment benefits expire on March 14.

The House, which passed an earlier version of the legislation, needed to meet again to approve changes made in the Senate over the weekend.

"There's been a lot of talk about this package being too large and too expensive, but if there was ever a time to go big, this should be it," said Democratic Representative Richard Neal.

The House rejected an effort by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to delay proceedings by asking for an adjournment – something she has attempted four times since taking office in January.

The House voted 235-149 to plough ahead, with 40 Republicans joining Democrats in rejecting Greene's effort.

Package popular with voters

Although many Republicans supported coronavirus relief under former president Donald Trump's administration, no Republican lawmaker voted for the bill in the House or Senate, although polls have shown it is popular with voters, even Republicans.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos national opinion poll, conducted March 8-9, 70 percent of Americans support the plan, including a majority of Democrats and Republicans. Among Republicans, five out of 10 say they support the plan, while nine out of 10 Democrats supported it.

The legislation could have high stakes for both parties. If it succeeds in giving the economy a major boost, it also could improve Democrats' political fortunes as they attempt to hold onto their slim majorities in Congress going into the 2022 mid-term elections.

Democrats hold a narrow 221-211 majority in the House and, without Republican support, could afford to lose the votes of only a few of their members. Some Democratic lawmakers in the House had criticised the changes in the bill made by the Senate.

The Senate had removed a $15 per hour federal minimum wage increase by 2025; tightened the eligibility for $1,400 direct payments, capping them at those earning below $80,000, cut the unemployment insurance payment to $300 per week from the House's $400, and targeted some of the state and local government aid to smaller communities.

The massive spending push is seen as a major driver, coupled with a quickening pace of Covid-19 inoculations and a slowing infection rate, in a rapidly brightening outlook for the nation's economy.

Private- and public-sector economists have been marking up their growth estimates, with Morgan Stanley this week pegging 2021 economic output growth at 8.1 percent. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday predicted US growth would top 6 percent this year, up from an estimate of around 3 percent just three months ago.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)