Cuban artist hospitalized on Day 8 of hunger strike



Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 

A picture of Cuban artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara on the sixth day of his hunger strike, provided by Cuban poet and activist Katherine Bisquet - Katherine Bisquet/AFP

Havana (AFP)

A Cuban dissident artist was taken to hospital Sunday, health officials in Havana said, on the eighth day of a hunger strike to protest against authorities seizing his art.

Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara, 33, is the leader of the San Isidro protest movement (MSI) of artists and intellectuals pressing for free speech and other rights in the communist nation.

The Cuban government accuses Otero Alcantara and other members of the movement of political revolt funded by the United States.




The Havana public health department said Sunday the artist had been taken to the emergency unit of the General Calixto Garcia university hospital in the capital with symptoms of "voluntary starvation".

Several of Otero Alcantara's works were seized when he was arrested earlier this month during a protest action.

After being released, he was re-arrested several times for trying to leave his home, which has been surrounded by police, and once for handing out candy to children as part of an artistic performance the government said was a political provocation.

Police denied access to two priests and others wishing to visit Otero Alcantara at home during his hunger strike. His internet was cut off.

"Luis Manuel can no longer stay upright, his skin and mouth is parched, he does not urinate or speak. He has an inflamed throat," fellow MSI member Amaury Pacheco, a poet, said on Twitter Saturday.

On Saturday night, police arrived at Otero Alcantara's house to try and stop the strike, without success, according to an MSI tweet.

Hours earlier, Julie Chung, acting assistant secretary for the US State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, had urged the Cuban government on Twitter "to take immediate steps to protect his life and health."

A 2009 study found people can survive without food and drink for between eight and 21 days, or up to two months if they take fluids without eating.

S.Africa to ban breeding lions in captivity for hunting


Issued on: 02/05/2021 -

The practice of hunting lions raised in captivity has long been controversial in South Africa, where a large number of animals are confined to pens ringed with electric fences BRETT ELOFF AFP/File

Pretoria (AFP)

South Africa on Sunday revealed plans to ban the breeding of lions in captivity for trophy hunting or for tourists to pet, in a bid to promote a more "authentic" experience.

The decision was reached following recommendations contained in a study by a special government-appointed panel into the controversial practice.

The panel was studying the management and rules governing the hunting, trade and keeping in captivity of lions, elephants, rhino and leopards.

Environment Minister Barbara Creecy told a news conference that the report said "we must halt and reverse the domestication of lions through captive breeding and keeping."

"We don't want captive breeding, captive hunting, captive (cubs) petting, captive use of lions," the minister said.

The decision, which is yet to be formulated into policy, is likely to set the government on a collision course with the powerful multi-million-dollar lion captive breeding industry.

The minister cautioned that the recommendations were not aimed at stifling the hunting industry.

"Legal regulated hunting of the iconic species under the regulatory environment will continue to be permitted, we are not banning legal regulated permitted hunting," she said.

Creecy added that the report was advising that action be "taken immediately to stop tourists' interaction with captive lions, including cub petting".

The practice of hunting lions raised in captivity has long been controversial in South Africa, where a large number of animals are confined to pens ringed with electric fences.

Campaigns to ban the importation of captive-bred lion trophies have in recent years gathered steam in the United States, Australia and several countries in Europe.

The minister said that the tourism industry was susceptible to negative perceptions that influence where tourists choose to visit.

"The intention here is to ensure that those who are interested in... authentic wildlife hunting" will have such an experience and "will not be hunting animals that have been taken out of the cage," she said.

Match delayed as Man Utd fans storm Old Trafford in anti-Glazer protest

Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 18:22

Manchester United fans called for the club's American owners, the Glazer family, to sell the club ahead of Sunday's Premier League clash with Liverpool Oli SCARFF AFP


Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Kick-off in Sunday's Premier League match between Manchester United and Liverpool was delayed after fans invaded Old Trafford as part of a protest against United's owners, the Glazer family.

Hundreds of fans managed to make their way into the ground and onto the pitch, chanting "we want Glazers out."

Large numbers of supporters had also gathered outside the stadium, on the day Manchester City could be crowned Premier League champions if United lose.


The match had been due to start at 1630 local time (1530GMT), but the Premier League confirmed the game has been delayed until further notice.

Police have cleared the area around the ground in a bid make the stadium safe for the arrival of both teams.

Anger towards the Glazers has been reignited by United's part in a failed European Super League (ESL) project, that collapsed within 48 hours last month due to a backlash from fans, players, governments and governing bodies.

United and Liverpool were reportedly two of the leading drivers behind the project that sought to guarantee top level European football for 15 founder members every season without the need to qualify on the pitch.

In a rare public statement, United co-chairman Joel Glazer apologised to fans last month for signing up to the ESL.

"You made very clear your opposition to the European Super League, and we have listened. We got it wrong, and we want to show that we can put things right," he said.

"Although the wounds are raw and I understand that it will take time for the scars to heal, I am personally committed to rebuilding trust with our fans and learning from the message you delivered with such conviction."

United fans also breached security at their club's training ground in the days after the ESL proposals were made public to protest against the Glazers.

The Americans have owned United since a controversial leveraged takeover in 2005 saddled the club with hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt.

As the English giants have paid off huge interest payments, amounting to over £800 million ($1.1 billion) in the last 16 years, the Glazers have still regularly drawn out millions in dividends from their shares.

United fans wore green and gold colours to matches early in the Glazers' reign, the colours of Newton Heath, the club founded in 1878 that eventually became Manchester United 24 years later, as a sign of protest.

Green and gold scarves and flares were back at Old Trafford on Sunday, while there were a number of banners aimed at the Glazers.

United's executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward has already announced he would be leaving his role by the end of the year amid the fallout from the failed ESL project.

"There's huge discontent, not just across Manchester United fans, but I think for football fans up and down the country and I think they are just saying enough is enough," former United captain Gary Neville told Sky Sports.

"The Glazer family have been resilient and stubborn for many, many years. I think they are struggling to meet the financial demands that this club needs and have done for some time."

© 2021 AFP

Man United game postponed after fans storm stadium in protest

Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 19:04

Fans protest against Manchester United's owners, outside English Premier League club Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium in Manchester on May 2, 2021. 

AFP - OLI SCARFF

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Manchester United's Premier League game against Liverpool was postponed on Sunday after supporters stormed into the stadium and onto the pitch as thousands of fans gathered outside Old Trafford to demand the Glazer family ownership sells the club.

Long-running anger against the American owners has boiled over after they were part of the failed attempt to take United into a European Super League.

United and Liverpool players were unable to travel to the stadium.

“Following discussion between the police, the Premier League, Trafford Council and the clubs, our match against Liverpool has been postponed due to safety and security considerations around the protest today,” United said in a statement. "Discussions will now take place with the Premier League on a revised date for the fixture.

"Our fans are passionate about Manchester United, and we completely acknowledge the right to free expression and peaceful protest. However, we regret the disruption to the team and actions which put other fans, staff, and the police in danger. We thank the police for their support and will assist them in any subsequent investigations.

The Glazers, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have declined to engage with fans since buying United in 2005 in a leveraged takeover that loaded debt onto the club.

“Get out of our club,” fans chanted as flares were set off. “We want Glazers out.”

Fans are currently unable to attend games due to the pandemic but they found a way into the stadium. They also climbed onto vantage points next to turnstile entrances

Supporters wore green-and-gold scarves and also set off flares in the colors of the club’s 1878 formation. More than 100 fans got inside the stadium and some could be seen from windows waving down to protesters. Corner flags were held aloft and one supporter was seen throwing a tripod from the interview zone.

Police on horseback later cleared protesting fans from outside the stadium, with glass bottles being thrown in brief clashes. Some fans moved back to a main road near the stadium with police forming a line to stop them returning.

If United had lost the planned game, Manchester City would have won the Premier League title. United is the record 20-time English champion but hasn’t lifted the trophy since 2013.

United and Liverpool were among six Premier League clubs that tried to form an exclusive European Super League along with three clubs each from Spain and Italy. Widespread opposition quickly ended the project, with all six English teams backing out within 48 hours of the announcement.

The “Big 6” clubs have been in damage control since, offering various forms of apologies and statements of regret, while fans long frustrated with billionaire owners have called for wholesale changes.

(AP)


Neville backs Man Utd fans after protests forces Liverpool postponement

Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 

Supporters protest against Manchester United's owners inside Old Trafford

 Oli SCARFF AFP

Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville backed the angry fans whose dramatic protest against the Glazer family forced the postponement of Sunday's game against Liverpool.

Hundreds of United supporters gathered outside Old Trafford hours before the scheduled 1530 GMT kick-off to show their disgust at the club's United States-based owners.

Around 200 forced their way into the stadium by battling past stewards and safety barrier.

They ran onto the pitch, let off flares, damaged sections of the pitch and waved anti-Glazer banners.

The ugly scenes were eventually quelled inside the stadium, but riot police, with some on horses, were needed to push the hostile crowds away from Old Trafford after bottles and other missiles were thrown.

The Glazers were already disliked after presiding over a decline in United's fortunes in recent years after their controversial takeover in 2005.

It was their leading role in the recent failed European Super League plot that reignited United fans' fury.

Neville, an outspoken critic of the Glazers and the Super League, was quick to support the protesters for taking a stand.

"The reason why those fans came today is because they have had enough," Neville told Sky Sports.

"I think it's a warning to the owners of the football club that the fans aren't going to accept what they have done.

"If there has been disturbance then I don't think that's acceptable. But the reality is the game has been called off and the fans have spoken.

"It's not going to go away because they don't trust the owners of the club and they don't like them. They think they should leave.

"Ultimately the ball is in the owners court on what they do next. The fans have been powerful. They have stood up for what's right."

- 'This is just the start' -

Neville's former Manchester United captain Roy Keane believes the protesters are so tired of the Glazers that they are sure to cause more problems in the future.

"United fans have had enough. They're doing this because they love the club. It's not just the last few weeks and the Super League, it's been building for years. They've thought enough is enough," said.

"This has been the build-up of the last few years. The leadership of the club hasn't been good enough.

"When they look at the owners they think it's all about making money. I believe the United fans are doing this because they love the cub.

"People might not agree but sometimes you have to put a marker down for people to notice. This will go all over the world. Hopefully the owners see the fans are deadly serious.

"There's more to come, this is just the start from Man Utd fans, I guarantee you."

There was a mood of celebration among fans outside Old Trafford when the game was postponed and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher refused to condemn the protests.

"Do we want fans storming stadiums left right and centre and getting games called off? No we don't," he said.

"But I'm not going to sit here and criticise Man Utd fans. I think it's a good thing, protesting not being happy at what's happened at the club."

Man Utd fans storm Old Trafford, Arsenal cruise at Newcastle
Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 17:06

Supporters protest against Manchester United's owners, inside Old Trafford Oli SCARFF AFP

London (AFP)

Manchester United's clash against Liverpool was delayed after fans stormed Old Trafford in protest at the club's owners on Sunday, while Arsenal kept Newcastle waiting to confirm their Premier League safety with a 2-0 win at St James Park.

Manchester City will be crowned English champions for the third time in four seasons if second placed United lose to Liverpool.

But Pep Guardiola's side saw their hopes of a title party put on hold for a while at least after concerning scenes several hours before kick-off at Old Trafford.

Around 200 United fans managed to get onto the pitch in protest at the club's owners.

The Glazer family, already disliked by many United supporters, were widely criticised for their leading role in the failed breakaway European Super League.

A small group of United supporters got into the club's training ground to protest against the Glazers last week, but this was a much more significant incident.

The protestors pushed down security barriers outside Old Trafford and ran onto the pitch.

Fans waved anti-Glazer banners and set off green and yellow flares -- the colours of United's Newton Heath founders.

One flare was fired towards a television commentary gantry and small sections of the turf were damaged before order was finally restored.

Both United and Liverpool's players were in their team hotels when the breach occurred.

When another group of around 30 demonstrators got into the stadium via a different route, there were growing concerns that the match would have to be postponed for safety reasons.

As hundreds more protested outside Old Trafford, the Premier League confirmed the scheduled 1530 GMT kick-off would be delayed.

Arsenal won for the first time in four games in all competitions thanks to Mohamed Elneny's first Premier League goal and a superb strike from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

Fourth bottom Newcastle remain nine points clear of the relegation zone with four games left.

Amid growing calls for his dismissal after one of Arsenal's worst seasons in decades, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta knows the only way to silence the critics is to qualify for next season's Champions League by winning the Europa League.

Arteta admits he is prioritising the Europa League, so it was no surprise that only Martin Odegaard, Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka kept their places in the team beaten 2-1 by Villarreal in the semi-final first leg on Thursday.

Next Thursday's second leg at the Emirates Stadium has already been billed by Arteta as the "crucial moment" in Arsenal's season, but he hoped an encouraging display against Newcastle would provide the ideal preparation.

Arsenal rose to the challenge and were ahead after just six minutes when Hector Bellerin ran onto David Luiz's long pass and cut his cross back to Aubameyang.

Aubameyang miscued his attempted shot but the ball ran to Egypt midfielder Elneny just inside the Newcastle area and he smashed a fine strike past Martin Dubravka from the edge of the area.

Arsenal threatened a second when Granit Xhaka's thumping effort was pushed away by Dubravka.

Having scored his maiden top-flight goal, Elneny had a taste for another and his powerful header was cleared off the line by Miguel Almiron.

Arsenal's 13 shots were their most in the first half of a Premier League game since 2018.

Aubameyang killed off Newcastle in the 66th minute with his first goal in seven games.

The Gabon forward has endured a poor season but he showed his class when he met Gabriel Martinelli's cross with a superb flying volley from six yards.

Newcastle had Fabian Schar sent off in the 90th minute for a late challenge on Martinelli.

Tottenham host Sheffield United in the day's late game.

© 2021 AFP

Napoleon's Mideast campaign still contentious, two centuries on

Many Egyptians today see the episode as "the first imperialist aggression of the modern age against the Muslim Orient"

Issued on: 02/05/2021

The Rosetta Stone, discovered by French troops and housed today at the British Museum, unlocked the study of ancient Egypt Amir MAKAR AFP/File

Cairo (AFP)

Napoleon Bonaparte's bloody campaign in Egypt and Palestine, which marked the start of modern European colonialism in the Middle East, remains contentious two centuries after the French emperor's death.

The Corsican general set sail eastwards with 300 ships in 1798, aiming to conquer Egypt and block a crucial route between Britain and its colonial territories in India.

It was an occupation that was to leave thousands dead in Egypt and Palestine.

But Bonaparte also brought some 160 scholars and engineers, who produced mountains of research that would play a key role in transforming Egypt into a modern state.

For Egyptian writer Mohamed Salmawy, speaking ahead of the May 5 bicentenary of Napoleon's death, the venture was a mix of "fire and light".

"It was a military campaign, for sure, and Egyptians put up resistance to French forces. But it was also the start of an era of intellectual progress," he said.

The "Description de l'Egypte" resulting from the mission was an encyclopaedic account of Egypt's society, history, fauna and flora.

French troops' discovery of the Rosetta Stone also allowed hieroglyphs to be deciphered for the first time, opening up the field of Egyptology.

Ruler Mohamed Ali drew heavily on Napoleonic research as he built the modern Egyptian state, says French-Egyptian writer Robert Sole.

But Arab nationalist Gamal Abdel Nasser, who helped topple Mohamed Ali's dynasty in 1952, used the episode to promote an anti-colonial national identity.

For historian Al-Hussein Hassan Hammad, at Cairo's Al-Azhar University, Napoleon's scientists were, like his troops, on an imperial mission "to serve the French presence in Egypt... and exploit its wealth."

- Repression -

When Bonaparte's fleet anchored in 1798 close to Alexandria, he ordered soldiers to daub walls with the message: "Egyptians, you will be told that I am coming to destroy your religion: it is a lie, do not believe it!"

But his claims of religious tolerance soon gave way to repression after he toppled the centuries-old Mamluk dynasty in July 1798.

When Egyptians revolted against their occupiers that October, French troops brutally crushed the uprising.

They killed thousands and even bombed the Al-Azhar mosque, a key authority for Sunni Muslims worldwide.

Many Egyptians today see the episode as "the first imperialist aggression of the modern age against the Muslim Orient", Sole said.

That sentiment is echoed in the neighbouring Gaza Strip.

Napoleon seized the ancient port city with little resistance in February 1799, having marched through the Sinai desert after British admiral Horatio Nelson destroyed his fleet.

"He is a small man who has caused great chaos in this region," said Ghassan Wisha, head of history at the Islamic University of Gaza.

"Napoleon came here not only with soldiers but also with scientists and agricultural specialists. But he used science to justify the occupation. He lied."

- 'Dark, negative image' -

Rashad al-Madani, a retired Gaza history lecturer, said the city had been "a centre for honey, oil and agriculture, and a strategic point between Asia and Europe".

Napoleon wrote that Gaza's hills, covered with "forests of olive trees", reminded him of Languedoc in southern France.

Two centuries on, those groves have given way to a forest of concrete.

Gaza is home to two million Palestinians, many of them refugees, ruled by Islamist movement Hamas and strangled by an Israeli blockade.

Madani would remind his students of Napoleon's massacre of some 3,000 people in the port town of Jaffa further up the coast.

"The French occupation was worse than that of Israel," he said.

Small reminders of Napoleon remain in Gaza.

The Qasr al-Basha, the Pasha's Palace where the emperor-to-be reportedly stayed, still stands.

It is a modest sandstone edifice surrounded by scruffy concrete buildings and electric wires.

The palace, first built in the 13th century, had long born Napoleon's name.

But tellingly, after Islamist movement Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007, it changed the name.

The palace has become a museum, and the first-floor bedroom where the general stayed, unfurnished today, is filled with Byzantine artefacts.

"The population of Gaza today has a dark, negative image of all military campaigns, including that of Napoleon," said Wisha.

- 'Still sensitive' -

It was in Acre, a sleepy port town further north, that Palestinians found a local hero in the struggle against Napoleon.

Ahmad al-Jazzar is still admired by many for holding out for two months against a crushing French siege.

"In our history books, Ahmad al-Jazzar is seen as a strong character, a hero," said Madani.

But Jazzar -- Arabic for "butcher" -- was also "a cruel being, an aggressor," he said.

"Many students didn't like it when I told them that."

And the Arab leader's French rival sparks similar strong reactions.

Marianne Khoury, the executive producer of Egyptian Youssef Chahine's film Adieu Bonaparte, said Napoleon's campaign was still "excessively controversial".

For many in France, the 1985 film was "unacceptable", she said.

"How could Chahine as an Arab director dare to talk about Bonaparte?"

Some Egyptians, for their part, recognise the scientific progress the French invasion brought.

"But the same time, there is the colonial aspect, which is still sensitive, and many Egyptians don't accept it," she said.

© 2021 AFP

SPACE RACE 2.5
Egos clash in Bezos and Musk space race


Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour as it approached the International Space Station after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 24, 2021 Handout NASA/AFP

Paris (AFP)

Even the Milky Way seems too small to keep the egos of tech billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk from colliding as they vie to conquer space.

Musk aimed low with a recent tweet saying "can't get it up (to orbit)" in response to a post about Bezos-founded space company Blue Origin protesting NASA's choice of Musk's SpaceX team to build a module that will land the next US astronauts on the moon.

"This is more than just a battle for space," said Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives. "There is some ego at play as well; this has become even more personal."


The tech entrepreneurs have each channeled some of their vast fortunes into private space exploration companies since early this century.

Bezos, 57, is founder of Blue Origin as well as of e-commerce colossus Amazon. Forbes ranks him the richest person on this planet, worth some $202 billion.

Musk, the colorful 49-year-old founder of Tesla and SpaceX as well as other companies, including one working to mesh human brains with computers, is in third place with a worth of $173 billion, according to the ranking.

- Satellite networks -

Dreams of private companies taking to the stars -- instead of leaving such wonders to governments -- have developed into projects to deploy networks of satellites providing wireless internet service and for space tourism.

While SpaceX and Blue Origin have the benefit of founders with ample financial resources, they also compete for contracts with US military or space agencies.

Musk has a clear lead over Bezos.

SpaceX has deployed hundreds of satellites into orbit, while a Kuiper satellite network remains Earth-bound despite Bezos pledging $10 billion in backing.

Musk even formed an alliance with Microsoft, which is Amazon's biggest rival in the cloud computing market, to use its Azure platform to provide satellite-powered internet service, the companies announced late last year.

Microsoft said it will also work with SpaceX on a government contract to build satellites as part of a defense system capable of detecting and tracking ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles.

Separately, the US Department of Defense last year awarded a $10 billion "JEDI" cloud computing contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon.

Amazon has alleged it was shut out of the deal because of a vendetta against the company and Bezos by former US president Donald Trump.

- Rocket to riches? -

NASA has developed confidence in SpaceX, which has been trusted to shuttle supplies and astronauts to the International Space Station, according to Foundation for Strategic Research space specialist Xavier Pasco.

Blue Origin, in contrast, hasn't made that "important step," Pasco noted.

Bezos has been left to challenge SpaceX in court here on planet Earth.

He announced early this year that he is stepping down as chief executive of Amazon and planned to spend more time on other projects including Blue Origin.

Bezos has cited the futuristic vision of late physicist and space advocate Gerard O'Neill, but has mocked Musk's talk of colonizing Mars.

Bezos has made it clear he thinks the red planet is not a spot for a home.

"Who want to move to Mars?" Bezos said at a conference in 2019.

"Do me a favor, go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it -- because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars."

The rivalry between Bezos and Musk comes with out-of-this-world financial stakes.

Analyst Ives predicted that the "monetization" of space would launch in earnest soon, with trillions of dollars to be made.

"Bezos and Musk know that the winner of the space battle will be crowned within the next one or two years," Ives said.

© 2021 AFP

 At a Toronto hospital staff exhausted, angry

Issued on: 02/05/2021 - 

Nurse Farial Faquiry holds her head as colleagues care for patients suffering from Covid-19 at Humber River Hospital's Intensive Care Unit in Toronto, Canada Cole Burston AFP

Toronto (Canada) (AFP)

Intensive care nurse Farial Faquiry says the health care system in Canada's Ontario province is nearing the breaking point as it fights a fast-moving new wave of Covid-19 infections.

The 29-year-old caregiver at Toronto's Humber River Hospital is looking after two patients in their 60s who are on ventilators.

"We're overwhelmed," Faquiry told AFP, conveying the feelings of her peers who often say they feel powerless against a tidal wave of new cases, and angry at times -- especially with the Ontario government's arguably slow response and with Ontarians who do not following public health orders to contain the coronavirus.

"We're stretched thin. We're tired and exhausted. Just exhausted."

Ontario is now the epicenter of the outbreak in Canada, led by more virulent variants. The latest surge in the number of cases was so big that authorities this week despatched the military and the Red Cross to help care for critical patients.

"It's the worst wave I've ever seen," says head nurse Kimisha Marshall. "We have younger patients coming in, sicker and lots more patients coming in."

"We're short of nurses. We had some nurses that left, but also we have nurses that are getting sick, too," she adds.

At the week's end, there were more than 2,200 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the province of 14 million. Nearly 900 patients were listed in critical condition.

Medical staff have been redeployed from other wards to the ICU to lend a hand, and transferring patients to facilities in less affected areas has alleviated some of the pressure on this Toronto hospital.

But more than a year after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic, "the team is tired," comments Raman Rai, head of the intensive care unit where a few children's drawings thanking caregivers hang on the walls, bringing a glimmer of cheer.

At times overcome by a deep sadness, Rai says: "You see people who have not only lost a loved one, but who have lost several members of their family. It is very hard."

More than 60 percent of patients in Humber River Hospital's intensive care unit on Wednesday were being treated for Covid-19. In one of the rooms, relatives and a priest gathered around a patient's bed, praying.

- Backlash over government response -

Every day, several more patients must be placed on ventilators. On Wednesday, a 52-year-old man with low blood oxygen levels was intubated by a team of four caregivers fully dressed in protective gowns, gloves, masks and visors.

"He was so scared, he could barely breathe," recounts Melody Baril, who performed the intubation.

"You try and give them a little bit of hope," she says, "but the death rate is so high, once you get to this point."

More than 8,000 people in Ontario have died from Covid-19, representing one-third of the nationwide pandemic death toll. The number of cases in the province has risen to over 450,000, or almost 40 percent of the total in Canada.

After peaking in mid-April, the number of new daily infections has fallen slightly over the past 10 days and a vaccine rollout is accelerating. But the number of patients in intensive care continues to rise.

Fearing the crisis will persist, some caregivers say they are angry with Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government -- which has faced a storm of criticisms over its pandemic response of late -- but also against a segment of the population that has stubbornly resisted following public health restrictions.

"I feel frustrated," says nurse Sarah Banani. "I think perhaps things could have been shut down harder and faster as we saw the variants take hold within the population."

"I think we all feel we have been let down a little bit by society," comments physician Jamie Spiegelman, adding that many health care providers "feel powerless to change things."

"When I go outside and see traffic, people in a shopping center not taking the necessary precautions, that's a letdown," he says.

"We're sick of patients with Covid-19 dying."

© 2021 AFP

BIGGEST REACTIONARY RALLY IN CANADA


Thousands march in Montreal against virus restrictions

Issued on: 02/05/2021

Protesters in Montreal, marching on May 1, 2021 -- mostly unmasked and ignoring social distancing rules -- said restrictions imposed by the Quebec government are "unjustified" Andrej Ivanov AFP


Montreal (AFP)

Tens of thousands of protesters marched Saturday at Montreal's Olympic Stadium, rallying against restrictions imposed by the government to stem a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Canada.

Some demonstrators were arrested at the start of the march, according to an AFP journalist, with signs in the crowd expressing opposition to masks, curfew and health passports.

A heavy police presence was on hand, although the event proceeded largely in a festive atmosphere to the rhythm of drums.

Police refused to provide a crowd estimate, but Canadian media said the turnout was about 30,000, making it the largest rally against Covid restrictions in Quebec in recent months.

Protesters, mostly unmasked and ignoring social distancing rules, said restrictions imposed by the Quebec government were "unjustified."

They criticized compulsory mask-wearing for outdoor gatherings and a provincial curfew that was imposed at the beginning of January -- a move not seen on a provincial scale in Canada since the Spanish flu outbreak a century ago.

Due to slowing rates of infection, the Quebec government said that starting Monday, the start of the curfew in Montreal would be pushed back to 9:30 pm, from 8 pm.

"We are simply asking for an end to the health measures," Daniel Pilon, who said he was an organizer of the event, told AFP.

"The collateral damage (of the health measures) is much greater than the collateral damage created by the Covid," he added, saying there have been increases in suicides and bankruptcies.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the protest "deeply disappointing."

"The irony here is that by gathering, people are putting each other at risk, spreading further cases of Covid-19, and extending the time in which we will have to be faced with restrictions and public health measures," he said.

Montreal's Olympic Stadium is one of the country's biggest vaccination sites, and had to be shut down on Saturday due to the demonstration.

Canada has recorded more than 1.2 million cases of coronavirus and 24,200 deaths, more than half of them in Ontario and Quebec.

© 2021 AFP

CHADIAN COUP 

Mourners hold funerals in Chad's capital, police fire on protesters in south

SON ASSISSINATES DAD BLAMES REBEL FORCES

Issued on: 01/05/2021 

Mourners gather at a funeral for 18-year-old Synna Garandi in N'djamena on May 1, 2021, after his death during a demonstration in the Chadian capital. © Issouf Sanogo, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24


Hundreds of chanting mourners carrying Chadian flags gathered in the capital, N'Djamena, Saturday to bury some of the victims who were shot dead this week during demonstrations against the country's new military government. Meanwhile, security forces in the southern town of Sarh shot and wounded at least four protesters, according to hospital sources.

Crowds of mourners arrived in N'Djamena by minibus and motorcycle taxis under a scorching sun at midday, as military and police vehicles lined the road to the cemetery's entrance. Family members wailed as Yannick Djikoloum's flag-draped casket was lowered into the ground.

“The history of great men is written in blood. The victory of the Chadian people is in hand,” read a sign held by one mourner.

The 20-year-old was one of at least six people who died Tuesday when demonstrations began before dawn in the largest unrest to hit N'Djamena since the military announced a week earlier that rebels had killed Chad's President Idriss Deby on a distant battlefield.

The fear of further crackdowns kept demonstrators home in N'Djamena on Saturday, though a protest was swiftly put down in the southern town of Sarh.


'We lived through a terrible scene'

Protesters in Sarh banged pots and pans in a show of defiance against the military council, while police responded by firing into the crowd with live ammunition, witnesses said. One person who was shot in the abdomen is in critical condition, according to a medical worker who requested anonymity.

"Two of my friends were wounded by gunshots right in front of me, and spent more than an hour on the spot before they could be transported to the hospital," Allaissem Bernodji Manace, who protested in Sarh, told Reuters.

"We lived through a terrible scene," he said.

Civil society leaders in the neighbouring town of Koumra said that a dozen people were arrested during a parallel protest, to which security forces responded with beatings and teargas.

A representative of Chad's military council declined to comment on the actions of security forces, but said the protesters were "just young people who marched through the streets creating traffic jams".

UN expresses alarm over 'disproportionate use of force'

On Tuesday, security forces were accused of shooting at the crowds who took to the streets to protest that the military put Deby's 37-year-old son, Mahamat, in charge after his death. Under Chad's constitution, power should have been handed over to the president of National Assembly.

The UN human rights office expressed alarm at Tuesday's violence, saying it was “deeply disturbed by the apparently disproportionate use of force – including the use of live ammunition – by defense and security forces.”

Meanwhile, the interim government's prime minister urged unity on Saturday after civil society groups called for protests to continue.

“We must join forces to guarantee peace and restore calm,” Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke said, urging people to support the interim government.


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The spectre of more anti-government protests is just one of the threats now facing the transitional military council in power. The rebels blamed for killing Deby also have continued to battle the Chadian military 300 kilometres (186 miles) north of the capital.

The armed group, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, has threatened to attack the capital and depose Deby's son. A march on N'Djamena, though, became less likely after former coloniser France lent its support publicly to the new administration.

The French have a large military base in Chad, and the rebels already have accused France of providing intelligence on rebel positions to the Chadian army.

France's acceptance of Mahamat Idriss Deby comes after Chad became a vital partner in the fight against Islamic extremism during his father's tenure. Chadian forces have played a critical role in the fight against Islamic extremism, particularly in northern Mali, and the French government described Deby as a “courageous friend” following his death.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and REUTERS)

FORGOTTEN THEIR ARAB AND MOORISH PAST

Black candidate challenges political status quo in Spain

By ARITZ PARRA

AP today

Serigne Mbaye, who is running on a ticket with the anti-austerity United We Can party, in the Madrid regional assembly elections, talks with a potential voter during an election campaign event in Madrid, Spain, Friday, April 16, 2021. Mbaye, a Senegalese-born environmental refugee wants to defy a history of underrepresentation of the Black community and other people of color in Spanish politics. Serigne Mbaye's candidacy has been met with a racist response from an increasingly influential far-right political party. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

MADRID (AP) — Two young Senegalese men met on a Europe-bound migrant boat in 2006, a year that saw a record influx of Africans to Spain’s Canary Islands.

Since then, one died of a heart attack running away from Spanish police and the other is running in a polarized election Tuesday for a seat in Madrid’s regional assembly.

Serigne Mbaye not only wants to fight what he considers to be “structural racism” against African migrants but also to defy a history of underrepresentation of the Black community and other people of color in Spanish politics.

“That’s where all discrimination begins,” the 45-year-old told The Associated Press.

In 2018, having failed to secure legal work and a residence permit, the man he met on the boat — Mame Mbaye, no relation — died of a heart attack eluding a police crackdown on street vendors.

After that, Serigne Mbaye, who at the time represented a group of mostly Black African hawkers, became one of the most vocal voices against Spain’s Alien Law, saying it ties migrants arriving unlawfully to the underground economy. The regulation also punishes them with jail for committing minor offenses, leaving them with a criminal record that weighs against their chances of getting a residence permit.

“His image at night when we were on the boat always haunts me,” said Serigne Mbaye, who is now a Spanish citizen. “The sole fact that he is dead and I’m alive is because of an unjust law that condemns and punishes us. Some of us make it. Some can spend 20 years in a vicious circle without papers.”

Mbaye is running on a ticket with the anti-austerity United We Can party, the junior partner in the country’s ruling, Socialist-led coalition.

Only a handful of Black people have succeeded in at the top level of Spanish politics. Equatorial Guinea-born Rita Bosaho, now the director of racial and ethnic diversity at Spain’s Equality Ministry, in 2015 became the first Black national lawmaker in four decades of democratic rule. Luc André Diouf, who also migrated from Senegal, also won a seat in Spain’s Lower House in 2019.

At a lower, regional level, Mbaye wants to show that “Madrid is diverse.”

“That a Black person is running in the lists has surprised many. In that way, this is making many people think,” he said.

Vox, the country’s increasingly influential far-right party, has responded to Mbaye’s candidacy with an Instagram post vowing to deport him, even though that’s impossible because the far-left candidate is a Spanish citizen. With its mixture of patriotism and populist provocation, Vox has become the third force in the national parliament and might emerge as the kingmaker in Madrid’s May 4 election.

“They are basically saying that because I’m Black there is no place for me here,” said Mbaye. “These are the kind of messages that criminalize us and that we continue receiving.”

Vox has also made waves with large subway ads citing inaccurate figures comparing Madrid’s alleged public spending on unaccompanied foreign minors with the alleged average stipend for a retiree. The party blames the minors — a total of 269 people in the region’s population of 6.7 million — for increased insecurity.

Judges have ruled that the billboards fall under free speech. But when Vox is accused by opponents of being racist, the party says its crusade is only against illegal migration and that a racist party wouldn’t have a mixed-race spokesman in northeastern Catalonia’s regional parliament. That’s Rafael Garriga, a dentist of Belgian and Equatorial Guinean descent.

“By surrounding themselves with what they see as some kind of respectability, they try to legitimize clearly racist speech while not crossing certain legal lines,” said Antumi Toasijé, a historian who heads the National Council Against Ethnic and Racial Discrimination.

The ascent of the far-right and the polarization in social media has normalized hate speech in Spain, he said.

The Black Lives Matter movement led last year to some of the largest protests against racism seen in Spain. But while many condemned the murder of Black citizens by police in the United States, few reflected on domestic racism or Spain’s own history of colonialism, slavery and, according to Toasijé, “a long tradition of attempts to conduct ethnic cleansing.”

In a country where the census doesn’t ask about race or ethnicity, like in much of Europe, a recent government study put the number of Black people in Spain at just over 700,000.

Toasijé’s own estimation elevates the figure to at least 1.3 million “visibly” Black people, including sub-Saharan Africans, Black Latin Americans and Afro-descendants born in Spain. That would be 2.7% of the population, or at least nine Black lawmakers if the 350-seat Congress of Deputies reflected the country’s diversity. There is currently one Black lawmaker.

Still, quotas or other measures that would help address racial inequality aren’t even part of the debate, said Toasijé.

That underrepresentation also affects Spain’s Roma people, a community of 700,000 that scored a historic victory in 2019 by snatching four parliamentary seats, close to the 1.5% share it represents in the total population. But one of them failed to retain his seat in a repeated election.

The situation isn’t better for descendants of Latin Americans or Moroccans, who represent some of the largest groups of non-white Spaniards, or the more than 11% of foreign-born residents who can’t even run in regional or national elections.

Moha Gerehou, a Spanish journalist and anti-racism activist, said “structural racism” is inbred in Spanish life.

“It has a lot to do with education, because the main bottleneck is in access to universities, leaving low-paid and precarious employment like domestic work or harvesting, where there is rampant exploitation,” he said.

Barring sports figures and some artists, people of color are pretty much invisible in high-powered Spanish circles from academia to big business, said Gerehou, who just published a book on growing up as a Black person in a provincial northern Spanish capital.

His description is of a largely white country that considers itself non-racist and welcoming to migrants, even when numerous studies have captured rampant discrimination against people of color, especially in jobs or housing.

“The problem is that the debate of racial representation is still on the fringes,” Gerehou said. “We need to go much faster

THE OTHER GREEN CAPITALI$M 
Marijuana social equity: Seeds planted but will they grow?

By THOMAS PEIPERT and MICHAEL R. BLOOD

April 30, 2021


1 of 8

Sarah Woodson poses for a portrait in Denver on Saturday, April 3, 2021. Woodson, the executive director of the advocacy group The Color of Cannabis, runs a 10-week business course to help students navigate Colorado's social equity application process and to connect them with marijuana industry leaders. Colorado's social equity program is aimed at correcting past wrongs from the war on drugs, which disproportionately affected minorities. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

DENVER (AP) — Terrence Hewing was working for a package delivery company in 2007 when police approached his cargo van in suburban Denver. He was early for a pickup, and someone out for a walk called authorities after seeing him napping in the driver’s seat.

Officers found about a pound of marijuana inside the vehicle. That led to a couple of days in jail, thousands of dollars in legal fees and a felony conviction for drug possession. Hewing lost his job and, because of his criminal record, for years struggled to find housing and a stable, well-paying career.

“I felt like I was in a certain box in society,” he said. “There’s people that don’t have felonies and people that do. It makes you almost feel kind of outcast.”

Hewing, 39, recently became one of only a few Black entrepreneurs to receive a business license in Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry. His goal is to run a company that delivers the very substance that stained his record.

His opportunity is the result of personal ambition paired with Colorado’s effort to right past wrongs from the war on drugs.

Hewing will enter the market as a so-called social equity operator, licensed under a program that provides reduced fees and mentoring to encourage the growth of new businesses, especially for Black people arrested or imprisoned for marijuana offenses.

Social equity has been a selling point for marijuana legalization in many states. New York, which last month broadly legalized cannabis use, has set a goal of getting 50% of licenses to minorities and other social equity applicants.

But so far the goals have far outstripped realities, partly due to legal entanglements as states look to broaden diversity in cannabis boardrooms, retail shops, production plants and greenhouses.

Disappointment with the slow rollout of equity programs has taken on a deeper resonance at a time when the nation is undergoing a racial reckoning, brought on by cases of police brutality and punctuated last year by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The limited statistics available indicate business owners and investors at the top of the booming industry remain overwhelmingly white.

In Nevada, about 30% of people in the state are Latino and 10% are Black. But the state’s first demographic survey of the cannabis industry released earlier this year showed only about 2% of board members identified as Black and just over 7% Latino.

States are making progress toward a more diverse marijuana industry but so far the push for social equity has been plagued with a lot of delays and litigation, said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at the Marijuana Policy Project.

In some cases, aspiring social equity licensees have been locked up again, this time in predatory contracts, with profits and control largely in the hands of investors. In others, they’ve been overmatched in a cutthroat market dominated by international companies valued at millions and sometimes billions of dollars.

And sometimes states themselves have been slow to establish and grow programs.

Voters in Washington and Colorado in 2012 made their states the first to legalize recreational marijuana. But only now are they moving toward greater social equity.

Colorado’s program, which took effect at the beginning of the year, is open to all races, but the state Marijuana Enforcement Division says on its website the goal is to increase diversity, especially among owners. It also acknowledges “the effects of decades of criminal enforcement of marijuana laws on communities of color.”

According to a 2020 study by the American Civil Liberties Union, Black people in the United States are nearly four times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession, despite comparable usage. The study analyzed marijuana possession arrests from 2010 to 2018.

The Colorado program is open to those who lived in the state for at least 15 years between 1980 and 2010 in an opportunity zone or an area disproportionately affected by drug laws, which is determined by education and poverty levels, unemployment rates and the number of people who receive public assistance. The program also is open to those with a household income below 50% of the state’s median and those who either were or have a close family member arrested or convicted of a marijuana offense.

One provision allows new license holders to partner with an existing marijuana business to learn from experienced professionals.

Coming seven years after sales of recreational marijuana were legalized, it’s been a long wait, said Sarah Woodson, Hewing’s wife and executive director of the advocacy group The Color of Cannabis.

“Once it becomes regulated, (they) literally should be the first people that have an opportunity to legitimize and capitalize from that business,” said Woodson, referring to people with marijuana convictions.

As many look for answers to increase minority participation in the business, a recurring question has emerged: Do equity programs do enough to help license holders who may have little, if any, business experience or access to capital needed to launch a successful company?

Los Angeles, the nation’s largest legal pot shop, opened for businesses in 2018. But more than three years later its social equity program remains a work in progress after getting tangled in a legal fight and later undergoing a major makeover, intended in part to shield inexperienced social equity licensees from shark investors.

The delays have left many potential operators and their financial backers in limbo, waiting for permission to open for business while start-up costs pile up.

“I’m paying rent on an empty building,” lamented Kika Keith, a leading Los Angeles activist and co-founder of Social Equity Owners and Workers Association. She’s seeking a social equity license to open a retail shop in the city’s historically Black neighborhood Crenshaw.

After two years of planning, an earlier partnership collapsed under delays and shifting regulations that prompted her initial investors to back out. By that time, the company had spent $350,000 on lease payments, lawyers and other costs. Keith, who is Black and grew up in South Los Angeles, has secured new financial backers but is still waiting for a license.

Keith likens her long fight to struggles of the past, like breaking down Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South. “They continue to push us down deeper in the hole,” she said.

Cannabis business attorney Hilary Bricken said California’s market is treacherous even for experienced operators, with dense layers of constantly shifting regulation, heavy taxes and competition from the still-booming illicit industry. Pot remains illegal federally, which can make loans and other banking services hard to find.

Companies generally are out to make profits and build brands, not focus on a humanitarian mission, she said. Investors could be uneasy about entering a partnership in which they would have to surrender significant control to the equity operator, as under rules in Los Angeles.

In capitalism, “the dollar rules,” she said.

Hoping to address such concerns, Woodson’s group, anchored in the historically Black neighborhood of Five Points near downtown Denver, runs a 10-week business course to help students navigate the social equity application process and to connect them with industry leaders.

Michael Diaz-Rivera, 35, who identifies as white, Black and Puerto Rican, recently completed the program, which teaches about business and marketing, filing taxes, and licensing and management, among other topics.

An elementary school teacher with a felony conviction for marijuana possession, Diaz-Rivera sees his future in a pot delivery business, though he acknowledges he’s had trouble finding investment and with little business experience worries about falling into an unfair contract.

With social equity “I’ve noticed that a lot of established businesses aren’t as interested in that because they don’t get anything out of it,” he said.

As for Hewing, he is bullish about his prospects, despite the obstacles.

“We’re trying to get it to where we’re actually creating businesses and owners and generational wealth,” he said. “People can help their communities and restore the negative damage that was caused by the war on drugs.”

——

Blood reported from Los Angeles. He is a member of AP’s marijuana beat team. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MichaelRBloodAP. Follow AP’s complete marijuana coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/marijuana.