Conservative Supreme Court justices seem open to an attack on the Securities and Exchange Commission

BY MARK SHERMAN
 November 29, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed open to a challenge to how the Securities and Exchange Commission fights fraud, in a case that could have far-reaching effects on other regulatory agencies.

A majority of the nine-member court suggested that people accused of fraud by the SEC should have the right to have their cases decided by a jury in federal court, instead of by the SEC’s in-house administrative law judges.

The justices heard more than two hours of arguments in the Biden administration’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that threw out stiff financial penalties imposed on hedge fund manager George R. Jarkesy by the SEC, which regulates securities markets.

“That seems problematic to say that the government can deprive you of your property, your money, substantial sums in a tribunal that is at least perceived as not being impartial,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh said.

Senate Democrats authorize subpoenas in the Supreme Court ethics probe. GOP won’t back enforcement

Justice Department lawyer Brian Fletcher warned the justices that their decision could have effects reaching far beyond the SEC, noting that roughly two dozen agencies have similar enforcement schemes.

“I don’t want you to think it’s just about the SEC,” Fletcher said.

The case is just one of several this term in which conservative and business interests are urging the court to constrict federal regulators. The court’s six conservatives already have reined them in, including in May’s decision sharply limiting their ability to police water pollution in wetlands.

In the Jarkesy case, the Democratic administration is relying on a 50-year-old decision in which the court ruled that in-house proceedings did not violate the Constitution’s right to a jury trial in civil lawsuits.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, signaling his concerns with the power of federal regulators, noted that “the impact of governmental agencies on daily life today is enormously more significant than it was 50 years ago.”

The court’s three liberal justices seemed sympathetic to the Biden administration’s arguments. Justice Elena Kagan, responding to Roberts, said “our problems have only gotten more complicated and difficult.”

Later, Kagan said in-house enforcement actions have been close to routine for the past half-century. “Nobody has had the, you know, chutzpah, to quote my people,” said Kagan, who is Jewish.

Last year, a divided panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Jarkesy and his Patriot28 investment adviser group on three issues.

It found that the SEC’s case against him, resulting in a $300,000 civil fine and the repayment of $680,000 in allegedly ill-gotten gains, should have been heard in a federal court instead of before one of the SEC’s administrative law judges.

Although the Supreme Court basically dealt only with the federal court issue, the appellate panel also said Congress unconstitutionally granted the SEC “unfettered authority” to decide whether the case should be tried in a court of law or handled within the executive branch agency. And it said laws shielding the commission’s administrative law judges from being fired by the president are unconstitutional.

Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod wrote the appellate opinion, joined by Judge Andrew Oldham. Elrod was appointed by President George W. Bush, and Oldham by President Donald Trump. Bush and Trump are Republicans.

Judge Eugene Davis, a nominee of President Ronald Reagan, also a Republican, dissented.

Jarkesy’s lawyers noted that the SEC wins almost all the cases it brings in front of the administrative law judges but only about 60% of cases tried in federal court.

The SEC was awarded more than $5 billion in civil penalties in the 2023 government spending year that ended Sept. 30, the agency said in a news release. It was unclear how much of that money came through in-house proceedings or lawsuits in federal court.

A decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, 22-859, is expected by early summer.

Protester critically injured after setting self on fire outside Israeli consulate in Atlanta

A protester was in critical condition Friday after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, authorities said. A security guard who tried to intervene was also injured. (Dec 01) (AP production Javier Arciga)

December 2, 2023

ATLANTA (AP) — A protester was in critical condition Friday after setting themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, authorities said. A security guard who tried to intervene was also injured.

A Palestinian flag found at the scene was part of the protest, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said at a news conference.

He added that investigators did not believe there was any connection to terrorism and none of the consular staff was ever in danger.

“We do not see any threat here,” he said. “We believe it was an act of extreme political protest that occurred.”

Authorities did not release the protester’s name, age or gender. The person set up outside the building in the city’s midtown neighborhood on Friday afternoon and used gasoline as an accelerant, Atlanta Fire Chief Roderick Smith said.

The protester was in critical condition, with burn injuries to the body. A security guard that tried to stop the person was burned on his wrist and leg, Smith said.

Schierbaum said police are aware of heightened tensions in the Jewish and Muslim community and have stepped up patrols at certain locations, including the consulate.


Emergency personnel work the scene after a protester set themself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Friday, Dec. 1, 2023.

 (Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Demonstrations have been widespread and tensions in the U.S. have escalated as the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war.

The conflict began after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and other militants, who killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and took around 240 people captive. More than 15,200 people have been killed by Israel’s assault on Hamas-controlled Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there.

A weeklong cease-fire that brought the exchanges of dozens of hostages held by Hamas for scores of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel gave way Friday morning to resumed fighting between Israel and Hamas.

MORE INFO

 

Canadian mining company starts arbitration in case of closed copper mine in Panama

 December 1, 2023

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Canada’s First Quantum Minerals Ltd. announced Friday it has requested arbitration proceedings to fight a Panamanian decision to halt a major open-pit copper mine concession in Panama or obtain damages.

First Quantum said one arbitration was requested under the Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement. It has also started proceedings before the International Court of Arbitration, which would meet in Miami, Florida, the company said in a statement.

In a historic ruling on Tuesday, Panama’s Supreme Court declared that legislation granting the mine a 20-year concession was unconstitutional. That decision was celebrated by thousands of Panamanians activists who had argued the project would damage a forested coastal area and threaten water supplies.

First Quantum said it requested arbitration from the international panel on Wednesday and that it had initiated proceedings under the free trade agreement even before the court ruling. It did not say what remedy or damages it was seeking, but did say it was open to talks.

First Quantum’s subsidiary, Cobre Panama, “reiterates that transparency and compliance with the law has always been fundamental for the development of its operations and remains open to constructive dialogue in order to reach consensus,” the company said.

The mine, which would be closed by the court ruling, has been an important economic engine for the country since the mine began large-scale production in 2019.

But moves this year to grant the company the 20-year concession triggered massive protests that paralyzed the Central American nation for over a month, mobilizing a broad swath of society, including Indigenous communities, who said the mine was destroying key ecosystems.

The company has said the mine generates 40,000 jobs, including 7,000 direct jobs, and that it contributes the equivalent of 5% of Panama’s GDP.

The firm said it would take time to properly close the mine.

“The Court’s decision does not take into account a planned and managed closure scenario, in which key environmental measures are required to be implemented to maintain the environmental safety of the site during this process,” including water treatment and the storage of mine tailings.

Panama two weeks ago received an initial payment of $567 million from First Quantum under the new contract that was finalized in October. Due to the legal dispute, the amount went directly to a restricted account.

The contract also stipulated that Panama would receive at least $375 million annually from the mining company, an amount that critics considered meager.

Cobre Panama published a scathing statement on Wednesday saying the Supreme Court decision will likely have a negative economic impact and warned that lack of maintenance of drainage systems in the mines could have “catastrophic consequences.”

The move also “puts at risk” all of Panama’s other business contracts, the company said.

VICTOR JARA

US expels an ex-Chilean army officer accused of a folk singer’s torture and murder

BY JOSHUA GOODMAN
 December 1, 2023

MIAMI (AP) — The U.S. has expelled a former Chilean Army officer accused of torturing and killing folk singer Victor Jara during the country’s bloody 1973 coup.

Pedro Barrientos had emigrated to Florida in 1990, the same year the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet came to an end.

This year, he was stripped of his U.S. citizenship after it was found he concealed information about his Chilean military service during his immigration proceedings.

Jara, a popular singer and university professor, was a fervent supporter of socialist President Salvador Allende. He was seized and taken to a Santiago stadium where thousands of prisoners were held only hours after Pinochet assaulted the presidential palace and overthrew Allende on Sept. 11, 1973. There, he was beaten and he was shot with at least 44 bullets — one of the first of more than 3,000 Chileans killed for opposing Pinochet’s iron-fisted rule.

Barrientos has always denied any involvement in Jara’s murder

But in 2016, a federal jury in Florida found him liable for the torture and killing of Jara in a civil lawsuit brought by Jara’s widow, the British dancer Joan Turner Jara.

Homeland Security Investigations said that Barrientos was removed Thursday on a flight from Miami and taken into custody by Chilean law enforcement officials upon his arrival in the South American country.

Italy reportedly refused Munich museum’s request to return ancient Roman statue bought by Hitler

BUT VE HAVE A RECIEPT

December 2, 2023

MILAN (AP) — Italy’s culture minister is reportedly refusing a request by the German State Antiquities Collection in Munich to return an ancient Roman statue that embodied Hitler’s Aryan aesthetic, calling it a national treasure.

The Discobolus Palombara is a 2nd Century Roman copy of a long-lost Greek bronze original. Hitler had bought the Roman copy from its private Italian owner in 1938 under pressure from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and against the wishes of the education minister and cultural officials. The statue, unearthed at a Roman villa in 1781, was returned to Italy in 1948 as part of works illegally obtained by the Nazis.

The dispute arose when the director of the National Roman Museum requested the statue’s 17th Century marble base be returned from the Antikensammlungen state antiquities collection. The German museum instead asked for the return of the Discobolus Palombara, saying it had been illegally transported to Italy in 1948, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Friday.

Italy’s culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, expressed doubts that the German culture minister, Claudia Roth, was aware of the Bavarian request.

“Over my dead body. The work absolutely must remain in Italy because it is a national treasure,’’ Sangiuliano was quoted by Corriere as saying, adding that he hoped that the base would be returned.

The culture ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Burkina Faso rights defender abducted as concerns grow over alleged clampdown on dissent


 Daouda Diallo, one of Burkina Faso’s most prominent human rights defenders poses for a photograph, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Thursday Feb. 3, 2022. Daouda Diallo — who won the Martin Ennals awards for human rights in 2022 — was taken to an unknown location by men who accosted him in the nation’s capital city on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023 the local civic group which Diallo founded said in a statement.

 (AP Photo/Sophie Garcia, File)

BY CHINEDU ASADU
December 2, 2023


ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A prominent human rights defender in Burkina Faso has been abducted by unknown individuals, rights groups have announced, in what activists say could be the latest attempt by the military government to target dissidents using a controversial law.

Daouda Diallo, a 2022 recipient of the Martin Ennals international human rights award, was abducted on Friday in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou after visiting the passport department where he had gone to renew his documents, according to the local Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities civic group, which Diallo founded.

His captors – in civilian clothing – accosted him as he tried to enter his car and took him to “an unknown location,” the group said in a statement on Friday, warning that Diallo’s health could be at risk and demanding his “immediate and unconditional” release.

Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa office said Diallo’s abduction was “presumably (for him) to be forcibly conscripted” after he was listed last month among those ordered to join Burkina Faso’s security forces in their fight against jihadi violence as provided by a new law.

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“Amnesty International denounces the use of conscription to intimidate independent voices in #BurkinaFaso and calls for the release of Dr. Diallo,” the group said via X, formerly known as Twitter.


Earlier this year, Burkina Faso’s junta announced the “general mobilization” decree to recapture territories lost as jihadi attacks continue to ravage the landlocked country.

The decree empowers the government to send people to join the fight against the armed groups. But it is also being used to “target individuals who have openly criticized the junta” and “to silence peaceful dissent and punish its critics,” Human Rights Watch has said.

HRW said at least a dozen journalists, civil society activists and opposition party members were informed by the government in November that they would be conscripted, including Diallo, who joined Burkina Faso activists in condemning the move.

“The simple fact of showing an independence of position is enough to be conscripted,” said Ousmane Diallo, a researcher with Amnesty International in Burkina Faso.

“Right now, civil society activists, human rights defenders and even leaders of opposition political parties do not dare express freely their opinions because this decree is being used to silence and intimidate all of the voices that are independent,” he added.

Daouda Diallo won the prestigious Martin Ennals awards for his work in documenting abuses and protecting people’s rights in Burkina Faso where security forces have been fighting jihadi violence for many years.

A pharmacist turned activist, he told The Associated Press last year that he’s regularly followed, his home has been robbed and he rarely sleeps in the same place for fear of being killed.

—-

Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Zambia landslides bury miners digging tunnels illegally, killing 7 and leaving more than 20 missing

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)Read More

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Machinery and people are seen during a mine rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

Mine workers are seen during a rescue mission in Chingola, around 400 kilometres (248 miles) north of the capital Lusaka, Zambia, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023. Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday. (AP Photo)

BY TSVANGIRAYI MUKWAZHI AND NOEL SICHALWE
 December 2, 2023

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Seven miners were confirmed dead and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday.

No bodies had yet been retrieved after the landslides late on Thursday night, police said. Many of the victims were believed to have drowned.

The miners were digging for copper ore at the Seseli open-pit mine in the copper-belt city of Chingola, around 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Lusaka, according to police. The landslides happened some time between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thursday, police said.

Police gave names or partial names of seven confirmed victims and said all of the miners in the tunnels are “suspected to have died.”

Neither police nor government officials could say exactly how many miners were trapped in the tunnels, but Chingola District Commissioner Raphael Chumupi told The Associated Press that there were at least 36.

“We are saddened to hear about the tragic accident at a makeshift mine site in Chingola that has claimed many lives,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said in a post on his official Facebook page. “Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who died in the accident. We express gratitude to the rescuers and volunteers working tirelessly to reach those still trapped.”

The victims were buried at multiple sites, police said. Police, a mine rescue team and emergency services were at the mine.

“The bodies are not yet retrieved, as efforts are being made to retrieve them,” police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga said.

Chumupi said the miners were engaged in illegal mining without the knowledge of the mine owners. He said they were buried in three separate tunnels.

Illegal artisanal mining is common in Chingola, where the open pits are surrounded by huge waste dumps made up of rock and earth that has been dug out of the mines.

Zambia, a southern African nation of 20 million people, is among the 10 biggest copper producers in the world.
___

Mukwazhi reported from Harare, Zimbabwe.

Bolivia’s Indigenous women climbers fear for their future as the Andean glaciers melt

Bolivia’s Indigenous ‘cholitas’ make a living guiding clients on high altitude glaciers. But now climate change is accelerating the disappearance of these glaciers and the women risk losing their livelihood.

 (Nov. 31) (AP Video/Carlos Guerrero).Photos

BY PAOLA FLORES
 December 1, 2023

EL ALTO, Bolivia (AP) — When they first started climbing the Andes peaks, they could hear the ice crunching under their crampons. These days, it’s the sound of melted water running beneath their feet that they mostly listen to as they make their ascents.

Dressed in colorful, multilayered skirts, a group of 20 Indigenous Bolivian women — known as the Cholita climbers — have been climbing the mountain range for the past eight years, working as tourist guides. But as the glaciers in the South American country retreat as a result of climate change, they worry about the future of their jobs.

The Aymara women remember a time when practically every spot on the glaciers was covered in snow, but now there are parts with nothing but rocks.

“There used to be a white blanket and now there is only rock,” said Lidia Huayllas, one of the climbers. “The thaw is very noticeable.”

Huayllas said she has seen the snow-capped Huayna Potosí mountain, a 6,000-meter (19,600-feet) peak near the Bolivian city of El Alto, shrink little by little in the past two decades.

“We used to walk normally; now, there are rocks and water overflowing,” said the 57-year-old woman as she jumped from stone to stone to avoid getting her skirt and feet wet.

Edson Ramírez, a glaciologist from the Pierre and Marie Curie University in France, estimates that in the last 30 years, Bolivian glaciers have lost 40% of their thickness due to climate change. In the lower parts of the mountain, he says, the ice has basically vanished.

“We already lost Chacaltaya,” said Ramírez, referring to a 5,400-meter (17,700-feet) mountain that used to be a popular ski resort and now has no ice left.

With no ice left in the lower parts of the mountain range, the Cholita climbers need to go further up to find it. This has reduced the number of tourists seeking their services as guides.

Huayllas would not say how much she makes as a tour guide, but she said a Cholita climber currently makes about $30 per tour. That is less than the $50 per tour they used to make.

In 2022, during the September-December climbing season, the Cholitas did 30 tours, Huayllas said. This year, through early November, they had barely done 16.

The situation has gotten so critical, the 20 women have looked for other jobs to make ends meet. Some of the Cholitas have started making and selling blankets and coats with alpaca wool from the Andes, Huayllas said.

“If this continues, we’re going to have to work in commerce or do something else for a living,” said Huayllas, although she quickly dismissed her own pessimistic thought, somehow hoping for a change: “No. This is our source of work.”
____

UPDATED

Myanmar pro-democracy fighters battle to take state capital

Loikaw (Myanmar) (AFP) – Myanmar pro-democracy fighters in a battered pickup truck drive past abandoned and bombed-out houses in the eastern city of Loikaw, on their way to the front lines of the battle to capture their first state capital from the junta.

Issued on: 02/12/2023 

PDFs and allied ethnic minority groups have been battling the Myanmar army for weeks in and around Loikaw 

"Our soldiers are from Loikaw township and it's the main reason we are motivated. We all are doing our best with the hope of going back to our homes", said Lin Lin, their leader.

He belongs to one of the dozens of "People's Defence Force" groups (PDFs) that sprung up across Myanmar to fight the military's 2021 coup and are now determined to capture Loikaw and deal a blow to the country's rulers.

PDFs and allied ethnic minority groups have been battling the Myanmar army for weeks in and around Loikaw, a city nestled in lush hills and home to around 50,000 people in eastern Kayah state.

Thousands of residents have already fled air attacks, artillery bombardments and urban battles, PDF fighters said.

Earlier this week, the streets were silent apart from the sounds of sporadic artillery fire.

"At the moment the military is on the defensive," said Lin Lin.

The junta is reeling from an offensive by three ethnic minority groups along the rugged northern border with China 

The junta is reeling from an offensive by three ethnic minority groups along the rugged northern border with China that has captured several towns and blocked vital trade routes.

This offensive, dubbed "Operation 1027" after the date it was launched five weeks ago, is the biggest challenge faced by Myanmar's army since it seized power.

Soon after clashes erupted in northern Shan state, other PDF groups opened new fronts in several other states, including Kayah.

Inside Loikaw, footage obtained by AFP shows abandoned houses and shops and streets pockmarked by explosions.

Buildings have been damaged by artillery shells and on some street corners positions fortified with sandbags can be seen.

The military was holed up in the city police station and other buildings, Khun Bedu, the chairman of the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), one of the groups fighting in Loikaw, told AFP.

With ground troops pinned down, the military was relying on its air and artillery strikes to support its troops, Khun Bedu said.

The military "called in airstrikes on us in many places in the town last night", he told AFP on Friday. "We will continue to fight."

The KNDF posted footage two weeks ago that it said showed its fighters receiving the surrender of junta troops who had been holed up in the city's university.

The KNDF and allied fighters have also made several attempts to seize Loikaw's main prison, which have been beaten back, according to the KNDF and the military.
Still 'under control '

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said on Wednesday the weeks-long assault on Loikaw had shown "excessive strength".

But he maintained the Loikaw region was "under control".

More than 500,000 people have been displaced across Myanmar since the launch of 'Operation 1027', according to the UN 

The United Nations said it evacuated most of its staff from Loikaw last month due to "aerial bombardment of the town and active fighting" in its streets.

In the north, the Arakan Army (AA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) and the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) have since seized dozens of military outposts.

More than 500,000 people have been displaced across Myanmar since the launch of "Operation 1027", according to the UN.

Around 70 percent of Loikaw's population is thought to have fled in recent weeks, with PDF groups claiming the military had blocked roads and tried to prevent civilians from fleeing the city.

Pro-democracy fighters say they are battling on, spurred by the prize of seizing a state capital in what would be a major victory in their fight against the junta.

Pro-democracy fighters say they are battling on, spurred by the prize of seizing a state capital in what would be a major victory 

But some are worried about the cost to their fighters, and to the city itself.

"The military have lost many soldiers and they are weak right now," said Lin Lin.

"We are only afraid of their air strikes."

© 2023 AFP

Myanmar’s military is losing ground against coordinated nationwide attacks, buoying opposition hopes


In this photo provided by the Kokang online media, members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check weapons the group allegedly seized from Myanmar’s army outpost on a hill in Hsenwi township in Shan state, Myanmar, on Nov. 24, 2023. A major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three militias of ethnic minorities has been moving at lightning speed, inspiring resistance forces around the country to attack. (The Kokang online media via AP)

In this photo provided by the Kokang online media, members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, pose for a photograph in front of weapons the group allegedly seized from Myanmar’s army outpost on a hill in Hsenwi township in Shan state, Myanmar, on Nov. 24, 2023. A major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three militias of ethnic minorities has been moving at lightning speed, inspiring resistance forces around the country to attack. (The Kokang online media via AP)

- In this photo provided by the Kokang online media, members of an ethnic armed forces group, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance, check an army armored vehicle the group allegedly seized from Myanmar’s army outpost on a hill in Hsenwi township in Shan state, Myanmar, on Nov. 24, 2023. A major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three militias of ethnic minorities has been moving at lightning speed, inspiring resistance forces around the country to attack. (The Kokang online media via AP)

 In this photo released from the The Military True News Information Team on Nov. 8, 2023, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, chairman of State Administration Council, speaks during a meeting with members the National Defense and Security Council in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (The Military True News Information Team via AP, File)

BY DAVID RISING
 December 1, 2023


BANGKOK (AP) — About two weeks into a major offensive against Myanmar’s military-run government by an alliance of three well-armed militias of ethnic minorities, an army captain, fighting in a jungle area near the northeastern border with China, lamented that he’d never seen such intense action.

His commander in Myanmar’s 99th Light Infantry Division had been killed in fighting in Shan state the week before and the 35-year-old career soldier said army outposts were in disarray and being hit from all sides.

“I have never faced these kinds of battles before,” the combat veteran told The Associated Press by phone. “This fighting in Shan is unprecedented.” Eight days later the captain was dead himself, killed defending an outpost and hastily buried near where he fell, according to his family.

The coordinated offensive in the northeast has inspired resistance forces around the country to attack, and Myanmar’s military is falling back on almost every front. The army says it’s regrouping and will regain the initiative, but hope is rising among opponents that this could be a turning point in the struggle to oust the army leaders who toppled democratically elected Aung San Suu Kyi almost three years ago.

“The current operation is a great opportunity to change the political situation in Myanmar, ” said Li Kyar Win, spokesperson for the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, one of the three militias known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance that launched the offensive on Oct. 27.

“The goal and purpose of the alliance groups and other resistance forces are the same,” he told the AP. “We are trying to eliminate the military dictatorship.”

Caught by surprise by the attack dubbed Operation 1027, the military has lost more than 180 outposts and strongpoints, including four major bases and four economically important border crossings with China.

Both sides claim they have inflicted heavy tolls on the other, though accurate casualty figures are not available. Nearly 335,000 civilians have been displaced during the current fighting, bringing the total to more than 2 million displaced nationwide, according to the United Nations.

In the latest assault, a coalition of militia forces attacked a town in southeastern Kayin state on Friday, blocking the main road to a key border town with Thailand. Residents said the military responded with artillery and airstrikes.

“This is the biggest battlefield challenge that the Myanmar military has faced for decades,” Richard Horsey, the International Crisis Group’s Myanmar expert, said of the offensive.

“And for the regime, this is by far the most difficult moment it’s faced since the early days of the coup.”

Complicating matters for the military is China ‘s apparent tacit support for the Three Brotherhood Alliance, stemming, at least partially, from Beijing’s growing irritation at the burgeoning drug trade along its border and the proliferation of centers in Myanmar from which cyberscams are run, frequently by Chinese organized crime cartels with workers trafficked from China or elsewhere in the region.

As Operation 1027 has gained ground, thousands of Chinese nationals involved in such operations have been repatriated into police custody in China, giving Beijing little reason to exert pressure on the Brotherhood to stop fighting.

The military, known as the Tatmadaw, remains far bigger and better trained than the resistance forces, and has armor, airpower and even naval assets to fight the lightly armed militias organized by various ethnic minority groups.

But with its unexpectedly quick and widespread losses and overstretched forces, morale is sagging with more troops surrendering and defecting, giving rise to a wary optimism among its diverse opponents.

The current gains are just part of what has been a long struggle, said Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the National Unity Government, the leading opposition organization.

“I would say the revolution has reached the next level, rather than to say it has reached a turning point,” he said.

“What we have now is the results of our preparation, organization and building over nearly the past three years,” he said.

THE OFFENSIVE

The Feb. 1, 2021, seizure of power by army commander Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing brought thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators to the streets of Myanmar’s cities.

Military leaders responded with brutal crackdowns and have arrested more than 25,000 people and killed more than 4,200 as of Friday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, and U.N. independent investigators earlier this year accused the regime of being responsible for multiple war crimes.

Its violent tactics gave rise to People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs — armed resistance forces that support the National Unity Government, many of which were trained by the ethnic armed organizations the military has fought in the country’s border regions for years.

But resistance was fragmented until Operation 1027, when three of the country’s most powerful armed ethnic groups, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in northeastern Shan state, and the Arakan Army in western Rakhine state, assembled a force of some 10,000 fighters, according to expert estimates, and rapidly overran military positions.

Sensing weakness and inspired by the early successes of those attacks, the Kachin Independence Army followed by launching new attacks in northern Kachin state, then joined the Arakan Army to help lead a PDF group to take a town in central Sagaing, the heartland of traditional ethnic Bamar support for the Tatmadaw.

In the eastern state of Kayah, also known as Karenni, an alliance of ethnic armed organizations launched their own attacks, beginning a direct assault on Nov. 11 on the state capital of Loikaw, where the Tatmadaw has a regional command base.

In the fierce ongoing fighting for Loikaw, the military is using artillery and airstrikes to pound militia positions.

But Khun Bedu, head of the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force, one of the biggest militias involved in the attack, said it was critical to take the Tatmadaw base.

“We have time, and it is a good opportunity,” he told AP.

Completing the encirclement of Tatmadaw forces, the Arakan Army attacked outposts in its home state of Rakhine in the country’s west on Nov. 13. Their success has been slow, with the Tatmadaw making use of naval power off the west coast to bombard positions, along with concentrated artillery and air strikes, according to a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Morgan Michaels, who authored the report and runs the IISS Myanmar Conflict Map project, cautioned that the Tatmadaw has been able to concentrate its forces in strong points by abandoning positions and withdrawing, and remains a formidable force.

“It’s not done fighting, and the air and artillery strikes are increasing and becoming more intense,” he said. “So we have to see how that plays out.”

And despite their talk of ridding the country of the military regime, a lot of the fighting is also about the various groups seizing control of territory, especially the MNDAA, which was pushed out of the Kokang area of Shan state, including the capital Laukkaing, more than a decade ago by the military.

“The military could probably end a lot of this with a deal if it needed to,” Michaels said. “It would have to give up something considerable, but I think it could stop the bleeding by giving the MNDAA a considerable concession if they absolutely needed to.”

Still, unlike the civil war in Syria where multiple groups have different and often conflicting objectives, in Myanmar the anti-military groups are not fighting among each other, he said.

“It’s important to emphasize that many groups have the shared goal of either overthrowing or dismantling or severely depleting the capacity of the military regime,” Michaels said.

It was Nov. 15 when the AP first contacted the Tatmadaw captain, reaching him as he was fleeing a position through the jungle near the border town of Monekoe, one of the alliance’s primary targets.

He was able to link up with others, and then led a column back to the Monekoe area to take charge of an outpost on Nov. 22, when he gave the AP a grim assessment of his situation.

“We are surrounded by enemies,” he said, adding that even local army-affiliated militia could not be trusted.

“Here it is difficult to differentiate between who is enemy or friend,” he said.

The captain, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals against himself or his family for talking with the media, said there was not even enough time to eat a meal.

“We have to be always ready in an attack position,” he said as the sound of gunfire and an explosion erupted in the background.

“I can’t keep talking,” he said quickly. “They are coming to attack.”

CHINA’S ROLE

Well aware of Beijing’s irritation over the criminal activity along its border, the Three Brotherhood Alliance underlined as it launched its offensive that it was committed to “combatting the widespread online gambling fraud that has plagued Myanmar.”

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has tried, unsuccessfully, to turn that on its head and say that the offensive is being funded by the drug trade.

As militia forces have advanced toward the city of Laukkaing, where many of the scam centers were located, their operations have been scattering and many high-level suspects have been captured and turned over to China.

Knowing China’s historic ties to the Brotherhood militias and the influence it wields, supporters of Myanmar’s ruling generals have held several demonstrations in major cities, including in front of the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, accusing China of aiding the militia alliance.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin skirted a question about those allegations this week, instead telling reporters that Beijing “respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Myanmar” and reiterating calls for peace.

But Beijing’s actions speak louder than its words, Horsey said.

“If they really wanted the cease-fire, they do have the leverage to enforce one or get pretty far toward enforcing one,” he said. “They haven’t done that, so that’s telling.”

THE CAPTAIN’S DEATH

The AP last made contact with the captain fighting in Shan state on Nov. 23. The call was short.

“I have something to prepare for our outpost,” he said hurriedly. “I will call you back.”

The next call was from a relative on Nov. 25, who said they had been informed he was killed in a night raid on his outpost and buried on site.

It was not clear exactly where the outpost was located, but only one battle was reported in the region that night.

The Brotherhood’s Ta’ang National Liberation Army said its forces attacked a large military outpost in Lashio township on Nov. 23 and took it early the next day.

In its matter-of-fact report, Ta’ang forces said they seized a howitzer, 78 smaller weapons and ammunition, and found the burial site of “more than 50 enemy.”
___

Associated Press writer Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this story.
___

Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

Police charge director of Miss Nicaragua pageant with running ‘beauty queen coup’ plot


BEAUTY AND THE BEAST(S)

Miss Nicaragua Sheynnis Palacios participates in the evening gown category during the 72nd Miss Universe Beauty Pageant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023. The 23-year-old communicologist went on to win the competition, the first to wear the crown from her country. 

(AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, lead a rally in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 6, 2018. The U.S. State Department called Nicaragua’s formal withdrawal from the Organization of American States on Sunday, Nov. 19, “another step away from democracy.” The regional body, known by its initials OAS, has long criticized rights violations under Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega. Ortega, who governs alongside his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, has rejected those criticisms and started the two-year process to leave the OAS in November 2021. 

(AP Photo/Alfredo Zuniga, File)

BY GABRIELA SELSER
December 1, 2023

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Nicaraguan police said Friday they want to arrest the director of the Miss Nicaragua pageant, accusing her of intentionally rigging contests so that anti-government beauty queens would win the pageants as part of a plot to overthrow the government.

The charges against pageant director Karen Celebertti would not be out of place in a vintage James Bond movie with a repressive, closed off government, coup-plotting claims, foreign agents and beauty queens.

It all started Nov. 18, when Miss Nicaragua, Nicaragua’s Sheynnis Palacios won the Miss Universe competition. The government of President Daniel Ortega briefly thought it had scored a rare public relations victory, calling her win a moment of “legitimate joy and pride.”

But the tone quickly soured the day after the win when it emerged that Palacios had posted photos of herself on Facebook participating in one of the mass anti-government protests in 2018.

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The protests were violently repressed, and human rights officials say 355 people were killed by government forces. Ortega claimed the protests were an attempted coup with foreign backing, aiming for his overthrow. His opponents said Nicaraguans were protesting his increasingly repressive rule and seemingly endless urge to hold on to power.

A statement by the National Police claimed Celebertti “participated actively, on the internet and in the streets in the terrorist actions of a failed coup,” an apparent reference to the 2018 protests.

Celebertti apparently slipped through the hands of police after she was reportedly denied permission to enter the country a few days ago. But some local media reported that her son and husband had been taken into custody.

Celebertti, her husband and son face charges of “treason to the motherland.” They have not spoken publicly about the charges against them.

Celebertti “remained in contact with the traitors, and offered to employ the franchises, platforms and spaces supposedly used to promote ‘innocent’ beauty pageants, in a conspiracy orchestrated to convert the contests into traps and political ambushes financed by foreign agents,” according to the statement.

It didn’t help that many ordinary Nicaraguans — who are largely forbidden to protest or carry the national flag in marches — took advantage of the Miss Universe win as a rare opportunity to celebrate in the streets.

Their use of the blue-and-white national flag, as opposed to Ortega’s red-and-black Sandinista banner, further angered the government, who claimed the plotters “would take to the streets again in December, in a repeat of history’s worst chapter of vileness.”

Just five days after Palacio’s win, Vice President and First Lady Rosario Murillo was lashing out at opposition social media sites (many run from exile) that celebrated Palacios’ win as a victory for the opposition.

“In these days of a new victory, we are seeing the evil, terrorist commentators making a clumsy and insulting attempt to turn what should be a beautiful and well-deserved moment of pride into destructive coup-mongering,” Murillo said.

Ortega’s government seized and closed the Jesuit University of Central America in Nicaragua, which was a hub for 2018 protests against the Ortega regime, along with at least 26 other Nicaraguan universities.

The government has also outlawed or closed more than 3,000 civic groups and non-governmental organizations, arrested and expelled opponents, stripped them of their citizenship and confiscated their assets. Thousands have fled into exile.

Palacios, who became the first Nicaraguan to win Miss Universe, has not commented on the situation.

During the contest, Palacios, 23, said she wants to work to promote mental health after suffering debilitating bouts of anxiety herself. She also said she wants to work to close the salary gap between the genders.

But on a since-deleted Facebook account under her name, Palacios posted photos of herself at a protest, writing she had initially been afraid of participating. “I didn’t know whether to go, I was afraid of what might happen.”

Some who attended the march that day recall seeing the tall, striking Palacios there.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY
Still alive! Golden mole not seen for 80 years and presumed extinct is found again in South Africa


This photo provided by RE:wild shows a rediscovered mole on the west coast of South Africa. Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a mole species that has an iridescent golden coat and “swims” through sand dunes after it hadn’t been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct. (Nicky Souness/re:Wild via AP)

BY GERALD IMRAY
 November 30, 2023Share

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Researchers in South Africa say they have rediscovered a species of mole with an iridescent golden coat and the ability to almost “swim” through sand dunes after it hadn’t been seen for more than 80 years and was thought to be extinct.

The De Winton’s golden mole -- a small, blind burrower with “super-hearing powers” that eats insects -- was found to be still alive on a beach in Port Nolloth on the west coast of South Africa by a team of researchers from the Endangered Wildlife Trust and the University of Pretoria.

It had been lost to science since 1936, the researchers said

With the help of a sniffer dog, the team found traces of tunnels and discovered a golden mole in 2021. But because there are 21 species of golden moles and some look very similar, the team needed more to be certain that it was a De Winton’s.

They took environmental DNA samples — the DNA animals leave behind in skin cells, hair and bodily excretions — but had to wait until 2022 before a De Winton’s DNA sample from decades ago was made available by a South African museum to compare. The DNA sequences were a match.

The team’s research and findings were peer reviewed and published last week.

“We had high hopes, but we also had our hopes crushed by a few people,” one of the researchers, Samantha Mynhardt, told The Associated Press. “One De Winton’s expert told us, ‘you’re not going to find that mole. It’s extinct.’”

The process took three years from the researchers’ first trip to the west coast of South Africa to start searching for the mole, which was known to rarely leave signs of its tunnels and almost “swim” under the sand dunes, the researchers said. Golden moles are native to sub-Saharan Africa and the De Winton’s had only ever been found in the Port Nolloth area.

Two De Winton’s golden moles have now been confirmed and photographed in Port Nolloth, Mynhardt said, while the research team has found signs of other populations in the area since 2021.

“It was a very exciting project with many challenges,” said Esther Matthew, senior field officer with the Endangered Wildlife Trust. “Luckily we had a fantastic team full of enthusiasm and innovative ideas, which is exactly what you need when you have to survey up to 18 kilometers (11 miles) of dune habitat in a day.”

The De Winton’s golden mole was on a “most wanted lost species” list compiled by the Re:wild conservation group.

Others on the list that have been rediscovered include a salamander that was found in Guatemala in 2017, 42 years after its last sighting, and an elephant shrew called the Somali sengi seen in Djibouti in 2019, its first recorded sighting since 1968.
___

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Penguin parents sleep for just a few seconds at a time to guard newborns, study shows

This image provided by Won Young Lee shows wild chinstrap penguins on King George Island, Antarctica. Researchers have discovered that some penguin parents sleep for only seconds at a time around-the-clock to protect their eggs and chicks. Sensors were attached to adult chinstrap penguins in Antarctica for the research. The results published Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 show that during the breeding season, the penguins nod off thousands of times each day but only for about four seconds at a time. 

This image provided by Won Young Lee shows wild chinstrap penguins guard their fuzzy gray chicks on King George Island, Antarctica. Researchers have discovered that some penguin parents sleep for only seconds at a time around-the-clock to protect their eggs and chicks. Sensors were attached to adult chinstrap penguins in Antarctica for the research. The results published Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 show that during the breeding season, the penguins nod off thousands of times each day but only for about four seconds at a time. 

This image provided by Won Young Lee shows a wild chinstrap penguin on King George Island, Antarctica. Researchers have discovered that some penguin parents sleep for only seconds at a time around-the-clock to protect their eggs and chicks. Sensors were attached to adult chinstrap penguins in Antarctica for the research. The results published Thursday, Nov. 30, 2023 show that during the breeding season, the penguins nod off thousands of times each day but only for about four seconds at a time. 

(Won Young Lee via AP)

BY CHRISTINA LARSON
November 30, 2023

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s a challenge for all new parents: Getting enough sleep while keeping a close eye on their newborns. For some penguins, it means thousands of mini-catnaps a day, researchers discovered.

Chinstrap penguins in Antarctica need to guard their eggs and chicks around-the-clock in crowded, noisy colonies. So they nod off thousands of times each day — but only for about four seconds at a time — to stay vigilant, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science.

These short “microsleeps,” totaling around 11 hours per day, appear to be enough to keep the parents going for weeks.

“These penguins look like drowsy drivers, blinking their eyes open and shut, and they do it 24/7 for several weeks at a time,” said Niels Rattenborg, a sleep researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence in Germany and co-author of the new study.


US moves to protect wolverines as climate change melts their mountain refuges, threatens extinction

“What’s surprising is that they’re able to function OK and successfully raise their young,” he said.

Chinstrap penguins, named for the thin line of black facial feathers resembling a chinstrap, usually lay their eggs in pebble nests in November. As with many other kinds of penguins, mated pairs share parenting duties. One parent tends to the eggs and chicks alone while the other goes off fishing for family meals.

While the adults don’t face many natural predators in the breeding season, large birds called brown skuas prey on eggs and small fuzzy gray chicks. Other adults may also try to steal pebbles from nests. So the devoted parents must be always on guard.

For the first time, the scientists tracked the sleeping behavior of chinstrap penguins in an Antarctic breeding colony by attaching sensors that measure brain waves. They collected data on 14 adults over 11 days on King George Island off the coast of Antarctica.

The idea for the study was hatched when Won Young Lee, a biologist at the Korean Polar Research Institute, noticed breeding penguins frequently blinking their eyes and apparently nodding off during his long days of field observations. But the team needed to record brain waves to confirm they were sleeping.

“For these penguins, microsleeps have some restorative functions — if not, they could not endure,” he said.

The researchers did not collect sleep data outside the breeding season, but they hypothesize that the penguins may sleep in longer intervals at other times of the year.

“We don’t know yet if the benefits of microsleep are the same as for long consolidated sleep,” said Paul-Antoine Libourel, a co-author and sleep researcher at the Neuroscience Research Center of Lyon in France. They also don’t know if other penguin species sleep in a similar fragmented fashion.

Scientists have documented a few other animals with special sleeping adaptions. While flying, frigatebirds can sleep one half of their brain at a time, and northern elephant seals can nap for 10 or 15 minutes at a time during deep dives, for example.

VIDEO But chinstrap penguin microsleeps appear to be a new extreme, researchers say.

“Penguins live in a high-stress environment. They breed in crowded colonies, and all their predators are there at the same time,” said Daniel Paranhos Zitterbart, who studies penguins at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and was not involved in the study.

Microsleeping is “an amazing adaptation” to enable near constant vigilance, he said.
___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

U.S. executions in 2023 were concentrated in the South, group says


A Friday report from the Death Penalty Information Center said 24 people were executed in the United States in 2023. Three death row inmates, including Glynn Simmons, shown here, were exonerated. 

Photo courtesy of the Death Penalty Information Center

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- For the ninth consecutive year, fewer than 30 people were executed in the United States in 2023 and fewer than 50 were sentenced to death as of Friday, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

Texas and Florida accounted for more than half of this year's 24 executions. In 2022,18 people were put to death in the United States.

"As has been historically true, prisoners of color were overrepresented among those executed and cases with white victims were more likely to be executed," a statement from the nonprofit center said Friday.

"Nine of the 24 prisoners executed were people of color. The vast majority of crimes for which defendants were executed this year (79%) involved white victims."

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And for the first time, a Gallup poll shows most Americans think the death penalty is administered unfairly, by a margin of 50% to 47%.

A majority of U.S. states, 29, have abolished the death penalty or paused executions by executive order. Three death row prisoners were exonerated this year, according to the center.

"The data show that most Americans no longer believe the death penalty can be imposed fairly," center executive director Robin M. Maher said in a statement.

"That important change can also be seen in the unprecedented show of support for death-sentenced prisoners from conservative lawmakers and elected officials this year, some of whom now oppose use of the death penalty in their state."

Florida had six executions and five new death sentences in 2023.

The center said use of capital punishment is still geographically isolated, with nearly all executions occurring in the South.

Just four other states put people to death in 2023 -- Alabama (2), Missouri (4), Oklahoma (4), and Texas (8).

Seven states sentenced people to death in 2023. They were Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas.

According to the center, "79% of the people executed this year had at least one of the following impairments: serious mental illness; brain injury, developmental brain damage, or an IQ in the range considered intellectually disabled; and/or chronic serious childhood trauma, neglect and/or abuse."

In a report published Friday, the center looked at capital punishment in Missouri, where four people were executed in 2023. The report said Missouri has a substantial history of racial violence directed at Black people.

"One of the most clear and persistent racial disparities in death sentencing concerns the overrepresentation of white victims among cases resulting in a death sentence," the report said.

"In Missouri, homicides involving white victims are seven times more likely to result in an execution than those with Black victims. ... Statistical analyses have found that broad prosecutorial discretion is one reason for continuing racial disparities in capital sentencing."

The center noted that of all death sentences in Missouri since 1972, 80% involved White victims, even though they are roughly 36% of homicide victims in the state. According to 2020 homicide data, the group said, Missouri had the highest Black homicide victimization rate in the country for the seventh year in a row.

Report: Belief death penalty is applied unfairly shows capital punishment’s growing isolation in US


This undated file photo shows the gurney in the death chamber in Huntsville, Texas. An annual report released Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, on capital punishment says more Americans now believe the death penalty is administered unfairly. 

(Carlos Antonio Rios)/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

BY JUAN A. LOZANO
December 1, 2023

HOUSTON (AP) — More Americans now believe the death penalty, which is undergoing a yearslong decline of use and support, is being administered unfairly, a finding that is adding to its growing isolation in the U.S., according to an annual report on capital punishment.

But whether the public’s waning support for the death penalty and the declining number of executions and death sentences will ultimately result in the abolition of capital punishment in the U.S. remains uncertain, experts said.

“There are some scholars who are optimistic the death penalty will be totally eradicated pretty soon,” said Eric Berger, a law professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “I think what’s more likely is it’s going to continue to decline. But I think it’s less likely that in the foreseeable future it’ll totally disappear.”

In 2023, there were 24 executions in the U.S., with the final one for the year taking place Thursday in Oklahoma. Additionally, 21 people were sentenced to death in 2023, which was the ninth consecutive year where fewer than 30 people were executed and fewer than 50 people received death sentences, according to a report by the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center.

Only five states — Texas, Florida, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Alabama — conducted executions this year. That was the lowest number in 20 years, said Robin M. Maher, executive director of the nonprofit center, which takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions

“That shows the death penalty is again becoming increasingly isolated in its use in the United States,” Maher said.

A Gallup poll from October found 50% of Americans believe capital punishment is applied unfairly, compared to 47% who believe it is fairly implemented, Maher said. This was the highest such number since Gallup first began asking about the fairness of the death penalty’s application in 2000.

Catherine Grosso, a professor with Michigan State University’s College of Law, said the Gallup survey result could be tied in part to more young people and others questioning the U.S. criminal justice system following the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a police officer.

Nearly 200 death row exonerations since 1975, including three in 2023, also have helped changed people’s minds about the fairness of the death penalty, Maher said.

In recent years, various individuals across the country, including conservative legislators, have raised concerns about the death penalty or debated its future, Grosso said.

But in some states including Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas, the death penalty remains deeply entrenched, Berger said.

Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills enacting two new death penalty laws. One allows the death penalty in child rape convictions, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling banning capital punishment in such cases. The other law ends a unanimous jury requirement in death penalty sentencing.

“If you commit a crime that is really, really heinous, you should have the ultimate punishment,” DeSantis said in May, commenting on the death penalty for child rape convictions.

Ongoing difficulties by states in securing supplies of execution drugs have prompted some states to explore new and untested methods of execution or revive previously abandoned ones, according to the center’s report.

Alabama has set a January execution date for what would be the nation’s first attempt to execute an inmate with nitrogen gas. In July, Idaho became the fifth state to authorize executions by firing squad. The last time a U.S. inmate was executed by firing squad was in 2010.

The center’s report said a majority of states, 29, have either abolished the death penalty or paused executions.

Corinna Lain, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law in Virginia, said she thinks the number of states that don’t have the death penalty could easily rise to 40. But a nationwide ban would need action from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lain and other experts said that’s unlikely to happen as recent actions show the high court is not going to get in the way of states carrying out executions. The center’s report said the Supreme Court granted only one stay of execution out of 34 such requests made since its 2022-23 term.

Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, has not been immune to the ongoing debate over the death penalty.

Earlier this year, the GOP-led Texas House passed a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in cases involving someone was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The bill ultimately failed as it was never taken up by the Texas Senate.

GOP state Rep. Jeff Leach said in March the bill was not part of a secret effort to do away with the death penalty in Texas.

“I believe that in Texas we need the death penalty,” Leach said. “But I am, as a supporter of the death penalty, against executing people who at the time they commit the offense had a severe mental illness.”

Even in Texas, there can be some change with the death penalty, Berger said.

“But you can’t see the kind of change where you could expect them to just say, ‘Ah, we’re done with capital punishment altogether.’ At least not yet,” Berger said.
___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on X, formerly Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

In the US, Black survivors are nearly invisible in the Catholic clergy sexual abuse crisis




Charles Richardson, of Baltimore, wipes his eye while discussing his alleged abuse decades ago by a Catholic priest, in Baltimore on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Black victims have largely been invisible in the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. Richardson recently came forward after the state of Maryland removed the civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)Read More


Gloria Webster, left, who is retired and lives in Raleigh, N.C., and her daughter Angelique Webster, of Worcester, Mass., an independent filmmaker, stand together for a photograph, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, at Angelique’s home, in Worcester, Mass. Black victims have largely been invisible in the Catholic sexual abuse crisis, including Baltimore, where Angelique was abused by their parish priest. Gloria fought hard for justice. The priest was later convicted and defrocked. The family settled with the archdiocese in 1993. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)


Gloria Webster, of Raleigh, N.C., stands on her old street in Baltimore, on Thursday, June 15, 2023. She lived down the block from St Martin, the Catholic church where her daughter was abused decades ago by their parish priest. Black victims have largely been invisible in the Catholic sexual abuse crisis. Gloria fought hard for justice. The priest was later convicted and defrocked. The family settled with the archdiocese in 1993. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)


Angelique Webster, an independent filmmaker, stands for a photograph, Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, at her home, in Worcester, Mass. Black victims have largely been invisible in the Catholic sexual abuse crisis, including Baltimore, where Angelique was abused by their parish priest. Gloria Webster, Angelique’s mother, fought hard for justice. The priest was later convicted and defrocked. The family settled with the archdiocese in 1993. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)


BY TIFFANY STANLEY AND LEA SKENE
Updated 5:58 AM MST, November 29, 2023

BALTIMORE (AP) — As Charles Richardson gradually lost his eyesight to complications from diabetes, certain childhood memories haunted him even more.

The Catholic priest appeared vividly in his mind’s eye — the one who promised him a spot on a travel basketball team, took him out for burgers and helped him with homework. The one, Richardson alleges, who sexually assaulted him for more than a year.

“I’ve been seeing him a lot lately,” Richardson said during a recent interview, dabbing tears from behind dark glasses.

As a Black middle schooler from northwest Baltimore, Richardson started spending time with the Rev. Henry Zerhusen, a charismatic white cleric. It was the 1970s and Zerhusen’s parish, St. Ambrose, was a fixture in Baltimore’s Park Heights neighborhood, which was then experiencing the effects of white flight and rapidly becoming majority-Black. Lauded as a “super-priest” when he died in 2003, Zerhusen welcomed his church’s racial integration and implemented robust social service programs for struggling families, including Richardson’s.

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For most of his life, Richardson kept the abuse a secret, a common experience for survivors of sexual abuse. But cases of clergy abuse among African Americans are especially underreported, according to experts, who argue the lack of attention adds to the trauma of an already vulnerable population.

Black survivors like Richardson have been nearly invisible in the Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis — even in Baltimore, home to a historic Black Catholic community that plays an integral role in the nation’s oldest archdiocese. The U.S. Catholic Church generally does not publicly track the race or ethnicity of clergy abuse victims. Without that data, the full scope of clergy sex abuse and its effects on communities of color is unknown.

“Persons of color have suffered a long legacy of neglect and marginalization in the Catholic Church,” said the Rev. Bryan Massingale, a Black Catholic priest and Fordham University professor whose research has focused on the issue. “We need to correct the idea that all or most of the victims of this abuse have been white and male.”

Earlier this year, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a scathing report on child sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore dating back several decades. The report documents more than 600 abuse cases but leaves out any context about race. There are clues, however, in the names of priests and churches listed.

Out of 27 parishes in the archdiocese that have significant Black populations, at least 19 — 70% — previously had priests on staff who have been accused of sexual abuse, according to an Associated Press analysis. For parishes that experienced demographic shifts over time, these abusers were in residence in the years after Black membership increased and white membership declined.

Among those affected is St. Francis Xavier, one of the nation’s oldest Black Catholic churches, where four abusive priests have served over the decades. The parish’s first Black pastor, the late Rev. Carl Fisher, has been accused of abusing several children at St. Veronica’s, another majority-Black parish he served.

In 2013, decades after Richardson’s alleged abuse, Zerhusen faced accusations from another victim — the grandson of a woman who worked at St. Ambrose for 40 years. In response to that claim, two monsignors called Zerhusen “saintly” and unlikely to abuse, according to the attorney general’s report. The archdiocese ultimately settled with the victim for $32,500 and added Zerhusen to their list of credibly accused priests this past July.

Christian Kendzierski, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, said he was just learning of Richardson’s allegation about the late Zerhusen when contacted by the AP and didn’t have information on it.

Zerhusen worked with other abusive priests, including at St. Ambrose. At two more parishes, including after he was elevated to monsignor, he supervised four other priests later credibly accused of child sex abuse.

The last time Zerhusen abused him, Richardson said, he jumped out a stained-glass window to escape the church’s sanctuary, landing on the ground outside. In Richardson’s account, Zerhusen accompanied him to the hospital and told a doctor he landed on a Coke bottle playing football. Richardson still bears scars on his elbow that he attributes to the fall.

But the emotional scars have never healed. Until recently, he had never told his wife or adult daughters about the assaults.

Richardson dropped out of high school not long after the abuse. An aspiring professional tennis player, his game suffered, and he later became a car salesman. He still sometimes struggles when interacting with other men, especially in medical settings and situations involving physical contact.

As Black men, “we have a reputation we have to carry with us, a façade,” he said. “Something like this is one of the worst things — to say you have been raped or touched by another man.”

Not long after release of the attorney general’s report, Maryland lawmakers voted to repeal the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse victims to sue. At age 58, Richardson retained a lawyer and decided to go public.

Ray Kelly, a lifelong Catholic and chair of the pastoral council at St. Peter Claver, a Black parish in west Baltimore, said the archdiocese has repeatedly failed to address racial disparities, a trend that extends far beyond the clergy abuse crisis.

In response to the 2020 racial justice protests, Kelly helped lead a working group convened by the Baltimore archbishop that focused on combating racism, but he said the archdiocese took little action after receiving the group’s recommendations.

He pointed to the Catholic Church’s long history of treating African Americans like second-class citizens — beginning in Baltimore with the founding of the Oblate Sisters of Providence in 1829, when four Black women started their own religious order after being rejected by an existing sisterhood. One of the founders, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange, is now being considered for sainthood.

The aftermath of the Civil War brought another new religious order to Baltimore: The Josephites were founded to minister to recently freed slaves. But despite their mission, for decades they largely did not admit Black men into the priesthood. The archdiocese now lists at least five Josephite priests as credibly accused of abuse.

“The Americanized Catholic Church still sees the Black population as a perpetual charity case, so to speak,” Kelly said. “And the predators are going to go where the prey is — Black communities relying on the church for support.”

Kendzierski, the archdiocese spokesperson, said its leaders have taken significant steps to address the church’s legacy of racism. He said the archdiocese’s Office of Black Catholic Ministry works to “lift up our Catholic social teaching related to the dignity of the human person and ensure worship is inclusive of the scope of the Catholic culture.”

In some cases, the church’s charity programs allowed abusers to reach African Americans who were not regulars at Mass. Richardson, for instance, was raised Baptist, but his family still relied on the local Catholic church for food, home repairs and other resources — a scenario that experts say is surprisingly common.

Abuse also came from within the Black community. Among the alleged perpetrators were some of the archdiocese’s few Black Catholic leaders.

When he was ordained in 1974, Maurice Blackwell was a celebrated rarity: a homegrown Black priest from west Baltimore. In the years since, he has been accused of sexually abusing at least 10 boys under 18, most at majority-Black parishes he pastored.

Darrell Carter alleges he was one of Blackwell’s victims. Now 63, he recently decided to sue under the new state law, which went into effect Oct. 1.

Carter’s father took him to Mass as a child. Before dying of cancer, he told Carter to find a Catholic church if he was ever in need: “They will help you.”

Money was scarce at home, and Carter often went hungry. As a teen, he visited St. Bernardine and later St. Edward — Black Catholic churches helmed by Blackwell — looking for odd jobs like shoveling snow to earn money. Instead, he said, Blackwell sexually abused him for four years and paid him $25 each time. Carter said Blackwell brandished a gun and threatened to kill him if he told anyone.

Carter said he reported the abuse to the archdiocese several years later, hoping to have Blackwell removed from ministry, but nothing came of it. The archdiocese said it received a report of Carter’s abuse in 2019 and reported it to law enforcement. Blackwell didn’t respond to recent messages seeking comment.

Carter went on to have a family and a welding career. He also struggled with alcoholism, suicidal thoughts and maintaining stable housing. Of the sexual abuse, he said, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it.”

Carter’s attorney, Joanne Suder, who also represents Richardson and many other clergy abuse victims in Baltimore, said it’s common for people to wait decades before disclosing their abuse. She said that’s often the case even as they experience its debilitating impacts, including struggles with mental health and addiction.

In 2002, another of Blackwell’s victims — a young Black man named Dontee Stokes — showed up at the priest’s Baltimore rowhome, pulled out a handgun and shot Blackwell after he refused to apologize. The shooting became a defining event in Baltimore’s mishandling of clergy sex abuse claims, just as the scope of the crisis was breaking open in Boston.

Blackwell survived, and Stokes was later acquitted of attempted murder. He served 18 months of home detention for gun charges.

Stokes had reported the abuse nearly a decade before the shooting, but police never filed charges. Although the archdiocese found the claims credible, Cardinal William Keeler, then Baltimore’s archbishop, returned Blackwell to ministry against the advice of an independent review board. A psychiatrist who evaluated Blackwell noted the difficult situation, given his “leadership in the African American community as well as the intensely positive feelings of his parishioners.” Finally in 1998, Blackwell was removed from ministry after another victim came forward.

But it was only after the 2002 shooting that Blackwell was formally laicized and criminally charged. Despite being convicted of three counts of child sexual abuse, he was granted a new trial because of the “improper testimony about possible other victims,” according to the attorney general’s report. Prosecutors ultimately declined to retry him.

“Nobody got any closure,” said another of Blackwell’s victims, who received a settlement from the archdiocese.

The man spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing being ostracized from his community if he publicly discussed his abuse. The AP generally does not identify sexual abuse victims without their consent. A runaway teen in the mid-1970s, the man ended up living in St. Bernardine’s rectory, where he said Blackwell sexually abused him. He came forward to support Stokes at trial.

For speaking out against Blackwell, the man got angry phone calls from friends and family members. “When you have somebody as popular as him, how can you knock the priest off his throne?” he said.

Blackwell remains popular, according to people in the community.

Gloria Webster also remembers feeling shunned by other Black Catholics.

“It was like I was suing God,” said Webster, who pursued criminal and civil charges on behalf of her daughter, who was sexually assaulted as a teenager. “All my friends turned against me.”

In 1990, Angelique Webster became suicidal, admitting she had been sexually abused for years by her white youth pastor, the Rev. Richard Deakin, starting when she was 13. The family lived down the block from the parish, St. Martin, where Gloria was an active volunteer.

Gloria and Angelique struggled to find other Black survivors: One support group for clergy abuse was filled with older white members. Gloria once called Blackwell for spiritual guidance but said she never heard back. Not long afterward, he was accused of abuse himself.

Then a graduate student in African American studies, Gloria was keenly aware of how gender and race played into the subsequent legal proceedings. She said the archdiocese tried to incorrectly “make it out like I’m this poor drug addict” who didn’t deserve support, but she was determined to fight for her daughter.

At the time, Maryland survivors generally had only a few years after the abuse to file a lawsuit, which meant Angelique navigated the case between multiple psychiatric hospitalizations. “I couldn’t hide from it because it was there all the time,” she said in a recent interview.

Deakin pleaded guilty to second-degree rape and child sex abuse, receiving no jailtime with a 20-year suspended sentence and five years’ probation. He had married by then and later became a licensed social worker at a Veterans Affairs facility in Pennsylvania. Because of his conviction, a state board ordered him to avoid counseling anyone under 21, according to licensing records. He surrendered his license in 2018 at the board’s request, which cited the public release of information about his sexual misconduct. He didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.

In 1993, the Websters settled out of court for $2.7 million, a staggering sum for the archdiocese, where most settlements fall under $100,000.

The settlement, paid in monthly installments, has allowed Angelique to afford ongoing therapy and maintain financial stability. Now married with a child of her own, she made a short documentary several years ago about Gloria’s fight as a Black woman to sue the Catholic Church.

Survivors coming forward now, including Richardson and Carter, will likely receive smaller settlements since the archdiocese recently declared bankruptcy, allowing it to protect its assets more and shift the litigation to bankruptcy court, a less transparent forum.

“I feel like they are escaping responsibility,” Richardson said.

But for his part, Richardson recently found solace in telling his daughter about the abuse: “A great weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

He’s retired now, but Richardson recalled a moment that stood out during his long career as a car salesman — when another clergy abuse victim walked into his dealership. That was sometime after Stokes had shot Blackwell, and Richardson recognized him from widespread media coverage of the case. Before selling him a car, Richardson told Stokes he was proud of him for fighting back.

But he couldn’t yet say what he really wanted to share: that it happened to him too. Now, he finally can.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.