Cubans to vote on same-sex marriage, surrogacy

Issued on: 23/09/2022 - 

People gather in Cuba's La Lisa municipality in Havana province for a meeting called to discuss the new family code in February 2022 

ADALBERTO ROQUE AFP/File


Havana (AFP) – Cubans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on whether to allow same-sex marriage and surrogate pregnancies, which experts say could turn into an opportunity to voice opposition against the government.

More than eight million Cubans aged over 16 are eligible to participate in the voluntary and secret ballot -- the first time a law will be decided by public vote.

Coming just months after the government passed a penal code slammed for rolling back freedom of expression, the family code would not only permit marriage and surrogacy (as long as no money is exchanged), but also adoption by same-sex couples and parental rights for non-biological mothers and fathers.

If the law is approved, Cuba would become only the ninth country in Latin America to allow same-sex marriage, following in the footsteps of Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay and some Mexican states.

The vote comes with Cuba mired in a deep economic crisis that is fueling mass immigration away from the island, with an increasingly vocal population expressing unhappiness with the one-party state.

As a result, Sunday's referendum on the government initiative may become a protest vote.

With Havana having carried out an intense campaign in favor of the measures, a vote against the items could provide Cubans with a rare opportunity to publicly rebuke their government.#photo1

Many could vote "No" or even abstain altogether as a way "to make the government pay for the crisis," Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuban academic at Holy Names University in California, told AFP.

The referendum, he added, amounted to a unique "opportunity to show approval or disapproval" with the communist government.

And while "No" is unlikely to win, it is expected to garner between 25 and 30 percent of votes, which would in itself be something of a rebuke to the government.

In 2019, the new constitution was also put to a referendum and approved with 78 percent of the vote, but that was already the lowest approval rate the government had received since the 1959 communist revolution.

Clampdown

Six decades after Fidel Castro's revolution, Cuba is experiencing its worst economic crisis in 30 years, fueled by ramped-up US sanctions and a tourism collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Many Cubans are struggling to access medicine, electricity, fuel and basic foodstuffs amid critical import shortages and staggering inflation.

The country erupted in historic anti-government protests in July last year by citizens clamoring for food and greater freedoms.#photo2

Hundreds were detained and jailed, but this has not stopped repeated demonstrations in recent months in a country notoriously intolerant of dissent.

In May, the parliament unanimously approved a reform to Cuba's penal code, with strict limits on social media use opponents say was designed to quash future displays of public discontent.
'A father and a mother'

The family code is meant to replace legislation from 1975 that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

The government had sought to change this in the 2019 constitution, but withdrew its proposal amid strong opposition from churches and conservative groups.

It was worked instead into the family code, which President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted on Wednesday represents "the hope of thousands of people marked by painful stories of exclusion and silence."

Marginalization of LGBTQ people in traditionally macho Cuban society peaked in the 1960s and '70s.

In 2010, Castro admitted the Cuban revolution had oppressed members of the community as deviants, including with forced labor camps for re-education. Some were driven into exile.

A major opponent of the family code is Cuba's powerful Catholic Church, which maintains "it is a child's right to have a father and a mother."

The government beat the drum for its initiative during weeks of countrywide public consultations it said were attended by more than half of Cuba's 11.2 million people.

Other proposals in the code include clearly defining the rights of the elderly, and stipulating that no one found guilty of abusing minors can ever adopt a child.

The code requires more than 50 percent of votes to pass, and would enter into force the day after the results are known.

Even if there is a protest vote Sunday, or the draft is rejected on principle, some believe the outcome is already sewn up anyway, and the code will pass.

"It is already decided," said Martha Beatriz Roque, a long-term dissident who is convinced the government was merely paying lip service to "respecting the rights of people."

© 2022 AFP

Fears for rights under Italy's 'Christian mother' Meloni

Issued on: 23/09/2022 -

Meloni's party uses the flame logo of the MSI, formed by supporters of Fascist dictator Mussolini 

Piero CRUCIATTI AFP

Rome (AFP) – From abortion to gay marriage, civil rights activists in Catholic-majority Italy fear a significant set-back with the expected election triumph of a far-right party dedicated to defending "traditional family values".

Giorgia Meloni, a 45-year-old who has campaigned under the slogan of "God, country and family" and against "woke ideology", is likely to become Italy's first female prime minister if her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party wins the general election on Sunday.

"Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby! Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology! Yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death!" a wild-eyed Meloni cried in a speech in June.

"Christian mother" Meloni has since blamed the febrile tirade, made during a rally of the Spanish far-right Vox party, on tiredness -- although she said she would "change the tone, not the content".

A series of left-leaning celebrities, including Instagram star Chiara Ferragni, have sounded the alarm over Meloni's Brothers of Italy party and its allies, Matteo Salvini's anti-immigrant League and Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing Forza Italia.

Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director at fashion house Valentino, was on Thursday the latest to urge voters to defend rights won in the shadow of the Vatican.

"It's not enough to call for new rights. We have to fight to make sure we keep those we have", he told the Repubblica daily, adding that he wanted his children to "live in an Italy without fear".
Peppa Pig

The attack by a senior Brothers of Italy member earlier this month on co-parenting lesbian polar bears in the Peppa Pig cartoon -- a storyline he slammed as "gender indoctrination" -- prompted both ridicule and unease.

Civil partners Alessia and Eleonora, mothers to a one-year-old boy in Rome, told AFP how painful it was to not be seen as equal.

"We do the same things as all parents... (but) we aren't recognised as a family in Italy," said Alessia, who declined to give her surname.

The centre-left Democratic Party (PD) says gay marriage and same-sex adoption are priorities, with leader Enrico Letta telling Meloni recently that the most important thing for children was "to be loved".

They need "a father and a mother", retorted Meloni.

The left also wants citizenship rights for children born in Italy of migrant parents -- a hotly contested issue.

Abortion rights

Brothers of Italy has roots in a neo-fascist movement formed to carry on the legacy of dictator Benito Mussolini.

Some of the old guard remain, but Meloni is attempting to construe herself instead as a "nationalist conservative", said Mabel Berezin, an expert on fascist, nationalist and populist movements.

Fears that a Meloni-led government would ape violations of fundamental principles seen in Hungary or Poland were probably "overblown", the sociologist at Cornell University told AFP.

The risks may be subtler than that, according to Emma Bonino, who leads the +Europe party.

Abortion became the most divisive campaign issue after Meloni said she wanted to give a choice to women unsure about terminating pregnancies.

"We won't touch the abortion law. We just want (women) to know there are other options," she said.

Meloni is likely to keep her word on not criminalising abortion, said Bonino, who did time in jail in the 1970s for her fight to legalise it.

But she fears Meloni will instead "push for the law to be ignored", exacerbating an existing problem -- difficulties in getting hold of abortion pills or finding gynaecologists willing to perform terminations.

"There are entire regions where... the gynaecologists are all conscientious objectors" who can opt out of performing the operation, Bonino said -- referring in particular to the Marche region in central Italy, which is governed by Brothers of Italy.
Valuing women

Meloni's supporters see her as a symbol of female empowerment -- an unmarried, working parent, who is about to break the political glass ceiling.

Laura Boldrini, one of Italy's most high-profile female politicians, said she did not think Meloni in charge "would mean women's lives improve".

"Meloni has never been about affirming women's rights, about valuing women or breaking down prejudices against them," she said this week.

Michela Murgia, a writer and political activist, said Meloni was a "violent creature... who has learned to speak in a reassuring way" so that "positions previously considered extremist now appear good sense".

Italy would do well, she said, to remember the Meloni at the Vox rally, "who seems possessed" and would "bring the same violence to her political rule".

© 2022 AFP

Women’s rights denied: Abortion on the line as Italy’s far right eyes power

Benjamin DODMAN - 23/09/22

Italy’s surging far-right parties have been eroding abortion rights at the regional level, adding further hurdles to what was already an obstacle course for many women. With Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition tipped to win the country’s general election on Sunday, there are fears the same policies could be replicated at the national level.


 Marco Bertorello, AFP file photo

When Silvia* was taken off the pill on medical grounds, her doctor did not mention the possibility of using other contraceptive methods. When she ended up with an unwanted pregnancy months later, the same doctor chose to ignore her request for an abortion.

Over the next 10 days, the young woman from rural Abruzzo raced from one health centre to another looking for a way to terminate her pregnancy. By the time she found a clinic willing to help her in the neighbouring Marche region, the deadline for a medical abortion there had lapsed, meaning she would have to undergo a surgical procedure she was hoping to avoid.

“It’s bad enough having to make such a decision,” said the 35-year-old mother of one, voicing her anguish and shame at the process. “It’s a lot worse when you have to repeat the same things to a dozen strangers, waiting in long lines, and hear them answer things like, ‘Have you given it proper thought?’”

Silvia’s obstacle race tells the story of a state that has abdicated its responsibility to uphold women’s hard-won rights – and of a concerted political effort to make a difficult situation worse. It also highlights the crucial work carried out by a small number of health professionals and activists plugging a hole in Italian healthcare, many of whom are delaying retirement because no one will replace them.

Italy legalised abortion in 1978, making the procedure freely available during the first 90 days of pregnancy. In practice, however, women face obstacles at every turn, from doctors refusing to approve or carry out abortions to regional governments ignoring the law and staffing key agencies with anti-abortion activists.

Silvia was fortunate to land at AIED, a non-profit family clinic in the town of Ascoli Piceno that provides abortion services in an area where the public service fails to. The clinic’s deputy head Tiziana Antonucci flagged a “lack of political will” to properly enforce the law.

“It’s up to the regions to guarantee abortion services and they are failing in their duty. Some are even adding further hurdles,” she said, pausing to take a phone call from another anguished patient who was denied an abortion by her gynaecologist.

New hurdles are being raised in regions administered by far-right parties, like Marche and Abruzzo, where Giorgia Meloni’s party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) rules in coalition with the anti-immigrant Lega of Matteo Salvini. Women’s rights activists fear the same could happen nationwide after the country’s general election on September 25, in which Meloni and her allies are tipped to win a sweeping majority.

Marche, a picturesque central region wedged in between the Apennines and the Adriatic Sea, was once reliably moderate in its politics – but the mood has changed. Its equal opportunities councillor, in charge of women’s rights, is openly opposed to abortion. When Italy's health ministry issued guidelines in 2020 allowing women to have non-surgical abortions as outpatients until nine weeks of pregnancy, the regional government refused to implement them.

“The guidelines were designed to relieve the pressure on hospitals at the height of the pandemic, but the authorities here rejected them on ideological grounds,” said Antonucci. “They didn’t care about public health, the risk of contagion, or the risk of complications from delaying abortions,” she added. “The only objective was to raise more obstacles for women.”

When AIED was founded back in 1953, its first battle was to repeal a Fascist-era law that labelled contraception a crime “against the Italian race”. Antonucci says similar language has resurfaced in recent years amid mounting anxiety over Italy’s declining birthrate. Carlo Ciccioli, the Brothers of Italy group leader in Marche’s regional council, has dismissed abortion as a “rearguard battle” and warned of “ethnic substitution” in Italian schools.

A scion of Italy's post-fascist right, Meloni’s party has made bolstering Italy’s low birthrate a key priority. At a recent rally in Milan, she warned that the “Italian nation” was “destined to disappear”. Like other far-right oufits, her party has supplemented its nationalist, anti-immigrant pitch with messages about conservative social values and the protection of traditional families. Its motto is “God, homeland, family”.

Brothers of Italy denies it plans to repeal the country’s landmark abortion law, arguing instead that it will “improve” it by guaranteeing “alternatives to abortion”. Its policy platform contains ambiguous language, such as a pledge to “protect life from the beginning”. At a rally staged by Spain's far-right Vox party in June, Meloni shouted: “Yes to the culture of life! No to the culture of death!”

Influencer takes on Meloni

The Meloni juggernaut hit a curb on August 24 when her party’s thinly disguised efforts to frustrate abortion rights were denounced in an Instagram story sent out to 27 million smartphones. Its author was Chiara Ferragni, Italy’s best-known influencer, who claimed Brothers of Italy had made it “practically impossible” for a woman to have an abortion in Marche.

“This is a policy which risks becoming national if the right wins the elections,” said the former model and businesswoman, whose husband, prominent rapper Fedez, has also sparred with the far right. “Now is the time to act and to ensure that these things do not happen,” she added.

Ferragni’s unrivalled audience ensured her post triggered a furious row, pushing abortion rights into the limelight. Her comments drew angry complaints from the right and opportunistic plaudits from left-wing parties usually accustomed to sweeping the subject under the rug.

“She cast a spotlight on Marche – and we certainly thank her for raising the issue,” said AIED’s Antonucci. “But similar difficulties can be encountered in regions across Italy,” she added, noting that centre-left administrations have done little to tackle the many obstacles to abortion.

One prominent hurdle is the high number of medical practitioners who refuse to carry out or assist in abortions, ostensibly on moral grounds. They account for two thirds of all gynaecologists in Italy, according to the health ministry’s latest tally, though the figure conceals significant regional disparities.

While the law protects health workers’ right to be “conscientious objectors”, it also states that the authorities have a duty to ensure abortions can be carried out at all public facilities. That obligation is routinely flouted. Data published in May by the Luca Coscioni Association, which advocates for abortion rights, found that objectors exceeded 80 percent of staff at 72 hospitals across the country, including 22 where the figure was 100 percent.

To get around such roadblocks, feminist groups like Obiezione Respinta (Objection Overruled) have created interactive online maps where women can warn others where they will be turned away. Such initiatives are a crucial help to women abandoned by the state, said Marina Toschi, one of two gynaecologists who carry out abortions in Ascoli on behalf of AIED.

“If you live in Milan or some other big city, you’re mostly fine. But if you come from a small village in the Marche, it’s a whole different matter,” she said. “It’s a jungle. There’s no information, no helpline, no way of knowing who will help you and who won’t. The state should accompany you, but it doesn’t. Instead, you must follow the cursed path, relying only on friends, feminist groups and yourself.”

‘Saboteurs of the law’

A “combative pensioner”, Toschi travels twice a month to Ascoli from her home in Umbria, crossing the Sybilline Mountains steeped in legends of matriarchal societies subdued by Christianity.

“Pressure from the Church” is one reason the Italian state has failed to uphold women’s reproductive rights, she said, “starting from schools where sex education is glossed over and contraception often taboo”. The pattern is much the same in higher education: “One can do five years of specialised studies in gynaecology without knowing how to fit a contraceptive coil or what an abortion pill even looks like.”

The combination of societal pressure, lack of funding and dim career prospects ensures health workers continue to steer clear of abortions in later years, added the gynaecologist, for whom “moral” objection is often based on expediency.

“Forget ethical objections – if doctors were paid €100 for an abortion they’d be lining up to do them,” she quipped. “But when all the money is put elsewhere, why waste your time and career prospects helping out the poor souls begging for an abortion?”

Toschi argues that the excessive focus on objectors deflects attention from the root of the problem – those she describes as “saboteurs” of the law. They include politicians who staff family planning clinics with "pro-life" activists, pharmacists who refuse to dispense morning-after pills, hospital managers who fail to hire qualified non-objectors, and authorities that allow them to get away with this scot-free.

Marte Manca, a member of the feminist group Nonunadimeno (Not one [woman] less), said opponents of Italy’s abortion law have become increasingly assertive, inflicting what she describes as “psychological terrorism” on women who seek to terminate a pregnancy.

“Pro-life activists have infiltrated hospitals and family planning clinics, spreading their word in state facilities that should be secular,” she said. “Their aim is to make women feel guilty and delay abortions as much as they can – which is dangerous, because it means playing with women’s health.”

A laboratory for the far right

While successive centre-left administrations “simply ignored the problem”, Manca said right-wing councils in Marche and other regions are making an already difficult situation worse.

In northern Piedmont, the ruling far-right coalition has offered cash handouts to pregnant women who plan to abort, to convince them to reconsider. In Abruzzo, the first region administered by Brothers of Italy, the party unsuccessfully pushed a law last year that would have required a grave burial for all aborted fetuses, even against the wishes of the woman.

“They can’t repeal the abortion law, but they can make it even more impracticable,” said Manca, pointing to Marche’s decision to ignore national guidelines on medical abortion, “which effectively makes non-surgical abortions almost impossible”. She cited other policies, including the decision to scrap the region’s sponsorship of the annual gay Pride, as signs of a broader pushback on rights in the region.

Marche has served as a laboratory for the far right’s policies, according to Paolo Berizzi, a journalist at Italian daily La Repubblica who has been under round-the-clock police protection for the past three years after receiving death threats from neo-fascist groups.

“They’ve experimented on a local scale a model they are preparing to reproduce at the national level,” said Berizzi, who has written extensively about the extreme right in Italy. “This involves rolling back on certain rights, introducing policies tailored for traditional families, and campaigning against abortion. It’s a path that is anti-progressive, that is opposed to modernity and the principle of equal rights for all, in which men and women are assigned specific roles.”

Back in Ascoli, AIED’s Antonucci spoke of a strategic plan to occupy key positions – such as the equal opportunities portfolios – in order to shape public policy and boycott certain rights. The far right’s attempts to prevent women from terminating unwanted pregnancies are misguided, she argued, “because history shows you cannot stop abortion – it simply goes underground”.

Instead of harassing women, she added, governments should fulfil their legal obligation to provide free contraception, which would spare many women the hardship and tragedy of an abortion while also saving the state a lot of money.

“If anti-abortion campaigners think they can strip citizens of certain rights we fought hard for, they’re mistaken,” Antonucci warned. “There will be no going back.”

*Silvia's name was changed to protect her privacy

11 Police Hurt At Mexico Protest Over Missing Students

09/22/22 

Protesters demanding justice for 43 Mexican students who disappeared in 2014

 paint graffiti outside the attorney general's office in Mexico City 

AFP / RODRIGO ARANGUA

A protest to demand justice for 43 Mexican students who disappeared in 2014 turned violent on Thursday, leaving 11 police officers injured, authorities said.

A confrontation took place outside the attorney general's office in Mexico City after demonstrators gathered, calling for people linked to the case to be arrested.

"Some protesters physically assaulted officers and threw explosive devices at them," Mexico City's public security secretariat said in a statement.

"Consequently, 11 police were injured by firecrackers and bruises from blows to different parts of the body," it said.

The officers were taken to hospital for evaluation and were found to be out of danger, the statement said.

Demonstrators scrawled graffiti outside the attorney general's office and carried banners demanding the safe return of the students.

So far, the remains of only three victims have been identified.

On Wednesday, relatives of the students protested outside Israel's embassy, demanding the extradition of Tomas Zeron, a former top investigator wanted in connection with the case.

Zeron is one of the architects of the so-called "historical truth," the official version of the case presented in 2015 that was rejected by the victims' relatives and independent experts.

The 43 teaching students had commandeered buses in the southern state of Guerrero to travel to a demonstration in Mexico City before they went missing.

Investigators say they were detained by corrupt police and handed over to a drug cartel that mistook them for members of a rival gang, but exactly what happened to them is disputed.

Last month, a truth commission tasked by the current government to investigate the atrocity branded the case a "state crime" involving agents of various institutions.

The next day, former attorney general Jesus Murillo Karam, who led the controversial "historical truth" investigation, was detained on charges of forced disappearance, torture and obstruction of justice.

Prosecutors said that arrest warrants had been issued for more than 80 suspects, including 20 military personnel, 44 police officers and 14 cartel members.

Mexico City police injured by explosion at protest

Fabiola Sanchez And Fernando Llano
The Associated Press

Thursday, September 22, 2022

A police officer calls for paramedics after several of their own were injured by an explosive device during clashes outside of Mexico's Attorney General's Office in Mexico City, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022. The demonstrators were marching ahead of the anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students of a teachers' college in Iguala, Guerrero. Multiple police were injured by the explosion and loaded onto ambulances. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

MEXICO CITY -- An explosion occurred outside Mexico's Attorney General's Office on Thursday, injuring police as protesters demonstrating ahead of the anniversary of the 2014 disappearance of 43 students clashed with officers clad in riot gear.

Those injured by the explosion were loaded onto ambulances. Broken glass and blood were visible.

Members of a bomb squad cordoned off the area. One undetonated object that an explosives technician recovered appeared to be a small pipe bomb – a tube with two capped ends.

Mexico City's police department said that 11 police officers were injured by shrapnel from fireworks and some suffered bruises. They were all taken to hospitals and the injuries were not considered life threatening.

The protest was just one of a host of activities planned in advance of Monday's 8th anniversary of the students' disappearances. Protests that includes relatives of the disappeared students have usually remained peaceful.

Thursday's demonstration started that way too, with chants and speeches. Most of the protesters boarded buses and left before a small group that stayed behind clashed with police.

Some masked protesters threw rocks and launched bottle rockets into police lines. Others spray painted areas around the building with demands for the missing students' safe return.

The police bunched together, crouching below their plastic shields and were engulfed in smoke.

"I was in the entrance to my store when four bombs went off like bottle rockets which is what they launched at the Attorney General's Office, toward the windows," said 19-year-old Jose Rivera Cruz, who sells clothing to one side of the office. "There was smoke and they closed the metro bus station (across the street). And most of the police were running and trying to get to the patrol cars and the ambulances."

As more police arrived to help the injured and secure the area, the protesters left, he said.

On Sept. 26, 2014, local police in Iguala, Guerrero abducted 43 students from a radical teachers' college. They were allegedly turned over to a drug gang and never seen again. Three victims were later identified by burned bone fragments.

Last month, Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas, who leads a truth commission investigating the case, called it a "state crime" and directly implicated the military, among other state actors including local and state police.

Former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, who oversaw the original investigation into the disappearances, was arrested last month on charges of torture, official misconduct and forced disappearance. Last week, Mexico arrested a retired general, who had been in charge of the local army base in Iguala when the abductions occurred.

Dozens of student protesters arrived at the Attorney General's Office aboard buses Thursday morning. Police with helmets and riot shields formed several lines of defence in front the entrances.

On Wednesday, activists had vandalized the exterior of Israel's embassy in Mexico City. Mexico is seeking the extradition from Israel of another key figure in the investigation of the students' disappearances.

Canada launches review of cannabis legalization four years on

Issued on: 22/09/2022 - 

Canada has launched a review of its cannabis act, four years after legalizing its recreational use -- which was celebrated by thousands including this man pictured smoking a joint in Trinity Bellwoods Park in Toronto in October 2018 

Geoff Robins AFP/File


Ottawa (AFP) – Canada on Thursday launched a long-awaited review of its cannabis regulations, four years after becoming the first major economy to legalize its recreational use.

An expert panel led by Morris Rosenberg, a former deputy minister of justice, is to measure the impact of legalization on youth, Indigenous peoples and others, as well as the economy and an illicit market that the new regime was meant to displace.

The panel is also to examine regulatory burdens on the industry and determine if a separate framework for medical marijuana -- which has been legal since 2001 -- needed to be maintained in order to provide access to patients.

The mandated review, coming one year late due to the pandemic, is expected to take 18 months.

The industry has complained about what it calls exceptionally high taxes on cannabis, a glut of stores -- both licensed and unlicensed -- and restrictions on advertising and marketing that have made it harder to compete with the black market.

At a news conference, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said preliminary data this year showed 69 percent of the cannabis market has moved from illicit sources to legal, regulated suppliers.

The review, he said, will help the government "strengthen the (cannabis) act so that it meets the needs of all Canadians while continuing to displace the illicit market."

Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said, "We knew that young people are at increased risk of experiencing harms from cannabis, such as mental health problems including dependence and disorders related to anxiety and depression."

Public awareness campaigns, she said, have made "young people more aware of the harms of consuming cannabis," but their level of consumption has not fallen since legalization, as hoped.

Rather, it has remained relatively stable, she said.

According to government data, 25 percent of the population, or 9.5 million Canadians, used cannabis in 2021, down slightly from the previous year.

They spent an average of Can$69 (US$51) on pot per month.

© 2022 AFP

IN THE TWENTIES AND THIRTIES OF LAST CENTURY 

A JOINT, BLUNT, SPLIFF,DOOBBIE, ETC. WAS KNOWN AS A 'VIPER'

 

Football disorder on the rise in England and Wales

Issued on: 22/09/2022 -

Pitch invasions became a common occurrence at English football matches last season 

Oli SCARFF AFP/File


London (AFP) – Football arrests in England and Wales reached their highest level for eight years last season, while pitch invasions more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from the British Home Office.

A series of matches towards the end of the campaign were marred by players being assaulted by pitch-invading fans.

Premier League clubs this week agreed to give pitch invaders and supporters using smoke bombs or pyrotechnics a minimum one-year ban.

A pitch invasion of some kind was recorded at 441 matches last season, a 127 percent increase on the figure for the 2018-19 season, the last full campaign to be played without any Covid-19 restrictions.

The 2,198 football-related arrests recorded last season was the highest figure since 2013-14.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for football policing, said there needed to be "collective responsibility" from fans to stamp out criminal behaviour.

"Once there are several hundred people on the pitch it's impossible to separate those people who just want to enjoy themselves from those who want to assault players, threaten players and aggravate the opposition fans, and then it gets difficult to manage," said Roberts.

Chief Constable Roberts added alcohol was a "perennial driver" of poor behaviour in football, but said cocaine was a rising cause for concern.

"When we do operations on the rail network and when we do operations at grounds, we are consistently finding the presence of cocaine," he said.

"Clearly it's a prevalent thing to take at football and we need to clamp down on that. There is ample evidence that cocaine, particularly with alcohol, in a heightened state of emotion which you often get with football, leads to aggressive and violent behaviour."

That cocktail of drink and drugs was blamed as the root cause for the disorder which marred the Euro 2020 final at Wembley in July last year.

Football banning orders have recently been extended to cover convictions for online hate crime linked to the sport and convictions for selling or taking Class A drugs will also come under the banning order regime from October.

© 2022 AFP

WHO chief says end of Covid pandemic ‘still a long way off’

"being able to see the end, doesn't mean we are at the end."

Issued on: 22/09/2022 - 

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers a speech during the 72nd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe on September 12, 2022 in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. © Jack Guez, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The head of the World Health Organization on Thursday tempered his assertion that the end of the Covid-19 pandemic was near, warning that declaring the crisis over was "still a long way off".

Last week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the world had "never been in a better position to end the pandemic... The end is in sight."

And US President Joe Biden went further in an interview broadcast Sunday, declaring that the pandemic in the United States "is over".

But speaking to the media again Thursday from the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Tedros appeared less upbeat, making clear that "being able to see the end, doesn't mean we are at the end."

He reiterated that the world was in the best position it had ever been in to end the pandemic, with the number of weekly deaths continuing to drop -- and now just 10 percent of what they were at the peak in January 2021.

Tedros pointed out that two-thirds of the world's population has been vaccinated, including three-quarters of health workers and older people.

"We have spent two-and-a-half years in a long, dark tunnel, and we are just beginning to glimpse the light at the end of that tunnel," he said.

But, he stressed, "it is still a long way off, and the tunnel is still dark, with many obstacles that could trip us up if we don't take care."

"We're still in the tunnel."

In its latest epidemiological update, the WHO said over 9,800 fatalities were reported last week, down 17 percent from a week earlier, while 3.2 million new cases were reported.

The UN health agency has warned that the falling number of reported cases is deceptive, since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting less serious cases.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on Covid, told reporters the virus is still "circulating at an intense level," although the situation varied in different countries.

But she pointed out that the world has the tools needed to rein in the spread.

"Our goal is to end the emergency in all countries. And we will keep at this until we reach that goal," she said.

Since the start of the pandemic, the WHO has tallied more than 609 million cases and some 6.5 million deaths, though the true toll is believed to be substantially higher.

A WHO study published in May based on excess mortality seen in various countries during the pandemic estimated that up to 17 million people may have died from Covid in 2020 and 2021.

(AFP)

Fossil fuels make up 90% of Middle East air pollution: study

Issued on: 22/09/2022 -

An aerial view of the Tigris river and the old western side of Iraq's northern city of Mosul Zaid AL-OBEIDI AFP/File


Paris (AFP) – More than 90 percent of harmful air pollution in the Middle East and parts of North Africa comes from fossil fuels, according to research Thursday that showed the region "permanently exceeded" dangerous air quality levels.

The World Health Organization this year said the MENA region had some of the poorest air quality on Earth.

The long-standing assumption was that the smog choking most of the region's cities was primarily composed of desert sand, given their location on the world's "dust belt" where there are frequently more than 20 major sand storms each year.

In 2017, an international team of researchers set off on an epic voyage across the eastern Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal and around the Gulf, using specialised equipment to analyse air quality and particulate matter on shore.

They found that the vast majority of small particles -- which can penetrate deep into the lungs, resulting in greater health risk -- were manmade, mainly from the production and use of fossil fuels.

Writing in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, they showed how the region is blanketed in particularly harmful compounds such as sulphur dioxide, which is a direct result of oil extraction.

Emissions from container vessels in one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world also contributed to the smog.

"We have refineries such as those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are a big source of air pollution as well as ships on the Red Sea, and in the Suez Canal region," said Jos Lelieveld, lead study author from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry.

"So the combination of all of these means that the air is much more polluted than what most people hope it to be."

The team used health and mortality metrics to calculate the number of excess deaths caused by air pollution in the MENA region annually.

The percentage of fossil-fuel driven mortality varied between nations, with 5.9 percent of deaths in Cyprus attributable to air pollution versus 15.9 in Kuwait.

This is a far higher mortality rate than in other industrialised regions. The US and Germany, for example, have 3 percent and 3.7 percent mortality due to air pollution, respectively.

Region-wide, the team calculated that air pollution from fossil fuel use caused one in eight deaths, noting that air quality there "permanently exceeded" WHO guidelines.

"It is very comparable with things that are really of great concern, for example, tobacco smoking and high cholesterol, which are major health risks in the region," Lelieveld told AFP.

"And the realisation of this in the region is practically zero."

He said that while governments in the region counted on fossil fuel production for the majority of their income, the time would come when the health costs due to pollution compounded growing pressure to decarbonise their economies.

"They're not stupid, they know that fossil fuels will end at some point," said Lelieveld.

"I'm hoping this is an additional incentive."

S.Africa teens build solar train as power

cuts haunt commuters

For years, students in a South African township have seen their parents struggle to use trains for daily commutes, the railways frequently hobbled by power outages and cable thefts.

To respond to the crisis, a group of 20 teenagers invented South Africa's first fully solar-powered train.

Photovoltaic panels fitted to the roof, the angular blue-and-white test train moves on an 18-metre-long (60 feet) test track in Soshanguve township north of the capital Pretoria.

Trains are the cheapest mode of transport in South Africa, used mostly by the poor and working class.

"Our parents... no longer use trains (because of) cable theft... and load shedding," said Ronnie Masindi, 18, referring to rolling blackouts caused by failures at old and poorly maintained coal-powered plants.

The state power company Eskom started imposing on-and-off power rationing 15 years ago to prevent a total national blackout.

The power outages, known locally as load-shedding, have worsened over the years disrupting commerce and industry, including rail services.

Infrastructure operator Transnet has struggled to keep rail traffic flowing smoothly since the economic challenges of the pandemic fuelled a surge in cable theft.

By 2020, rail use among public transport users was down almost two-thirds compared to 2013, according to the National Households Travel Survey with many commuters turning to more expensive minibus taxis.

Masindi said they decided to "create and build a solar-powered train that uses solar to move instead of (mains) electricity".

The journey has not been without its challenges.

A lack of funding delayed production of the prototype locomotive, and the government later chipped in.

"It was not a straight line," said another student, Lethabo Nkadimeng, 17. "It was like taking a hike to the highest peak of the mountain."

The train, which can run at 30 kilometres (20 miles) per hour, was showcased at a recent universities innovation event.

For now, the prototype can run for 10 return trips on the track installed on the grounds of a school.

It will be used for further research, and eventually presented as a model the government could adopt.

Fitted with car seats and a flat-screen TV to entertain passengers, it took the students two years to build.

"What we have realised is, if we you give township learners space, resources and a little mentorship they can do anything that any learner can do around the world," said Kgomotso Maimane, the project's supervising teacher.

vid-zam/sn/gw

GRIFTER CAPITALI$T

Latin America bank directors urge firing Trump-nominated chief

Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of Latin America's largest development bank, was found to have violated ethics rules by investigators. US President Joe Biden's administration has been pushing for his removal.

Claver-Carone has been president of the IDB since October 2020

The 14 directors on the board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have voted unanimously to recommend firing President Mauricio Claver-Carone, sources said on Thursday. 

The move comes after an independent investigation confirmed misconduct allegations against Claver-Carone, who was nominated for the job in 2020 by then-US President Donald Trump.

His fate now lies in the hands of the governing board of the IDB representing all 48 of the bank's member nations.

US Treasury Department wants him out

A US Treasury spokesperson said Washington backed Claver-Carone's removal from office and urged "swift resolution" by the IDB's governors. 

"His creation of a climate of fear of retaliation among staff and borrowing countries has forfeited the confidence of the [IDB's] staff and shareholders and necessitates a change in leadership,'' the spokesperson said.

The US is the bank's largest shareholder, with 30% of its voting shares.

An independent probe was set up against Claver-Carone after a complaint that he allegedly had an intimate relationship with an employee in violation of the bank's rules.

According to a report cited by The Associated Press, the investigation found that he had favored this top aide with whom he had had a romantic relationship.

In a statement, Claver-Carone slammed the US Treasury's comments. "It's shameful the US commented to the press before notifying me and that it is not defending two Americans against what is clearly fabricated information," he said.

He also claimed that Washington was "handing" the IDB to China by backing his removal from office.

The Claver-Carone affair comes as World Bank President David Malpass is also under pressure to resign after he failed to state that he accepts the scientific consensus on climate change.

fb/aw (AP, EFE, Reuters) 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Boeing to pay $200 million over misleading investors on 737 MAX

US authorities said Boeing and its former leader, Dennis Muilenburg, had "put profits over people" and misled investors about the safety of its 737 MAX planes after the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

The crashes led regulators around the world to ground the plane for nearly 

two years until Boeing made fixes

Aviation giant Boeing has agreed to pay $200 million (€203 million) to settle charges it misled investors over the safety of its 737 MAX planes, US authorities said on Thursday. 

The model has come under intense criticism for years after two crashes involving the 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. Both planes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, had been in service for just a few months when they crashed.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing's former CEO, is set to pay $1 million to settle the same charges.

Muilenburg had been ousted in December 2019, nine months after the second 737 MAX 8 crash. 

What charges is Boeing paying to settle? 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement that Boeing "negligently violated the antifraud provisions" of US securities laws.

The SEC charged the company and its former leader with making misleading statements about the safety of the planes involved in the 2018 and 2019 crashes.

Boeing and Muilenburg "put profits over people by misleading investors about the safety of the 737 MAX all in an effort to rehabilitate Boeing's image" after the crashes," the SEC said.  

What did Boeing say?

The company said that it had made "broad and deep changes" since the two accidents to improve the safety and quality of its models.

"Today's settlement is part of the company's broader effort to responsibly resolve outstanding legal matters related to the 737 MAX accidents in a manner that serves the best interests of our shareholders, employees and other stakeholders,'' Boeing said in a statement. 

fb/aw (AFP, AP) 

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
'Fat Leonard' fugitive in US Navy scandal captured in Venezuela

Issued on: 22/09/2022

An undated handout picture released on September 21, 2022 by the Instagram account of Interpol Venezuela shows Malaysian fugitive Leonard Francis, known as "Fat Leonard," after his capture in Venezuela - Interpol Venezuela Instagram account/AFP

Caracas (AFP) – A military contractor known as "Fat Leonard" who pleaded guilty in the US Navy's worst ever corruption scandal has been captured in Venezuela after fleeing the United States, the Interpol office in Caracas said.

Leonard Francis cut off his GPS monitor and escaped house arrest in California in early September.

"The fugitive was arrested at the Simon Bolivar de Maiquetia International Airport when he was about to leave the country," a post shared on Instagram Wednesday by the Caracas Interpol office said.

Leonard "entered the country coming from Mexico with a stop in Cuba" and aimed to travel to Russia, the post said, adding that he was the subject of an Interpol red notice.

Francis, a Malaysian national who ran a military contracting company out of Singapore, pleaded guilty in 2015 to offering some $500,000 in bribes to Navy officers to steer official work to his shipyards, carrying out work on US vessels that prosecutors say he overcharged the Navy for, to the tune of $35 million.

Police were sent to his San Diego residence on September 4 after the agency monitoring his ankle bracelet reported a problem with the device, and found that he was gone, the US Marshals Service said.

Francis was arrested in 2013 and pleaded guilty two years later. He suffered numerous health problems, including kidney cancer, which led to him being released to house arrest in 2018 while acting as a cooperating witness for federal prosecutors.

He was due to be sentenced on September 22.

Four Navy officers have been found guilty in the case so far, while another 29 people, including naval officials, contractors and Francis himself, have pleaded guilty, US media said.

© 2022 AFP

Spain plans temporary wealth tax amid high inflation

A government plan calls for a tax on Spain's "big fortunes" would help offset inflation relief measures to assist low and middle-income Spaniards.

Montero says an "exceptional" tax would affect "no more than one percent" of the population

Spain's left-wing government said it would slap a temporary tax on the wealthiest 1% of the country's population to help pay for inflation relief measures.

"We are talking about millionaires, those who are in the 1% of income," Finance Minister Maria Jesus Montero told the laSexta television channel on Thursday.

She said it was important that "we can finance the aid" to support "the middle class and workers" but did not provide details on the tax rate or how much it would raise.

The government has introduced a raft of measures to help people cope with soaring prices, such as free public transport, stipends for students to stay in school and subsidized petrol.

The country's annual inflation rate hit 10.4% in August. It has remained in double digits since June, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.

Spain already targeting banks and energy firms

In July, the government introduced a bill to create a temporary levy on banks and large energy companies.

"We are going to use a similar scheme to that for energy companies and banking. For the next two years...the big fortunes of this country will be asked to make a temporary effort," Montero said on Thursday.

She still has to negotiate the plan with her Socialist party's coalition partner Unidas Podemos and acknowledged that parliamentary approval procedures mean it might not be ready by the start of 2023.

lo/wmr (AFP, Reuters)

Africa: After the drought comes the flood

Africa's rivers are lifelines. But extreme weather often poses a threat to those who live on their banks. Early-warning weather systems are in need of improvement, experts say.

Flooding forced people from their homes in Ethiopia's Gambela region in September 2022

The flooding in Nigeria is extreme. Houses have been swept away, more than 300 lives have been lost and more than 100,000 people are displaced, according to the authorities.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) says the floods are the worst in decades and has warned that the situation could deteriorate further. 

Speaking after an emergency meeting on Monday, NEMA Director General Mustapha Habib Ahmed said the flooding was a result of regular rains since July.

The Niger River and its largest tributary, the Benue, have been carrying immense amounts of water. Experts say that several dams in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon could overflow in the coming weeks.

Large swathes of arable land are already flooded.

Experts are warning that floods could exacerbate hunger in Nigeria

Warnings come too late

Three of Nigeria's northern states are particularly affected by the flooding: Yobe, Adamawa and Borno.

Yerma Ahmad Adamu, a senior physician at Yerma Memorial Hospital in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, is dissatisfied with the government's response.

Flooding has hit northern Nigerian states particularly hard, with neighboring

 Cameroon also affected

The call by NEMA and neighboring states for people to evacuate to high-lying places and stockpile foodstuffs came too late, Adamu said in a DW interview.

Authorities had warned of the floods six months ago, Adamu said. But concrete forecasts about the extent were lacking, although they would have helped those now affected to prepare better.

"People need to boil water, and health centers should have zinc oxide ready — that's given to children and adults to protect them from diarrhea — plus a combination of salt and water," the physician told DW. 

Adapting to climate change

Across Africa, extreme weather events have increased in recent years, with sometimes devastating consequences. A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) points to severe flooding in South Sudan, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2021 — and extreme drought that led to forest fires, particularly in northern Africa.

Only 40% of Africa's population currently access early warning systems to protect them from extreme weather and the effects of climate change, according to the WMO.

As a key task for the future, the WMO recommends intensified cross-border cooperation, data and expertise-sharing, as well as more investment in  climate change adaptation.

Nigeria is battling its worst floods in a decade with more than 300 people killed in 2022 including at least 20 this week, authorities said on Monday, admitting the situation is “beyond our control.” FRANCE 24's Sam Olukoya reports.

Niger: Measuring stations and flood maps

Approaches to this have been in place in West Africa for decades. For example, the Niger Basin Authority (ABN) has been bringing together nine states affected by the Niger River system since 1980.

At around 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles), the Niger is Africa's third-longest river. Some 160 million people live alongits banks. They depend on its water, but have to live with its risks.

ABN area manager Issa Bakayoko told DW about the dangerous interplay between floods and drought. 

"In times of drought, the vegetation cover is attacked, and the land is exposed to wind and rain. Then, when there is heavy rainfall, the runoff water washes sand and rain with it. The riverbed silts up, and the river can no longer carry the large volumes of water," Bakayoko said.

In order to cope with the risks, riverside states have set up a measuring system that records water levels and outflowing water volumes, and maps which water levels can be expected when and where. The German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) provides support in this regard.

The satellite-based early warning system, consisting of 27 measuring stations, enablesprecise advance warnings within 24 hours, the GIZ project manager Jochen Rudolph told DW.

Flood maps generated from the data also allow conclusions to be drawn about when and where the population should be evacuated.

Planning larger dams and urban development

However, implementing the recommendations drawn from this analysis is not always possiblein the Niger Basin. Some states simply cannot afford the costs, according to Rudolph. despite contributing significant sums. 

A number of commissions in Africa work similarly to the ABN, Rudolph told DW. These include the Nile Basin Initiative and commissions for Lake Victoria in East Africa, the  Okavango in southern Africa,or the Volta River system in Ghana and Burkina Faso.

But there is room for improvement, Rudolph told DW. Floods could be mitigated with larger dams. "Three are being planned and already built on the Niger. With retention basins that prevent the runoff of water masses in the rainy season from being as violent as it often was i

No matter how great the efforts to regulate water masses, the effects of climate change will increasingly force people to adapt. The WMO report comes to this conclusion, as do experts interviewed by DW.

Especially in the face of a growing population, a sustainable plan for urban development is essential, says Issa Bakayoko: "Such a plan must define the flood-prone areas and keep them free as catchment areas, so it must not make them available for people to live in." If countries can do that, he says, it could drastically reduce the impact of flooding.

Antonio Cascais and Al-Amin Suleiman Mohammad in Nigeria contributed to this article.

Edited by: Benita van Eyssen