Jack Ma, Trump and Xi: How Chinese billionaire flew close to the sun

Jack Ma, Alibaba Group founder, visits a Dutch flower grower Anthura in the town of Bleiswijk


Julie Zhu and Kane Wu
Thu, November 4, 2021

HONG KONG (Reuters) - This was supposed to be Jack Ma's finest hour: a year ago to the day, his Ant Group was meant to go public in a $37 billion blaze of glory. Instead Beijing reined in his empire, abruptly clipping the wings of corporate China's biggest star.

Now, to the cautious cheer of investors, the billionaire Alibaba e-commerce tycoon is taking his first tentative steps back on to the global stage with a low-key trip to Europe where he's cultivating like horticulture.

It's a far cry from the height of Ma's statesman-like powers in 2017 when he travelled to New York to meet President-elect Donald Trump for one-on-one talks in Trump Tower days before inauguration and promised to create a million American jobs.

That high-profile outing had roiled the Chinese government, which first learned of the meeting and jobs pledge along with the rest of the world when Ma held an informal televised Q&A session with reporters in the lobby of the skyscraper, according to four people close to Alibaba with knowledge of the matter and one Beijing government source.

Alibaba's government relations team was subsequently told by Chinese officials that Beijing was unhappy about Ma meeting Trump without its prior approval, two of the people close to the company said.

Ma's charitable foundation, which handles his media queries, did not respond to a request for comment.

The State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to requests for comment. All the sources declined to be named due to sensitivity of the matter.

The meeting on Jan. 9 came at a time of taut tensions between the two countries after Trump was critical of China during his election campaign, blaming it for the loss of American jobs.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

The four people close to Alibaba said they believed the meeting was a negative turning point in the relationship between Ma and Beijing. They did not elaborate on their thinking.

Investors are hungry for clues about Ma's situation: the mere sighting of the businessman on the Spanish island of Mallorca last month, his first trip abroad in over a year, immediately saw Alibaba gain as much as $42 billion in value.

The story of his fall from official favour helps illustrate how rapidly China has transformed under Xi Jinping, as he nears what could be a precedent-breaking third term as leader of the economic powerhouse and exerts greater control over some of its most innovative companies.

'A NATURAL FIRST TARGET'

Authorities cracked down on Ma's business empire after he gave a speech in Shanghai in October last year accusing financial watchdogs of stifling innovation. Regulators suspended the $37 billion listing of his fintech firm Ant Group two days before the planned debut on Nov. 5, ordered that Ant be restructured and launched antitrust investigations into Ma's businesses, eventually leading to a record $2.75 billion fine for Alibaba in April.

The clampdown has spread across the private sector, with officials tightening oversight of companies in technology, real estate, gaming, education, cryptocurrencies and finance.

"Given that Jack appeared too provocative, out of step with the new approach to governance espoused by Xi, he was a natural first target to signal that a major change had begun," said Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based investment advisory firm BDA China and author of a book on Alibaba and Ma.

"Jack was rubbing shoulders regularly with foreign presidents, prime ministers, royalty, celebrities at places like Davos or on his own visits overseas. There was a constant stream of VIP visitors to see him in Hangzhou too."

Ma's global outreach did not end after the Trump meeting, though.

Between 2018 and 2020 he held talks with a host of high-profile figures, including U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, Queen Rania of Jordan, Malaysia's veteran politician Mahathir Mohamad and then Belgian premier Charles Michel, according to Alibaba's news portal Alizila and media reports.

At Alibaba's Hangzhou headquarters, it has a building housing the company's museum where Ma and his business partner Joe Tsai would take foreign visitors and show them around, according to another person close to Ma.

Tsai did not respond to a request for comment via Alibaba.

Ma had viewed meetings with foreign politicians as "unofficial diplomacy" for China, which he enjoyed doing, the person added.

Alibaba told Reuters it had a guest reception facility widely known as Pavilion 9 that offered a visual tour of its history and an overview of its businesses. It has hosted a wide variety of guests at the exhibition hall in its headquarters, it added.

The company did not respond to other queries for this story.

'JUST LIKE YOU AND ME'

In a sign of how life has changed for one of China's most successful and influential businessmen, Ma requested an audience with at least two people in Xi's inner circle in the weeks following the blocking of Ant's listing, but his requests were turned down by both, said two separate sources briefed by those people.

The billionaire subsequently wrote directly to Xi earlier this year offering to devote the rest of his life to China's rural education, according to a government source who said the president spoke about the letter at a meeting of the country's senior leaders in May.

Reuters could not determine whether Xi approved of or responded to the offer, which has not been previously reported, or precisely when Ma, a former English teacher, penned the missive.

The Alibaba-owned South China Morning Post said last month Ma was visiting Europe on an "agriculture and technology study tour related to environmental issues", citing a person familiar with his itinerary.

Last week the paper published pictures of Ma wearing a white protective gown and holding flowerpots. It said he would continue touring European companies and research institutions involved in agricultural infrastructure and plant breeding, citing people familiar with his plans.

Tsai, the co-founder of Alibaba, played down his long-time associate's influence in a rare interview about the elusive billionaire with CNBC's Squawk Box show in June.

"He's lying low right now. I talk to him every day," Tsai said. "The idea that Jack has this enormous amount of power, I think that's not quite right," he added.

"He is just like you and me, he's a normal individual."

(Reporting by Julie Zhu and Kane Wu in Hong Kong; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee, Paritosh Bansal and Pravin Char)

It's not just Jack Ma. More and more Chinese tech founders and CEOs are retreating from the spotlight.

Katie Canales

Wed, November 3, 2021, 

• TikTok-owner Bytedance's founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down from the board, per Bloomberg.

• He's the most recent executive to pull back as China cracks down on the tech industry.

• Other tech founders have made similar moves as the communist party strengthens its grip.

Jack Ma famously disappeared from the limelight after his Ant Group's planned IPO imploded- and he's not the only tech exec to do so in the past year.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday that TikTok owner Bytedance's founder Zhang Yiming has stepped down from the company's board of directors. The report comes after Yiming said in May he was retiring from his role as CEO at the company. Bytedance did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

It's yet another prominent Chinese tech CEO pulling back from the public spotlight as the nation's government cracks down on homegrown tech giants. The big tech crackdown, combined with China's growing animosity for billionaires - whose wealth threatens the ruling party's communist principles - has upended how powerful businessmen are perceived in the nation and has caused them to tread lightly in the public eye.

In the months after China pulled Ant Group's IPO, rumors swirled that Ma had disappeared - a phenomenon that had occurred before with other powerful business figures that had disagreed with The Party.

In June, however, an Alibaba executive said that Ma was simply "lying low" as the government cracked down on his empire.

Other tech execs have flat-out quit:

• Colin Huang, the former CEO and chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo exited both of those roles earlier this year.

• Kuaishou Technology co-founder Su Hua stepped away as CEO, with co-founder Cheng Yiziao taking his place, according to Reuters.

• The founder and CEO of the online retail giant JD.com stepped back from his day-to-day duties in September, with another executive taking his place, CNBC reported.

The internet economy has been largely unregulated in China, meaning companies have been free to grow unfettered without strict rules that apply to more traditional sectors like banking. In November 2020, China introduced new anti-competitive behavior rules designed to reel in internet giants like Alibaba, which Ma also founded.

Earlier this year, China slapped Alibaba with a fine equaling $2.8 billion over concerns that it was abusing its dominant market position.

Bytedance is not currently under any official regulatory probe, but Chinese officials do have their eyes trained on the company, which is subject to the same regulatory restrictions that the nation has placed on its tech industry at large.

As China zeroes in on the internet economy, Bytedance has attempted to pivot away from online services and toward enterprise software, as Bloomberg noted, and said recently it was reorganizing into six different business units.

GREAT RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM UNDER TSAR PUTIN

Unity Day: Putin proclaims Crimea forever a part of Russia









1 / 9
Russia Unity Day

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his speech at the memorial complex dedicated to the end of the Russian Civil War during marking Unity Day in Sevastopol, Crimea, Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. 

(AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)

Thu, November 4, 2021

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the national Unity Day holiday with a trip to Crimea, declaring the region will always be a part of Russia.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in the wake of the overthrow of Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president, a move that Western countries regard as illegitimate.

Putin exalted the annexation while visiting the city that is the home port for Russia’s Black Sea fleet on Thursday.

“Our country has regained its historical unity. This living and unbreakable bond can be especially keenly felt, of course, here, in Sevastopol, in Crimea," he said. "They are with Russia forever now, as that is the sovereign, free and unbending will of the people, of all our people.”

Unity Day marks the expulsion in 1612 of Polish-Lithuanian forces that occupied Moscow; the holiday was started in 2005, replacing the Soviet-era commemoration on that date of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The day also became an occasion for anti-immigrant marches by nationalists, but Moscow authorities banned the event from taking place in the Russian capital this year.

About 20 people were detained as they tried to gather in a Moscow subway station for a nationalist demonstration, according to OVD-Info, a group that monitors political demonstrations and arrests.

Chinese Scientists Say They Can Turn Emissions Into Animal Food



Isabella Steger
Wed, November 3, 2021, 

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese researchers said they have developed the technology to turn industrial emissions into animal feed at scale, a move that could cut the country’s dependence on imported raw materials such as soybeans.

The technology involves synthesizing industrial exhaust containing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and nitrogen into proteins using Clostridium autoethanogenum, a bacterium used to make ethanol. The news was reported this week in the state-run Science and Technology Daily.


China is the top importer of soybeans, which are crushed to produce meal, mainly to feed its pig herd that’s the largest globally. It buys huge volumes from countries including Brazil, Argentina and the U.S. The commodity has also been a major source of friction contributing to U.S.-China trade tensions.

China faces shortages of farm commodities because of a lack of productive farmland and increasing demand from a more affluent population, and tries to boost yields and reduce wastage. The Science and Technology Daily said that 80% of China’s raw material needs for feed proteins are served by imports.

If China can produce 10 million tons of synthetic protein using the new technology, that would be equivalent to about 28 million tons of soybean imports, the researchers noted. Producing synthetic proteins for animal feed at a large scale would also help China in its decarbonization program, they added, a major policy goal for the Communist Party.

Lawmakers call on Biden to revoke medals awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre, when hundreds of Lakota people were killed by the US army

Kelsey Vlamis

Thu, November 4, 2021,

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on September 28, 2021. Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images

• A group of lawmakers is asking Biden to revoke Medals of Honor given to soldiers from Wounded Knee.

• Hundreds of unarmed Lakota people were killed during the Wounded Knee Massacre in December 1890.

• The effort, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, includes 16 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent.

A group of lawmakers has asked President Joe Biden to revoke Medals of Honor that were awarded for the Wounded Knee Massacre, when US army solders killed hundreds of Lakota people, including unarmed women and children, in 1890.

Led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the lawmakers sent Biden a letter Tuesday, asserting his executive authority grants him the power to have the medals revoked, The New York Times reported. It was signed by 16 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent.

"For the families and descendants of those massacred, the revocation of these 20 Medals of Honor would have a profound and lasting impact - as has the federal government's ongoing choice to allow these wrongly bestowed honors to stand," the letter said, according to The Times.

The Medal of Honor is the highest and most prestigious decoration American soldiers can receive, and is awarded for acts of valor.

The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, when US forces surrounded a group of Lakota people near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The Lakota surrendered and were being disarmed by the soldiers when a shot was fired.

In the massacre that followed, hundreds of unarmed Lakota people were killed, with nearly half being women and children. Historical estimates put the Lakota death toll between 150 to 300, or even higher. It marked one of the deadliest days for Native people against US forces, and was one of the last armed confrontations between the US and the Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains.

In 2019, Warren first introduced a bill to the Senate that would revoke the medals from 20 soldiers who participated in the massacre, The Times reported. The letter urging Biden to act was sent as the bill has stalled.

In February, the South Dakota Senate unanimously supported a resolution calling on the US Congress to launch an investigation into the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers who participated at Wounded Knee.

"It's not going to change the stain of what happened there," state Sen. Troy Heinert, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said at the time, the Associated Press reported. "This will give us a chance to start a new history - that will recognize what we did that day was wrong."

NOW THIS SHOULD WORRY DEMS

Spending $153, Edward Durr ousts NJ Senate leader Sweeney
By MIKE CATALINI

FILE — Senate President Steve Sweeney winks at someone before the start of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's budget address in Trenton, N.J., Feb. 25, 2020. Sweeney, New Jersey's longtime state Senate president, has lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent less than $200 on the race and leaving his party reeling. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

COST CHANGES FROM ABOVE

Spending $2,300, GOP newcomer Ed Durr beats top NJ lawmaker

AND IT SHOULD STILL WORRY DEMS

By MIKE CATALINI

Edward Durr speaks to near his home in Swedesboro, N.J. on Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. New Jersey's longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney lost reelection, falling to Durr, a Republican newcomer who spent little money and underscoring Democratic woes in the Biden era. 

(Ellie Rushing/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent little money and underscoring Democratic woes in the Biden era.

Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and first-time officeholder, defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday.

Sweeney’s defeat was unexpected, and has cast the fate of state government into uncertainty.

“It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in an interview.

His loss unfolded in a politically competitive suburban Philadelphia district whose counties split their votes between Democrats and Republicans in the presidential elections in 2016 and again in 2020.

It also coincided with boosted GOP turnout even in an off-year election that saw Republicans make gains across the state. Durr’s victory Thursday netted about 3% more votes than Sweeney did in 2017 in unofficial returns.

Sweeney’s attention was also focused on tight Senate races elsewhere in the state.

“I don’t really think it was Steve Sweeney,” said incoming Republican Senate Leader Steve Oroho. “I think it had to do with the message coming from people who were just annoyed at all the executive orders and all the mandates and being sick and tired of being told what they can and can’t do.”

The loss says more about the headwinds Democrats are facing after losing the governor’s race in Virginia and winning a narrow victory in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, experts said.

“This was a protest vote against the Biden administration and Murphy,” said Montclair State University political science professor Brigid Harrison. “Steve was in many ways just how people voiced their dissatisfaction and anger with the larger political structure.”

Sweeney said in a statement Thursday he was waiting for more votes to come in before acknowledging the loss.

“While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results,” he said.

Sweeney has served as Senate president since 2010 and was responsible for shepherding Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s progressive agenda through the Legislature, including a phased-in $15 an hour minimum wage, paid sick leave and recreational marijuana legalization.

He is also known for his high-profile reversal on opposition to gay marriage. Sweeney said in 2011 that he made the “biggest mistake of my legislative career” when he voted against marriage equality.

Though Sweeney was a fellow Democrat, he fought Murphy at the start of his administration over raising income taxes on the wealthy and worked closely with Republican Chris Christie during his eight-year term in office ending in 2018.

A deal he worked out with Christie to overhaul public worker pension put Sweeney at odds with public sector unions, who would go on to become key supporters of Murphy.

Sweeney’s loss was cheered by progressive Democrats from southern New Jersey, who saw him as a product of transactional, machine politics.

“Today is glorious,” said Sue Altman, director of New Jersey Working Families, in a tweet. Altman is a longtime critic of Sweeney’s and saw him as focused on trying to maintain control of the Democratic party, particularly in southern New Jersey.

His allies say he was open-minded and eventually delivered for the left.

“I think he was a remarkable senator and Senate president, and as I have often reminded my progressive friends that we never could have gotten all those bills on Gov. Murphy’s desk for him to sign without the cooperation of the Senate president,” Weinberg said.

Sweeney had faced electoral opposition before. In 2017, his feud with the state’s biggest teacher’s union over retirement benefits among other issues led to a battle in which the New Jersey Education Association spent millions to try to defeat Sweeney. The union’s effort failed.

But this year, Durr defeated him, spending $2,300, according to an Election Law Enforcement Commission document filed online on Thursday. Earlier reports had shown he had spent just $153.31 on his campaign.

Messages seeking comment have been left with Durr.

Durr describes himself as a 2nd Amendment rights advocate and fiscally conservative, who wants to lower taxes. In an interview with NJ.com, he described how unlikely he viewed his victory to be. He has previously run unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2017 and 2019, but this is his first elected position.

“I joked with people and I said, ‘I’m going to shock the world, I’m going to beat this man,’” Durr said Wednesday afternoon. “I was saying it, but really kind of joking. Because what chance did a person like me really stand against this man? He’s literally the second-most powerful person in the state of New Jersey.”

Sweeney is an ironworker by trade who has served as an executive with the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. He is also a key ally and friend of Democratic power broker, George Norcross, who’s widely considered to be one of the most powerful unelected people in the state.

It’s unclear who will become the next Senate president. If Democrats maintain control of the chamber, as incomplete results show they could do, then Democratic senators will meet to choose their next leader.

The 3rd Legislative District covers parts of Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.

Coming into Election Day, Democrats had controlled the state Assembly with 52 seats to Republicans’ 28. In the state Senate, Democrats had 25 seats to the Republicans’ 15.

——

This article has been corrected to show that Durr is not a first-time candidate. He ran unsuccessfully for state Assembly in 2017 and 2019.

A N.J. Truck Driver Notches 'Stunning' Election Win After Spending $153 on His Campaign

Virginia Chamlee
Thu, November 4, 2021

Edward Durr

In one of the more remarkable upsets of Tuesday's elections, a New Jersey truck driver who spent less than $200 on his campaign unseated a longtime state Senate president.

While early vote tabulations led many outlets to report that Democrat Steve Sweeney had won reelection in New Jersey's 3rd Legislative District, continued counts showed that a political newcomer — Edward Durr, the Republican nominee — was actually leading by 4 points, or a little more than 2,000 votes.

The Associated Press called the race on Thursday.

Durr, with two prior unsuccessful campaigns to his name, had bested a longtime political power player — buoyed, it seems, by Republican enthusiasm and backlash to Democrats.

Speaking to NJ.com, Durr said he watched the results with his grandchildren while eating pizza in his living room.

"We kept saying: 'What if? What if? What if?' " Durr, who had reportedly run

for a city council seat and a General Assembly seat before this, told the outlet. "It got a little more real each hour."

RELATED: History in the Making and Hints About 2022: What to Watch for This Election Day

Sweeney, 62, is the longest-serving Senate president in New Jersey history and, as Politico notes, "the second most powerful official in New Jersey government," with a long history of shaping major legislation on raising the minimum wage, paid leave and others.

He was also reportedly mulling a future run for governor — a campaign that would have been launched once he served a seventh term in the state Senate.

"It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out," the state Senate Majority Leader told the AP.

Sweeney has not publicly commented.

A lifelong New Jersey resident, the 62-year-old Durr describes himself as "Christian, Blue Collar, Father of 3, Grandfather to 6" on his Twitter bio. His campaign website says he has worked as a truck driver for 25 years and entered the race because he wanted to see "government return to the hands of the people."

Durr did not respond to emails or phone calls made by PEOPLE on Thursday, but he attributed his success to a local backlash against COVID-19 restrictions when speaking to Fox News Primetime Wednesday.

"I didn't beat him [Sweeney]. We beat him," Durr said on Fox. "The state of New Jersey, the people of New Jersey beat him. They listened to what I had to say and I listened to what they had to say, and it's a repudiation of Gov. Murphy [who] locked us down and ignored the people's voice and senator Sweeney chose to do nothing for those 18 months."

A fan of former President Donald Trump, Durr admitted he lacks experience in policy-making — but told Fox News he plans to learn as he goes.

"That's the key factor. I don't know what I don't know, but I will learn what I need to know," he told Fox. "And I'm going to guarantee one thing. I will be the voice and people will hear me because if there is one thing people will learn about me, I got a big mouth and I don't shut up when I want to be heard. I'm going to be heard."

Perhaps the most surprising thing about Durr's campaign success, however, was his bare-bones campaign.

RELATED: A City Hall Cleaner Becomes Mayor in Surprise Victory: 'She Was Flabbergasted'

Durr says he spent just $153 — and at least half of that, he estimates, was spent on Dunkin' Donuts.

His campaign video, he told Fox, was shot on an iPhone by one of his friend's nephews.

Durr said in an August interview he was inspired to run for the state Senate seat in 2021 after being denied a concealed carry permit.

"I guess what motivated me more than anything was I went for my concealed carry. I was told flat-out by the local sheriff, 'Don't even bother.' And that kind of angered me," Durr said then. "I'm a truck driver .... I've never been arrested and I couldn't get a concealed carry? That really angered me, so I looked into what can you do to get into politics."

Speaking to NJ.com this week, Durr said he was as surprised as anyone with the apparent results.

"I joked with people and I said, 'I'm going to shock the world, I'm going to beat this man,' " he said. "I was saying it, but really kind of joking. Because what chance did a person like me really stand against this man? He's literally the second-most powerful person in the state of New Jersey."

WACO CHRISTIANS SACRIFICE SCAPEGOAT

Cultists Claim Pastor Demanded Sacrificial Beheading of Woman Because ‘She’s a Goat’

Clinton Pickering
Thu, November 4, 2021

Clinton Pickering

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA—The late cult leader Kevin Smith had instructed one of his followers, 37-year-old Andre Ruddock, to decapitate a female church member after ordering Ruddock to slash her throat, according to an unnamed witness to the “human sacrifice” killings that took place in the Pathways International Kingdom Restoration Church in Montego Bay, Jamaica on Oct. 17.

Jamaica’s Director of the Office of Public Prosecutions (DPP) detailed the macabre eyewitness accounts from survivors in a statement released Wednesday night. The shocking accounts throw light on the bizarre world Smith had created within the confines of his church—and the hellish nightmare he led his flock through that Sunday, which left three people dead.

AND SO THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES BEGIN
Smith died last Monday in a car accident alongside a police officer who was escorting him to Kingston to face murder charges. The DPP’s statement identified the church members who died as a result of the Oct. 17 ordeal as Tanika Gardener, Michael Brown, and Kevaughn Palmer—all followers of the disgraced pastor.

According to a person who was identified only as “Witness A” in the DPP report, Smith had walked into the church that day yelling that he was “God in the flesh, come in the ark before it closes,” before instructing more than 100 followers at the church to start throwing away certain items in the property, including wipes, tissues, and soaps.

“While disposing of the items a bottle of wine broke,” read the DPP statement. “Approximately 20 minutes later, Dr. Smith told the now deceased Kevaughn Palmer that whoever was in front of the wine, he [Palmer] should cut that person's throat so that they could enter into the kingdom. Dr. Smith instructed the now deceased Kevaughn Palmer to cut the throat of Witness A and other persons.”

Witness A said he then walked away from Smith, who then handed Palmer a knife and told him to slash the throat of another follower, identified in the statement as “Witness B.”

Leader of Cult That Sacrificed Humans Dies in Cop Car Crash

“The now deceased Kevaughn Palmer chased Witness B and [another] person and stabbed them in their backs,” the statement read. “At this juncture, the other members of the church lay down on the ground and covered themselves. Dr. Smith then began to destroy the glass on the altar, the window, and other items.” In the midst of the chaos, Smith allegedly handed knives to other followers, telling them that they were “Arch Angels” and encouraging them to slash their fellow members.

One of the most horrific anecdotes included in the statement is the killing of church member Michael Brown, who “was suffering from a health issue which resulted in tubes being attached to his body.” According to the DPP report, Smith told Brown: “You have to die, but you will rise again because I am the resurrection and the light,” before “pulling the tubes from Mr. Brown who then bled to death.”

At some point, female church member Tanika Gardener arrived at the church and was allegedly subjected to a series of questions by Smith, including, “Do you believe I can raise you from the dead?” to which Gardener answered “Yes.” At that point, Smith asked Witness A to cut Gardener’s throat. When Witness A refused, he asked another follower, Andre Ruddock, to slash Gardener. According to the statement, Ruddock obliged.

“When the accused Andre Ruddock got to where Ms. Gardener was located, she knelt down before him. At this point, the accused Andre Ruddock used a knife to cut Ms. Gardener's throat. It is said that the deceased Tanika Gardener did not make a sound or scream, but Witness B heard a gurgling sound,” reads the statement. “Witness B indicates that Dr. Smith told the accused Andre Ruddock to cut Ms. Gardener's head right off, she is a goat, she has to die, she is a sacrifice. The accused did not cut off Ms. Gardener's head.”

When police stormed the church in response to a phone call, they were greeted with gunfire from inside the building and exchanged fire. According to the DPP, church member Kevaughn Palmer “advanced towards the police officers, armed with a machete.” Palmer was shot and killed in the altercation, and police eventually entered the building and found the bodies of the deceased members.

The DPP report also sheds light on other requests Smith had allegedly made to his followers prior to the killings, including asking them to address him as “Daddy,” demanding they get his permission to go on vacation, and warning them against taking the COVID vaccine, calling it the “mark of the beast.”

Kevin Smith has been posthumously charged with murder in connection with the incident. Andre Ruddock, who reportedly acted as Smith’s personal bodyguard, remains in police custody, and is also facing murder charges.

Migrants pelt Mexico's National Guard with rocks, 5 injured


Migrants leave Ulapa, Chiapas state, late Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. The migrant caravan heading north in southern Mexico has so far been allowed to walk unimpeded, a change from the Mexican government's reaction to other attempted mass migrations. 

(AP Photo/Isabel Mateos)

EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Thu, November 4, 2021]

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — A group of migrants trying to walk across southern Mexico pelted officers of Mexico’s National Guard with a hail of rocks Thursday, injuring five guard officers.

The guards were tailing the march and had apparently tried to detain some of the mainly Central American migrants, when a group of 100 to 150 males started throwing rocks at two truckloads of guard officers equipped with plastic shields and helmets.

The Guard said in a statement that four male officers and one female officer suffered “considerable” injuries, and were hospitalized. It said that “at no time did the officers respond to the attack.”

So heavy was the rain of rocks that at least two guard officers tumbled from the trucks onto the highway below near the town of Pijijiapan, in the southern state of Chiapas.

Video footage showed one of the guardsmen unconscious, with some migrants trying to help him while another threw a punch at him.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

National Guard officers have been wary of confronting migrants since a shooting incident Sunday left one migrant dead.

Confrontations between law enforcement and migrants had been relatively rare in Mexico, but National Guard officers opened fire on a pickup truck carrying migrants Sunday when the vehicle tried to avoid an immigration checkpoint; the Guard said it had tried to ram a patrol vehicle.

A Cuban migrant was killed and four other migrants were wounded.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador later said the shooting was unjustified, and that the pickup — apparently driven by a suspected migrant trafficker — had simply tried to run past the checkpoint, not ram the Guard vehicle. The guard officers involved are now subject to a federal criminal investigation.

Apparently, the migrants in the truck were not part of some 4,000 mainly Central Americans who are seeking to reach Mexico City on foot. The shooting occurred about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from where the migrant march was at the time.

An estimated 4,000 migrants set out from the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, on foot on Oct. 23. They have made slow progress trudging along highways amid the brutal heat of the region, advancing only about 95 miles (150 kilometers) in almost two weeks.

The Mexican government has been attempting to discourage the march, saying the poor conditions are putting the migrants’ lives at risk. The National Immigration Institute said six cases of the tropical fever dengue had been detected among members of the migrant march.

Much larger caravans crossed Mexico in 2018 and 2019, but those migrants never tried to walk the whole distance. They usually caught rides aboard passing trucks.

But Mexico has told truckers not to pick up migrants, saying they could face charges of migrant trafficking. The migrants are also afraid of becoming separated from the group, for fear they will be rounded up and deported.

A National Guard officer was killed by suspected immigrant traffickers in September.

And a dozen members of an elite police force in the northern border state of Tamaulipas are on trial for allegedly killing 14 Guatemalan migrants and five other people, whose bodies were found shot and burned near the U.S. border in late January.

Frustration has been growing for months among the thousands of migrants waiting in Tapachula near the Guatemala border. Mexico’s strategy had been to contain migrants in the south, far from the U.S. border, while allowing them to apply for asylum in Mexico.

But Mexico’s asylum system has been overwhelmed and the slow process led many to decide it was not worth waiting.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

Thu, November 4, 2021

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Dozens of migrants traveling north to Mexico City clashed with the National Guard in the southern state of Chiapas on Thursday, near to where a Cuban national was killed on Sunday by the militarized police force.

The group of mostly Central American women and children resumed their journey on Monday in the Pijijiapan municipality of Chiapas, after fatigue and illnesses among some members prompted a two day break.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Migrants rest as they take part in a caravan heading to Mexico City, in Pijijiapan

"There are two injured migrants, they were badly beaten. The officers tried to surround them with their shields," Luis Garcia, who helped organize the migrant caravan, told Reuters over the phone.

"Everything was chaotic. It's not right that the authorities keep acting this way. Despite all the repression we're not going to stop," Garcia said, adding that authorities had escorted away migrants in at least four buses.

The National Guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

National Guard troops, who donned helmets and riot shields, confronted migrants, according to images on social media. Other videos shared with Reuters showed several migrants being detained by National Migration Institute agents.

Migrants injured after clashes with National Guard troops in southern Mexico

Agents of the National Institute of Migration (INM) and members of the National Guard follow a migrant caravan in Pijijiapan

The National Migration Institute also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The clashes occurred near to where a Cuban migrant was shot https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexicos-national-guard-kills-cuban-migrant-wounds-four-others-caravan-advances-2021-11-02 dead by the National Guard while four others were wounded by National Guard officers early on Sunday in an area where a caravan of migrants was heading towards the U.S. border.

About 3,000 people set off on foot last month from the Mexican city of Tapachula on the Guatemalan border. Many have rejected visas https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/migrant-caravan-advances-slowly-southern-mexico-some-reject-visas-2021-10-30 offered by Mexico, saying they distrust the authorities.

St. Louis County prosecutor: Evidence Strickland was wrongly convicted ‘overwhelming’


Kevin Strickland
American man convicted of triple homicide


Luke Nozicka
Wed, November 3, 2021

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell agrees with Jackson County prosecutors and other officials that the evidence Kevin Strickland was wrongly convicted “is overwhelming.”

In a statement to The Star, Bell said while his office generally does not comment on pending litigation, Strickland’s case “is different.”

Bell is the latest to join a list of officials, including Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker, federal prosecutors in western Missouri and Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who believe Strickland was wrongly convicted more than 40 years ago.

Prosecutors across the state are keeping tabs on the Strickland case — it is the first playing out under a new law that gives local prosecutors the ability to file motions seeking to free prisoners they have deemed innocent. Strickland’s evidentiary hearing, during which Baker’s office will argue he is innocent before Judge James Welsh, is set to start at 10 a.m. Monday.

In St. Louis County, Bell said his office’s unit that examines innocence claims is reviewing applications from prisoners contending they were wrongly convicted, some decades ago. He said his office would not hesitate to use the new law in the “appropriate case,” noting he supported the exoneration last year of Lawrence Callanan, who was wrongly convicted of murder in 1996.

“These tragic cases should remind all prosecuting attorneys, local, state and federal, that our mandate is to serve justice, not to deliver or defend prosecutions regardless of justice,” Bell said.

In May, Strickland received rare support from Jackson County prosecutors who said he is “factually innocent” in a 1978 triple murder and called for his immediate release. Baker filed a motion seeking to exonerate Strickland, 62, when the new law went into effect in August. Weeks later, Edward “Chip” Robertson, a former Missouri Supreme Court justice, joined Baker’s efforts.

After more than two months of legal sparring, Baker’s office and Strickland’s lawyers will face off in court Monday with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, which contends Strickland is guilty and received a fair trial in 1979.

Post-conviction attorneys interviewed by The Star said they fear the attorney general’s tactics in Strickland’s case — such as filing motions that caused delays — will dissuade other prosecutors, especially those with fewer employees, from utilizing the new law.

The Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office has not calculated the hours it has worked on Strickland’s case. But spokesman Mike Mansur said prosecutors have likely invested more hours into reviewing Strickland’s innocence claim and then trying to exonerate him than their predecessors spent “during the original trial.”

In an investigation published in 2020, The Star reported that, for decades, two men who pleaded guilty in the killings swore Strickland, then 18, was not with them and two other accomplices during the Kansas City murders. A third, uncharged suspect also said Strickland is innocent. The only eyewitness to the shooting later tried to recant her identification of Strickland and wanted him freed.

Ahead of Monday’s hearing, groups plan to gather at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Jackson County courthouse to call for Strickland’s release. The rally was put together, in part, by the National Organization of Exonerees, a group of exonerees based in Michigan.

If prosecutors prevail and Strickland is exonerated, his imprisonment will mark the longest known wrongful conviction in Missouri.

Tigray, other groups form alliance against Ethiopian leader

Ethiopia Tigray CrisisA man stands outside a mobile phone accessory shop in the Piazza old town area of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict. ]

AP Photo

CARA ANNA
Thu, November 4, 2021

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Ethiopia’s Tigray forces are joining with other armed and opposition groups in an alliance against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to seek a political transition after a year of devastating war, organizers say.

The signing in Washington on Friday includes the Tigray forces that have been fighting Ethiopian and allied forces, as well as the Oromo Liberation Army now fighting alongside the Tigray forces and seven other groups from around the country.

The alliance is forming as U.S. special envoy Jeffrey Feltman is in Ethiopia’s capital meeting with senior government officials amid calls for an immediate cease-fire and talks to end the war that has killed thousands of people since November 2020. The U.S. said he met with the deputy prime minister and defense and finance ministers on Thursday.

The new United Front of Ethiopian Federalist Forces seeks to “establish a transitional arrangement in Ethiopia” so the prime minister can go as soon as possible, organizer Yohanees Abraha, who is with the Tigray group, told The Associated Press late Thursday. “The next step will be, of course, to start meeting and communicating with countries, diplomats and international actors in Ethiopia and abroad.”

He said the new alliance is both political and military. It has had no communication with Ethiopia’s government, he added.

People play with a ball in the Piazza old town area of the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021. Urgent new efforts to calm Ethiopia's escalating war are unfolding Thursday as a U.S. special envoy visits and the president of neighboring Kenya calls for an immediate cease-fire while the country marks a year of conflict. (AP Photo)

A spokesman for the Oromo Liberation Army, Odaa Tarbii, confirmed the new alliance. When asked whether it meant to force Abiy out, he replied that it depended on Ethiopia's government and events over the coming weeks. “Of course we prefer if there's a peaceful and orderly transition with Abiy being removed,” he said.

“The goal is to be as inclusive as possible. We know this transition requires all stakeholders,” he added. But as for members of the prime minister's Prosperity Party, “there would have to be a process. Many members would have to go through investigation, possibly be prosecuted” for crimes related to the war.

The spokeswoman for the prime minister, Billene Seyoum, addressed the new alliance Thursday evening when she tweeted that “any outliers that rejected the democratic processes Ethiopia embarked upon cannot be for democratization,” pointing out Abiy’s opening-up of political space after taking office in 2018. His reforms included welcoming some opposition groups home from exile.

The spokeswoman said she had no further comment Friday, and had no information on whether the prime minister would be meeting with the U.S. special envoy.

The OLA spokesman in reply to her tweet noted that some of the people who returned to Ethiopia were later put in prison or under house arrest. “A lot of goodwill was lost over the last three years,” he said.

Other groups signing on Friday include the Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front, Agaw Democratic Movement, Benishangul People’s Liberation Movement, Gambella Peoples Liberation Army, Global Kimant People Right and Justice Movement/ Kimant Democratic Party, Sidama National Liberation Front and Somali State Resistance, according to organizers.

Nine Ethiopian factions to form alliance against government

Bloc includes Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which has been fighting Abiy Ahmed’s forces for a year

Tigray forces in northern Ethiopia. Photograph: AP


Reuters
Fri 5 Nov 2021 

Nine anti-government factions in Ethiopia are to form an alliance on Friday, as pressure mounts on the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, with rebel forces advancing toward the capital.

The new alliance, called the United Front of Ethiopian Federalist and Confederalist Forces, includes the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting Abiy’s government for a year in a war that has killed thousands of people and forced more than 2 million more from their homes.

Two of the groups, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the Agaw Democratic Movement (ADM), confirmed the announcement was genuine.

Several of the groups have armed fighters although it was not clear whether they all do.
Advertisement


Abiy’s spokesperson, Billene Seyoum, asked about the new anti-government alliance, referred to a comment she posted on Twitter in which she defended Abiy’s rule since he took office in 2018 after a wave of anti-government protests. His party was re-elected in June.

“The opening up of the political space three years ago provided ample opportunity for contenders to settle their differences at the ballot box in June 2021,” Seyoum said in the post.

She did not refer directly to the new alliance.

Spokespeople for the government and the foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the alliance.

African and western nations are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ethiopia after Tigrayan forces from the north said they made advances towards the capital this week.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said in a tweet late on Thursday: “The conflict in Ethiopia must come to an end. Peace negotiations should begin immediately without preconditions in pursuit of a ceasefire.”

The spokespeople for the Ethiopian government and the TPLF did not respond to requests for comment on Blinken’s ceasefire call.

US senators on Thursday introduced a new sanctions bill on parties to the conflict in Ethiopia.

“This is a regional crisis that requires a coordinated and intensive international response,” said Senator Jim Risch, a Republican from Idaho.

The announcement of the new alliance comes during a two-day visit to Addis Ababa by US special envoy to the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman.

On Thursday, he met the African Union Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki, as well as the Ethiopian defence minister, finance minister and deputy prime minister, according to the State Department.

It was not clear whether the US envoy would meet Abiy.

The TPLF spokesperson, Getachew Reda, did not respond to comment requests on Friday.

The groups will hold a signing ceremony on Friday in Washington, they said in the announcement.

The front is being formed “to reverse the harmful effects of the Abiy Ahmed rule on the peoples of Ethiopia and beyond,” the groups said. It is also being formed “in recognition of the great need to collaborate and join forces towards a safe transition in the country.”

UK government makes U-turn on corruption rule change as lawmaker quits


FILE PHOTO: Owen Paterson leaves Winfield House during U.S.

 President Donald Trump's state visit in London,

Andrew MacAskill and Michael Holden
Thu, November 4, 2021,

LONDON (Reuters) -British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government made an embarrassing U-turn on Thursday on plans to overhaul the system for combating parliamentary corruption, with the lawmaker whose case had provoked the row quitting his job.

Faced with unhappiness in his party and headlines accusing the prime minister and his Conservative administration of "sleaze", the government said it would think again about proposals it had pushed through parliament only the day before.

Backed by Johnson, Conservative lawmakers narrowly voted to halt a proposed 30-day suspension from parliament of Owen Paterson, a former minister, who had been found guilty by parliament's standards watchdog of repeatedly lobbying for two firms, which paid him nearly three times his annual salary.

Instead, they pushed through a proposal to delay the suspension and set up a new committee to review his case and the wider system of investigating lawmakers.

But with growing outrage from opposition politicians and some within its own party, the government backtracked, and said there would be another vote on the proposed suspension. Paterson then announced he was quitting "the cruel world of politics".

"The last two years have been an indescribable nightmare for my family and me," Paterson, whose wife took her own life last year, said in a statement. "I maintain that I am totally innocent of what I have been accused of."

Johnson said he was "very sad" that Paterson was stepping down as a lawmaker, adding it "must have been a very difficult decision but I can understand why...he has decided to put his family first".

Before the government's volte-face, a number of Conservative politicians had criticised their party's handling of the row, which commentators said reflected badly on the prime minister.

"This is one of the most unedifying episodes I have seen in my 16 years as a Member of Parliament," said Mark Harper, a Conservative lawmaker who rebelled against his party to oppose the plans.

Another Conservative politician, Peter Bone, said his office had been vandalised because he voted in favour of the changes.

'DAMAGING MOMENT'

Earlier, Jonathan Evans, chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and a former head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy service, said blocking the suspension of a lawmaker was "deeply at odds" with the traditions of British democracy.

The vote was "a very serious and damaging moment for parliament," Evans said in speech in London.

Johnson has faced other accusations of wrongdoing recently, including plans to have party donors secretly contribute to a luxury renovation of his Downing Street flat, and the government handing out large contracts for protective medical equipment to those with links to those in power.

The opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer accused the government of corruption and said Johnson was "leading his troops through the sewer".

"Boris Johnson must now apologise to the entire country for this grubby attempt to cover up for the misdemeanour of his friend," Starmer said. "This isn't the first time he's done this but it must be the last."

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London, said allegations of corruption could be deeply damaging, citing the sleaze rows that dogged the last days of John Major's Conservative government in the mid-1990s.

However, Bale said the Conservatives had maintained their lead over the opposition in recent polls despite criticism of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in the cost of living.

"What's happened this week won't do it any favours," he said. "But at the moment, I wouldn't bet too much money on us having reached some kind of tipping point."

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill, Michael Holden, Kylie MacLellan and Alistair Smout; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Giles Elgood)