Belarus Calls LGBT Lives ‘Pornography’

“Depicting” LGBT Relationships May Be Punishable with a Prison Sentence

Anastasiia Kruope
Assistant Researcher, Europe and Central Asia

Click to expand Image
Belarusian LGBTQ activists with white-red-white flags participate in the Warsaw Equality Parade, June 25, 2022. © 2022 Sipa USA/AP Photo

Belarus has hit a new low in its targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. As of today, the definition of pornography under Belarusian law will include depictions of same-sex relationships as well as transgender people.

The Culture Ministry recently amended its decree on “erotic materials” to classify “homosexualism, lesbian love” and the “desire to live and be seen by others as a person of an opposite sex”—a reference to transgender people—as “non-traditional sexual relationship or behavior.” This places depictions of LGBT people alongside those of necrophilia, pedophilia, and voyeurism, all of which legally constitute “non-traditional relationships.”

Under Belarusian law, they all may also constitute pornography.

Public displays of pornography are punishable in Belarus with up to four years in prison. Child pornography is punishable with up to 13 years behind bars.

While it is not yet clear what kinds of depictions of LGBT people could fall under the new definition of pornography, it clearly aims to assault the dignity of sexual and gender minorities, people already demonized and at risk of persecution in Belarus.

Belarusian public officials and religious groups periodically advocate for introducing administrative and criminal liability for “non-traditional sexual relationship and gender change propaganda.” Neighboring Russia recently expanded its anti-gay propaganda law and banned the “international LGBT movement” as extremist.

In 2020, police arrested numerous peaceful protesters who demonstrated against the rigged presidential elections. Belarusian rights groups documented the systematic and widespread ill-treatment and torture of the protesters, reporting that people perceived as LGBT faced an increased risk of police violence and threats of sexualized violence.

Since then, Belarusian authorities have used public humiliation as a shaming tool against critics who are perceived to be or are LGBT. In one such instance, police forced a detainee, arrested for leaving a critical comment online, to “confess” on camera to being gay. At the end of the horrific video, he said: “I understand this is immoral, I promise to correct it.”

In their brutal assault against civil society in recent years, Belarusian authorities shut down all human rights organizations, including LGBT rights groups, leaving LGBT people with even less protection.

Belarus should annul these despicable amendments and stop cynically targeting LGBT people.

Belarus convicts a famous dissident rock band and sentences its members to correctional labor

The band's song was the anthem of protests after President Lukashenko's 2020 reelection

Associated Press
Published April 12, 2024

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarusian authorities on Friday convicted a famous dissident rock band, designating the band and its three members as extremist and sentencing them to two years of correctional labor. It was the latest in a yearslong crackdown on dissent that has engulfed this country of 9.5 million people.

Nizkiz band members — Alyaksandr Ilyin, Siarhei Kulsha and Dzmitry Khalyaukin — were charged with "organizing and plotting actions grossly violating public order."

In 2020, when Belarus was rocked by mass protests that erupted after President Alexander Lukashenko won a sixth term in office in a disputed election, the band released "Rules," a song that became the protests' anthem. A music video for the song was filmed at one of the demonstrations against the country's authoritarian leader.

Lukashenko's government unleashed a brutal crackdown in response to the protests, arresting more than 35,000 people and violently beating thousands. Many have been labeled as "extremists," a designation frequently used against critics. The repressions have continued to this day.

In addition to the sentencing, the band and the musicians were also added to the state registry of extremists, which effectively means a ban on its songs and exposes Nizkiz's fans to prosecution.

The band was founded in 2008 in the city of Mogilev in the east of the country. In January 2024, Ilyin, Kulsha and Khalyaukin were arrested and initially faced petty charges, but then authorities opened a criminal case against them. They have been behind bars since then.

In February, the Viasna human rights center declared them political prisoners. According to the group, which is the oldest and the most prominent in the country, there are currently 1,387 political prisoners in Belarus, including Viasna's founder Ales Bialiatsky, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Belarus' opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya on Friday urged musicians around the world "to express solidarity with their Belarusian colleagues, who were convicted over the songs of freedom."

"The Belarusian regime continues a ruthless attack on our culture," Tsikhanouskaya said in written comments sent to The Associated Press.

"Nizkiz's songs sounded during the 2020 protests," she said. "That's why the members of this popular band were brutally detained in their apartments and then convicted. It is yet another shameful act of the regime's revenge."

 

Mexico, a leading producer of illicit fentanyl, can’t get enough for medical use, study finds

Workers unpack medicine at a "mega-pharmacy" warehouse on its inauguration day in Huehuetoca, Mexico, Dec. 29, 2023. A new report released by the Mexican government Friday, April 12, 2024, says the country is facing a dire shortage of fentanyl for medical use, even as Mexican cartels pump out tons of the illicit narcotic. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

By The Associated Press

Posted April 12, 2024 4:25 pm.

 

Last Updated April 12, 2024 8:26 pm.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — A report released by the Mexican government Friday says the country is facing a dire shortage of fentanyl for medical use, even as Mexican cartels pump out tons of the illicit narcotic.

The paradox was reported in a study by Mexico’s National Commission on Mental Health and Addictions. The study did not give a reason for the shortage of the synthetic opioid, which is needed for anesthesia in hospitals, but claimed it was a worldwide problem

The commission said fentanyl had to be imported, and that imports fell by more than 50% between 2022 and 2023.

Nonetheless, Mexican cartels appear to be having no problem importing tons of precursor chemicals and making their own fentanyl, which they smuggle into the United States. The report says Mexican seizures of illicit fentanyl rose 1.24 tons in 2020 to 1.85 tons in 2023.

Some of that is now spilling back across the border, with an increase in illicit fentanyl addiction reported in some Mexican border regions — a problem Mexico paradoxically blamed on the United States.

“Despite the limitations of availability in pharmaceutical fentanyl in our country, the excessive use of opiates in recent decades in the United States has had important repercussions on consumption and supply in Mexico,” the report states.

The report said that requests for addiction treatment in Mexico increased from 72 cases in 2020, to 430 cases in 2023. That sounds like a tiny number compared to the estimated 70,000 annual overdose deaths in the United States in recent years related to synthetic opioids. But in fact, the Mexican government does very little to offer addiction treatment, so the numbers probably don’t reflect the real scope of the problem.

The shortage of medical anesthetic drugs has caused some real problems in Mexico.

Local problems with the availability of morphine and fentanyl have led anesthesiologists to acquire their own supplies, carry the vials around with them, and administer multiple doses from a single vial to conserve their supply.

In 2022, anesthetics contaminated by those practices caused a meningitis outbreak in the northern state of Durango that killed about three dozen people, many of whom were pregnant women given epidurals. Several Americans died because of a similar outbreak after having surgery at clinics in the Mexican border city of Matamoros in 2023.

The response by the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to those twin problems — not enough legal fentanyl, and too much of the illicit stuff — has been contradictory.

In 2023, López Obrador briefly proposed banning fentanyl even for medical use, but has not mentioned that idea lately after it drew a wave of criticism from doctors.

Meanwhile, the president has steadfastly denied that Mexican cartels produce the drug, despite overwhelming evidence that they import precursor chemicals from Asia and carry out the chemical processes to make fentanyl. López Obrador claims they only press the drug into pill form.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2023 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, “approximately 96 percent of all fentanyl seized by CBP originated in Mexico, with only 270 kg reaching the United States from other destinations.”

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

The Associated Press

Colombia’s capital starts rationing water after reservoirs hit historically low levels



A worker washes a motorcycle at an ecological carwash in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


Restaurant owner Luis Alirio Soler shows buckets of water while his kitchen continues to operate during a 24-hour water restriction in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


A restaurant cook gets water from a bucket while the kitchen stays open during a 24-hour water restriction in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)


A worker washes a car at an ecological carwash in Bogota, Colombia, Friday, April 12, 2024. Water rationing in the capital began on Thursday due to the low level of water in reservoirs that give drinking water to the capital, a consequence of the El Niño weather phenomenon. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

April 12, 2024


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Luis Soler is caring for water as if it were the most expensive ingredient at his restaurant in Colombia’s capital.

For the first time in 40 years, a severe drought pushed the city to start rationing tap water. At Soler’s restaurant in Bogota, nothing flowed through the pipes Friday. The city’s warnings allowed him to prepare for the change, buying bottled water for cooking purposes and storing tap water for dish washing, and since his entire neighborhood was facing the same inconvenience as the restaurant, he said he expected sales to go up, not down.

“I think the impact is not going to be much. On the contrary, we are waiting for sales to improve a little because there is no water in the neighborhood and many people are not going to cook,” Soler said.

Officials in Bogota moved to ratio water after reservoirs hit historically low levels due to the combination of high temperatures and lack of rainfall prompted by the El Niño climate phenomenon.

The rationing began Thursday. It will affect neighborhoods in 24-hour periods three times per month. Local officials will review the measure every 15 days to decide whether it should be eliminated, maintained or increased.



Panama and Colombia fail to protect migrants on Darien jungle route, Human Rights Watch says


Bogota residents had not experienced water rationing since 1997, when a technical failure in the system forced officials to restrict water service. The last drought-caused rationing was in 1984.

Officials have recommended people store only the amount of water they absolutely need, not wash cars and implement water-saving measures at home, even when they shower.

“Shower with your partner,” Bogota Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán suggested. “It is a pedagogical exercise in saving water.”

Given the recommendation not to wash cars frequently, businesses that provide that service could be affected.

“Fewer people are coming in. I imagine because people think it is not open, but it is also very good that we take care of the water,” said John Guerrero, who owns a car wash.

Bogota consumes an average of 18 cubic meters of water per second, and under the rationing system, officials are aiming to cut 2 cubic meters per second. Officials hope to fill reservoirs by more than 70% by the end of the year.

Maine governor signs bill restricting paramilitary training in response to neo-Nazi’s plan

FILE - The morning fog lifts beyond the Burton M. Cross Building, left, and the State House, Wednesday, June 21, 2023, in Augusta, Maine. Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed into law a bill Friday, April 12, 2024, restricting paramilitary training in response to a neo-Nazi who wanted to create a training center for a “blood tribe.” (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

By David Sharp, The Associated Press

Posted April 12, 2024 

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A bill to restrict paramilitary training in Maine in response to a neo-Nazi who wanted to create a training center for a “blood tribe” was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday.

The law, which the governor signed without public comment, allows the attorney general to file for a court injunction to stop paramilitary training that’s intended to sow civil disorder — and to bring charges that carry a penalty of up to a year in jail.

Rep. Laurie Osher of Orono introduced the bill after a prominent neo-Nazi and white supremacist, Christopher Pohlhaus, sought to set up a training center on property that he ultimately sold before carrying out the plan.

“I welcome people to come to Maine and live here and work hard and make Maine a better place. But I’m not welcoming of people who want to make Maine a white ethno-state,” Osher, a Democrat, said Friday evening. “This bill is making it clear that anyone who has that intent is not welcome to do that here.”

Opponents argued that the measure could trample on constitutional rights, while supporters said it aims to prevent the creation of shadow military forces for purposes of creating civil unrest.

Osher said many constituents told her lawmakers had to do something with a rise in harassment and intolerance of a growing diversity in the state. But the law doesn’t target any specific group, she said.

Attorney General Aaron Frey said militias that don’t follow the orders of civilian leaders were already prohibited by the Maine Constitution, but that applies specifically to groups parading with guns in public or outfitted in clothing that looks like real military uniforms.

Without the new law, he said previously, he had no way to bring a criminal case against someone using military training to create civil disorder, as authorities say Pohlhaus sought to do.

Pohlhaus has hinted that if he were to try again to establish a training facility, he’d be careful to ensure the property was not in his name to avoid arousing suspicions.

Vermont took a similar action last year by banning people from owning and running paramilitary training camps. That bill came in response to a firearms training facility built without permits that neighbors called a nuisance.

The Vermont law, which came in response to a property known as Slate Ridge, prohibits people from teaching, training or demonstrating to others how to make or use firearms, explosives or incendiary devices to cause civil disorder.

It does not apply to law enforcement or educational institutions like Norwich University. Violators face up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $50,000 or both.

David Sharp, The Associated Press

 

Eleanor Coppola, matriarch of a filmmaking family, dies aged 87

13 April 2024, 02:24

Obit Eleanor Coppola. Picture: PA

She documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s best-known films, including Apocalypse Now.

Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s best-known films and who raised a family of filmmakers, has died aged 87.

She died on Friday surrounded by family at home in Rutherford, California, her family announced in a statement. No cause of death was given.

Eleanor, who grew up in Orange County, California, met Francis while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the Roger Corman-produced 1963 horror film Dementia 13, after had studied design at UCLA.

Within months of dating, Eleanor became pregnant and the couple were wed in Las Vegas in February 1963.

Francis and Eleanor Coppola in 1991 in Los Angeles (AP)

Their first-born, Gian-Carlo, quickly became a regular presence in his father’s films, as did their subsequent children, Roman (born in 1965) and Sofia (born in 1971). After acting in their father’s films and growing up on sets, all would go into the movies.

Gian-Carlo, who is seen in the background of many of his father’s films and had begun doing second-unit photography, died at the age of 22 in a 1986 boating accident. He was killed while riding in a boat piloted by Griffin O’Neal, son of Ryan O’Neal, who was found guilty of negligence.

Roman directed several movies of his own and regularly collaborates with Wes Anderson. He is president of his father’s San Francisco-based film company, American Zoetrope.

Sofia became one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of her generation as the writer-director of films including “Lost in Translation” and the 2023 release “Priscilla.” Sofia dedicated that film to her mother.

Beginning on 1979’s Apocalypse Now, Eleanor frequently documented the behind-the-scenes life of Francis’ films.

The Philippines-set shoot of Apocalypse Now lasted 238 days. A typhoon destroyed sets, lead actor Martin Sheen had a heart attack and a member of the construction crew died.

Eleanor documented much of the chaos in what would become one of the most famous making-of films about moviemaking, 1991’s Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse.

“I was just trying to keep myself occupied with something to do because we were out there for so long,” she told CNN in 1991. “They wanted five minutes for a TV promotional or something and I thought sooner of later I could get five minutes of film and then it went on to 15 minutes.

She ended up shooting 60 hours worth of footage and published Notes: On the Making of Apocalypse Now where she wrote of being a “woman isolated from my friends, my affairs and my projects” during their year in Manilla. She also frankly discusses Francis having an extra-marital affair.

They remained together and Eleanor documented several more of her husband’s films, as well as Roman’s CQ and Sofia’s Marie Antoinette. She wrote a memoir in 2008, Notes on a Life.

In 2016, at the age of 80, Eleanor made her narrative debut in Paris Can Wait, a romantic comedy starring Diane Lane. She followed that up with Love Is Love Is Love in 2020.

Eleanor died just as Francis is preparing a long-planned, self-financed epic, “Metropolis,” which is to premiere next month at the Cannes Film Festival.

By Press Association

Justice and the Red Queen Effect-Rabbi Marc Katz

EXCERPT

Like many of you, despite all the warning signs, I never thought Roe v Wade would be overturned. That battle was fought and won long before my birth. I had underestimated the forces pushing against women’s choice. It was matter of fact, a story concluded. Settled law. There could be no part two.  

Then, in what felt like a blink of an eye – though in hindsight was decades of steady erosion– that protection was gone. The hard-fought progress so many had sacrificed for was walked back. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized, I was to blame. 

Now before going on, I want to say that there are and have always been activists and voices working tirelessly to preserve reproductive rights. In the secular world we have Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. In the Jewish world we have the National Council of Jewish Women and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, among others. They were not blindsided by this. Their battle for women’s health is a daily endeavor. They knew that the story of Roe v Wade was forever in formation. 

But they are the exception. Most people who care about abortion access have a list of other social justice issues that also keep them up at night. And in a world where so much cries out for our attention, a story that seems settled and a battle that appears won, gives us permission to turn our attention to something else.  

Part of the reason many of us paid more attention to other issues over these years was because preserving the status quo can feel unexciting, even monotonous. When I used to take kids to lobbying with the Religious Action Center it was always so much more fun to march into the office of a congressperson who didn’t agree with our position and try to change their minds than to write a heartfelt thank you to someone who already did. When the latter happened, I always thought, “I drove four hours to Washington when a simple thank you card would have sufficed.”  

What I didn’t realize at the time, and what Roe v Wade taught me, is that you often have to push harder to keep things stable in part because your status quo is the other side’s fight. To return to the story we began with, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah weren’t stewing in anger after God’s ruling, but their male contemporaries certainly were.  

In evolutionary biology this phenomenon has a name. It’s called the Red Queen Hypothesis and it’s named after a famous scene in Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking Glass, his sequel to Alice in Wonderland. There, Alice meets the Red Queen. As they begin running, Alice notes her surprise that she’s growing tired from running but going nowhere:  

 

"Well, in our country," said Alice, still panting a little, "you'd generally get to somewhere else—if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing." 

 

"A slow sort of country!" said the Queen. "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" 

This short scene was taken by evolutionary biologists Leigh Van Valen in 1973, to explain the idea species go extinct if they stop evolving. Since predator and prey are always trying to get an edge on one another their only way to stay in the same place is to keep changing. Standing still actually means going backward. Running forward keeps you in the same place, evolutionarily speaking. And only radical leaps forward, like humanity's growth in brain size or bipedal locomotion, actually puts one at an advantage.  

Although it’s not used in politics, I feel like the Red Queen Hypothesis is just as applicable. Most of the time, if we want things to stay the same we have to run fast. If we take our attention away from those things that matter to us, we will go backward. It may be exhausting but we can never stop moving.  

I worry that as it relates to Roe v Wade, our collective mistake was that we stopped running. 

And I worry, that if I don’t take to heart what I’ve learned here, some other hard-fought battles that also feel settled will go the same way. 

There is little questions LGBTQ rights could be next. Although I got to New Jersey well after same sex marriage became legal in 2013, I’ve heard stories about how galvanized the TNT community was about it. Cantor Greenberg has told me with pride what it meant to her to travel down to Trenton, often multiple times a month, to lobby and give testimony. We were the daughters of Zelophehad, marching into the halls of power and demanding change. We were organized, thoughtful, passionate. And then we won. 

And although we have had no shortage of LBGTQ themed events, services, and speakers, whenever I have been in a room brainstorming about what issues we should add to our social justice agenda, which topics need our finger on the scale in order to effect change, no one has suggested getting involved in LGBTQ advocacy. It feels like a finished fight.  

But like reproductive rights, it is not. After Roe v Wade fell, many in this country made it clear that their next battle would be walking back wins by the LGBTQ community. And I promise, they are organizing with the fervor and passion that we did a decade ago.  

The same is true for countless other issues. Whether it’s voting rights, which seemed settled in the 1960s or the clean air act of the 1970s, or even Holocaust education which is mandated in school but enforced less today than when it first passed, there are plenty of examples of times where it is at our peril to stand still.  

Even segregation is beginning to creep back in. In recent years, New Jersey has quietly found itself with the 6th most segregated schools in the nation. In 1989, 4.8% of schools were considered highly segregated meaning 90% white or conversely 90% non-white. By 2010 that number was 8%. Now some estimates put it upwards of 20%. In some locales this change is an accident of demographic changes but in others it is a product of deliberate decisions on the part of the leadership to split towns into smaller units keeping their locales as homogeneous as possible.  

It is easy for long past advances to slip away. But I want to suggest a few tools to protect those things that matter most to you, whatever they are. If we are deliberate in our actions, we won’t lose sight today of how to protect the status quo. 

First, if there is an issue that matters to you and you do not want to see it change, you have to find a way to keep it fresh in the minds of others. There is something fun about being involved in change. Marches, rallies, phone banking are galvanizing. So why not keep doing them even after achieving your goal. But now instead of marches and rallies being about what you want to win, they become reminders of what it might mean to lose your gains. 

RED QUEENS JUSTICE

Ecuadorian tribunal deems arrest of former Vice President Glas illegal

But the three-member panel also upheld his ongoing imprisonment, arguing it could not ‘modify’ his sentence.

Francisco Hidalgo, who submitted a writ of habeas corpus on Jorge Glas's behalf, celebrates the tribunal's ruling on April 12

 [Karen Toro/Reuters]

Published On 13 Apr 2024

The defence team for former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas has hailed a decision declaring his arrest inside Mexico’s embassy in Quito illegal.

Still, on Friday, lawyer Sonia Vera Garcia pledged to appeal the ruling, which upheld her client’s continued detention.

Latin American countries condemn Ecuador raid on Mexico embassy

Mexico releases footage of Ecuador police storming its embassy in Quito

Mexico cuts ties with Ecuador after police raid embassy

“We thank the international community,” she wrote on the social media platform X. “Its support led to the detention being declared arbitrary, a step forward.”

“However, Jorge remains detained. We will appeal until we achieve his freedom.”

The ruling comes after Francisco Hidalgo — a member of Glas’s left-wing political party, Citizen Revolution — submitted a writ of habeas corpus earlier this week on the former vice president’s behalf, arguing he had been unlawfully detained.Protesters call for the release of former Vice President Jorge Glas in Quito, Ecuador, on April 12 [Karen Toro/Reuters]

Glas’s arrest had been the subject of ongoing international tensions. On April 5, Ecuadorian police stormed the Mexican embassy, scaling its fence and pointing a gun at a top diplomat who sought to bar their entrance.

In its ruling on Friday, a three-member tribunal in Ecuador found that the arrest on embassy grounds had indeed been “illegal and arbitrary”.

Judge Monica Heredia wrote that “without authorisation from the head of the Foreign Ministry and political affairs at the Mexican embassy in Ecuador, the detention became illegal”.

International law protects embassies and consulates from the interference of local law enforcement. This “rule of inviolability” theoretically allows diplomats to conduct sensitive work without fear of reprisal from their host country.

But embattled public figures like Glas have also turned to embassies to seek temporary refuge from arrest, knowing that local police are not supposed to enter without permission.

Glas was twice convicted on corruption-related charges. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2017 and eight years in 2020.

In the hours before his arrest, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry announced it had granted political asylum to Glas, who had been sheltering in its embassy in Quito since December.

Demonstrators show support for former Vice President Jorge Glas on April 12

 [Karen Toro/Reuters]

But the embassy raid ignited a full-blown spat between Mexico and Ecuador.

In its wake, Mexico severed diplomatic ties and recalled its embassy staff from Ecuador. Countries around Latin America, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS), have also denounced the police raid.

But the government of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has sought to defend the raid as authorised by executive decree.

In addition, it argued that Glas should not be eligible for political asylum, as his convictions were not the result of persecution.

But the three-member tribunal on Friday said the government’s defence of the raid “lacks legal basis”.

Still, while the tribunal ruled that the arrest itself was illegal, it decided Glas should remain behind bars, given his prior convictions.

“This tribunal cannot modify the sentence,” Judge Heredia said.

Glas is currently serving his prison term in Guayaquil, where he is conducting a hunger strike in protest. He was hospitalised earlier this week.

On Thursday, Mexico filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice to expel Ecuador from the United Nations over the embassy raid — at least until the country delivers a formal apology for its violations of international law.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Israel says it’s boosting Gaza aid, but UN says little has changed

Louisa Loveluck, Claire Parker and Loveday Morris | The Washington Post


HUMANITARIAN AID: Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip pass through the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel in March, 2024. 

Heidi Levine for The Washington Post

JERUSALEM - In the week since President Biden warned Israel to swiftly address civilian suffering in Gaza - or risk future U.S. support - Israeli officials have touted what they say is a record number of aid trucks entering the territory, one of several new measures that the government maintains will help alleviate the crisis.

But according to U.N. and other aid officials, as well as relief workers inside Gaza, little has actually changed on the ground - and aid access remains as complicated and risky as ever, even as much of the population hurtles toward famine.

Despite Israel’s emphasis on truck numbers - it says more than 1,200 trucks have crossed into Gaza over the last three days - the volume of aid hasn’t significantly increased, nor is it reaching those most in need. The government’s most concrete promises of reopening a crossing in northern Gaza, bringing bakeries back online and establishing clear channels to coordinate with aid workers also have yet to yield results.

‘Under pressure’

“The proof in the pudding will be when it actually happens beyond words,” Jamie McGoldrick, the interim U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said of the steps Israel pledged to take. “They are under pressure to deliver something.”

Biden’s ultimatum to Israel last week, delivered in a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was spurred by the killing of seven World Central Kitchen workers by Israeli forces April 1, a reminder of the perilous environment in which relief agencies operate.

Six months into the conflict, which began when Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in Israel and took 253 others hostage Oct. 7, the stakes for getting more food, medicine and other relief to Palestinians are those of life and death. More than 33,500 people have already been killed and over 76,000 injured, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the casualties are women and children.

Ninety-five percent of the population of 2.2 million is estimated to be experiencing crisis levels of hunger, and health authorities say at least 32 people had died of malnutrition or dehydration by early April. In northern Gaza, which the Israeli military has isolated from the rest of the enclave, famine may already be underway, the world’s leading body on food crises said last month.

Israeli officials have said they don’t want responsibility for Gaza and want to focus instead on the military campaign to eliminate Hamas. But growing U.S. pressure on Netanyahu to halt the worsening calamity prompted the prime minister to change course, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the high-level decision-making.

‘Concrete tangible steps’

The White House last week said it would be watching for Israel to take “concrete, tangible steps” to significantly improve humanitarian access, with Biden describing the crisis in Gaza as “unacceptable.”

In response, McGoldrick’s office said Saturday, Israel committed to reopening the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza, restarting about 20 bakeries and repairing a major water line.

By Thursday, aid officials said, those plans had been discussed but were mostly not nearing fruition. Appearing to reverse course on opening Erez, which was heavily damaged in the Oct. 7 attack and only ever designed for foot passengers, Israel announced instead that it was building a new crossing to bring aid to the north.

This will help “gradually” boost the number of trucks entering Gaza overall to around 500 per day, said Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman. That is the same number that sustained the enclave before the war, though swaths of Gaza’s agricultural land and farming capacity have been wiped out since then.

It was unclear when the new crossing would be built.

“Israel is surging aid into Gaza, with over 1200 trucks entering in 3 days (avg 400/day),” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) posted Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.

‘Not doing their jobs’

The agency, a branch of the Israeli military that coordinates aid in Gaza, was promoting the rising number of trucks that it says it inspects each day to enter the enclave’s border crossings. It blames the delays in aid distribution on the United Nations and other international agencies operating in Gaza. Israel has cited photographs of crateloads of aid apparently waiting to be distributed as evidence that humanitarian groups are not doing their jobs.

But the United Nations records only the trucks that physically enter Gaza in its database, and UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, tallied a lower figure for the same three-day period this week, at an average of 168 humanitarian trucks each day through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in the south.

Relief workers say Israeli regulations around access to the crossings mean they do not often have permission to reach the supplies that await them. COGAT did not respond to requests for comment on how it was addressing the obstacles cited by aid groups.

“It does not mean we have unfettered access to collect it,” an aid worker engaged in operations at the crossing said, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue. “Sometimes we only get partial access in the afternoon. Sometimes we only get a stab to collect the bulk of the aid in the morning. Sometimes, if there is fog or poor visibility in the corridor, we do not get access at all.”

At the same time, the inspection process remains onerous and opaque, officials say, and agencies often don’t know what type of aid they’re picking up until they reach the Gaza side of the terminal.

‘No visibility’

“Let’s say UNICEF has 10 trucks of medicine, 10 trucks of nutrition treatments. Once they’re in screening, we lose visibility,” said Tess Ingram, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children’s agency. “When we get to the receiving end, there might be one truck of medicine and one truck of nutrition, and then the next day maybe three trucks of something. It’s very difficult for us to plan on the other end because we have no visibility of what’s going to be spat out when.”

Trucks that enter Gaza from Egypt are sometimes only half-filled or have a smaller capacity than those used by the United Nations to collect and distribute aid - another reason the figures collected by aid groups and Israel’s military are often different.

“They might send in 300-plus trucks in a day, but we can’t get 300-plus trucks processed and out,” McGoldrick said.

Then aid groups must coordinate with the Israeli military for safe access to areas where civilians are most in need.

Food convoys traveling north are three times more likely to be denied permissions by Israel than any other humanitarian convoy, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian office, said in a briefing Tuesday.

“When you put up statistics with numbers of truck going in saying, ‘Look at all these hundreds of trucks coming in,’ and you put it against how few trucks have actually moved around - well, it’s kind of an own goal, isn’t it?” he said. “Half of the convoys that we were trying to send to the north with food were denied by the very same Israeli authorities.”

McGoldrick said he was due to meet with representatives of the Israeli military’s Southern Command on Wednesday to discuss the establishment of a coordination cell that can deconflict movements of humanitarians on the battlefield and avoid further tragedies like the deaths of the WCK workers - one of Israel’s promises in the wake of the Biden call.

“We need a system that works,” McGoldrick said.

But 10 days after the WCK strike, aid workers themselves still fear being targeted. Around 200 relief workers have been killed in Gaza over the past six months.

UNICEF said one of its convoys was awaiting entry to northern Gaza on Tuesday when it was hit by gunfire that appeared to have originated from Israeli forces.

The convoy was carrying 10,000 liters of fuel to power water and sanitation points, as well as nutrition and medical supplies intended for Kamal Adwan Hospital, which has reported that children there are dying of malnutrition and dehydration.

The agency’s armored car was hit three times as the group waited at a designated U.N. holding point along a route coordinated with Israeli forces, said Ingram, who was traveling with the convoy.

“We got three bullets in our car - two on my passenger door and one on the bonnet,” Ingram said.

After the shooting stopped, the group communicated what had happened to Israeli forces via UNRWA security personnel, she said. The Israeli military did not respond for request for comment about the incident.

“It’s clear that eight days after the World Central Kitchen tragedy, measures weren’t in place to prevent something like this from happening,” Ingram said.

Haiti sets up transitional council to choose next PM in bid to quell crisis

BONAPARTISM NOT DEMOCRACY

By Evens Sanon And Dánica Coto 

 The Associated Press
Posted April 12, 2024 

Haiti crisis: Surge in gang violence, food insecurity envelopes nation – Mar 29, 2024

A transitional council tasked with choosing Haiti’s next prime minister and Cabinet was established Friday in a move supporters hope will help quell turmoil in the troubled Caribbean country where most of the capital remains under the grip of criminal gangs.

The formation of the council, announced in a decree published Friday in a Haitian government gazette, was expected to soon trigger the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, but a new provision said he would step down when a new premier is chosen. Henry did not immediately comment.

Those awarded a seat on the council are Petit Desalin, a party led by former senator and presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moïse; EDE/RED, a party led by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph; the Montana Accord, a group of civil society leaders, political parties and others; Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide; the Jan. 30 Collective, which represents parties including that of former President Michel Martelly; and the private sector.

The two non-voting seats are represented by someone from Haiti’s civil society and its religious sector.

“The establishment of the…politically inclusive council signals the possibility of a new beginning for Haiti,” a Caribbean trade bloc known as Caricom, who helped form the council, said in a statement.

It said that the council “will take the troubled country through elections to the restoration of the lapsed state institutions and constitutional government.”

“It is also clear that one of the first priorities of the newly installed Presidential Council will be to urgently address the security situation so that Haitians can go about their daily lives in a normal manner; safely access food, water and medical services; children can return to school; women can move around without fear of horrific abuses; and so that businesses can reopen,” Caricom said.

The published decree acknowledged what it called “a multidimensional crisis” that has worsened since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. It said the crisis has led to a “catastrophic humanitarian situation” and that Haiti is experiencing “unprecedented institutional dysfunction, which has led to a political impasse.”
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It also noted that Henry would present his resignation once a new prime minister is appointed.

The decree, which was signed by Henry and his Cabinet, noted that no one can be a member of the council if they have been sanctioned by the U.N., oppose the deployment of a foreign armed force or plan to run in the next general election, among other conditions.

While an election date hasn’t been set, the decree stated that the president-elect must be sworn-in on Feb. 7, 2026 at the latest, and that the council will exercise presidential powers until then.

2:06 Haiti crisis: Canada begins airlift evacuations

The council also will be responsible for helping set the agenda of a new Cabinet and will appoint members to form a provisional electoral council, which is needed before elections are held. It also will establish a national security council whose responsibilities have not been decided.

The decree does not set any deadlines for choosing a new prime minister or Cabinet, stating only that the council must “quickly” do so.

The council will be based at the National Palace, and its mandate is supposed to end when a new president is sworn-in, with no possibility of extension.

The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti posted on X that it would continue to closely follow the political process as it called for international support for Haiti’s National Police, saying it is “essential to restore security and the rule of law.”

“We reaffirm our commitment to supporting the country’s institutions in their efforts to restore democratic institutions,” María Isabel Salvador, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, said in a statement.

1:00 Canadian military’s elite counter-terrorism unit deployed to Haiti

The council’s creation comes exactly a month and one day after Caribbean leaders announced plans to help form the nine-member panel, with seven members awarded voting powers.

Friday’s development was cheered by those who believe the council could help steer Haiti in a new direction and help quell widespread gang violence that has paralyzed swaths of the capital of Port-au-Prince for more than a month.

More than 1,550 people have been killed across Haiti and more than 820 injured from January to March 22, according to the U.N.
While gangs have long operated throughout Haiti, gunmen organized large-scale attacks starting Feb. 29. They burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed and raided the country’s two biggest prisons, freeing more than 4,000 inmates.

The attacks were meant to prevent the return of Henry to Haiti. At the time, he was in Kenya pushing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country. He remains locked out of Haiti.

While the violence has somewhat subsided, gangs are still launching attacks throughout Port-au-Prince, especially in the downtown area, where they have seized control of Haiti’s biggest public hospital.

18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Marx 1852

Marxists Internet Archive

https://www.marxists.org › archive › marx › works › 18t...

Marx wrote The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon between December 1851 and March 1852. The "Eighteenth Brumaire" refers to November 9, 1799 in the French ...

‎Chapter I · ‎Preface · ‎Chapter IV · ‎Chapter V

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Eighteenth_Brum...

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon is an essay written by Karl Marx between December 1851 and March 1852, and originally published in 1852 in Die ...

‎Significance · ‎Contents of the book · ‎First as tragedy, then as farce