Hong Kong protests 'similar' to Venezuela unrest: foreign ministerAUTHORITARIAN STATES LEFT AND RIGHT AGREE THE PEOPLE ARE REVOLTING

AFP•January 17, 2020

Millions have come out on the streets in Hong Kong since 

June in demonstrations sparked by opposition to a 

now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland 

China (AFP Photo/ISAAC LAWRENCE)More

Beijing (AFP) - Protests in Hong Kong bear an "overwhelming" similarity to political unrest that has wracked Venezuela in recent years, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Friday.

Arreaza, who met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing Thursday, told reporters the pair had discussed similarities between "this attempt to establish a colour revolution in Hong Kong", and "what happened in Venezuela in 2014 and 2017."

"The similarities are overwhelming," Arreaza said.

Millions have come out onto Hong Kong's streets since June in demonstrations sparked by opposition to a now-abandoned proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China. These have since morphed into wider calls for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.

The sometimes violent protests are the starkest challenge to Beijing since the former British colony was returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Oil-rich Venezuela suffers from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced millions to flee the South American state since 2016.

The country, locked in an ongoing power struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido, has faced a series of mass protests since 2014.

China and several other countries including Russia support Maduro, and Beijing is one of Caracas's main creditors.

Arreaza, a member of Maduro's government, said that in Venezuela and Hong Kong "the violent tactics that the protesters claim as non-violent are the same, the pressure on the security forces is the same".

Beijing and Hong Kong's administration have refused to cede to the protesters' demands.

These include fully free elections in the city, an inquiry into alleged police misconduct, and amnesty for the nearly 6,500 people arrested during the movement -- almost a third of them under the age of 20.

---30---

Women's March organizers hope to re-energize protests, draw thousands despite 'marcher fatigue'

Joshua Bote, Grace Hauck, Jorge L. Ortiz and Doug Stanglin

USA TODAY•January 18, 2020


Women's March organizers hope to re-energize protests, draw thousands despite 'marcher fatigue'

WASHINGTON — Beset by internal wrangling, divergent strategies and perhaps a bit of protest fatigue, Women's March protesters were expected to turn out by the thousands Saturday, hoping that grit and determination might make up for the absence of the millions who hit the streets in 2017.

Like the first protest only days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the national Women's March will take place in Washington, D.C., with sister marches planned in Chicago, New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Oakland, among other cities.

A slate of marches and events were also scheduled across five continents in cities like Oslo, Norway; Chiang Mai, Thailand; and Lagos, Nigeria.

D.C. organizers didn't expect more than 10,000 attendees for this year's "Women Rising" march — about a tenth of the 100,000 or so who showed up last year, despite snow and wind, and a fraction of the 500,000 who jammed the street in 2017.

“We want decency brought to the White House, and we are a nation to be respected and not be about hatred,” said Therese Moran-Conlon, of Eldersburg, Maryland, who turned out Saturday for another cold, snowy day in Washington to protest with her husband, Mike. “It’s historic.”

'Women rising' but numbers are falling: 2020 March tries to re-energize amid flagging enthusiasm

It was the first appearance at the D.C. March for the 56-year-old psychotherapist who attended for a “small but very powerful” march in Annapolis, Maryland, last year. She called the protest march "a fight against good and evil.”

“I know they keep saying there aren't gonna be many people but with recent events, it’ll compel people to go,” she said.

Despite the lower turnout expectations, emotions were still running high on both sides of the issue. En route to the site by subway, an unidentified man flicked Mike on the head, prompting an exchange of angry words and simultaneous flashing of middle fingers.


Organizers are hoping that, given the election year — and Trump's recent spate of political controversy, including the strike against Iranian general Qasem Soleimani — turnout will match past year's.

"One, we are in an election year," said Carmen Perez, an original co-chair of the Women's March. "Two, we are in potential war conversations, with the fact the U.S. has struck another country. I personally feel we’re going to see an increase in numbers because people are wanting to come together again."

The D.C. march is focusing on a smaller slate of issues, shifting away from its original 10-point program into three central themes: reproductive rights, immigration and climate change. Similarly, Chicago's Women's March will feature a "gallery of issues," highlighting voting, the census, climate justice, gun violence prevention and women's health.

"It's just trying to create a very festive atmosphere, but one that encourages our marchers to educate themselves on the issues and activate around them," said Chicago march organizer Harlene Ellin. "We want people not just to march, but to go out and do something."

Organizers nationwide also appear to be eschewing celebrity appearances and stages in favor of marching, grassroots organizing and community-focused activism.

Turnout in New York City will likely be similar. Last year, attendees split by two marches due to infighting with Women's March Inc. — the organizers of the first march — totaled just over 11,000, according to Newsday.

Meanwhile, Chicago is "preparing for large crowds," possibly in the tens of thousands. The Chicago march saw crowds estimated at 250,000 in 2017 and 300,000 in 2018 but took a hiatus in 2019, following a "March to the Polls" around the midterm elections.

"I've read lots of pieces and stories on this 'marcher fatigue,'" Ellin said. "That remains to be seen. I get the feeling that there's energy for this."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Women's March 2020: Thousands expected to protest in DC, NYC, LA

Off-duty Hong Kong police officer arrested for supporting protests

AFP•January 17, 2020


A banner is seen during a rally in Hong Kong in December 2019

 (AFP Photo/DALE DE LA REY)More


An off-duty Hong Kong police officer was arrested along with seven other people on Friday as they tried to put pro-democracy posters on a footbridge, police said.

It's the first known case of a police officer being apprehended for supporting the massive demonstrations that have led to more than 6,500 arrests in the past seven months.

The officer, 31, and the seven other people aged 14 to 61, were arrested at 3:00 am on Friday in Tuen Mun, a district in northwest Hong Kong.

The individuals were accused of "possessing objects with intent to damage or destroy property", and suspected of attempting to damage a footbridge, according to a police statement.

Police said they found the group in possession of posters, plastic scrapers, gloves and electric drills, and that all eight were still in detention for further investigation as of Friday night.

Local media reported that the group was trying to build a "Lennon Wall" — collages of pro-democracy visual art which have sprung up on walls and roads across the city in the past few months.

"The police force attached great emphasis on its members' professional ethics," the police said in the statement, adding that any violation of the law must be handled "seriously and justly."

Among the thousands of protesters who have been arrested, 41 have been civil servants, including 24 from disciplines such as fire services.

No police officers have been arrested despite complaints of blinding some protesters, driving a motorcycle into a march and showing a reporter's ID card to a camera on live broadcast.

The city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, a pro-Beijing appointee, said on Thursday that she would not accept any accusation of police brutality and that the force had been smeared.

The protests, which were triggered by a proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China in early June, have morphed into a larger revolt against China's control over the semi-autonomous city.

Violent clashes between riot police and protesters often erupted during rallies and marches calling for democratic freedoms and independent inquiry into the havoc.

The TSA apologized after an agent pulled a Native American passenger's braid and said "giddyup!" during a pat down

acollman@businessinsider.com (Ashley Collman),INSIDER•January 17, 2020

Molly Riley/Reuters

Native American woman Tara Houska says a TSA agent grabbed her braids, whipped them like reins and said "giddyup" while she was going through security at the Minneapolis airport on Monday.

A TSA official apologized to Houska for the incident, and released a statement saying "improper behavior is taken seriously" by the agency.

The Transportation Security Administration was forced to issue an apology on Tuesday after a Native American woman described on Twitter a humiliating experience going through security at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

Tara Houska, an Ojibwe native and prominent attorney and activist, said her braids set off the scanners, and an agent pulled her aside to do a pat down.

While searching her braids, Houska said the woman grabbed them, pulled them behind her head, and whipped them like reins before laughing and saying "giddyup!
—tara houska (@zhaabowekwe) January 13, 2020

Houska said she felt "angry" and "humiliated." She said she told the agent that she was not OK with how she "casually used her authority to dehumanize and disrespect me."

In response, the agent said she was sorry and never meant to offend her.

"Well it was just in fun, I'm sorry. Your hair is lovely," the agent said, according to Houska.

Houska said she was not satisfied with this response.

After her story got picked up by local and national outlets, the TSA issued a response.

TSA's federal security director for Minnesota Cliff Van Leuven told the Star Tribune that the incident was investigated and that he spoke to Houska and apologized for the officer's actions and comment.

"TSA holds its employees to the highest standards of professional conduct and any type of improper behavior is taken seriously," the agency said in a statement.

Houska told the Bemidji Pioneer that the agent had not been fired, but that it was never her intention to cause that.

"The way that I personally felt about the situation was that I didn't want the employee to be fired because I didn't want that person to (be) bitter and then for no one to learn anything," Houska told the newspaper. "I feel when it comes to empathy, people really lack that for each other, and that's not a good thing."

Read more:

How 3 Native American tribes are fighting to protect sacred land from logging, oil pipelines, and a billion-dollar telescope

Native American women keep disappearing. Here are 4 of their stories.

Lawmakers want to revoke the Medals of Honor given to US soldiers who participated in the Wounded Knee massacre

Pakistan court jails dozens of Islamists over Asia Bibi protests

AFP•January 17, 2020


The Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan, an anti-blasphemy party, 

spearheaded violent protests across Pakistan in the wake

 of Asia Bibi's acquittal (AFP Photo/ASIF HASSAN)More

Islamabad (AFP) - A Pakistani court has sentenced more than 80 Islamists to 55 years in prison each after protests linked to the 2018 acquittal of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman accused of blasphemy, one of their senior leaders told AFP.

The sentence -- an unusually harsh one in Pakistan, where blasphemy is an extremely sensitive issue -- was announced by a lower court in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on Thursday, said Pir Ejaz Ashrafi, a senior leader of the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP).

The Islamists were members of the radical TLP, an anti-blasphemy party which had spearheaded violent protests across Pakistan in the wake of Bibi's acquittal in late 2018.

At the time Pakistan took its leader, Khadim Hussain Rizvi, into custody as part of a broad effort to quell the unrest.

Ashrafi said 86 members of the TLP were convicted after a trial which lasted for more than a year but he argued that the protests had been against Rizvi's arrest, not Bibi's acquittal.

"This is murder of justice and the sentences given are quite ruthless and harsh," he told AFP.

Ashrafi said the party would challenge the verdict in the Lahore High Court.

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even the whiff of an unsubstantiated allegation of insulting Islam can spark death at the hands of mobs.

TLP -- or the Movement at the Service of the Prophet -- has in recent years become one of the most powerful groups in Pakistan weaponising the ultra-sensitive issue, including at the ballot box.

Rizvi had demanded the execution of Asia Bibi, a labourer from central Punjab province and minority Christian who had been convicted of blasphemy in 2010 and sent to death row, but was dramatically acquitted on appeal in 2018.

Bibi now lives in Canada with her family.

Another TLP spokesman, who confirmed the convictions to AFP but was unsure of the numbers, said the government was trying to subdue the party.

"But they can never succeed as we are not standing for Khadim Rizvi or any organisation, but for a pure Islam," he said.

Australia’s Bushfires Show the Wicked, Self-Destructive Idiocy of Climate Denialism Must Stop

Malcolm Turnbull, Time•January 15, 2020

Australia’s fires this summer—unprecedented in the scale of their destruction—are the ferocious but inevitable reality of global warming. A hotter, drier climate means more and longer droughts and more and fiercer fires.

So if Australia is on the front line of the climate crisis, why are we not also a world leader in climate action?

In most countries, asking people whether they believe in the science of climate change is like asking them whether they believe in gravity. It is a simple matter of physics. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the hotter our climate will become.

But in Australia, as in the U.S., this issue has been hijacked by a toxic, climate-denying alliance of right-wing politics and media (much of it owned by Rupert Murdoch), as well as vested business interests, especially in the coal industry.

As Prime Minister, I tried to ensure that our climate and energy policies were governed by engineering and economics, not ideology and idiocy. Tragically, the climate-denying political right in Australia has turned what should be a practical question of how to respond to a real physical threat into a matter of values or belief.

Even as the fires rage, Murdoch’s News Corp. newspapers and television networks have been busy arguing that arsonists or a lack of controlled burning are the real causes of the fires. This has been refuted point-blank by the chief of the fire service in New South Wales, but the misinformation campaign continues in both mainstream and social media.

Climate-change denial has also infected our politics. Australia is currently governed by a center-right coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. I led the coalition twice—first as opposition leader from 2008 to 2009 and then as Prime Minister from 2015 to 2018. Both times, my efforts to take concerted action on climate change were followed by my losing my job.

In 2018, my government introduced a National Energy Guarantee (NEG), which combined emission reductions with reliability standards as a means of ensuring a smooth transition to a lower-emissions electricity sector while maintaining reliability of supply. It was supported by business and unions as well as state governments on both sides of politics. A majority of coalition legislators also backed it, but a right-wing minority, supported by their allies in the media, sabotaged the bill and then brought down my government.

In the chaos that ensued, Scott Morrison became Prime Minister, and one of his first acts was to formally abandon the NEG. Since then, the government has had no coherent, integrated climate and energy policy.

These fires show that the wicked, self-destructive idiocy of climate denialism must stop. The world must drastically cut its greenhouse-gas emissions. Above all, we have to urgently stop burning coal and other fossil fuels.

Australia, rather than being a laggard, should be a leader in climate action. Not just because our country is on fire. Not just because we are a wealthy, advanced economy that can afford to lead. But also because we have formidable wind and solar resources that can enable us to generate all of our energy from renewable sources and at the same time enjoy cheaper electricity. Renewable resources are already the cheapest new power sources in Australia, and new developments in storage technologies are making renewables reliable 24/7.

That’s why I started Snowy Hydro 2.0, a project that will use pumped water to create energy and, like a battery, store enough power for 3 million homes for a week. The latest estimates show that by 2030, power from solar panels, backed with storage from pumped hydro, will be more than $40 per megawatt-hour cheaper than power from new black coal, even without a carbon tax.

Australians no longer need to sacrifice economic growth to reduce emissions. We must not waste this climate crisis. There are no excuses and not much time left. Australia and the world need a Green New Deal now.

QUOTE " " UNQUOTE

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham tells Fox News she won't hold press briefings because reporters just 'want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books


White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham made the comment about televised press briefings on a Thursday morning interview on “Fox & Friends.”
Stephanie Grisham Screenshot via "Fox & Friends"

gpanetta@businessinsider.com (Grace Panetta),Business Insider•January 16, 2020

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on "Fox & Friends" that she doesn't want to hold televised press briefings because reporters "just want their moment to peddle their books."

As the Washington Post recently noted, the last briefing was held by former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 11, 2019. Grisham has not held a briefing in her time in the role.

"They don't want information, because my team and I give them information every single day...they want a moment, they want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books," Grisham said of the press.

Not holding briefings where a reporter can ask any question on the spot allows Grisham to selectively respond to the questions she wants to address.

In a Thursday morning interview on "Fox & Friends," White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she doesn't want to hold televised press briefings because reporters "just want their moment to peddle their books."

While daily briefings from the press secretary were a staple of most White Houses, they've become fewer and farther between under the Trump administration.

As the Washington Post recently noted, the last White House press briefing was held by former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on March 11, 2019, almost a full year ago.

Grisham, who was previously First Lady Melania Trump's spokeswoman, has not held a single on-camera briefing since taking over Sanders' job in July 2019.

When the hosts of "Fox & Friends" pressed Grisham on when she would hold a briefing, she argued that she's able to talk to more reporters and answer their questions outside the setting of a briefing, where only a few reporters get to ask questions in a relatively limited time frame. —Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) January 16, 2020

"I talk to the media every day," Grisham said. "During my day, I talk to five, six, seven reporters from every single outlet, print, radio, and online...it's just not on TV."

Grisham then claimed that White House reporters are more concerned with promoting themselves, saying that if she does decide to hold a press briefing, "maybe we do it off-camera, maybe that would be better because then the grandstanding won't happen."

After co-host Steve Doocy joked that talking to a reporter on the phone wouldn't give them a "gotcha" moment, Grisham said of the press, "They don't want information, because my team and I give them information every single day...they want a moment, they want their moment on TV so they can peddle their books."

Grisham did not specify which reporters or which books she was talking about, but her comments came after her predecessor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Fox News contributor, announced she is coming out with a memoir of her own entitled "Speaking for Myself" this September.

While Grisham claims that not holding briefings and choosing to talk to multiple reporters a day instead makes her more accessible, not holding briefings where a reporter can ask any question on the spot allows her to selectively respond to the questions she wants to address.

As CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted in response to her comments, "The thing is, outside a briefing, @PressSec gets to pick and choose which questions she wants to answer. For instance, she keeps ignoring my questions about why the administration continues to hold briefings on background, instead of on the record!"

Read more:

Authors Stephen King and Don Winslow offer to donate $175,000 to St. Jude's Children's Hospital if Stephanie Grisham gives a 1-hour White House press briefing

Anderson Cooper doubled down in his feud with White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, calling her statements 'kind of sad'

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed without evidence that Obama staffers left notes for Trump aides saying 'You will fail'

#METOO

 PNC Bank is in the crosshairs of the attorney who took on Roger Ailes and Fox News


Former employee says PNC didn't protect her against assault says the bank failed to protect her from a customer assault. Alexis Keenan and Anjalee Khemlani,Yahoo Finance•January 16, 2020

The attorney who represented former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson in her suit against the network and its chief, the late Roger Ailes, is now going after PNC Bank (PNC).

Nancy Erika Smith, a partner at Smith Mullin, is taking on the case of Damara Scott, a former wealth manager for the Pittsburgh-based bank. She alleges PNC did not protect her from a customer who had a reported history of sexual harassment.

The incident took place in October 2013, at a PNC branch in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. The customer, who died of a heart attack about two months later, allegedly sexually assaulted the wealth manager as she walked out of the bank on a Sunday afternoon.

Since then, Scott has pursued her former employer in court. Last June, she retained Smith for a trial that’s scheduled to begin Wednesday in Newark, N.J.

“It’s time for companies to take sexual harassment seriously. Even if it costs them money,” Smith told Yahoo Finance in an interview.

PNC has denied the allegations, arguing that the interaction was mischaracterized.

“No allegation of sexual assault should be taken lightly, and PNC has a long-standing commitment to providing a safe environment for our employees and customers to work and do business,” the bank said, in a statement emailed to Yahoo Finance.

“It is unfortunate that plaintiff’s counsel has chosen to brand an elderly customer, now deceased, as a sexual predator who allegedly sexually assaulted the plaintiff when that will not be established by the evidence, including a video of the interaction between the customer and plaintiff,” PNC said. “We look forward to presenting the evidence in court, which will make it clear what actually occurred.”

Asked why Smith chose to purse action on behalf of Scott against PNC, Smith said: “At first it was just holding PNC accountable, now she’s just been inspired by women who want to stand up not only for themselves but for all women.”
The effects of ‘Me Too’

A sign for PNC Corporate Headquarters marks the block 

where the offices for the banking corporation are in downtown 

Pittsburgh on Monday, Oct. 16, 2017, in Pittsburgh. 

(AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)


PNC is the latest institution to stand accused of not doing enough to foster a workplace free of harassment. In the wake of the “Me Too” movement, data show U.S. companies have spent heavily on policies that address sexual harassment and assault.

Research firm MarketStance recently estimated that in 2019, American companies would spend about $2.7 billion on employment practices liability insurance premiums (EPLI), up from $2.2 billion in 2016. Separately, Verisk Analytics, which also tracks trends in EPLI, found a nearly $150 million jump in premiums written between 2013 and 2017.

Yet Smith told Yahoo Finance that companies should instead direct their resources to effective sexual harassment training and elevating women to top positions.

“I think companies should spend money on ensuring there are women in leadership — which has been proven to reduce the amount of sexual harassment,” Smith said.

They should offer “real training, not a little computer program that you can do something else while it’s on your computer, and really take it seriously and prevent it,” the attorney added. “I don’t think insuring against it is the best response.”

Smith represented Fox’s Carlson, who waged a high-profile case against Ailes and the network in a battle dramatized in the Showtime feature “The Loudest Voice” and the Hollywood movie “Bombshell.” Carlson settled for a reported $20 million.

Smith said she’s representing Scott to help seek justice on behalf of all women.

“I think we’re at a point in the world where women are tired of being subjected to abuse and harassment,” Smith said.

TAAL
Philippine volcano simmers, officials brace for long crisis

AARON FAVILA and JIM GOMEZ,Associated Press•January 18, 2020



3/14 PHOTOGALLERY



1 / 16  PHOTO GALLERY

Residents shovel volcanic ash from the roof of their homes at a village near Taal volcano where people have evacuated to safer grounds in Agoncillo, Batangas province, southern Philippines on Saturday Jan. 18, 2020. 

2/11 PHOTO GALLERY

Local authorities have allowed some residents to return to their homes for a few hours in the morning to retrieve belongings and feed their pets or farm animals. The Taal volcano near the Philippine capital emitted more ash clouds Saturday, posing the threat of another eruption. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)


AGONCILLO, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials said Saturday they're bracing for a long crisis whether the Taal volcano erupts more disastrously or simmers precariously for weeks or months, as massive numbers of displaced villagers languish in emergency shelters.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said more than 900 villagers who fell ill have been treated, mostly for exposure to volcanic ash, in evacuation sites since the volcano began erupting in Batangas province near Manila, the capital, last weekend.

About 125,000 people fled from ash-blanketed villages and crammed into hundreds of emergency centers in Batangas alone and many others took shelter in relatives’ homes, disaster-response officials said, appealing for masks, bottled water, portable toilets, food and sleeping mats.

“It’s really massive because you’re talking of more or less 100,000 evacuees in evacuation centers, so the infrastructure and services needed are really huge,” Duque said. "This is not going to be for the short term, but for the medium if not long term.”

After belching a massive plume of ash and steam more than 15 kilometers (9 miles) into the sky when it rumbled back to life last Sunday, Taal has been spewing smaller emissions and shuddering with fewer earthquakes in recent days. But despite a perceived waning of its restiveness, continuing volcanic quakes, the drying of Taal’s crater lake and other signs indicate magma is moving beneath, said Renato Solidum, who heads the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.

“We have this perception now that it’s waning versus underground sub-surface activity, which indicates otherwise,” Solidum said at a news conference, adding that experts “have not seen a definite trend that it’s weakening.”

The 311-meter (1,020-foot) -high Taal is one of the world’s smallest but the second-most restive of about two dozen active Philippine volcanoes. It has remained at alert level 4, the second-highest warning, indicating a hazardous explosive eruption is possible within hours or days.

Duque said hundreds of villagers have been treated for respiratory infections, hypertension, diarrhea, skin lesions, flu and coughs in evacuation centers. About 300,000 masks, including those from regions unaffected by the volcanic eruption, have been sent to calamity-hit areas.

The government’s main disaster-response agency will hold a meeting next week to discuss concerns, including hygiene in evacuation camps, Duque said. He has sought the help of the military to build latrines and repair toilets in emergency shelters, mostly school buildings.

In the hard-hit town of Agoncillo, Mayor Daniel Reyes said all 42,000 residents abandoned their homes, including 8,000 who are now encamped in evacuation centers and need food, water and aid. “They rushed out of their homes without bringing anything, so they will really be dependent on our help,” Reyes said.

Agoncillo still has about two weeks worth of food, water and aid packs and will need help from the provincial and national governments when supplies get depleted, he said.

While tending to the thousands of displaced residents, Reyes said he and other officials were preparing contingency plans in case Taal erupts violently.

“There is a great possibility that it will erupt,” Reyes said, citing a briefing by government volcano experts.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific "Ring of Fire,” a string of faults around the ocean basin where many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

___

Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press videojournalist Joeal Calupitan contributed to this report.

TAAL TALES
Lost and damaged: Philippine volcano steals livelihoods

Ron Lopez, AFP•January 17, 2020


2 / 2

There are already signs coffee plants have been heavily damaged (AFP Photo/Ted ALJIBE)

Decimated fish, scarred coffee plants and vanished tourists: the Taal volcano eruption in the Philippines has inflicted significant damage on the livelihoods of tens of thousands and is expected to cause more.

When Taal exploded to life Sunday it spewed towering columns of fine grey ash, which officials said destroyed crops and killed off potentially tonnes of fish raised in the lake that rings the volcano.

"We lost a lot of money because all our fish are gone," said Cesario Rodriguez, 34, a fish farmer. "We just need to find a way to survive."

It didn't help either when government health officials warned people not to eat the fish as it could have been contaminated with volcanic sulphur, though the nation's health agency told AFP no formal ban is in place.

The warning of a further, potentially catastrophic eruption, also led authorities to urge the thriving tourism industry near the volcano -- a popular attraction -- to suspend activity as a precaution.

The nation's seismological agency has issued its second-highest alert, saying Taal could unleash an "explosive eruption" at any time.

With scores of bookings cancelled and many restaurants and hotels shuttered, the eruption will hurt, but no one knows how much yet.

"It going to be negative... 90 percent of the tourism establishments in Tagaytay are closed," said Elinia Sanggalang, a local tourism official, referring to the resort town with stunning views of the volcano.

- 'We're still lost' -

The town alone draws about 5.5 million tourists per year, in part because it is a mere 60 kilometres (37 miles) south of the hot and crowded capital Manila.

Estimates of the harm to farmers and fishermen are already coming in to focus, and authorities say the amount could grow.

The agriculture agency said Friday it estimates so far the volcano caused about $59 million in damage to the industry, which is just about four percent of what the region produced in 2017.

In the Philippines life is already hard for those who have not benefitted from the nation's rapid growth in the past decade. Millions still live on less than $2 a day.

However the pain for some, like coffee growers, will take years before it can be fully calculated.

That's because it takes about two years for coffee plants to mature and begin bearing fruit, said Arnold Bay, an official with a cooperative of about 150 small growers.

There are already signs their plants were heavily damaged, though they hope to still harvest some of their crop.

"It will be difficult for us and for our clients," said Bay. "It will take two years for the farmers to have their livelihood back."

The process of recovering is far from started, especially for the over 60,000 people forced out of homes near the volcano and into evacuation centres.

They can't go home while the threat of a new, powerful eruption remains, so they will live in limbo for now.

"We don't know what to do next," Dandy Belencio, 43, a fish vendor whose home was destroyed in the eruption.

"We're still lost on what will happen to us," he told AFP.

---30---

Filipinos turn volcano's ash, plastic trash into bricks

AFP•January 17, 2020





Officials are combining ash with sand, cement and discarded plastic to form about 5,000 bricks per day (AFP Photo/Maria TAN)

Binan (Philippines) (AFP) - Ash spewed by a Philippine volcano is being mixed with plastic waste to make bricks in an inventive response to the country's persistent problems of pollution and frequent natural disasters.

The Taal volcano burst into life nearly a week ago, sending towering dust columns into the sky and leaving nearby Binan city coated in fine grey powder.

Environment officials did not just clean up the mess but decided to combine the ash with sand, cement and discarded plastic to form about 5,000 bricks per day for local building projects.

"Instead of just piling up the ashfall somewhere, we are able to turn it into something useful. And it includes plastics, too," said city environmental officer Rodelio Lee.

The Philippines faces a waste crisis, with a report last year saying it uses a "shocking" amount of single-use plastic, including nearly 60 billion throwaway sachets per year.

It is also plagued by some 20 major storms annually and regular, powerful earthquakes which together kill hundreds of people each year.

Due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" zone of seismic activity, it also has periodic volcanic eruptions.

Taal's jets of lava and 15-kilometer (nine-mile) walls of ash have sent more than 70,000 people into evacuation centres and prompted warnings that a far bigger eruption could happen at any time.

With volcanic ash and plastic both in plentiful supply, the officials in Binan see their project as a silver lining.

"During these times, our creativity becomes apparent," said the mayor of Binan, Arman Dimaguila.

---30---

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=VOLCANO

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=PHILIPPINES

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=TAAL

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=NATURAL+DISASTERS