US: Mexico-based megachurch leader pleads guilty to child sex abuse

Nasson Joaquin Garcia, the head of the evangelical church La Luz del Mundo, pleaded guilty to three charges stemming from the abuse of three underage victims.



La Luz del Mundo has close to 5 million followers worldwide

The leader of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch has admitted to sexually abusing three girls, just days before he was to be tried on multiple charges including child rape, state prosecutors in the US state of California said on Friday.

Nasson Joaquin Garcia, the head and self-styled apostle of the La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) church, headquartered in the western city of Guadalajara, entered a guilty plea at the Los Angeles Superior Court three days before he was scheduled to go on trial.

Garcia pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15.

"Garcia used his power to take advantage of children," Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. "He relied on those around him to groom congregants for the purposes of sexual assault. Today's conviction can never undo the harm, but it will help protect future generations."

The 53-year-old will be sentenced next Wednesday and could face up to 16 years and eight months in prison, prosecutors said. He remains in jail on a $90 million (€84 million) bail.

Watch video03:22 Juan Carlos Cruz, sexual abuse survivor, in an interview with DW

Long cycle of abuse

The guilty plea comes at the end of a long investigation into Garcia, the leader of the fundamentalist Christian church founded by his grandfather in 1926, which now boasts 5 million followers globally.

The church advocates a very conservative lifestyle, with male members often wearing suits and women in non-revealing dresses and hair veils.

Garcia took over as the "apostle" after his father, Samuel Joaquin Flores, died in 2014. Flores was also the subject of child sex abuse allegations in 1997, but no criminal charges were filed.

One of Garcia’s co-defendants, Alondra Ocampo, pleaded guilty to three felony counts of contact with a minor for purposes of committing a sexual offense and one count of forcible sexual penetration in 2020.

She said she had been sexually abused by Flores.

'Grooming' help

In addition to Garcia and Ocampo, co-defendant Susana Medina Oaxaca also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault likely to cause great bodily harm on Friday.

Attorney Pat Carey said 27-year-old Oaxaca had faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted at trial and the guilty plea was in her best interests. "It was also a relief to put a 3-year process behind her rather than endure a lengthy jury trial, 98% of which involved evidence that had nothing to do with her," he wrote in an email to The Associated Press.

Ocampo, on the other hand, was set to testify against Garcia after admitting to helping him find victims. Her attorney Fred Thiagarajah said Ocampo would have corroborated the testimony of victims and provided context for the prosecutor's case.

"She actively recruited and groomed girls for him," Thiagarajah said. "She would target girls and bring them into his inner fold. She was tasked with sexualizing these girls and facilitating their abuse."

According to the charges, Ocampo told girls that if they refused his wishes and desires, they were going against God.

A fourth individual, Azalea Rangel Melendez, has also been charged in the investigation, but remains at large, prosecutors said.

In 2020, the church defended its leader in a statement, saying the charges against him stemmed from "unsubstantiated anonymous allegations" and "blatant hearsay."

see/tj (Reuters, AP)

German police criticized over far-right Hanau killings

Police have been accused of failing to keep tabs on a racist killer during one of Germany's worst-ever far-right shootings. Police say they had to proceed cautiously.

Relatives of the Hanau shootings question police action on the day of the attacks

An exhibition in Frankfurt about one of Germany's deadliest mass shootings has raised new questions about the police operation in the city of Hanau in the state of Hesse, on February 19, 2020. Most of the evidence on display in the exhibition has never been published before, and much had not even been made available to the state parliamentary committee investigating the security forces' role.

The 43-year-old Tobias R.*carried out a mass shooting in two bars and a kiosk, where he killed nine people of color and injured five others. He later killed his mother in their home before taking his own life. Prosecutors classified the crime as racially motivated right-wing extremism, as the gunman had posted a racist manifesto on his website.

The Hesse State Interior Minister Peter Beuth insisted that the police performed "excellent" work during the Hanau operation. But the families of the Hanau victims have repeatedly alleged that they have been subjected to policing and suspicion following the attack, while potential far-right perpetrators go unnoticed by authorities until atrocities happen.

The February 19 Initiative, which represents the Hanau survivors and victims' families, commissioned Forensic Architecture to conduct its investigation and was represented at the official opening at the Frankfurter Kunstverein on Thursday night by Cetin Gültekin, brother of Gökhan Gültekin, who was shot dead in Hanau's Arena Bar.

"We want to show the public that we are doing the work that the police should be doing," Gültekin told DW, after delivering a passionate speech to the crowd outside the gallery. "And now we put all the evidence on the table, and everything is in the open, and it shows that the police failed."

Cetin Gültekin is the brother of a victim of the hanau shooting. He says 'Our trust in the police is gone.'

Delayed action

The exhibition, by Forensic Architecture, a UK group that recently opened an office in Berlin, presented its evidence in the form of minutely detailed timelines and videos — painstakingly pieced together from witness statements, police helicopter footage, and surveillance cameras. The material was redacted to ensure it is legally publishable, though Forensic Architecture has chosen to keep its sources anonymous.

Forensic Architecture's exhibition suggests the Hesse state police failed to keep the perpetrator's house under surveillance for over an hour after they knew his address and had police cars posted nearby.

Acoustic experiments carried out by Forensic Architecture also suggest that nearby police should have been able to hear the shot when Tobias R. killed his mother.

"The fact that the police should've heard the shots, that the special units should've heard the shots — that throws up new questions," said Heike Hofmann, Social Democrat politician and part of the Hesse state parliamentary committee investigating the Hanau killings. "Maybe if they'd stormed the house earlier the mother could have been saved. Or the perpetrator may have been arrested alive."

"Forensic Architecture's work has confirmed what one could have suspected," she added later in a statement. "The police forces at the crime scenes ... were overwhelmed by the situation."

In response to the new findings, Hesse state police said the decision not to storm the perpetrator's house was made to avoid more violence. In a statement, police said officers arrived at the house around 10:50 p.m., and at first sought to communicate with him. But following "intensive reconnaissance measures and several failed attempts to make contact" the house was entered at around 3:00 a.m.

Police said that they had to be wary of scenarios including "suicide by cop," an exchange of fire with the perpetrator, or potential explosive booby-traps in the house.

"A quick and therefore highly risky operation was, following assessment of the overall situation, not required," the police said. The statement made no mention of the time windows when the house was apparently left un-surveilled, but pointed out that a helicopter was deployed to sweep the area throughout the evening.

However, the footage from the police helicopter presented at the exhibition raises its own concerns. Recordings of the pilots show they had little contact with officers on the ground, were never told the perpetrators' address, and were left to aimlessly circle the area.

The Arena Bar was one of the crime scenes in the racist shootings

The exhibition, entitled Three Doors, also presents new evidence on other aspects of the attack, including the sensitive issue of the emergency exit at the Arena Bar, where three people were killed. Forensic Architecture's exhibition shows new evidence that the emergency exit of one bar was locked on the night of the attack, allegedly at the behest of the police, who routinely raided it to look for illegal drugs.

In August 2021, Hanau state prosecutors dropped their investigation into the bar owner as they could not conclusively establish whether the emergency exit was locked on the night of the attack, or whether victims could have escaped through it.

The Forensic Architecture exhibition contradicts both of those conclusions. In response to a DW request for comment, Hanau state prosecutors said they had nothing to add to their investigation, which ended last August.

Racist police chats

Thursday's opening was marked by the palpable anger still felt by the victims' families. This was directed not only at the perceived failures in the police operation and the lack of clarity over the Arena Bar's emergency exit but also at the way victims' families were treated following the killings.

The families reported not being told where the bodies of their loved ones were being kept for four days after the killings, and receiving phone calls from police warning them not to carry out acts of revenge against the perpetrator's father, who is believed to share his son's far-right views. "We were left to ourselves," Gültekin told DW. "Our trust in the police is gone."

That sense of grievance was exacerbated last June when it emerged that 13 of the special unit officers on duty during the Hanau operation were suspended for taking part in a chat group that exchanged racist and far-right messages. The Hesse state government disbanded the unit.

In 2020, the last federal government introduced a total of 89 new measures to tackle far-right violence, investing a billion euros from 2021 to 2024 in civil society and political education projects.

But the problem of alleged far-right sympathies in the Hesse security forces has been the source of continual scandals. The state intelligence agency came under scrutiny in the 2006 murder of Halit Yozgat, a 21-year-old German with Turkish roots, by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Underground (NSU), when it emerged that an intelligence officer was present when the killing took place. More recently, questions have been asked about how a known neo-Nazi was not under surveillance when he murdered local governor Walter Lübckein Wolfhagen in 2019.

Following the Hanau killings, then-Hesse State Premier Volker Bouffier was quoted in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper suggesting that potential far-right sympathies said nothing about whether the police had done everything right during the operation. As that quote was flashed on a screen during the exhibition in Frankfurt on Thursday night, a groan of derision went around the room.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

* Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and urges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

DW RECOMMENDS

Germany marks first-ever National Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorist Violence

The NSU, Hanau, the Breitscheidplatz Christmas market — these names evoke memories of terrorist attacks in Germany's recent past. As leaders meet to commemorate the victims, some say more needs to be done to help them.  

Germany: Mural honors victims of far-right Hanau shooting

A mural commemorating the victims of the Hanau shooting has been unveiled in Frankfurt. The memorial's unveiling comes four months after the racially motivated attack by a German right-wing extremist.  

KULTURKAMPF

Why education has become a political battlefield in America

Books, schools and libraries are on the frontlines of US culture wars. A conservative-led movement is cracking down on what is taught and read. DW looks into what is behind a wave of book bans across the country.

One of the most contentious topics in this fight is the concept of critical race theory

Robin Steenman wheels a black carton full of colorful books to her kitchen table and pulls out a handful. The pages are rifled through and earmarked with sticky tabs. The pile includes titles like Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea, Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family's Fight for Desegregation and The Story of Ruby Bridges.

For Steenman, these pages are evidence of schooling gone wrong.

She is the president of Moms for Liberty, a conservative group advocating for parents' rights to have a say in their children's schooling, in Williamson County, Tennessee. Her group objects to the way some books are being taught in the district's public schools.

"Schools should not be pushing an ideology on my children," Steenman said. "Schools should effectively teach them to read and write and do math and understand science so that they can go forth and be successful in life. But this curriculum is more focused on its own message and its own agenda than it is equipping kids to do that."

Those on the other side of the argument say it's important to discuss racism in the US system

Moms for Liberty in Williamson County lodged an official complaint with the Tennessee Department of Education late last year stating that the books and teaching materials "reveal both explicit and implicit anti-American, anti-white, and anti-Mexican teaching," and that they presented "a heavily biased agenda, one that makes children hate their country, each other, and/or themselves."

Their complaint was rejected. But the case underscores a growing trend in the US where a conservative-led movement is clamping down on education and, in particular, what schools teach children. They are targeting books and learning materials across the country and challenging the way racism, gender and sexuality are addressed.

A new battleground in schools

That has put classrooms and libraries on the frontlines of America's culture wars once again.

According to the American Library Association, there were "729 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2021, resulting in more than 1,597 individual book challenges or removals."  That's the highest number of attempted book bans since the organization started counting such challenges in 2000. Most of these books were by, or about, Black or LGBTQ+ people, the association said.

And this is all despite the fact that a poll by the American Library Association indicates the majority of Americans, no matter which political party they are from, opposed efforts to remove books from public and school libraries.

"[Banning books] is a common feature in American history and has a lot to do with the sort of larger context of the culture wars in some ways, which have always been a part of American history," said Andrew Hartman, a professor of history at Illinois State University and author of A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars.

"This debate between largely religious conservatives and largely secular liberals goes back to the 1920s in many ways, but really has been heightened ever since the 1960s and the liberation movements — civil rights, feminism, gay rights."

In 1933, the Nazis burned books they viewed as subversive or opposed to Nazism

This battle over censorship is not new, nor is it limited to the US. From Germany's National Socialists banning and burning books they deemed degenerate, to radicals in China's Cultural Revolution destroying books that didn't conform to their political ideology, reading and teaching materials have been a common target throughout history and across the globe.

However the current wave of book bans in the US appears to be more politicized than previously because it pits the US' two major political parties — the Republicans and the Democrats — against one another in what is already a profoundly polarized political landscape.

Opportunistic idealogues

"It has become largely Republicans who support the conservative, largely white, religious or evangelical parents," Hartman explained. "And often, Republican politicians are frankly opportunistic about ginning up support for themselves, for their candidacies … because these are issues that animate their base."

The current backlash against books and curricula has mushroomed into a nationwide battle. There have been rallies and protests from Virginia to California, with conservative groups taking on school boards and education officials. Last year a teacher in one Tennessee county was fired for referring to white privilege in his lessons because the state's general assembly had banned what is known as critical race theory from schools.

Divisive ideas

Critical race theory, or CRT, refers to an academic concept that focuses on how racism is systemic, baked into local policies and laws. Conservatives argue that CRT is divisive and fosters negative self-image in white children. Many educators argue that there is no CRT agenda in schools and that they are teaching the very same curricula they have done for years without anybody objecting. Meanwhile Black parents point out that racism is often embedded in the systems their children have to confront.

Yet the controversy goes well beyond critical race theory. Conservative groups oppose how schools are teaching gender and sexuality as well. In Florida, the state's governor, a member of the more conservative and right-leaning Republican party, had education officials pull and scrub mathematics textbooks of what was described as "woke content." Among other things the officials objected to, there were references to racial prejudice in the books.

A school board in Tennessee even voted to remove Maus, the Pulitzer-prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust for what was deemed "rough, objectionable language."

Prize-winning graphic novel, Maus, was banned because it had curse words

 and a depiction of a naked character

"History should be taught absolutely, warts and all, but just teach history without agenda or ideology or trying to put a child in one box or another, because history has the lessons of its own," Steenman of Moms for Liberty said. "If you read a book about US history, especially in regard to slavery and the Civil War, you know, I was taught that as a child and I drew the conclusion that this was bad. Don't ever repeat this. But I was never blamed for it [the Civil War or slavery] as a child."

No negative self-image

The co-founders of One WillCo, an organization that advocates for students of color in the same Tennessee county as Moms for Liberty, have a counter argument to that though. They argue that conservative parents' complaints are unwarranted because students are thriving with the current curriculum and also learning difficult lessons on race and gender.

"All you have to do is explain to children and they get it. We don't give our kids enough credit to handle the conversations that we have," said Revida Rahman, one of the co-founders of One WillCo, who is Black and has children in the public school system. "And unfortunately for me, I have to have difficult conversations with my children on a regular basis to let them know how they're perceived, how they can't do certain things, how you can't take your candy in the grocery store because you may be accused of stealing."

The Harry Potter books have been challenged by religious critics who say they celebrate witchcraft

One WillCo 's other co-founder, Jennifer Cortez, argues that concepts like CRT are Republican talking points that don't reflect what is actually being taught in schools. Her daughter, who is white and also in the public school system, has not developed a negative self-image and Cortez says it's important to view history through an inclusive lens.

"I understand the concern but respectfully that is a white concern," Cortez said. "I have the luxury of not having to think about my skin color here, where I live and where I've grown up, because it has always been, if anything, an advantage or a non-issue. But for many children and many families, that's not the case," she noted. "I can understand why some might think this is divisive because it feels uncomfortable. But the truth is, it's better if we can talk about it and learn how to talk about it."

Edited by Cathrin Schaer

Why Ukraine's human rights chief Lyudmila Denisova was dismissed

The country's ombudsperson for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, is accused of having neglected her duties. But human rights activists have criticized her dismissal.

Liudmyla Denisova at a recent event in Kyiv

A majority of Ukrainian parliamentarians from different parties, including President Zelenskyy's governing Servant of the People party, removed Lyudmyla Denisova after a vote of no-confidence on May 31.

Ukraine's opposition Fatherland party, headed by Yulia Tymoshenko, and ex-President Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party voted against the move. Few saw Denisova's dismissal coming.

Denisova, who until recently served as thecountry's ombudsperson for human rights, had considerable authority to protect civil rights and oversee prisoner swaps.

Her term would have ended next year. Neither the constitution nor any other legislation ordinarily allows for premature dismissal from her office. Lawmakers, however, made use of martial law, which permits the removal of all appointees. 

Accusations against Denisova

The deputy chairman of the parliament regulatory committee, Pavlo Frolov, says Denisova failed to oversee the opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine warzones, address the abduction of Ukrainians from occupied territories, and the protection and exchange of prisoners.

Instead, Frolov says that Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk stepped in. Her ministry, which is in charge of the occupied regions, took on most human rights-related challenges relating to the war, according to the Servant of the People lawmaker.

He also accuses her of having focused too much on media work, and on describing sexually motivated crimes in gratuitous detail as well as the raping of children in occupied territories. However, some of these accounts, he said, had not been verified, which had harmed Ukraine's reputation and distracted media attention from other, proven crimes and problems.

No less than 234 lawmakers voted for Denisova's removal

Frolov also accuses Denisova of having spent considerable time abroad after Russia attacked the country on February 24. He says instead of traveling to Russia or Belarus, where she could have worked to free Ukrainian prisoners, or alleviate the suffering of people in occupied Kherson, Denisova was staying in "warm, peaceful western Europe."

Many Ukrainian journalists and human rights activists were outraged when they read Denisova's detailed descriptions on her Facebook account.

"Sexually motivated crimes during wartime are a tragedy, but they should not be the subject of a kind of 'chronicle of scandal'," an open letter penned by 140 activists, media professionals, lawyers, psycologists and other public figures stated.

The letter goes on to say "it is the job of the ombudsperson to first and foremost consider the rights and dignity of survivors and their relatives."

Politicized office?

Many signatories of the letter nevertheless take issue with Denisova's sudden dismissal. "We as human rights activists doubt [Denisova's] competence and independence," says Tetiana Pechonchyk, who heads Kyiv's human rights organization ZMINA. "Four years ago, we protested against the politicization of her nomination; but what is happening now is totally arbitrary and damages the office of Ukraine's human rights chief."

The Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and its European partners have also spoken up. A letter penned by them to parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns her dismissal could "severely disrupt the important work that needs to be done in these times of conflict." The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine says Denisova's removal "violates international standards."

Human rights activist have penned a letter to Ruslan Stefanchuk

Denisova, meanwhile, claims the presidential office pushed for her removal. She says it "did not approve of my work, which aimed to gather and analyze information about human rights violations in occupied areas." She will contest her dismissal in court.

There have been other attempts to remove her from office. Last autumn, a lawmaker with the ruling Servant of the People party set up an inquiry committee to look into Denisova's failure to move ahead with several lawsuits, although courts had asked her to.

Opposition lawmakers at the time said the inquiry was launched by the presidential office to exact revenge on Denisova for criticizing the "anti-oligarchy law" as unconstitutional.

Who will take over?

Before Denisova took over as human rights chief in March 2018, the post had remained vacant for a year after her predecessor, Valeriya Lutkovska, was dismissed. She had been the first woman to hold the post.

Who should succeed her sparked intense political negations between what was then the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, and the People's Front party, which ultimately nominatedDenisova.  

Ukrainian human rights activists now warn against further politicizing the office. They are calling for human rights experts, rather than lawmakers, to apply for the job in an open, transparent procedure. Nelly Yakovleva, deputy head of the parliamentary human rights committee, says, so far, no candidates had submitted applications.

This article was originally written in Russian.

GOOD BUT NOT GOOD ENOUGH

German lawmakers approve €12 minimum wage

Some 6.2 million workers in Germany are set to benefit from a minimum wage increase passed by lawmakers. The hike comes as inflation soars in Germany.



Germans will see the minimum wage increase by €2.18 per hour as of October

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made raising the minimum wage a key plank in his election platform and, on Friday, lawmakers passed a bill increasing the minimum wage to €12 ($12.90) per hour as of October 1 — an increase of €2.18 per hour.



The increase will mean €400 extra per month for people with a monthly income of €1,700, according to Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.

"That's not the world, but is makes a noticeable difference in the wallet," Heil said before the vote in the Bundestag, the lower house of German parliament.

Germany introduced a national minimum wage in 2015 at the insistence of Scholz's center-left Social Democrats, who at the time were junior partners in conservative former Chancellor Angela Merkel's government.

"Many citizens of our country work a lot but earn little — that must change," Scholz wrote in a tweet when his Cabinet agreed to the increase in February. "For me, one of the most important laws and a question of respect."
Did anyone oppose raising the minimum wage?

The bill to increase the minimum wage passed by a wide margin with 400 in favor, 41 against and 200 abstentions, mainly from the opposition bloc of the Christian Democrat Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU).

Politicians from the center-right CDU/CSU emphasized they were not against raising the minimum wage but the way Scholz's coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and neoliberal Free Democrats brought it about. The socialist Left Party joined the trio of government coalition parties in voting to pass the bill.

How is Germany's minimum wage set?

The minimum wage in Germany is generally recommended by a commission that includes representatives of both employers and employees. The politicians then legislate on the basis of these recommendations. But for this increase, the government bypassed the commission and set the €12 mark itself, adding that the body would determine future increases.

Some employers criticized the increase, arguing that the government is interfering with long-established negotiations between employers, employees and unions to set compensation levels.

Unions and politicians, however, rejected that criticism saying that a minimum wage set at €12 would reduce poverty in Germany.

Who gets a minimum wage in Germany?

Germany's minimum wage covers a majority of workers in the country who are over 18. This includes seasonal workers, no matter where they are from.

As in most places, there are a number of exceptions to the rule. Apprentices, workers taking part in job-promotion schemes, long-term unemployed people in the first six months after reentering the labor market and self-employed individuals are not covered by the minimum wage law.

Workers transiting through the country, such as airline pilots and truck drivers, are likewise not covered.

VIDEO Poor despite work? The dispute over the minimum wage

How often does the minimum wage change?

The current national minimum wage is €9.82, with an increase to €10.45 as of July already in the books. The minimum wage commission will decide on the levels of possible future increases in January 2023 and June 2023.

Germany has one of the highest minimum wages in the European Union. At the current rate of €9.82, a full-time employee would gross €1,621 a month, just behind Luxembourg (€2,257), Ireland (€1,775), the Netherlands (€1,725) and Belgium (€1,658).

A number of European Union countries — such as Denmark, Italy, Austria, Cyprus, Finland and Sweden — have no national minimum wage. They rely on unions and individual sectors to set their own wages

sms/rs (AP, dpa)

German parliament OKs higher minimum wage pledged by Scholz

Fri, June 3, 2022, 

Germany Scholz ((c) Copyright 2022, dpa (www.dpa.de). Alle Rechte vorbehalten)

The German parliament on Friday approved raising the country's minimum wage to 12 euros ($12.84) per hour, fulfilling a key campaign pledge that Chancellor Olaf Scholz made in the run-up to last year’s election.

The nearly 15% increase will take effect on Oct. 1. The government says some 6.2 million people in Germany currently work for less than 12 euros per hour.

Germany was a relative late-comer to instituting a national minimum wage. It was introduced in 2015 at the insistence of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats, who at the time were junior partners in conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government.

The minimum wage was initially set at 8.50 euros per hour. A commission overseeing such wage hikes that includes labor union and employer representatives later approved an increase to the current 9.82 euros. That will rise to 10.45 euros on July 1 before in reaches the 12 euro minimum three months later. The commission will continue to make revisions.

Scholz has long argued for an increase to 12 euros and made it a key plank of his campaign last September, framing it as a matter of fairness and “respect.”

Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told parliament the Oct. 1 wage jump could be the biggest that as many as 6 million Germans, including many women and workers in eastern Germany, have ever seen. Much of the formerly communist east remains less prosperous than western Germany more than three decades after reunification.

The wage hike comes amid a surge in inflation that followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Germany's annual inflation rate hit 7.9% in May, according to an official estimate this week, the highest rate since the winter of 1973-1974.

On Wednesday, Scholz said he wants to join employers and labor unions in a “concerted action” to find ways of cushioning the effects of rising prices while preventing a spiral of inflation in Europe’s biggest economy.

Opinion: Forget Amber Heard, beware of the misogynist backlash

The Johnny Depp, Amber Heard case did not only air the dirty laundry of their toxic relationship, it also brought misogynists out of the woodwork. But there's an even greater issue to worry about, says DW's Julia Hitz.

US actress Amber Heard has been the target of online threats

Who would have thought the US TV channel, Law & Crime, would ever see such record viewer numbers? For the past weeks, audiences around the globe tuned into the Depp versus Heard trial each evening,eager to witness to dirty laundry being aired in the high-profile Hollywood case.

But wait, in reality, this trial actually focused on something else: To determine whether actress Amber Heard wrongfully accused her famous ex-husband, actor Johnny Depp, of domestic abuse. The trial, in short, sought to answer whether Heard was guilty of defamation.

The jury has now largely sided with Depp and against Heard. Now Depp's legal victory is being seized on by some to question Heard's credibility. They are busily commenting on and tweeting about her, sharing the #AmberHeardIsALiar hashtag. Some even claim she has brought down the #MeToo movement. But that view is unjustified and dangerous.

DW's Julia Hitz

Measures aimed at pushing back against progressive developments are known as a backlash.

The backlash against the US civil rights movement has been well analyzed. It manifested itself in protests against the abolition of racial seregation in 1950s America.

In the early 1990s, US journalist and Pulitzer laureate Susan Faludi analyzed the anti-feminist pushback that has occurred over previous decades, taking aim at women's rights. Faludi found that such pushbacks happened in the mid-19th century, around the turn of the century, as well as in the 1940s and 1970s, each time halting feminist movements in their track.

It is clear to see that yet again the US is in the middle of an anti-feminist pushback. Essential women's rights, such as the right to abortion, granted in 1973, are in jeopardy and could be scrapped by the US Supreme Court. Scores of angry protesters took the streets in May to express their outrage.

Time to re-focus

This ongoing backlash also manifests itself in the reactions that the Depp versus Heard trial has drawn.

Heard is the target of endless criticsm. She is attacked by those who still cling to the idea that Johnny Depp is essentially a jovial and eccentric "Pirate of the Caribbean." Heard is also lambasted by those who prefer to direct their anger toward a young, successful woman instead of an accomplished man. And lastly, she is beng singled out by those who would like to turn back the clock because they had taken issue with the #MeToo movement long before this trial ever began.

This is clear from comments claiming the #MeToo movement is now dead, based on the inadequacies, contradictions and inconsistencies found in Heard's court testimonies. It is also clear, incidentally, from commentators who have let themselves be instrumentalized to make such claims. We must pay close attention in coming weeks and months to those who are using this case to try and silence whole movements.

Power balance

The #MeToo movement has provided a platform for, and lent a voice to, victims of sexual violence, most of whom have been women. This community has provided solace to victims and helped shift power dynamics. It has imbued women with power and clout, lending them the drive to launch court cases and see them through.

Affluent white celebrities were not the focus of this movement. Instead marginalized women, who have suffered racism, and lack the financial means, protection orsupport to push back, have been at the center of #MeToo.

The court ruling against Harvey Weinstein serves as an impressive illustration of the power shift that has occurred in favor of women. But this shift is not at the heart of the problem.

In most cases, accusations leveled against abusers are more than justified. Sexual and domestic abuse are real problems. The Heard versus Depp trial changes nothing about this grim fact.

If, however we allow the trial to be interpreted and instrumentalized to further an anti-feminist backlash, we could be in trouble.

Four recommendations

One: The Depp versus Heard trial did not set out to deliver a verdict on the #MeToo movement and its outcome does not entitle anyone to discredit allegations of sexual and domestic violence.

Two: Men, not even the likes of poor old Johnny Depp, do not need extra protection. That's because our patriarchal society already protects and privileges them. They don't need a #MenToo movement. Men who suffered domestic and sexual violence are naturally included in the #MeToo movement, as the movement's initiator Tarana Burke made clear back in 2006.

Three: Bashing Amber Heard is counterproductive. Are we really supposed to believe the 36-year-old actress is responsible for people refusing to believe victims of sexual violence from now on? Anyone tooting on this particular horn, needs to check themselves. 

Four: Stop hurling insults. Misogyny is misogyny. We must continue to fight it in our own everyday lives and on a broader societal level. Calling Amber Heard a monster, whore or witch is misogynistic, offensive and undignified.

This applies to comments made online and offline, regardless of whether they are expressed by husbands, ex-husbands, men or women, or any other human beings.

US Underground abortion group in spotlight, 50 years on


Daniel STUBLEN
Sat, June 4, 2022


Heather Booth was a student in Chicago in 1965 when she received a call from a friend in need. His sister, he said, was pregnant but not ready to have a child. She was "nearly suicidal."

Drawing on her contacts in the city, Booth helped the young woman find a doctor willing to perform an illegal abortion -- in what she believed would be a one-off "act of goodwill."

"But word must have spread," the 76-year-old said in an interview from her home in Washington, more than half a century later.

That one act would grow into an underground network of women called "Jane," whose members helped end thousands of unwanted pregnancies, safely and without stigma -- eventually performing 11,000 abortions themselves.


By January 22, 1973 -- when the US Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade decision created a nationwide right to abortion -- seven "Jane" members were awaiting trial.

One of them was Martha Scott, who at the age of 80 -- and with the court now expected to repeal that right -- looks back defiantly on her decision to break the law many years ago.

"I felt very strongly... that we are doing this illegal thing because it is important to do, because it can't be done legally," Scott said in a video interview from her home in Chicago.

"We were just ladies down the street," she said, but "bad laws require you to choose to act in ways that may be a little risky."
- 'Caring community' -

Booth and Scott, whose journey with the "Janes" is spotlighted in an upcoming HBO documentary, have stark memories of the time before Roe -- when desperate women would harm themselves attempting to end their pregnancies.

"Some were taking lye (a caustic ingredient in soap), some were using a coat hanger," said Booth. "Some were doing damage to themselves, throwing themselves down stairs or off a rooftop."

Without alternatives, women sought out abortions from illegal providers, many of whom were motivated by profit or unscrupulous in other ways, with little concern for women's health.

Eleanor Oliver, another former member of the network, said when she sought an illegal abortion in Washington, she was told the doctor might want her to be "a little cozier and friendlier than just a patient."

Fortunately, said the now-84-year-old Oliver, "he was very businesslike, very official."

As word got out that Booth could help women get a safe abortion, more and more began contacting her -- and she recruited others to help.

To be discreet, they told callers to leave a message for "Jane" -- and the group, established as a "caring community," was born.

After some time, the group discovered their abortionist was not a licensed doctor -- a shock that led some members to leave.

But others, said Scott, realized that if a man without professional training could learn how to safely perform abortions, so could they.
- 'Furious' -

In May 1972, the police barged into the apartment where the "Jane" collective was operating.

"They kept saying 'So where's the doctor?'...'‘Where's the guy who's doing abortions?'" recalled Scott, who was in one of the bedrooms-turned-surgeries.

"Well, of course, it wasn't any guy who was doing abortions… we were doing abortions."

She and six others were rounded up and taken to jail, where they spent the night -- before being released pending trial.

In the wake of Roe v. Wade, the charges against the "Janes" were dropped, and the group disbanded.

Half a century later, though, their work appears relevant all over again, after a leak revealed that the Supreme Court is seriously considering a full reversal of Roe.

Scott was "furious, just furious" at the news -- but "not surprised" either, in light of former president Donald Trump's nomination of three anti-abortion conservative justices, tilting the bench decisively to the right.

If the nationwide right to abortion is struck down -- leaving states free to enact "dangerous" restrictions -- Scott expects a new generation of activists will need to step up.

"What we need to do is use every tool at our disposal," echoed Booth.

While conservative-led states are expected to drastically curb abortion rights if given free rein, it would remain legal in many other states -- "islands in the storm," as Booth calls them.

Some, like Illinois, have already moved to loosen their abortion restrictions in anticipation of the Supreme Court decision.

The poorest women -- less able to travel out of state -- will be the hardest-hit, as seen in Texas where abortions after six weeks have already been effectively banned.

But new medication can safely induce abortions up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy and -- though it would still be illegal -- can easily be sent through the mail.

And so, Scott and Booth hold out hope that the United States will not be going back to the dark days of back-alley abortions.

"The abortions won't stop," Booth said, citing data that shows one in four American women will terminate a pregnancy at some point in their lifetime.

"It's not rare, and it needs to be safe."

des/ec/sst

Palestinian farmers sound alarm over foot-and-mouth outbreak


Gareth Browne
Sat, June 4, 2022,


An outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the West Bank early this year has killed thousands of livestock, pushing Palestinian farmers already living under occupation to the brink of bankruptcy.

Mohammed Basheer said he had to incinerate hundreds of his dead lambs after the outbreak devastated livestock across the West Bank, leaving him with more than just a stinging financial loss.

For Basheer, the ordeal underlines the unique challenges facing farmers in the occupied Palestinian territory, who complain that they are underserved by the Palestinian Authority and face constant threats from Jewish settlers.

"I got no help from the PA, not even a telephone call," Basheer, who owns thousands of livestock near the city of Nablus, told AFP, voicing frustration over what he described as inaction from the Palestinian agriculture ministry.

Palestinian farmers blamed the PA for halting a vaccinations programme that had proven essential in protecting livestock against an endemic disease.

And with animals absent from large stretches of grazing land, farmers fear land grabs from Jewish settlers who have repeatedly set up illegal outposts on West Bank land they claim is unused.

The PA "should protect us because we protect the land," Basheer said. "The farms protect the land... If you remove the farmers, Israel takes the land."

- Farmers 'destroyed' -

A new strain of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), which causes potentially lethal fevers and blisters in young animals, was detected in livestock last November in Jordan.

It soon spread across the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967, and heavily reliant on agriculture.

But the PA's agriculture ministry has not carried out a regular vaccination drive since 2019.


A ministry official, who requested anonymity, told AFP that a normal year sees 60 to 70 percent of goats and sheep in the West Bank vaccinated against FMD.

That figure dropped to 20 percent in 2020 and 2021, the official said.

The ministry blamed the coronavirus pandemic, saying FMD vaccines were harder to source as vaccine-makers worldwide pivoted operations to meet demand for Covid jabs.

The ministry also blamed Israel, claiming it obstructed the PA from procuring sufficient supply.

The Israeli defence ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories (COGAT) told AFP that the allegation was false.

"There has been no formal request from the Palestinian Authority for the import of such vaccines," a COGAT statement said.

"Nonetheless, considering the health requirement that has arisen, the State of Israel has transferred vaccine doses that were in its possession to the Palestinian Authority."

The Palestinian ministry has officially confirmed around 2,000 animal deaths as a result of the FMD strain this year.

But farmers and the agriculture ministry official said livestock deaths were likely far higher than the acknowledged toll.

Basheer said FMD losses had cost him $150,000 and accused Israel of hoarding vaccines.

"Our occupiers had continuous vaccines for all farmers, but we haven't had anything in three years," he said.

"They've destroyed the farmers."

- 'Farmers can't stand alone' -

In the West Bank's Area C, which remains under full Israeli control, vacant agricultural land is a prime target for Jewish settlement expansion, according to experts.

Eyal Hareuveni, a researcher at the anti-settlement watchdog B'Tselem, told AFP that settler land grabs are often backed by Israel's "twisted interpretation" of an Ottoman-era law that says land not cultivated for three consecutive years can be claimed.


"Israel can designate this as state land and take it for their own use, even if it's land that is registered as private Palestinian land," Hareuveni said.

More than 475,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law. Israel's governing coalition has continued to approve new settler homes across the territory, while acting sporadically against new outposts.

With no new cases detected since April, PA officials say the FMD outbreak is now under control.

Abbas Milhem, executive director of the Palestinian farmer's union, told AFP that by faltering on vaccinations, the PA had effectively given a boost to the settler movement.

"The real fight against occupation and annexation is in the land, but the farmers can't stand alone," he said. "We need some accountability for this."

gb/jsa