UN report: Female Afghan UN employees harassed, detained

By RAHIM FAIEZ

TODAY

FILE - The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building, Feb. 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)



ISLAMABAD (AP) — Some Afghan women employed by the United Nations have been detained, harassed and had restrictions placed on their movements since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world body, the U.N. said Tuesday.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers informed the United Nations early last month that Afghan women employed with the U.N. mission could no longer report for work.

“This is the most recent in a series of discriminatory – and unlawful – measures implemented by the de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls’ participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan,” the U.N. said in a report on the human rights situation in the south Asian country.

Taliban authorities continued to crack down on dissenting voices this year, in particular those who speak out on issues related to the rights of women and girls, the report said.

The U.N. report cited the March arrest of four women who were released the following day during a protest demanding access to education and work in the capital of Kabul and the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath, a civil society organization campaigning for the reopening of girls’ schools.

It also pointed to the arrest of a women’s rights activist Parisa Mobariz and her brother in February in the northern Takhar province.

Several other civil society activists have been released — reportedly without being charged — following extended periods of arbitrary detention by the Taliban Intelligence service, the report said.

The measures will have disastrous effects on Afghanistan’s prospects for prosperity, stability and peace, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA said in the report.

“UNAMA is concerned by increasing restrictions on civic space across Afghanistan,” said Fiona Frazer, the agency’s human rights chief.

The Taliban previously banned girls from going to school beyond the sixth grade and blocked women from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan women from working at local and non-governmental organizations — a measure that at the time did not extend to U.N. offices.

The report also pointed to ongoing extrajudicial killings of individuals affiliated with the former government. On March 5 in southern Kandahar, Taliban forces arrested a former police officer from his home, then shot and killed him, according to the report. During the same month in northern Balkh, a former military official was killed by unknown armed men in his house, it said.

“Arbitrary arrests and detention of former government officials and Afghanistan National Security and Defense Force members also occurred throughout February, March and April,” added the report.

In a separate report released Monday, the U.N. strongly criticized the Taliban for carrying out public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing power in Afghanistan, and called on the country’s rulers to halt such practices.

In the past six months alone, 274 men, 58 women and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan, said the report.

The Taliban foreign ministry said in response that Afghanistan’s laws are determined in accordance with Islamic rules and guidelines, and that an overwhelming majority of Afghans follow those rules.

The Taliban began carrying out such punishments shortly after coming to power almost two years ago, despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s.

Under the first Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions were carried out by officials against individuals convicted of crimes, often in large venues such as sports stadiums and at urban intersections.

United Nations: Taliban's use of corporal punishment violates human rights


Taliban and their supporters held a demonstration in support of the first anniversary of the Taliban rule in Kandahar, Afghanistan on August 15, 2022. The United Nations said Monday that the Taliban government has been implementing corporal punishment since its takeover. 

File Photo by Shekib Mohammadyl/UPI | License Photo

May 8 (UPI) -- The United Nations on Monday called out the Taliban for their widespread use of corporal punishment, including public lashings and amputations, and execution in violation of international rights.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said since the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021, their authorities have implemented corporal punishment and the death penalty.

The United Nations said the first documented use of corporal punishment since the takeover came on Oct. 20, 2021, in the Kapisa province when a man and woman received 100 lashes each by a de facto district court in front of religious scholars.

"Since this first instance in October 2021, the de facto authorities have continued to implement corporal punishment -- both following judicial decisions and on an ad hoc basis," the report said.

U.N. Security Council condemns Taliban regime's ban on female workers

The U.N. said the use of corporal punishment "increased significantly" on Nov. 13, 2022, after Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the de facto authorities tweeted the Taliban Supreme leader had met with judges to emphasize their obligation to carry out such punishments.

Lashings had been used mostly for "so-called moral crimes," including for sex outside of marriage and for girls and women "running away" from their homes, often to escape domestic violence, the report said.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people were all "at high risk" under the Taliban for public lashings.

The report said those convicted of crimes of adultery to murder have been given the death penalty, often by hanging and stoning the public.

"So long as the Taliban shows disdain for international human rights law, these barbaric practices are likely to continue," Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Governments engaging with the Taliban, including U.N. Security Council members, should press for an end to these abuses and make clear that international sanctions will remain in place and could be expanded if they continue."

Killing of alleged collaborator exposes Palestinian tensions

By ISABEL DEBRE

AP

TODAY

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Palestinians walk under a banner depicting militants from the Lions' Den group who were killed by Israeli forces, from left, Fadi Qufesheh, Abdulrahman Soboh, Mohammad Azizi and Mahmoud Zakari, in al-Yasmeena quarter of the Old City of Nablus, in the West Bank, Thursday, May 4, 2023. The killing of Zuhair al-Ghaleeth last month, the first slaying of a suspected Israeli intelligence collaborator in the West Bank in nearly two decades, has laid bare the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and the strains that a recent surge in violence with Israel is beginning to exert within Palestinian communities. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

NABLUS, West Bank (AP) — There was no mourning tent for 23-year-old Palestinian Zuhair al-Ghaleeth. There were no banners with his portrait, no chants celebrating his martyrdom.

Instead, a bulldozer dropped his bullet-riddled body into an unmarked grave, witnesses said.

The day after six masked Palestinian gunmen shot and killed al-Ghaleeth over his suspected collaboration with Israel, his family and friends refused to pick up his body at the morgue, the public prosecution said. He was buried in a field cluttered with discarded animal bones and soda cans outside the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

It was a grim end to a short life. The April 8 killing in the Old City of Nablus — the first slaying of a suspected Israeli intelligence collaborator in the West Bank in nearly two decades — riveted the Palestinian public and cast a spotlight on the plight of collaborators, preyed on by both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The case has laid bare the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and the strains that a recent surge in violence with Israel is beginning to exert within Palestinian communities.

“It feels like we’re in war times,” said 56-year-old Mohammed, who heard shouting that night, followed by gunshots. He ventured out of the Ottoman-era bathhouse where he works to find his neighbor, al-Ghaleeth, motionless on the ground, his eyes rolled up and mouth agape. A crowd of Palestinians swelled around his bloodied body. “Collaborator!” they yelled. “Spy!”

The scene had an eerie familiarity, Mohammed said, as if the horrors of the First and Second Intifadas, or Palestinian uprisings, were being replayed: Paranoia turning Palestinians against each other. Rumors ruining lives. Vigilante violence spiraling out of control. Like all witnesses interviewed about the incident, Mohammed declined to give his last name for fear of reprisals.

The angry gathering around al-Ghaleeth’s body quickly turned into a protest of the Palestinian Authority, which administers most Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank. The cries against al-Ghaleeth’s betrayal took on new meaning as the crowds directed their anger toward the deeply unpopular self-rule government, which ordinary Palestinians accuse of collaboration with Israel for coordinating with Israeli security forces.

“It was chaos,” acknowledged Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official. Palestinian security forces fired tear gas. Medics rushed al-Ghaleeth to a Nablus hospital, where they tried to resuscitate him but could not get a pulse. A medical report seen by The Associated Press said al-Ghaleeth died of gunshot wounds in his lower extremities at 10:15 p.m.

The next morning, as word spread that al-Ghaleeth had been building a house in the nearby village of Rujeib, Palestinians swarmed the construction site, poured gasoline over the unfinished walls and set them on fire.

The public prosecution is still investigating al-Ghaleeth’s killing and has yet to announce arrests.

But an independent armed group known as the Lion’s Den, which has risen to prominence in the past year, seemed to take responsibility.

In the Old City of Nablus, where al-Ghaleeth lived and died, the Lion’s Den has brought together militants from the secular nationalist Fatah party and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group. The young men — disillusioned with the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process and with the undemocratic Palestinian Authority — have made the Old City a sort of private fiefdom.

After news of al-Ghaleeth’s death broke, the Lion’s Den declared that “the traitor was liquidated.”

“A traitor sells his homeland and his value as a human being for money,” commander Oday Azizi wrote on Facebook.

Lion’s Den member Tyseer Alfee said the killing was a warning. “We want all to see the fate of those who collaborate with the Israeli occupation,” he wrote in a text message when asked why al-Ghaleeth was shot publicly in the bustling marketplace, his body left for residents to find.

A grainy video purporting to show al-Ghaleeth confess to his collaboration was posted on social media and quickly garnered many views. In the four-minute clip, al-Ghaleeth — looking tired and swallowing hard several times — tells how Israeli agents used footage of him having sex with another man as blackmail.

He said an Israeli recruiter ordered him to gather intelligence on Lion’s Den leaders to help the military target them. After each mission, he said, the Israeli agent gave him 500 shekels (about $137) and a carton of Marlboro cigarettes.

Two members of the Lion’s Den, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said that after months of suspicion, they began following al-Ghaleeth around. They caught him surveilling another militant and detained him. They described a six-hour videotaped interrogation, with just a clip leaked to social media to protect sensitive information about the group. “He confessed to everything after 30 minutes, maybe in hopes we wouldn’t kill him,” one said.

The public prosecution said it filed the online video as additional evidence in the case.

But the confession raised as many questions as it answered, evoking the fraught judicial processes of grisly executions in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip — both those considered legal and those with little or no due process.

Since its 2007 takeover of the enclave, the Hamas militant group has publicly killed 33 suspected collaborators and other convicted criminals, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. During war times, Hamas gunmen have seized at least 29 alleged collaborators from detention centers and killed them in the streets, without any pretense of a trial. Their bodies were dragged through Gaza City by motorbikes and left for crowds to gawk at or stomp on.

In the occupied West Bank, killings of alleged collaborators have occurred only in periods of intense unrest. Over 900 suspected collaborators were killed in the chaos of the First Intifada that began in 1987. More than 100 were killed in the second uprising, from 2000-05, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“These killings are a symptom of increased violence,” said Nathan Thrall, an analyst and author of a book on Israel and the Palestinians. Without due process, he said, “there are people who will use these accusations opportunistically to eliminate rivals and settle scores.”

Now Israelis and Palestinians are in the midst of one of the region’s bloodiest phases, outside a full-blown war, in two decades. As of Tuesday, 105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year, according to an AP tally, about half of them affiliated with militant groups. Palestinian attacks against Israelis have killed 20 people in that time.

In recent months, the Israeli army has killed most key commanders and founders of the Lion’s Den, it says. In an apparently rare targeted killing last fall, a bomb on a motorbike exploded as militant Tamer al-Kilani walked by. Purported security video provided by the Lion’s Den shows an unidentified man parking the motorbike and exiting the frame before the blast killed al-Kilani. During raids, Israeli special forces often adopt disguises, such as of local worshippers or laborers, to quietly slip into the Old City — most recently last Thursday.

As the deaths rose, mistrust grew in the Old City. “We are all terrified because of how many have died,” said Ahmad, a 23-year-old hotel waiter in Nablus. “There are drones and cameras. There must be spies. Everyone suspects everyone.”

On Instagram, al-Ghaleeth looks like any other 20-something Palestinian. His page is full of mirror selfies in track suits, beauty shots of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and fan photos of Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi, with captions praising Lion’s Den “martyrs” sprinkled in.

Rumors abound about how he first aroused suspicion. Some say he always covered his face with a keffiyeh scarf in the Old City, as though trying to hide. Others talk of his apparently sudden wealth that allowed him to build a large house on a hilltop even though he once swept streets for cash. A few neighbors allege he resembled the shadowy figure in security footage of al-Kilani’s killing.

“We all knew he was an agent,” said Nael, a 52-year-old cafe owner in the Old City, whose nephew, a leader in the Lion’s Den, was killed last year. “It was the way he walked and talked. We have a sense for these things.”

Despite Israel’s sophisticated technology for surveilling militants, former intelligence officials say Palestinians themselves remain a crucial tool in preventing militant attacks, allowing Israel to conduct intelligence operations at safe remove.

“People think we only target terrorists, but the person down the street is very interesting as well. You can blackmail all kinds of people even if they’re not involved,” said one former Israeli intelligence agent, among nearly four dozen operatives who refused to report for reserve duty in 2014 to protest his unit’s tactics. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “There is no military control without this kind of intelligence.”

He said relationships between recruiters and collaborators often become twisted into something else. “The gifting of a pack of cigarettes is very symbolic,” he said. “This person has to be under the impression that you care for him, that you’re just a friend who’s helping out.”

Collaboration has featured in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since before the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Palestinians have been blackmailed into service — threatened with having behavior exposed that’s forbidden, or “haram,” in their conservative Islamic communities, such as alcohol use, gambling or homosexuality. Others are recruited when seeking permits to get medical treatment in Israel.

“If they’re gay? Absolutely,” said retired Col. Miri Eisin, a former senior intelligence officer, referring to how the Israeli military, with great leverage over Palestinians’ lives, tries to recruit them. “Family problems. Money problems. None of it makes you feel lovely in the morning, but it’s very effective.”

The Shin Bet, Israel’s main agency responsible for collecting intelligence in the West Bank and Gaza since Israel’s capture of those territories in 1967, declined to comment on its tactics or on al-Ghaleeth’s case. The Israeli military also had no comment.

Al-Ghaleeth’s family declined to be interviewed, instead sharing a statement saying that Zuhair “has nothing to do with them.”

“The history of the family is honorable in serving Palestine,” it added.

Neighbors said the family had barely scraped by, collecting garbage in the Old City.

The Palestinian Authority, which is responsible for prosecuting suspected Israeli collaborators, said it considered al-Ghaleeth’s death symptomatic of a larger failing.

“This is a dangerous sign,” the public prosecution said. “It affects the safety of citizens.”

The Palestinian leadership accuses Israel of undermining its security forces by raiding cities and villages under its control. Israel contends it has been forced to act because of the authority’s ineffectiveness in dismantling militant infrastructure.

“Our situation is very weak, and that empowers extremism,” said Daghlas, the Nablus official, describing growing Palestinian militancy he fears could render the authority irrelevant. “We are not Gaza, where such killings happen all the time. But Israeli escalations push us in that direction.”

Whether the authority will hold the gunmen accountable is unclear. Palestinian security forces are wary of acting against militants, especially after their arrest of a popular Hamas financier in Nablus last fall sparked a day of riots. Detaining gunmen with family ties to Fatah could exacerbate internal tensions.

Nael, the Old City cafe owner, was blunt when asked why al-Ghaleeth was killed rather than handed over to Palestinian security forces. “How can a collaborator investigate a collaborator?” he said.

In a pasture outside Nablus — between a horse farm and an Israeli military checkpoint — teenagers working the field steer clear of a certain patch of rocks.

“If the spy was guilty, he deserves what happened,” said 16-year-old Laith, looking toward the unmarked grave. “Only God knows the truth.”

___

Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

EU cancels Tel Aviv event in protest over radical minister

yesterday

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir speaks at a military cemetery ceremony during a ceremony to mark the country's Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks, in Beersheba, Israel, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. The families of people being remembered there had asked him not to attend.

 (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)


JERUSALEM (AP) — The European Union said Monday that it canceled a diplomatic reception to prevent a radical ultranationalist Israeli minister from attending.

The act of protest by the EU’s delegation to Israel against a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the most religious and ultranationalist in the country’s history, could cause a diplomatic spat between Israel and the EU.

Relations already have been strained over Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power faction, serves as the national security minister and was assigned to represent the Israeli government at the EU’s Europe Day event on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Sunday in a Kan radio interview that Ben-Gvir had been assigned by the government secretary to attend “not as a representative of the Jewish Power party ... but to represent the government of Israel.”

The EU said that it decided “to cancel the diplomatic reception, as we do not want to offer a platform to someone whose views contradict the values the European Union stands for.” The remainder of the public event would take place as scheduled.

Ben-Gvir is a former far-right activist and hard-line West Bank settler who has been convicted of incitement and support for a Jewish terror group. As the government’s representative at the Europe Day event, Ben-Gvir would have addressed attendees.

“It’s a shame that the EU, which pretends to represent democratic values and multiculturalism, behaves with undiplomatic gagging,” Ben-Gvir said.

Netanyahu returned to office in December at the head of a coalition that includes ultra-Orthodox parties and religious ultranationalists, including Ben-Gvir’s small Jewish Power faction. The government has put expansion of West Bank settlements as a top priority. The EU, along with most of the international community, considers Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem illegal under international law and obstacles to peace with the Palestinians.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future independent state.

Press group calls for Israeli accountability in media deaths

By JOSEF FEDERMAN

TODAY

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military has systematically evaded accountability in the deaths of 20 journalists over the past two decades, launching slow and opaque investigations that have never resulted in prosecution or punishment, an international press-freedom group said in a report Tuesday.

The Committee to Protect Journalists issued its report ahead of the one-year anniversary of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh — a Palestinian-American journalist with the Al Jazeera satellite channel who was killed while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.

The army has said Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli fire, but said the shooting was accidental and not announced any disciplinary action.

“The killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and the failure of the army’s investigative process to hold anyone responsible is not a one-off event,” said Robert Mahoney, CPJ’s director of special projects and one of the report’s editors. “It is part of a pattern of response that seems designed to evade responsibility.”

The New York-based CPJ documented the cases of 20 journalists killed by Israeli military fire over the last 22 years. Eighteen of the dead were Palestinians, while the other two were European foreign correspondents. At least 13, including Abu Akleh, were clearly identified as journalists or traveling in vehicles marked with press insignia, it said.

“No one has ever been charged or held responsible for these deaths,” the report said. “The impunity in these cases has severely undermined the freedom of the press, leaving the rights of journalists in precarity.”

The report found a “routine sequence” in the deaths of journalists. Israeli officials typically discount evidence or witness claims while cases are still under investigation, and journalists are accused of terrorism without providing any evidence. Probes can drag on for months or years and clouded in secrecy before they are closed, and families of the dead have little legal recourse.

“Israel’s procedure for examining military killings of civilians such as journalists is a black box,” it said. “There is no policy document describing the process in detail and the results of any probe are confidential.”

It found that the army tends to launch more robust investigations in cases such as Abu Akleh’s, when the journalist holds a foreign passport, but even those do not result in prosecution.

It called for criminal investigations into three cases: Yasser Murtaja, a well-known Palestinian journalist killed while covering protests along the frontier with Israel in 2018; Yousef Abu Hussein, a reporter with the Hamas militant group’s Al-Aqsa radio station who was killed in an Israeli strike on his home during a May 2021 war; and Abu Akleh.

Israeli officials have said that Abu Hussein was a legitimate military target and claimed without giving evidence that Murtaja was a militant.

In the case of Abu Akleh, the army said there was a “very high probability” that she was shot by an Israeli soldier who had misidentified her as a militant. But it held out the possibility that she had been shot by a Palestinian militant, though it gave no evidence to support that claim.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it “regrets any harm to civilians during operational activity and considers the protection of the freedom of the press and the professional work of journalists to be of great importance.”

It said it operates in a “complex security reality” and does not intentionally target noncombatants, using live fire only as a last resort. It said criminal investigations are typically opened in cases of civilian deaths, “unless the incident occurred in an active combat situation or if there is no suspicion of a crime having been committed by IDF soldiers.”

Abu Akleh, who was 51, was shot while covering an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank on May 11, 2022. The area is known to be a stronghold of Palestinian militants.

The Israeli military frequently operates in the camp and said its soldiers had been involved in intense gunbattles with militants that morning. But it has provided no evidence that Palestinian gunmen were in the vicinity of Abu Akleh.

A number of independent investigations, including one by The Associated Press, concluded that Abu Akleh was almost certainly killed by Israeli fire and found no evidence of militant activity in the area. Witness accounts and amateur videos have also shown the area to be quiet before she was shot.

The United States concluded that an Israeli soldier likely killed her by mistake, but it did not explain how it reached that conclusion. A U.S.-led analysis of the bullet last July was inconclusive as investigators said the bullet had been badly damaged.

The Palestinian Authority, Al Jazeera and her family have accused the army of intentionally killing Abu Akleh, a veteran journalist well known across the Arab world for documenting the harsh realities of life under more than half a century of Israeli military rule.

The report said the shooting has had a chilling effect on press freedom.

“Many reporters covering similar raids and tensions — which have risen markedly since Shireen’s killing — are afraid of being shot,” said Guillaume Lavallee, chairman of the Foreign Press Association at the time of the shooting, told CPJ. He said the feeling of vulnerability is especially strong among Palestinian colleagues.

The FPA represents dozens of international media organizations operating in Israel and the Palestinian territories, including The Associated Press.

In its report, the CPJ called on the Israeli military to reform its rules of engagement to prevent the targeting of journalists, to guarantee swift, independent and transparent investigations and to make their findings public.

It also called on the U.S. to issue an update on the status of a reported FBI investigation into Abu Akleh’s killing and to put pressure on Israel to reform its rules of engagement.

How Mexico City’s mural movement transformed walls into art

By MARÍA TERESA HERNÁNDEZ

May 6, 2023

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A tourist takes a photo backdropped by the "Alegoria de la Virgen de Guadalupe" mural, in the main entrance of the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, in Mexico City, Wednesday, April 26, 2023. The mural was created by Mexican artist Fermin Revueltas between 1922 and 1923, when the walls of San Ildefonso became the canvases where the muralist movement came to life. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Across the main entrance of a former Jesuit college in the heart of Mexico City, a bright-colored mural depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe represents both the Indigenous religiosity and the Christianity that shaped the culture of post-colonial Mexico.

The mural was created by Mexican artist Fermín Revueltas between 1922 and 1923, when the walls of Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso became the canvases for the country’s emerging muralist movement.

To honor the art of Revueltas, Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, who among others led the artistic movement a century ago, the baroque building that currently serves as a museum hosts an exhibition that reflects on the significance of their monumental art.

The exhibit, which is regularly updated, recently welcomed a contemporary mural created by Mexican craftsmen who were inspired by the old masters and will run through June 12. That mural, called “La Muerte de las Culturas” (“The Death of Cultures”), depicts how Mexicans of African descent struggled for freedom and equality, and how the community’s identity was forged from that.

Jonatan Chávez, historian of San Ildefonso, said that muralism arose in a highly politicized context.

Many of the wall paintings criticize political leaders, inequality or the Catholic Church because the young muralists were influenced by revolutionary nationalism and academic scholarship that transformed their ideas about the Indigenous population.

Some artists expressed their social and political views by painting divine figures or religious references.

A 1924 fresco that José Clemente Orozco titled “La Alcancía” (“The Piggy Bank”) shows two slender hands depositing coins into a box that is open at the bottom and drops the money into another hand that looks more powerful and represents the Catholic Church.

For a few other muralists – such as Revueltas and Fernando Leal – the goal was to find new ways to portray what the military and spiritual conquest led by the Spaniards meant.

“San Ildefonso has that reminiscence where the religious is present because it is part of the cultural identity of the people,” Chávez said.

It is no coincidence that muralism was born in this place. Hundreds of years before 1923, when the earliest murals were finished, this was the place where the Jesuits led their educational work.

The Jesuits arrived in the capital half a century after the Spanish conquest, in 1572, and a few years later they founded San Ildefonso, a school for seminarians and missionaries. Their objective was to educate the descendants of Spaniards – the “criollo” – who were born in the colony, Chávez said.

Before they were expelled from the Spanish Empire in 1767, the Jesuits travelled extensively. According to Chávez, these priests visited remote towns and sought to understand the worldview of the “criollo” people, whose Indigenous spiritual practices intertwined with new Christian customs and beliefs.

“They went beyond these branches of spiritual identity or the diffusion of faith,” Chávez said.

This dynamic allowed the Jesuits to teach the “criollo” arts and crafts, but it also strengthened the concept of “criollo” identity throughout the territory, a theme that muralists portrayed in the 20th century.

“Alegoría de la Virgen de Guadalupe” (“Allegory of the Virgin of Guadalupe”) is an example. In the mural created by Revueltas, the Catholic image of Virgin Mary is in the top center and her children – men and women with different skin tones – pray around her.

The painting is not meant to inspire devotion, Chávez said, but to portray how Our Lady of Guadalupe unifies people of different races and origins.

A few steps away, two murals are in dialogue with each other and share a common theme.

On the right side of the main stairs of San Ildefonso, a piece by Jean Charlot illustrates the massacre that the Spaniards led in the most sacred site of the Aztec empire – Templo Mayor – in 1521. On the opposite wall, Leal portrays what came after the conquest and the imported Christianity of the Spanish: religious festivities where sacred and profane symbols blend.

In a recent article published in a digital magazine from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, art historians Rita Eder and Renato González explain that these murals praise the country’s ancient cultures while strongly rejecting the violence brought by the Spanish conquest.

Artists like Charlot, the article says, “identify the Conquest as the most significant process in the history of Mexico, and its characterization as a struggle between civilization and barbarism (the latter, of course, represented by the armored attackers).”

According to Chávez, these murals will never lose relevance because they are a way to understand how history triggers a constant redefinition of spaces.

“Our past is important because it speaks of our present,” he said. “These murals tell a lot about who we are and what we are made of.”

——

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.

FOSSIL FOOLS

Equinor and partners to spend $9 billion tapping reserves offshore Brazil

A floating production platform will be used to process the reserves located in the Campos Basin off the coast of Brazil. 

Image courtesy of Equinor


May 8 (UPI) -- Norwegian energy company Equinor said Monday it was joined by its Brazilian counterparts in making a final investment decision to tap an offshore basin with more than 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent reserves.

Equinor was joined by Petroleo Brasileiro, better known as Petrobras, and the Brazilian subsidiary of Spanish energy company Repsol in announcing a $9 billion investment in the BM-C-33 project off Brazil.

Located in the resource-rich Campos Basin, and situated beneath a thick layer of salt at the sea floor, the three prospects that make up the project contain more than 1 billion barrels of natural gas and an ultra-light form of oil called condensate.

"BM-C-33 is one of the main projects in the country to bring new supplies of domestic gas, being a key contributor to the further development of the Brazilian gas market," said Veronica Coelho, Equinor's country manager in Brazil. "Gas exported from the project could represent 15% of the total Brazilian gas demand at start-up."

Partners will tap BM-C-33 using a floating production storage and offloading vessel that was designed to lower the environmental impact of the drilling campaign.

Equinor has long considered Brazil -- one of the largest oil and gas producers outside the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries -- to be among its core areas of interest. Five years ago, it estimated it would be producing as much as 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.

Operations at BM-C-33 are expected to commence in 2028, some 18 years after the initial discovery.

U$A
New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks

By MATTHEW DALY

May 5, 2023

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A MarkWest Liberty natural gas pipeline and fracking well cap is seen in Valencia, Pa., Oct. 14, 2020. The federal agency that regulates pipelines on Friday, May 5, 2023, announced new rules aimed at reducing leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from a network of nearly 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the country. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agency that regulates pipelines announced new rules Friday aimed at reducing leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from a network of nearly 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the country.

The proposal by the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would significantly improve the detection and repair of leaks from gas pipelines, keep more product in the pipes and prevent dangerous accidents, officials said.

If finalized, the rules would eliminate up to 1 million metric tons of methane emissions by 2030, equivalent to emissions from 5.6 million gasoline-powered cars, the agency said. Overall, the rule would reduce emissions from covered pipelines by up to 55%.

“Quick detection of methane leaks is an important way to keep communities safe and help curb climate change,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are proposing a long-overdue modernization of the way we identify and fix methane leaks, thereby reducing emissions and strengthening protections for the American people.”

GAS FLARING NEEDS TO STOP!

The proposal is aimed at cutting methane emissions from more than 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution and gathering pipelines nationwide; 400 underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities, the agency said.

The rule would update decades-old federal leak detection and repair standards that rely solely on human senses in favor of new requirements that use commercially available, advanced technologies to find and fix methane leaks and other flammable, toxic and corrosive gases, officials said.

The rules will improve health and safety in poor and minority communities where gas pipelines and related infrastructure are disproportionately located, the agency said.

The proposal is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to restrict methane emissions and follows proposed rules by the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department to strengthen methane leak detection and limit emissions from oil and gas production.

“Natural gas pipelines are ubiquitous in our neighborhoods, cities, parks and rural communities, and pipeline leaks are both safety risks and a source of methane pollution that accelerates climate change,” said Erin Murphy, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, which has pushed for stricter methane standards.

PHMSA’s proposal is “a welcome step” that will help “unlock” use of advanced technologies to find and fix more pipeline leaks, Murphy said.

“Strong federal standards to reduce pipeline leaks are critical for delivering on the Biden administration’s commitment to curb climate-warming methane pollution while increasing public health and safety,” she said.

Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas that is far more powerful than carbon dioxide in the near-term. Leakage from natural gas pipelines is a major source of methane emissions that contribute to global warming.

The Associated Press reported last year that researchers identified more than 500 methane “super emitters,” including pipelines, wells, tanks and compressor stations, during a 2021 aerial survey of the oil-rich Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The sites leak massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere, according to Carbon Mapper, a partnership of university researchers and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The EPA is now conducting helicopter flyovers in the region using special infrared cameras that can detect emissions of hydrocarbon vapors invisible to the naked eye.

The new pipeline rule was developed as a result of the bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020, which created a series of regulatory mandates targeting pipeline safety, including methane leaks. Transmission, storage and distribution of oil and gas accounts for about one-third of oil-and-gas emissions, according to EPA data.

GO SLOW IS NOT AN OPTION
Shipping lobby group advises caution on climate targets

By ED DAVEY

May 3, 2023

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 A ship is docked at the Port of Los Angeles on Nov. 21, 2022. 

A confidential document obtained by The Associated Press shows the International Chamber of Shipping advised its national branches in March that member companies should "give careful consideration to the possible implications" before committing to a new plan to reduce maritime emissions.

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

An influential shipping industry group has quietly warned shippers to think carefully before they sign up for a new plan to reduce pollution and eventually eliminate their contribution to climate change.

The International Chamber of Shipping represents four fifths of the world’s commercial fleet, and in 2021 committed to the Paris Agreement’s target to reduce greenhouse gases down to zero by 2050. “Talk is cheap, action is difficult,” chairman Esben Poulsson said at the time.

But a confidential document obtained by The Associated Press shows the International Chamber of Shipping advised its national branches in March that member companies should “give careful consideration to the possible implications” before committing to a new plan to reduce maritime emissions.

Under the plan, shipping companies will declare all their vessels with their emissions, inputting them into a new software tool. That includes pollution starting at the oil well all the way to the engines, said Jean-Marc Bonello, a naval architect at UMAS, a for-profit maritime consultancy launched by experts from University College London, who helped design the tool. Shippers will then have to improve efficiency or use cleaner fuel to reduce their emissions 60% by 2036.

Shipping accounts for almost 3% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Maritime Organization. A European Parliament report has warned that share could increase dramatically by 2050.

The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has drawn up plans tailored to numerous industries including chemicals, oil and gas and aviation. It’s a partnership between several nonprofits and the United Nations Global Compact, an initiative launched by the U.N. Secretary General. The maritime SBTi, published last fall, says the shipping industry must cut its emissions 45% by 2030 to keep on track with Paris goals which try to limit total temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Stuart Neil, director of communications for the International Chamber of Shipping, said in a phone interview the group acted after some of its member companies asked how the system would affect their businesses. It wasn’t a case of warning the shipping companies off, he said, pointing to another line in the memo that says the targets are an important initiative. The group was simply concerned about shipping companies signing on without proper analysis. “It has to be properly thought through,” he said.

One objection of the industry lobby group is that the target would force shippers to count their indirect emissions, including those produced while making marine fuels, and doesn’t take into account that more energy gets used navigating in bad weather.

Responding to the claim the group was reluctant to act, Neil said it had put forward various decarbonization proposals of its own. It has suggested a $5 billion research and development fund to accelerate decarbonization, and calling on the International Maritime Organization to up its net-zero-by-2050 ambitions.

But some marine climate advocates are incensed.

John Maggs, shipping policy director at Seas At Risk and president of the Clean Shipping Coalition, said by email that the SBTi plan was the “absolute minimum” to keep warming below 1.5 degrees.

“Without immediate action and deep cuts before 2030, the task becomes almost impossible without significant industry disruption.”

The group has “always been the least ambitious, lowest common denominator ship industry actor,” Maggs said, “and the thought that they might actually have to do something significant soon horrifies them.”

A target thirty years in the future is not sufficient, Maggs warned, something echoed by scientists and international agencies. Targets for 2030 and 2040 are necessary. He said more research and development is not needed, because technology and knowledge to clean up shipping already exists.

For example, a 10% reduction in speed would lead to a 27% decline in emissions, he said. Hybrid ships that run on a combination of wind power and marine fuels could also dramatically cut emissions. Ships retrofitted with sails might save 10-30% in emissions, he said, and ships built to be cleaner from the start could save 50-70%. He listed eight vessels under design or in construction that claim such reductions.

Michael Prehn is a diplomat for the Solomon Islands, which is urging the International Maritime Organisation to adopt the SBTi targets. The Pacific islands are among the worst affected nations from rising sea levels. Prehn agreed the SBTi targets were the bare minimum to keep global warming to 1.5 C.

“We often hear from various industries they want to do something that is ‘feasible,’” he said. “Usually not feasible just means very expensive.”

If nothing changes it will result in a climate catastrophe devastating to the lives of Pacific islanders, he warned. “We’ve already had storms which are much more violent than they used to be. If there’s no transition, we are going to drown, or have to move the population somewhere else.”

Bonello of the maritime consultancy called the lobby group’s action shortsighted. He said the evidence shows the plans are realistic and achievable.

“Watering it down is a dangerous strategy,” he added.

But Neil said the science-based targets will definitely have an effect on business operations.

“We do not want companies to sign up to an initiative on a PR basis.”

__

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

CLIMATE CRISIS 
Southeast Asia heat wave shatters records in several countries
By Mary Gilbert, Accuweather.com

Scorching heat shattered temperature records across portions of Southeast Asia over the weekend as the region baked under a historic heat wave.

AccuWeather forecasters say some relief is set to arrive in the coming days, but intense heat may be quick to return.

National all-time heat records were smashed in Vietnam and Laos on Saturday as temperatures soared to levels never before observed in either country.

A man eats on a bench in Lumpini Park in Bangkok during heat wave conditions. 

Photo courtesy of AccuWeather

In Vietnam, the national high-temperature record was set when the mercury in Hoi Xuan topped out at a staggering 111.4 degrees F. Dozens of other Vietnamese cities also broke site-specific heat records, according to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.

In neighboring Laos, the country's new high all-time record high of 110.3 degrees F was set in the city of Luang Prabang. The Laotian capital of Vientiane also pulverized its all-time record when the mercury hit 108.5 degrees F, Herrera reported.

The history books were rewritten again on Sunday as the countries continued to sizzle under unprecedented heat.

Just one day after setting a new national heat record, Vietnam managed to get even hotter on Sunday. The high temperature in Tuong Duong soared to a record-breaking 111.6 degrees F on Sunday.

In Laos, Luang Prabang hit 110.3 degrees F, tying the national record it had set the day before.

Vietnam and Laos were not the only countries in the region to set records over the weekend. Cambodia had its hottest May day on record after temperatures topped out at 106.9 degrees F on Saturday.

Thailand also sizzled over the weekend. The Thai capital of Bangkok broke its all-time high-temperature record on Saturday and Sunday. Bangkok, home to more than 10.5 million people, soared to 105.8 degrees F on Sunday.

Although this part of Asia is typically rather hot in the spring, Bangkok and surrounding areas have been sweltering since temperatures first began to climb above historical average levels in late March. For Bangkok, March ended with temperatures 2.2 degrees F above the historical average. In April, that number was 4.5 degrees F, and the number is over 6 degrees F above the historical average so far in May.

Extreme temperatures have not faded away during the overnight hours either, providing little relief for residents suffering from the dangerous heat. Thailand recorded its highest nighttime low temperature ever when the city of Sakon Nakhon only managed to drop to 90.5 degrees F on Sunday morning.

While scorching hot weather has been the trend in recent weeks, AccuWeather forecasters say a strong area of high pressure in the upper levels of the atmosphere is responsible for the record-setting temperatures this past weekend.

This area of high pressure, or "ridge," peaked in strength over the weekend, according to lead international forecaster Jason Nicholls.

For those suffering under extreme heat, there is some hope on the horizon.

"A nearby front with clouds and scattered rainfall will result in an easing of heat over the next several days," Nicholls said.

However, relief may be brief.

"There is a chance for heat to build again next week," Nicholls cautioned.

As summer approaches, Nicholls and the rest of AccuWeather's international long-range team of forecasters expect temperatures and rainfall levels to be near or above historical averages across Southeastern Asia.

Drought spells 'catastrophe' for Spain's olive harvest

by Valentin BONTEMPS

Many Andalusian farmers fear a repeat of last year's disastrous olive harvest.

An ongoing drought and soaring temperatures have unleashed fears of an olive "catastrophe" in Spain, the world's largest producer of olive oil, which suffered a very difficult year in 2022.

"It's barely rained since January. The ground is very dry," worries Cristobal Cano, secretary general of the small farmers' union (UPA) in the southern region of Andalusia, the heart of Spain's olive oil industry.

Cano, who owns 10 hectares of olive trees in Alcala la Real near Granada, has never seen such a worrying situation in the 20 years he's been a farmer.

"If something doesn't change radically in the next few weeks, it's going to be a catastrophe," he warned.

According to the AEMET weather agency, accumulated rainfall since October 1 has been 25 percent lower than normal across Spain and 50 percent lower in most of Andalusia, where reservoirs are at 25 percent capacity.

And the situation worsened at the end of April, when an early heatwave brought exceptionally high temperatures that saw the mercury hit 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in southern Spain.

"This happened as the olive trees were in bloom," says Rafael Pico, director of Asoliva, the Spanish association of olive oil producers and exporters, who fears the blooms will dry up.

"If there are no flowers, there's no fruit. And if there's no fruit, there's no oil."

Conditions deteriorated in April with a heatwave just as the olive trees were in bloom.

'On the brink of collapse'

For Spain—which normally supplies 50 percent of the world's olive oil and exports close to 3.0 billion euros ($3.3 billion) worth every year—the situation is even more worrying given the sector's disastrous output in 2021-2022.

During that season too, a lack of rain and extreme temperatures saw olive oil production plummeting 55 percent to 660,000 tonnes, compared to 1.48 million tonnes in 2021-2022, agriculture ministry figures show.

The scene is set to play out again this year.

"Looking at the forecasts, it's almost a given—it's going to be another grim year," says Rafael Sanchez de Puerta, head of Dcoop, Spain's leading olive cooperative.

If the predictions prove true, it could spell the end for many olive farms.

"We can cope with one difficult year. It's a natural part of the growing cycle. But two years in a row will be a disaster. Many are on the brink of collapse," he says.

With the cost of machinery, paying salaries and repaying loans, "farmers need liquidity" to remain afloat, says Asoliva's Pico, recalling that many in Spain live from olive oil production.

Andalusia is central to the industry in Spain, the world's top olive oil producer.

Runaway prices

For consumers, the outlook is also bleak.

"The global price of olive oil depends largely on Spain," says Pico.

In recent months, the price of oil has jumped.

"In mid-April, olive oil was selling at 5,800 euros ($6,400) per tonne, up from 5,300 euros in January," says Fanny de Gasquet of Baillon Intercor, a brokerage firm specialising in oils and fats.

In January 2022, it was selling at 3,500 euros.

And the upward trend looks set to continue.

In Andalusia, young olive trees "don't have sufficiently developed roots to be able to extract water" from deep underground, meaning "there will be losses" that will have an impact on production over the next two or three years, she warns.

At the end of 2022, the Spanish government moved to lower VAT on olive oil from 10 percent to five percent as part of a package of measures to help consumers in the face of soaring inflation.

Olive farmer Cristobal Cano has never seen such a worrying situation.

And to help farmers cope with the drought, the government has reduced the sector's income tax by 25 percent.

But for many, it's too little in the face of the looming crisis.

"Lowering taxes for people who will have almost no income is of little use to them," says Dcoop's Sanchez de Puerta, calling for more ambitious moves to combat "a drought that is lasting longer than it should".

© 2023 AFP

Spain heatwave to peak with record April temperatures

Spain records hottest and driest April on record
yesterday

 A man sunbathes on a hot spring day in Madrid, Spain, on April 18, 2023. Drought-stricken Spain says last month was the hottest and driest April since records began in 1961. The State Meteorological Agency, said Monday May 8, 2023 the average daily temperature in April was 14.9 degrees Celsius (58.8 Fahrenheit), that is 3 degrees Celsius above the average. (AP Photo/Paul White, File)

MADRID (AP) — Drought-stricken Spain says last month was the hottest and driest April since records began in 1961.

The State Meteorological Agency, known by the Spanish acronym AEMET, said Monday the average daily temperature in April was 14.9 degrees Celsius (58.8 Fahrenheit), that is 3 degrees Celsius above the average.

AEMET said average maximum temperatures during the month were up by 4.7 Celsius.

Rainfall was a fifth of what would normally be expected in the month, making it the driest April on record in Spain.

Last year was Spain’s hottest since record-keeping started in 1961, and also the country’s sixth driest.

Three years of scant rainfall and high temperatures put the country officially into long-term drought earlier this year.

A flash study by a group of international scientists last week found that record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change and would have been almost impossible in the past.

The government has requested emergency funds from the European Union to support farmers and ranchers whose crops are being affected by the situation.

Spain’s April heat nearly impossible without climate change

By JENNIFER O'MAHONY and SETH BORENSTEIN

May 5, 2023

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FILE - A man cools himself at a fountain in Seville, Spain, April 27, 2023. Record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change, a new flash study found. (AP Photo/Santi Donaire, File)

MADRID (AP) — Record-breaking April temperatures in Spain, Portugal and northern Africa were made 100 times more likely by human-caused climate change, a new flash study found, and would have been almost impossible in the past.

A group of international scientists did a rapid computer and statistical analysis of a late-April heat wave that stretched across the Iberian peninsula into Algeria and Morocco. The four countries experienced temperatures as high as 36.9 degrees Celsius (98.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit) degrees.

Study lead author Sjoukje Philip of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said in a briefing that a weather event this extreme “would have been almost impossible in the past, colder climate,” adding: “We will see more intense and more frequent heat waves in the future as global warming continues.”

Because the analysis released Friday was one of the quickest ever — the heat still hasn’t subsided much — the study by World Weather Attribution is not peer reviewed, which is the gold standard for science. But the team of WWA scientists do these quick studies using scientifically accepted techniques and often get them published later in peer-reviewed journals.

The regions in the study are all suffering from a multi-year drought, which can exacerbate high temperatures, the scientists said.

Currently, 27% of Spanish territory is in either the drought “emergency” or “alert” category and water reserves are at 50% of capacity nationally. The average dam storage in Morocco is at similarly low levels, and in Tunisia many homes have water cuts during the day.

Farmers across the Western Mediterranean have warned that poor harvests are likely, in some regions for the sixth year running.

The study also said the extreme heat in Europe is rising faster than computer models had projected. The same thing happened in the Pacific heat dome, so scientists who create computer models need to go back and rethink their overly conservative projections, said University of Washington’s Kris Ebi, who wasn’t part of the study, but praised it.

The scientists compared real life April temperatures to a simulated world without climate change. They found that a heat wave like the one the Western Mediterranean suffered in April would have been more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) less severe in a world without coal, oil and gas pollution trapping heat.

The study will also help inform governments preparing for the earlier onset of extreme hot weather, with the aim of preventing deaths and unrolling heat awareness campaigns. Last year, at least 15,000 people died in Europe because of extreme hot weather, according to the World Health Organization, with Spain one the countries worst affected.

“When we can send out warnings with calibrated messaging, that allows people to accurately perceive their personal risk, that can lead to personal behavioral changes,” said Roop Singh of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, another of the study’s authors.

Changes include access to air conditioning in schools, monitoring heat-related hospital admissions and advising citizens to avoid outdoor sports at certain hours of the day, she said.

The results of the study make sense and are important, according to three outside climate scientists.

“The world is approaching the moment when nearly all heat waves will have a climate change fingerprint,” Ebi told The Associated Press in an email. “In the meantime, these kinds of analyses are valuable for moving policymakers and justifying investments.”

Studies like these are important, but “’it’s also now like asking if the dog with berries on its face got into the pie cooling on the counter,” said North Carolina State Climatologist Kathie Dello, who wasn’t part of the study.

While some scientists question the value of looking for climate change’s fingerprint in studies like this, saying global warming is changing everything, Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who was not part of the study, said this type of analysis has value.

“Attribution is the only tool we have to understand whether extreme weather is inflamed by climate change,” Jackson said in an email. “Rare weather events are becoming more and more ‘normal.’ Climate change has loaded the weather dice.”

___ Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland

___ Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears and Jennifer O’Mahony at @jaomahony

___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.