Tens of thousands march against beleaguered Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa

Tens of thousands marched on beleaguered Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office on Saturday, in the biggest protest to date over the country's dire economic and political crisis.

© Eranga Jayawardena, AP

Sri Lanka's 22 million people have seen weeks of power blackouts and severe shortages of food, fuel and other essentials in the country's worst downturn since independence in 1948.

Saturday's social-media organised protest drew the largest numbers since the crisis blew up last month, according to AFP reporters. And pressure on Rajapaksa intensified further as the country's powerful business community also began withdrawing support for the president.

Men and women poured onto Colombo's seafront promenade and laid siege to the colonial-era Presidential Secretariat, chanting "go home Gota" and waving the national lion flag.

Others carried handwritten placards that read "it's time for you to leave" and "enough is enough."

Barricades blocked the entrance to the president's office with police in riot gear taking up positions inside the tightly guarded compound.

"These are innocent people here. we are all struggling to live. The government must go and allow a capable person to lead the country," one man told the crowd.

The protests appeared to be peaceful, but a police official said teargas and water cannon were at the ready if needed. On Friday security forces fired water cannon at demonstrating students.

Residents said there were widespread protests in the suburbs of the capital too while the Catholic and Anglican churches also brought their followers onto the streets.

The head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith led a protest in the town of Negombo, just north of Colombo, urging people to continue protesting till the Rajapaksa administration resigned.

"Everyone must get on the streets till the government leave, these leaders must go. You must go. You have destroyed this country."
Fuelling losses

Sri Lanka's business community, which largely funded Rajapaksa's election campaign, also appeared to ditch the president on Saturday.

"The current political and economic impasse simply cannot continue any further, we need a cabinet and interim government within a week at most," said Rohan Masakorala, head of Sri Lanka Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Rubber products.

His association joined 22 other business and industry organisations, seeking a change of government, saying daily losses had reached around $50 million due to the fuel shortage alone.

In a joint statement, they said that they were responsible for generating nearly a quarter of the country's $80.17 billion gross domestic product and warned millions of jobs would be in jeopardy.

Newly appointed central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said a series of monetary policy blunders had led to the current crisis with no dollars to finance many imports.

In a desperate attempt to shore up the free-falling rupee, Weerasinghe on Friday implemented the country's biggest-ever interest rate hike of 700 basis points.

"We are now in damage control mode," he said.

Weerasinghe added he expected the rupee to stabilise and dollar inflows to improve as he relaxes his predecessor's tight foreign exchange restrictions which he described as counter-productive.

The government is preparing for bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund next week, with finance ministry officials saying that sovereign bond-holders and other creditors may have to take a haircut.

New finance minister Ali Sabry told parliament on Friday that he expects $3 billion from the IMF to support the island's balance of payments in the next three years.

"We hope to get about a billion dollars a year in the next three years totalling a support of three billion," he said adding that Colombo will also seek a debt moratorium.

(AFP)

Iraqis clean up river as first green projects take root

Garbage clogs the banks of Iraq’s Tigris River in Baghdad but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country.

Young Iraqi volunteers take part in a clean-up campaign on the bank of the Tigris river in the Adhamiyah district of the capital Baghdad, on March 11, 2022. Plastic garbage clogs the banks of Iraq’s Tigris River in Baghdad, but an army of young volunteers is cleaning it, a rare environmental project in the war-battered country, part of a green activist campaign called the Cleanup Ambassadors. AFP

With boots and gloves, they pick up soggy trash, water bottles, aluminium cans, and muddy styrofoam boxes, part of a green activist campaign called the Cleanup Ambassadors.

“This is the first time this area has been cleaned since 2003,” shouts a passer-by about the years of conflict since a US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

The war is over but Iraq faces another huge threat: a host of interrelated environmental problems from climate change and rampant pollution to dust storms and water scarcity.

The 200 volunteers at work in Baghdad want to be part of the solution, removing garbage from a stretch of one of the mighty rivers that gave birth to the ancient civilisations of Mesopotamia.

“It breaks my heart to see the banks of the Tigris in this state,” said one 19-year-old volunteer, who gave only her first name, Rassel, working under Baghdad’s Imams Bridge.

“We want to change this reality. I want to make my city more beautiful.”

The task is Herculean in a country where it remains common for people to drop their trash on the ground.

The green banks of the Tigris, popular for picnics by families and groups of friends, are usually littered with waste, from single-use plastic bags to the disposable tips of hookah pipes, especially after public holidays.

Rubbish chokes wildlife

“There is a lot of plastic, nylon bags, and corks,” said Ali, also 19 and an organiser of the cleanup event.

The group then handed their collected waste to the Baghdad City Council which took it away, bound for a landfill.

More often the garbage ends up directly in the Tigris. It is one of Iraq’s two major waterways, along with the Euphrates, that face a host of environmental pressures.

The rivers or their tributaries are dammed upstream in Turkey and Iran, over-used along the way, and polluted with domestic, industrial and agricultural waste.

The trash that flows downriver clogs riverbanks and wetlands and poses a threat to wildlife, both terrestrial and aquatic.

When the water empties into the Gulf, plastic bags are often ingested by turtles and dolphins and block the airways and stomachs of many other species, says a United Nations paper.

In Iraq — which has suffered four decades of conflict and years of political and economic turmoil — separating and recycling waste has yet to become a priority for most people.

The country also lacks proper infrastructure for waste collection and disposal, said Azzam Alwash, head of the non-governmental group Nature Iraq.

“There are no environmentally friendly landfills and plastic recycling is not economically viable,” he said.

Plumes of smoke

Most garbage ends up in open dumps where it is burned, sending plumes of acrid smoke into the air.

This happens in Iraq’s southern Mesopotamian Marshes, one of the world’s largest inland deltas, which Saddam once had largely drained. They were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2016, both for their biodiversity and ancient history.

Today a round-the-clock fire outside the town of Souq al-Shuyukh, which is the gateway to the marshes, burns thousands of tonnes of garbage under the open sky, sending white smoke drifting many kilometres away.

“Open burning of waste is a source of air pollution, and the real cost is the shortening of Iraqi lives,” said Alwash. “But the state has no money to build recycling facilities.”

Even worse is the air pollution caused by flaring — burning off the gas that escapes during oil extraction.

This toxic cocktail has contributed to a rise in respiratory illnesses and greenhouse gas emissions, a phenomenon the UN’s climate experts have voiced alarm about.

Environment Minister Jassem al-Falahi admitted in comments to the official news agency INA that waste incineration’s “toxic gases affect people’s lives and health”.

But so far there have been few government initiatives to tackle Iraq’s environmental woes, and so projects like the Tigris cleanup are leading the way for now.

Ali, the volunteer, hopes that their effort will have a more long-term effect by helping to change attitudes.

“Some people have stopped throwing their waste on the street,” he said, “and some have even joined us.”

Dozens hospitalised as Iraq gripped by dust storm

A man walks in a street during a dust storm in Iraq's city of Nasiriyah in the southern Dhi

 Qar province.

A dust storm that has swept through much of Iraq has left dozens of people in hospital with respiratory problems, a health ministry spokesman said Saturday

The storm erupted in the north of the country on Thursday, prompting the cancellation of flights serving Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region.

As the storm swept south, it shrouded Baghdad and cities as far south as Nasiriyah in a ghostly orange.

In the capital, buildings and vehicles were covered in ochre-coloured dust, AFP journalists reported.

The storm has caused "dozens of hospitalisations across Iraq due to respiratory problems", health ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr told AFP.

The director of Iraq's meteorological office, Amer al-Jabri, said that while dust storms were not uncommon in Iraq, they are becoming more frequent "due to drought, desertification and declining rainfall".

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten social and economic disaster in the war-scarred country.

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20 percent drop in water resources by 2050 due to climate change.

Iraq cholera cases grow, spread to Kurdish region

© 2022 AFP

Twitter stakeholder Elon Musk tweets 'Is Twitter dying?'


Elon Musk, seen here at the Tesla Giga Texas grand opening on April 7, 2022 in Austin, Texas, is proving a controversial add to Twitter's board (AFP/SUZANNE CORDEIRO) (SUZANNE CORDEIRO)

Sat, April 9, 2022

Twitter's newest board member and largest stakeholder Elon Musk tweeted Saturday to ask if the social media network was "dying" and to call out users such as singer Justin Bieber, who are highly followed but rarely post.

"Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content," the Tesla boss wrote, captioning a list of the 10 profiles with the most followers -- a list which includes himself at number eight, with 81 million followers.

"Is Twitter dying?" he wrote.

Former US President Barack Obama appears at the top with 131 million followers, followed by stars such as Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Taylor Swift, as well as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and football star Cristiano Ronaldo, among others.

"For example, @taylorswift13 hasn't posted anything in 3 months," Musk continued.

"And @justinbieber only posted once this entire year."

The social media company named Musk to the board on Tuesday after the outspoken and polarizing executive disclosed he had acquired a more than nine percent stake in the company, making him Twitter's largest shareholder.

Musk said he looked forward to soon making "significant improvements to Twitter," and began polling his followers on whether to add an "edit" button to the service, a long-discussed tweak.

Twitter has now said that it will start experimenting with one.

On Thursday, Musk tweeted a photo of himself smoking marijuana on a Joe Rogan podcast in 2018, with the caption, "Twitter's next board meeting is gonna be lit."

His antics often raise eyebrows and occasionally draw condemnation, as when Jewish groups blasted his tweet comparing Canadian leader Justin Trudeau to Adolf Hitler over Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Musk later deleted the tweet without apologizing.

The appointment has sparked misgivings among some employees, according to a Washington Post report.

Workers at the California-based social media company cited worries about Musk's statements on transgender issues and his reputation as a difficult and driven leader, according to statements on Slack reviewed by the Post.

A California agency has sued Tesla, alleging discrimination and harassment against Black workers. The electric carmaker has rejected the charges, saying it opposes discrimination.

juj/st/md

Favourable breezes boost Spain's wind power sector



Wind power became the main source of electricity production in Spain last year, accounting for 23 percent, ahead of nuclear (21 percent) and gas (17 percent)

 (AFP/CESAR MANSO)


Valentin BONTEMPS
Sat, April 9, 2022, 

Buoyed by a surge in investment and new projects, wind power has become Spain's main source of electricity generation just as Europe seeks to curb its energy imports from Russia.

"We are on suitable ground here," said Joaquin Garcia Latorre, project director at Enel Green Power Espana, pointing to gigantic masts erected on the heights of the tiny northeastern village of Villar de los Navarros.

The Spanish-Italian firm picked this spot, which is well exposed to the wind, to set up a 180-megawatt wind farm, one of the country's biggest.

Dubbed Tico Wind, its 43 wind turbines started producing power in November, said Latorre while workers around him tended to the turbines, which are over 100 metres (328 feet) high.

"There are between 2,500 and 3,000 hours of wind here per year," he added.

The wind farm will be able to produce 471 gigawatt hours per year -- enough to meet the demands of 148,000 households -- after it becomes fully operational in a month.

These types of projects have popped up across Spain in recent years, making it Europe's second-biggest wind power producer after Germany for installed capacity and the world's fifth biggest.

Wind power became the main source of electricity production in Spain last year, accounting for 23 percent, ahead of nuclear (21 percent) and gas (17 percent), according to national grid operator REE.

The sector "benefits from a favourable situation" although "brakes" remain on its development, such as a dependency on government auctions, said Francisco Valverde Sanchez, renewables specialist at electricity consultants Menta Energia.

- Investor interest -

Following a boom in the 2000s thanks to generous public financial aid, the sector suffered a sudden halt when subsidies were slashed in 2013 during Spain's economic crisis.

It has since charged ahead. Spain, which has a total of 1,265 wind farms, had an installed wind power capacity of 28.1 gigawatts in 2021, up from 23.4 gigawatts in 2018, according to industry group AEE.

With large swathes of sparsely populated land, a favourable legal framework and cutting edge wind turbine makers, Spain is one of the most "interesting" markets for wind power investors, said AEE director general Juan Virgilio Marquez.

Spain is home to several sector heavyweights such as Iberdrola and Naturgay, making it a top exporter of wind power equipment. "This explains the dynamism of the sector," said Marquez.

Investor interest has even come from outside of the energy sector.

In November Spain's Amancio Ortega, the founder of fast fashion giant Zara and one of the world's richest men, injected 245 million euros ($268 million) in a wind farm in the northeastern region of Aragon.

- Energy 'breadbasket' -

Spain in 2020 pledged to generate 74 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, up from 47 percent.

To meet this target, Spain is counting on the development of offshore wind power, a sector that is in its infancy.

But since Spain has thousands of kilometres of coastline, offshore wind has lots of room to grow.

"This is an ambitious goal," said Valverde Sanchez, arguing that government bureaucracy around wind farm projects must be reduced for it to be met.

Nearly 600 wind power projects are currently under study by the government, according to AEE.

As part of its plan to respond to the economic fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Spain has pledged to speed up the approval of wind power projects of less than 75 megawatts.

"Our country had enough natural resources to become Europe's leading producer and exporter of renewable energy," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday, adding this could be key to help the European Union meet its goal of "energy independence".

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Brussels has declared a mission to cut the EU's Russian gas imports by two thirds this year and to end the use of Russian gas by 2027.

Spain "could become the energy 'breadbasket' of Europe," said Virgilio Marquez.

vab/ds/mg/lth/jfx

 British Columbia

Sea-to-Sky bus strike hits 10-week mark with talks in neutral, causing widespread frustration

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Drivers, residents, students have been impacted by the strike; many say they want it to end

Liam Britten · CBC News · Posted: Apr 09, 2022 

Workers are picketing at the B.C. Transit depot in Whistler, pictured here, and another depot in Squamish. They are seeking better wages and benefits, while the length of the strike has surprised many in the community. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Spencer Wickenden has a straightforward opinion on the now-10-week-old bus strike in B.C.'s Sea-to-Sky region.

"It sucks," said Wickenden, an Australian who works at a sports bar in the Whistler Village.

"I think it's a joke."

Like many low-wage workers in the pricey Sea-to-Sky area, Wickenden relied on bus service to get around, but due to the strike, that hasn't been possible. Instead it's led to inconvenience and extra costs.

Spencer Wickenden describes the 10-week-old bus strike as 'a joke.' (Shawn Foss/CBC)

"Rents are expensive out here as everyone knows," he said. "And you're making 15 bucks an hour. I mean, it's pretty rough."

About 80 bus drivers with Unifor have been on strike since Jan. 29. They are demanding better wages and benefits from their employer, Pacific Western Transportation, a contractor of B.C. Transit's operating bus service in Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.

The drivers want eventual wage parity with drivers in Metro Vancouver, and have been on the picket lines demanding it with only HandyDart service running in the meantime.

The two sides have not negotiated in weeks, causing widespread frustration.

Only HandyDart transit vehicles, serving people with disabilities, remain on the road. The remaining B.C. Transit vehicles in the region have been parked for weeks. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

'Non-stop, non-stop, keep going'

Sydonie Spence came to Whistler from Manitoba to work in a hotel and, of course, get plenty of time on the slopes.

She also used the bus while it was running, but the extended job action has her re-thinking her future in Whistler.

Hotel worker Sydonie Spence says it's a struggle for low-wage workers to make ends meet in Whistler and the bus strike is adding to that misery. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

"In the summer it won't be as bad because I have a bike," Spence said. "But in the winter it might affect my plans on staying here. 

"I'd love to stay for another season, but if the buses aren't around, I can't afford to live here. And that's just the reality of it."

Nadia Jelenec, 16, is a high school student who works at a fast food restaurant. She said many service workers are forced to shell out for cabs — if they can find one.

"They're obviously really busy now," Jelenec said, proven by one look at a taxi stand in the Whistler Village.

Nadia Jelenec, 16, says going to work in the Whistler Village is a challenging — and expensive — proposition without bus service. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

Cabbie Joey Loren has been among a constant stream of taxis sometimes waiting just seconds for another passenger to hop in.

"Like, super busy," is how Loren described his work during the strike. 

"Non-stop, non-stop, keep going."

Taxi driver Joey Loren says the bus strike has made him a busy man as tourists and workers seek to get around the region. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

Kids 'devastated'

A man walks down Highway 99. The mayor of Whistler has said there has been an uptick of hitchhiking and people dangerously walking on the road since the strike began. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

On Thursday afternoon, parents lined up in their cars to pick up their kids from Whistler Secondary, with some saying the lines have grown quite a bit during the strike.

Lucy Pomroy of Pemberton — a half-hour drive away — was there to pick up her daughter.

"That has become a big challenge, driving back and forth to get them to socializing or activities or school," Pomroy said.

Lucy Pomroy lives in Pemberton, about a half-hour drive away from her daughter's high school. She says parents are paying more for gas and spending more time as chauffeurs during the bus strike and kids are less autonomous. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

"The kids are really sort of devastated because it takes away some independence from them to make decisions for themselves to go where they want to go."

Ryder Huxtable, 17, who was leaving school, said teenagers without a car are bugging their parents for rides, walking long distances or simply missing out on after-school activities.

"It's horrible," Huxtable said. "I want to see the buses back sooner."

Ryder Huxtable, a 17-year-old student at Whistler Secondary, said some of his classmates are missing out on after-school activities with no bus service to get them home. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

No signs of progress

The people CBC spoke to all largely expressed sympathy for the drivers in the dispute.

At a picket line in front of a locked-up B.C. Transit bus depot, driver Rolly Schultz said that tracks with what he's hearing.

Whistler bus driver Rolly Schultz said he believes the drivers have community support but he's surprised they've been striking as long as they have. (Shawn Foss/CBC)

He said drivers are not backing down but the long time without work has been stressful.

"I'm not having income," Schultz said. "I have to pay my bills with savings, my mortgage with savings. It's not an easy situation for myself and everybody else here."

Employer Pacific Western has said that it has offered fair deals to the union, and asked if the union would agree to binding arbitration. That request was not agreed to.

Workers are pictured at the picket line in Whistler Thursday. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Unifor, the drivers' union, has accused the company of "stubbornness" on outstanding issues. A union spokesperson has confirmed there are no upcoming talks planned.

B.C. Transit has said little during the debate aside from assuring customers it is monitoring the situation and apologizing for inconvenience.

• As bus strike drags on in Sea-to-Sky region, residents say they're losing patience ⁠— and money

• Bus strike in Sea-to-Sky region sees plenty of frustration but little progress after 5 weeks

B.C. Labour Minister Harry Bains said he is urging the parties to get back to talking and is offering mediation services through the Labour Relations Board.

• Bargaining to resume over contract for Sea-to-Sky transit workers, union says

• Transit workers in Sea to Sky region go on strike after dispute over wages and benefits

Meanwhile, people like Wickenden just want buses back on the road.

"It's just carrying on too long now," he said. "They need to do something about it."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Liam Britten

Digital journalist

Liam Britten is an award-winning journalist for CBC Vancouver. You can contact him at liam.britten@cbc.ca or follow him on Twitter: @liam_britten.

Ukraine war tests evangelicals' support for Putin as leader of conservative values

By Melani McAlister, George Washington University


From left to right, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, his wife ,Svetlana, then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, attend an Easter service in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow on April 24, 2011. UPI File Photo | License Photo

April 8 (UPI) -- In February, evangelical leader Franklin Graham called on his followers to pray for Vladimir Putin. His tweet acknowledged that it might seem a "strange request" given that Russia was clearly about to invade Ukraine. But Graham asked that believers "pray that God would work in his heart so that war could be avoided at all cost."

The backlash was fast and direct. Graham had not solicited prayers for Ukraine, some observers commented. And he had rarely called on believers to pray for U.S. President Joe Biden.

A significant subset of the U.S. evangelical community, particularly White conservatives, has been developing a political and emotional alliance with Russia for almost 20 years. Those American believers, including prominent figures such as Graham and Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice see Russia, Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church as protectors of the faith, standing against attacks on "traditional" and "family" values. At the center is Russia's spate of anti-LGBTQ laws, which have become a model for some anti-transgender and anti-gay legislation in the United States.



Now, with Russia bombing churches and destroying cities in Ukraine, the most Protestant of the former Soviet Republics, American evangelical communities are divided. Most oppose Russia's actions, especially because there is a strong evangelical church in Ukraine that is receiving attention and prayers from a range of evangelical leaders.

Nonetheless, a small group of the most conservative American evangelicals cannot quite break up with their long-term ally. The enthusiasm for Russia is embodied by Graham, who in 2015 famously visited Moscow, where he had a warm meeting with Putin.

On that trip, Putin reportedly explained that his mother had kept her Christian faith even under Communist rule. Graham in turn praised Putin for his support of Orthodox Christianity, contrasting Russia's "positive changes" with the rise of "atheistic secularism" in the United States.

But it was not always so. Once upon a time, American evangelicals saw the Soviet Union and other communist countries as the world's greatest threat to their faith.

They carried out dramatic and illegal activities, smuggling Bibles and other Christian literature across borders. And yet, today, Russia, still a country with low church attendance and little government tolerance for Protestant evangelism, has become a symbol of the conservative values that some American evangelicals proclaim.

Bible smuggling

Starting in the 1950s, but intensifying in the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. and European evangelicals presented themselves as intimately linked to the Christians who were suffering at the hands of communist governments.

One evangelical group that emerged at this time was "Open Doors," whose main aim was to work for "persecuted Christians" around the world. It was founded by "Brother Andrew" Van der Bijl, a Dutch pastor who smuggled Bibles into the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Brother Andrew and other evangelicals argued that what Christians in communist countries really needed were Bibles -- reflecting how important personal Bible reading is in evangelical faith.

Brother Andrew turned the smuggling into anti-communist political theater. As he headed toward the border in a specially outfitted vehicle with a hidden compartment that might hold as many as 3,000 Bibles, he prayed. According to one ad that ran in Christian magazines, he said:

"Lord, in my luggage I have forbidden Scriptures that I want to take to your children across the border. When you were on earth, you made blind eyes see. Now I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see these things you do not want them to see."

Van der Bijl's memoir, God's Smuggler, became a bestseller when it was published in 1967.

Taking Jesus to communist world

By the early 1970s, there were more than 30 Protestant organizations engaged in some sort of literature smuggling, and there was an intense, sometimes quite nasty, competition between groups.

Their work depended on their charismatic leaders, who often used sensationalist approaches for fundraising.

For example, in 1966, a Romanian pastor named Richard Wurmbrand appeared before the Senate judiciary committee's internal security subcommittee, stripped to the waist and turned to display his deeply scarred back.

A Jewish convert and Lutheran minister, Wurmbrand had been imprisoned twice by the Romanian government for his activities as an "underground" minister before he finally escaped to the West in 1964.

Standing shirtless before U.S. senators and the national news media, Wurmbrand testified, "My body represents Romania, my country, which has been tortured to a point that it can no longer weep. These marks on my body are my credentials."

The next year, Wurmbrand published his book, Tortured for Christ, which became a bestseller in the United States. He founded his own activist organization, "Jesus to the Communist World," which went on to engage in a good bit of attention-grabbing behavior.

In May 1979, for example, two 32-year-old men associated with the group flew their small plane over the Cuban coast, dropping 6,000 copies of a pamphlet written by Wurmbrand. After the "Bible bombing," they lost their way in a storm and were forced to land in Cuba, where they were arrested and served 17 months in jail before being released.

As I describe in my book The Kingdom of God Has No Borders, critics hammered these groups for such provocative approaches and hardball fundraising. One leading figure in the Southern Baptist Convention complained that the practice of smuggling Bibles was "creating problems for the whole Christian witness" in communist areas.

Another Christian activist, however, admitted that the activist groups' mix of faith and politics was hard to beat and had the ability to draw "big bucks."

After communism: Islam, homosexuality

These days, there is little in the way of swashbuckling adventure to be had in confronting communists. But that does not mean an end to the evangelical focus on persecuted Christians.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, advocates turned their attention to the situation of Christians in Muslim-majority countries. Evangelicals in Europe and the United States increasingly focused on Islam as a competitor and a threat. Putin's war against Chechen militants in the 1990s, and his more recent intervention on behalf of Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, made him popular with Christian conservatives. Putin claimed to be protecting Christians while waging war against Islamic terrorism.

Meanwhile, Putin's policies of cracking down on evangelism do not seem to overly bother some of his conservative evangelical allies. When Putin signed a Russian law in June 2016 that outlawed any sharing of one's faith in homes, online or anywhere else but recognized church buildings, some evangelicals were outraged, but others looked away.

This is in part because American evangelicals in the 2010s continued to see Putin as being willing to openly support Christians in what they saw as a global war on their faith. But the more immediately salient issue was Putin's opposition to LGBTQ+ rights and nontraditional views of the family.

Graham was among those who waxed enthusiastically about Russia's so-called gay propaganda law, which limits public material about "nontraditional" relationships. Others, such as the World Congress of Families and the Alliance Defending Freedom, have long been cultivating ties with Russian politicians as well as the Russian Orthodox Church.

Putin allies on defensive

In the 21st century, then, the most conservative wing of evangelicals was not promoting its agenda by touting the number of Bibles transported across state lines, but rather on another kind of border crossing: the power of Putin's reputation as a leader in the resurgent global right.

Now, the invasion of Ukraine has put Putin's allies on the defensive. There are still those, including the QAnon-supporting 2020 Republican candidate for Congress Laura Witzke, who explained in March that she identifies "more with Putin's Christian values that I do with Joe Biden." But Graham emphasized to the Religion News Service that he does not support the war, and his humanitarian organization Samaritan's Purse sent several teams to Ukraine to operate clinics and distribute relief.

For the moment, Putin's status as the global right's moral vanguard is being severely tested, and the border-crossing advocates of traditional marriage may find themselves on the brink of divorce.

This article includes material from a piece published on Sept. 4, 2018.

Melani McAlister is a professor of American studies and international affairs at George Washington University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

UK's Sunak admits to having US green card while in office amid fury over wife's tax status

Chancellor's wife holds non-domiciled status, which exempts her from paying tax on foreign income

Rishi Sunak, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, poses for the media 

as he leaves 11 Downing Street in London. AP

Neil Murphy

Apr 08, 2022

Rishi Sunak has admitted holding a US green card while chancellor, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was unaware his Cabinet colleague’s wife holds the tax-reducing non-domiciled status.

Mr Johnson said the chancellor is doing an “outstanding job” on Friday and denied damaging leaks about the Sunaks’ tax affairs were coming from within No 10.

Mr Sunak, an MP since 2015, released a statement admitting to holding a US permanent resident card until October, 12 months after becoming chancellor, in February 2020.

He has been under intense scrutiny after it surfaced that his wife, Akshata Murty, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, holds the non-domiciled status that exempts her from paying tax in the UK on foreign income.

A spokeswoman for the MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, released a statement confirming a Sky News report that he held a green card while chancellor until seeking guidance before his first US trip in a government capacity in October last year.

The US inland revenue says anyone who has a green card is treated as a “lawful permanent resident” and is considered a “US tax resident for US income tax purposes”.

She said Mr Sunak continued to file US tax returns, “but specifically as a non-resident, in full compliance with the law”, having obtained a green card when he lived and worked in the country.

“As required under US law and as advised, he continued to use his green card for travel purposes,” the spokeswoman said.

“Upon his first trip to the US in a government capacity as chancellor, he discussed the appropriate course of action with the US authorities. At that point it was considered best to return his green card, which he did immediately.

“All laws and rules have been followed and full taxes have been paid where required in the duration he held his green card.”

The prime minister defended Mr Sunak when coming under sustained questioning at a Downing Street press conference alongside German leader Olaf Scholz.

On the green card, Mr Johnson said: “As I understand it, the chancellor has done absolutely everything he was required to do.”

In this photo taken on February 9, 2022, Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak poses with his wife, Akshata Murty, during a reception to celebrate the British Asian Trust at The British Museum in London. AFP

The prime minister denied having knowledge of Ms Murty's tax status and added that No 10 has not been briefing against Mr Sunak, who is seen as the front-runner for any possible Conservative leadership election.

“If there are such briefings, they are not coming from us in No 10 and heaven knows where they are coming from,” Mr Johnson said. “I think that Rishi is doing an absolutely outstanding job.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who had called for Cabinet Secretary Simon Case to investigate the a “huge conflict of interest” of the US residency, implied Mr Sunak should be fired.

“Never mind a green card — it’s time to give Rishi Sunak the red card,” Sir Ed said.

Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Pat McFadden questioned why Mr Sunak kept the green card after becoming MP and whether it gave him “any tax advantage”.

Mr Sunak criticised the “unpleasant smears” about his wife’s tax affairs during an interview with The Sun and suggested it was a Labour smear campaign, something the party denies.

But his allies told newspapers they suspect No 10 of trying to undermine him.

The chancellor met his wife while he was studying at Stanford University. They married in 2009 and own a home in Santa Monica, California.

Ms Murty, the fashion-designer daughter of a billionaire, confirmed she holds non-domiciled status after The Independent revealed the arrangement on the day a national insurance increase hit millions of workers.

Mr Sunak said his wife was entitled to use the non-domiciled arrangement as she is an Indian citizen and plans to move back to her home country to care for her parents.

He insisted she is not attempting to pay less tax, saying “the dates don’t make a difference”, amid speculation she potentially avoided up to £20 million in UK tax.

Ms Murty is reported to hold a 0.91 per cent stake in Infosys, an IT business founded by her father, and has received £11.6m in dividends from the Indian firm in the past year.

Non-domiciled status means she would not have to pay UK tax at a rate of 39.35 per cent on dividends. India sets the rate for non-residents at 20 per cent, but this can fall to 10 per cent for those who are eligible to benefit from the UK’s tax treaty with India.

Public records show Infosys has received more than £50m in UK public sector contracts since 2015.

Ms Murty pays an annual levy of £30,000 to the UK government to keep her non-domiciled status, her spokeswoman said.

Updated: April 08, 2022, 1:22 PM