On Portland's streets: Anger, fear, and a fence that divides


By MIKE BALSAMO and GILLIAN FLACCUS

PHOTO ESSAY




PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The party at the Salmon Street Springs fountain, a riverfront landmark in the heart of Portland, was just getting started.

Dozens of drummers beat out entrancing rhythms and a crowd of hundreds danced joyfully as the setting sun cast a soft pink glow on distant Mount Hood. Poster boards bearing the names of dozens of Black men and women killed by police stirred in a gentle breeze as the energy built to fever pitch and more and more people poured into the square.

Suddenly, 10-year-old Xavier Minor jumped into the center of the circle and started dancing with abandon. The emcee took note.

“Yo, Black kids are the future! Black kids are the future!” he shouted, until a beaming Xavier finally stepped out and into his father’s proud embrace.

A few minutes later, as night fell, the music stopped — and the march to the federal courthouse began.

Xavier Minor, 10; his mother, Barbie Minor; Kali Minor, 14; and father, Kamon Minor, from left, participate in a protest in Portland, Ore., Friday evening, July 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)

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Two blocks west and one block south, the several dozen federal law enforcement agents guarding the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse could hear the protesters coming.

Under orders to protect the courthouse — federal property that has been increasingly targeted as the city’s protests against racial injustice march on — the agents were accustomed to the drill. But tonight, the crowd was huge, estimated at 4,000 people at its peak and the largest they had seen.

A top commander with the U.S. Marshals Service peered out a window facing the Willamette River and watched the sea of humanity sweep toward him. It was going to be another long night.

The courthouse, a stately building with large windows and a white marble interior, looked like a feudal castle under siege. The outside was boarded up with thick plywood; narrow slits at the top of the plywood, accessed by a mechanized scaffolding, gave the agents inside a view of the crowd and an opening through which to fire pepper balls.

A federal officer holds a tear gas rifle during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse early Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

As protesters gather behind a fence, federal officers work to maintain a perimeter in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)


A federal officer stands in front of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse during a Black Lives Matter protest Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

The terrace outside the front door was littered with garbage, the steps leading to the courthouse splattered with paint. A mixture of anti-police and Black Lives Matter graffiti covered the building’s outer walls and columns to a height of about 10 feet (3 meters).

Tear gas from the previous nights’ protests still hung in the air and coated the floor with a slime that had been hurriedly mopped up by custodians earlier that day. A few sickly looking potted plants still decorated the lobby, a reminder of a time before the courthouse was a battlefield.

In the no-mans-land outside stood the fence: A thick, black iron installation, erected six days before, a dividing line between protester and protector, a stark separation between two radically different world views.

To the protesters, the men inside the battened down courthouse are at best thoughtless political minions, at worst murderous henchmen. To the agents inside, the demonstrators that pack the downtown each night are violent anarchists, an angry sea of humanity bent on hurting — or even killing — federal agents doing their job.

“It’s scary. You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and ... on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent,” said a Deputy U.S. Marshal who has been protecting the courthouse for weeks. He requested anonymity because protesters have identified him and posted his personal information online.

“I can’t walk outside without being in fear for my life,” he said. “I am worried for my life, every time I walk outside of the building.”




The fence protecting a federal courthouse in Portland is a dividing line between radically different world views. The demonstrators outside and the federal agents inside traverse the same mayhem but their experiences could not be more different. (July 27)

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This weekend, journalists for the Associated Press were both outside, with the protesters, and inside the courthouse, with the federal agents, documenting the chaotic fight that has become an unlikely centerpiece of the protest movement gripping America.

The nation is seething with anxiety and deeply divided about the role of police, the value of Black lives and the limits of federal authority in an election season like none other. In Portland, on a single city block owned by the U.S. government, that anxiety has turned to turmoil.

Is this the beginning of the United States transforming into a military state, where federal agents flood the streets and overrule local authorities? Or is it a battle to keep the violence in Portland from becoming the new America, a frightening vision painted by President Donald Trump of what the future will hold without his leadership?

Fear and uncertainty about the answers to those questions have exploded in Portland in a surreal armed conflict that plays out every night.

The chaos in Portland spread this weekend to other cities, from Oakland to Aurora, Colorado, to Richmond, Virginia as the nation reels under its division.





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At 10:15 p.m. in Portland, the protesters made their first foray into conflict: A man tried to climb the fence and was quickly arrested.

Thirty minutes later, the fence rocked and leaned sharply as dozens of protesters pressed their weight against it, some of them throwing their bodies against it at a running start. The fence, designed to absorb the impact from a car going up to 30 mph (48 kph), undulated like a wave and tilted dangerously before springing back.

Behind the front lines, the drummers that had whipped demonstrators up at the fountain regrouped and led the crowd in dancing and chanting.

Monica Arce gyrated to the music and waved her cell phone flashlight in the air with hundreds of others. The professional midwife had left her 14-year-old son at home and joined her sister-in-law, a teacher, to protest the presence of the federal agents and to support Black Lives Matter.

“We are not here being violent or being destructive. We have a positive message — there is nothing to quell here,” she said, referencing Trump’s statement that the agents were there to quell unrest. “The people of Portland are saying, ‘We don’t want this presence here and we don’t think we need them at all.’”

As she spoke, small pods of three to four protesters dressed in black circulated in the crowd, stopping every few minutes to point green laser beams in the eyes of agents posted as lookouts on porticoes on the courthouse’s upper stories. The agents above were silhouetted against the dark sky as dozens of green laser dots and a large spotlight played on the courthouse walls, projected from the back of the crowd.

Thirty minutes later, someone fired a commercial-grade firework inside the fence. Next came a flare and then protesters began using an angle grinder to eat away at the fence. A barrage of items came whizzing into the courthouse: rocks, cans of beans, water bottles, potatoes and rubber bouncy balls that cause the agents to slip and fall.

Within minutes, the federal agents at the fence perimeter fired the first tear gas of the night.

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Green lines cast by protesters' laser pointers cross the darkened lobby of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse as federal officers wait for a possible skirmish with demonstrators Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Inside the courthouse, it was dark, pitch dark except for one narrow ceiling bulb that cast a cone of light over the stairs.

Without lights, the agents hoped they would be better protected from people in the crowd who were firing metal ball bearings through the windows with sling shots. Thick ribbons of green light from blinding lasers crisscrossed the courthouse lobby, forcing the agents who were resting in between deployments to the fence to duck and weave to protect their eyes.

Agents on scaffolding fired pepper balls through the window slits at the crowd while others sat quietly on marble benches in the lobby, alone or in small groups, and waited for their turn at the fence.

No one talked much over the whir of the industrial fans set up to blow the tear gas back outside. The men who weren’t on the front line sat with helmets in their laps but left their gas masks on so they could breathe, the air still thick with chemical irritants.

Every few minutes, a huge boom from a commercial-grade firework tossed over the fence caused the walls to rattle; the crowd outside cheered as explosions of red, white and green flashed against a thick curtain of yellowish tear gas.

A basket contains objects hurled at federal officers guarding the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse by protesters, Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A federal officer, left, monitors security camera feeds while helping to keep protesters away from the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The Federal Protective Service, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were tired and frustrated. They didn’t want to confront the crowd; they just wanted to go home. For weeks, the chaos at the courthouse had flipped their sleep schedules, turned their family lives upside down and left them scared each night that they would be hit by a firework or flare or blinded by a laser. Many were sent from out of town to reinforce the local agents — some are members of an elite Border Patrol tactical team sent in as reinforcements. But others were already stationed there and said they had chosen to live in the Portland area and call it home.

“You see a lot of commentary on social media about, ‘Well, they’re wearing protective gear so that it’s not going to hurt them.’ Okay, I’ll put the same protective gear on you and I’ll throw a brick at your head and you tell me if you feel comfortable with that,” said a senior U.S. Marshals Service official who’s overseeing the response in Portland.

“They can put out 10 seconds of something (on social media) that unfolded over several minutes, and those are the 10 seconds that look bad for us, whereas the rest of it would look bad for everybody,” he said, speaking of the protesters. “They use what serves their narrative.”





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Outside, a young woman with long blond hair wearing a halter top and jeans who had been gassed threw up in the gutter.

The tear gas pushed back the people assailing the fence and throwing fireworks at agents, but tendrils of acrid smoke also seeped deep into a park across from the courthouse.

The vapors, indiscriminate, hit a man biking past, a middle school teacher, a musician, a volunteer medic and dozens of others who’d been far back in the protest crowd dancing to the drums and chanting.

“I think what people fail to realize is, us in Portland, we’re still playing defense so anything we do, it’s a defensive maneuver. We are protecting ourselves at the very most and each other,” said Eli Deschera, 21.

“I think that using chemical warfare on civilians is anything but protecting and serving, which is what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Deschera, of Portland.

One of the people at the very front of the fence was Travis Rogers. The former U.S. Air Force veteran recently quit his job as a Medicaid case manager, in part because he would have been fired anyway if he got arrested.

Demonstrators march during a Black Lives Matter protest Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

On this night, Rogers wore a helmet and carried a blue shield made out of the side of a plastic barrel. Like most days, he spent most of the protest trying to take down the fence and screaming at the federal agents guarding it, asking them to explore their conscience.

After six years working for the military, Rogers said he felt better equipped than many to find talking points that might make the agents think about their mission more critically.

“I think it is a good idea to try to plant some seeds in their heads for ... them to go home and sleep on. These are people’s kids and mothers and wives and daughters that they’re gassing and they’re going to have to go home to THEIR mothers and wives and daughters,” said Rogers, as explosive booms echoed around him. “I try to encourage them to think about the fact that they’re on the wrong side of history and that they will not be treated so kindly.”

But anything Rogers said was lost in the thunderous noise, the booms of fireworks and tear gas canisters whisking his words away into the chaos of the night.

Federal officers move toward demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse early Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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The firework came whizzing over the fence so fast that the agent didn’t have time to move.

It exploded with a boom, leaving his hearing deadened and bloody gashes on both forearms. Stunned, with help from his cohorts, he stripped to his boxer shorts and a black T-shirt so his wounds could be examined and photographed for evidence.

He told his fellow agents he was more worried about his hearing than about the gouges and burns on his arms.

By the end of the night, five other federal agents would be injured, including another who got a concussion when he was hit in the head with a commercial-grade firework. One agent was hospitalized. Several agents have lingering vision problems from the lasers.

After each night of protest, they seize dozens of homemade shields, slingshots, blocks of wood and chunks of concrete.

“My friends have been hit in the head with hammers. I know people who have been shot with fireworks. It’s disgusting,” said the Deputy U.S. Marshal who’s been at the courthouse for weeks. “I’ve never thought I’d have to walk around in my office building wearing a gas mask to go sit in front of my computer.”

Federal officers prepare for a possible skirmish with protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse early Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)



A federal officer displays wounds for a law enforcement photographer to document after a skirmish with protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse early Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

After a night of facing off against protesters, a deputy U.S. marshal takes a break on a rooftop terrace at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Sunday morning, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)


A federal officer waits to be called up to assist in handling protesters in the darkened lobby of the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Friday, July 24, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

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Outside, hundreds of protesters surged back from the courthouse with each new round of tear gas, dumped saline solution and water into their stinging eyes, vomited or doubled over to catch their breath, then regrouped to march back to the fence.

“Stay together, stay tight! We do this every night!” they chanted.

The protesters’ numbers, however, were half what they had been just a few hours before. Tear gas seeped in even around the edges of the gas masks many of the remaining protesters, journalists and legal observers wore. Paper and fabric masks that most people wore to protect from the coronavirus got soaked in gas from the air, causing the fabric to burn the skin. Even an apple one protester ate as a midnight snack tasted “spicy” because of the chemicals coating its skin.

“I was just standing right on the corner ... listening to the music and kind of didn’t even see it coming. I mean, there wasn’t any announcement or anything like that,” said middle school teacher Azure Akamay, who was coughing so hard from tear gas that she could barely speak. “By the time I just got to this corner here, I basically couldn’t see.”

In the very front, those with gas masks formed a wall against the tear gas and pepper balls with shields and umbrellas. Protesters who began wielding leaf blowers to push the gas back on the federal agents several days ago found that now the agents, too, had leaf blowers.

Kennedy Verrett, a composer and music teacher, had been teargassed twice and was ready to go home. He had to be up early the next day to teach piano lessons but planned to be back for again another night.

“When you are sent to protect property ....” he said of the agents, trailing off. “My ancestors were once property. No one protected them. Tear gas is nothing when you have lived in America as a Black man for 40 years.”

Somewhere, a bell tower chimed midnight — even though it was 12:38 a.m. — and a trumpet plaintively played the taps as munitions whizzed through the air.

The whole world seemed upside-down.

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Federal officers advance on protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse on Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

It was 2:30 a.m. A large bonfire was burning in front of the courthouse. Protesters were nose-to-nose with federal agents at the fence. A woman with a megaphone screamed obscenities through the wire.

Tear gas canisters bounced and rolled in the street, their payload fizzing out into the air before protesters picked them up and hurled them back over the fence at the agents, who held their ground.

A woman weaved through the crowd of the few hundred people who remained and told someone on the phone, “We’ve reached some kind of stand-off, I think.”

When the federal agents finally came, they came with force. A line of agents marched in lock step down Third Street, pushing the crowd in front of them with tear gas and pepper balls. People scattered and small groups roamed the downtown as tear gas choked the air.

In less than two hours, it would be daylight.

“I finally get outside at 7 a.m., after being in the building since 3 p.m. the day prior, and I look east and I’m like, ’Oh, the world’s normal over there and people are driving to work and the city is clean and functioning,” said the Deputy U.S. Marshal. “And I look out on the street and it looks like downtown Baghdad.”

The battle over, the agents and the demonstrators gathered their things and headed to bed, protesters and protectors sleeping in the same city — perhaps even on the same street — resting up for the next night’s fight.

For at nightfall, it would all begin again.

A protester carries an umbrella as federal police officers deploy tear gas during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse early Saturday, July 25, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

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Balsamo reported from inside the courthouse with the federal agents; Flaccus reported from outside with the protesters. Associated Press writer Sara Cline in Salem, Oregon; Associated Press photographers Noah Berger and Marcio Sanchez in Portland, Oregon; and Associated Press video journalist Aron Ranen in Portland, Oregon all contributed to this report.

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at @gflaccus and Mike Balsamo at @MikeBalsamo1.

MORE PHOTOS HERE

https://apnews.com/1dd1bb39093a3691f4e78093787ab877

WAIT WHAT?

US Attorney: Feds will stay in Portland until attacks end

IT'S THE FEDS CAUSING THE VIOLENCE, 

AND ENCOURAGING IT

THEY ARE RIOT COPS CREATING A RIOT


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A demonstrator shouts slogans using a bullhorn next to a group of military veterans during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse Sunday, July 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)


DISARM, DEMILITARIZE, DEFUND

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal militarized officers will remain in Portland until attacks on the U.S. courthouse cease, a top official said Monday after a night of violence. And more officers may soon be on the way.

“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel. We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams told a telephonic news conference.

Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome. The mayor of Portland and five other cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized federal agents to cities that don’t want them.

“This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City Albuquerque and Washington D.C. wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.

The mayors want Congress to require consultation with and consent from local authorities before federal deployments; require visible identification at all times on federal agents and vehicles unless on an undercover mission authorized by the local U.S. attorney; and limit federal agents’ activities to protecting federal property.




The city has had nightly protests for two months since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.
Full Coverage: Racial injustice

Trump’s deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend fanned the flames of the Black Lives Matter protest movement here. The number of protesters had dwindled to perhaps less than 100 right before the deployment, and now has swelled to the thousands.

Early Monday, U.S. agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.

Trump said Monday on Twitter that the federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.

The majority of those participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But a few protesters have been pelting officers with objects and trying to tear down fencing protecting the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.


At a press conference with two other federal officials, Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to not allow violence to occur in their presence and leave downtown before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.

Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were marred by violence over the weekend. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.

The U.S. Marshals Service has lined up about 100 people they could send, either to strengthen the forces there or relieve officers who have been working for weeks, agency spokesperson Drew Wade said.

Kris Cline, principal deputy director of the Federal Protective Service, told the news conference that an incident commander discusses with Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice teams at the courthouse what force requirements are needed every night.

Cline refused to discuss the number of officers that are currently present or if more are arriving.

Some protesters have accused Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler of hypocrisy for speaking out against the federal presence because, under his watch, Portland police have used tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.

Cline said Portland police should take over from the federal officers the job of dispersing protesters from the courthouse area.

“If the Portland Police Bureau were able to do what they typically do, they would be able to clear this out for this disturbance and we would leave our officers inside the building and not be visible,” Cline said.

He said relations between the federal officers, some of whom live in Portland, and Portland police were good, but told reporters he was surprised when the police would not help remove protesters who were blocking an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in 2018.

Sunday evening, Portland police responded to a shooting at a park close to the site of the overnight protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said Monday morning. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.

Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said. It was not clear whether the shooting or the material found in the bag was connected to the protests.

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Associated Press writer Mike Balsamo contributed to this report from Washington. Selsky reported from Salem, Oregon.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

Virus-linked hunger tied to 10,000 child deaths each month


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One-month old Haboue Solange Boue, awaiting medical care for severe malnutrition, is held by her mother, Danssanin Lanizou, 30, at the feeding center of the main hospital in the town of Hounde, Tuy Province, in southwestern Burkina Faso on Thursday, June 11, 2020. With the markets closed because of coronavirus restrictions, her family sold fewer vegetables. Lanizou is too malnourished to nurse her. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

HOUNDE, Burkina Faso (AP) — The lean season is coming for Burkina Faso’s children. And this time, the long wait for the harvest is bringing a hunger more ferocious than most have ever known.

That hunger is already stalking Haboue Solange Boue, an infant who has lost half her former body weight of 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms) in the last month. With the markets closed because of coronavirus restrictions, her family sold fewer vegetables. Her mother is too malnourished to nurse her.

“My child,” Danssanin Lanizou whispers, choking back tears as she unwraps a blanket to reveal her baby’s protruding ribs. The infant whimpers soundlessly.

All around the world, the coronavirus and its restrictions are pushing already hungry communities over the edge, cutting off meager farms from markets and isolating villages from food and medical aid. Virus-linked hunger is leading to the deaths of 10,000 more children a month over the first year of the pandemic, according to an urgent call to action from the United Nations shared with The Associated Press ahead of its publication in the Lancet medical journal.

Further, more than 550,000 additional children each month are being struck by what is called wasting, according to the U.N. — malnutrition that manifests in spindly limbs and distended bellies. Over a year, that’s up 6.7 million from last year’s total of 47 million. Wasting and stunting can permanently damage children physically and mentally, transforming individual tragedies into a generational catastrophe.

“The food security effects of the COVID crisis are going to reflect many years from now,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, the World Health Organization head of nutrition. “There is going to be a societal effect.”

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This story was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

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In Burkina Faso, for example, one in five young children is chronically malnourished. Food prices have spiked, and 12 million of the country’s 20 million residents don’t get enough to eat.

Lanizou’s husband, Yakouaran Boue, used to sell onions to buy seeds and fertilizer, but then the markets closed. Even now, a 50-kilogram bag of onions sells for a dollar less, which means less seed to plant for next year.

“I’m worried that this year we won’t have enough food to feed her,” he said, staring down at his daughter over his wife’s shoulder. “I’m afraid she’s going to die.”
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From Latin America to South Asia to sub-Saharan Africa, more families than ever are staring down a future without enough food. The analysis published Monday found about 128,000 more young children will die over the first 12 months of the virus.

In April, World Food Program head David Beasley warned that the coronavirus economy would cause global famines “of biblical proportions” this year. There are different stages of what is known as food insecurity; famine is officially declared when, along with other measures, 30% of the population suffers from wasting.

The agency estimated in February that one in every three people in Venezuela was already going hungry, as inflation rendered many salaries nearly worthless and forced millions to flee abroad. Then the virus arrived.

“The parents of the children are without work,” said Annelise Mirabal, who works with a foundation that helps malnourished children in Maracaibo, the city in Venezuela thus far hardest hit by the pandemic. “How are they going to feed their kids?”

Girls push children in a cart near the market in the town of Hounde, Tuy Province, in southwestern Burkina Faso on Thursday, June 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick)

These days, many new patients are the children of migrants who are making long journeys back to Venezuela from Peru, Ecuador or Colombia, where their families became jobless and unable to buy food during the pandemic. Others are the children of migrants who are still abroad and have not been able to send back money for more food.

“Every day we receive a malnourished child,” said Dr. Francisco Nieto, who works in a hospital in the border state of Tachira. He added that they look “like children we haven’t seen in a long time in Venezuela,” alluding to those in famines in parts of Africa.

In May, Nieto recalled, after two months of quarantine in Venezuela, 18-month-old twins arrived at his hospital with bodies bloated from malnutrition. The children’s mother was jobless and living with her own mother. She told the doctor she had only been able to feed them a simple drink made with boiled bananas.

“Not even a cracker? Some chicken?” he asked.

“Nothing,” the children’s grandmother responded.

When doctors tried to treat them, one of the boys developed “refeeding syndrome,” where food can result in metabolic abnormalities. Eight days later, he died.

Nieto said aid groups have provided some relief, but their work has been limited by COVID-19 quarantines. A home set up in Tachira to receive malnourished children after they are released from the hospital is no longer in operation. So now children are sent directly back to their families, many of whom are still unable to feed them properly.

“It’s very frustrating,” Nieto said. “The children get lost.”


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The rise in child deaths worldwide would reverse global progress for the first time in decades. Deaths of children younger than 5 had declined steadily since 1980, to 5.3 million around the world in 2018, according to a UNICEF report. About 45 percent of the deaths were due to undernutrition.

The leaders of four international agencies — the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization — have called for at least $2.4 billion immediately to address hunger. Even more than the money, restrictions on movement need to be eased so that families can seek treatment, said Victor Aguayo, the head of UNICEF’s nutrition program.

“By having schools closed, by having primary health care services disrupted, by having nutritional programs dysfunctional, we are also creating harm,” Aguayo said. He cited as an example the near-global suspension of Vitamin A supplements, which are a crucial way to bolster developing immune systems.

In Afghanistan, restrictions on movement prevent many families from bringing their malnourished children to hospitals for food and aid just when they need it most. The Indira Gandhi hospital in the capital, Kabul, has seen only three or four malnourished children, said specialist Nematullah Amiri.

In this Aug. 26, 2019 photo, mothers hold their babies suffering from malnutrition as they wait at a UNICEF clinic in Jabal Saraj, north of Kabul, Afghanistan.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

“Transportation between Kabul and the provinces was not allowed regularly and also people were afraid of coronavirus,” Amiri explained. Last year, 10 times as many malnourished children filled the ward. The same is true of hospital beds in multiple countries, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Afghanistan is now in a red zone of hunger, with severe childhood malnutrition spiking from 690,000 in January to 780,000 — a 13% increase, according to UNICEF. Food prices have risen by more than 15%, and a recent study by Johns Hopkins University indicated an additional 13,000 Afghans younger than 5 could die.

Four in 10 Afghan children are already stunted. Stunting happens when families live on a cheap diet of grains or potatoes, with supply chains in disarray and money scarce. Most stunted children never catch up, dampening the productivity of poor countries, according to a report released this month by the Chatham House think tank.

In Yemen, restrictions on movement have also blocked the distribution of aid, along with the stalling of salaries and price hikes. The Arab world’s poorest country is suffering further from a fall in remittances and a huge drop in funding from humanitarian agencies.

Yemen is now on the brink of famine, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, which uses surveys, satellite data and weather mapping to pinpoint the places most in need. A UNICEF report predicted that the number of malnourished children could reach 2.4 million by the end of the year, a 20% increase.

Days after 7-month-old baby Issa Ibrahim left a medical center in the impoverished northern district of Hajjah, he succumbed to severe acute malnutrition. His mother found the body on July 7, lifeless and cold.

Fatma Nasser, a 34-year-old mother of seven, is among three million displaced people in Yemen who don’t have enough money to feed themselves or their children. She lives on one meal a day. Ibrahim Nasser, the father, lost his only source of income, fishing, after roads to the sea were closed because of the coronavirus.

The mother’s milk dried up, and the baby lived on formula. But doctors say families tend to use less milk powder to save money, and babies don’t usually get enough nutrition.

“It’s God’s will,” the mother said. “We can say nothing.”

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In this Nov. 25, 2019 file photo, Osmery Vargas, who is malnourished, cries in a hammock as she and her 7-year-old sister Yasmery Vargas wait for their mother to return from begging in the street for money and food in Maracaibo, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Some of the worst hunger still occurs in sub-Saharan Africa. In Sudan, 9.6 million people are living from one meal to the next in acute food insecurity — a 65% increase from the same time last year.

Lockdowns across Sudanese provinces, as around the world, have dried up work and incomes for millions. The global economic downturn has brought supply chains to a standstill, and restrictions on public transport have disrupted agricultural production. With inflation hitting 136%, prices for basic goods have more than tripled.

“It has never been easy but now we are starving, eating grass, weeds, just plants from the earth,” said Ibrahim Youssef, director of the Kalma camp for internally displaced people in war-ravaged south Darfur.

Long before the pandemic hit, Sudan’s economy had plummeted, especially after the oil-rich south seceded in 2011. Decades of economic mismanagement under Omar al-Bashir led to a surge in food prices, and the transitional government now in power has struggled to stop the tailspin.

Natural disasters are making the situation even worse. The country’s production of grain has dropped by 57% compared to last year, largely due to pests and seasonal floods. And swarms of desert locusts have already infested three Sudanese provinces, threatening more losses to farmers.

Internally displaced people in the restive provinces of Darfur, Kassala and Kordofan have been hit hardest, and the poorest say they can barely afford one meal a day.

“I don’t have the basics I need to survive,” said Zakaria Yehia Abdullah, 67, a farmer in the Krinding camp in West Darfur, who hasn’t worked the fields since authorities imposed a partial lockdown in April and local militias escalated attacks. “That means the 10 people counting on me can’t survive either.”

Before the pandemic and lockdown, his family ate three meals a day, sometimes with bread, or they’d add butter to porridge. Now they are down to just one meal, in the morning, of “millet porridge” — water mixed with grain. He said the hunger is showing “in my children’s faces.”

Adam Haroun, a Krinding camp official, recorded nine deaths linked with malnutrition, otherwise a rare occurrence, over the past two months — five newborns and four older adults, he said.

To mitigate the crisis, the government, with support from the World Bank, is rolling out a $1.9 billion cash transfer program to Sudan’s neediest families. But many residents of Sudan’s long-neglected regions remain skeptical that authorities can alleviate their suffering.

“The hunger here is not any normal hunger,” said Adam Gomaa, a local activist in Kabkabiya, North Darfur, who helps run displacement camps in the area.

Back in Burkina Faso, COVID-19 restrictions are also hitting hard, keeping families like that of 14-year-old Nafissetou Niampa from the market. Niampa lay face down on a bed at the Yalgado Ouedraogo University Hospital in the capital, Ouagadougou, fanned by her mother. The teenager has a heart condition that affects her breathing and now is shedding weight as well.

“Before the disease we didn’t have anything,” said Aminata Mande, her mother. “Now with the disease we don’t have anything also.”

Burkina Faso was already facing a growing food crisis, with rising violence linked to militants cutting families off from their farms. With the advent of the coronavirus, the government closed markets, restricted movement and shut down public transport, making it much harder for traders to buy and sell food.

While malnutrition deaths routinely rise during the four-month wait for the next harvest in October, this year is worse than anyone can remember, according to physicians and aid workers. On the World Food Program’s hunger map, nearly all of Burkina Faso is a red zone of need.

Even though the Tuy province produces the most corn in the country, food there is not reaching those who need it most. In Tuy between March and April, the number of underweight newborns increased by 40%, signifying that the mothers were most likely malnourished during pregnancy, said Joseph Ouattara, chief doctor at the hospital in the small town of Hounde.

Child deaths due to malnutrition are also escalating. In a normal year, an average of 19 children die from malnutrition in Tuy. But in the first five and a half months of this year alone, the number of children dying from what appears to be malnutrition is already up to 20 just at the province’s central hospital in the main town of Hounde.

Ernestine Belembongo, a 37-year-old trader with a stand at the Hounde market, was unable to buy or sell food for weeks, so there has been no fish or meat for her five children since March. Her 3-year-old daughter is swiftly losing weight, and even though most of the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, Belembongo still serves her family only grain.

“I’m worried about the lean season,” she said. “I have many kids and no money.”

____

Hinnant reported from Paris. Contributors include Christine Armario in Bogota, Colombia; Fazel Rahman in Kabul, Afghanistan; Issa Mohammed in Al-Hanabiya, Yemen; and Isabel DeBre in Cairo.

Rare leopard frog found beyond its known range in Southwest

FILE - In this April 17, 2008, file photo a threatened Chiricahua leopard frog comes out from hiding in a special tank at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Albuquerque, N.M. A U.S. Forest Service volunteer recently photographed the rare frog in an earthen stock tank near the town of Camp Verde in central Arizona, the agency said Thursday, July 23, 2020. The aquatic frogs were thought to be only in eastern Arizona, western New Mexico and northern Mexico but historically were more widespread. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

A U.S. Forest Service volunteer recently photographed a Chiricahua leopard frog in an earthen stock tank near the town of Camp Verde in central Arizona, the agency said Thursday. Biologists later confirmed that at least 10 of the frogs were living there.

The aquatic frogs were thought to be only in eastern Arizona, western New Mexico and northern Mexico but historically were more widespread. The frogs’ numbers have declined because of habitat loss, disease and predators.

Audrey Owns of the Arizona Game and Fish Department said the frogs could have moved into lower elevations in Camp Verde because they were seeking protected habitat or warmer temperatures that guard them from fungal disease.

FILE - In this April 17, 2008, file photo a pair of threatened Chiricahua leopard frogs in a special tank at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Albuquerque, N.M. The rare frog has been found beyond its known range in the U.S. Southwest. A U.S. Forest Service volunteer recently photographed a Chiricahua leopard frog in an earthen stock tank near the town of Camp Verde in central Arizona, the agency said Thursday, July 23, 2020. The agency says biologists later confirmed that at least 10 of the frogs were living there. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the frogs as threatened in 2002. Part of the recovery efforts have included rearing the frogs in captivity and releasing them into stock tanks. A recovery team also has been supplementing water amid a prolonged drought, removing livestock, deepening stock tanks and controlling erosion.

“Large-scale and varied recovery efforts, such as those carried out in the Fossil Creek watershed, are vitally important since biologists do not know exactly which efforts will be successful, or how frogs will adapt to changes in natural conditions, such as disease and long-term drought,” said Janie Agyagos, a wildlife biologist for the Coconino National Forest’s Red Rock Ranger District.

Biologists plan to visit aquatic areas near Camp Verde to determine the extent of the frogs. The male frogs are distinctive for the sound they make during the breeding season, much like snoring.

Poles split over govt plan to exit domestic violence treaty

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

Members of Poland's women's rights organizations, with obituaries of women who fell victim to violence, protest against plans by the right-wing government to withdraw from Europe's Istanbul Convention on prevention of violence against women and children, in Warsaw, Poland, Friday, July 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poles are bitterly divided over steps being taken by the right-wing government to leave a European treaty against domestic violence, claiming it promotes gender “ideology” and links violence to religion.

Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said Monday he has formally asked the Ministry of Family to start preparations for Poland’s exit from the Istanbul Convention — an initiative of the Council of Europe, the continent’s leading human rights organization. It was not clear when an official withdrawal notice would be filed.

Ziobro, who is head of a small grouping inside the ruling coalition, said he was taking the steps of his own accord and was ready to discuss their timing with other government members.

“It is time to take decisions .... to protect women, children and the family against violence but also time to give no consent to them being demoralized by norms that have been insidiously added to the valid slogans and demands for protection against domestic violence,” Ziobro said on Catholic Radio Maryja.

Ziobro argued that the convention includes provisions of an “ideological character” that his ministry does not agree with. He insisted Poland’s own legislation protects women and children against violence to an even higher degree than the convention.

Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric has said Poland’s intentions to withdraw from the convention are “alarming” and encouraged a “constructive dialogue” to clarify any misunderstandings.

“Leaving the Istanbul Convention would be highly regrettable and a major step backwards in the protection of women against violence in Europe,” Pejcinovic Buric tweeted Sunday.

Also the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe said Monday that Poland’s move toward withdrawal form the convention were “reason for serious concern.”

It said the Istanbul Convention is “widely recognised as the most advanced legally binding treaty to prevent and combat gender-based violence, including marital rape, forced marriages, stalking, female genital mutilations and so-called “honour crimes.”

In Poland, critics expressed outrage on social media, saying the right-wing government of the conservative Law and Justice party was ready to sacrifice women’s safety for its own views based on Roman Catholic traditions.

Warsaw’s liberal mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, runner-up in the recent presidential election, on Monday called attempts to leave to convention a “scandal,” saying that all political forces should work together to fight domestic violence.

Last week, thousands protested the government’s plan in rallies across Poland.

Deputy Justice Minister Michal Wojcik, however, said that while the ministry agreed with the convention on the protection of victims of violence, there was “no consent to ideology” regarding the concept of gender as a social construct.

“There is no third sex, there is only a man and a woman,” Wojcik said.

The deputy spokesman for the ruling party, Radoslaw Fogiel, said on public-service broadcaster Polish Radio 24 that the government was analyzing the convention but had not yet made its final decision regarding the withdrawal.

Poland’s previous, liberal government ratified the convention in 2015, shortly before the current administration took office after winning parliamentary elections on promises including the expanding of social welfare.

The treaty, formally named the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, is based on the premise that women are targeted with violence just because they are women. It states that men and women have equal rights and obliges state authorities to take steps to prevent violence against women, protect victims and prosecute perpetrators.

Another point in the convention that has been questioned by Poland’s government says that “culture, custom, religion, tradition or so-called ‘honor’ shall not be regarded as justification” for acts of violence covered in the treaty. In the government’s interpretation, that amounts to making a link between religion and violence.

The convention, which came into force in 2014, has been signed by 45 European countries and the European Union, but 10 countries — including Britain, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic — and the EU have yet to ratify it.


SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/alarm-at-polands-plan-to-leave-treaty.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/poland-to-quit-treaty-on-violence.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/polish-nationalist-catholic-reaction-4.html

UPDATED
Daisy the St. Bernard recovers from her mountain ordeal
yesterday

Volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team carry 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog, Daisy from England's highest peak, Scafell Pike, Sunday July 26, 2020. The mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing St Bernard dog Daisy, who had collapsed displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move, while descending Scafell Pike. The Wasdale Mountain Rescue team rely on public contributions to their JustGiving.com/wasdalemrt page to fund their mountain safety efforts. (Wasdale Mountain Rescue via AP)


LONDON (AP) — Don’t worry: Daisy — the St. Bernard who reversed mountain rescue conventions — is fine.

The owners of the dog who collapsed while descending England’s tallest mountain says she’s recovering well after a mountain rescue team helped her to safety .

Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy last week — after the 55 kilogram (121 pound) dog collapsed while descending Scafell Pike.

Daisy was displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move, having decided she had had enough. After consulting with a veterinarian’s office, rescuers administered some pain relief and adjusted a stretcher designed for humans to be dog-friendly.

Daisy needed a bit of persuasion and a few treats before settling down with her chin resting on the head guard of the stretcher as she was carried down. Rescue workers said it wasn’t all that different from lending a hand to humans in trouble.

“I think Daisy probably knows, even though she can’t say it, how grateful she is,” owner Su Hall told the BBC. She and her husband Jason praised the work of the rescue team, all of whom are volunteers.

St Bernard dogs were originally bred to help with rescues in the Alps, but rescuers say Daisy proved the perfect casualty as she was hauled down Scafell Pike, which is 978 meters (3,209 feet) above sea level and is located in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria.

“She apparently feels a bit guilty and slightly embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across the Alpine snows with barrels of brandy around their necks,” rescue leader Phil Hall said in his Facebook post on the matter.

Volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team take turns to carry 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog, Daisy from England's highest peak, Scafell Pike, Sunday July 26, 2020. The mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing St Bernard dog Daisy, who had collapsed displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move, while descending Scafell Pike. The Wasdale Mountain Rescue team rely on public contributions to their JustGiving.com/wasdalemrt page to fund their mountain safety efforts. (Wasdale Mountain Rescue via AP)

Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale mountain rescue team take turns to carry 121lb (55kg) St Bernard dog, Daisy from England's highest peak, Scafell Pike, Sunday July 26, 2020. The mountain rescue team spent nearly five hours rescuing St Bernard dog Daisy, who had collapsed displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move, while descending Scafell Pike. The Wasdale Mountain Rescue team rely on public contributions to their JustGiving.com/wasdalemrt page to fund their mountain safety efforts. (Wasdale Mountain Rescue via AP)


St Bernard mountain rescue dog rescued – 
from mountain

‘She feels embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across Alpine snow with barrels of brandy around their necks,’ say team

Jane Dalton @JournoJane

St Bernard dogs have long offered invaluable support in reaching people stranded in precarious mountain emergencies.

So rescuers in Cumbria had a big surprise when they received a call saying one of the breed itself was stuck and needed their help.

Daisy, a St Bernard weighing 8st 9lb (55kg), collapsed while being walked down England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, after showing signs of pain in the legs, and was refusing to move.

Sixteen members of the Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team had to win the dog’s trust by using treats, before they could administer a painkiller – on a vet’s advice – then begin the rescue operation.
St Bernards, known for their size, were originally bred to rescue people in the Italian and Swiss Alps.

The rescue took five hours as the team carried Daisy on a stretcher over obstacles including a waterfall.

The team wrote on Facebook that as members have their own pampered pooches at home they didn’t think twice about swinging into action when they received the call.

“A few different tactics needed to be tried until both Daisy and her stretcher-bearers were all satisfied and progress could be made. It had become quickly apparent that Daisy’s cooperation was going to be essential if we were to make progress as Daisy made sure we knew that if she didn’t want to do something, she wasn’t going to do it,” they wrote.

“However, after a little persuasion and a bit of arranging the stretcher to become dog-friendly and of course plenty more treats, the 55kg Daisy very quickly settled down with her chin resting on the head guard, having realised that we were trying to help her.”

The rescue then was not very different from rescuing a person, they said.

After a night’s sleep, the four-year-old dog was back in high spirits, the team reported, adding: “She apparently feels a bit guilty and slightly embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across the Alpine snows with barrels of brandy around their necks.”

St Bernard rescued from England’s highest mountain

Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team were called to Scafell Pike to rescue Daisy the St Bernard – a breed originally bred to rescue people in the Alps.

Monday 27 July, 2020

Daisy being rescued.
Image: PA

A MOUNTAIN RESCUE team said its members “didn’t need to think twice” when they were called to help a 121lb (55kg) St Bernard which had collapsed while descending England’s highest peak.

Sixteen volunteers from Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team spent nearly five hours rescuing Daisy from Scafell Pike after receiving a call from Cumbria Police.

The team said the dog was displaying signs of pain in her rear legs and was refusing to move as she came down from the summit of the mountain with her owners on Friday evening.

A spokesman said: “Having team members with their own pampered pooches at home, and also our very own much-adored search dog Jess, we recognise the distress that both an animal can feel and also that of their owners.

“Therefore … when Cumbria Police contacted us about a St Bernard dog (Daisy), who had collapsed whilst descending from the summit of Scafell Pike and therefore unable to carry on, our members didn’t need to think twice about mobilising and deploying to help retrieve Daisy off England’s highest.”

The team said they sought advice from vets before beginning the rescue operation and were able to assess Daisy’s condition and administer pain relief before lifting her off the mountain on a stretcher.

They said: “After a little persuasion and a bit of arranging the stretcher to become dog-friendly, and of course plenty more treats, the 55kg Daisy very quickly settled down with her chin resting on the head guard, having realised that we were trying to help her.

“From there on, apart from the odd little adjustment, the evacuation was found to be not that much different to a normal adult evacuation which, of course, is the bread and butter of our team, which we have done hundreds of times before.”


St Bernard dogs were originally bred to help with rescues in the Alps in Italy and Switzerland but the team said Daisy was the “perfect casualty” and is now recovering from her own rescue ordeal.

The spokesman said: “She apparently feels a bit guilty and slightly embarrassed about letting down the image of her cousins bouncing across the Alpine snows with barrels of brandy around their necks.”

The team thanked West Lakeland Veterinary Group and Galemire Veterinary Hospital for their advice and support during the rescue.

'Hitler's alligator' that survived Battle of Berlin dies in Moscow
An alligator who survived the bombing of Berlin in 1943 and is rumored to have belonged to Adolf Hitler has died in a Moscow zoo aged 84. "Animals are not involved in wars and politics," the zoo said.

FRATER SATURN WAS SUBJECTED TO BOTH 

WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR FATALITY 

An 84-year-old alligator rumored to have once belonged to German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler died in Russia, the Moscow Zoo announced Saturday.

Saturn the alligator escaped from a Berlin zoo amid Allied bombing on November 23, 1943. The 3.5-meter animal appears to have survived on his own for the remainder of the war until British soldiers discovered him in 1946.

Read more: 'Hitler supporter' museum project halted

No-one knows exactly where and how Saturn survived in the intervening years.

He was then transported to a Moscow zoo where he has lived peacefully ever since. Zookeepers say he died of old age.

"Saturn had a long and varied life," the zoo said in a statement. "This is an extremely remarkable age." Alligators in the wild tend to live a maximum of 50 years.
The Moscow Zoo posted a video of Saturn on Twitter. "Moscow Zoo had the honor of keeping Saturn for 74 years. He knew many of us as children. We hope we didn't disappoint him," they wrote.
Hitler's pet?

The rumor that Saturn had belonged to Hitler appears to have first been born after he arrived in Moscow, and has never been proved. Saturn appears to have been born in the United States in 1936 before being moved to Berlin.

"Almost immediately, the myth was born that he was allegedly in the collection of Hitler and not of the Berlin Zoo," the Moscow Zoo said in a statement. The rumor is widespread in Germany as well.

The zoo dismissed the story of Saturn's alleged provenance. "Even if he belonged to someone in theory — animals are not involved in war and politics."

"It is absurd to blame them for human sins," they added.

Some historians have debunked long-held beliefs that Hitler was a strict vegetarian and was kind to animals.

ed/shs (AP, dpa)

Defense team alleges U.S. officials using Assange case for political ends

SAY IT AIN'T SO

Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange's defense team alleged Monday that U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may be using his case for political ends. File Photo by Stringer/EPA-EFE

July 27 (UPI) -- The defense team for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange alleged Monday during a court hearing that U.S. officials may be using his extradition case for political ends.

Edward Fitzgerald QC said at the hearing at Westminster magistrates court that President Donald Trump had described the defense case as a "plot by the Democrats."

He added that U.S. Attorney General William Barr of the Department of Justice had "sprung" a new superseding U.S. indictment on the defense team and may be using the case for political ends. The indictment came months after Britain had started to try to secure his extradition to the United States.

Fitzgerald also said that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could be using Assange's case for political purposes, ComputerWeekly.com reported.

Assange, who is being held at Belmarsh Prison, eventually took part in the hearing by video link after an initial delay.

Fitzgerald said at the hearing that it would be improper if the new indictment led to postponing the hearing until after the November presidential election in the United States.

Assange was arrested in April of last year. He had been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 when he sought asylum to dodge sexual assault charges in Sweden. Assange was arrested after Ecuador withdrew its offer of asylum. Ecuador's President Lenin Moreno said the country's patience for Assange had "reached its limit" after "repeated violations to international conventions and daily life."

The WikiLeaks founder was indicted on 17 new charges of violating the Espionage Act in May of last year and already faced a charge from March 2018 of conspiring to commit unlawful computer intrusion, which carried a maximum five years in prison. Assange was accused of working with former intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain and publicly release classified information. The new charges brought his total charges to 18 counts with each violation of the Espionage Act carrying a maximum 10-year sentence.

The newest superseding indictment alleges Assange recruited and intentionally worked with hackers from hacking groups "Anonymous" and "LulzSec" to provide WikiLeaks with documents.

The Justice Department said the newest superseding indictment returned last month does not add to the 18-count indictment against him in May 2019, but does "broaden the scope of the conspiracy surrounding alleged computer intrusions with which Assange was previously charged."

"It contains no new charges," WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson said outside the court, referring to the new indictment. "What's really happening is despite its decade-long head-start, the prosecution are still unable to build a coherent and and credible case. So they've scrapped their previous two indictments and gone for a third try."

The full hearing of the extradition case has been postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic to September. Judge Vanessa Baraitser said that she expected all parties to attend in person in September.

upi.com/7024479

South Korea lawmakers back compensation for all Jeju massacre victims


The 4.3 Peace park in Jeju island, South Korea, honors victims of a 1948 massacre. File Photo by Jeon Heon-kyun/EPA-EFE

July 27 (UPI) -- South Korean lawmakers across party lines are supporting a new bill that could compensate all victims of a civilian massacre on Jeju Island.

A total of 133 lawmakers say survivors of an anti-communist crackdown that took place in 1948 should receive $109,000 each for being wrongfully charged by military authorities and for having their rights violated, News 1 reported Monday.

The special law's primary objectives are to amend clauses, request additional fact-finding investigations and pursue compensation for victims.

The bill would also cancel charges against civilians who were imprisoned after being sentenced by military courts illegally, said Oh Young-hoon, a lawmaker with Seoul's ruling Democratic Party.

RELATED Exonerated Jeju Massacre prisoners fight to right Korean history

If the bill is passed, financial compensation would be awarded to the victims or surviving family, according to the report.

There are 14,532 officially recognized victims of the Jeju Massacre in South Korea. Of that number, 3,357 have no surviving family and would not count in the reparations. Total state compensation would be greater than $1 billion.

The bill is being supported in Seoul less than a year after some of the victims, 18 plaintiffs, were awarded more than $4 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment following the Jeju massacre.

RELATED Women divers of Jeju Island swim into America's imagination

Other activists were seeking reparations from the North Korean government on Monday.

Lawyers for human rights and unification on the Korean Peninsula said families of victims abducted during the 1950-53 Korean War are to file a second lawsuit against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Yonhap reported.

Eight families, representing eight victims, are to be named the plaintiffs in the suit, the South Korean attorneys said.

The suit seeks about $25,000 in reparations per victim.

Last month the lawyers filed a first lawsuit against Kim on behalf of 10 victims of North Korea wartime abductions.

South Korea spy chief nominee denies offering billions to North

South Korean National Intelligence Service chief nominee Park Jie-won is handed a copy of an alleged secret inter-Korean agreement dating to 2000 on Monday during his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul. Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE

July 27 (UPI) -- South Korea's spy chief nominee denied he signed a secret agreement with North Korea in 2000 that pledged to deliver billions of dollars in aid and economic assistance to the regime.

Park Jie-won, former chief presidential secretary to President Kim Dae-jung during Kim's historic summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Il, said the agreement is a forgery. A copy was presented at his confirmation hearing Monday to lead the National Intelligence Serivce, News 1 reported.

Rep. Joo Ho-young, the floor leader for the main opposition United Future Party, presented the copy of the alleged "Agreement on Economic Cooperation," which included Park's signature.

Joo's copy of the document, dated April 8, 2000, showed the South agreeing to provide $2.5 billion in investments and economic funding to the North over a three-year period, beginning in June 2000.

RELATED Kim Jong Un gifts commemorative pistols to his officers

The South also agreed to provide $500 million of assistance in the "humanitarian spirit" to Pyongyang, Joo's document showed.

Park said the document is a forgery but the signature on the agreement was his. He also said he did not recall signing the agreement.

The nominee also said he would take all responsibility and would not rule out resignation if he is found to have signed the paper.

RELATED North Korea defector escaped using storm drain, Seoul says

Park played a critical role during the 2000 inter-Korea summit. Kim Dae-jung later won a Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy, but the achievement was overshadowed by revelations his administration bribed the North Korean leadership with $500 million to secure a direct meeting with Kim Jong Il.

At the hearing, Park may have refused to completely condemn North Korea as an enemy of the South Korean state.

Yonhap reported Monday Park said while Pyongyang is the "main adversary," it is also a partner in "peace, cooperation and unification."

RELATED Fans return to Korean baseball stadiums amid pandemic

Park also said past South Korean government efforts to improve North Korea human rights have not yielded productive outcomes in response to opposition party lawmakers' questions.

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

GAO report: Pentagon has not considered contractors' climate change risks

F-35 fighter planes are on the Lockheed Martin assembly line in Fort Worth, Texas. A Government Accountability Office report said on Monday that the Pentagon is not considering contractors' risks involving climate change. Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin

July 27 (UPI) -- The Pentagon has not taken contractors' risks because of climate change into account, a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday says.

The 45-page report notes that the Defense Department has regarded climate change as a threat to operations since 2010. The report details a review of acquisition and supply processes, as well as mission assurance processes, to protect or ensure the function of capabilities and assets critical to the department's missions. 

The review found that the Defense Department "has not routinely assessed climate-related risks faced by its contractors as part of its acquisition and supply processes," and that typical processes to spot potential supply chain problems "do not systematically identify and consider climate-related risks to materiel acquisition and supply or the acquisition of weapon systems."

A 2016 Pentagon order calls for assessment by military branches with consideration of potential vulnerabilities caused by climate change, but officials told the GAO that the directive has not been implemented. Leading defense contractors were also consulted for Monday's GAO report, who told the watchdog agency that steps to track climate change and its effects have been taken internally.

RELATED Two-thirds of Americans say gov't response to climate change is inadequate

"Our review of publicly available disclosures by leading DoD contractors showed that some contractors make climate-related disclosures in filings with the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission]," the report says, an indication that information is readily available to the Defense Department.

The report was sent on Monday to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Jack Reed, D- R.I., who are on the Senate Armed Services Committee. It offers six recommendations; notably that the Defense Department should incorporate climate adaptation into its acquisition and supply guidance and issue or update guidance on mission assurance-related assessments for contractors.

A Defense Department letter, added to the report in an appendix, said that it concurred with four suggestions, noting that it is investigating vulnerabilities. It added that industry "is best postured" to deal with climate change issues regarding contractors, and mission assurance of all commercial facilities is beyond the Defense Department's scope.