Friday, August 07, 2020
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‘We will not back down’: Canada hits back at US’ aluminum tariff with $3.6 billion in countermeasures
7 Aug, 2020
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© REUTERS/Blair Gable
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced retaliatory tariffs on $3.6 billion worth of US aluminum, to be put in place in September after industry consultations.
“We will not back down,” Freeland said during the Friday announcement.
The tariffs, which will be in place by September 16, come in response to the US government imposing a ten percent tariff on raw aluminum coming in from Canada. That tariff will be in place on August 16.
President Donald Trump celebrated the tariffs during a trip to Ohio on Thursday where he claimed the country was “taking advantage of us, as usual.”
He went on to say Canada has flooded American markets with exports and “decimated” the American aluminum industry.
Trump says he is reimposing the tariffs because Canada has not kept to their “commitment” to not “flood” the country with products and “kill all our aluminum jobs.”
“Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminum industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they’ve done,” Trump said. “Canadian aluminum producers have broken their commitment.”
Canada to retaliate against U.S. aluminum tariffs: Deputy PM Freeland
Posted on August 6, 2020
By Chris Prentice
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland attends a news conference as efforts continue to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ottawa
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s move on Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on some Canadian aluminum products, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.
“In response to the American tariffs, Canada intends to swiftly impose dollar-for-dollar countermeasures,” Freeland said, calling the tariffs “unwarranted and unacceptable.”
Trump announced the punitive measures earlier on Thursday to protect U.S. industry from a “surge” in imports, drawing ire from Ottawa and some U.S. business groups.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Trump reimposes US tariffs on raw Canadian aluminium
Canada promises to retaliate just weeks after regional free trade deal came into effect.
07 Aug 2020
Canada has a natural advantage in primary aluminium production because of its ample supply of hydroelectric power [File: Shannon VanRaes/Bloomberg]
United States President Donald Trump moved to reimpose 10 percent tariffs on some Canadian aluminium products to protect US industry from a "surge" in imports, angering Ottawa and some US business groups.
Canada pledged retaliation as tensions between the close allies rose just weeks after a new continental trade deal between the US, Mexico and Canada came into effect.
During a speech at a Whirlpool Corp washing machine factory in Ohio to tout his "America First" trade agenda, Trump said he signed a proclamation reimposing the "Section 232" national security tariffs. The step was "absolutely necessary to defend our aluminium industry", he said.
Ohio is a critical swing state that Trump won in 2016. Polling shows a tight race with Democrat Joe Biden in the state ahead of this year's November 3 presidential election.
Trump trails the former vice president in national polls and is competing with him for blue-collar, working-class voters. The tariff announcement could be aimed at showing those voters he intends to fight for their jobs and upend trade policy further if he remains in office.
But some prominent business groups criticised the move as counterproductive and unhelpful to US interests.
The US Trade Representative's office said the 10 percent tariffs apply to raw, unalloyed aluminium produced at smelters. The tariffs do not apply to downstream aluminium products.
"Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminium industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminium jobs, which is exactly what they've done," Trump said. "Canadian aluminium producers have broken their commitment."
Canada has a natural advantage in primary aluminium production because of its ample supply of hydroelectric power.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the tariffs would hurt workers and regional economies already hit by the coronavirus pandemic and pledged Ottawa would retaliate as it had done in 2018, when Trump first imposed punitive measures on Canadian steel and aluminium.
"In response to the American tariffs, Canada intends to swiftly impose dollar-for-dollar countermeasures," Freeland said in a statement.
Freeland - in overall charge of relations with the United States - will formally respond to the tariffs at 11am (15:00 GMT) on Friday, her office said in a statement.
In 2018, Canada slapped tariffs on 16.6 billion Canadian dollars ($12.4bn) worth of US goods ranging from bourbon to ketchup. Trump lifted the sanctions in 2019.
'Depression time'
Trump peppered his remarks with criticism of Biden and predicted "depression time" if the Democrat won - plus higher taxes and more regulations.
"To be a strong nation, America must be a manufacturing nation and not be led by a bunch of fools. That means protecting our national industrial base," Trump said.
Trump has sparred with close US allies over trade throughout his presidency.
The US Chamber of Commerce called the move "a step in the wrong direction" that would raise costs on companies and consumers.
The Aluminum Association, which says it represents companies that produce 70 percent of the aluminium and aluminium products shipped in North America, said the move undermined the new US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement at a time when year-to-date domestic demand was already down nearly 25 percent.
Michael Bless, chief executive of Century Aluminum, which is one of the few remaining US primary aluminium smelting companies and which lobbied for the tariffs, said the move "helps to secure continued domestic production of this vital strategic material".
SOURCE: REUTERS NEWS
‘We will not back down’: Canada hits back at US’ aluminum tariff with $3.6 billion in countermeasures
“In imposing these tariffs the United States has taken the absurd decision to harm its own people at a time when its economy is suffering the deepest crisis since the Great Depression,”
7 Aug, 2020
Get short URL
© REUTERS/Blair Gable
Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced retaliatory tariffs on $3.6 billion worth of US aluminum, to be put in place in September after industry consultations.
“We will not back down,” Freeland said during the Friday announcement.
The tariffs, which will be in place by September 16, come in response to the US government imposing a ten percent tariff on raw aluminum coming in from Canada. That tariff will be in place on August 16.
President Donald Trump celebrated the tariffs during a trip to Ohio on Thursday where he claimed the country was “taking advantage of us, as usual.”
He went on to say Canada has flooded American markets with exports and “decimated” the American aluminum industry.
ALSO ON RT.COM Canada vows ‘dollar-for-dollar’ retaliation after Trump reimposes 10% tariffs on aluminum
Freeland began preparing countermeasures immediately and called the US tariffs “unfair, unwarranted, and unnecessary.” She blasted President Trump for imposing the tariffs in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic when many economies and industries are suffering.
“In imposing these tariffs the United States has taken the absurd decision to harm its own people at a time when its economy is suffering the deepest crisis since the Great Depression,” she said.
Freeland began preparing countermeasures immediately and called the US tariffs “unfair, unwarranted, and unnecessary.” She blasted President Trump for imposing the tariffs in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic when many economies and industries are suffering.
“In imposing these tariffs the United States has taken the absurd decision to harm its own people at a time when its economy is suffering the deepest crisis since the Great Depression,” she said.
“In imposing these tariffs the United States has taken the absurd decision to harm its own people at a time when its economy is suffering the deepest crisis since the Great Depression,” said Deputy Prime Minister @cafreeland.
Read more: https://t.co/SZcr8H9Ephpic.twitter.com/81xhcrRt2H— Power & Politics (@PnPCBC) August 7, 2020
Ontario Premier Doug Ford — who has supported the US president in the past, including during a trip to DC earlier in the year where he said he hopes November’s election goes “the right way. Literally, the right way” — also blasted Trump for the economic tariffs and said he encouraged Freeland to impose as many tariffs on US goods as she could.
“We buy more goods off the United States than China, Japan, [the] UK combined. Who does this? At times like this, who tries to go after your closest ally? Your closest trading partner? Your number one customer in the entire world? Who would do this? President Trump did this, and I encouraged the deputy prime minister to put retaliatory tariffs on as many goods as possible,” Ford said.
The US and Canada have gotten into tariff wars before. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from the country in 2018, and Canada responded by imposing tariffs on various US products.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford — who has supported the US president in the past, including during a trip to DC earlier in the year where he said he hopes November’s election goes “the right way. Literally, the right way” — also blasted Trump for the economic tariffs and said he encouraged Freeland to impose as many tariffs on US goods as she could.
“We buy more goods off the United States than China, Japan, [the] UK combined. Who does this? At times like this, who tries to go after your closest ally? Your closest trading partner? Your number one customer in the entire world? Who would do this? President Trump did this, and I encouraged the deputy prime minister to put retaliatory tariffs on as many goods as possible,” Ford said.
The US and Canada have gotten into tariff wars before. Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum from the country in 2018, and Canada responded by imposing tariffs on various US products.
Trump says he is reimposing the tariffs because Canada has not kept to their “commitment” to not “flood” the country with products and “kill all our aluminum jobs.”
“Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminum industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they’ve done,” Trump said. “Canadian aluminum producers have broken their commitment.”
Canada to retaliate against U.S. aluminum tariffs: Deputy PM Freeland
Posted on August 6, 2020
By Chris Prentice
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland attends a news conference as efforts continue to help slow the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ottawa
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s move on Thursday to reimpose 10% tariffs on some Canadian aluminum products, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement.
“In response to the American tariffs, Canada intends to swiftly impose dollar-for-dollar countermeasures,” Freeland said, calling the tariffs “unwarranted and unacceptable.”
Trump announced the punitive measures earlier on Thursday to protect U.S. industry from a “surge” in imports, drawing ire from Ottawa and some U.S. business groups.
(Reporting by Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by Tom Hogue)
Trump reimposes US tariffs on raw Canadian aluminium
Canada promises to retaliate just weeks after regional free trade deal came into effect.
07 Aug 2020
Canada has a natural advantage in primary aluminium production because of its ample supply of hydroelectric power [File: Shannon VanRaes/Bloomberg]
United States President Donald Trump moved to reimpose 10 percent tariffs on some Canadian aluminium products to protect US industry from a "surge" in imports, angering Ottawa and some US business groups.
Canada pledged retaliation as tensions between the close allies rose just weeks after a new continental trade deal between the US, Mexico and Canada came into effect.
During a speech at a Whirlpool Corp washing machine factory in Ohio to tout his "America First" trade agenda, Trump said he signed a proclamation reimposing the "Section 232" national security tariffs. The step was "absolutely necessary to defend our aluminium industry", he said.
Ohio is a critical swing state that Trump won in 2016. Polling shows a tight race with Democrat Joe Biden in the state ahead of this year's November 3 presidential election.
Trump trails the former vice president in national polls and is competing with him for blue-collar, working-class voters. The tariff announcement could be aimed at showing those voters he intends to fight for their jobs and upend trade policy further if he remains in office.
But some prominent business groups criticised the move as counterproductive and unhelpful to US interests.
The US Trade Representative's office said the 10 percent tariffs apply to raw, unalloyed aluminium produced at smelters. The tariffs do not apply to downstream aluminium products.
"Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminium industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminium jobs, which is exactly what they've done," Trump said. "Canadian aluminium producers have broken their commitment."
Canada has a natural advantage in primary aluminium production because of its ample supply of hydroelectric power.
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the tariffs would hurt workers and regional economies already hit by the coronavirus pandemic and pledged Ottawa would retaliate as it had done in 2018, when Trump first imposed punitive measures on Canadian steel and aluminium.
"In response to the American tariffs, Canada intends to swiftly impose dollar-for-dollar countermeasures," Freeland said in a statement.
Freeland - in overall charge of relations with the United States - will formally respond to the tariffs at 11am (15:00 GMT) on Friday, her office said in a statement.
In 2018, Canada slapped tariffs on 16.6 billion Canadian dollars ($12.4bn) worth of US goods ranging from bourbon to ketchup. Trump lifted the sanctions in 2019.
'Depression time'
Trump peppered his remarks with criticism of Biden and predicted "depression time" if the Democrat won - plus higher taxes and more regulations.
"To be a strong nation, America must be a manufacturing nation and not be led by a bunch of fools. That means protecting our national industrial base," Trump said.
Trump has sparred with close US allies over trade throughout his presidency.
The US Chamber of Commerce called the move "a step in the wrong direction" that would raise costs on companies and consumers.
The Aluminum Association, which says it represents companies that produce 70 percent of the aluminium and aluminium products shipped in North America, said the move undermined the new US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement at a time when year-to-date domestic demand was already down nearly 25 percent.
Michael Bless, chief executive of Century Aluminum, which is one of the few remaining US primary aluminium smelting companies and which lobbied for the tariffs, said the move "helps to secure continued domestic production of this vital strategic material".
SOURCE: REUTERS NEWS
‘Hit them where it hurts’: Here’s how Doug Ford wants you to fight back against Donald Trump’s aluminum tariffs
Biden prevented Israeli 'occupation' from appearing in Democratic platform
Democratic presidential nominee reportedly prevented a move to mention Israeli “occupation” in the Democratic Party’s platform.
THIS IS THE BIDEN STORY THE REST IS FLUFF
Elad Benari , 07/08/20 03:10
Joe Biden
Reuters
Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden prevented a move to mention Israeli “occupation” in the Democratic Party’s platform, Foreign Policy reported on Thursday.
In early July, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other influential progressives were convinced that they had secured a critical concession from Biden’s campaign by having the platform assert that Palestinian Arabs had a right to live free of foreign “occupation,” a scarcely veiled reference to Israel.
But days before a draft platform was released on July 15, the presumptive Democratic nominee personally weighed in, according to three sources familiar with the discussion, ordering his advisors not to include any reference to Israeli “occupation.”
The decision, according to these sources, followed heavy last-minute lobbying by pro-Israel advocacy groups. Biden aides subsequently phoned progressive leaders and urged them to drop their demand to declare Israel an occupying power, arguing that the inclusion of the phrase threatened to undermine unity within the Democratic Party.
“The question of whether to allow the text to refer to ‘occupation’ or use the phrase ‘end the occupation’ was taken to the vice president and he said ‘no,’” Jason Isaacson, the chief policy and political affairs officer at the American Jewish Committee, told Foreign Policy. “This is not an issue on which the party can bend because it would be contrary to the position of Joe Biden.”
The retreat reflected the reluctance of the former vice president to reverse decades of staunch support for Israel, even as Biden and his party are expressing growing support for reestablishing diplomatic ties with the Palestinians and reinforcing the need to pay greater heed to Palestinian rights.It also marked something of a victory for the party’s establishment, which has sought to preserve close relations with Israel.
The draft 2020 platform, which was released in late July, includes language that opposes an Israeli move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and supports the rights of Palestinian Arabs.
FALSE EQUIVALENCY
The draft document states, “Democrats oppose any unilateral steps by either side—
Joe Biden
Reuters
Former US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden prevented a move to mention Israeli “occupation” in the Democratic Party’s platform, Foreign Policy reported on Thursday.
In early July, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other influential progressives were convinced that they had secured a critical concession from Biden’s campaign by having the platform assert that Palestinian Arabs had a right to live free of foreign “occupation,” a scarcely veiled reference to Israel.
But days before a draft platform was released on July 15, the presumptive Democratic nominee personally weighed in, according to three sources familiar with the discussion, ordering his advisors not to include any reference to Israeli “occupation.”
The decision, according to these sources, followed heavy last-minute lobbying by pro-Israel advocacy groups. Biden aides subsequently phoned progressive leaders and urged them to drop their demand to declare Israel an occupying power, arguing that the inclusion of the phrase threatened to undermine unity within the Democratic Party.
“The question of whether to allow the text to refer to ‘occupation’ or use the phrase ‘end the occupation’ was taken to the vice president and he said ‘no,’” Jason Isaacson, the chief policy and political affairs officer at the American Jewish Committee, told Foreign Policy. “This is not an issue on which the party can bend because it would be contrary to the position of Joe Biden.”
The retreat reflected the reluctance of the former vice president to reverse decades of staunch support for Israel, even as Biden and his party are expressing growing support for reestablishing diplomatic ties with the Palestinians and reinforcing the need to pay greater heed to Palestinian rights.It also marked something of a victory for the party’s establishment, which has sought to preserve close relations with Israel.
The draft 2020 platform, which was released in late July, includes language that opposes an Israeli move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and supports the rights of Palestinian Arabs.
FALSE EQUIVALENCY
The draft document states, “Democrats oppose any unilateral steps by either side—
including annexation—that undermine prospects for two states. Democrats will continue to stand against incitement and terror. We oppose settlement expansion. We believe that while Jerusalem is a matter for final status negotiations, it should remain the capital of Israel, an undivided city accessible to people of all faiths.”
Democrats have been vocal in their opposition to Israel’s plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, a move which could have been carried out on July 1, in accordance with the coalition agreement signed between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Recently, four House Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Previously, a group of Democratic Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), issued a statement in which they expressed their opposition to the sovereignty move.
The senators noted that direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are “the only path for a durable peace.” They warned that annexation “could undermine regional stability and broader US national security interests in the region.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a prominent Democrat, recently proposed legislation that would ban US assistance to Israel from being used to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
Democrats have been vocal in their opposition to Israel’s plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria, a move which could have been carried out on July 1, in accordance with the coalition agreement signed between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Recently, four House Democrats, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib, wrote to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling on the United States to cut assistance to Israel should it proceed to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Previously, a group of Democratic Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD), issued a statement in which they expressed their opposition to the sovereignty move.
The senators noted that direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians are “the only path for a durable peace.” They warned that annexation “could undermine regional stability and broader US national security interests in the region.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), a prominent Democrat, recently proposed legislation that would ban US assistance to Israel from being used to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.
LONG LIVE THE BOURGEOIS DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION!
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: The teacher challenging Lukashenko — Europe's last dictator
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a teacher, is the greatest challenge yet to the reign of Alexander Lukashenko, who vies for a sixth term as Belarus' president. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has had a staggering and unprecedented rise.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya eyes an end to Lukashenko's grip on power
Read more: Anti-government protesters rally ahead of Belarus vote
When Tikhanovsky was formally disqualified, Tikhanovskaya decided to run instead. And, surprisingly, she was able to collect the 100,000 required signatures and made the ballot. After her husband was released, he ran her campaign for a few days before being arrested again. He is currently in detention and accused of violence against the police. His supporters say that he was provoked.
Read more: Tikhanovskaya challenges Lukashenko's power in Belarus vote
Tikhanovskaya (center) at a campaign rally in Minsk
An inauspicious start
Tikhanovskaya, who is from a small southwestern town, studied foreign languages before going on to work as a translator in Gomel, the second-biggest city in Belarus. This is where she met her husband, with whom she has two children. She stopped working to look after her family. Though she says she was never interested in politics, she says that she learned a lot about her country and its inhabitants traveling with her husband. He had to travel a lot for a video blog that he launched on YouTube at the beginning of 2019.
Read more: Belarus blocks Lukashenko's rival Babariko from presidential vote
It's the first time that such an outsider has taken part in the authoritarian country's electoral process. It's almost as if an amateur runner were suddenly in a position to win the Olympics. However, in this case, Tikhanovskaya could be excluded at any time. So far, however, she is still in the race and the preparations have gone so well that she is considered one of the favorites. Her election campaign team was boosted by support from two political heavyweights: the former banker Viktor Babariko and the former diplomat Valery Tsepkalo, who were also barred from running.
Tens of thousands of people have turned up to Tikhanovskaya's rallies — breaking records in a country where people have long been discouraged from taking part in politics and tend to be either dispassionate or scared. Tikhanovskaya's election program is rudimentary, but she has a few clear goals: Belarusian independence and the release of all political prisoners, including her husband. If she wins, she has pledged to hold free elections within six months later so that currently barred opposition candidates can run and she can return to raising her family.
Read more: Lukashenko accuses Russian mercenaries, critics of plotting attack
Tens of thousands of supporters have flocked to rallies for Tikhanovskaya
An unusual approach
It is clear that Tikhanovskaya is an unusual candidate with an unusual approach to the task at hand. At the beginning she came across as unsure, but honest and this went down well. The more used to her role she became, the more her self-confidence grew. She was not afraid of saying that she did not have all the answers and admitted that she was no expert regarding foreign policy or economic reform.
Tikhanovskaya has avoided controversial subjects, but she has not allowed the president to bully her with his frequent attacks. When he said that someone who had not served in the army could not be head of state, she responded with the suggestion that only mothers should be allowed to run. Though she refuses to be intimidated, she did send her children abroad after an anonymous threat.
The campaign is a sign that Belarus is changing. Tikhanovskaya success has come as a surprise to many in a country that has been under the president's control for 26 years. People want to see a new face at the top — and it almost doesn't matter whose.
Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power
At the moment, however, it looks like Lukashenko still has the advantage. Once again, there will be no independent election observers. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has not been invited.
Belarus elections: Lukashenko's authoritarian grip faces test
Alexander Lukashenko is seeing his dominance challenged in an election campaign that has held several surprises. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's campaign has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile
It has been a long time since a presidential election in Belarus promised to be as exciting as the vote scheduled for Sunday. Initially, the election looked as if it would be a routine victory for the authoritarian incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic on the European Union's eastern border since 1994.
The 65-year-old former director of a large Soviet agricultural enterprise, Lukashenko is the longest-serving president in Europe. EU media refer to him as "Europe's last dictator."
The 2020 election campaign has not turned out the way Lukashenko likely expected. In just a matter of weeks, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old teacher and interpreter and the wife of the imprisoned blogger and activist Sergei Tikhanovsky, has become a symbolic figure for Lukashenko's opponents. When her husband, whom Amnesty International describes as a "prisoner of conscience," was not permitted to run in the election, Tikhanovskaya entered the race — and tens of thousands of people attended her rallies. "I'm tired of being silent," she said at a rally in the capital, Minsk, at the end of July.
Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power
An emerging opposition
Unlike in neighboring Ukraine, people in Belarus were long thought of as politically passive by international observers, partly thanks to Lukashenko's relatively successful economic policies, which benefited from close ties with Russia. In the past years, however, there have been repeated disputes with Moscow over energy shipments.
Now, people's willingness to protest seems to have increased. Voters stood in long lines to give their signatures in support of opposition candidates, as required under Belarusian election law, and they took to the streets in nationwide protests when candidates were arrested.
Leaders of the nationalist opposition parties, who have fought Lukashenko without success for years, were unable to agree on a candidate. Some of them have been arrested.
One of the new social phenomena associated with this election is the involvement of the urban middle class, which had tended to steer clear of public political statements. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why two representatives of the ruling elite announced that they, too, wanted to run for president: Viktor Babariko, the longtime head of Belgazprombank — a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom — and Valery Tsepkalo, a former diplomat and the founder of Belarus Hi-Tech Park.
Tikhanovskaya has become a symbol of the opposition in Belarus
The willingness of these two men to challenge Lukashenko was one of this campaign's biggest surprises. They did not get far and were not admitted as candidates on procedural grounds. Babariko was accused of economic crimes and arrested and remains in custody, and Tsepkalo left for Russia with his family.
The fact that Babariko and Tsepkalo's campaigns, led by young women, joined Tikhanovskaya's has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile. Women have been showing up for rallies to put an end to Lukashenko's presidency. Two of the five candidates on Sunday's ballot are women.
With no independent polling, it is hard to say how much of a challenge Tikhanovskaya will pose for Lukashenko. State media claim that Lukashenko has the support of about 70% of Belarusians. Some opposition politicians and media report that the president's approval rating is, in fact, in the single-digit range.
The coronavirus campaign
Many of the approximately 9.5 million Belarusians have been angry about how the state has dealt with the pandemic. As the novel coronavirus spread in Belarus, Lukashenko ignored it.
The president recommended vodka and sauna visits as protective measures. Lukashenko refused to impose a lockdown.
At the end of July, Lukashenko admitted that he had contracted COVID-19. The president's opponents, who had taken the problem seriously from early on, had worn masks and kept their distance. .
Belarus opposition hosts largest rally in a decade
Where is Russia?
In previous presidential elections in Belarus, there was a geopolitical division of roles: Lukashenko advocated closer ties to Russia, while the opposition urged better relations with the European Union. That division is not as pronounced ahead of the current election. Relations with Russia have been tense for months — partly because Lukashenko himself has balked at a still closer integration between the countries.
Lukashenko's strained ties with Putin have raised questions over his ability to hold onto power
The president has accused Russia of interfering in past election campaigns and supporting opposition candidates. Just days before Sunday's election, news of the arrest of 33 Russians accused by Belarusian authorities of being "mercenaries" with a private Russian combat squad caused a stir. Belarus accuses them of plotting mass unrest, which Russia has denied.
Read more: Journalists under pressure in Belarus as Lukashenko runs for presidency
It is unlikely that Lukashenko will lose the election — but it no longer seems impossible. The head of state has never shied away from holding on to power by force. Protests after the 2010 presidential election were brutally suppressed and opposition leaders arrested.
Back then, the United States and EU reacted with sanctions that were left in place until just a few years ago. Now history may repeat itself. Some observers fear the emergence of a police state.
The future of Belarus will become apparent after Sunday's election whether and how much he has changed in that regard.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya: The teacher challenging Lukashenko — Europe's last dictator
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a teacher, is the greatest challenge yet to the reign of Alexander Lukashenko, who vies for a sixth term as Belarus' president. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has had a staggering and unprecedented rise.
LOVE POWER PEACE/VICTORY
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya does not describe herself as a politician. Indeed, she says she just wants her family back and to be able to cook for them. Yet, for now, she is running for election, and observers consider the 37-year-old stay-at-home parent, a teacher and interpreter by profession, perhaps the greatest challenge yet to the reign of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a sixth term on Sunday.
Tikhanovskaya ended up in this position almost by chance. It was initially her husband, the 41-year-old video blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who wanted to challenge the president. However, he was arrested before the election campaign even kicked off and charged with taking part in an unauthorized demonstration at the beginning of the year.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya does not describe herself as a politician. Indeed, she says she just wants her family back and to be able to cook for them. Yet, for now, she is running for election, and observers consider the 37-year-old stay-at-home parent, a teacher and interpreter by profession, perhaps the greatest challenge yet to the reign of President Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a sixth term on Sunday.
Tikhanovskaya ended up in this position almost by chance. It was initially her husband, the 41-year-old video blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, who wanted to challenge the president. However, he was arrested before the election campaign even kicked off and charged with taking part in an unauthorized demonstration at the beginning of the year.
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya eyes an end to Lukashenko's grip on power
Read more: Anti-government protesters rally ahead of Belarus vote
When Tikhanovsky was formally disqualified, Tikhanovskaya decided to run instead. And, surprisingly, she was able to collect the 100,000 required signatures and made the ballot. After her husband was released, he ran her campaign for a few days before being arrested again. He is currently in detention and accused of violence against the police. His supporters say that he was provoked.
Read more: Tikhanovskaya challenges Lukashenko's power in Belarus vote
Tikhanovskaya (center) at a campaign rally in Minsk
An inauspicious start
Tikhanovskaya, who is from a small southwestern town, studied foreign languages before going on to work as a translator in Gomel, the second-biggest city in Belarus. This is where she met her husband, with whom she has two children. She stopped working to look after her family. Though she says she was never interested in politics, she says that she learned a lot about her country and its inhabitants traveling with her husband. He had to travel a lot for a video blog that he launched on YouTube at the beginning of 2019.
Read more: Belarus blocks Lukashenko's rival Babariko from presidential vote
It's the first time that such an outsider has taken part in the authoritarian country's electoral process. It's almost as if an amateur runner were suddenly in a position to win the Olympics. However, in this case, Tikhanovskaya could be excluded at any time. So far, however, she is still in the race and the preparations have gone so well that she is considered one of the favorites. Her election campaign team was boosted by support from two political heavyweights: the former banker Viktor Babariko and the former diplomat Valery Tsepkalo, who were also barred from running.
Tens of thousands of people have turned up to Tikhanovskaya's rallies — breaking records in a country where people have long been discouraged from taking part in politics and tend to be either dispassionate or scared. Tikhanovskaya's election program is rudimentary, but she has a few clear goals: Belarusian independence and the release of all political prisoners, including her husband. If she wins, she has pledged to hold free elections within six months later so that currently barred opposition candidates can run and she can return to raising her family.
Read more: Lukashenko accuses Russian mercenaries, critics of plotting attack
Tens of thousands of supporters have flocked to rallies for Tikhanovskaya
An unusual approach
It is clear that Tikhanovskaya is an unusual candidate with an unusual approach to the task at hand. At the beginning she came across as unsure, but honest and this went down well. The more used to her role she became, the more her self-confidence grew. She was not afraid of saying that she did not have all the answers and admitted that she was no expert regarding foreign policy or economic reform.
Tikhanovskaya has avoided controversial subjects, but she has not allowed the president to bully her with his frequent attacks. When he said that someone who had not served in the army could not be head of state, she responded with the suggestion that only mothers should be allowed to run. Though she refuses to be intimidated, she did send her children abroad after an anonymous threat.
The campaign is a sign that Belarus is changing. Tikhanovskaya success has come as a surprise to many in a country that has been under the president's control for 26 years. People want to see a new face at the top — and it almost doesn't matter whose.
Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power
At the moment, however, it looks like Lukashenko still has the advantage. Once again, there will be no independent election observers. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has not been invited.
Belarus elections: Lukashenko's authoritarian grip faces test
Alexander Lukashenko is seeing his dominance challenged in an election campaign that has held several surprises. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's campaign has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile
It has been a long time since a presidential election in Belarus promised to be as exciting as the vote scheduled for Sunday. Initially, the election looked as if it would be a routine victory for the authoritarian incumbent, Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled the former Soviet republic on the European Union's eastern border since 1994.
The 65-year-old former director of a large Soviet agricultural enterprise, Lukashenko is the longest-serving president in Europe. EU media refer to him as "Europe's last dictator."
The 2020 election campaign has not turned out the way Lukashenko likely expected. In just a matter of weeks, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old teacher and interpreter and the wife of the imprisoned blogger and activist Sergei Tikhanovsky, has become a symbolic figure for Lukashenko's opponents. When her husband, whom Amnesty International describes as a "prisoner of conscience," was not permitted to run in the election, Tikhanovskaya entered the race — and tens of thousands of people attended her rallies. "I'm tired of being silent," she said at a rally in the capital, Minsk, at the end of July.
Read more: Lukashenko is playing games to keep his grip on power
An emerging opposition
Unlike in neighboring Ukraine, people in Belarus were long thought of as politically passive by international observers, partly thanks to Lukashenko's relatively successful economic policies, which benefited from close ties with Russia. In the past years, however, there have been repeated disputes with Moscow over energy shipments.
Now, people's willingness to protest seems to have increased. Voters stood in long lines to give their signatures in support of opposition candidates, as required under Belarusian election law, and they took to the streets in nationwide protests when candidates were arrested.
Leaders of the nationalist opposition parties, who have fought Lukashenko without success for years, were unable to agree on a candidate. Some of them have been arrested.
One of the new social phenomena associated with this election is the involvement of the urban middle class, which had tended to steer clear of public political statements. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why two representatives of the ruling elite announced that they, too, wanted to run for president: Viktor Babariko, the longtime head of Belgazprombank — a subsidiary of the Russian energy giant Gazprom — and Valery Tsepkalo, a former diplomat and the founder of Belarus Hi-Tech Park.
Tikhanovskaya has become a symbol of the opposition in Belarus
The willingness of these two men to challenge Lukashenko was one of this campaign's biggest surprises. They did not get far and were not admitted as candidates on procedural grounds. Babariko was accused of economic crimes and arrested and remains in custody, and Tsepkalo left for Russia with his family.
The fact that Babariko and Tsepkalo's campaigns, led by young women, joined Tikhanovskaya's has given the opposition in Belarus a clear female profile. Women have been showing up for rallies to put an end to Lukashenko's presidency. Two of the five candidates on Sunday's ballot are women.
With no independent polling, it is hard to say how much of a challenge Tikhanovskaya will pose for Lukashenko. State media claim that Lukashenko has the support of about 70% of Belarusians. Some opposition politicians and media report that the president's approval rating is, in fact, in the single-digit range.
The coronavirus campaign
Many of the approximately 9.5 million Belarusians have been angry about how the state has dealt with the pandemic. As the novel coronavirus spread in Belarus, Lukashenko ignored it.
The president recommended vodka and sauna visits as protective measures. Lukashenko refused to impose a lockdown.
At the end of July, Lukashenko admitted that he had contracted COVID-19. The president's opponents, who had taken the problem seriously from early on, had worn masks and kept their distance. .
Belarus opposition hosts largest rally in a decade
Where is Russia?
In previous presidential elections in Belarus, there was a geopolitical division of roles: Lukashenko advocated closer ties to Russia, while the opposition urged better relations with the European Union. That division is not as pronounced ahead of the current election. Relations with Russia have been tense for months — partly because Lukashenko himself has balked at a still closer integration between the countries.
Lukashenko's strained ties with Putin have raised questions over his ability to hold onto power
The president has accused Russia of interfering in past election campaigns and supporting opposition candidates. Just days before Sunday's election, news of the arrest of 33 Russians accused by Belarusian authorities of being "mercenaries" with a private Russian combat squad caused a stir. Belarus accuses them of plotting mass unrest, which Russia has denied.
Read more: Journalists under pressure in Belarus as Lukashenko runs for presidency
It is unlikely that Lukashenko will lose the election — but it no longer seems impossible. The head of state has never shied away from holding on to power by force. Protests after the 2010 presidential election were brutally suppressed and opposition leaders arrested.
Back then, the United States and EU reacted with sanctions that were left in place until just a few years ago. Now history may repeat itself. Some observers fear the emergence of a police state.
The future of Belarus will become apparent after Sunday's election whether and how much he has changed in that regard.
What's behind Israel's growing protests?
Israelis have been taking to the streets in increasing numbers for weeks, protesting against the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The country is at a crucial juncture.
Last Saturday, a rally in Jerusalem drew more than 10,000 protesters, with thousands more protesting elsewhere in the country, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation.
This was just the latest in a series of weekly demonstrations which have rocked Israel for months, drawing a growing number of people who are angry with the government's handling of a second wave of COVID-19 infections and the economic impact of the pandemic.
Political dissatisfaction is at the heart of these protests.
"To put it in two words, the main goal is 'Bibi – resign,' says 59-year-old Tali Etzion from Tel Aviv, who's been participating in anti-government demonstrations since the country's 2011 social protests, which saw hundreds of thousands in the streets demanding economic justice and an end to corruption.
"In more than two words, we all believe, each one from their own angle, that Netanyahu is the wrong person to lead a country — in so-called normal times and even more so in times like these," Etzion explains, referring to the management of the coronavirus crisis.
Read more: Israel's anti-government protests deepen Netanyahu's problems
Tali Etzion says Israelis are increasingly fed up with Netanyahu's failed policies
"The gap between citizens whose lives have been so badly damaged and people who claim to be leaders but pad themselves to no end is unbearable," says Ofer Shelley, 50, a pianist and concert producer from Jerusalem, whose livelihood as a musician has been severely affected by the government's "complete detachment from the people," as he calls it.
"None of our leaders stand up and say 'I see your suffering, I see the distress.' They don't even bother talking to the people protesting. Not once."
No central organization
Israelis have been taking to the streets in increasing numbers for weeks, protesting against the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The country is at a crucial juncture.
Last Saturday, a rally in Jerusalem drew more than 10,000 protesters, with thousands more protesting elsewhere in the country, demanding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation.
This was just the latest in a series of weekly demonstrations which have rocked Israel for months, drawing a growing number of people who are angry with the government's handling of a second wave of COVID-19 infections and the economic impact of the pandemic.
Political dissatisfaction is at the heart of these protests.
"To put it in two words, the main goal is 'Bibi – resign,' says 59-year-old Tali Etzion from Tel Aviv, who's been participating in anti-government demonstrations since the country's 2011 social protests, which saw hundreds of thousands in the streets demanding economic justice and an end to corruption.
"In more than two words, we all believe, each one from their own angle, that Netanyahu is the wrong person to lead a country — in so-called normal times and even more so in times like these," Etzion explains, referring to the management of the coronavirus crisis.
Read more: Israel's anti-government protests deepen Netanyahu's problems
Tali Etzion says Israelis are increasingly fed up with Netanyahu's failed policies
"The gap between citizens whose lives have been so badly damaged and people who claim to be leaders but pad themselves to no end is unbearable," says Ofer Shelley, 50, a pianist and concert producer from Jerusalem, whose livelihood as a musician has been severely affected by the government's "complete detachment from the people," as he calls it.
"None of our leaders stand up and say 'I see your suffering, I see the distress.' They don't even bother talking to the people protesting. Not once."
No central organization
DIY THIS IS WHAT ANARCHY LOOKS LIKE
Both Netanyahu and ministers from his right-wing Likud party have labeled the demonstrations as "Leftist protests," and called their participants "anarchists." This view is shared by some in the Israeli public, but many — including the protesters themselves — beg to differ.
"Netanyahu denies the nature of the demonstrations, their scope and even the identity of their participants," says Efrat Safran, 57, a longtime protester and a trained lawyer from the central city of Ramat Hasharon, who's also a member of a protest group called "Mothers Against Police Violence," meant to serve as a buffer between protesters and police.
"No single body or person is organizing this," she says. "The protests have grown organically and include people from across the political spectrum," including what she refers to as "disillusioned" Netanyahu voters.
And indeed, in a now-viral tweet, a protester called Arnon Grossman, a self-declared Likud voter, is seen explaining on video why he'd been attending the anti-government rallies, while other Likud supporters are holding a sign which reads "Bibi, also Likud voters are against dictatorship."
Grossman told Israeli blogger Or-ly Barlev that he has been voting Likud for years, but "as long as Netanyahu is leading it" he would no longer do so. "I would expect a leader to treat people with compassion in such difficult times," he explained. "To be honest, I feel guilty. It's because of people like me that he's in his position now."
Judging by the various signs spotted in the protests — especially those in Balfour street in Jerusalem, the official residence of the Israeli prime minister — the discontent is widespread.
"For some, it's the economic situation, for others it could be the decaying democracy or the endless corruption scandals," Safran says. "There is room for everyone, but one message is clear: Bibi, go home."
Where are the young ones?
Safran says until Netanyahu steps down democracy in Israel is at risk
For years, longtime protesters couldn't understand why the younger generation wasn't joining them. After all, "we've already built our homes and careers, but what about them? It's their future," says Safran.
"My children, who are in their twenties, were born into a Bibi-reality. They don't know anything else and they didn't believe anything could be different," says Etzion.
But three election rounds in the span of one year, mounting corruption scandals involving Netanyahu, rising unemployment in the shadow of a global pandemic, and finally, the arrest of a former army general-turned protester, all seem to be changing young Israelis' previous apathy.
One such young protester is Amir Gertmann, a 22-year-old student from Jerusalem, who attends the Balfour demonstrations regularly. "I have no real hope for these protests. I don't see Netanyahu resigning or his coalition partners distancing themselves from him," he says.
"And yet it's important to me to come, mainly because I can't accept an attempt to crack down on a legitimate demonstration against the government a mere five-minute walk from my home without trying to oppose it."
One step from a dictatorship
Many young Israelis like Gertmann have little chance of entering the workforce after finishing their studies. If you ask Shy Engelberg, a 36-year-old protester who works in hi-tech, it's no surprise that these young people are now leading the protests.
"Netanyahu has caused only harm to Israel. He lies, sows hatred and uses dark methods, learning from people like Trump, Putin and Erdogan," he says. "I wouldn't want my children to grow up in a country where their vote has no meaning. Eventually, people feel that democracy is slipping through their fingers."
Although the protests have largely been peaceful, in some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups or groups of football ultras have assaulted the anti-government demonstrators.
At a recent Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also slammed the media for "inflaming" the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence. "There has never been such a distorted mobilization — I wanted to say Soviet-style but it has already reached North Korean terms — of the media in favor of the protests," he said.
Etzion maintains that for Netanyahu it's all about political survival, "and if he needs to turn Israel into a dictatorship in the process — so be it."
It's left the country at a crucial juncture, says Safran. "It's impossible to even start talking about left or right here when in a moment, for the first time in 72 years, we might no longer be a democracy. No reconciliation will start until he steps down, and the danger to democracy will not go away. Soon, there will be no country left."
Both Netanyahu and ministers from his right-wing Likud party have labeled the demonstrations as "Leftist protests," and called their participants "anarchists." This view is shared by some in the Israeli public, but many — including the protesters themselves — beg to differ.
"Netanyahu denies the nature of the demonstrations, their scope and even the identity of their participants," says Efrat Safran, 57, a longtime protester and a trained lawyer from the central city of Ramat Hasharon, who's also a member of a protest group called "Mothers Against Police Violence," meant to serve as a buffer between protesters and police.
"No single body or person is organizing this," she says. "The protests have grown organically and include people from across the political spectrum," including what she refers to as "disillusioned" Netanyahu voters.
And indeed, in a now-viral tweet, a protester called Arnon Grossman, a self-declared Likud voter, is seen explaining on video why he'd been attending the anti-government rallies, while other Likud supporters are holding a sign which reads "Bibi, also Likud voters are against dictatorship."
Grossman told Israeli blogger Or-ly Barlev that he has been voting Likud for years, but "as long as Netanyahu is leading it" he would no longer do so. "I would expect a leader to treat people with compassion in such difficult times," he explained. "To be honest, I feel guilty. It's because of people like me that he's in his position now."
Judging by the various signs spotted in the protests — especially those in Balfour street in Jerusalem, the official residence of the Israeli prime minister — the discontent is widespread.
"For some, it's the economic situation, for others it could be the decaying democracy or the endless corruption scandals," Safran says. "There is room for everyone, but one message is clear: Bibi, go home."
Where are the young ones?
Safran says until Netanyahu steps down democracy in Israel is at risk
For years, longtime protesters couldn't understand why the younger generation wasn't joining them. After all, "we've already built our homes and careers, but what about them? It's their future," says Safran.
"My children, who are in their twenties, were born into a Bibi-reality. They don't know anything else and they didn't believe anything could be different," says Etzion.
But three election rounds in the span of one year, mounting corruption scandals involving Netanyahu, rising unemployment in the shadow of a global pandemic, and finally, the arrest of a former army general-turned protester, all seem to be changing young Israelis' previous apathy.
One such young protester is Amir Gertmann, a 22-year-old student from Jerusalem, who attends the Balfour demonstrations regularly. "I have no real hope for these protests. I don't see Netanyahu resigning or his coalition partners distancing themselves from him," he says.
"And yet it's important to me to come, mainly because I can't accept an attempt to crack down on a legitimate demonstration against the government a mere five-minute walk from my home without trying to oppose it."
One step from a dictatorship
Many young Israelis like Gertmann have little chance of entering the workforce after finishing their studies. If you ask Shy Engelberg, a 36-year-old protester who works in hi-tech, it's no surprise that these young people are now leading the protests.
"Netanyahu has caused only harm to Israel. He lies, sows hatred and uses dark methods, learning from people like Trump, Putin and Erdogan," he says. "I wouldn't want my children to grow up in a country where their vote has no meaning. Eventually, people feel that democracy is slipping through their fingers."
Although the protests have largely been peaceful, in some cases they have ended with clashes between demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and individuals affiliated with far-right groups or groups of football ultras have assaulted the anti-government demonstrators.
At a recent Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu also slammed the media for "inflaming" the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence. "There has never been such a distorted mobilization — I wanted to say Soviet-style but it has already reached North Korean terms — of the media in favor of the protests," he said.
Etzion maintains that for Netanyahu it's all about political survival, "and if he needs to turn Israel into a dictatorship in the process — so be it."
It's left the country at a crucial juncture, says Safran. "It's impossible to even start talking about left or right here when in a moment, for the first time in 72 years, we might no longer be a democracy. No reconciliation will start until he steps down, and the danger to democracy will not go away. Soon, there will be no country left."
Police arrest 44 over eviction of left-wing Berlin bar
The "Syndikat" bar, has become a center of a major anti-gentrification campaign. Demonstrators set fires and posted barricades in front of the bar to stop bailiffs from entering on Friday morning.
German police arrested 44 demonstrators who were protesting the eviction of a left-wing bar in Berlin that has become a center of an anti-gentrification campaign.
Hundreds of officers faced off on Friday against the demonstrators, who erected barricades and set several fires in front of the establishment in a bid to stop bailiffs from entering the Syndikat bar in the capital's Neukölln district.
Read more: Last orders for Berlin bar at center of capital's rent wars
Neukölln, the neighborhood where Syndikat is located, was initially a working-class neighborhood, but rents have been on the rise due to an influx of professionals and international students, who often pay higher rent prices than locals.
The 35-year-old bar has become a symbol in recent years for activists who say that rents in Berlin are becoming unaffordable. Neighbors living next to the bar stood on balconies banging on pots and pans in solidarity, and Friday's protests remained largely peaceful.
Read more:Berlin-Neukölln: Low income and migrant families in coronavirus lockdown
A rally against the eviction last Saturday turned violent, with police and protesters clashing as demonstrators played loud music, set off fireworks, threw stones at officers and chanted "Berlin hates police."
According to a police statement, six officers were injured in the standoff.
Berlin's state government recently ordered a five-year rent freeze on 1.5 million apartments, while campaigners have been calling on the state to buy properties owned by wealthy landlords.
The bar is operated by a collective, but the property that the bar is located in belongs to a company linked to London-based real estate Mark Pears.
lc/rc (AP, dpa)
The only Texas prison reporting zero coronavirus cases is where inmates make soap. But that’s not what’s credited with protecting it.
PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX,
PRISONS PROFIT FROM FREE LABOURAugust 7, 2020 Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune
Of more than 100 Texas prison units, the Roach Unit’s apparent ability to avoid the virus has been attributed to a remote location and a warden who strictly enforces precautionary measures.
The only Texas prison that hasn’t had any staff or inmates test positive for the new coronavirus is the same one where inmates make soap and package hand sanitizer for the state’s lockups. Prisoners aren’t allowed to use the latter.
How this one unit seemingly remains untouched by a virus that has ravaged the state’s prison system, however, has been credited not to its soap factory, but to the prison’s location and the warden’s strict enforcement of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s coronavirus policy. Meanwhile, those inside prisons with hundreds of infected inmates have long reported dangerous practices. In lawsuits and letters, they have described officers without face masks, forced intermingling between infected and healthy prisoners, and limits to soap and cleaning supplies.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Texas leads the nation in prison deaths connected to the coronavirus, with a higher death toll than the federal lockups or any other state prison system. At least 112 Texas prisoners and 16 people who worked in prison units have died with the virus.
The Roach Unit is one of Texas’ more than 100 state-run prisons and jails, housing about 1,300 incarcerated men in the rural town of Childress in the Texas Panhandle. But none of the more than 17,700 state inmates who have tested positive for the virus were housed at Roach, according to a prison spokesperson. Nor have any of the nearly 3,700 infected prison employees worked at the unit.
“We’ve been lucky so far that here in the community of Childress there hasn’t been a big number of coronavirus cases,” said Ricardo Gutierrez, a 36-year-old inmate at the Roach Unit, in response to questions sent by The Texas Tribune. “I think that helps out a lot to not get the staff infected.”
After inmate visitation was canceled statewide, and most prison system transfers and all intake from county jails were temporarily halted in March and April, epidemiologists said most new prison infections were likely coming in through prison employees who contracted the virus in their communities. Childress County, with a population of about 7,000, has had only 37 people test positive for the coronavirus, according to data from the state health department.
TDCJ spokesperson Jeremy Desel said being geographically isolated helps protect the unit from the virus, but he added there is still “significant traffic there for distribution of materials they produce.”
In a March promotional video, TDCJ highlighted the Roach Unit’s soap and detergent factory as an essential tool to protect against the coronavirus, showing factory machines and some of the 84 inmates who work without pay to produce things like bar soap, laundry detergent, dish soap and bleach to distribute throughout the Texas prison system and sell. “Soap? We have plenty!” the video title boasted.
The next month, inmates in the factory also began repackaging hand sanitizer for prison employees to use, Desel said. TDCJ has steadfastly refused to allow inmates access to hand sanitizer, part of what prompted a federal lawsuit and four-week trial scrutinizing TDCJ’s handling of the pandemic. Prison attorneys have argued inmates could get drunk from the hand sanitizer or use it as an accelerant to set fires. Inmates’ attorneys have rejected those premises, saying such abuses are rare in lockups that allow it.
Aside from its location, though, Desel said “Roach is doing the same things that all units are doing to stop COVID.” But prisoners tell a different story.
Since March, inmates at numerous other prisons have told their loved ones and the Tribune that staff members have only partially enforced the policies put in place by prison officials to wear masks, regularly sanitize, and stay a safe distance apart in places like dorms, showers and hallways. Many inmates have reported that officers wore masks pulled down to their chins, prisoners were taken to the showers in large groups, and inmates who tested positive for the virus were sometimes housed with those who tested negative.
But at Roach, Gutierrez said the staff “are not messing around.” He said in a few instances where coronavirus was suspected, the sick inmate would be promptly removed and tested, and the men on the wing the inmate lived in would be quarantined for a few days until the tests came back negative, with nurses in protective gear regularly checking them for symptoms.
“They’re doing everything that the government has mandated: social distancing, the masks, sanitizing everything,” he said. “This warden has gone above and beyond to make sure that everything is being done right.”
Gutierrez said he gets the typical weekly amount of soap — five small bars stuffed into a toilet paper roll on Friday. But since the pandemic hit the state, he said Roach inmates also get more soap and a surface cleaner every Tuesday, and more is available at lunch in the dining hall. He said inmates also were still able to go to recreation and go to common rooms, but in much smaller groups.
Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and prison conditions expert at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs and law school, said Gutierrez’s description could make the Roach Unit a powerful example of the ways in which following TDCJ policies can help prevent an outbreak. On Thursday, 20 TDCJ lockups each had more than 300 inmates who had tested positive for the virus, with active infections often reported in large clusters of hundreds of people at once. Three units housed more than 700 inmates who had tested positive.
“The official protocols may be the same throughout the system, but ultimately there are huge differences in the degree to which particular facilities are following those protocols,” she said. “If they are taking the steps that they should be taking, they can reduce the spread of it within the facility if it does come in … it doesn’t have to become like a spread of wildfire.”
The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX,
PRISONS PROFIT FROM FREE LABOURAugust 7, 2020 Jolie McCullough, The Texas Tribune
Of more than 100 Texas prison units, the Roach Unit’s apparent ability to avoid the virus has been attributed to a remote location and a warden who strictly enforces precautionary measures.
The only Texas prison that hasn’t had any staff or inmates test positive for the new coronavirus is the same one where inmates make soap and package hand sanitizer for the state’s lockups. Prisoners aren’t allowed to use the latter.
How this one unit seemingly remains untouched by a virus that has ravaged the state’s prison system, however, has been credited not to its soap factory, but to the prison’s location and the warden’s strict enforcement of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s coronavirus policy. Meanwhile, those inside prisons with hundreds of infected inmates have long reported dangerous practices. In lawsuits and letters, they have described officers without face masks, forced intermingling between infected and healthy prisoners, and limits to soap and cleaning supplies.
Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Texas leads the nation in prison deaths connected to the coronavirus, with a higher death toll than the federal lockups or any other state prison system. At least 112 Texas prisoners and 16 people who worked in prison units have died with the virus.
The Roach Unit is one of Texas’ more than 100 state-run prisons and jails, housing about 1,300 incarcerated men in the rural town of Childress in the Texas Panhandle. But none of the more than 17,700 state inmates who have tested positive for the virus were housed at Roach, according to a prison spokesperson. Nor have any of the nearly 3,700 infected prison employees worked at the unit.
“We’ve been lucky so far that here in the community of Childress there hasn’t been a big number of coronavirus cases,” said Ricardo Gutierrez, a 36-year-old inmate at the Roach Unit, in response to questions sent by The Texas Tribune. “I think that helps out a lot to not get the staff infected.”
After inmate visitation was canceled statewide, and most prison system transfers and all intake from county jails were temporarily halted in March and April, epidemiologists said most new prison infections were likely coming in through prison employees who contracted the virus in their communities. Childress County, with a population of about 7,000, has had only 37 people test positive for the coronavirus, according to data from the state health department.
TDCJ spokesperson Jeremy Desel said being geographically isolated helps protect the unit from the virus, but he added there is still “significant traffic there for distribution of materials they produce.”
In a March promotional video, TDCJ highlighted the Roach Unit’s soap and detergent factory as an essential tool to protect against the coronavirus, showing factory machines and some of the 84 inmates who work without pay to produce things like bar soap, laundry detergent, dish soap and bleach to distribute throughout the Texas prison system and sell. “Soap? We have plenty!” the video title boasted.
The next month, inmates in the factory also began repackaging hand sanitizer for prison employees to use, Desel said. TDCJ has steadfastly refused to allow inmates access to hand sanitizer, part of what prompted a federal lawsuit and four-week trial scrutinizing TDCJ’s handling of the pandemic. Prison attorneys have argued inmates could get drunk from the hand sanitizer or use it as an accelerant to set fires. Inmates’ attorneys have rejected those premises, saying such abuses are rare in lockups that allow it.
Aside from its location, though, Desel said “Roach is doing the same things that all units are doing to stop COVID.” But prisoners tell a different story.
Since March, inmates at numerous other prisons have told their loved ones and the Tribune that staff members have only partially enforced the policies put in place by prison officials to wear masks, regularly sanitize, and stay a safe distance apart in places like dorms, showers and hallways. Many inmates have reported that officers wore masks pulled down to their chins, prisoners were taken to the showers in large groups, and inmates who tested positive for the virus were sometimes housed with those who tested negative.
But at Roach, Gutierrez said the staff “are not messing around.” He said in a few instances where coronavirus was suspected, the sick inmate would be promptly removed and tested, and the men on the wing the inmate lived in would be quarantined for a few days until the tests came back negative, with nurses in protective gear regularly checking them for symptoms.
“They’re doing everything that the government has mandated: social distancing, the masks, sanitizing everything,” he said. “This warden has gone above and beyond to make sure that everything is being done right.”
Gutierrez said he gets the typical weekly amount of soap — five small bars stuffed into a toilet paper roll on Friday. But since the pandemic hit the state, he said Roach inmates also get more soap and a surface cleaner every Tuesday, and more is available at lunch in the dining hall. He said inmates also were still able to go to recreation and go to common rooms, but in much smaller groups.
Michele Deitch, a senior lecturer and prison conditions expert at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs and law school, said Gutierrez’s description could make the Roach Unit a powerful example of the ways in which following TDCJ policies can help prevent an outbreak. On Thursday, 20 TDCJ lockups each had more than 300 inmates who had tested positive for the virus, with active infections often reported in large clusters of hundreds of people at once. Three units housed more than 700 inmates who had tested positive.
“The official protocols may be the same throughout the system, but ultimately there are huge differences in the degree to which particular facilities are following those protocols,” she said. “If they are taking the steps that they should be taking, they can reduce the spread of it within the facility if it does come in … it doesn’t have to become like a spread of wildfire.”
The University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
Oprah erects 26 billboards around Louisville — demanding the cops who killed Breonna Taylor get arrested
23 MORE THAN ERECTED AROUND EBBING, MISSOURI
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey continues to keep people talking about the killing of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“For the first time ever, just last week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated the cover of her magazine to someone other than herself — Breonna Taylor. Now, that cover will be all over Louisville in the form of billboards big and small,” WLKY-TV reported Thursday.
“She and the O Magazine team say they are amplifying Taylor’s story and the fight for justice by erecting 26 billboards across the city. That’s one for every year of her life,” the station reported.
Taylor, a BLack EMT, was fatally shot in March by plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove while they were executing a so-called “no-knock” search warrant.
“Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged,” the billboards read.
Oprah erecting 26 billboards of Breonna Taylor around Louisville https://t.co/zyQqnm2rxY
— WLKY (@WLKY) August 7, 2020
23 MORE THAN ERECTED AROUND EBBING, MISSOURI
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey continues to keep people talking about the killing of Breonna Taylor by the Louisville Metro Police Department.
“For the first time ever, just last week, Oprah Winfrey dedicated the cover of her magazine to someone other than herself — Breonna Taylor. Now, that cover will be all over Louisville in the form of billboards big and small,” WLKY-TV reported Thursday.
“She and the O Magazine team say they are amplifying Taylor’s story and the fight for justice by erecting 26 billboards across the city. That’s one for every year of her life,” the station reported.
Taylor, a BLack EMT, was fatally shot in March by plainclothes officers Jonathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove while they were executing a so-called “no-knock” search warrant.
“Demand that the police involved in killing Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged,” the billboards read.
Oprah erecting 26 billboards of Breonna Taylor around Louisville https://t.co/zyQqnm2rxY
— WLKY (@WLKY) August 7, 2020
WAYNE FONTANA OF THE UK BAND THE MINDBENDERS,
PASSED AWAY AT THE AGE OF 74
WHAT IS INTERESTING IN THIS PICTURE FROM 1965
IS HE HAS ONE OF THE EARLIEST SKATEBOARDS WHICH BEGAN IN THAT ERA.
WHAT YOU THOUGHT SKATEBOARDS WERE GENX FERGET ABOUT IT.
HATE TO TELL YOU BUT SKATEBOARDS ARE BOOMER TOYS
3 hours ago - After a couple of hits he stormed offstage and out of the band, struggled ... of Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, a Manchester-based band who shot ... of Love, which topped the charts in the US and went to No 2 in the UK.
Wayne Fontana founded the band in June 1963 with Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, and Eric Stewart. The name of the group was inspired by the title of a 1963 UK ...
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders | Biography & History ...
https://www.allmusic.com › artist › biography
Find Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders biography and history on AllMusic - Wayne ... Renaming the band after Dirk Bogard's then-recently released hit movie The MINDBENDERS... A new version of their debut album, featuring several cuts not on the U.K. ..
THE LETTER
Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders - Road Runner - 1963 ...
Jimmy Page was a session guitarist on this song
TRAILER FOR THE MOVIE MINDBENDERS
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