Monday, April 11, 2022

Convoy protesters talked a lot about freedom. But here’s the real threat to Canadians being free

For many, economic and social circumstances restrict them from living truly free lives.


By Kofi Hope
Contributing Columnist
TOR STAR
Sun., April 10, 2022

Let’s talk about freedom

Freedom has been in the public conversation a lot these days. Especially issues of freedom of speech and in the convoy movement. It’s no accident those occupations and blockades grounded their protest in appeals to freedom. Early into the pandemic, anti-vaccination activists found that theories about nano-chips and side effects hidden by evil governments, were not mainstream ideas.

But arguing the choice to resist vaccination was a human rights issue, an issue of human freedom — that had a lot more traction. Because human rights and freedom — thank God — are mainstream ideas in Canada.

Freedom is also a trending topic due to the very real struggle for freedom going on in Ukraine. As many have noted, the war in Ukraine helps crystallize the difference between a government that clumsily has tried to protect us from a generational crisis with some limits on civil liberties, and the reality of facing down an actual dictator.

Canada, despite what the detractors say, remains a place with an extremely high level of political and civil freedom. But a disturbingly large amount of Canada thinks otherwise. A recent Nanos polls showed 8.3 per cent of respondents believed threats to our freedoms are the nation’s biggest issue, the second-largest issue in the poll.

Now I want to be clear: I may not share the concerns some have about us losing our freedom of speech or individual liberties due to COVID-19 controls. But I think it’s a totally legitimate opinion for someone to have. And despite evidence to the contrary, I believe it’s still essential in 2022 for people with different ideas to engage in open discussion and mutual learning. Especially about an idea like freedom.

But the problem is our public discourse is dominated by a singular, limited view of freedom. Focused on our individual civil rights such as: the right to vote or freedom of religion. Rights regarding an individual’s ability to receive fair and equal treatment under the law, and not have government or others restrict their ability to make their own decisions.

But a free society is about everyone having a real ability to make their own life choices. Freedoms that only exist on paper, that you can’t use, are dead in the water. It’s like a having a car but no gas. And for many, economic and social circumstances restrict them from living truly free lives.

Which means freedom includes making a living wage, so you can spend time with your kids every day, not be forced to hustle between survival jobs. Freedom is being able to afford housing, without having to sacrifice groceries to make rent. Or being able to access the therapy you need to escape the cage of depression and anxiety.

Don’t consider this part of freedom? Well, let’s look at history. Immediately after Americans achieved a degree of equality under the law with the Civil Rights Act in 1964, civil rights leaders shifted their focus to amplifying work around fighting poverty. They knew Black Americans would never be truly free without economic freedom.

A few years later in 1966 the United Nations drafted a covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, outlining the other rights needed to have a free society, like the right to health care, labour rights and a basic standard of living.

And in Canada in 1964 Emmett Hall drafted a report that laid the foundations for Medicare in Canada, arguing that universal public health care including dental, pharma, mental-health and home care were critical components to a free society.

Freedom is more than just an ability to say whatever you want on social media or give government the finger if they ask you to do something you’re uncomfortable with.

But the political left has let populists and libertarians define our debates on freedom recently. And in truth within the Western tradition there has always been more consensus around a limited definition of freedom, focused on individual civil liberties.

Yet if we step back from our current context, it’s possible to imagine other ways to organize and achieve a free society.

David Graeber and David Wengrow in their landmark publication “The Dawn of Everything,” write in depth about the role Indigenous peoples of Eastern Canada had in shaping European ideas on freedom during the Enlightenment. Their intriguing (and controversial) theories argue that accounts of Jesuits debating Indigenous intellectuals during the 1700s set off formative debates in the salons and cultural institutions across continental Europe.

They argue that these Indigenous thinkers looked on in horror at Europe, where life seemed incredibly oppressive. People in their societies worked less, were healthier, had higher degrees of women’s rights, leaders who ruled by consent — and there was almost no ability for someone to use economic/political power to force a person to do something they didn’t want to do.

But as Graeber and Wengrow write, these freedoms could only exist because Indigenous people built a society based on mutual aid and economic sharing. People had freedom to chose how they would live their lives because food, land and shelter were shared by default. No one could be forced to work from fear of starving and leaders had to rely on competence to get people to follow them.

Obviously, our current society is different from pre-colonial peoples like the Huron-Wendat. But if we drop the cultural superiority, we can recognize we are not the first “free” people to walk these lands. Indigenous societies are just one example of the different ways human beings have linked civil and economic rights to build a free society.

So let’s talk about freedom. On the left we need to hear people’s concerns on freedom of speech and individual autonomy. And on the right, there must be openness to talk about how true freedom is contingent on everyone having the basics needed to make a real go at life.


We can wave our flags and fight for our causes but let’s also step up to the moment and have real dialogue about what freedom truly means.


Kofi Hope is a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. He is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @kofi_hopeSHARE:
B.C. film, television workers one step closer to striking
A film is produced in British Columbia. (CTV)


Lisa Steacy
CTVNewsVancouver.ca Reporter
Updated April 9, 2022

A union representing workers in B.C.’s film and television industry has voted in favour of a strike mandate, the latest development in a year-long negotiation.

The Directors Guild of Canada, B.C. District Council (DGC BC) says 92.2 per cent of members supported the move, among the 86.2 per cent who cast a ballot. The union represents creative and logistical staff including directors, editors, location managers, production assistants, and others. It is the first time the union has called a strike vote.

“We thank our members for the solidarity that they have shown with this overwhelming mandate. Their strength and resolve make it clear that respect, fairness and safety in the workplace are non-negotiable,” said Allan Harmon, District Council Chairman, in a statement issued Friday.



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The sticking points, according to the union, include retroactive pay increases, payment for COVID testing, and wages for those in entry-level or lower-paid positions. In addition, the union says with B.C.’s minimum wage increasing to $15.65 an hour in June, some experienced members will be making the provincial minimum despite industry experience.

The guild is negotiating with the Producer members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Canadian Media Producers Association – BC Producers Branch (CMPA – BC). In a joint statement issued on the eve of the strike vote, they said the two sides were on the brink of an agreement before the guild made additional demands, “and the opportunity for settlement evaporated.”

Further, the organizations alluded to the potential for job action to have a chilling effect on the industry.

“The DGC BC’s strike authorization vote sends a message of labour uncertainty in the province and seriously jeopardizes British Columbia’s reputation as an attractive location for motion picture production,” they said.

“Considering the potential for labour instability in British Columbia, companies represented by the AMPTP and CMPA may be forced to re-evaluate their plans for basing new productions in the province.”

The union says it has not seen any evidence of productions opting out of coming to B.C. It also points to “safe harbour agreements” for productions already in place, protecting productions already underway from shutting down in the event of job action.

A list of TV productions the guild’s members are currently working on includes Riverdale, Superman and Lois, The Flash, and Charmed.

A strike mandate does not mean workers can walk off the job immediately, 72 hours notice is still required.


The Directors Guild of Canada, B.C. District Council (DGC BC) has voted 

overwhelmingly in favour of strike action. (Black Press Media file photo)

B.C. film workers union overwhelmingly in favour of strike vote

Directors Guild of Canada, B.C. District Council members voted 92.2% in favour of a strike


Members of the Directors Guild of Canada, B.C. District Council (DGC BC), which represents thousands of workers in B.C.’s film industry has voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action.

The vote held by DGC BC resulted in 92.2 per cent voting in favour with 86.2 per cent of the 1,700 members casting a ballot. This is the first time in the history of the union that a strike vote has been held.

“We thank our members for the solidarity they have shown with this overwhelming mandate. Their strength and resolve make it clear that respect, fairness and safety in the workplace are non-negotiable,” says Allan Harmon, District Council Chairman, DGC BC. “We are fighting to achieve and maintain fundamental rights for everyone working under our collective agreement.”

DGC BC has been engaged in negotiations for a year with the bargaining representatives of producers, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Canadian Media Producers Association. None of the parties have been able to strike a deal.

The major sticking points are around minimum wage differentials, payment terms for COVID testing and retroactivity of wages to the expiry of last contract in March 2021.

DGC BC said they applied for mediation with the Labour Relations Board in May 2021 and the mediator issued recommendations for settlement on August 6. However, the negotiating producers rejected the deal and sought new concessions from DGC BC.

“Their most recent offer contains clawbacks not only from the Mediator’s recommendations, but also from their own November 2021 offer,” DGC BC said in a statement.

The negotiating producers deny the union’s claims. Instead, in a press release issued on April 6, they accused DGC BC of making unreasonable demands when the parties were on the brink of an agreement.

“After being so close to reaching an agreement, the DGC BC then made additional demands and the opportunity for settlement evaporated. Now, the Guild is asking its members to authorize the calling of a strike, based on demands that were not part of the mediator’s recommendations,” the statement reads.

They add that the strike vote will send the wrong message about the viability of film in B.C.

“The DGC BC’s strike authorization vote sends a message of labour uncertainty in the province and seriously jeopardizes British Columbia’s reputation as an attractive location for motion picture production. Considering the potential for labour instability in British Columbia, companies represented by the AMPTP and CMPA may be forced to re-evaluate their plans for basing new productions in the province.”

Though the DGC BC has voted in favour of strike action it does not mean that a strike is imminent. Any job action requires a 72-hour strike notice. The union hopes to use the vote as leverage to get a more acceptable deal from the negotiating producers.

READ MORE: B.C. could be the main star in films – but we can play any role

READ MORE: Superman TV series strengthened B.C. economy by $95M, says movie association

Directors Guild Of Canada B.C. Members Vote Overwhelmingly To Authorize Strike Against Film & TV Production


By David Robb
Labor Editor

DGC BC


UPDATED with DGA statement: Members of the Directors Guild of Canada British Columbia have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against film and TV productions in the province. The vote on the union’s first-ever strike mandate was 92.2% in favor, with 86.2% of eligible voters casting ballots.

“We thank our members for the solidarity they have shown with this overwhelming mandate,” said Allan Harmon, DGC BC’s district council chairman. “Their strength and resolve make it clear that respect, fairness and safety in the workplace are non-negotiable. We are fighting to achieve and maintain fundamental rights for everyone working under our collective agreement.”

Prior to the balloting, the guild told its members that a “yes” vote “does not mean we walk off the job the next day. Instead, it gives your negotiating team a strong mandate in its efforts to negotiate a fair deal and empowers us to take job action if the negotiating producers refuse to respond to your legitimate concerns.”

“Our goal is to reach a fair agreement,” said Kendrie Upton, DGC BC’s executive director. “We all care about this industry, so let’s roll up our sleeves, get back to the table and find a solution. That is the best way to ensure long-term labor stability.”

The Directors Guild of America, meanwhile, has expressed its support for the DGC BC, saying in a statement today that it “stands in solidarity with our DGC brothers and sisters in British Columbia. The issues of respect, fair compensation and safety they are fighting for are important to all workers. We urge the AMPTP and the CMPA to return to the bargaining table and make a fair deal addressing these critical issues.”

The guild’s current contract was set to expire on March 31, 2021, but has been extended for more than a year in the hopes that a fair deal could be reached. Labor and management are expected to return to the bargaining table in the coming days, even though the guild has already declared an “impasse” in the talks after mediation failed. In the U.S., the declaration of a bargaining “impasse” often precedes a strike – especially after mediation fails, as it did in the runup to the authorization vote.

A strike, if it comes to that, would be the first in the DGC BC’s history. According to Creative BC, the British Columbia film commission, more than 30 projects are currently filming there, including such films as Parallel Forest and Pinky; TV series The Flash, The Good Doctor, Charmed, Snowpiercer, Riverdale, Superman & Lois, A Million Little Things and The Nanny; and miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher and Shogun.

A strike, however, would not stop filming elsewhere in Canada. In Toronto, which is also a major filming destination, directors and their crews are represented by a different DGC district council, which has its own separate contracts and is not threatening a work-stoppage.

DGC BC says it’s “fighting for respect, fairness and safety for those working under its collective agreement, especially the people in the lowest paid and most vulnerable positions, which includes those from diverse and underrepresented groups in the industry.” It also says it’s fighting against “clawbacks” – rollbacks to existing terms in its contract. Other key issues, it says, are minimum wage differentials; payment terms for Covid testing, and retroactivity of wage increases. “We cannot recommend a deal that includes significant concessions and does not address the DGC BC’s key objectives of respect, fairness and safety,” the guild said before the vote.

The 1,700-member guild represents not only directors but also second unit directors, production and unit managers, and those employed in the various assistant director and locations departments, as well as entry-level production assistants. Acceptable terms for the entry-level assistants have been a major sticking point in the talks
.

The AMPTP and the Canadian Media Producers Association, with whom the guild has been bargaining, on and off, for over a year, warned on Wednesday that labor instability in the region could force producers to think twice about filming there. “The DGC BC’s strike authorization vote sends a message of labour uncertainty in the province and seriously jeopardizes British Columbia’s reputation as an attractive location for motion picture production. Considering the potential for labor instability in British Columbia, companies represented by the AMPTP and CMPA may be forced to re-evaluate their plans for basing new productions in the province.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, which represents the major U.S. companies, and the CMPA, a trade association for independent producers, say that they have “carefully considered the Guild’s key priorities and offered a comprehensive proposal to address those demands, including across-the-board wage increases, outsized increases for the lowest-paid classifications, outsized wage increases for Location Managers, the creation of a new and higher-paid Key Background Coordinator classification and increased benefits for members working on certain high budget SVOD productions including residual payments for Directors. This generous offer contains no ‘rollbacks’ or reductions in benefits.”





Chilling Vids Show Locked-Down Shanghai Residents Screaming From Their Windows


Barbie Latza Nadeau
Sun, April 10, 2022

VCG

Residents of Shanghai are so frustrated with the latest COVID lockdown they are screaming from the windows of their apartment blocks, according to several videos now going viral on social media.

China’s largest city has been under a draconian lockdown since April 5, when Beijing ordered a complete shutdown as part of its “zero COVID” policy.

The city’s 25 million residents have had to take six COVID-19 tests since April 3 and are prohibited from leaving their homes—even for food. The government has been dropping rations and people are using delivery services, though even those services are curtailed due to the restrictions.


Those who test positive—including children—are forcibly carted away to quarantine hospitals, but those who test negative are still not allowed to leave their homes. Viral videos show people in physical tussles with security personnel and screaming that they are out of food.

Videos of desperate people screaming from their high-rise apartments were followed up by even eerier clips of a drone hovering overhead beaming out a robotic voice telling residents, “Please comply with COVID restrictions. Control your soul’s desire for freedom. Do not open the window or sing.”


Rebecca Kanthor, a journalist in Shanghai, told NPR that some people only had a few hours notice before the lockdown began and had no time to buy food supplies. “People are very frustrated,” she said. “Not everybody is going outside and yelling and being publicly upset in that way but people are definitely on social media... definitely voicing their frustration because Shanghai is a really big city, it has this reputation for being a very progressive city and until this outbreak nobody really thought that Shanghai would lock down in this way.”

On Sunday, 24,944 new infections were recorded, of which 1,006 were symptomatic. “The tidal wave has yet to peak, and worries are that the citywide lockdown will last for another few weeks, which may cripple the local economy,” Wang Feng, chairman of Shanghai-based financial services group Ye Lang Capital told South China Post.


The Shanghai government has admitted there have been glitches in delivering supplies, but insist there is enough rice, noodles, grain and oil. “It is true there are some difficulties in ensuring the supply of daily necessities,” Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce told BBC.

People in other areas are now hoarding supplies out of fear China, which is one of the only countries in the world that has not decided to co-exist with COVID, will extend the lockdowns.


Why parts of Good Friday worship have been controversial


Joanne M. Pierce, 
Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, 
College of the Holy Cross
Sat, April 9, 2022

People visiting a Christ sculpture at the Santa Maria Magdalena Church during the Holy Week in Granada, Spain. Álex Cámara/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Churches around the world will be holding services for their three most important days during this Holy Week: Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Easter commemorates Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the fundamental belief of Christianity. It is the earliest and most central of all Christian holidays, more ancient than Christmas.

As a scholar in medieval Christian liturgy, I know that historically the most controversial of these three holy days has been the worship service for Good Friday, which focuses on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Two parts of the contemporary Good Friday worship service could be misunderstood as implicitly anti-Semitic or racist. Both are derived from the medieval Good Friday liturgy that Catholics and some other Christian churches continue to use in a modified form today.

These are the solemn orations and the veneration of the cross.

Prayer and anti-Semitism

The solemn orations are formal prayers offered by the assembled local community for the wider church, for example, for the pope. These orations also include other prayers for members of different religions, and for other needs of the world.

One of these prayers is offered “for the Jewish people.”

For centuries, this prayer was worded in a way to imply an anti-Semitic meaning, referring to the Jews as “perfidis,” meaning “treacherous” or “unfaithful.”

However, the Catholic Church made important changes in the 20th century. In 1959, Pope John XXIII dropped the word “perfidis” entirely from the Latin prayer in the all-Latin Roman missal. This missal, an official liturgical book containing the readings and prayers for the celebration of Mass and Holy Week, is used by Catholics all over the world. However, when the next edition of the Latin Roman missal was published in 1962, the text of the prayer still mentioned the “conversion” of the Jews and referred to their “blindness.”


The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, a major meeting of all Catholic bishops worldwide held between 1962 and 1965, mandated the reform of Catholic life and practice in a number of ways. Open discussion with members of other Christian denominations, as well as other non-Christian religions, was encouraged, and a Vatican commission on Catholic interaction with Jews was established in the early 1970s.

Vatican II also called for a renewal of Catholic worship. The revised liturgy was to be celebrated not just in Latin, but also in local vernacular languages, including English. The first English Roman missal was published in 1974. Today, these post-Vatican religious rituals are known as the “ordinary form” of the Roman rite.

The completely reworded prayer text reflected the renewed understanding of the relationship between Catholics and Jews mandated by Vatican II and supported by decades of interreligious dialogue. For example, in 2015 the Vatican commission released a document clarifying the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism as one of “rich complementarity,” putting an end to organized efforts to convert Jews and strongly condemning anti-Semitism.

However, another important development took place in 2007. More than 40 years after Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI allowed a wider use of the pre-Vatican II missal of 1962, known as the “extraordinary form.”

At first, this pre-Vatican II missal retained the potentially offensive wording of the prayer for the Jews.

The prayer was quickly reworded, but it does still ask that their hearts be “illuminated” to “recognize Jesus Christ.”

Although the extraordinary form is used only by small groups of traditionalist Catholics, the text of this prayer continues to trouble many.

In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwiz, Pope Francis repeated the vehement Catholic rejection of anti-Semitism. While the pope has not revoked the use of the extraordinary form, in 2020 he ordered a review of its use by surveying the Catholic bishops of the world.

The cross and what it symbolizes



There has been similar sensitivity about another part of the Catholic Good Friday tradition: the ritual veneration of the cross.

The earliest evidence of a Good Friday procession by lay people to venerate the cross on Good Friday comes from fourth-century Jerusalem. Catholics would proceed one by one to venerate what was believed to be a piece of the actual wooden cross used to crucify Jesus, and honor it with a reverent touch or kiss.

So sacred was this cross fragment that it was heavily guarded by the clergy during the procession in case someone might try to bite off a sliver to keep for themselves, as was rumored to have happened during a past Good Friday service.

During the medieval period, this veneration rite, elaborated by additional prayers and chant, spread widely across Western Europe. Blessed by priests or bishops, ordinary wooden crosses or crucifixes depicting Christ nailed to the cross took the place of fragments of the “true cross” itself. Catholics venerated the cross on both Good Friday and other feast days.

In this part of the Good Friday liturgy, controversy centers around the physical symbol of the cross and the layers of meaning it has communicated in the past and today. Ultimately, to Catholics and other Christians, it represents Christ’s unselfish sacrificing of his life to save others, an example to be followed by Christians in different ways during their lives.

Historically, however, the cross has also been held up in Western Christianity as a rallying point for violence against groups that were deemed by the church and secular authorities to threaten the safety of Christians and the security of Christian societies.

From the late 11th through 13th centuries, soldiers would “take the cross” and join crusades against these real and perceived threats, whether these opponents were Western Christian heretics, Jewish communities, Muslim armies, or the Greek orthodox Byzantine Empire. Other religious wars in the 14th through 16th centuries continued in this “crusading” spirit.

From the 19th century on, Americans and other English speakers use the term “crusade” for any effort to promote a specific idea or movement, often one based on a moral ideal. Examples in the United States include the 19th-century antislavery abolitionist movement and the civil rights movement of the 20th century.

But today certain “ideals” have been rejected by the wider culture.

Contemporary alt-right groups use what has been called the “Deus vult” cross. The words “Deus vult” mean “God wills (it),” a rallying cry for medieval Christian armies seeking to take control of the Holy Land from Muslims. These groups today view themselves as modern crusaders fighting against Islam.

Some white supremacy groups use versions of the cross
as symbols of protest or provocation. The Celtic cross, a compact cross within a circle, is a common example. And a full-sized wooden cross was carried by at least one protester during the Capitol insurrection in January.


Prayers and symbols have the power to bind people together in a common purpose and identity. But without understanding their context, it is all too easy to manipulate them in support of dated or limited political and social agendas.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Joanne M. Pierce, College of the Holy Cross.

Read more:

What can you do with unwanted holy cards and Grandma’s religious statues? Well, that depends

Catholic opinions on Johnson & Johnson vaccine highlight debate between hardliners on abortion and others in the church

Why Christianity put away its dancing shoes – only to find them again centuries later



Last Nuremberg prosecutor: World still doesn't get it


Kendall Little
Sun, April 10, 2022


BOCA RATON — Benjamin Ferencz says the world still has not learned the lesson he helped lay out 75 years ago during the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi officials that followed World War II.

“My hope was that we could create a more humane and peaceful world where no one would be killed or persecuted because of his race or religion or political belief,” said Ferencz, who is 102 and is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, which were held in Germany from 1945 to 1949.

But in late February came the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"We see it still happening today, people running with their infant children, hospitals being bombed, and we have not yet learned the lesson from Nuremberg despite the fact that we laid it out clear and unmistakable," said Ferencz, who lives in Delray Beach.

On Thursday, Ferencz received the Governor's Medal of Freedom from Gov. Ron DeSantis in a ceremony at Florida Atlantic University. DeSantis also used the occasion to sign a bill making the Governor's Medal a permanent part of Florida law.

Ferencz used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to comment on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“I am trying to change the way people think about war,” he said. “If they don’t think about it, their heart will not change, either. So you have to think about it, and ask yourself, ‘Is this the way for human beings to behave?'”

Last month, he told London's Daily Mirror that believes Russian President Vladimir Putin can and should be jailed for war crimes.

Ferencz told the small crowd at FAU that if the world’s war trends continue, humankind won’t survive. He urged the younger generation to fight for laws instead of wars.

“We have got to learn to detest settling your disputes by killing a bunch of people that have nothing to do with it,” he said. “It’s up to the new generation.”

Benjamin Ferencz at the time of his work as prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947, part of the Nuremberg trials of former Nazis for the crimes they committed in World War II. 
(Courtesy Benjamin Ferencz)

Born in Hungary in 1920, he came to the United States before his first birthday, settling in New York. He studied at the City College of New York, then Harvard Law School, where he earned his degree in 1943.

With World War II, he joined the Army, and in 1945 helped set up war crimes investigations for Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army. He was called back into service after being discharged in late 1945 to handle prosecutions of suspected Nazi war criminals.

Ferencz was 27 when he argued during the so-called Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947 for the convictions of 22 Nazi defendants for war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes. All were convicted, and 13 were sentenced to death.

“[It was] the biggest murder trial in human history and it was my first case,” he said.

Ferencz, a father of four, pushed in a 1975 book for the creation of what became, in 1998, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. That followed years of pursuing the creation of anti-war legislation. He has been honored for his efforts with France's Legion of Honor award, Germany’s military medal of honor and Holland’s Erasmus Prize.

Before receiving a standing ovation, Ferencz left the crowd at FAU with two reminders: “law, not war” and “never give up.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Nuremberg prosecutor Ferencz gets state freedom medal

Burning cars and bloody corpses: Photos show the horrific aftermath of the Russian rocket attack at a Ukraine railway station packed with fleeing civilians.


A child's toy horse was abandoned in the blast and left blood-soaked on the ground, a sad testament to the carnage left by Russian rockets shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk.

Bethany Dawson
Sat, April 9, 2022

Remains of a missile are seen near a rail station, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine April 8, 2022.REUTERS/Stringer

Two Russian rockets hit a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on April 8, killing 52 people and injuring nearly 100.


Photos show the devastation caused by the blast that turned the station into a killing zone.


Content warning: this article contains pictures that some readers may find distressing.

Two Russian rockets hit a Ukrainian train station in Kramatorsk, a town in Donetsk, part of the Donbas region, on April 9.

Reuters reports that the train station was filled with people hoping to evacuate from the war.

The blast killed at least 52 people and injured almost 100 others. As a result, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now demanding a "global response" in condemning Russia, AP report.

It also reports that Russia denies responsibility for the attack, but Ukrainian and Western governments have explicitly stated the attack was by Putin's forces.

Photos from the scene show the extent of the atrocity inflicted by this blast.

At least 52 people were killed when Russian rockets hit the railway station packed with Ukrainians fleeing the war.

A body lies covered after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

A 1,000 civilians went to Kramatorsk station to escape the anticipated Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

A trail of blood leads to the railway station's booking hall.

Russia shelled the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has called this attack a "war crime," and joined a number of officials in telling civilians to evacuate the eastern Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A Russian rocket that struck a Ukrainian train station and killed dozens of people had 'For the children' written on its side.

Remains of a missile are seen near a rail station, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine April 8, 2022.REUTERS/Stringer

A Russian rocket that struck a train station and killed dozens in eastern Ukraine on Friday had a Russian phrase meaning "For the children" written on its side, Ukrainian officials said.

At least 52 people were killed, and over 100 were injured after two Russian rockets hit the train station in Kramatorsk, which is in the Donetsk oblast.

The phrase — seen scrawled in white on the side of a purported Russian rocket in photos and video from the scene of the attack — translates as a message that the missile was sent in vengeance for children, not that it was intended to be used on children, explainedInsider's Jake Epstein.

Russian propaganda has accused Ukrainian troops of killing children even as Russian forces fire on civilian targets.

At least five children were killed in the attack, according to a post from Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region.

Since the invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, at least 169 children have been killed, according to the UN. However, the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

Outside the station burning cars with bodies around it shows the violence of the attack.

A car burns as smoke from the fire rises after the strike.OLEKSIY MERKULOV Ð DONECHCHYNA via Reuters

Thousands of civilians – older people, women, and children – went to the Kramatorsk railway station to start a journey to safety, but it turned into a killing zone.

"Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," said President Zelenskyy in an Instagram post, referring to Russian forces. "This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop."

A man holds aloft a blood-stained animal carrier after the rockets struck the railway station.

Even pets were caught in the blast
OLEKSIY MERKULOV – DONECHCHYNA via Reuters

President Zelenskyy said that there were "thousands" of people at the station hoping to flee Ukraine, and whole families — including pets — were caught in the blast.

Scores had flocked to the train station on Friday to evacuate from the eastern Donbas region, as Western intelligence and NATO warned Russian troops are repositioning away from the northern Kyiv region and will focus their efforts on the east.

Photos and videos circulating on social media from Ukrainian officials and journalists showed a blood-stained sidewalk, strewn with luggage, strollers, and other belongings.

Bodies lay covered after the Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk.

Bodies lay at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

Photos and videos circulating on social media from Ukrainian officials and journalists showed a blood-stained sidewalk, strewn with luggage, strollers, and other belongings.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted after the strike: "This was a deliberate slaughter. We will bring each war criminal to justice."
Russia lost the battle for Kyiv with its hasty assault on a Ukrainian airport


Patrick J. McDonnell
Sun, April 10, 2022

A Ukrainian soldier passes the destroyed Antonov An-225, a six-engine behemoth that had been a source of intense national pride. (Celestino Arce / Associated Press)

Days after Russian forces retreated from Kyiv, the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital are littered with the charred remains of blown-up and abandoned Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other equipment.

The debris is a stark testament to an assault that was meant to oust the Ukrainian government but became a humiliating blunder for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's failure to take the capital came down to a series of misjudgments and strategic errors: an emphasis on vulnerable armored columns, inadequate use of air power, an attack plan that overstretched supply lines, and — most significantly — a clear miscalculation of the Ukrainians’ ability and determination to resist.

But experts say there is one place, more than anywhere else, where Putin's vision of a lightning strike victory ran aground: Antonov Airport.


A Ukrainian serviceman walks by the destroyed Antonov An-225, the largest aircraft in the world.
(Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

This sprawling cargo airport and military base 15 miles northwest of downtown Kyiv was supposed to be the principal staging ground and logistics hub for a battle-defining Russian thrust into the heart of the capital.

The Ukrainian government was supposed to fall and President Volodymyr Zelensky was supposed to be killed, captured or forced into exile. Experts said that Putin probably planned to install a puppet leader.

The thinking was that a hasty collapse of the central government would trigger deep disarray in Ukrainian units fighting in the east and the south, possibly resulting in a broad surrender.

“They needed to get into the middle of Kyiv as quickly as possible and raise the Russian flag over a government building,” said John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major who now chairs urban war studies at the Madison Policy Forum think tank in New York. “At that point you’ve won the war. Yes, you may start the greatest insurgency in history. But you’ve won the war.”

Parts of destroyed aircraft at the Antonov Airport in Hostomel, Ukraine. 
(Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

He said capturing the airport was “critical” to the Russian strategy. Antonov has a long runway, ideal for flying in supplies and troops on heavy transport planes.

“You need airfields to bring in force, to bring in tanks, engineers, the necessary armor,” Spencer said.

Unlike the United States in its 2003 assault on Baghdad, Russia launched its ground assault immediately, without first pounding military bases, command and control structures and other strategic sites from the air. There was no shock and awe. That decision continues to baffle many.

“We all expected that Russia would do several days of airstrikes, precision missile strikes, that kind of thing — ‘softening up,’ so to speak,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, an analyst with CNA, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “But then they launched a ground operation rather than waiting a few days. I’m not sure why they were in that kind of hurry.”

Russia did expend plenty of air power in its assault on the airfield.

On the morning of Feb. 24 — the first day of what Putin called his "special operation" — low-flying Russian Mi-8 assault helicopters appeared over the airport and began firing rockets. Plumes of smoke rose from the airfield. Russian paratroopers ferried in by helicopter were soon redirecting civilian traffic outside the airport gates.

A satellite photo of the Antonov Airport, which was supposed to have been the principal staging ground and logistics hub for a Russian thrust into the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. But those plans failed in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. (Maxar Technologies)

By all accounts, attempting to grab the air base at the very outset of the war made a lot of sense, helping to complement a prospective pincer movement on the capital with nearby motorized columns.

“The initial idea was that cargo planes with paratroopers and vehicles would land here and it should have been an entry point to Kyiv,” said Denys Monastyrsky, Ukraine’s internal security minister, speaking to reporters Friday.

Once the airfield was secured, Russia “could start pouring in a lot of other troops, and start manning checkpoints in the middle of Kyiv,” said Jonathan Eyal, associate director of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. “If you think about it, had they succeeded, I think the war may have gone very differently.”

A day after the initial attack, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, announced that Moscow had sent 200 helicopters to take control of the airfield.

In fact, authorities here said fighting at the airport continued for days, and Ukrainian forces shot down several helicopters, even as Moscow ferried in wave after wave of paratroopers.

Weeks of fierce combat transformed the airport into a dystopian post-battle debris field, strewn with spent ammunition, rockets, Russian ration boxes, gas masks, and burned and tattered uniforms.

The most conspicuous monument to the fighting is the smashed hulk of an Antonov An-225.

The six-engine behemoth, long the world’s largest aircraft, is known in Ukrainian as Mriya, or Dream, and was a source of intense national pride. No more.


A Ukrainian serviceman touches the nose of the Antonov An-225 destroyed in fighting at the Antonov Airport in Ukraine. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

The plane looks like it was gouged by a giant can opener, its fuselage sheared in a blackened jumble of wires and metal, the yellow and blue Ukrainian colors still visible outside the cockpit.

Russia finally secured the airfield, but its forces remained under constant fire, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russia was never able to land large transport aircraft to reinforce besieged forces here and elsewhere in the Kyiv area. Rather than thrusting forward to the heart of the capital, Russian troops at the air base were stuck fighting for their survival.

“That was a turning point,” Eyal said.

With Zelensky and the Ukrainian government still in power, Russian attack columns — lacking anticipated resupply and reinforcement — got bogged down in the capital’s dense northern suburbs.

Ukrainian troops used Western-provided Javelin portable antitank systems and Turkish-supplied drones to pick off the Russian armor, much of which is now rusting away in the suburbs of the capital.

Moscow somehow didn't anticipate the effect of the sophisticated equipment, and training, that Ukrainian forces had received from the West in recent years. Experts said that Russia’s multi-pronged attack across several fronts was clearly undermanned against a well-armed opponent.

“They tried to do too much,” Gorenburg said. “If they had focused on one objective, like taking Kyiv, they might have done better.”


A Ukrainian serviceman uses his weapon to hold up a Russian beret he retrieved from a destroyed Russian military vehicle at the Antonov Airport.
 (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Putin may have more success as his troops shift their efforts to the east, where pro-Russia separatists have been fighting for years. But Russia’s retreat here has also bolstered Ukrainian confidence that its troops can hold off, and even defeat, its colossal adversary.

Such a notion would undoubtedly draw derision from Putin. The Russian leader has long questioned Ukraine’s status as an independent state, publicly declaring its territory, and people, as an extension of historic Russia.

In the view of some, it is Putin’s distorted view of Ukraine that may have led him to misjudge what it would take to win this war — and to disregard the notion that Ukrainians would staunchly resist the Russian onslaught.

“I think the bottom line, the essence of the story, is that Mr. Putin believed the nonsense that he was spouting, which is that Ukraine is a fake state hijacked by a small clique — and the moment you put a finger on it the entire thing would collapse like a house of cards, with the Ukrainian president running away,” Eyal said. “Everything else followed this original error.”

On the streets of Kyiv, where the retreat was greeted with relief and pride, many agree: Putin underestimated people’s willingness to stand up to Russian force.

“I can't get inside Putin’s head, but I think that, yes, he really expected to take Kyiv in like three days,” said Vitalii Hemych, 28, a restaurant owner. “But our nation is now united. That is the main reason why his plan failed.”

Special correspondent Ilona Shubovych in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Putin takes ‘nuclear football’ to funeral of Russian politician

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a far-right politician and head of the ultranationalist Liberal-Democratic Party 

Aisha Rimi
Sat, April 9, 2022

(AP)

Russian president Vladimir Putin was spotted with the Russian “nuclear football” as he attended the funeral of a far-right politician on Friday.

Mr Putin was accompanied by a man in a dark suit who was carrying a briefcase, which contains the codes needed to authorise a nuclear attack remotely.

Mourners were cleared from the Christ the Saviour Cathedral as the Russian leader paid his respects to the ultranationalist, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, amid fears of an assassination attempt.

At the open casket, Mr Putin picked up a bunch of roses and placed them at the bottom of the coffin and then made the sign of the cross. No armed guards were standing by the coffin when he approached to pay his respects.

Mr Putin placed flowers on Mr Zhirinovsky’s coffin as he paid his respects (AP)

“For Vladimir Putin, the hall where people bade farewell to Zhirinovsky was completely emptied of people – even from relatives on chairs,” reported Telegram channel VCHK-OGPU.

Much like the nuclear football carried by presidential military aides in the US, the Russian nuclear briefcase, known as the “cheget”, was designed to be within reach for the president at all times. A similar briefcase is thought to accompany the minister of defence and chief of general staff.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a far-right politician and head of the ultranationalist Liberal-Democratic Party. He died from Covid 15 weeks after predicting in advance the date of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
World War ‘Z’: What’s the meaning behind Russian propaganda symbol emerging as ‘the new swastika’?


Megan Sheets
Sun, April 10, 2022

The letter “Z” has emerged as a prominent propaganda symbol in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, drawing comparisons to swastikas worn by Nazi soldiers in World War II.

At the start of Russia’s invasion, the letter – which does not exist in the Russian alphabet – was inexplicably painted on the rear of its tanks and other vehicles.

In the more than two weeks since, backers of the invasion have adopted “Z” as a logo to wear their support on their sleeves.

The origin of the letter’s connection to the war is murky, according to Kamil Galeev, a Galina Starovoitova Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center who has been compiling photos of the symbol on Twitter since before the invasion began.

“Some interpret ‘Z’ as ‘Za pobedy’ (for victory). Others – as ‘Zapad’ (West),” Mr Galeev explained.

“Anyway, this symbol invented just a few days ago became a symbol of new Russian ideology and national identity.”

Experts initially speculated that the marking indicated where a military unit was headed before deployment as a means to distinguish it and lessen the risk of friendly fire.

“It’s vital that any attacking force can be distinguished, particularly from the air where Russian forces will have complete control,” a source in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv told The Sun.

“The Ukrainians have very similar tanks and vehicles and will want to reduce the risk of friendly fire.”

Michael Clarke, former director of the defence think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Sky News that the symbols are likely to be connected to the geographic location of where the units would be deployed for combat.

"Often these symbols will be location-based – they will be communicating where a unit is heading. If they were only to mark the vehicles as being Russian, you could just use one symbol," Mr Clarke said.

A service member of pro-Russian troops in a uniform without insignia walks past a truck with the symbol

But now that the invasion is well underway, the letter “Z” has taken on new meaning, according to Mr Galeev.

“To put it simply, it’s going full fascist,” he wrote in a Twitter thread on Sunday.


“Authorities launched a propaganda campaign to gain popular support for their invasion of Ukraine and they’re getting lots of it.”

The thread included several photos of civilians and cars with the marking.

“Putin took a decision to start this war. But he got a wide support of the Russian people,” he wrote. “Nobody’s forcing them to participate in these shows of support, they could totally skip it. But they cheer. They cheer, because they feel good, they feel proud. Russia became great again.”

Merchandise with the letter “Z” is being sold online by Russia Today, with proceeds purportedly going to a charity which supports “children of war”. Amazon also appears to be selling similar items, according to The Times.

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak used the symbol to show his support for the invasion on Saturday, when he wore it as he accepted a bronze medal at the Gymnastics World Cup event in Doha on Saturday.

The stunt was made even more jarring by the fact that Kuliak was next to Ukraine’s Kovtun Illia, who took home gold.

The International Gymnastics Federation said it had opened disciplinary proceedings against Kuliak.


Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak stands in a shirt that shows letter Z to receive his bronze medal (Screengrab/Video)

And in the Russian city of Kazan, children at a hospice were apparently forced to stand outside in the snow lined up in a “Z” formation to show their support.

The propaganda stunt captured on camera by a drone was reportedly organised by Vladimir Vavilov, chairman of a cancer charity who runs the hospice.

Mr Vavilov said 60 participants – including patients and staff – held one hand in a fist and leaflets with the flags of Russia, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Russian republic Tatarstan in the other.


Children at a hospice centre stand in a “Z” formation to show support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Kamil Galeev via Twitter)

Several politicians have also donned clothing and badges with the insignia, including Mikhail Delyagin and Maria Butina.

Ms Butina, who was convicted in the US of acting as a foreign agent in 2018, posted a picture of her and colleagues in “’Z” T-shirts with the caption: “The team in support of our army and president! Let’s get to work guys!”

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Inside a Ukrainian village where farmers stay for the wheat harvest but fear Russian attack



Mon, April 11, 2022
By Thomas Peter

YAKOVLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - The wheat has been sown for the coming season but nobody in Yakovlivka, a small farming village outside Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, knows if it will be harvested.

A week after Russian forces launched their invasion on Feb. 24, the village was bombed. The head of the village administration said four people were killed and 11, including children, were wounded in the attack.

"We were sitting in our cellar for four hours and read the Lord's Prayer. We wrapped the kids into blankets and just couldn't fall asleep until three or four in the morning," said Nina Bonderenko, who works on her cousin's farm.

Villagers said the attack may have been aimed at a unit of Ukrainian soldiers camping temporarily in the village school, although apart from some broken windows, the building was undamaged by the blasts.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the villagers' account of the bombing.

Russia has denied targetting civilians in what it calls a "special operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" its neighbour. Ukraine and its allies dismiss that as a baseless pretext for war.

Since the village was bombed, residents say all certainty has been lost.

"We have planted all the wheat. But will we be able to grow anything and harvest it under the current circumstances?" said Vadim Aleksandrovich, director of "Granary of Sloboda" - a farming company that emerged from a former Soviet-era collective farm.

"Only God knows. We are doing our best."

With the country at war, the uncertainty facing Yakovlivka is shared across the country by farmers who produce the grain that has historically made Ukraine, the world's fifth biggest wheat exporter, one of the great breadbaskets of the world.

DANGER IN THE FIELDS


Last season, Granary of Sloboda's harvest amounted to 3,000 tons of wheat, 3,000 tons of sunflower and 1,000 tons of corn. But at the moment, 80% of the firm's 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) are not accessible because of mines or combat operations, Aleksandrovich said.

Only the fields immediately around Yakovlikva village can be reached relatively safely and there is heavy fighting around the firm's seed storage facility at its base in Izyum, some 140 km (85 miles) away, he said.

Before farm workers can go out to the fields, they call emergency services to find out if the area is safe. When rockets land in the fields, explosives disposal services remove any projectiles.

"The situation is very tense, and it is unclear what will happen to us," Aleksandrovich said. "We don't even know what will happen in one hour."

Despite the uncertainty, most of the villagers have remained, refusing to join a national exodus that has seen around a quarter of the country's population of 44 million flee their homes.

Of 533 permanent residents before the war, 380 have stayed, with refugees from outside boosting the population to 436, according to local authorities.

Although the village shop has closed, people have started to patch up the damaged houses that can still be repaired.

"I thought I could live my last days in peace and then this," said 66-year-old Vera Babenko, picking a bowl out from under a pile of rubble by her now door-less refrigerator.

She said a bomb landed just beside her house, about 200 metres (yards) from the school the attack was apparently supposed to hit but she said she had no plans to leave.

"I want to rebuild my kitchen."

(Editing by James Mackenzie and Frances Kerry)