BC
Protesters toss statue of explorer James Cook into Victoria harbour; totem pole later burned
Courtney Dickson 

 

© Mike McArthur/CBC A statue of 18th century British explorer Capt. James Cook was pulled down and thrown into Victoria's Inner Harbour on the evening of July 1. What remains is the broken shoe and leg of the statue on its pedestal.

Two incidents of vandalism on Vancouver Island Thursday night and Friday morning could be related, according to RCMP.

A statue of Capt. James Cook, an 18th century British navigator, explorer and map-maker, was torn down and thrown into the Inner Harbour of B.C.'s capital on Thursday night.

Police were nearby at the time for a ceremony on the legislature lawn where thousands of people had gathered.

"It was really quite a moving and profound gathering and ceremony, just a sea of orange downtown to reflect on the painful legacy of the residential school system in Canada," said Victoria Police Department spokesperson Cam MacIntyre.

At about 8 p.m., some people started breaking off from the gathering and marched toward the statue on the 700-block of Government Street, he added.

Once they arrived, the statue was pulled down and thrown into the water.

In addition to sailing to Australia, New Zealand and throughout the Pacific, Cook is known for landing on the west coast of Vancouver Island in 1778. He anchored in Nootka Sound before continuing an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage. He was unsuccessful in that effort and died in Hawaii the following year during a dispute with islanders.

Victoria resident Rick Gudz was on his boat in the Inner Harbour when he said between 400 and 500 people moved into the area.

He said a young woman took control of the crowd, and protesters gave speeches before throwing the statue into the water.

"It was definitely dramatic for Victoria," he said. © Michael McArthur/CBC Capt. Cook's statue on Government Street in Victoria was splashed with red paint in August 2020.

Police say they have identified "several" suspects, but could not go into detail as their investigation remains ongoing.

"Our job, our role in any of those situations is to make sure people are allowed to protest," MacIntyre said. "They have a right. There's nothing more Canadian on Canada Day than to protect that right to a safe, peaceful and lawful protest."

"However, damaging property mischief, criminal offences are not enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."

MacIntyre said anyone who was simply protesting will not be targeted, but those that participated in property damage will.

Property damage is not acceptable. It's a criminal offence," he said.
Totem burned on Vancouver Island

Hours later, a totem at the Malahat lookout, about 30 kilometres from where the Capt. Cook statue was toppled, was set on fire early Friday morning.

Shawnigan Lake RCMP say they were contacted just after 4 a.m. by a driver who saw the totem on fire. The Malahat Volunteer Fire Department responded to extinguish the fire.© Mike McArthur/CBC The Salish Bear Pole at the summit of the Malahat Highway on Vancouver Island was set on fire early Friday morning, but soon extinguished by firefighers.

"Fresh graffiti was also located at the scene, speaking to recent events in Victoria where a statue of James Cook was pulled down and thrown in the Victoria Harbour, based on what was written, we feel the two incidences are related," said detachment commander Sgt. Tim Desaulniers in a media release.

The news release included a photo showing the words "one totem — one statue" spray painted on the cement barrier in front of the partially burned pole,

Evidence from the scene has been seized and investigators are working with the Vancouver Island forensic identification section to identify a suspect.

NEW MEXICO

Indigenous group questions removal of boarding school plaque

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

1 of 5
A makeshift memorial for the dozens of Indigenous children who died more than a century ago while attending a boarding school that was once located nearby is growing under a tree at a public park in Albuquerque, N.M., Thursday, July 1, 2021. Indigenous activists are concerned that a plaque that noted the site of the burial ground was removed in recent days. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A historical plaque memorializing the dozens of Native American children who died while attending a boarding school in New Mexico more than a century ago has gone missing, sparking concern among Indigenous activists.

Members of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women are among those pushing the city of Albuquerque to investigate. The small plaque was in a park near the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the original site of the Albuquerque Indian School.

The plaque noted the site of a burial ground for students who attended the school between 1882 and 1933. They included children from the Navajo Nation, Zuni Pueblo and Apache tribes.

The removal of the plaque comes as the U.S. government embarks on a nationwide investigation aimed at uncovering the troubling history of boarding schools that sought to assimilate Indigenous youth into white society over many decades. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the massive undertaking last month while addressing tribal leaders from across the nation.

Advocacy groups have praised the effort as a first step toward acknowledging what many have referred to as a “dark history.”

Coalition member Jovita Belgarde — who is Isleta, Ohkay Owingeh and Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa — said the discovery of the missing plaque added insult to injury. Many Indigenous families have been reeling since hearing about the bodies of hundreds of children being uncovered at the sites of boarding schools in Canada. The launch of the Interior Department’s investigation also has stirred unresolved feelings in the U.S.

Belgarde sees the recent taking of the plaque as a continuation of efforts to silence Indigenous voices and perpetuation of violence against Indigenous people.

“These atrocities — people talk about them like they’re in the past. These are not the distant past,” she told The Associated Press. “These actions left deep scars for many of our elders, our families, our friends ... and many people have not had any support to heal that trauma and have had to live with this pain and silence for generations.”

Albuquerque officials said Thursday they are working with tribal leaders, historical experts and others to determine the next steps with regard to the missing plaque. They also noted that a public art piece and a second plaque that references the history of the site are still at the park.

“As we continue to work with the respective leaders on this issue, we urge the public to respect the cultural and spiritual significance of this site,” city parks director Dave Simon said in a statement.

With more light being shined on past boarding school policies, tribal governors from around New Mexico have advocated for accountability and justice.

All Pueblo Council of Governors Chairman Wilfred Herrera Jr., who is from Laguna Pueblo, said recounting what Pueblo parents and children experienced has been painful.

“While some of our children endured years of abuse for speaking our languages, practicing our cultures, and maintaining our traditions, the unbearable truth is that many of our young never returned to their Pueblo homelands, ever,” he said in a statement.

The Albuquerque Indian School was started in 1881 by the Presbyterian Church. It came under federal control a few years later and was among hundreds of known boarding schools across the country. The school closed in the 1980s, and the property was put into trust for New Mexico’s 19 pueblos. The buildings eventually were torn down, and a tribal development corporation is working to make it a commercial hub.

Aside from determining the fate of the missing plaque, Belgarde said advocates want an investigation into the site overall in hopes of turning up more information about exactly how many children might have been buried there. She said the site demands more reverence, and city officials need to be transparent about how they proceed.

Legal battle brewing in northern Ontario over the protection of Indigenous sacred areas, mining rights

Logan Turner 

© Belenos / Shutterstock 

Ginoogaming First Nation in Ontario is seeking to protect a sacred area in its traditional territory and establish a legal precedent in Canada that First Nations have the inherent and treaty right to permanently protect sacred areas.

As the mining industry heats up in northwestern Ontario, a First Nation in Treaty 9 territory has applied for an injunction to stop mineral exploration and protect a sacred area within their traditional territory.

It's a case that some say would set a precedent in Canada, establishing the inherent and treaty right of First Nations to protect sacred areas.

Ginoogaming First Nation considers Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan, an area of land roughly 360 square kilometres in size located about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, its "breadbasket, its church, its heartland, its graveyard and its hospital," according to documents filed by their lawyers.

Since time immemorial, the people of Ginoogaming have hunted, gathered, performed ceremony, buried ancestors and healed in the territory; but mining exploration activities threaten the area, said Victor Chapais, a councillor and former chief of Ginoogaming.

"If somebody comes in and destroys Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan, it'll never be the same. There will always be damage to it — damage to Mother Earth — and those are the kind of things that we're trying to protect," Chapais told CBC News in an interview.

The injunction, filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, seeks to prevent two companies from carrying out mineral exploration activities in Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan, and argues the province failed in its constitutional duty to consult and accommodate.

The application for injunction comes as Ginoogaming continues negotiations with the federal and provincial governments about the size of their reserve, under the treaty land entitlement (TLE) process.

'No one ever told us'

But the province and at least one company named in the injunction have hit back, arguing it is the First Nation that has not participated meaningfully in consultation processes, according to written submissions.

"In the 40 years I've been here, no one ever told us that where we were working on our claims was a sacred area," said Michael Malouf, president of Hardrock Extension Inc., one of the companies named by Ginoogaming's application for injunction.

The company has a permit to conduct mineral exploration in a property near Greenstone, about 24 kilometres long by three kilometres wide, with about one-third of that property inside the Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan sacred area, Malouf told CBC News in an interview.

Malouf said he's invested roughly $7 million into exploring the property over several decades and believes there could "theoretically" be up to 64 million ounces of gold in the area.

"If the injunction is granted, we won't be able to do any work on the property until their [TLE] court case is resolved. But the problem is these Aboriginal court cases can take years, even decades to be resolved."

Asked what is at stake if the injunction is granted, Malouf said: "it'll be a real detriment to exploration in Ontario because there'll be no security of tenure. The contract you have with the Mining Act of Ontario won't carry any weight."

Malouf received an exploration permit for the area in June 2019, and it was not until after the permit was granted that Ginoogaming First Nation raised objections, according to written submissions from the Crown's lawyers.

The province had previously sent four letters to Ginoogaming over the course of a year providing notice of Malouf's application for the permit, and did not receive a response to any of the letters, according to the submissions.

The documents add that provincial regulators sought more information about the sacred area from the First Nation and looked to address potential impacts, but Ginoogaming "told Ontario that no mineral exploration could occur in [Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan]."

Potentially precedent-setting case: lawyer

But according to legal documents filed by lawyers for Ginoogaming, the First Nation said it had informed the Ontario government "repeatedly" about the need to protect Wiisinin Zaahgi'igan, since at least 2015, and did not learn about the exploration permit involving the sacred area until it was already granted to Hardrock Extension in 2019.

Kate Kempton, a partner with OKT Law and lawyer for Ginoogaming, said in an interview that the First Nation has been trying for years to prevent industrial activities from happening and causing damage to the sacred area.

Before that, the legacy of residential schools and other colonial policies designed to eradicate Indigenous languages and cultures pushed First Nations to hide their traditional knowledge and practices, she added.

"They were terrified of being abused and beaten up and worse when sharing information about the details of their own culture," she said. "Only in recent years, the last maybe 10 or 15 years, have First Nations began to really become more vocal about the details of their culture and open about it."

Kempton blames the Ontario government for causing the conditions that led to Ginoogaming's application for an injunction and the resulting legal case.

She said First Nations have inherent rights, based on their occupation of lands long before settlers arrived to North America, and treaty rights, under Treaty 9, to protect burial grounds and sacred areas. By granting the permit, Ontario breached the Crown's honour and its constitutional duty to consult.

However, Kempton added there is no legal precedent establishing whether First Nations have the right to protect sacred areas and perform sacred practices within the area.

Similar cases, like the Supreme Court decision in 2017 about a sacred area in Ktunaxa traditional territory in B.C., either relied on different legal arguments or were argued under different treaties.

"This would be the first case of its kind in Canada," she said.

The application for injunction was heard earlier in June, and parties involved in the case say they hope the presiding justice comes back with a decision in the next month.

The hardest question about the Florida condo collapse: Is it worth rebuilding in a city that could be underwater in 30 years?

tsonnemaker@insider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker) 

© Jeffrey Greenberg/Getty Images Developers continue to build in places like Fisher Island, located south of Surfside and Miami Beach, despite the growing risks posed by climate change. Jeffrey Greenberg/Getty Images

The cause of the Florida condo collapse is still unknown, but climate change is among early theories.

Experts say rising sea levels will pose major risks for other coastal residents in the near future.

Yet Miami real estate prices are soaring, even as some experts warn against new development.

A week after the Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, near Miami, Florida, collapsed, 22 are dead and more than 100 are still missing.

While speculation is already swirling about what caused the collapse, with observers blaming everything from inaction by the condo board to lax building regulations to rising sea levels, investigators are likely still months from a definitive answer.

One thing is certain, however: Climate change is already threatening to leave substantial parts of coastal areas like Miami underwater in the coming decades, meaning more buildings and infrastructure could be wiped out.

Despite the ominous signs, Miami real estate prices continue to soar and new development projects move forward, in what some experts say is a detachment from the environmental - and economic - reality.

In Florida alone, $26.3 billion worth of coastal property, housing more than 90,000 people, is at risk of becoming "chronically inundated" - that is, flooding at least 26 times per year - by 2045, according to Insider's analysis of a 2018 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

By those estimates, homebuyers taking out a 30-year mortgage today would likely see their homes flooding every two weeks by the time their loan term expires.

"Florida is ground zero for sea level rise in the United States," Kristy Dahl, a senior climate scientist at UCS, told Insider.

That rise is causing more of the state to experience flooding, not just during so-called "king tides," but also during normal high tides, Dahl said, adding that "seawater that's flooding communities is incredibly corrosive."

"Regular high-tide flooding will affect all kinds of infrastructure in the coming decades," she said, pointing out a UCS study that showed how flooding could derail Amtrak's Northeast Corridor route by 2050.
"A way to drive our economy"

After Hurricane Andrew devastated the state in 1992, Florida passed a wave of new building codes to mitigate future storm damage. The Palm Beach Post reported Friday that the collapse in Surfside could similarly push lawmakers to abandon the state's historically hands-off approach to regulation in favor of more stringent rules for aging condo buildings.

Video: 99 unaccounted for in Florida condo collapse (Associated Press)

Following decades of denialism, more Florida Republicans have also begun to acknowledge the reality of climate change and the risks it poses for their coastal communities, paving the way for more aggressive, bipartisan efforts.

Florida's state legislature recently authorized $640 million for climate resiliency initiatives, while the mayors of Miami, Miami Beach, and Miami-Dade County have rolled out a strategic plan outlining steps to prepare the region.

Some developers are also beginning to see a business case for investing in climate resilience.

"We need to understand about how much it's going to cost, but ultimately... we found that the return on investment is significant and it will create thousands of jobs," Alec Bogdanoff, CEO of Brizaga, a Florida-based civil and coastal engineering firm, told Insider.

"We're not only investing in adaptation and resilience because we have to, but it's actually a way to drive our economy and grow our economy," he said.

But some experts worry that trying to adapt to the climate - through evolving construction techniques, pump systems, and raised buildings and sidewalks, for example - may still not be enough to save cities like Miami.
"Why the heck are we letting people build?"

"We know seawater is going to arrive," Harold Wanless, a professor and chair of the department of geological science at the University of Miami, told Insider. "What we should be doing is saying: 'Why the heck are we letting people build in an area that's going to be flooded by rising sea levels?"

Wanless said that a 2-3 foot rise in sea level, which estimates predict could happen in Miami by 2060, would also cause 100 to 200 feet of beach erosion, a rate that would make it too expensive to combat by simply adding more sand.

"At that point, you don't fight it, and we should be realizing that's where we're headed," Wanless said.

But many still don't, partly because various financial incentives keep pushing developers to build in high-risk areas, including their outsize influence over local politics and wealthy buyers' ability to withstand losses, according to a report last year in Yale's Environment360.

That report argues that the "narrow path for survival" for Florida's coastal counties involves, among other strategies, "orderly retreats from most vulnerable coastal neighborhoods."

But withdrawing from coastal properties, despite the science, would run up against another obstacle, according to Dahl: human nature.

"We're still drawn to the water just as we always have been, and I think that's going to be a really difficult cultural shift to make," she said, especially given the lack of disclosure about climate risks in real estate listings.

In 2019, journalist Sarah Miller pretended to be interested in buying a luxury home in Miami Beach so she could ask realtors about climate-related risks, detailing the "cognitive dissonance" she witnessed in an article for Popula.

In response to a friend's skepticism about whether cities could become climate-proof through resilience alone, Miller wrote: "This is the neoliberal notion, that the reasonable and mature way to think about this stuff is: Get more efficient and find the right incentives to encourage the right kinds of enterprise. But my friend wondered, what if the mature thing to do is to mourn - and then retreat?"
Read the original article on Business Insider

Engineering firm Morabito Consultants' October letter to Champlain Towers board president detailed concrete issues

By  Eliott C. McLaughlin, Alta Spells and Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, CNN 

An engineering firm hired for Champlain Towers South's milestone recertification found "deep" concrete deterioration near the pool but couldn't perform repairs, in part, because of concerns about stability, according to an October letter.

This aerial view, shows search and rescue personnel working on site after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, north of Miami Beach, on June 24, 2021. - The multi-story apartment block in Florida partially collapsed early June 24, sparking a major emergency response. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told NBCs Today show: My police chief has told me that we transported two people to the hospital this morning at least and one has died. We treated ten people on the site. (Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA / AFP) 

Maryland-based Morabito Consultants also was hamstrung because it needed access to the inside of the pool, which "was to remain in service for the duration of this work," the firm said in its letter.

Because the pool couldn't be closed and Morabito had stability concerns, tower management was advised that work in the pool area "would be limited to removal of only loose concrete," the letter said.

Morabito also directed Concrete Protection & Restoration Inc. to perform "exploratory demolition" in five areas on the building's first floor, and CPR found "some curious results as it pertained to the structural slab's depth," the letter said, without elaborating.

Signs keep pointing to concrete

The nine-page letter summarizing the work, which was addressed to condominium association board president Jean Wodnicki and property manager Scott Stewart, is yet another indication of problems with the building's concrete. The concrete in the pool and underground garage area is increasingly becoming a focus as engineers and government officials work to learn what caused the June 24 partial collapse in Surfside, Florida, that killed at least 20 people and left another 128 unaccounted for.

Still, there's no indication thus far that concrete deterioration played a role in the collapse, but several engineers have told CNN that it's one of multiple factors to consider in investigating the disaster.

Morabito inspected Champlain Towers South in 2018 as part of the building's 40-year recertification -- a stringent process for upgrades and improvements enacted after Hurricane Andrew in 1992. The firm found that failed waterproofing beneath the pool deck caused "major structural damage to the concrete structural slab" and warned of rapid deterioration if it wasn't promptly replaced, according to its report.

In April, Wodnicki warned residents that "the concrete deterioration is accelerating," with some areas having gotten worse since the 2018 inspection. Wodnicki's letter outlined millions in repairs that the condo association later approved.

The 2018 report did not indicate the structure was at risk of collapsing, nor did Wodnicki's letter to residents.

Video: Condo owners were facing $15M in assessments for building repairs (CNN)

In the October letter, Morabito said repair work could not be done because it would "affect the stability of the remaining adjacent concrete constructions." The firm did not specify which constructions might be destabilized, and it's unclear if the engineers meant nearby buildings or other structures within Champlain Towers South. But the firm noted concrete deterioration deep within the pool's wall and corbel, a type of support structure, requiring "aggressive excavation of concrete."

Morabito and CPR removed loose concrete from the perimeter of the pool pump room, which was showing signs of cracking and which presented "a fall hazard," the October letter said.

As for the unspecified "curious results" of the excavation work, Morabito requested "that additional core work be performed by CPR to confirm/clear-up said results," Morabito said in the letter.


Other damage around building highlighted

Among other work done, according to the letter: CPR replaced the bottom of a deteriorating stair column base with hollow steel structural sections; conducted exploratory demolition on the underside of an eave that required "removal and reconstruction"; and removed all loose "cracked, spalled, deteriorated, and delaminated concrete" and damaged stucco from the underside of balcony eaves on 114 of the building's 136 units, the letter said.

According to the letter, CPR also performed exploratory demolition on five 3-square-foot sections of the building and planned to demolish paver systems at the pool deck, concrete in the parking area and drive aisle, and the planters down to the existing waterproofing layer -- all of which were cited in the 2018 report and the April letter to condo owners.

Photos accompanying the report included the rusty stairwell column that was replaced, the pool corbel's "loose, cracked, spalled deteriorated concrete" and exposed rebar, water damage to balcony eaves, and other damage to eaves and stucco on the building.

Morabito Consultants did not respond to CNN's request for comment on the letter, but it has defended its work at the tower in previous statements.

CPR in a statement Friday said the company did not repair or restore concrete in 2020 on Champlain Towers South.

It said: "Our company was contacted by the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association in 2020 to assist Morabito Consultants in their investigations relative to the building's 40-year recertification project. Concrete Protection & Restoration, LLC did not undertake any actual concrete repair or restoration work on the Champlain Towers South building in 2020.

"Our services on this project were directed by Morabito Consultants so they could evaluate the building for its 40-year recertification. We removed loose, cracked, spalled, deteriorated and delaminated concrete from the balcony soffits of 114 units as well as pool corbels to prevent it from falling, and removed all deteriorated, debonded and falling stucco from balconies. We also did exploratory services that involved removing pavers on the patio deck to allow the engineers to see conditions underneath and removing the false ceiling in the front parking area to enable the engineers to see the underside of the slab. Additional exploratory services included taking core samples from locations identified by Morabito Consultants so their engineers could analyze the existing condition of the concrete."

Attempts to reach Wodnicki and Stewart, the property manager, were unsuccessful.

The condo association, which has been named in lawsuits accusing it of failing to maintain the building, released a Friday statement saying, "Answers will take time as part of a comprehensive investigation and we will continue to work with city, state, local, and federal officials in their rescue efforts, and to understand the causes of this tragedy."

The full scope of the concrete work needed at Champlain Towers South remains unclear, as does the specific work contracted to Morabito Consultants and CPR. Whether the work had been scheduled or was under way is also unknown.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M VATICAN INC.

EXPLAINER: Behind the Vatican’s London real estate scandal

By NICOLE WINFIELD

FILE - In this Tuesday, June 29, 2021 file photo, Pope Francis celebrates Mass during the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. The Vatican's criminal tribunal on Saturday, July 3, 2021 indicted 10 people, including a cardinal, and four companies on charges including extortion, abuse of office and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State's 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)


ROME (AP) — The Vatican has set a July 27 trial date for 10 people, including a once-powerful cardinal and papal contender, on charges related to the Holy See’s 350 million-euro investment in a luxury London real estate venture.

The 487-page indictment request capped a two-year investigation that exposed how the Vatican had lost millions of euros — much of it donations from the faithful — in fees to brokers, bad investments and other questionable expenses. Beyond that, prosecutors allege a variety of charges against the defendants, including extortion, embezzlement, abuse of office and corruption.

Here is breakdown of the case, the accusations and some of the key players.

___

WHAT’S THE DEAL ABOUT?

The Vatican’s Secretariat of State in 2013 decided to invest an initial 200 million euros in a fund operated by Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, with half the money put into the London building, half in other investments.

By 2018, Mincione’s fund, Athena Capital, had lost 18 million euros from the Vatican’s original investment, prosecutors say, prompting the Vatican to seek an exit strategy while still retaining its stake in the building in London’s swank Chelsea neighborhood.

Enter Gianluigi Torzi, another broker, who helped arrange a 40 million euro payout by the Vatican to Mincione for the shares in the building that the Holy See didn’t already have.

But prosecutors say Torzi then hoodwinked the Holy See: Rather than creating a company to manage the building that was controlled by the Vatican, Torzi inserted a clause into the contract giving him full voting rights in the deal, they allege. Prosecutors say Torzi then extorted the Vatican for 15 million euros to take control of the building.

Torzi has said the charges are a misunderstanding.

___

WHO IN THE VATICAN KNEW?

Prosecutors have acknowledged that Pope Francis was aware of the deal, and even attended a December 2018 meeting with Torzi. One witness has said Francis agreed to pay Torzi a “just” compensation to turn the building over.

Other high-ranking officials, including the secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his deputy, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, were also aware and approved the deal with Torzi. Documents show Pena Parra had authorized one of his deputies to sign the contract with Torzi giving him full voting rights.

None of them was indicted. Prosecutors say they didn’t understand Torzi’s contract change, were kept in the dark about Torzi and Mincione’s dealings, their previous business relationship, as well as alleged commissions others involved in the deal had been earning on the side.

___

WHO IS CARDINAL BECCIU AND HOW IS HE TIED TO THIS TRIAL?
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Cardinal Angelo Becciu is the lone cardinal indicted and will be the first cardinal prosecuted by the tribunal after Pope Francis changed Vatican law to allow laymen to judge cardinals. Becciu has denied any wrongdoing.

Becciu was once one of the most powerful prelates in the Vatican and would have been a contender to be a future pope before Francis fired him last year from his job leading the Holy See’s saint-making office.

Francis asked him to resign in September, and stripped him of his rights and privileges as a cardinal, citing a 100,000 euro donation that Becciu made using Vatican money to a diocesan charity run by his brother. At the time of the donation, Becciu was the No. 3 in the Secretariat of State and had decision-making authority over the office’s vast asset portfolio.

Becciu is tied to another defendant in the case, Cecilia Marogna. She is accused of allegedly embezzling Holy See funds that Becciu authorized for her intelligence work, purportedly to free Catholic priests and nuns held hostage in hostile parts of the world. Prosecutors say she spent the money on luxury goods instead.

Marogna has denied wrongdoing and says she can give a full accounting of how the money was spent.

___

WHAT DOES A VATICAN CRIMINAL TRIAL LOOK LIKE?

The criminal code of the Vatican City State is based on the 1889 Italian legal code as well as elements of the canon law of the universal Catholic Church. In recent years, the pope has updated the code with a host of financial crimes specifically to address the types of misconduct alleged in Saturday’s indictment.

The Vatican tribunal has been under pressure to prosecute financial crimes as part of the Holy See’s participation in the Council of Europe’s Moneyval process, which is aimed at helping countries fight money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The Vatican entered into the Moneyval evaluation program over a decade ago in a bid to shed its image as a shady, offshore tax haven.

The Vatican has outfitted a new courtroom for the upcoming trial in part of the Vatican Museums, given its usual criminal tribunal will be too small for the defendants and their lawyers. If convicted, the defendants could face jail time, fines or both.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M VATICAN INC.

Vatican indicts 10 people, including a cardinal, in UK deal

PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL
By NICOLE WINFIELD

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 file photo, Cardinal Angelo Becciu looks down as he meets the media during a press conference in Rome. The Vatican's criminal tribunal on Saturday, July 3, 2021 indicted 10 people, including a cardinal, and four companies on charges including extortion, abuse of office and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State's 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture. Also indicted was another once-powerful Holy See official, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who helped engineer the initial London investment when he was the chief of staff in the Secretariat of State. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)


ROME (AP) — A Vatican judge on Saturday indicted 10 people, including a once-powerful cardinal, on charges including embezzlement, abuse of office, extortion and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture.

The president of the Vatican’s criminal tribunal, Giuseppe Pignatone, set July 27 as the trial date, but lawyers for the defendants immediately questioned how they could prepare for trial so soon given they hadn’t yet formally received the indictment or any of the documentation in the case.

The 487-page indictment was handed down following a sprawling, two-year investigation into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio, much of which is funded by the Peter’s Pence donations from the faithful. The scandal over multimillion-dollar losses has resulted in a sharp reduction in donations and prompted Pope Francis to strip the office of its ability to manage the money.

Five former Vatican officials, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu and two officials from the Secretariat of State, were indicted, as well as Italian businessmen who handled the London investment.

Also indicted on alleged embezzlement charges was an Italian intelligence expert accused of buying luxury goods with Holy See money intended to help free Catholic priests and nuns held hostage by rebels in Africa.

Vatican prosecutors accuse the main suspects of bilking millions of euros from the Holy See in fees and other losses related to financial investments that were funded in large part by donations to the pope for works of charity. The suspects have denied wrongdoing.

One of the main suspects in the case, Italian broker Gianluigi Torzi, is accused of having extorted the Vatican out of 15 million euros to turn over ownership of the London building in late 2018. Torzi had been retained by the Vatican to help it acquire full ownership of the building from another indicted money manager who had handled the initial investment in 2013, but lost millions on what the Vatican said were speculative, imprudent deals.

Vatican prosecutors allege Torzi inserted a last-minute clause into the contract giving him full voting rights in the deal.

The Vatican hierarchy, however, signed off on the contract, with both the pope’s No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and his deputy approving it. Neither was indicted. In addition, Francis himself was aware of the deal and Torzi’s involvement in it.

Vatican prosecutors say the Vatican hierarchs were hoodwinked by Torzi and aided in part by an Italian lawyer — who was also indicted Saturday — into agreeing to the deal. The Secretariat of State intends to declare itself an injured party in the case.

Torzi has denied the charges and said the accusations were the fruit of a misunderstanding. He is currently in London pending an extradition request by Italian authorities, who are seeking to prosecute him on other financial charges.

His representatives said they had no immediate comment Saturday since they hadn’t yet seen the indictment.

Also indicted was a onetime papal contender and Holy See official, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who helped engineer the initial London investment when he was the chief of staff in the Secretariat of State.

Francis fired him as the Vatican’s saint-making chief last year, apparently in connection with a separate issue: his 100,000-euro donation of Holy See funds to a diocesan charity run by Becciu’s brother.

Vatican News, the in-house media portal, said Becciu had originally not been part of the London investigation but was included after it appeared that he was behind the proposal to buy the building. Prosecutors also accuse him of interfering in the investigation.

In a statement Saturday issued by his lawyers, Becciu insisted on the “absolute falsity” of the accusations against him and denounced what he said was “unparalleled media pillory” against him in the Italian press.

“I am the victim of a plot hatched against me and I have been waiting for a long time to know any accusations against me, to allow myself to promptly deny them and prove to the world my absolute innocence,” he said.

Becciu has denied wrongdoing in the London investment; he has admitted he made the donation but insisted the money was for the charity, not his brother.

One of Becciu’s proteges, Cecilia Marogna, was indicted on embezzlement charges. Becciu had hired Marogna as an external consultant after she reached out to him in 2015 with concerns about security at Vatican embassies in global hotspots. Becciu authorized hundreds of thousands of euros of Holy See funds to her to free Catholic hostages, according to WhatsApp messages reprinted by Italian media.

Her Slovenian-based holding company, which received the funds, was among the four companies also ordered to stand trial.

Marogna has said the money was compensation for legitimate security and intelligence work and reimbursements for her expenses. Vatican News, citing the indictment, said she spent the money on purchases that were incompatible with the humanitarian scope of her company.

In a statement Saturday, her legal team said Marogna had been prepared for months to “provide a full accounting of her work and fears nothing about the accusations made against her.”

Also indicted were the former top two officials in the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency, for alleged abuse of office. Prosecutors say that by failing to stop the Torzi deal, they performed a “decisive function” in letting it play out, Vatican News said.

The lawyer for the former office director, Tommaso di Ruzza, said he had only seen the Vatican press statement about the allegations but insisted that his client “has always acted in the most scrupulous respect of the law and his office duties, in the exclusive interest of the Holy See.”

The former head of the office, Rene Bruelhart, defended his work and said his indictment was a “procedural blunder that will be immediately clarified by the organs of Vatican justice as soon as the defense will be able to exercise its rights.”

Capitol rioters’ footage powers NYT’s ‘Day of Rage’ project

By DAVID BAUDER


FILE - Rioters supporting President Donald Trump storm the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. Some of the best sources for "Day of Rage," a painstaking 40-minute video investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, were the rioters themselves — an irony given the hostility many had toward journalists. That's according to the executive in charge of the New York Times' project. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — While some professional journalists faced hostility and attack while covering the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the grand irony is that so many people involved in the insurrection were doing their jobs for them.

That’s evident with The New York Times’ release of “Day of Rage,” a 40-minute video investigation that painstakingly examines the events of the day. The Times’ team collected thousands of videos, starting the afternoon of Jan. 6, many of them posted on social media by the rioters themselves, said Malachy Browne, senior producer on the Times’ visual investigations team.

“As the realization set in among many of the participants about what they had done, and the implications of it, much of it was deleted,” Browne said.

Too late. The Times had already protected its own copies.

The day had been tough for some of the journalists who covered the attack. Photojournalists for The Associated Press and Times were roughed up, and some AP equipment used to document the event was damaged.

In “Day of Rage,” the newspaper used the collected footage, as well as other material like police bodycam film and archived audio from police communications, to recreate the event from many angles. Through the use of time stamps and knowledge of where people were located, for example, the Times tracked down footage from a freelance videographer who hadn’t realized he had captured the attack that led to Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick’s death, Browne said. Sicknick collapsed and later died after engaging with the protesters. He was sprayed with chemical irritants, but a medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.

The Times was able to determine that rioters breached the Capitol at eight separate locations.

Elsewhere, the footage laid bare the intent of many rioters, like when former President Donald Trump’s speech at the pre-riot rally were juxtaposed with what was said in his audience as he spoke.

The Times’ probe concludes that the House’s delay in shutting off debate on election certification until rioters had appeared outside the chamber contributed to the shooting by police of Ashli Babbitt, a California woman who had joined the crowd that breached the building.

The project depicts law enforcement as overwhelmed, partly due to lack of preparation by their superiors. The footage, some of it seen in other venues over the past months, contains startling moments: a police officer goading a rioter to move in one direction while senators slip to safety in the background, a House employee barricaded in an office whispering to a colleague while a door is being pounded from the outside.

While the footage spots efforts by members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, showing their body armor, weapons, radio communication and organized movements, the Times concludes that the majority of rioters were Trump supporters caught up in the frenzy of the action.

“For many in the crowd, they felt they were carrying out some duty to defend democracy as they see it,” Browne said.

The Times’ story had nine bylines, but Browne estimated some 15 to 20 journalists participated in its preparation. Even before the documentary’s release late Wednesday, the findings contributed to the newspaper’s reporting about the incident over the past few months.

Browne, who also narrates the video, minces no words in telling viewers what was concluded.

“Our reconstruction show the Capitol riot for what it was — a violent assault, encouraged by the president, on a seat of democracy that he vowed to protect,” he says in the documentary.

The film also shows a congressman likening the rioters to tourists. “A tourist visit this was not,” Browne narrates, “and the proof is in the footage.”

The Times’ investigation could take on added importance given the stalled government effort to thoroughly investigate what happened that day.

“I think recent events have made a presentation like this more valuable,” he said. “Maybe it will create pressure for the investigation. I don’t know. Our intention is not to influence policy or politicians, but to really show the public what happened in the fullest way possible.”

Ukrainian 'parade in heels' plan sparks backlash

Plans for female soldiers to wear heels ahead of an August military parade in Ukraine has sparked anger among some Ukrainian lawmakers, the BBC reports.

© Getty Ukrainian 'parade in heels' plan sparks backlash

Photos that circulated online this week showed female soldiers wearing camouflage cargo pants and black heels as they rehearsed for a parade slated for Aug. 24, which would commemorate 30 years since the country gained its independence.

The photos drew swift pushback, with a group of lawmakers demanding that the country's defense minister, Andriy Taran, issue an apology. Some lawmakers called for Taran to also wear heels during the parade, bringing shoes into parliament in protest, Sky News reported.

Parliament deputy speaker Olena Kondratyuk said the photos of women wearing heels while rehearsing during the military parade was "humiliating" for women, and she called for the photos to be investigated, The Guardian reported.

Opposition member of parliament Iryna Gerashchenko said she initially thought the photos were fake and called the move sexist, according to the BBC.

The outlet noted that others on social media also blasted the move, with one commentator in Ukraine writing on Facebook, "The story of a parade in heels is a real disgrace."

The photos were apparently released by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, which regulates the ceremonial uniform, including shoes.

The ministry said in a news release that the defense minister had met with cadets leading up to the parade and had "listened to the opinions, remarks and wishes of the cadets on the ceremonial uniform, in particular, shoes."

The news release added that Taran "instructed the profile deputy to consider the possibility of purchasing the required number of samples of experimental models of shoes specifically for the anniversary parade."

In response to the backlash over the attire, the ministry said Taran felt the criticisms over the shoes was being "used by some political forces for banal politicking and self-publicity."

Ukraine's armed forces have around 31,000 women currently serving.

Brazil Supreme Court greenlights investigation of Bolsonaro

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has authorized a criminal investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro’s response to allegations of potential corruption within his Health Ministry involving a vaccine deal.

In Friday's decision, Supreme Court Justice Rosa Weber said the investigation is supported by recent testimony in a Senate committee investigating the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prosecutors will investigate whether Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication,” which entails delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest. Weber didn’t rule out the possibility other potential wrongdoing could be investigated.

The inquiry comes after Luis Ricardo Miranda, the chief of the Health Ministry’s import division, said he faced undue pressure to sign off on the import of 20 million vaccines from Indian pharmaceutical Bharat Biotech. He said there were irregularities in the invoices — particularly a $45 million upfront payment to a Singapore-based company.

Miranda testified before the Senate committee June 25 along with his brother, Luis Miranda, a lawmaker who until recently was allied with Bolsonaro. The Mirandas said they brought their concerns directly to Bolsonaro, who assured them he would report the irregularities to the Federal Police.

However, the Federal Police never received any request to investigate, a Federal Police source with knowledge of investigations told The Associated Press. He spoke anonymously for lack of authorization to speak publicly

The secretary-general of the presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, confirmed Bolsonaro met with the Mirandas, but claimed they presented fraudulent documents. Bolsonaro ordered the brothers investigated, he said.

Bharat has denied any wrongdoing with respect to vaccine supply. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of corruption, and told reporters on June 28 he can’t know what transpires within his ministries.

The Supreme Court decision greenlighting an investigation came in response to a request filed by three senators. A majority of senators on the investigating committee previously told the AP that, once their inquest concludes, they would vote to recommend Bolsonaro be indicted for prevarication.

The crime carries with it a prison term of between three months and a year, plus payment of a fine.

Diane Jeantet, The Associated Press