HUMAN RIGHTS VS RELIGIOUS RITES

Hungary activists vow to resist LGBT law, symbol of EU rift

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Activists pose for a photo after erecting a large rainbow-colored heart in front of the country's parliament building in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, July 8, 2021. The activists are protesting against the recently passed law they say discriminates and marginalizes LGBT people. (AP Photo/Laszlo Balogh)

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Activists in Hungary erected a 10-meter-high (30-foot-high) rainbow-colored heart opposite the country’s neo-Gothic parliament on Thursday, vowing to wage a civil disobedience campaign against a new law that they say discriminates against LGBT people and that has raised questions about what values the European Union stands for.

The law, which came into effect Thursday, prohibits the display of content depicting homosexuality or sex reassignment to minors — but critics say its goal is to marginalize and stigmatize the LGBT community as the country marches steadily to the right under Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The law has drawn intense opposition in Hungary and from the EU and has become a significant battleground in the fight over what the bloc represents.

Orban and some other right-wing leaders of member states have been at the forefront of that fight, challenging the EU’s traditional “liberal consensus” by refusing to accept migrants, cracking down on media plurality and limiting the independence of their judiciaries.

At the Thursday demonstration, rights groups said the Hungarian law denies thousands of LGBT young people crucial information and support, and violates national and international human rights standards.

“We think that the only path we can pursue is civil disobedience, and we will not change anything about our activities,” Luca Dudits, a spokesperson for Hatter Society, Hungary’s largest LGBT advocacy group, told The Associated Press.

One provision in the law bans organizations from holding educational programs on sexual orientation in schools unless they are approved by the government. But Dudits said Hatter Society will continue to provide teachers with training and educational materials, and offer their services to anyone regardless of age.

Dudits added that the law “stigmatizes LGBTQ people and actually puts LGBTQ youth more ... in danger of bullying and harassment in schools and in their families as well.”

Many European leaders have demanded the law’s repeal, saying it violates the bloc’s values.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday that the law was “a disgrace.”

In a resolution adopted Thursday, EU lawmakers condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the new legislation in Hungary and said it constitutes a clear breach of fundamental rights.

They said the law is not a one-off case, but “rather constitutes another intentional and premeditated example of the gradual dismantling of fundamental rights in Hungary.” The parliamentarians urged the European Commission to take swift action against Hungary unless it changes tack.

Speaking earlier in the day in Belgrade, Orban dismissed the EU criticisms, characterizing the controversy as a “debate about who decides how we will raise our children.”

“Brussels bureaucrats have no place here,” Orban said.

The debate over the law reflects a larger one within the 27-member EU, where a handful of countries are led by populist leaders who have pressed ahead with laws and policies that many in the bloc feel are anti-democratic or violate its founding values. On the one hand, critics of those polices want the EU to take action to protect their vision of the bloc as a progressive institution; on the other, such action raises uncomfortable questions about how much power Brussels should have over member states’ own parliaments.

Orban’s government — which next year faces elections expected to be the most competitive since his party returned to power in 2010 — is one of the faces of this rift. A champion of what he calls “illiberal democracy” and a conservative religious worldview, Orban has depicted his rejection of immigration as a fight to preserve Christian civilization, and has taken increasing control over Hungary’s higher education system in an effort to instill conservative values.

Along with Poland, Hungary’s closest EU ally, Orban has repeatedly challenged the bloc over issues like migration, corruption and the rule of law. Last year, the two countries held up passage of the EU’s budget and COVID-19 economic recovery package over provisions that would allow the withholding of payments to countries that fail to uphold democratic standards.

David Vig, director of Amnesty International Hungary which co-hosted Thursday’s demonstration, called the recent legislation “fundamentalist,” and echoed the European Parliament’s call for action against Hungary’s government, including the possible freezing billions of dollars in funding to the nation.

“We expect EU institutions to act firmly and the European Commission to start an infringement procedure ... because this is in clear contradiction not just with EU values, but also with binding EU law and the commission’s LGBTQ strategy,” Vig said.

But he said that must be done in way that “does not affect the human rights of everyday Hungarians.”

In military authorization vote, Quakers claim a victory

 Repeal of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force

By JACK JENKINS

July 7, 2021


FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2018, file photo, U.S. Army soldiers conduct a mortar exercise at a small coalition outpost in western Iraq near the border with Syria. As with most legislative victories, many organizations played a role in the 268-161 House vote to repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which originally authorized then-President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. But few focused on the issue longer or more doggedly than the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which has toiled for years to stop what it describes as the “endless wars” launched by the United States. (AP Photo/Susannah George, File)


WASHINGTON (RNS) — As the U.S. House of Representatives began calling the roll last month to vote on a repeal of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force, staffers at the Friends Committee on National Legislation couldn’t stop messaging each other.

According to Shoshana Abrams, a manager of advocacy teams at the FCNL, her colleagues began frantically chatting over Zoom as the votes trickled in. Meanwhile, members of FCNL’s volunteer network exchanged exuberant emails, their excitement peaking as they watched numbers tick up among a difficult-to-persuade demographic: Republicans.

“It was like: 20 Republicans! 47 Republicans!” Abrams said in an interview. “It was our team really seeing that their work was paying off.”

As with most legislative victories, many organizations played a role in the 268-161 House vote to repeal the 2002 AUMF, which originally authorized then-President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq. But few focused on the issue longer or more doggedly than the FCNL, which has toiled for years to stop what it describes as the “endless wars” launched by the United States. As the AUMF repeal effort moves to the Senate, activists are celebrating the culmination of decades of quiet — but persistent — faith-rooted advocacy.

“Peace is possible!” tweeted FCNL General Secretary Diane Randall after the vote.

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This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story.

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Founded in 1943, the Quaker group — whose tradition often refers to members as “friends” — has long taken an anti-war posture. It lobbied against conscription during World War II and launched a successful, decade-long campaign to defeat legislation in the 1950s that would have required military training for young men.

The group hasn’t let up since. Its headquarters still sits just across the street from Senate offices on Capitol Hill, often adorned with distinctive blue-and-white signs decrying war.

The anti-war theology of the Quakers, though, traces its roots back much further — to a 17th century letter sent by Quakers to King Charles II of England, according to Alicia McBride, FCNL’s director of Quaker leadership. The letter, now known as the “Peace Testimony,” condemned “all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretense whatsoever.”

According to historians, Quaker communities largely maintained those beliefs when they arrived in what would become the United States. Adherents generally declined to participate in the American Revolution: Some of their governing bodies declared neutrality in the conflict, and the small number of Quakers who aided the fighting were often exiled from the community for violating the Peace Testimony.

Critics: US Postal Service plans imperil community newspapers

By DAVID BAUDER and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE

FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2021, file photo U.S. Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy speaks during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. Postal Service's plans to raise postage rates could present another damaging blow to community newspapers already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and advertising declines, industry leaders say. The rate increase, planned to take effect Aug. 29, is set to raise postage prices on periodicals more than 8%, according to agency filings (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)

The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to raise mailing rates could present one more damaging blow to community newspapers already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and advertising declines, a trade group says.

Rates on periodicals would increase by more than 8% as of Aug. 29, according to agency filings. The price jump is part of a broad plan pushed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to overhaul mail operations.

The impact of the periodical rate increase is expected to be felt most by small daily and weekly newspapers, as well as rural newspapers, which depend on the Postal Service since they have shifted from using independent contractors for deliveries.

In response, publishers potentially could be forced to further reduce staff or forgo home deliveries entirely and instead send papers to communal news racks, or even shutter their papers, said Paul Boyle, senior vice president at the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing nearly 2,000 news organizations in the U.S.

“It is one of several nicks and slashes that can damage the bottom line, especially if you are an independent publisher who is operating at break even or in the low single digits of profitability. And most are,” said Penelope Muse Abernathy, a Northwestern University professor who has extensively studied the decline of the news industry.

For some, it could be the tipping point for survivability, Boyle said.

The News Media Alliance, in comments opposing the rate increases, told the independent Postal Regulatory Commission that the plans “ultimately harm the public interest while doing little to improve the Postal Service’s financial condition.”

In a statement, Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said the agency’s leaders are “committed to judiciously implementing a rational pricing approach that helps enable us to remain viable and competitive and offer reliable postal services that are among the most affordable in the world.”

“While the price newspapers pay varies based on how they prepare and enter their papers into our system, the average proposed price increase for newspapers for local delivery is from 10.6 cents to 11.4 cents or 0.8 cent, less than one cent,” he said.

The newspaper industry has struggled greatly over the past two decades. Advertising has dried up due to the internet and readership has fallen. More than 2,100 newspapers in the United States have closed in the past 15 years, the majority of them weeklies that serve local communities, according to research by the University of North Carolina.

In the same period, regular newspaper readership has fallen by one-half, the researchers said.

Newspaper newsroom employment stood at 74,410 in 2006, the last year that figure grew over the previous year, according to the Pew Research Center in a study released last week. In 2020, there were 30,820 people in newsrooms.

DeJoy, along with Ron Bloom, chairman of the agency’s governing board, presented the 10-year plan for the Postal Service in March, arguing that significant changes would be necessary to stem a projected $160 billion loss over the next decade.

The strategy includes relaxing delivery standards on first-class mail going to the farthest reaches of its network, from a one-to-three-day benchmark to a one-to-five-day goal. Postal officials have said 70% of mail would still be delivered within three days. Postal leaders are also moving to increase the price of a first-class stamp from 55 cents to 58 cents, and want to consolidate underused post offices and invest in new delivery vehicles.

Democrats have criticized the plan as an unacceptable decline of mail service and have renewed calls for the removal of DeJoy, a major Republican donor who has been engulfed in controversy since taking over the agency last year.

DeJoy, a wealthy former logistics executive who has also donated to former President Donald Trump, drew national scrutiny last year when he put in place a series of operational changes that he said were intended to improve efficiency yet caused widespread delivery delays before the 2020 election as millions of people prepared to vote by mail. He was also blamed for a steep decline in on-time deliveries around the holiday season last year.

After Trump’s defeat, Democrats pushed again for DeJoy’s ouster. The Senate in late May approved three new appointees, nominated by President Joe Biden, to the Postal Service’s governing board, giving Democratic appointees a majority on the board.

Still, DeJoy has maintained that he intends to stay in the post and told members of Congress at a hearing this year, “Get used to me.” Bloom has stood by DeJoy, telling lawmakers in February that the postmaster general was “doing a good job.”

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Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York. Bauder reported from Ithaca, New York.

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Associated Press coverage of voting rights receives support in part from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Gallery in Japan halts 'comfort woman' show after explosive device found

COMFORT WOMAN STATUE ON THE RIGHT
The exhibit of a Korean “comfort woman” statue was suspended Thursday after staff at Citizen's Gallery Sakae in Nagoya reported an explosive device in a package, according to multiple press reports. Photo by Yonhap/EPA-EFE


July 8 (UPI) -- A gallery in Japan suspended a "comfort woman" exhibit after a small explosive device was delivered in a package.

Citizen's Gallery Sakae in Nagoya said Thursday that a staff member opened the package about 9:35 a.m. and a firecracker inside exploded. No injuries were reported, according to Kyodo News.

The group organizing the exhibit, which includes a statue, said local authorities requested a temporary evacuation of the building. Organizers were forced to remain outside the gallery after the incident and the exhibit did not open at 10 a.m. as scheduled.

The city of Nagoya has ordered the gallery to close, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The exhibit in Nagoya opened Tuesday after much controversy, which forced other venues in Tokyo and Osaka to postpone similar shows.

The Nagoya exhibit was expected to continue through Sunday, but the gallery has been the target of protests. Far-right demonstrators used loudspeaker-equipped vans to disrupt the event. according to Channel A on Tuesday.

The statue of a Korean teenager in traditional dress, symbolizing the women victims forced to service Japanese wartime brothels, also became a flashpoint in 2019 at the Aichi Triennale.

RELATED Statue of 'comfort woman' in Japan draws crowds, jeers

Demonstrators two years ago threatened to set the exhibition hall on fire with gasoline, prompting organizers to cancel the exhibit after only three days.

The suspension of the show in 2019 prompted civic groups and artists to condemn the action. Some activists took legal action, according to Yonhap.

Japan's far-right was planning to hold a rival exhibit in Nagoya this month, but the event is likely to be canceled in light of the recent incident at Citizen's Gallery as investigations are ongoing, reports said.

Tokyo and Seoul have failed to resolve historical disputes after South Korea shuttered a foundation to compensate comfort women. Pressure from activists and former victims forced Seoul to close the fund in 2019.

Victims of California synagogue shooting can sue gunmaker


FILE - In this Sunday, April 28, 2019 file photo, a San Diego county sheriff's deputy stands in front of the Chabad of Poway synagogue, in Poway, Calif. A California judge on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 decided victims of the 2019 synagogue shooting near San Diego that killed one worshiper and wounded three can sue the manufacturer of the semiautomatic rifle and the gun shop that sold it to the teenage gunman, according to a newspaper report.(AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)


SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California judge decided victims of the 2019 synagogue shooting near San Diego that killed one worshiper and wounded three can sue the manufacturer of the semiautomatic rifle and the gun shop that sold it to the teenage gunman, according to a newspaper report.

Superior Court Judge Kenneth Medel said Wednesday that victims and families in the Poway, California, synagogue shooting have adequately alleged that Smith & Wesson, the nation’s largest gunmaker, knew its AR-15-style rifle could be easily modified into a machine-gun-like or an assault weapon in violation of state law.

A 2005 federal law shields gunmakers from damages in most cases for crimes committed with their weapons. But it allows lawsuits if the manufacturer was negligent or knowingly violated a state or federal law, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.

Medel said the plaintiffs may also be able to sue on their claims that Smith & Wesson negligently marketed the rifle to youths on social media and video game-style ads, the newspaper said.

The judge also said the shop, San Diego Guns, could be sued for selling the weapon to John Earnest, who was 19 and lacked a hunting license that would have exempted him from California’s 21-year minimum age for owning long guns.

Prosecutors say Earnest, a nursing student, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle during the last day of Passover services in April 2019. The attack killed 60-year-old Lori Gilbert-Kaye and wounded three others, including an 8-year-old girl and the rabbi, who lost a finger.

Earnest then allegedly called 911 to say he had shot up a synagogue because Jews were trying to “destroy all white people,” authorities said.

Earnest faces state murder charges carrying a potential death sentence and federal hate-crime charges.

Wednesday’s ruling is a victory for “all Americans who believe that the gun industry is not above the law,” said Jon Lowy, chief counsel for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which sued on behalf of the victims.

Lawyers for Smith & Wesson didn’t immediately respond to the Chronicle’s request for comment.

ARYAN EUGENICS

California to pay victims of forced, coerced sterilizations

July 7, 2021

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Stacy Cordova, whose aunt was a victim of California's forced sterilization program that began in 1909, holds a framed photo of her aunt Mary Franco, Monday, July 5, 2021, in Azusa, Calif. Franco was sterilized when she was 13 in 1934. Franco has since died, but Cordova has been advocating for reparations on her behalf. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is poised to approve reparations of up to $25,000 to some of the thousands of people — some as young as 13 — who were sterilized decades ago because the government deemed them unfit to have children.

The payments will make California at least the third state — following Virginia and North Carolina — to compensate victims of the so-called eugenics movement that peaked in the 1930s. Supporters of the movement believed sterilizing people with mental illnesses, physical disabilities and other traits they deemed undesirable would improve the human race.

While California sterilized more than 20,000 people before its law was repealed in 1979, only a few hundred are still alive. The state has set aside $7.5 million for the reparations program, part of its $262.6 billion operating budget that is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature.

California’s proposal is unique because it also would pay women the state coerced to get sterilized while they were in prison, some as recently as 2010. First exposed by the Center for Investigative Reporting in 2013, a subsequent audit found California sterilized 144 women between 2005 and 2013 with little or no evidence that officials counseled them or offered alternative treatment.

While all of the women signed consent forms, officials in 39 cases did not do everything that was legally required to obtain their permission.

“We must address and face our horrific history,” said Lorena Garcia Zermeño, policy and communications coordinator for the advocacy group California Latinas for Reproductive Justice. “This isn’t something that just happened in the past.”

California’s forced sterilization program started in 1909, following similar laws in Indiana and Washington. It was by far the largest program, accounting for about a third of everyone sterilized in the United States under those laws.

California’s law was so prominent that it inspired similar practices in Nazi Germany, according to Paul Lombardo, a law professor at Georgia State University and an expert on the eugenics movement.

“The promise of eugenics at the very earliest is: ‘We could do away with all the state institutions — prisons, hospitals, asylums, orphanages,’” Lombardo said. “People who were in them just wouldn’t be born after awhile if you sterilized all of their parents.”

In California, victims include Mary Franco, who was sterilized in 1934 when she was just 13. Paperwork described her as “feeble minded” because of “sexual deviance,” according to her niece, Stacy Cordova, who has researched her case.

Cordova said Franco actually was molested by a neighbor. She said her family put Franco in an institution to protect the family’s reputation.

Cordova said her late aunt loved children and wanted to have a family. She married briefly when she was about 17, but Cordova said the marriage was annulled when the man discovered Franco couldn’t have children. She lived a lonely life in a Mexican culture that revered big families, Cordova said.

“I don’t know if it is justice. Money doesn’t pay for what happened to them. But it’s great to know that this is being recognized,” said Cordova, who has advocated for the state to pay survivors. “For me, this is not about the money. This is about the memory.”

Relatives like Cordova aren’t eligible for the payments, only direct victims are.

Sterilizations in California prisons appear to date to 1999, when the state changed its policy for unknown reasons to include a sterilization procedure known as “tubal ligation” as part of inmates’ medical care. Over the next decade, women reported they were coerced into this procedure, with some not fully understanding the ramifications.

A state law passed in 2014 bans sterilizations for the purpose of birth control at state prisons and local jails. The law permits sterilizations that are “medically necessary,” such as removing cancer, and requires facilities to report each year how many people were sterilized and for what reason.

Questionable sterilizations also occurred in facilities run by local governments. In 2018, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors apologized after more than 200 women were sterilized at the Los Angeles-USC Medical Center between 1968 and 1974.

Those people are not eligible for reparations under California’s program. But advocates say they hope to include them in the future.

“It’s only the beginning,” said state Assemblywoman Wendy Carrillo, a Democrat from Los Angeles who has been advocating for reparations. “I can’t imagine the trauma, the depression, the stress of being incarcerated, being rehabilitated and trying to start your life again in society, wanting to start a family, only to find out that that choice was taken away from you.”

Of the people California sterilized under its old eugenics law, just a few hundred are still alive, according to research conducted by the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab. Including the inmates who were sterilized most recently, advocates estimate more than 600 people would be eligible for reparations.

But finding them will be difficult, with advocates predicting only about 25% of eligible people will ultimately apply for reparations and be paid.

California’s Victim Compensation Board will run the program, with $2 million used to find victims by advertising and poring through state records. The state also set aside $1 million for plaques to honor the victims, leaving $4.5 million for reparations.

NK CYBERWAR

North Korea-linked hackers accessed South's atomic energy institute, Seoul says




North Korea-linked cybercriminals breached South Korean entities, South Korean lawmakers said Thursday after a briefing from the National Intelligence Service. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

July 8 (UPI) -- North Korea-affiliated hackers infiltrated the South's Atomic Energy Research Institute and data was breached for 12 days, Seoul's spy agency said.

South Korean lawmakers who met with local reporters Thursday after a briefing said that the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute was the target of Pyongyang-backed cybercriminals, but the "most sensitive information" was not accessed during the attack, KBS reported.

The National Intelligence Service also told the South's National Assembly Intelligence Committee that it warned the institute about possible breaches and urged the organization to take extra precautions, including changes of passwords. The institute allegedly did not comply with the requests, the NIS said, according to lawmaker Rep. Ha Tae-kyung of the main opposition People Power Party.

Local reports did not specify when the hacking took place.

Korea Aerospace Industries, a joint venture of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries' aerospace division, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft Company, is under investigation after a suspected hacking, according to JoongAng Ilbo.

The attack occurred around June 7, Ha said.

Seoul's spy agency also briefed lawmakers on changes in North Korean society.

RELATED China stands by mutual defense treaty with North Korea after 60 years

South Korean lawmakers said after the briefing that North Korean authorities are "cracking down" on the use of South Korean slang in everyday speech, Korea Economic Daily TV reported Thursday.

The use of popular South Korean phrases, likely transmitted to the isolated population via pirated South Korean videos, has been decried as counter-revolutionary in the North, Rep. Kim Byeong-ki of the ruling Democratic Party and Ha said.

South Korean-style attire is frowned upon and banned. Displaying affection in public also is considered an act of social deviance and discouraged for couples, lawmakers said.

Kim Jong Un said in April the hair, speech and clothing preferences of North Korean youth must come under state control.

In June, Kim called K-pop a "vicious cancer" on North Korean society.

STILL A BAD IDEA

UN nuclear agency to help monitor Fukushima water release


FILE - In this Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021 file photo, Nuclear reactors of No. 5, center left, and 6 look over tanks storing water that was treated but still radioactive, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, northeastern Japan. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan Thursday, July 8, 2021 on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae, file)


BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said it reached an agreement with Japan Thursday on helping monitor and review the release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese government decided in April to start discharging the water in about two years after building a facility and compiling release plans adhering to safety requirements. The idea has been fiercely opposed by fishermen, residents and Japan’s neighbors.

Japan asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to review its plans against international safety standards and to support and be present during environmental monitoring operations. The Vienna-based IAEA said it has now agreed on “terms of reference” with Tokyo and its first review mission to Japan is expected later this year.

“The IAEA will play a vital role in monitoring and reviewing Japan’s implementation of its plan. As the eyes of the international community, IAEA experts will be able to verify that the water discharge is conducted safely,” IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said in a statement. “This is of paramount importance to reassure people in Japan and elsewhere in the world, especially in neighbouring countries, that the water poses no threat to them.”

The agency added that “Japan’s chosen disposal method is both technically feasible and in line with international practice.”

The accumulating water has been stored in tanks at the Fukushima Daiichi plant since 2011, when a massive earthquake and tsunami damaged its reactors and their cooling water became contaminated and began leaking. The plant’s storage capacity will be full late next year.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said in April that ocean release was the most realistic option and that disposing of the water is unavoidable for the decommissioning of the plant, which is expected to take decades. He also pledged the government would work to ensure the safety of the water.

Toyota changes stand, halts donations to election objectors


FILE - In this Sunday, March 21, 2021 file photo, The company logo adorns a sign outside a Toyota dealership in Lakewood, Colo. Toyota has reversed itself and says its political action committee will no longer contribute to legislators who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election win. The move comes after a social media backlash over the contributions, with threats to stop buying Toyota vehicles. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)


DETROIT (AP) — Toyota has reversed itself and now says its political action committee will no longer contribute to the Republican legislators who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

The move by the Japanese automaker comes after a social media backlash over the contributions, including threats to stop buying the company’s vehicles.

“We understand that the PAC decision to support select members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders,” Toyota said in a statement Thursday. “We are actively listening to our stakeholders, and at this time, have decided to stop contributing to those members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election.”

Last week the website Axios reported that Toyota led companies in donations to the 147 members of Congress who voted in January against certifying election results on the false grounds that the election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

The Axios report, based on data gathered by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that Toyota donated $55,000 to 37 Republican objectors this year. That number was more than double the amount donated by the second-highest donor, Cubic Corp., a defense contractor in San Francisco, Axios said.

Toyota will not seek refunds of contributions it already has made, spokesman Scott Vazin said Thursday in an email. He said the company hasn’t decided if or when it will resume the contributions.

Immediately after Toyota’s spending was reported, the company defended it, saying it did not believe it’s appropriate to judge legislators based only on their electoral certification vote.

The company took input from employees and government officials, Vazin said. But the most important factor was customer feedback, he said. “That really drives our decision making,” he said.

Contribution data showed that 34 companies donated at least $5,000 to the campaigns and leadership political action committees of one or more election objectors this year, Axios reported.

In addition to criticism on Twitter and elsewhere, the Lincoln Project, a group opposed to Trump, released an internet ad urging people to call Toyota to get the company to stop contributing to the GOP members of Congress.

Shortly after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, dozens of big companies, citing their commitment to democracy, pledged to avoid donating money to the 147 lawmakers. It was a striking gesture by some of the most familiar names in business but was largely an empty one.

Six months later, many of those companies have resumed funneling cash to political action committees that benefit the election efforts of lawmakers whether they objected to the election certification or not.

Walmart, Pfizer, Intel, General Electric and AT&T are among companies that announced their pledges on behalf of democracy in the days after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a violent bid to disrupt the transfer of power. The companies contend that donating directly to a candidate is not the same as giving to a PAC that supports them.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M GREENWASHING

Volkswagen to appeal emissions ruling to US Supreme Court

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Volkswagen, which is now subject to Ohio anti-tampering laws that it says could cost hundreds of billions of dollars, wants time to stop a state lawsuit, the automaker said in a Thursday court filing.

At issue is the 2015 scandal in which the automaker was found to have rigged its vehicles to cheat U.S. diesel emissions tests. The company ultimately paid more than $33 billion in fines and settlements.

In the wake of the scandal, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sued the company, alleging Volkswagen’s conduct — affecting about 14,000 vehicles sold or leased in Ohio — violated the state’s anti-air pollution law.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last month that the federal Clean Air Act does not preclude Ohio from seeking its own compensation against Volkswagen. State Attorney General Dave Yost successfully argued the federal law doesn’t stop Ohio from suing over emissions test tampering that occurred after new cars were sold.

Volkswagen says such lawsuits could cost the company $127 billion a year over multiple years. The company asked the state Supreme Court Thursday to delay its ruling while Volkswagen appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yost’s office is not objecting to the delay.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Purdue Pharma exit plan gains steam with OK from more states

By GEOFF MULVIHILL


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FILE - In this Oct. 21, 2020, file photo, Purdue Pharma headquarters stands in Stamford, Conn. In an agreement disclosed late Wednesday, July 7, 2021, in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., more than a dozen states have dropped their objections to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s reorganization plan, edging the company closer to resolving its bankruptcy case. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma’s plan to reorganize into a new entity that helps combat the U.S. opioid epidemic got a big boost as 15 states that had previously opposed the new business model now support it.

The agreement from multiple state attorneys general, including those who had most aggressively opposed Purdue’s original settlement proposal, was disclosed late Wednesday night in a filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. It followed weeks of intense mediations that resulted in changes to Purdue’s original exit plan.

The new settlement terms call for Purdue to make tens of millions of internal documents public, a step several attorneys general, including those for Massachusetts and New York, had demanded as a way to hold the company accountable.

Attorneys general for both states were among those who agreed to the new plan, joining about half the states that had previously approved it.

In a joint online news conference Thursday, some of the attorneys general who signed on noted that their states are in line to get more money faster to fund drug treatment and prevention.

But they continued to express ire with the company and especially members of the wealthy Sackler family who own the company and have not accepted any blame. “No one is happy with the settlement,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “Can the Sacklers do more? Hell yeah, they can do a lot better, but it should first begin with an apology.”

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein noted Thursday that the deal includes about $1.5 billion more than it initially did.

In a statement, members of the Sackler family called the support of more states “an important step toward providing substantial resources for people and communities in need.”

Still, nine states and the District of Columbia did not sign on. One of the holdouts, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson complained: “This settlement plan allows the Sacklers to walk away as billionaires with a legal shield for life.”

A 10th attorney general, West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, opposes the deal on separate grounds: That his state would get shorted when the money is allocated. He reiterated that position Thursday.

Purdue said in a statement that it will try to build “even greater consensus” for its plan.

Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in 2019 as a way to settle about 3,000 lawsuits it faced from state and local governments and other entities. They claimed the company’s continued marketing of its powerful prescription painkiller contributed to a crisis that has been linked to nearly 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the last two decades.

The court filing came from a mediator appointed by the bankruptcy court and shows that members of the Sackler family agreed to increase their cash contribution to the settlement by $50 million. They also will allow $175 million held in Sackler family charities to go toward abating the crisis.

In all, Sackler family members are contributing $4.5 billion in cash and assets in the charitable funds toward the settlement. They are not admitting any wrongdoing and no court has found any by a family member.

The agreement also prohibits the Sackler family from obtaining naming rights related to their charitable donations until they have paid all the money owed under the settlement and have given up all business interests related to the manufacturing or sale of opioids.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who had been the first attorney general to sue members of the Sackler family, praised the modified deal in a statement early Thursday. She pointed to the $90 million her state would receive and the way the company could waive attorney-client privilege to release hundreds of thousands of confidential communications with lawyers about its tactics for selling opioids and other matters.

“While I know this resolution does not bring back loved ones or undo the evil of what the Sacklers did, forcing them to turn over their secrets by providing all the documents, forcing them to repay billions, forcing the Sacklers out of the opioid business, and shutting down Purdue will help stop anything like this from ever happening again,” Healey said.

Purdue’s plan also calls for members of the Sackler family to give up ownership of the Connecticut-based company as part of a sweeping deal it says could be worth $10 billion over time. That includes the value of overdose-reversal drugs the company is planning to produce.

Money from the deal is to go to government entities, which have agreed to use it to address the opioid crisis, along with individual victims and their families.

Most groups representing various creditors, including victims and local governments, had grudgingly supported the plan. But state attorneys general until now were deeply divided, with about half of them supporting the plan and half fighting against it.

The attorneys general who had opposed the plan said they didn’t like the idea of having to rely on profits from the continued sale of prescription painkillers to combat the opioid epidemic. The revised deal lets state and local governments opt out of receiving those funds. Attorneys general also said the deal didn’t do enough to hold Sackler family members accountable or to make public documents that could help explain the company’s role in the crisis.

Last month, Massachusetts’ Healey told The Associated Press, “The Sacklers are not offering to pay anything near what they should for the harm and devastation caused to families and communities around this country.”

The support from additional states comes less than two weeks before the deadline to object formally to Purdue’s reorganization plan and about a month before a hearing on whether it should be accepted.

With just nine states and the District of Columbia remaining opposed to the plan, it makes it more likely the federal bankruptcy judge will confirm the deal.

Activists also dislike it, and two Democratic members of Congress have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to oppose it. Reps. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Mark DeSaulnier of California said in a statement Thursday that allowing Sackler family members “to obtain legal immunity through Purdue’s bankruptcy would be a tragic miscarriage of justice.” The Justice Department has not weighed in.

Last year, the company pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges and agreed to pay $225 million to the federal government.

In a separate civil settlement announced at the same time, Sackler family members agreed to pay the federal government $225 million, while admitting no wrongdoing.

The opioid crisis includes overdoses involving prescription drugs as well as illegal ones such as heroin and fentanyl. Purdue’s bankruptcy case is the highest-profile piece of complicated nationwide litigation against drugmakers, distribution companies and pharmacies.

Trials against other companies in the industry are playing out in California, New York and West Virginia, and negotiations are continuing to settle many of the claims.

People in U.S. with HIV have near-normal life expectancy, study says

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Testing HIV-positive is no longer a certain death sentence, and new research shows that Americans who have HIV today have life spans similar to those of their peers without the virus.

"In the early days of the AIDS pandemic, getting a diagnosis with AIDS was incredibly bad news and the prognosis for survival was really poor, and that's not true today," said lead author Jessie Edwards.

"Someone diagnosed with HIV in this day and age can be linked to care and receive highly effective treatment and feel confident that their survival outlook is actually very good," said Edwards, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The gap in HIV/AIDS death rates closed dramatically between 1999 and 2017, especially after 2011, Edwards and her colleagues found.

RELATED Access to affordable drug therapy reduces HIV infections in men, study finds

They used U.S. federal statistics to examine death rates for close to 83,000 adults treated for HIV between 1999 and 2017 at 13 U.S. sites that were part of a North American AIDS collaborative.

Those folks were compared with a subset of the U.S. population without HIV matched by age, sex, race/ethnicity and home county.

Researchers were interested in learning whether people with HIV had higher death rates than folks in the general population in the years right after beginning treatment, Edwards said.

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"This is a time and point that's really important for intervention for people living with HIV," she said. "This is a time when clinicians could make treatment decisions about what treatments they will prescribe, as well as how they will treat any other ... conditions that those patients have."

Researchers found that the difference in early death rates between people with HIV and the general population dropped over time -- the difference was 11 percentage points for folks who entered care between 1999 and 2004, and it fell to 2.7 percentage points for those whose care began between 2011 and 2017.

During the latter period, Edwards said, "people with HIV were only about 3 percentage points more likely to die over the next five years than their peers in the general population."

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And the situation was even better for young adults, the study found. Mortality rates for those entering HIV care between 18 and 34 years of age were only about 1 percentage point higher over the next five years than their peers in the general population.

While that's been a success story in some ways, Edwards said concerns persist.

"There's still this gap that remains even with the new guidelines and even with these highly effective drugs," she said, suggesting it points to future avenues for research.

In addition, the new study only explored changes in U.S. death rates. While there has also been progress in developing countries, Edwards noted that new drug treatments have not spread as rapidly there.

The findings were published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a disease that weakens the immune system, gradually destroying the body's ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

It is spread most often through sexual contact; intravenous drug use; and from infected women to their babies at birth or through breastfeeding.

The first cases were reported 40 years ago, with AIDS-related deaths in the United States, peaking in the mid-1990s at more than 50,000 a year, according to an editorial accompanying the study. At that time, it was the leading cause of death for 25- to 44-year-olds.

Antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV can reduce the amount of virus in the blood to levels that are undetectable with standard tests.

Advances in antiretroviral therapy had contributed to the dramatic decline in death rates, said editorial author Dr. Marshall Glesby, associate chief of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Drug combos are now easier to take, more potent and have fewer side effects, he said. And people are being treated earlier in the course of their infection.

But, Glesby said, concerns persist about age-related complications of HIV infection. About half of U.S. individuals with HIV are over 50.

He said it's also important to understand that the improved death rates reported in the study are really focused on people who are in treatment. Not everyone who has HIV is aware of it and many who have it are not receiving care, Glesby pointed out.

"That's important both from the perspective of the health of those individuals and also for the public health perspective, in terms of preventing transmission," he said.

COVID-19 has had an impact in the past year as well. Glesby said interruptions in the supply of antiretroviral drugs are expected to have a significant impact on HIV-related death rates.

Meanwhile, efforts continue to develop therapies that can be taken perhaps every six months or a year.

"There's a lot of effort being put into addressing concerns about adherence to antiretroviral therapy, which despite the simplification of regimens can still be a challenge for some people," Glesby said.

"I think that's another major focus of research is really trying to make it even simpler for people to be dosed with antiretrovirals," Glesby said.More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on HIV and AIDS.

AMERICA SPEAKS Espagnol
Study: Language barriers keep 25M in U.S. from good healthcare

By HealthDay News

Due to language barriers, 25 million Spanish speakers receive about a third less health care than other Americans, a large study of U.S. adults shows.

The analysis of federal survey data from more than 120,000 adults revealed that total use of health care -- as measured by spending -- was 35% to 42% lower among those whose primary language is Spanish compared to English speakers.

"Too few doctors or nurses speak Spanish, and many hospitals and clinics have grossly inadequate interpretation and translation services, despite federal mandates requiring them," said senior study author Dr. Danny McCormick, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and primary care physician at Cambridge Health Alliance.

"But most insurers won't cover the costs of interpreters, and federal enforcement of the language mandates has been lax," McCormick said.

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The study found that Spanish speakers had 36% fewer outpatient visits; 48% fewer prescription medications; and 35% fewer outpatient visits.

Compared to Hispanic adults who were proficient in English, Spanish speakers also had 37% fewer prescription medications.

Spanish speakers also had slightly fewer emergency department visits and hospitalizations, according to findings published in the July issue of the journal Health Affairs.

RELATED Minority infants receive poorer care in NICUs, study finds

Even when it comes to lifesaving services such as colon cancer screening, Spanish speakers are less likely to receive them, researchers reported.

Despite federal laws that mandate interpreter services for hospitals and other agencies receiving federal funding and ban discrimination based on national origin, language-based gaps in health care haven't narrowed over the past 20 years.

For example, the difference in health care expenditures between Spanish speakers and non-Hispanic adults increased from $2,156 in 1999 to $3,608 in 2018, even after accounting for inflation.

RELATED Report: Rise in fast-food advertising largely targets Black, Hispanic youths

Lead author Dr. Jessica Himmelstein said the pandemic has magnified the problems.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll in the Hispanic community, especially among people with limited English proficiency," said Himmelstein, a research fellow at Harvard Medical School and physician at Cambridge Health Alliance.

"The pandemic has been a magnifier of the failure of our healthcare system to meet the needs of patients facing language barriers," Himmelstein said.More information

The U.S. National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities offers health information in multiple languages.




Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Is Thursday the new Monday? Flexible working is in flux

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FILE - In this June 16, 2021 file photo, people walk through steam from a street grating during the morning commute in New York. Companies around the U.S. are scrambling to figure out how to bring employees back to the office after more than a year of them working remotely. Most are proceeding cautiously, trying to navigate declining COVID-19 infections against a potential backlash by workers who are not ready to return. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, companies around the U.S. scrambled to figure out how to shut down their offices and set up their employees for remote work as the COVID-19 virus suddenly bore down on the world.

Now, in a mirror image, they are scrambling to figure out how to bring many of those employees back.

Most companies are proceeding cautiously, trying to navigate declining COVID-19 infections against a potential backlash by workers who are not ready to return.

Tensions have spilled into the public at a few companies where some staff have organized petitions or even walkouts to protest being recalled to the office. Many workers in high demand fields, such as tech or customer service, have options amid a rise in job postings promising “remote work” — an alluring prospect for people who moved during the pandemic to be closer to family or in search of more affordable cities.

“A lot of people have relocated and don’t want to come back, ” said Chris Riccobono, the founder of Untuckit LLC, a casual men’s clothing company. “There’s a lot of crazy stuff that is a big day-to-day pain point.”

Riccobono said he can’t wait to get his 100 corporate staffers back to the office in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood because he believes that productivity and morale are higher that way. Starting in September, the company will require those employees to report to the office Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on the hope that the flexibility of a “hybrid” schedule will keep everyone happy.

Many others are similarly introducing a gradual return. Companies like Amazon and automakers Ford and General Motors have promised to adopt a hybrid approach permanently for their office staff, responding to internal and public surveys showing an overwhelming preference for work-from-home options.

But implementing a hybrid workplace can be a headache, from identifying which roles are most conducive to remote work to deciding which days of the week employees need to be in the office. There are client meetings to consider. And some business leaders argue newer employees need more face-time as they begin their careers or start new at at company.

“Thursday is the new Monday,” according to Salesforce, a San Francisco-based technology firm, which found that Thursday was the most popular day for employees to report to the office when the company reopened its Sydney offices back in August.

Riccobono, on the other hand, insists employees show up on Mondays to get organized and set the tone for the week. Like many employers, however, he acknowledges he is still figuring things out as he navigates uncharted territory.

“We will revisit in January, ” he said. “We will see how it works.”

Across the country, office buildings in the top 10 U.S. cities had an average occupancy rate of about 32% in late June, according to estimates from Kastle Systems a security company that monitors access-card wipes at some 2,600 buildings. In Manhattan, just 12% of office employees had returned as of late May, according to the latest survey by the Partnership for New York City, a non-profit organization of major business leaders and employers.

Romina Rugova, an executive at fashion brand Mansur Gavriel, enjoyed the tranquility as she sat on a riverside bench in lower Manhattan after a rare day back at the office for a meet-and-greet with the company’s newly hired head of e-commerce.

A mother of two, Rugova had mixed feelings about returning to the office. Seeing colleagues in person after so long was invigorating, and she did not always enjoy blurring her family and professional life.

“The challenge is you have to be three people at the same time. You have to be a professional, you have to be a cook, you have to be a cleaner, you have to be a mom,” Rugova said. “Being in the office after a while was so nice and refreshing. It’s completely different experience, you don’t realize it.”

But she doesn’t want to completely give up the three hours of extra time she saves without the commute. Many of her colleagues feel the same way, so Mansur Gavriel will likely implement a flexible policy when most of its 40 employees return to the office after Labor Day.

“We are still figuring it out,” Rugova said.

While most employers will accelerate their return-to-office plans over the summer, nearly 40% of office employees will still be working remotely in September, according to the Partnership for New York City’s survey.

The trend has raised concerns about an unequal economic recovery, given that working remotely is an option available to a privileged few. Only about 15% of workers teleworked because of the pandemic in June, according the U.S. Department of Labor’s monthly jobs report. Most work jobs at restaurants, schools, hospitals, factories and other places that require them to show up in person.

Some of large investment banks, which are top employers and office space tenants in New York City, are leading the push to bring employees back, taking a hardline approach in comparison with tech giants that have rolled out generous remote work policies.

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said at a conference earlier this month that he would “be very disappointed if people haven’t found their way into the office” by Labor Day.

“If you can go a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office,” Gorman said, though he acknowledged that there should be flexibility for parents still struggling with childcare logistics that fell apart during the pandemic.

Gorman also made clear that he was not open to the “work from anywhere” mentality that some companies have adopted, saying employees who want to earn New York City salaries should work in the city. The CEOs of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs have made similar comments, sparking furious debate about whether they would push employees out the door.

It remains to be seen how deeply remote work policies will influence recruitment and retention. But professionals looking for flexibility are finding they have options.

Brecia Young, a data analytics scientist and mother of a 1-year-old child, had choices when she was looking to switch jobs from a small Chicago firm. She accepted an offer from Seattle-based real estate company Zillow in part because the company allowed her to work from home and stay in Chicago, where she and her husband have relatives to help with child care.

“Moving to the West Coast was on the table but it would have been a real hardship,” said Young, adding that her husband also would have had to look for a new job. “I love the time savings just in terms of the commute. It’s like 90 minutes of saved time that I can repurpose.”

____

Associated Press writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this story from New York.

____

This story was first published on July 7, 2021. It was updated on July 8, 2021 to correct the title of Chris Riccobono. He is the founder of Untuckit LLC, not the CEO.

Australia court says top official has 'duty' to protect young from carbon emissions


"The first respondent has a duty to take reasonable care, in the exercise of her powers ... to avoid causing personal injury or death to persons who were under 18 years of age ... arising from emissions of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere," the judge wrote. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

July 8 (UPI) -- An Australian court ruled on Thursday that the country's environment minister has a "duty" to protect young people from the effects of climate change, as part of a case involving the expansion of a coal mine in New South Wales.

The project near Boggabri in New South Wales has led to legal challenges from several Australian schoolchildren who are concerned that the coal mine poses a climate change-related threat.

In the ruling Thursday, Australian Justice Mordecai Bromberg said environment minister Sussan Ley is responsible for possible environmental harm if she allows the expansion to move forward. She has regulatory responsibility for the project.

In his declaration, Bromberg said it falls upon Ley "to take reasonable care" to "avoid causing personal injury or death" for Australia's younger residents who may face a harm due to carbon emissions.

The judgement is expected to affect a large sector of Australian industry, including mining, manufacturing, transportation and energy.

In an earlier ruling, Bromberg said it could be "catastrophic" if global average surface temperatures rise to and exceed 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The judge also ordered Ley to pay all court costs associated with the federal-level case.

"We are delighted that the law of the land now states that the government has a duty to avoid causing harm to young people," said Anj Sharma, one of the children who brought the challenge, according to The Guardian.

"For young people this decision brings hope and anticipation of a better, and responsible decision making by government," added plaintiffs attorney David Barnden, according to The Guardian. "The ramifications for the minister are clear."

Experts say the ruling shows that courts are taking more of an activist role in shifting public policy about climate change.

"Court decisions like this one are playing a significant role in shaping the landscape around climate risk for businesses and government decision-makers, and that landscape is shifting at a rapid pace," said Edwina Kwan, a partner at law firm King & Wood Mallesons, according to Financial Review.

Oxfam: 11 people die of hunger each minute around the globe


FILE - In this Tuesday, May 11, 2021 file photo, Abeba Gebru, 37, from the village of Getskimilesley, holds the hands of her malnourished daughter, Tigsti Mahderekal, 20 days old, in the treatment tent of a medical clinic in the town of Abi Adi, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia. The United States estimates that up to 900,000 people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region now face famine conditions amid a deadly conflict, even as the prime minister says there is “no hunger” there. The hunger crisis in Tigray is the world’s worst in a decade, and the new famine findings are “terrifying,” the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, said Friday June 26, 2021, adding that millions more people are at risk. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)


CAIRO (AP) — The anti-poverty organization Oxfam says 11 people die of hunger each minute and that the number facing famine-like conditions around the globe has increased six times over the last year.

In a report titled “The Hunger Virus Multiplies,” Oxfam said Thursday that the death toll from famine outpaces that of COVID-19, which kills around seven people per minute.

“The statistics are staggering, but we must remember that these figures are made up of individual people facing unimaginable suffering. Even one person is too many,” said Oxfam America’s President and CEO Abby Maxman.

The humanitarian group also said that 155 million people around the world now live at crisis levels of food insecurity or worse — some 20 million more than last year. Around two-thirds of them face hunger because their country is in military conflict.

“Today, unrelenting conflict on top of the COVID-19 economic fallout, and a worsening climate crisis, has pushed more than 520,000 people to the brink of starvation,” added Maxman. “Instead of battling the pandemic, warring parties fought each other, too often landing the last blow to millions already battered by weather disasters and economic shocks.”

Despite the pandemic, Oxfam said that global military spending increased by $51 billion during the pandemic — an amount that exceeds by at least six times what the U.N. needs to stop hunger.

The report listed a number of countries as “the worst hunger hot spots” including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — all embroiled in conflict.

“Starvation continues to be used as a weapon of war, depriving civilians of food and water and impeding humanitarian relief. People can’t live safely or find food when their markets are being bombed and crops and livestock are destroyed,” said Maxman.

The organization urged governments to stop conflicts from continuing to spawn “catastrophic hunger” and to ensure that relief agencies could operate in conflict zones and reach those in need. It also called on donor countries to “immediately and fully” fund the U.N.’s efforts to alleviate hunger.

Meanwhile, global warming and the economic repercussions of the pandemic have caused a 40% increase in global food prices, the highest in over a decade. This surge has contributed significantly to pushing tens of millions more people into hunger, said the report.

Idaho courts offer new tool for renters facing eviction


BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Idaho Supreme Court has a new online tool to resolve disputes between tenants and landlords that could help renters avoid becoming homeless.

The court announced the tool Wednesday ahead of the ending of an nationwide eviction moratorium put in place by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help tenants unable to make rent payments during the pandemic and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The moratorium ends July 31.

The tool gives landlords and tenants in new eviction cases the opportunity to resolve their disputes outside court. It uses software that guides parties through a negotiation process and offers referrals to agencies that provide rental assistance.

The court plans to test the new tool in Ada County, which includes Boise, before making it statewide.

“Partly, this is about getting ahead of a number we don’t know much about: How many evictions are not being filed because the federal moratorium expires at the end of the month?” Idaho Supreme Court Communications Manager Nate Poppino told the Idaho Statesman.

Poppino said Idaho court officials sought advice from a handful of other states, including Florida, New Mexico and Iowa, that were using dispute resolution tools, though not always for renter-landlord disputes.

Idaho has so far spent about $21 million of the $190 million received in federal coronavirus rescue money to help with outstanding rent, utility payments and other expenses.

But homeless advocates say documentation and a lack of internet access to participate in online court hearings have stymied many renters. Those evicted face a tough housing market as home prices and rents have risen sharply with Idaho’s rapid population growth.

Jesse Tree is a Boise nonprofit that provides rental assistance. Its executive director, Ali Rabe, said some renters owe thousands of dollars in rent dating back to the beginning of the pandemic.

“From my experience, when landlords take tenants to court, they want to get paid,” Rabe said. “That will definitely continue to be a challenge.”

Rabe said eviction filings in southwestern Idaho have averaged 20 to 30 a month despite the moratorium.

Oregon adopts most protective heat rules for workers in US


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Pedro Lucas, left, nephew of farm worker Sebastian Francisco Perez who died last weekend while working in an extreme heat wave, breaks up earth, Thursday, July 1, 2021, near St. Paul, Ore. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon adopted an emergency rule Thursday that strengthens requirements for employers to safeguard workers from extreme heat, including expanding access to shade and cool water in what advocates called the nation’s most protective heat rules following deadly record-high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest.

“With these new rules, Oregon has a chance to lead the country in ensuring workplaces are safe from high heat, especially for those doing the most demanding and dangerous jobs like farming and construction,” said Kate Suisman, an attorney with the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project.

The emergency rule adopted by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division, or Oregon OSHA, also mandates regular cooldown breaks and communication between employees and supervisors so workers can report concerns.

Among the more than 100 people in Oregon who died during the extreme heat wave in late June was an immigrant from Guatemala who was working outside, the state medical examiner said. He was part of a crew at a plant nursery that was moving irrigation lines. Oregon OSHA is investigating both the nursery and the labor contractor.

“Oregon OSHA is taking an important step forward in leading the nation on standards for outdoors workers,” said Reyna Lopez, executive director of the Oregon farmworkers’ union, known by its Spanish acronym as PCUN. “It’s crucial that we continue to take steps toward long-term policy shifts in our state, that take climate change, and workers safety seriously.”

Oregon OSHA said the temporary rule is effective immediately and stays in place for 180 days.

“In the face of an unprecedented heat wave in the Pacific Northwest — and tragic consequences — it is absolutely critical that we continue to build up our defenses against the effects of climate change, including extreme heat events,” said Andrew Stolfi, director of the state agency that includes Oregon OSHA.

The heat wave was caused by what meteorologists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and British Columbia that was worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.

Seattle, Portland and many other cities broke all-time heat records, with temperatures in some places reaching above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius).

Oregon has recorded 116 deaths from the heat wave, while Washington state said Thursday that its toll had risen to 78. Authorities say hundreds of deaths may ultimately be attributed to the heat throughout the region.

Amid a historic drought, temperatures are spiking in parts of the U.S. West again this week but are less intense than the earlier heat wave

Under Oregon’s new rules for workers, when the heat index is at or above 80 F (27 C), employers are required to provide access to sufficient shade and an adequate supply of drinking water.

When the heat index rises above 90 F (32 C), employers also must ensure effective communication between workers and supervisors so workers can report concerns, ensure that employees are observed for alertness and signs of heat illness, and provide a cool-down rest period in the shade of 10 minutes for every two hours of work.

Mexico announces steps to ensure free union vote at GM plant

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican and U.S. governments announced a plan Thursday to resolve a U.S. labor complaint over attempts to steal a union vote at an auto plant in northern Mexico.

The Economy Department promised Thursday to punish any voting abuses and provide inspectors at a new vote at the General Motors plant in the city of Silao, set to be held before Aug. 20. The vote is to be held inside the plant, not at the offices of the union that allegedly tried to destroy ballots.

Labor Department inspectors will be allowed inside the plant to prevent intimidation tactics starting next week, and observers from the International Labor Organization will also be allowed in.

However, it was unclear if those promises would be enough. Workers at the plant have complained the old Confederation of Mexican Workers union has already tried tactics like promises and threats in speeches to shop stewards, or offering to raffle off cars, in order to win the vote.

U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr., a Democrat from New Jersey, welcomed the plan. Pascrell wrote “I remain hopeful that the crooked backroom deals between corrupt corporations, predatory protection unions, nefarious government officials will become a thing of the past.”

The complaint was filed in May under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, after the old-guard union was caught allegedly destroying ballots. A new union is trying to unseat the old labor group at the plant. For decades, corrupt Mexican unions signed low-wage “protection contracts” behind workers’ backs.

The “rapid response” mechanisms under the trade pact, known as the USMCA, allows a panel to determine whether Mexico is enforcing labor laws that allow workers to choose their union and vote on contracts and union leadership. If Mexico is found not to be enforcing its laws, sanctions could be invoked, including prohibiting some products from entering the United States. The May complaint was the first to be filed under the USMCA.

Mexican auto workers make one-eighth to one-tenth of the wages of their U.S. counterparts, something that has spurred a massive relocation of auto plants to Mexico and a loss of U.S. jobs.

For decades, union votes in Mexico were held by show of hands, or not at all. Workers at many factories in Mexico were unaware they even had a union until they saw dues deducted from their paychecks.

As part of efforts to get the USMCA, which replaced the old North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico passed labor law reforms stating all union votes would be by secret ballot, and workers at all factories in Mexico could vote on whether to keep their current union.

It was one such vote among the 6,494 employees of GM transmission and pickup plants in Silao in April that triggered the complaint.

Workers at the plant had been asked to vote yes or no on whether to recognize the union that has long controlled the plant’s labor contract. That union is part of the Confederation of Mexican Workers, or CTM, which formed part of the the party that ruled Mexico for most of the past century.

In a statement in May, GM said it “supports the labor provisions of the USMCA, including rapid response,” and said it will cooperate with authorities “to guarantee the integrity of voting on the union contract at out manufacturing complex in Silao.”

“We do not think there was any involvement of General Motors in the alleged violations that occurred at our plants in Silao,” GM said, but noted it had hired an outside consultant to conduct a review of what happened.

Mexico’s Labor Department declared the April vote invalid.

Mexico is still in the middle of a process of holding votes at workplaces to accept or reject existing unions. The process started in 2019 and ends in 2023, and will have to be repeated at every unionized factory and workplace in Mexico.

Some experts have criticized the process, because employees are not allowed to choose between a new union and an old one. Instead, they are essentially asked to decide between the old union and none at all.

 57% of Hanford workers exposed to hazards

July 7, 2021

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — A new state report finds that more than 57% of Hanford Nuclear Reservation workers reported exposure to hazardous material on the former nuclear weapons production site in southcentral Washington state.

The Hanford Healthy Energy Workers Board recently released its final report and recommendations on the unmet health care needs of Hanford workers.

The report’s central recommendation calls for creation of a new, independent Hanford Healthy Energy Workers Center. It would provide a centralized clearinghouse for dissemination of accepted scientific literature. Important functions would also include evaluation and communication of newly available studies about Hanford-specific hazards.

For incurable diseases such as chronic beryllium disease, information sharing could be key to finding cures. Additionally, the center would promote research to increase the body of knowledge for the Hanford workforce

Hanford for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons, and thousands of workers are now tasked with cleaning up the nation’s largest volume of radioactive wastes.

“The working families that make up the Hanford community represent a very unique population, with occupational risks not easily quantified or identified,” said Nickolas A. Bumpaous, Hanford Healthy Energy Workers Board co-chair. “Hundreds if not thousands of studies have been conducted over the years, each one focused in different ares and producing different recommendations.

UPDATED2 US men, ex-Colombia soldiers held in Haiti assassination

By EVENS SANON, DÁNICA COTO and JOSHUA GOODMAN

1 of 22

Suspects in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise are displayed to the media at the General Direction of the police in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, July 8, 2021. Moise was assassinated in an attack on his private residence early Wednesday. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Seventeen suspects have been detained so far in the stunning assassination of Haiti’s president, and Haitian authorities say two are believed to hold dual U.S.-Haitian citizenship and Colombia’s government says at least six are former members of its army.

Léon Charles, chief of Haiti’s National Police, said Thursday night that 15 of the detainees were from Colombia.

The police chief said eight more suspects were being sought and three others had been killed by police. Charles had earlier said seven were killed.

“We are going to bring them to justice,” the police chief said, the 17 handcuffed suspects sitting on the floor during a news conference on developments following the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moïse at his home before dawn Wednesday.

Colombia’s government said it had been asked about six of the suspects in Haiti, including two of those killed, and had determined they were retired members of its army. It didn’t release their identities.

The head of the Colombian national police, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas Valencia, said President Iván Duque had ordered the high command of Colombia’s army and police to cooperate in the investigation.




“A team was formed with the best investigators ... they are going to send dates, flight times, financial information that is already being collected to be sent to Port-au-Prince,” Vargas said.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports that Haitian Americans were in custody but could not confirm or comment.

The Haitian Americans were identified by Haitian officials as James Solages and Joseph Vincent. Solages, at age 35, is the youngest of the suspects and the oldest is 55, according to a document shared by Haiti’s minister of elections, Mathias Pierre. He would not provide further information on those in custody.

Solages described himself as a “certified diplomatic agent,” an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he started in 2019 in south Florida to assist people in the Haitian coastal town of Jacmel. On his bio page for the charity, Solages said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti.

Canada’s foreign relation department released a statement that did not refer to Solages by name but said one of the men detained for his alleged role in the killing had been “briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard” at its embassy by a private contractor. He gave no other details.

Calls to the charity and Solages’ associates at the charity either did not go through or weren’t answered.

Witnesses said a crowd discovered two of the suspects Thursday hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince, and some people grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushed them and occasionally slapped them. An Associated Press journalist saw officers put the pair in the back of a pickup and drive away as the crowd ran after them to a nearby police station

“They killed the president! Give them to us! We’re going to burn them,” people chanted outside.

The crowd later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the suspects. The cars didn’t have license plates, and inside one was an empty box of bullets and some water.

Later, Charles urged people to stay calm and let his officers do their work. He cautioned that authorities needed evidence that was being destroyed, including the burned cars.

Officials have given out little information on the killing, other than to say the attack was carried out by “a highly trained and heavily armed group.”

Not everyone was buying the government’s description of the attack. When Haitian journalist Robenson Geffrard, who writes for a local newspaper and has a radio show, tweeted a report on comments by the police chief, he drew a flood of responses expressing skepticism. Many wondered how the sophisticated attackers described by police could penetrate Moïse’s home, security detail and panic room and escape unharmed but then be caught without planning a successful getaway.

A Haitian judge involved in the investigation said Moïse was shot a dozen times and his office and bedroom were ransacked, according to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste. It quoted Judge Carl Henry Destin as saying investigators found 5.56 and 7.62 mm cartridges between the gatehouse and inside the house.

Moïse’s daughter, Jomarlie Jovenel, hid in her brother’s bedroom during the attack, and a maid and another worker were tied up by the attackers, the judge said.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military, asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport.

Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege after the assassination, which stunned a nation already in crisis from some of the Western Hemisphere’s worst poverty, widespread violence and political instability.

Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Moïse, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down.

The U.N. Security Council met privately Thursday to discuss the situation in Haiti, and U.N. special envoy Helen La Lime said afterward that Haitian officials had asked for additional security assistance.

Public transportation and street vendors remained scarce Thursday, an unusual sight for the normally bustling streets of Port-au-Prince.

Marco Destin was walking to see his family since no buses, known as tap-taps, were available. He was carrying a loaf of bread for them because they had not left their house since the president’s killing out of fear for their lives.

“Every one at home is sleeping with one eye open and one eye closed,” he said. “If the head of state is not protected, I don’t have any protection whatsoever.”

Gunfire rang out intermittently across the city hours after the killing, a grim reminder of the growing power of gangs that displaced more than 14,700 people last month alone as they torched and ransacked homes in a fight over territory.

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said gangs were a force to contend with and it isn’t certain Haiti’s security forces can enforce a state of siege.

“It’s a really explosive situation,” he said.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Goodman reported from Miami. AP videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince contributed to this report.

2 Americans Are Among Those Arrested In The Assassination Of Haiti's President

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

July 8, 2021

People pressure police on Thursday to hand over men who were arrested and the bodies of two men who were brought in by police after they were killed by police in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Joseph Odelyn/AP

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Two men believed to be Haitian Americans — one of them purportedly a former bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Port au Prince — have been arrested in connection with the assassination of Haiti's president, a senior Haitian official said Thursday.

Mathias Pierre, Haiti's minister of elections, told The Associated Press that James Solages was among six people arrested in the 36 hours since the brazen killing of President Jovenel Moïse by gunmen at his home in the pre-dawn hours Wednesday.

Four other suspected assailants were killed in a gunfight with police and two are still missing, Pierre said. Earlier authorities had said seven suspects were killed.

Pierre would not provide additional details about Solages' background, nor would he provide the name of the second Haitian-American he said was arrested.

Solages describes himself as a "certified diplomatic agent," an advocate for children and budding politician on a website for a charity he established in 2019 in south Florida to assist residents.

On his bio page for the charity, Solages said he previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti. Calls to the foundation and Solages' associates at the charity either did not go through or were not answered.
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WORLD
What We Know About The Assassination Of Haiti's President

"The pursuit of the mercenaries continues," said Léon Charles, director of Haiti's National Police, in announcing the arrest of suspects. "Their fate is fixed: They will fall in the fighting or will be arrested."

Witnesses said two suspects were discovered hiding in bushes in Port-au-Prince on Thursday by a crowd, some of whom grabbed the men by their shirts and pants, pushing them and occasionally slapping them.

Police arrived shortly afterward to arrest the men, who were sweating heavily and wearing clothes that seemed to be smeared with mud, an Associated Press journalist at the scene said. Officers placed them in the back of a pickup truck and drove away as the crowd ran after them to the nearby police station.

Once there, some in the crowd chanted: "They killed the president! Give them to us. We're going to burn them!"

One man was overheard saying that it was unacceptable for foreigners to come to Haiti to kill the country's leader, referring to reports from officials that the perpetrators spoke Spanish or English.

The crowd later set fire to several abandoned cars riddled with bullet holes that they believed belonged to the suspects, who were white men. The cars didn't have license plates, and inside one of them was an empty box of bullets and some water.

Police walk among people during a protest Thursday in Port-au-Prince against the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.Joseph Odelyn/AP

At a news conference Thursday, Charles, the police chief, asked people to stay calm, go home and let police do their work as he warned that authorities needed evidence they were destroying, including the burned cars.

Officials did not address a motive for the slaying, saying only that the attack, condemned by Haiti's main opposition parties and the international community, was carried out by "a highly trained and heavily armed group."
Haiti's prime minister orders the international airport reopened

Prime Minister Claude Joseph assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of police and the military and on Thursday asked people to reopen businesses and go back to work as he ordered the reopening of the international airport.

On Wednesday, Joseph decreed a two-week state of siege following Moïse's killing, which stunned a nation grappling with some of the Western Hemisphere's highest poverty, violence and political instability.


POLITICS
Even Before Jovenel Moïse's Assassination, Haiti Was In Crisis

Inflation and gang violence have spiraled upward as food and fuel grew scarcer in a country where 60% of Haitians earn less than $2 a day. The increasingly dire situation comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 following a history of dictatorship and political upheaval.

"There is this void now, and they are scared about what will happen to their loved ones," said Marlene Bastien, executive director of Family Action Network Movement, a group that helps people in Miami's Little Haiti community.

She said it was important for the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden to take a much more active role in supporting attempts at national dialogue in Haiti with the aim of holding free, fair and credible elections.

Bastien said she also wants to see participation of the extensive Haitian diaspora: "No more band-aids. The Haitian people have been crying and suffering for too long."

Haiti had grown increasingly unstable under Moïse, who had been ruling by decree for more than a year and faced violent protests as critics accused him of trying to amass more power while the opposition demanded he step down.
The question of who will succeed Moïse remains unanswered

According to Haiti's constitution, Moïse should be replaced by the president of Haiti's Supreme Court, but the chief justice died in recent days from COVID-19, leaving open the question of who might rightfully succeed to the office.

Joseph, meanwhile, was supposed to be replaced by Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who had been named prime minister by Moïse a day before the assassination.

Henry told the AP in a brief interview that he is the prime minister, calling it an exceptional and confusing situation. In another interview with Radio Zenith, he said he had no dispute with Joseph. "I only disagree with the fact that people have taken hasty decisions ... when the moment demands a little more serenity and maturity," he said.


WORLD
The Slaying Of Haiti's President Has Thrust The Struggling Nation Deeper Into Turmoil

Moïse had faced large protests in recent months that turned violent as opposition leaders and their supporters rejected his plans to hold a constitutional referendum with proposals that would strengthen the presidency.

On Thursday, public transportation and street vendors remained scarce, an unusual sight for the normally bustling streets of Port-au-Prince.

Marco Destin, 39, was walking to see his family since no buses, known as tap-taps, were available. He was carrying a loaf of bread for them because they had not left their house since the president's killing out of fear for their lives.

"Every one at home is sleeping with one eye open and one eye closed," he said. "If the head of state is not protected, I don't have any protection whatsoever."

Destin said Haiti has always been a complicated country and that he wasn't sure what the upcoming days would bring. "Haiti doesn't know what direction it's heading in right now," he said. "To be honest, I don't know what the solution is. There's always been a fight for power."

Gunfire rang out intermittently across the city hours after the killing, a grim reminder of the growing power of gangs that displaced more than 14,700 people last month alone as they torched and ransacked homes in a fight over territory.

Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, said gangs were a force to contend with and it isn't certain Haiti's security forces can enforce a state of siege.

"It's a really explosive situation," he said, adding that foreign intervention with a U.N.-type military presence is a possibility. "Whether Claude Joseph manages to stay in power is a huge question. It will be very difficult to do so if he doesn't create a government of national unity."

Joseph told the AP that he supports an international investigation into the assassination and believes elections scheduled for later this year should be held, as he promised to work with Moïse's allies and opponents alike.

"Everything is under control," he said.

Gunfights as Haiti police track suspects after president's slaying


ByAFP


PublishedJuly 8, 2021


Security forces member exchange gunfire with armed men next to the Petionville police station in Port-au-Prince on July 8, 2021 - Copyright AFP Munir UZ ZAMAN
Robenson GEFFRARD

Police in Haiti on Thursday hunted down suspects in the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, with four alleged perpetrators killed and one American among those arrested as the country lurched into chaos.

The poorest country in the Americas now has no president or working parliament and two men claiming to be in charge as prime minister.


The streets of the capital Port-au-Prince were tense, and shops, banks and gas stations closed, with no immediate information on who killed the president or why. The main airport was also closed, as was the border with the Dominican Republic.

United Nations envoy to Haiti, Helen La Lime, speaking from the Haitian capital, said four members of a group that attacked the president’s private residence early Wednesday and shot the president have been killed by police and six others were in custody.

“I’m also aware that a larger group of possible perpetrators have taken refuge in two buildings in the city and they are now surrounded by the police,” La Lime told journalists in New York via video conference.

Mathias Pierre, Haiti’s elections minister, said the arrested American was of Haitian origin, although he did not confirm press reports identifying the man as James Solages.

“Among the assailants, six are in the hands of the police,” National Police Director Leon Charles told a press conference.

“We already have the physical perpetrators in hand and we are looking for the intellectual perpetrators.”

The country is observing two weeks of mourning for the death of Moise.

– Where was his security? –

“Jovenel Moise was not terribly popular, but he was the president. He cannot be killed as if he were just an ordinary citizen,” said a 55-year-old man in Port-au-Prince, who gave his name only as Paul.

A 28-year-old woman named Julia said she was wary of the police claims that foreign mercenaries killed the president.


“Where were the well-equipped police who watch over the president night and day? Why didn’t they react?” she asked.

In the Petionville neighborhood of the capital on Thursday, a crowd brought two men to a police station and called for them to be lynched.

In total, four men said to be in on the killing were being held at the police station, but it was not confirmed that they were actually suspects in the assassination.

Interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph has declared a national “state of siege” and said he was now in charge.

Joseph has only been in his post as prime minister for three months, and was due to step down within days after Moise named a replacement on Monday.

Joseph’s replacement, Ariel Henry, said Joseph “is no longer prime minister in my opinion.”

“Does a country have several prime ministers?” asked Henry.

Moise’s wounded wife, Martine, was treated at a local hospital then rushed by air ambulance to the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami. Joseph said her situation was stable.

During the assassination, a maid and another domestic staff member were reportedly tied up by the commandos who allegedly shouted “DEA operation” as they burst in.

– Political meltdown –

Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, Bocchit Edmond, said the killers were “professional” mercenaries disguised as US Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Joseph on Wednesday said the president was “assassinated at his home by foreigners who spoke English and Spanish.”

The unpopular Moise had ruled Haiti by decree after legislative elections due in 2018 were delayed.

As well as presidential, legislative and local elections, Haiti was due to hold a constitutional referendum in September this year after it was twice postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

US President Joe Biden condemned the killing as “horrific” and said Washington was ready to assist in any way.

Washington also called for Haiti to proceed with the elections, with the State Department spokesman saying a fair vote would “facilitate a peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected president.”

Moise, a successful businessman, campaigned for power as a populist and was sworn in on February 2017.

The end date of his mandate became the source of a standoff, as Moise maintained that his term of office ran until February 7, 2022, but others said it ended on February 7, 2021.

The disagreement arose after Moise was elected in a 2015 vote that was cancelled for fraud, and then re-elected in November 2016.

Without a parliament, the country fell further into crisis in 2020. Many fear Haiti could be set for deepening violence.

“How much worse can hell get?” asked Haiti expert Irwin Stotzky at the University of Miami.

“Haiti faces even more violence and death and failure as a democratic nation than ever before, which is hard to imagine given its recent and chaotic history.”

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/gunfights-as-haiti-police-track-suspects-after-presidents-slaying/article#ixzz7049GYymC


Assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise: what we know

By AFP
July 8, 2021


Haitian police and forensics experts look for evidence outside the presidential residence after Jovenel Moise was shot dead - Copyright AFP HECTOR RETAMAL
Robenson Geffrard with Cyril Julien in Washington

The assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moise has plunged the impoverished Caribbean nation into crisis.

Here’s what we know about the attack:

– The assassination –

Early Wednesday, around 1:00 am local time, gunmen attacked Moise’s heavily guarded private residence in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Moise was shot dead and his wife, Martine, critically wounded. She was rushed to a local hospital and later evacuated to Miami for treatment.

Magistrate Carl Henry Destin told the Nouvelliste newspaper that Moise had been shot 12 times and his office and bedroom ransacked.

The motive and identities of the assailants are unknown.

A businessman, Moise, 53, was elected president of Haiti in 2016 on a pledge to boost the economy of the poorest country in the Americas.


He took office on February 7, 2017 but has presided over a deteriorating political and security situation with gangs running rampant and constant political tensions.

The end date of Moise’s mandate had been in dispute with the late president maintaining that his term of office ran until February 7, 2022, but others saying it ended on February 7, 2021.



– The assailants –

Haiti’s interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph said the assassination was carried out by “foreigners who spoke English and Spanish.”

Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, Bocchit Edmond, said the killers were “professional” mercenaries disguised as US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents.

Haiti’s police chief Leon Charles said the security forces engaged the suspected assailants in a gun battle on Wednesday.

Four gunmen were killed by police and two suspects taken into custody, while other members of the hit squad are at large, Charles said.

– State of siege –

Joseph, the interim prime minister, declared a “state of siege” in the country, giving himself increased powers for a 15-day period.

Moise had been governing by decree, without a parliament, since January 2020 and had named a new prime minister, Ariel Henry, on Monday, just two days before his death.

Henry, who had not yet assumed his duties, was the seventh prime minister named by Moise in four years and is claiming that he — not Joseph — is the rightful premier.


In addition to political instability, Haiti has been gripped recently by an increase in gang violence including kidnappings for ransom.

Since June, clashes between rival gangs in the western part of Port-au-Prince have paralyzed traffic between the southern part of the country and Haitian capital.

On June 30, 15 people died in a gun battle in the city including a journalist and an opposition activist.

– International concern –

The assassination of the Haitian president has left the international community pondering the future of a country plagued by political instability, poverty and natural disasters.

Fearing further unrest, the UN Security Council, the United States and European nations called for legislative and presidential elections to be held as scheduled on September 26.

A constitutional referendum was also planned for September 26. It had been initially scheduled for June 27 but was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The international airport in Port-au-Prince was closed to prevent the assailants from fleeing the country.


The neighboring Dominican Republic shut its border with Haiti and stepped up security along the frontier.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/assassination-of-haitian-president-jovenel-moise-what-we-know/article#ixzz7049S3duI