DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS

Indian farmers end a year of protests after government drops controversial laws
By Simon Druker

Farmers in India on Thursday, ended more than a year of protests over new laws governing the country's farming industry. The laws were introduced in September 2020, but repealed last month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. File Photo Pal Singh/EPA-EFE

Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Indian farmers on Thursday, ended more than a year of protests related to a set of laws introduced last September, meant to overhaul and modernize the country's farming industry.

The decision to stop the protest came after the government also agreed to listen to demands including guaranteed prices for produce and dropping criminal cases against protesting farmers.

The laws gave corporations the ability to control the country's farming industry, with smaller producers worried about being left out of the supply chain. They also did away with the minimum support price (MPP) which was set by the government on certain produce. The loosened restrictions opened the industry to the free market, which farmers had been protected from for years.

Last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew the agriculture laws, during a live, nationally televised announcement.

RELATEDIn surprise move, India PM Narendra Modi pulls unpopular farming laws

The movement eventually became one of the largest political challenges for Modi and his government.

Local protests began shortly after the laws were initially passed. Support quickly gathered to include tens of thousands of farmers in India, with an official movement starting approximately two months later. The movement also garnered international support, with supporters demonstrating in a number of other countries around the world.

Leaders say ending the protests is contingent on the government following through with its promises. Farming unions will meet in January to ensure Modi keeps his word.

"Farmers have decided to suspend this agitation for now, but the movement will not end. The fight for farmers' rights will continue," senior Punjab leader Balbir Singh Rajewal told local media.

DEC 10 UN HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Palestinians freed after hunger strikes have lifelong damage

By JACK JEFFERY

Former Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras, poses for a photo, a year after being released from an Israeli prison following a 103-day hunger strike, at his house in the West Bank village of Silat Al-Dahar, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Palestinian prisoners have long used hunger strikes to pressure Israel to improve the conditions of their detention or to secure their release after being held without charges for months or years under a policy known as administrative detention. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)


SILAT AL-DHAHR, West Bank (AP) — A year after being released from an Israeli prison following a 103-day hunger strike, Maher al-Akhras is barely able to walk. Frequent bouts of dizziness and sensitivity to noise mean he can neither enjoy social occasions nor return to work on his ancestral farm in the occupied West Bank.

Back home, he is seen as a hero of the Palestinian cause, one of a small group of hunger strikers who have secured release from Israeli detention. But the mental and physical damage from the prolonged hunger strike has left him and others like him unable to resume normal lives, and reliant on long-term medical care.

“My balance is gone,” said al-Akhras. “I can’t walk among the cows, I can’t hold them, I can’t milk them.”

Palestinian prisoners have long used hunger strikes to pressure Israel to improve the conditions of their detention or to secure their release after being held without charges for months or years under a policy known as administrative detention.

Israel is currently holding some 4,600 Palestinians, including hardened militants who have carried out deadly attacks, as well as individuals arrested at protests or for throwing stones. Around 450 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention, and in the last two years at least 11 have used prolonged hunger strikes to secure early release.

Israel says administrative detention is needed to prevent attacks or to keep dangerous suspects locked up without sharing evidence that could endanger valuable intelligence sources. Al-Akhras has been tried and convicted twice in military courts for his involvement with the Islamic Jihad militant group, which Israel and Western countries consider a terrorist organization.

Palestinians and rights groups say administrative detention denies prisoners the right to due process, allowing them to be held indefinitely without seeing the evidence against them or even getting a trial in military courts. The 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, even those in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, live under Israeli military rule.

Lengthy hunger strikes draw international attention and stoke protests in the occupied territories, putting pressure on Israel to meet the prisoners’ demands. The death of a hunger striker in custody would likely spark wider unrest and demonstrations among Palestinians.

“Hunger strikes are particularly effective in the case of administrative detainees because this is a detention completely outside of the judicial process,” said Jessica Montell, director of HaMoked, an Israeli human rights group.

As hunger strikers’ health deteriorates, they are transferred to Israeli hospitals under guard. They drink water, and medics encourage them to take vitamins, but many, like al-Akhras, refuse. No Palestinian in Israeli detention has died as a result of hunger strikes, but doctors say prolonged vitamin deficiency can cause permanent brain damage.

“If a person has severe vitamin B deficiency, they can develop chronic neurological problems including vertigo, dizziness, sluggish thinking, and severe memory problems,” said Dr. Bettina Birmanns, a neurologist and the director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, a local rights group. Prolonged periods of starvation will also cause the body to eat away at proteins from the skeleton and heart, she said.

A year after his release from administrative detention, al-Akhras says he has regained all the weight he lost but struggles to read or walk in a straight line.

Ahmed Ghannam, a former car dealer from the southern West Bank, went on a nearly 100-day hunger strike in 2019 to protest against his fourth stint in administrative detention. He had previously been convicted twice for his involvement with the Islamic militant group Hamas. After his release, he was diagnosed with weakened heart muscle and the early stages of type 2 diabetes.

Critics say Israel is careful to ensure that the hunger strikers do not become martyrs, either by giving into their demands once they are incapacitated or by taking emergency measures that can include force-feeding. Force-feeding patients who are mentally sound is widely seen by medical professionals as a violation of patient autonomy akin to torture.

Former Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras, poses for a photo, a year after being released from an Israeli prison following a 103-day hunger strike, at his house in the West Bank village of Silat Al-Dahar, Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2021. Palestinian prisoners have long used hunger strikes to pressure Israel to improve the conditions of their detention or to secure their release after being held without charges for months or years under a policy known as administrative detention. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

During the 1970s and 1980s, several Palestinian hunger strikers died after being force-fed by the Israeli authorities, resulting in the practice being outlawed. However, an Israeli law passed in 2015 over the objections of the medical community allows a judge to sanction force-feeding in some circumstances. It’s unclear if the law has ever been invoked.

Shany Shapiro, the spokeswoman for Israel’s Kaplan hospital, said force-feeding has never been used on any hunger strikers that have been transferred there and that other life-saving treatments are preferred, such as infusions.

“Before any form of intervention is undertaken, there is an ethics committee that takes into account the wants of the prisoner,” she said.

Before reaching that point, former prisoners say agents from Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet, visited their hospital rooms and pressed them to end their strikes. Ghannam and al-Akhras say agents tempted them with food and threatened them with home demolitions or travel restrictions for family members.

The Shin Bet did not respond to a request for comment.

Marathon hunger strikers receive a hero’s welcome back home, where they are seen as icons of resilience in the face of a 54-year occupation with no end in sight. Kayed Fasfous, who led a five-man hunger strike and was released last month, has since done a string of TV interviews.

Al-Akhras also became a local celebrity. “People stop me in the street and ask for pictures,” he said.

But for most hunger strikers, the fame quickly fades while the health consequences linger.

Anani Sarahneh, the spokeswoman for the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which represents former and current prisoners, said it is providing support for around 60 former hunger strikers with various psychological and medical ailments.

Ghannam, who was released in 2019, said he has struggled to find steady employment to support his wife and two young sons, alongside his mounting medical bills.

“I don’t regret my decision, but I regret the other problems it has caused,” he said.

UN HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Four decades after massacre, El Mozote residents still mourn

EL SALVADORS WAR AGAINST FARC

Miriam Nunez lost 15 of her in-laws in the massacre

 (AFP/Marvin RECINOS)

Carlos Mario MARQUEZ

Thu, December 9, 2021

Twenty-nine years ago, as she was preparing the ground to rebuild her family home in El Mozote, El Salvador, Miriam Nunez found the bones of her in-laws scattered all over the property.

They were among the nearly 1,000 people -- half of them children -- massacred ten years earlier by government soldiers who accused the village of aiding leftist guerillas in El Salvador's bloody 1980-1992 civil war.

"I had to collect all the teeth of the little girls, small bones... fingers... and put them in a bag," Nunez told AFP, forty years after the massacre for which no one has yet been held accountable.

The El Mozote massacre, which took place over five days in December 1981, was one of the deadliest in Latin American history.

Nunez, now 63, recalled coming across the bloodied dress of a little girl called Yesenia, then 18 months old, who would have become her sister-in-law, as well as the dentures of her mother-in-law.

In all, Nunez's husband Orlando Marquez lost 15 family members in the mass killing -- the worst episode of El Salvador's internal conflict, which in total left more than 75,000 dead and more than 7,000 people missing.

Three of Marquez's murdered relatives were children.

In 1981, the residents of El Mozote were living a peaceful life in the midst of war, raising beans, corn, sugar cane and cows among green hills. Then the soldiers came (AFP/Marvin RECINOS)

- Children slashed -

In 1981, the residents of El Mozote were living a peaceful life in the midst of war, raising beans, corn, sugar cane and cows among green hills some 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of the capital San Salvador.

Unbeknownst to many, a leftist rebel guerilla group was operating in the area.

Then on December 9, the country's military arrived in the region. Five days of bloodshed followed.

The deadliest day was the 11th, in El Mozote.

Soldiers of the Atlacatl Battalion -- a counter-insurgency command trained by the United States -- burnt homes, raped women and killed all the villagers they could find.

Some children were thrown in the air and slashed with machetes, according to survivor accounts.

At the time, Miriam Nunez lived in Lourdes, near San Salvador, and her husband survived as he was away, studying in the capital.

Another survivor, Maria de la Paz Chicas, who was 11 at the time, was visiting a nearby village with her father.

When they tried to return home, "they (soldiers) would not let us enter. This is what saved us."

Chicas, now 51, lost six brothers and 17 cousins.

- No verdict yet -

In 2012, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights blamed the Salvadoran government for the El Mozote massacre and ordered reparations.

Four years later, the country's Supreme Court ruled that a blanket amnesty for people accused of war crimes during the conflict was unconstitutional.

Charges were brought against soldiers accused of involvement, but no verdicts have yet been passed.

The long-dragging trial suffered another setback this year, when presiding judge Jorge Guzman resigned in solidarity with colleagues who were fired in a controversial judicial reform.

Ovidio Gonzalez, a lawyer for the victims, accuses the government and army of seeking "to delay the process and prevent the conviction of the soldiers responsible."

"Forty years later, we want to tell the Salvadoran state: 'look, enough of continuing to want to cover up this case'," added Leonel Tobar Claros, president of the Association of Victims of El Mozote.

Now 43, he lost two dozen family members as a toddler.

Bullet holes still mark homes in El Mozote, scene of one of Latin America's worst massacres (AFP/Marvin RECINOS)More

- 'Collecting skulls' -

Nunez and her husband returned to El Mozote a decade after the massacre, at the end of the civil war in 1992, to rebuild the family home.

Chicas returned at about the same time, and recalls that the once-happy village had become an overgrown refuge for coyotes.

"When we got there we started collecting skulls, bones.... we kept them," and later gave the body parts to forensic investigators, she said.

Bones were found all over the town.

"My sister, we found in the convent. She was six months pregnant" when she was killed aged 27, next to her four-year-old son, said Chicas.

"She never let go of the boy." He was also killed.

The residents of El Mozote are now trying to build a new life on a foundation of pain.

As part of reparations, the government has paved roads and built a memorial near a cemetery for the victims.

The site includes a mural decorated in mosaic tiles, which Chicas said reminds her of "hearts shattered to pieces."

A monument has been erected in memory of the victims of the 1981 El Mozote massacre 

(AFP/Marvin RECINOS)

cmm/mav/rsr/mlr/caw

DEC 10 UN HUMAN RIGHTS DAY
Sudan youth radio gagged for 6 weeks after coup


Sudanese journalists rally in front of "Hala 96" radio station's headquarters in the capital Khartoum (AFP/Mujahed Sharaf AL-DEEN SATI)

Abdelmoneim Abu Idris Ali
Thu, December 9, 2021, 7:20 PM·2 min read

A lively youth-run radio station, Sudan's 96.0 FM was muzzled for 46 days after authorities banished the channel from the airwaves following an October 25 military coup.

"I felt like a person who had the ability to speak and suddenly stopped.. It's a painful feeling," Khaled Yehia, production manager of "Hala 96", told AFP from the station's headquarters overlooking the Nile in Khartoum.

Sudan, with a long history of military coups, has undergone a fragile journey toward civilian rule since the 2019 ousting of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir following mass street protests.

A joint military-civilian transitional government took over, but the troubled alliance was shattered on October 25 when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a military coup that sparked international condemnation, mass protests and deadly crackdowns.

Despite the release of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok from effective house arrest, several radio broadcasts were silenced.

The information ministry refused to renew the license of Monte Carlo radio's Arabic service, which broadcasts from Paris, while the BBC's Arabic service was banned.

"All of the other radio channels were back on air two weeks after the coup except for Hala 96, BBC and Monte Carlo (RMC)," said Abiy Abdel Halim, Hala's programming manager.

"When we asked the authorities for the reason, we were referred to a military official who said there were orders from above regarding the editorial line of the station," he added.

Hala 96 was finally allowed to go back on the air on Thursday.

- 'Press freedom under siege' -

Founded in 2014 under the heavy-handed rule of Bashir, Hala Radio hit the airwaves with daily programs alternating between politics, culture and sports.

"We started playing patriotic songs that would mobilise crowds," when the demonstrations against Bashir in December 2018 began, Abdel Halim said.

"And we weren't even stopped back then save for one time and only for 24 hours".

Boasting a staff of 35 on-air presenters, journalists, technicians and administrators all under 40, they mirror the demographics of Sudan.

Youth represent about 68 percent of the country's 48 million-strong population.

On Wednesday, dozens of journalists protested in front of the radio channel's headquarters carrying banners with the words "Free Hala 96".

Throughout Bashir's dictatorial reign, Sudan ranked 174 out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index. Following his ousting, it marginally improved to 159.

"What with propaganda, the Internet being disconnected and the crackdown on journalists, this military coup has jeopardised the fragile gains from the revolution," the Paris-based press freedom group said last month.

It described Sudan as a "very hostile environment" for media to operate.

Last week in a report submitted to the Security Council, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Sudanese authorities to "respect freedom of speech and of the press".

ab/ff/hc/jfx

Federal privacy watchdog warns of growing dangers of 'surveillance capitalism'

Thu., December 9, 2021


OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog is warning Canadians about the growing threat of surveillance capitalism — the use of personal information by large corporations.

In his annual report tabled today, privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien says state surveillance has been reined in somewhat in recent years.

Meanwhile, he says, personal data has emerged as a highly valuable asset and no one has leveraged it better than the tech giants behind web searches and social media accounts.

Therrien says the risks of surveillance capitalism were on full display in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, now the subject of proceedings in Federal Court because his office did not have the power to order Facebook to comply with its recommendations.

In addition, the law did not allow Therrien to levy financial penalties to dissuade this kind of corporate behaviour.

Therrien, in his last year as privacy commissioner, is encouraging the federal government to make several improvements to planned legislation on private-sector data-handling practices when it is reintroduced in coming weeks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Saudi FEMINIST activist sues 3 former U.S. officials over hacking
By ALAN SUDERMAN

This Nov. 30, 2014, file photo made from video released by Loujain al-Hathloul, shows her driving towards the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia border before her arrest on Dec. 1, 2014, in Saudi Arabia. Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi political activist who pushed to end a ban on women driving in her country, is suing three former U.S. intelligence and military officials she says helped hack her cellphone so a foreign government could spy on her before she was imprisoned and tortured.

AP Photo/Loujain al-Hathloul

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent Saudi political activist who pushed to end a ban on women driving in her country, is suing three former U.S. intelligence and military officials she says helped hack her cellphone so a foreign government could spy on her before she was imprisoned and tortured.

The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation announced Thursday that it had filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court on al-Hathloul’s behalf against former U.S. officials Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke, as well as a cybersecurity company called DarkMatter that has contracted with the United Arab Emirates.

In the lawsuit, al-Hathloul alleges that the trio oversaw a project for DarkMatter that hacked into her iPhone to track her location and steal information as part of broader surveillance efforts targeted at dissidents within the UAE and its close ally Saudi Arabia. She said the hacking of her phone led to her “arbitrary arrest by the UAE’s security services and rendition to Saudi Arabia, where she was detained, imprisoned, and tortured.”

“Companies that peddle their surveillance software and services to oppressive governments must be held accountable for the resulting human rights abuses,” said EFF Civil Liberties Director David Greene.

DarkMatter assigned her the codename of “Purple Sword,” the lawsuit says, citing a 2019 investigation by Reuters that first detailed the hacking of al-Hathloul.

The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to the secretive private cyber-surveillance industry, which often sells pricey hacking services to authoritarian governments that are used to secretly break into phones and other devices of activists, journalists, political opponents and others. Tech giant Apple filed a lawsuit last month against Israel’s NSO Group seeking to block the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into Apple’s products, like the iPhone.

Baier, Adams and Gericke admitted in September to providing sophisticated computer hacking technology to the UAE and agreed to pay nearly $1.7 million to resolve criminal charges in a deferred prosecution agreement the Justice Department described as the first of its kind. The Justice Department described each of them as former U.S. intelligence or military personnel. Baier previously worked at the National Security Agency, the AP previously reported.

The trio are part of a trend of U.S. officials with backgrounds in spying and hacking going to work for foreign governments with questionable human rights records, which has led to calls in Congress for greater oversight.

Attorneys for Baier, Adams and Gericke did not immediately return requests for comment. Questions sent by email to officials at Abu Dhabi-based DarkMatter could not be delivered.

Arrested in 2018, al-Hathloul was sentenced to almost six years in prison last year under a broad counterterrorism law. Held for 1001 days, with time in pre-trial detention and solitary confinement, she was accused of crimes such as agitating for change, using the internet to cause disorder and pursuing a foreign agenda.

From behind bars, al-Hathloul went on hunger strikes to protest her prison conditions and joined other female activists in testifying to judges that she was tortured and sexually assaulted by masked men during interrogations. The women reported that they were caned, electrocuted and waterboarded. Some said they were groped and threatened with rape. Saudi Arabia denies that any were mistreated.

Her case sparked an an international uproar over the Saudi kingdom’s human rights record and President Joe Biden called her a “powerful activist for women’s rights” when she was released in February.

Since details of DarkMatter’s hacking campaign have become public, the company’s profile has dropped over the last few years, with some staff moving on to a new Abu Dhabi-based firm called G42. That firm has been linked to a mobile app suspected of being a spying tool as well as to Chinese coronavirus tests that American officials warned against using over concerns about patient privacy, test accuracy and Chinese government involvement.

DEC 10 UN HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

Tunisia: LGBT activist’s assault seen as a pattern by police

By FRANCESCA EBEL


1 of 3

Tunisian prominent LGBTQ activist Badr Baabou holds a photograph of himself after he was beaten, during an interview with The Associated Press in Tunis, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Police violence is among a myriad of challenges facing LGBTQ individuals in Tunisia. Observers say that the recent assault of the high-profile LGBTQ activist is an indication that law enforcement are becoming more brazen in their targeting of LGBTQ individuals. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)


TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — A prominent LGBTQ activist in Tunisia has reported that two men, one dressed in police uniform, threw him to the ground, beat and kicked him during an assault they said was punishment for his “insulting” attempts to file complaints against officers for previous mistreatment.

“This was not the first time that I had been attacked by a policeman, but I was really surprised. The attack was horrifying,” Badr Baabou, president of the Tunisian Association for Justice and Equality, or Damj, said. “They aimed for my head... at a moment they stood on my neck. This was very symbolic for me, as if they wanted to reduce me to silence.”

The Oct. 21 attack in Tunisia’s capital left Baabou with welts and bruises on his face and body. He said that neck trauma caused difficulty breathing, and that his assailants took his laptop, phone and wallet. Police have not publicly commented on Baabou’s account, although his lawyer says an internal police investigation is underway.

Police violence is among the myriad challenges that LGBTQ people experience in Tunisia. Observers say officers who can dispense beatings with impunity are becoming increasingly brazen. Homosexual activity in the North African country remains a criminal offense punishable by up to three years in prison.

Sexual relations involving individuals of the same sex also are illegal in most Middle-East-North Africa region, although public attitudes toward LGBTQ rights vary according to each country’s socio-economic context and religious doctrines.

A 2019 study by the Arab Barometer showed that acceptance of homosexuality is low or extremely low across the region. In Algeria, the 26% of respondents who said being gay was acceptable represented the highest share in the region.

Although there are signs that attitudes towards Tunisia’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people are improving, activists say police grew emboldened following antigovernment protests this year as the country’s economy flailed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Interior Ministry and the leading police union did not respond to requests for comment on activists’ charges.

Baabou is a veteran activist who founded his first LGBTQ rights group in 2002, when autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali still ruled Tunisia. In March, he reported that four men beat him up as he left a bar. In 2016, some civilians beat him so badly he lost seven teeth.

But observers say the October assault in the center of Tunis indicates that members of law enforcement are becoming more explicit in targeting LGBTQ individuals. Baabou’s reported abuse also highlights a pattern of officers independently seeking revenge for efforts by LGBTQ activists to bring misconduct cases against police who harassed or assaulted them, they say.

“Usually the police are technicians of torture or abuse. They don’t leave fractures or bruises,” Baabou’s lawyer, Hammadi Henchiri, said. But in the beating Baabou received and two similar cases Henchiri has worked on recent months, “I have noticed an unusual severity,” the lawyer said.

After the 2011 revolution that deposed Ben Ali, tens of thousands of officers took advantage of new-found freedoms to unionize. But rights groups say Tunisia’s now-powerful police unions enable misconduct while the government turns a blind eye to brutality.

“Policemen think that LGBTQ people are weak people, that they can’t stand up for their rights” Baabou said during an interview with The Associated Press. “They don’t think that we are normal civilians.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Rasha Younes says that while police attacks have been ongoing, recent attacks show that they are becoming more “public” and “unabashed” in their mistreatment of LGBT Tunisians. A “climate of criminalization” has also emboldened police, she says.

“Officers feel empowered to enact whatever form of violence they want, knowing that they will get away with it because the law is on their side,” she said.

Despite democratic gains since the Tunisian revolution, the country remains socially conservative and there is little political will to push for decriminalizing homosexuality.


Tunisian prominent LGBTQ activist Badr Baabou talks to The Associated Press during an interview in Tunis, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021. Police violence is among a myriad of challenges facing LGBTQ individuals in Tunisia. Observers say that the recent assault of the high-profile LGBTQ activist is an indication that law enforcement are becoming more brazen in their targeting of LGBTQ individuals. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi)

LGBTQ Tunisians are subject to stigma and abuse in many facets of life. Many are ostracized by their families, face unemployment and experience homelessness. Police can still carry out anal examinations on people suspected of sodomy.

Transgender people are not recognized at an administrative or medical level, meaning they are unable to access gender-affirming procedures or to legally change their names, leaving them vulnerable to harassment or violence.

“Existing as an LGBT person in Tunisia is a daily struggle,” Baabou said. “LGBT people do not have space within the law so they cannot find their space in society. They are on the margins.”

Damj has noted an increase in the persecution of LGBT people during the coronavirus pandemic. The organization provided legal assistance to LGBT individuals at police stations in 116 cases and responded to 195 legal consultation requests. The combined number is five times higher than in previous years, according to the group.

Observers point to the weeks of antigovernment protests this year as a turning point. Facebook pages linked to police unions began posting photos of LGBTQ activists at the protests, often captured using drones that flew over the crowds, and in some cases forcibly outing individuals to the public.

LGBTQ activist Rania Amdouni said her visibility at the protests led to a campaign of vicious online harassment linked to the union’s activities. Some officers harrassed her when she was on her way to a police state to file a complaint, and Amdouni wound up arrested for allegedly assaulting one of them, she said. Activists say that is a common tactic used by police officers to justify extralegal arrests.

Amdouni received a six-month prison sentence. After nongovernmental associations and lawyers intervened, she was released after 19 days and later given asylum in France, where she now resides.

“Why did the police arrest me? Because I was among the main organizers of the protest, because I was very visible, because I openly declare that I’m a lesbian, that I’m a feminist, that I’m queer,” she said.

As Tunisia has sunk more deeply into a political and economic crisis, with President Kais Saied taking on sweeping powers in July that threatened the country’s democracy, it has become more difficult for activists to keep LGBT rights on the agenda.

While Baabou thinks that the decriminalization of homosexuality is unlikely any time soon, he is more optimistic about “middle term” prospects. He points to shifting language around LGBT rights in Tunisia and the movement receiving support from other civil rights groups.

“Now, we can put pressure and we can free people (from jail). In the past, this wasn’t possible at all,” he said.

His lawyer says the criminal investigation into the October attack against Baabou has made little progress so far, although police launched an internal affairs investigation to identify the two assailants.

“This is a first,” Henchiri said. “Perhaps this time around, we will get justice.”

ABOUT TIME

Pandemic mystery: Scientists focus on COVID’s animal origins

By LAURA UNGAR

1 of 7

FILE - Members of a World Health Organization team are seen through a window wearing protective gear during a field visit to the Hubei Animal Disease Control and Prevention Center for another day of field visit in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, on Feb. 2, 2021. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery.

Most scientists believe it emerged in the wild and jumped from bats to humans, either directly or through another animal. Others theorize it escaped from a Chinese lab.

Now, with the global COVID-19 death toll surpassing 5.2 million on the second anniversary of the earliest human cases, a growing chorus of scientists is trying to keep the focus on what they regard as the more plausible “zoonotic,” or animal-to-human, theory, in the hope that what’s learned will help humankind fend off new viruses and variants.

“The lab-leak scenario gets a lot of attention, you know, on places like Twitter,” but “there’s no evidence that this virus was in a lab,” said University of Utah scientist Stephen Goldstein, who with 20 others wrote an article in the journal Cell in August laying out evidence for animal origin.

Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who contributed to the article, had signed a letter with other scientists last spring saying both theories were viable. Since then, he said, his own and others’ research has made him even more confident than he had been about the animal hypothesis, which is “just way more supported by the data.”

Last month, Worobey published a COVID-19 timeline linking the first known human case to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, where live animals were sold.

“The lab leak idea is almost certainly a huge distraction that’s taking focus away from what actually happened,” he said.

Others aren’t so sure. Over the summer, a review ordered by President Joe Biden showed that four U.S. intelligence agencies believed with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human, and one agency believed with moderate confidence that the first infection was linked to a lab.

Some supporters of the lab-leak hypothesis have theorized that researchers were accidentally exposed because of inadequate safety practices while working with samples from the wild, or perhaps after creating the virus in the laboratory. U.S. intelligence officials have rejected suspicions China developed the virus as a bioweapon.

The continuing search for answers has inflamed tensions between the U.S. and China, which has accused the U.S. of making it the scapegoat for the disaster. Some experts fear the pandemic’s origins may never be known.

FROM BATS TO PEOPLE

Scientists said in the Cell paper that SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is the ninth documented coronavirus to infect humans. All previous ones originated in animals.

That includes the virus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic, which also has been associated with markets selling live animals in China.

Many researchers believe wild animals were intermediate hosts for SARS-CoV-2, meaning they were infected with a bat coronavirus that then evolved. Scientists have been looking for the exact bat coronavirus involved, and in September identified three viruses in bats in Laos more similar to SARS-CoV-2 than any known viruses.

Worobey suspects raccoon dogs were the intermediate host. The fox-like mammals are susceptible to coronaviruses and were being sold live at the Huanan market, he said.

“The gold-standard piece of evidence for an animal origin” would be an infected animal from there, Goldstein said. “But as far as we know, the market was cleared out.”

Earlier this year, a joint report by the World Health Organization and China called the transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal the most likely scenario and a lab leak “extremely unlikely.”

But that report also sowed doubt by pegging the first known COVID-19 case as an accountant who had no connection to the Huanan market and first showed symptoms on Dec. 8, 2019. Worobey said proponents of the lab-leak theory point to that case in claiming the virus escaped from a Wuhan Institute of Virology facility near where the man lived.

According to Worobey’s research, however, the man said in an interview that his Dec. 8 illness was actually a dental problem, and his COVID-19 symptoms began on Dec. 16, a date confirmed in hospital records.

Worobey’s analysis identifies an earlier case: a vendor in the Huanan market who came down with COVID-19 on Dec. 11.

ANIMAL THREATS

Experts worry the same sort of animal-to-human transmission of viruses could spark new pandemics — and worsen this one.

Since COVID-19 emerged, many types of animals have gotten infected, including pet cats, dogs and ferrets; zoo animals such as big cats, otters and non-human primates; farm-raised mink; and white-tailed deer.

Most got the virus from people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says that humans can spread it to animals during close contact but that the risk of animals transmitting it to people is low.

Another fear, however, is that animals could unleash new viral variants. Some wonder if the omicron variant began this way.

“Around the world, we might have animals potentially incubating these variants even if we get (COVID-19) under control in humans,” said David O’Connor, a virology expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “We’re probably not going to do a big giraffe immunization program any time soon.”

Worobey said he has been looking for genetic fingerprints that might indicate whether omicron was created when the virus jumped from humans to an animal, mutated, and then leaped back to people.

Experts say preventing zoonotic disease will require not only cracking down on illegal wildlife sales but making progress on big global problems that increase risky human-animal contact, such as habitat destruction and climate change.

Failing to fully investigate the animal origin of the virus, scientists said in the Cell paper, “would leave the world vulnerable to future pandemics arising from the same human activities that have repeatedly put us on a collision course with novel viruses.”

‘TOXIC’ POLITICS

But further investigation is stymied by superpower politics. Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University said there has been a “bare-knuckles fight” between China and the United States.

“The politics around the origins investigation has literally poisoned the well of global cooperation,” said Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “The politics have literally been toxic.”

An AP investigation last year found that the Chinese government was strictly controlling all research into COVID-19′s origins and promoting fringe theories that the virus could have come from outside the country.

“This is a country that’s by instinct very closed, and it was never going to allow unfettered access by foreigners into its territory,” Gostin said.

Still, Gostin said there’s one positive development that has come out of the investigation.

WHO has formed an advisory group to look into the pandemic’s origins. And Gostin said that while he doubts the panel will solve the mystery, “they will have a group of highly qualified scientists ready to be deployed in an instant in the next pandemic.”

 A resident wearing a mask against the coronavirus walks through reed fields and the cityscape along the Yangtze River in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on April 16, 2020. Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the origin of the virus tormenting the world remains shrouded in mystery. 

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Covid lifts Dutch 'coffeeshop' trade to new highs

PUBLISHED : 10 DEC 2021 

Different varieties of cannabis in plastic containers in a Coffee Shop in The Hague. (Photo: AFP)

THE HAGUE: At the No Limit Coffeeshop the customers stream in and out endlessly, as the cannabis trade booms despite Covid restrictions.

Whether it is to calm their anxiety or ease the boredom of the past two years, many buyers say their consumption has increased during the pandemic.

"Covid has been good for us," smiles Carmelita, the boss of No Limit who asked for her full name not to be published. Before coronavirus, the shop had 300 to 350 customers a day, she says. Now it is 500.

"The only profession which is happy with Covid is coffeeshops," she tells AFP.

When the Netherlands first locked down in March 2020 there were scenes of "weed panic", with long queues outside coffeeshops, the Dutch term for cannabis cafes. But while access to bars, restaurants and nightclubs has been sharply limited, coffeeshops have been able to stay open, mostly for takeaway.

Since 1976, the Netherlands has tolerated the smoking of cannabis and hashish, weed and other products which can be bought at coffeeshops. The Hague, the seat of the Dutch government, has around 30.

"Before, they were going to the disco. But now everything is closed, so now they stay home, where they smoke more," says Carmelita, adding that her clientele includes "many housewives, who buy weed to sleep well."

"There's nothing to do in town, so you just smoke joints" with friends, says Sophia Dokter, 18, who used to smoke two or three times a week, but now says it's six or seven times.

- Confronting anxiety -

A survey by Trimbos, a research institute on mental health and addictions, found that 90 percent of Dutch cannabis users were smoking as much or more since the start of the pandemic. Three-quarters were smoking every day.

"So it is not about people wanting to get high, to escape. It is more a way to cope with the everyday anxiety," says Stephen Snelders, a historian of drug use. Similar changes in the use of tobacco and opium were seen in historic plague outbreaks in the Netherlands, he said.

During the stress of a pandemic, "a little brain holiday is always nice," agrees Gerard Smit, who runs the Cremers coffeeshop in The Hague. "There's nothing wrong with having one (a joint) while you watch Netflix."

However, Covid restrictions have emptied many of the coffeeshops' famed, fume-filled smoking rooms.

"We like each other, but we don't give each other joints anymore," says Smit. Takeaway sales are booming though. Trade is busy at Waterworld, another coffeeshop in the city. Different types of weed with evocative names like "fruti punch", "gelato" or "amnesia haze" are on display in large plastic containers.

"Careful, only three people at a time inside!" says Mesut Erdogan, a cashier. A sign on the door says that "To stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the smoking area is closed until further notice."

- Illegal except for taxes-

"Nobody is coming inside any more" to smoke, says boss Abdoel Sanhaji, who is also president of the Alliance of The Hague Coffeeshops. He says he respects the coronavirus rules, but is hoping for a change in the law when the pandemic is over.

In a somewhat stoner-esque paradox, the consumption and sale of cannabis have been decriminalised in the Netherlands, but the rest of the supply chain remains illegal. The weed -- which the coffeeshops sell by the kilo every day, and for which they pay tax to the Dutch treasury -- is effectively still forbidden in the Netherlands, as is its cultivation.

"We are illegal for nearly everything, except for paying taxes," jokes Carmelita. The Netherlands is, however, due to start an experiment in 10 towns where coffeeshops will sell cannabis that is legally produced in the country. The results will be known in four years. "Covid will have no impact on our drug policies," says John?Peter Kools of the Trimbos institute. "Even Covid, with its 18 months of life, is nothing compared to 30 years of a heated debate."

ANY EXCUSE WILL DO
Saskatchewan privatizing some surgeries to reduce growing backlog from COVID-19


Thu., December 9, 2021



REGINA — Saskatchewan announced a plan Thursday to reduce its backlog of surgeries by privatizing certain procedures.

Health Minister Paul Merriman said the goal is to eliminate the backlog by achieving a three-month wait time by 2030.

There are 35,000 people currently waiting for surgery in Saskatchewan, as COVID-19 has been overwhelming the health-care system.

"We have a big hill to climb," Merriman said.

He said expanding privatized surgeries will give the Saskatchewan Health Authority additional capacity to perform more complex surgeries.

The government said it is still determining which procedures will be privatized. Those surgeries will be publicly funded, but the cost is still unknown. More information is to be provided when the province's budget is released in the spring.

"We're just working through this process right now, working with the SHA to get some capacity and some dollar amounts, but also the private industry to find that out," Merriman said. He added that some procedures, such as cataract surgery, are already publicly funded and privately delivered.

Once the backlog is reduced, he said the government will assess whether to continue with the plan.

The province has set a target to perform 18,000 additional surgeries over pre-pandemic levels by 2024-25.

To meet the demand, the government is looking to recruit international health-care workers and students from Saskatchewan Polytechnic, as well as asking casual and part-time health authority employees to work full time.

The province said it has issued a request for information to test the market for additional third-party surgical providers for day procedures, overnight in-patient surgeries and post-operative care including therapies and home care.

Premier Scott Moe said it's too early to determine if the private health-care providers will be for-profit.

"We'll see what comes in on the request for interests and then we'll make some decisions on that point. What we've seen in the past is a mix of offerings," said Moe.

The Saskatchewan Party government introduced a similar initiative in 2010 to help reduce surgical wait times when there was a backlog of 27,500 patients.

"Did it work? Yes it did. So we have to look at that kind of investment again," Moe said.

As part of the previous four-year program, people on the waiting list were allowed to choose either a public or private provider for select surgeries. The goal was that no patient would wait more than three months.

A final report on the initiative said it helped 11,528 patients get off the waiting list within the three-month period.

NDP Opposition Leader Ryan Meili said he worries the privatization plan will lead to people having to show their credit card along with their health card.

"That approach will make wait times worse in the public system, and inequities in the public system that exist worse," Meili said Thursday.

"I see this government increase the amount of privatization of key services. I want to see us build up public health care."

Moe said his government is focused on investing in public health care by increasing intensive care beds to 90 from 79 by June, which would free up more beds for surgeries.

"We're utilizing all the tools available, and all the tools that are necessary to reduce the wait times," said Moe.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2021.

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press