Viral photo changes Brazil trash-pickers' lives


Gabriel Silva finds a Christmas tree in a dump in Pinheiro, Brazil, on November 8, 2021. (AFP/Joao Paulo Guimaraes) 

Mon, March 14, 2022, 

A holiday story that emerged from an unlikely place took a heartwarming turn when Gabriel Silva, a Brazilian boy photographed pulling a Christmas tree from a garbage dump, managed to help buy his family a house.

The story began in the weeks before Christmas last year, when AFP photojournalist Joao Paulo Guimaraes captured a picture of Silva, then 12, pulling a small plastic Christmas tree from a fetid mountain of trash swarmed by vultures and impoverished trash-pickers in the town of Pinheiro, in northeastern Brazil.

The photograph went viral, and Silva and his family soon started receiving a flood of donations from people moved by their struggle to survive at the illegal garbage dump, a symbol of the poverty in which millions of Brazilians live.

First came a real Christmas tree, then a bicycle, then money -- eventually enough for Silva, his mother and three siblings to leave their dirt-floor hut and buy a brick house.

"I'm so happy to have this house. We didn't used to have one, we lived in a little mud hut with nothing. Now I have a good house," said Silva, now 13, who helps his mother collect recyclable materials at the dump most days after school.

"I never imagined all this would happen because of that picture."

The house, which the family purchased several weeks ago and is still completing, has three bedrooms, a kitchen and a garage.

"It has electricity, running water and a bathroom with a shower," said Silva's mother, Maria Francisca Silva, 45.

"We used to have to walk a long way to get water."

More than 2,000 people contributed to an online collection to help the Silvas, raising around 80,000 reais ($16,000) as of January.

The house cost 49,000 reais, she said.

"All that's left to do is tile the floors and buy some furniture," she said.

More than 24 percent of Brazil's 213 million people live in poverty, according to the national statistics institute.

mls-msi/jhb/mdl

Activists briefly seize London mansion linked to Oleg Deripaska

Activists in London briefly seized a multimillion-dollar mansion linked to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch subject to sanctions, saying they want to use it to house refugees fleeing Russia’s war on Ukraine.

© Provided by Al Jazeera A group of squatters display banners and a Ukrainian flag on the facade of a mansion supposedly belonging to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska in Belgrave Square, central London [Tolga Akmen / AFP]

The group broke into the property at 5 Belgrave Square – one of the most exclusive addresses in the centre of the United Kingdom’s capital – and hung the Ukrainian flag outside alongside banners, one of which read: “This property has been liberated.”

Police, who were called out in the early hours of Monday, arrived and set up a cordon before later using a drill to break open the front door and a crane to access the balcony. Four people who had gained entry to the building’s balcony “have come down and been arrested”, police said, adding that they would maintain a presence after ending the protest.

Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego, reporting from outside the mansion, said the protesters were unhappy with the UK government’s efforts to help those escaping the war in Ukraine.

“The group that took over the seven-bedroom property said they want to give it over to Ukrainian refugees,” Gallego said.

“They also criticised the government for not doing enough to help people fleeing the war and they say the UK government is doing more to protect the interest of those oligarchs,” she added.

One of those inside the mansion told AFP news agency earlier by telephone: “We are a property liberation front. That’s what we do. It’s not really squatting, it’s liberating.”

Another said: “Our intention is to use it to house [Ukrainian] refugees.”

The activists criticised the length of time it could take to implement British sanctions against those identified by the government as being part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

“They say it might take up to six months to seize their property. Come on, it’s ridiculous,” one said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday that “we are working to identify the appropriate use for seized property while owners are subject to sanctions.”

In 2007, a High Court judgement said Deripaska “beneficially owns” the house in the upmarket Belgravia area, near Hyde Park and Queen Elizabeth II’s Buckingham Palace.

But he is not listed on UK Land Registry records.

Instead, the owners are listed as Ravellot Limited, based in the British Virgin Islands, managed by Graham Bonham Carter.

On March 4, the UK’s National Crime Agency said it had secured two account-freezing orders for five bank accounts held by Bonham Carter, a British businessman.

“The orders were obtained on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the money in the accounts was derived from the laundering of funds of an individual subject to sanctions in the United States, namely Oleg Deripaska,” it added in a statement.

“The accounts contain funds of a value totalling approximately £110,000 ($144,000).”

Deripaska was last week hit with an assets freeze and travel ban alongside six other Russian billionaires, including his former business associate and owner of the Chelsea football club, Roman Abramovich.

The US Treasury designated him in 2018 as part of moves against a number of Russian oligarchs and the companies they own or control, Russian officials, and businesses.

In France, three men were questioned by police on Monday after they broke into a villa owned by Putin’s former son-in-law and unfurled a Ukrainian flag in the southern French city of Biarritz.

A YouTube video showed one of those arrested waving a Ukrainian flag from one of the villa’s balconies.

A message read, “The house of the people is ready to host refugees from the Putin regime.”

The three were questioned then released with a warning.

Peru's congress votes to debate presidential impeachment


Issued on: 14/03/2022 

Rural schoolteacher Pedro Castillo has been embroiled in numerous crises since assuming office in July 2021

NONE OF HIS OWN MAKING 

ALDAIR MEJIA Presidencia de Perú/AFP/File

Lima (AFP) – Peru's opposition-dominated congress on Monday voted in favor of a motion to debate whether or not to impeach leftist President Pedro Castillo.

It is already the second time Castillo, a former rural school teacher, has faced such a vote in just seven months in office.

Similar moves resulted in former presidents Pablo Kuczynski (in 2018) and Martin Vizcarra (2020) leaving office.

"The motion (to debate) was admitted," said Congress president Maria del Carmen Alva, an opposition legislator.

The motion was passed by 76 votes for, with 41 against and one abstention.

The debate could take place as early as Friday.

In December, Congress voted against opening an impeachment process.

The latest motion was presented by 50 legislators from right wing parties Popular Renovation, Country Advances and Popular Force, with support from other groups.

The opposition accuses Castillo of "moral incapacity" but will have a hard job securing the 87 out of 130 votes needed to remove him from office.

"The president must immediately explain to the country his repeated misconduct," said conservative legislator Jorge Montoya, a retired general.

Waldemar Cerron, from Castillo's Free Peru party, said Congress was "wasting time" with these debates.

Free Peru has 37 legislators and could almost block the motion on its own.

Castillo, 52, has been hurt by corruption scandals among his inner circle and his rejection rating is at 66 percent, although that is not as bad as the 70 percent rejection rating of Congress, according to pollsters Ipsos.

The opposition also accuses Castillo of "treason" for saying he was open to a referendum on allowing landlocked neighbor Bolivia access to the Pacific Ocean.

"The treason accusation makes no sense. They are trying to find any way possible to topple the Castillo government," said political scientist Fernando Tuesta.

"They don't have enough votes to force him out, there aren't even any street protests demanding that he quit."

Castillo has received support from fellow leftist governments in Latin America while the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights criticized the charge of "moral incapacity" saying that there was "no objective definition" of it.

This is the sixth time since 2017 that Peru's congress has filed a motion to impeach a sitting president.

Kuczynski resigned in 2018 before he could be impeached, while Vizcarra's removal in 2020 sparked street protests and a spell of three different presidents in just five days.

The security forces response to the protests left two dead and hundreds injured.

Castillo has faced a number of different crises since assuming power in July 2021 and has had to change his cabinet three times already.

© 2022 AFP

Riots in Corsica over jailed nationalist leave dozens injured




Clashes on Corsica have left dozens of demonstrators and police injured 

(AFP/Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA)

Maureen COFFLARD
Mon, March 14, 2022

The French government called for calm on Monday after fierce clashes left dozens of demonstrators and police injured on the island of Corsica, where anger over the assault in prison of a nationalist figure has reached boiling point.

Police reported 67 people injured during protests on Sunday, including 44 police, following scenes that onlookers described as akin to urban guerrilla war.

"The overnight scenes were extremely violent," the chief prosecutor in the north Corsican town of Bastia, Arnaud Viornery, told AFP.

Police had to deal with a "quasi-insurrectional" situation, according to a statement by their union, SG Police.

Yvan Colonna is serving a life sentence for the assassination in 1998 of the top state official in Corsica, Claude Erignac.

He has been in a coma since being beaten on March 2 in jail by a fellow detainee, a convicted jihadist.

The incident stoked anger on the island, where some see Colonna as a hero in a fight for independence from France.

He was arrested in 2003 after a five-year manhunt that eventually found him living as a shepherd in the Corsican mountains.

Demonstrations and riots have been ongoing since the prison attack, which protesters blame on the French government.

"French government murderers", read placards at Sunday's demonstrations. An estimated crowd of between 7,000 and 12,000 people took to the streets.

Colonna was jailed in the south of France. He is classed as a special status detainee which prevents him from being transferred to a Corsican jail.

In response to the unrest, Prime Minister Jean Castex has removed this status for Colonna and two other convicts, but this has failed to placate their supporters.

Hundreds of masked demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks against police, who fired teargas and water cannon.


Corsica: Police and protestors clash in Bastia 

(AFP/Elise BRETAUD, Fabien NOVIAL)

Clashes broke out in the afternoon and lasted late into the evening.

Prosecutor Viornery said protesters were using homemade explosive devices filled with gunpowder, lead or nails.

Police ordered people to stay indoors in Bastia where protesters set the tax office on fire with incendiary devices and damaged the inside of the main post office.

On Monday, Bastia was calm, with no visible damage done to shops, according to AFP reporters.

- Anger and indignation -

Corsica, the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte and one of the Mediterranean's largest islands, has been French since the 18th Century.

It is known as the "Island of Beauty" for its unspoiled coastlines, spectacular beaches and mild climate, which have made tourism its main source of income.

But there have also been constant tensions between independence-seeking nationalists and the central government as well as murders between the island's political factions.

"There is an expression of anger and indignation," Gilles Simeoni, Colonna's former lawyer and a pro-independence politician, said on Sunday.

"The entire Corsican people has been mobilised to protest against injustice and in favour of truth and a real political solution."

Piles of trash burned in the streets in Ajaccio in recent riots

 (AFP/Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA)

One demonstrator at Sunday's protest, Antoine Negretti, said, "Any violence will be the fault of the French government."

Seven years of negotiations had yielded no result, the 29-year-old said. "But things have changed thanks to seven days of violence. Violence is necessary."

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday he will travel to Corsica on Wednesday for a two-day visit, seeking to "open a cycle of discussions" with all political forces on the island.

He condemned the recent violence and called "for an immediate return to calm".

An Ifop poll published Sunday in the local Corse-Matin newspaper found that 53 percent of those questioned favoured a degree of autonomy for Corsica, with 35 percent favouring the island's outright independence from France.

mc-jp-jh/sjw/rlp

'I asked for French citizenship so that I could vote, too,' says Algeria-born musician

Aude MAZOUE 


Mohand Boughalem became a citizen of France only months ago, in December. Poised to savour the opportunity to vote in his first French presidential election in April, the Algeria native had applied precisely for that privilege and to get involved, fully and completely, in French democratic life.

© Association L'oreille presque parfaite

"I had already voted in Algeria, but it isn't the same. An election there is a foregone conclusion because, let's be honest, it's a dictatorship," the Marseille-based fifty-something with greying curls told FRANCE 24. "French democracy isn't perfect but we can demonstrate and join a party without being afraid."

When he settled in France in 2000, fleeing a bloody decade of conflict between the army and Islamists in Algeria that saw as many as 200,000 killed through the 1990s, Boughalem wasn't especially seeking to become French. The politically engaged artist had attracted troublesome attention on the other side of the Mediterranean and was looking above all for stability, a safe haven and a job. "At that time, since I wasn't managing to get my physical education and sports teaching degree recognised as equivalent here, I decided to earn my living from my passion, music," the ever-smiling Boughalem recounted.

Now a professor of stringed instruments, Boughalem is also finally fully engaged in the political and community work in his city. "Before, I was only participating in meetings and political debates. I felt that I needed to go further in my political engagement," he explained. "So I asked for French citizenship so that I could vote, too."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played an important part in Boughalem's reasoning. "It became clear with Covid-19 that we could be deprived of certain liberties. I'm not against the vaccine. But I think we should remain free to choose whether we get vaccinated or not. Restrictions on freedoms and the health pass accentuated my longing to participate in the democratic life of this country," he explained.

Determined to properly carry out his new duty as a French citizen, Boughalem has been poring over the candidates' platforms. "I follow politics closely. I read the newspapers, I watch reports on the candidates and listen to the analysis on the radio. Actually, politics and the presidential election are a big topic of conversation at work, at the café, with family," he said.

And yet Boughalem, whose political sympathies lie to the left, admitted that he has yet to decide who will get his vote in the first round on April 10. "There are things that I like a lot about (far-leftist Jean-Luc) Mélenchon, but not everything, either," the professor said, before adding he was also thinking about Socialist Party candidate Anne Hidalgo and, before she failed to make the official presidential ballot, independent leftist Christiane Taubira. The profusion of left-wing options for Boughalem's first presidential vote is, to be sure, dizzying. He wants to take his time narrowing down the choices before casting his maiden French ballot. "I think I'll decide a week before the first round. At that point, I should be seeing things more clearly," he concluded.

This is the second installment in a FRANCE 24 series on first-time voters ahead of the 2022 French presidential election. The first is available here. This article has been translated from the original in French.

Ukraine war: Why the West cannot afford to ignore Afghanistan

The humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is no longer a priority for Western powers, as they are busy dealing with the Ukraine war. The situation could allow transnational terrorist groups to regroup in Afghanistan.



The Taliban could look toward 'non-state actors' for financial help

The Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan was dubbed a monumental security challenge for the international community. A humanitarian crisis ensued, with millions of Afghans plunged into poverty, and the country's economy began to collapse.

Major world powers scrambled to tackle the situation, and efforts were made to ensure Afghanistan's stability and put pressure on the country's new Islamic fundamentalist rulers.

Seven months later, Afghanistan is no longer a main concern for Western powers, as they shift their focus to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Observers say the Taliban see it as an opportunity to implement their hard-line policies in the country, knowing that the international community is "busy elsewhere."

Regrouping of militants

Tamim Asey, the executive chairman of Kabul's Institute of War and Peace Studies and a visiting research fellow at King's College London, told DW that he believes "a lack of international interest" in Afghanistan's crisis could pave the way for terror groups and criminal networks to regather and regain strength.

"Unfortunately, Afghanistan has taken a backseat. This will push Afghanistan further into turmoil and will provide an opportunity for transnational criminal networks to recover," he told DW.

Few in the West see an immediate security threat emanating from Afghanistan. So far, the Taliban are seeking to gain international recognition and financial aid and have been more inclined toward a "diplomatic" approach than employing violent tactics.

But experts say this superficial calm may not last for long.

"History tells us that humanitarian crises could lead to violent conflicts. It is easier for terrorist groups to operate in a country that is facing economic turmoil. Afghanistan is no exception," Shamroz Khan Masjidi, an Afghan political analyst, told DW.

Aggravating humanitarian crisis

If the humanitarian crisis is aggravated in Afghanistan, even the Taliban won't be able to manage the situation, as evidenced by recent violent attacks by the Islamic State group.

Salahuddin Ludin, a political expert in Afghanistan, told DW that life has become "extremely difficult" for most Afghans.

"International aid organizations have left the country. The Taliban are unable to pay the wages to government employees. The public health care sector is in a disarray," he pointed out.

Apart from the suffering of the rural population, even Afghans based in cities are finding it impossible to make ends meet.

Ludin said many Afghans had put their savings in bank accounts: "Now, they cannot access them. Afghan businessmen, for instance, cannot make international transfers, which has resulted in high commodity prices in the country."

The Taliban have been demanding that the United States release Afghanistan's frozen assets so that they can tackle the worsening economic crisis. Washington has refused to hand over the money to them, which means that Afghanistan's Islamist rulers could look for "financial aid" from "non-state actors," say experts.

Watch video 02:49 Taliban faces security challenge from 'Islamic State'

A forgotten crisis?

Sardar Mohammad Rahman Ughelli, Afghanistan's former ambassador to Ukraine, says the world is already "forgetting" about the Afghanistan crisis.

"Even the international media is not covering the crisis in Afghanistan," he said, adding that the Taliban are now free to implement their regressive policies in the country.

Some observers say the current situation is disturbingly similar to the geopolitical scenario in the late 1990s. The Taliban seized power in 1996, but the international community did not fully grasp the potential consequences of the new paradigm.

Away from the global spotlight — and with a lack of world interest in Afghan affairs — the country became a hub of local and international militant groups.

"The Taliban have ties with international terrorists. Their return to power has emboldened jihadi organizations in the region. As they consolidate themselves, their tactical and strategic ties with terrorism financiers and sponsors will grow and will eventually jeopardize peace and security in the region and beyond," Farid Amiri, a former Afghan government official, told DW.

Tariq Farhadi, an adviser to former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, agrees with this view. "The international community forgot about Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 during the Taliban's first regime. It is possible that it will be forgotten again," he added.

The longer the Taliban stay in power, Amiri said, the more difficult will it get to maintain stability in the region.

"Regional powers will start supporting proxies to keep the violence within Afghanistan's boundaries. But it will only be a short-term solution to the Afghan conflict," Amiri said

Watch video 01:42 Heroin use in Afghanistan rising since Taliban takeover

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru

STILL COLONIES

Britain's Privy Council upholds Bermuda gay marriage ban

Self-governing Bermuda has departed from broad Western trends towards marriage equality (AFP/YASUYOSHI CHIBA) (YASUYOSHI CHIBA)Mon, March 14, 2022, 

A British tribunal upheld a ban on gay marriage in Bermuda Monday, in a departure from Western trends towards equality and a blow to campaigners in one of the colonial power's few remaining overseas territories.

The Privy Council in London, which is the last court of appeal for some British territories, sided with the Bermuda government, which has been fighting to keep its Supreme Court from enshrining marriage equality in the self-governing archipelago.

"To my fellow LGBTQ+ Bermudians, I wish to say to you what I also need to hear at this moment: you matter. Your hurt matters. You deserve better than this," said Roderick Ferguson, the lead co-plaintiff in the case.

"The Bermuda Government's crusade against same-sex marriage was waged to convince you that there's something shameful about your sexuality. Don't believe that tired old lie."

Marriage equality was legalised in Britain in 2014, and self-governing Bermuda's Supreme Court followed three years later.

But months afterward, the governing Progressive Labour Party voted to overturn that ruling, in an unusual turnabout against prevailing Western norms legalising marriage equality.

Instead it approved the Domestic Partnership Act, which replaced the right to marriage with the ability to form same-sex partnerships.

The move was supported by the island's many socially conservative churches, but caused an outcry among progressive Bermudians who felt that the decision would tarnish the reputation of what had been a popular destination for both tourism and the reinsurance industry.

It also raised questions over the status of couples who had married in the intervening months.

Campaigners took the Domestic Partnerships Act back to the island's Supreme Court as well as its the Court of Appeals, both of which sided against the government.

The island's attorney general then took it to the Privy Council, which dismissed the earlier courts' rulings and upheld the government's ban.

"The Board will humbly advise Her Majesty that the Attorney General's appeal should be allowed and the cross-appeal by the respondents should be dismissed," it said in its ruling.

Bermuda conducted a referendum on same-sex marriage in June 2016.

A majority of those voting opposed both same-sex marriages and same-sex civil unions, but since fewer than half of eligible voters took part, the results were deemed invalid.

In 2019, as the marriage equality row rumbled on, Bermuda held its first ever Pride parade -- and campaigners were taken aback by the outpouring of support they received from Bermudians of all races and ages.

"We discovered for the first time, the magnitude of our support on the island," Ferguson told AFP. "No ruling will ever overturn that."

st/des

British appeals court blocks same-sex marriage for Bermuda, Cayman Islands
By Adam Schrader

The pride flag flies next to European flags in front of European

 council headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, in May 2017. 

File Photo by Olivier Hoslet/EPA

March 14 (UPI) -- A top appeals court in Britain on Monday blocked same-sex marriage in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands after siding with the governments of the two self-governing overseas territories in two landmark rulings.

The Cayman Islands case stems from two women, Chantelle Day and Vickie Bodden Bush, who were refused an application to marry in 2018 because local marriage law defined marriage as "the union between a man and a woman as husband and wife," according to court documents.

Day and Bush successfully sued the government in a case heard before Chief Justice Anthony Smellie on the grounds that the marriage law conflicted with the Cayman Islands Constitution.

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands found that the law violated the rights of Day and Bush to private and family life and their freedoms including the freedom to manifest their belief in marriage, according to court documents. The Grand Court then modified the marriage law to define "marriage" as "the union between two people as one another's spouses."

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However, the case was successfully appealed by the government to the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands, which ruled that the right to marriage under the constitution did not extend to same-sex couples but that Day and Bush were entitled to legal protection functionally equivalent to marriage.

Bush and Day then appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which serves as the final appeals court for Bermuda and the Cayman Islands despite the fact they are administered as their own nations.

However, the couple could still appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

RELATED First same-sex couples marry in Chile as new law takes effect

"The right to marry in section 14(1) of the Bill of Rights has been drafted in highly specific terms to make it clear that it is a right "freely to marry a person of the opposite sex,'" the Privy Council wrote in its unanimous judgment.

"It is obvious that this language has been used to emphasize the limited ambit of the right and to ensure that it could not be read as capable of covering same-sex marriage."

The Privy Council ruled that the interpretations of other stipulations in the Constitution cannot circumvent the explicit limit on marriage established in the Bill of Rights.

However, the Privy Council noted that its interpretation of the Bill of Rights in the judgment does not prevent the legislative assembly in the Cayman Islands from passing laws that recognize same-sex marriage.

"The effect of the interpretation endorsed by the Board is that this is a matter for the choice of the Legislative Assembly rather than a right laid down in the Constitution," the Privy Council wrote in its judgment.

The Bermuda case came after the Bermudian Parliament passed a law in 2018 voiding same-sex marriages but allowing for same-sex couples to enter domestic partnerships, according to court documents.

The law was challenged to the Supreme Court of Bermuda by a series of people affected by it, including a Bermudian LGBTQ+ charity on the grounds that the provision revoking same-sex marriage went against the constitution of Bermuda.

The Supreme Court ruled that the provision did contradict the Bermudian constitution but case was appealed by the attorney general to the Court of Appeal of Bermuda, which upheld most of the Supreme Court's ruling.

The attorney general then appealed the case to the Privy Council, which struck down the rulings of the two lower courts in a 4-1 decision with Lord Phillip Sales dissenting.

The Bermuda case largely revolved around the religious belief in the right to same-sex marriage, with the Privy Council ruling that the legislation does not prevent people from holding such a belief but that the government is not required to provide for such a legal right under existing law.

"[The law] does not prevent a church or other religious body from carrying out a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple and giving recognition to such a marriage as a matter of religious practice within their faith community," the Privy Council wrote.

"The protection of a 'practice' does not extend to a requirement that the state give legal recognition to a marriage celebrated in accordance with that practice."

The Privy Council then made a series of comparisons, including that "the protection of a belief in the right to life does not compel the state to ban all forms of abortion ... just as the protection of a belief in communism does not require the state to adopt a particular form of government."

"In making those comparisons, the Board does not seek to diminish or understate the importance of marriage as a fundamental social institution or the value of social recognition of committed and loving relationships," the judges wrote.

Ben Tonner, an attorney for the couple in the Cayman Islands case, told the Cayman Compass that they are "extremely disappointed with the Privy Council's judgment issued earlier today."

"Were it not for their courage in standing up for their rights, and the rights of many others, there would still be no legal framework for the recognition of same-sex couples in the Cayman Islands [allowed under the Civil Partnership Act]," Tonner said.

"Their strength and bravery throughout these proceedings has been truly inspirational."

Germany: Security workers go on strike at major airports

Security workers have launched a work stoppage at many of Germany's international airports as they demand better pay and working conditions. Hundreds of flights have been canceled.

Long lines formed ahead of the security check at Düsseldorf Airport amid the strikes

Airports across Germany expected massive flight delays and cancellations on Monday after security personnel went on strike at several of the country's international hubs over slumping wages and working conditions.

The employees on strike include workers who check in passengers and their baggage before reaching their gates, along with those who oversee massive cargo operations.

The Verdi labor union announced that the work stoppage would last all day at Berlin, Düsseldorf, Bremen, Hanover, Leipzig and Cologne/Bonn airports. Later in the day, Verdi announced that staff at Munich's airport were also joining the strike. 

On Tuesday, workers are set to strike in Frankfurt, the biggest and busiest airport in the country. Frankfurt Airport has already advised travelers to revise their plans to travel that day if possible.

The strikes canceled flights across Germany

Early in the day, 160 canceled flights had already been announced Düsseldorf. At Cologne/Bonn, 94 flights were canceled, both departures and arrivals. In Berlin, passengers have been stranded over nixed connections.

Workers are demanding a pay rise of at least €1 ($1.10) per hour as conditions for airport personnel have become increasingly strenuous since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The pandemic, as well as Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have also caused the cost of living to increase in Germany.  

Further salary negotations are expected to take place on Wednesday and Thursday in Berlin, Verdi said.

es/wd (dpa, Reuters)

HINDUTVA INJUSTICE IS SYSTEMIC
India court upholds ban on hijab in schools and colleges

By SHEIKH SAALIQ

1 of 11

Indian students in uniform clothing walk inside the campus of a government-run junior college in Udupi, Karnataka state, India, Feb. 24, 2022. Muslim students in this southern Indian state have found themselves at the center of a debate over hijab bans in schools. The furor began in January when staffers at the college began refusing admission to girls who showed up in a hijab, saying they were violating the uniform code. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)


NEW DELHI (AP) — An Indian court Tuesday upheld a ban on wearing hijab in class in the southern state of Karnataka, saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam in a ruling that is likely to further deepen religious tensions in the country.

The high court in Karnataka state delivered the verdict after considering petitions filed by Muslim students challenging a government ban on hijabs that some schools and colleges have implemented in the last two months. The ban does not extend to other Indian states, but the court ruling could set a precedent for the rest of the country.

The dispute began in January when a government-run school in Karnataka’s Udupi district barred students wearing hijabs from entering classrooms, triggering protests by Muslims who said they were being deprived of their fundamental rights to education and religion. That led to counterprotests by Hindu students wearing saffron shawls, a color closely associated with that religion and favored by Hindu nationalists.

More schools in the state followed with similar bans and the state’s top court disallowed students from wearing hijab and any religious clothing pending a verdict.

The court in its ruling said the state government had the power to prescribe uniform guidelines for students as a “reasonable restriction on fundamental rights.”

The ruling came at a time when violence and hate speech against Muslims have increased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Hindu nationalist party, which also governs Karnataka state. Over the last few weeks, the issue has become a flashpoint for the battle over the rights of Muslims, who fear they are being shunted aside as a minority in India and see hijab bans as a worrying escalation of Hindu nationalism under Modi’s government.

Some rights activists have voiced concerns that the ban could increase Islamophobia.

“No one can understand our anxiousness about what is to follow,” Afreen Fatima, a New Delhi-based student activist, wrote on Twitter. “The court’s Hijab ban is a great injustice and a very worrying precedence. The scale of its repercussion is going to be brutal and inhuman.”

Karnataka’s education minister B. C. Nagesh told reporters that female Muslim students who were protesting against the ban must respect the court’s verdict and return to classes. He said his government will try to win the hearts of “misguided” students and “bring them in mainstream of education.”

Some Muslim politicians called the verdict disappointing.

“I hope this judgement will not be used to legitimize harassment of hijab-wearing women,” said Asaduddin Owaisi, a member of the Indian parliament.

Ahead of the verdict, the Karnataka government banned large gatherings for a week in state capital Bengaluru “to maintain public peace and order” and declared a holiday Tuesday in schools and colleges in Udupi.

The hijab is worn by many Muslim women to maintain modesty or as a religious symbol, often seen as not just a bit of clothing but something mandated by their faith.

Hijab restrictions have surfaced elsewhere, including France, which in 2004 banned them in schools. But in India, where Muslims make up 14% of the country’s 1.4 billion people, the hijab has historically been neither prohibited nor limited in public spheres. Women donning the headscarf is common across the country, which has religious freedom enshrined in its national charter with the secular state as a cornerstone.

Hijab bans deepen Hindu-Muslim fault lines in Indian state


By SHEIKH SAALIQ


UDUPI, India (AP) — When Aliya Assadi was 12, she wore a hijab while representing her southern Indian state of Karnataka at a karate competition. She won gold.

Five years later she tried to wear one to her junior college, the equivalent of a U.S. high school. She never made it past the campus gate, turned away under a new policy barring the religious headgear.

“It’s not just a piece of cloth,” Assadi said while visiting a friend’s house. She wore a niqab, an even more concealing garment that veils nearly the entire face with just a slit for the eyes, which she dons when away from home. “Hijab is my identity. And right now what they’re doing is taking away my identity from me.”

She’s one of countless Muslim students in Karnataka who have found themselves thrust into the center of a stormy debate about banning the hijab in schools and the Islamic head coverings’ place in this Hindu-majority but constitutionally secular nation.

Indian Muslim student Aliya Assadi dons a niqab, a concealing garment that veils nearly the entire face with just a slit for the eyes, as she arrives at her friend's house in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

The issue has become a flashpoint for the battle over the rights of Muslims, who fear they are being shunted aside as a minority in India and see hijab restrictions as a worrying escalation of Hindu nationalism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

On Tuesday, an Indian court upheld the ban, saying the Muslim headscarf is not an essential religious practice of Islam.

The hijab is worn by many Muslim women to maintain modesty or as a religious symbol, often seen as not just a bit of clothing but something mandated by their faith. Opponents consider it a symbol of oppression, imposed on women. Hijab supporters deny that and say it has different meanings depending on the individual, including as a proud expression of Muslim identity.

A veiled Indian Muslim student, her hands decorated with henna, talks to her friend as they gather to meet student activists in Kundapur in district Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

The furor began in January in India, where Muslims make up just 14% of the country’s 1.4 billion people but are still numerous enough to make it the second-largest Muslim population of any nation, after Indonesia.

Staffers at a government-run junior college in Udupi, a coastal city in Karnataka, began refusing admission to girls who showed up in a hijab, saying they were violating the uniform code.

The students protested by camping outside and holding their lessons there, arguing that Muslim students had long been allowed to wear headscarves at school. More schools in the state soon imposed similar bans, prompting demonstrations by hundreds of Muslim women.

That led to counterprotests by Hindu students wearing saffron shawls, a color closely associated with that religion and favored by Hindu nationalists. They shouted slogans like “Hail Lord Ram,” a phrase that traditionally was used to celebrate the Hindu deity but has been co-opted by nationalists.

At one campus a boy climbed a flagpole and hoisted a saffron flag to cheers from friends. At another a girl in a hijab was met by shouted Hindu slogans from a group of boys; she raised her fist and cried, “Allahu akbar!” — “God is great,” in Arabic.

India's Hindu right wing Bajrang Dal activists donning saffron scarves and waving saffron flags demand a probe in the recent killing of one of their associates in Karnataka's Shivamogga district, during a protest rally in Udupi, Karnataka, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

To quell tensions the state, governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, shut schools and colleges for three days. It then slapped a statewide ban on the hijab in classes, saying “religious clothing” in government-run schools “disturbs equality, integrity and public law and order.”

Some students gave in and attended with their heads uncovered. Others refused and have been barred from school for nearly two months — students like Ayesha Anwar, an 18-year-old in Udupi who has missed exams and is falling behind her peers.

“I feel like we are being let down by everyone,” Anwar said while surrounded by friends in a dimly lit cafe, her voice barely a whisper from behind her cloth veil.

Muslim student Ayesha Anwar, 18, chats with her friends at a cafe in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. Anwar has missed exams and is falling behind her peers, after wearing of the hijab was banned in schools. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Six students sued to overturn the state’s ban, now upheld by the court, arguing it violates their rights to education and religious freedom. One of the plaintiffs to the challenge was Aliya Assadi.

“I’m an Indian and a Muslim,” she said. “When I see this with the point of view of a Muslim, I see my hijab is at a stake, and as an Indian, I see my constitutional values have been violated.”

There’s a cost to her activism: Hindu nationalists doxxed her personal details on social media, unleashing a flood of online abuse and harassment. She lost friends who depicted her actions as Muslim fundamentalism.

But she’s steadfast about wearing the hijab. She first did so as a child, imitating her mother, carefully arranging the headscarf in front of the mirror each morning. Today she enjoys the privacy it affords and the sense of religious pride it conveys: “It makes me confident.”

Indian Muslim student Aliya Assadi, left, holds her mobile phone as she interacts with a friend in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Ayesha Imtiaz, another student barred from school, said she wears it as a token of devotion to Islam but acknowledged that opinions vary even among Muslim women.

“There are so many of my friends who do not wear hijab inside the classroom,” said Imtiaz, 20. “They feel empowered in their own way, and I feel empowered in my own way.”

In her eyes, the bans segregate women according to faith and contravene core Indian values on diversity.

“It’s Islamophobia,” Imtiaz said.

Hijab restrictions have surfaced elsewhere, including France, which in 2004 banned them in schools. Other European countries have enacted regulations for public spaces, usually aimed at the more concealing garments such as niqabs and burqas. Usage of head coverings has divided even some Muslim communities.

In India, the hijab has historically been neither prohibited nor limited in public spheres. Women donning the headscarf is common across the country, which has religious freedom enshrined in its national charter with the secular state as a cornerstone.

An Indian Muslim girl wearing a hijab runs past others wearing burqas during an evening at a beach in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

But critics of Modi say India has steadily drifted from that commitment to secularism and today is deeply fractured along religious lines. The prime minister and top Cabinet officials often perform Hindu rituals and prayers on television, blurring the lines between religion and the state.

Since coming into office in 2014, Modi’s government has passed a raft of laws that opponents call anti-Muslim, though his party rejects accusations of being discriminatory.

Meanwhile calls for violence against Muslims have moved from society’s fringes toward the mainstream. Watchdog groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have warned that attacks could escalate against Muslims, who are disproportionately represented in India’s most impoverished neighborhoods and in prisons.

Some of the anti-Islam sentiment has specifically targeted women — recently many in the country were outraged by a website that was set up offering a fake “auction” of more than 100 prominent Indian Muslim women, including journalists, activists, artists and movie stars.

People hold placards and candles in Bengaluru, India, during a protest against banning Muslim girls from wearing the hijab in educational institutions in southern Karnataka state. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Muslim students allege that behind the counterprotests in Karnataka was Hindu Jagran Vedike, a nationalist group associated with Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a far-right Hindu organization ideologically linked to Modi’s political party.

Mahesh Bailur, a senior member of Hindu Jagran Vedike, denied that his group organized demonstrations and said it only offered “moral support” to the saffron shawls and their cause.

“Today these girls are demanding hijab in colleges. Tomorrow they will want to pray there. Finally, they’ll want separate classrooms for themselves,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Bailur, 36, is a proponent of a discredited conspiracy theory that holds Muslims are plotting to convert India’s Hindu population and eventually remake it as an Islamic nation. Demands to wear the hijab in classes, he argued, are part of that.

Manavi Atri, a human rights lawyer based in Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, said the hijab ban is among many assaults on expressions of Muslim identity in India today, violates principles of state neutrality on religious matters, and inflates an “us-versus-them philosophy” in a country already riven by sectarian divisions. Most troubling, she said, is the pressure it puts on girls and young women in their formative years.

“This choice (between education and faith) that people are being forced to make is not a choice one has to be exercising at that age,” she said.

A girl in uniform walks into the government-run junior college with a Muslim student wearing burqa in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

In the court case, lawyers for Karnataka state argued that the Quran does not clearly establish wearing the hijab as an essential spiritual practice, so banning it does not violate religious freedom.

Many Muslims reject that interpretation.

On a recent Friday, Rasheed Ahmad, the head imam of Udupi’s grand mosque, delivered a sermon before hundreds of worshippers. His voice thundering through loudspeakers mounted on the minarets, he railed against the bans as an attack on Islam.

“Hijab is not just our right,” he said later in an interview, “but an order from God.”

Assadi said she and the others are determined to prevail.

“We are brave Muslim women,” she said, “and we know how to fight for our rights.”

Indian Muslim students spend time at a cafe after they were denied entry into their college for wearing the hijab in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Police officers stand guard at a gate of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial college after hijab wearing Muslim girl students were denied entry into the campus in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
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Indian students in uniform clothing walk inside the campus of a government-run junior college in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

A Muslim girl wearing a hijab checks photographs taken on her mobile phone at a beach in Udupi, Karnataka state. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Rasheed Ahmad, the head imam of Udupi's grand mosque, teaches the Quran to children in Udupi, Karnataka state, India. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Indian Muslim students wearing burqas leave Mahatma Gandhi Memorial college after they were denied entry into the campus in Udupi, Karnataka state, India, Feb. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

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W. Virginia Senate blows deadline to pass teaching race bill

By LEAH WILLINGHAM

March 13, 2022

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Legislature’s Republican supermajority failed to pass a controversial bill restricting how race is taught in public schools because they missed a midnight deadline in the final moments of the 2022 session, a state Senate spokesperson confirmed early Sunday.

Lawmakers had spent weeks during the legislative session debating and advancing proposed bills similar to the “Anti-Racism Act of 2022.” It wasn’t immediately clear why Republicans waited until late Saturday to take the final vote. The act had passed the Senate and House overwhelmingly, and the late-night vote was merely to greenlight the House’s version.

“We took the vote, but essentially that didn’t matter because it didn’t make deadline,” Senate spokesperson Jacque Bland told The Associated Press in an email early Sunday. She said the education bill has no path forward to becoming law.

A separate bill restricting abortion access did pass just minutes before midnight. It bars parents from seeking abortion care because they believe their child will be born with a disability. It provides exemptions in the case of a medical emergency or in cases where a fetus is “nonmedically viable.”

GOP lawmakers appeared unhurried as the clock ticked down Saturday, spending about an hour passing resolutions honoring two outgoing senators.

Supporters of the Anti-Racism Act of 2022 said it aims to prevent discrimination based on race in K-12 public schools, banning teachers from telling students that one race “is inherently racist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”

The bill said students can’t be taught a person’s moral character is determined by their race, or that a person by virtue of their race “bears responsibility for actions committed by other members of the same race.”

It would have created a mechanism for reporting complaints and for the Legislature to collect data on how many complaints are substantiated each year. The law didn’t specify punishment.

Legislators convened at the snowy state Capitol on Saturday with dozens of bills to finalize. GOP House Speaker Roger Hanshaw arrived late to a debate on the state budget bill because he was delayed by a car accident on the roads, which were still being cleared.

The bill dealing with disabilities and abortion was passed just minutes before midnight. The final passage of the bill happened hours after the House passed the bill following 90 minutes of debate.

“This is about science and morality,” said Republican Del. Kayla Kessinger in support of the bill. “It’s about, ‘When does life begin?’ and whether or not it has a value.”

Democrats voiced their opposition, with Del. Evan Hansen saying the bill does nothing substantial to help people with disabilities and their families.

“This is an attempt to use people with disabilities as props for an anti-abortion agenda, something that the disability community has not asked for, as far as I know — and that’s just wrong,” Hansen said. “It creates government overreach into personal family medical decisions.”

A physician who violates the law could see their license to practice medicine suspended or revoked.

The bill also requires physicians to submit a report — with patients’ names omitted — to the state for each abortion they perform and whether “the presence or presumed presence of any disability in the unborn human being had been detected.”

The reports would include the date of the abortion and the method used, as well as confirming the doctor asked the patient if they chose an abortion because the baby might have a disability. These reports must be submitted within 15 days of each abortion.

The bill now moves to the desk of Republican Gov. Jim Justice.

That bill wasn’t the only abortion-related legislation brought forward by the state’s Republican supermajority in recent weeks , however lawmakers declined Saturday to take up a second bill banning abortions after 15 weeks, and it wasn’t passed.

Additionally, lawmakers voted 90-9 to send a $4.635 billion budget to the governor’s desk after two hours of discussion on the House floor Saturday.

The bill includes 5% pay raises for state employees and teachers, with an additional bump for state troopers. The budget does not include the 10% personal income tax cut passed by the House last month. The House and Senate could not come to an agreement on how to incorporate the cuts into the bill.

Lawmakers also promised that social workers in the state’s foster care system will see a 15% pay raise. After a bill to provide the increases was essentially gutted, they advised the Department of Health and Human Resources to provide the raises by instead eliminating open positions.

Additionally, lawmakers passed a bill decriminalizing fentanyl test strips, which can signal the presence of synthetic opioid in illicit drugs.

Other bills repealed the state’s soda tax, and banned requiring COVID-19 vaccination cards to enter state agencies or public colleges and universities.