This Racist Youth Movement Is Melting Down Over Virginity

Kelly Weill
Wed, May 11, 2022

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

A newly nominated Republican congressional candidate in Ohio says he’s not a QAnon guy. There’s just one problem: The candidate, J.R. Majewski, was repeatedly filmed talking about Q on web shows, spray-painting QAnon logos onto his lawn, and wearing QAnon merchandise.

“This guy has more QAnon merchandise than basically any QAnon person I’ve ever talked to,” says Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer, who found videos of Majewski wearing an extensive Q-themed wardrobe.

This week on Fever Dreams, we dive deep into the far right’s livestreamed publicity woes, from Majewski’s QAnon comments, to a nasty fight in the white nationalist “America First” movement. The movement, which counts Congress members Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene as fans, is undergoing turmoil after its treasurer got a girlfriend and stopped living in the basement of leader Nick Fuentes. That was a problem for Fuentes, who describes himself as an incel (that’s “involuntarily celibate”) and beseeches his young, male fanbase not to have sex. Now the movement’s former treasurer is calling the movement a cult.

The movement is so grounded in being “racist and ridiculous in public that it ruins people’s lives,” says Fever Dreams co-host Kelly Weill. “You can’t go and get a normal job after that. So they turn further and further into this movement, which really does function almost like a cult.”

While the America First movement struggles with girl problems, Trump fans on the southern border are facing strange new allegations of their own. A recent New York Times report details a QAnon-fueled border vigilante movement that has MAGA types bribing migrant children with hamburgers and asking them for information about their families. It’s not the first group of wingnuts to set its eyes on the southern border. Sommer and Weill revisit the history of Q-inspired vigilante groups like “Veterans On Patrol” that have previously peddled wild theories, like falsely claiming that migrant children were being smuggled across the border so that their blood could be mixed into cement.

Meanwhile, in other corners of the far right, a curious blend of Silicon Valley reactionaries and disaffected downtown Manhattan types are coalescing into a new movement. James Pogue, a contributing editor at Harper’s, joins us to discuss his recent Vanity Fair article on the New Right movement.



“On its basic level, the New Right is an insurgent attempt to reshape the Republican party in a more nationalist, deeply conservative direction, kind of like what you would see with Marine Le Pen in France,” Pogue says.

Among the mix are Peter Thiel-backed political candidates and bloggers who openly long for monarchy. Pogue notes that the movement is an unusual amalgam of anti-liberal types, “a very strange and kind of febrile and diffuse movement, but it’s all a sort of critique of the direction of liberal society over the last 400 years.”

Finally, a fringe candidate in Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial primary is trying to stand out from the pack with an unusual campaign pledge: tearing down a granite monument that she claims is a New World Order statue. Kandiss Taylor, a third-place contender for the GOP nomination, says she’ll remove the Georgia Guidestones, a Stonehenge-like statue in the countryside.

Not even the residents in rural Georgia are on board, Sommer reports, due to local loyalty to the Guidestones, which are both a popular roadside attraction and a testament to the area’s granite industry

“I asked the mayor of Elberton,” where the Guidestones are located, Sommer said. “He said ‘Maybe she should focus on the wonders of Elberton granite, rather than watching so many YouTube videos.’”

QUEBECOIS NATIONALIST COLONIALISM
Indigenous leaders say Quebec's language bill colonial, paternalistic

Tue, May 10, 2022



QUEBEC — Indigenous leaders in Quebec say the government's French-language bill is destructive, paternalistic and could put the survival of First Nations languages at risk.

Bill 96 would push Indigenous students to pursue higher education outside the province, Ghislain Picard, chief of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador, told reporters Tuesday in Quebec City.

"It's a staggering irony, that the first inhabitants of the land in Quebec are being forced to study outside their territory; that's something we find unacceptable," Picard said at the legislature.

Bill 96 makes several amendments to Quebec's signature language law, known as Bill 101. If passed, it would reinforce rules about the use of French in workplaces, the civil service and the justice system. The bill would also require students at the province's English-language junior colleges to take three additional classes in French.

John Martin, chief of the Mi’kmaq council of Gesgapegiag, on the Gaspé peninsula, said many Indigenous communities were historically forced to speak English and that requiring young people to master a third language — French — would make it more difficult for them to succeed.

"If our communities are going to be able to flourish, education is a key component, but remember also that education has been used as one of the key factors in the assimilation of our people and the destruction of our cultures and the destruction of our languages, and that is why this government needs to sit down and listen to us," Martin said.

"It is a destructive bill. It is a continuation of the kind of colonialism, paternalist and extinguishment activities that governments successively have conducted since their establishment on these territories."

Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer, grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, located near Montreal, said the bill could also impact access to justice.

"We do not want to see this bill move forward without any kind of exemption or consideration of Indigenous people, our languages, our cultures that have been here since time immemorial," she said. "The way that this government is conducting itself is very dismissive and it disregards us and our long history and our presence on these lands."

Sky-Deer said the Indigenous leaders want a meeting with Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette, the minister responsible for the legislation. She said if the minister doesn't meet with Indigenous leaders, community members will have to resort to taking other actions.

The Indigenous leaders were invited to the Quebec legislature by the opposition Liberals and Québec solidaire. While the Liberals have said they plan to vote against the bill, Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Manon Massé said her party plans to vote for it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Patrice Bergeron, The Canadian Press

FRANCO CHAUVINISM

First Nations leaders say Quebec has ignored their pleas to be exempt from Bill 96

Tue, May 10, 2022

Kahnawake Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer spoke at the National Assembly Tuesday, saying her community will continue to push for a Bill 96 exemption. (Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC - image credit)

Quebec says it won't change Bill 96 to exempt Indigenous youth from having to take extra French courses in CEGEP, despite mounting calls from First Nations leaders who say their efforts to rebuild their languages and cultures are in jeopardy.

Kahnawake Grand Chief Kahsennenhawe Sky-Deer — who held a news conference at the National Assembly Tuesday alongside Chief Ghislain Picard of the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador and Gesgapegiag First Nation Chief John Martin — said her community would hold protest actions until it felt heard.

"Any gesture of goodwill right now on behalf of the government will go a long way," Sky-Deer told reporters.

Sky-Deer, Picard and Martin are among the many First Nations leaders who have denounced the clause in Quebec's proposed overhaul of the Charter of the French language that would force students attending English CEGEPs to take more second-language French courses.

The bill could be adopted by the Coalition Avenir Québec majority as early as this week, as the legislation has undergone a number of amendments and is ready for other political parties to have their say on it.

The leaders have repeatedly requested to meet with government officials to ask for an exemption for youths in English-speaking Indigenous communities, who have been learning their language first, with English as a second language and French as a third.

They say the government has shown little sympathy to their cause.

"To put another burden, of a third language for us to have to learn and be proficient in, when we're trying to revitalize our Indigenous language — after all these Indian Day Schools, Indian Residential Schools, and all the things that happened to our people — it's a challenge," said Sky-Deer, whose community is Kanien'kehá-speaking and English-speaking.

As the news conference unfolded at the National Assembly, students in Kahnawake held a march against the bill.

Picard said the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador made a presentation to a legislative committee about the bill and proposed several amendments "to no avail."

"Even when we play by their rules, we are becoming the victims because none of it is being acknowledged," Picard said.

Frederic Bissonnette/Radio-Canada

Simon Jolin-Barrette, who tabled the bill and is the minister responsible for the French language, said Tuesday there was no plan to make any exemptions.

"Since 1977, Bill 101 applies to everybody in Quebec and Bill 101 will continue with Bill 96 to apply to everybody," Jolin-Barrette said, referring to the Charter of the French Language, which was passed as law 45 years ago. Bill 96 aims to update the charter.

Gesgapegiag First Nation Chief John Martin said the original law had increased dropout rates in his Mi'kmaq community.

"It makes it very difficult for our students to succeed in high school and now even harder if they pass high school and get to CEGEP," Martin said.

Bill 96 can't protect Indigenous languages: minister

Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière said he met with First Nations leaders Monday but that his government's line remains the same.

"We need to protect and promote French in Quebec," Lafrenière said. "Let's find the right tool to protect and promote different languages. Bill 96 is not the right one."

But the First Nations leaders at the National Assembly Tuesday say it is not the Quebec government's role to protect Indigenous languages — but to respect their communities' right to govern themselves.

Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC

"What the government should be doing is recognizing and respecting Indigenous languages and cultures that have been here longer than Quebec," Sky-Deer said.

An elder and knowledge keeper from Kahnawake, Ka'nahsohon Kevin Deer, was part of the group holding the news conference. He held a Two Row Wampum Belt, saying it was important to remind Quebecers of its meaning.

"Your ancestors and our ancestors agreed that we would follow three principles of peace, friendship and respect," Deer said.

"We are still here today. Our ceremonies, our languages, our creation stories — everything that makes us unique in the world, just like Quebec. They talk about their distinctness. Well, we are too."

Sky-Deer, the Kahnawake Grand Chief, said she would like to see a complete exemption from Bill 96 for Indigenous people because several other provisions in the proposed legislation could harm members of her community, such as those pertaining to small businesses and court proceedings.

Echoes of the past

Meanwhile at the protest, Grade 11 student Cash Rice-Rossetti held a banner as hundreds marched from the Kahnawake Survival School, a high school established in 1978 in reaction to Bill 101.

"Our language is already suppressed enough as it is. We don't have a lot of first-language speakers," said Cash, who says French is taught as a third language at his school.

CBC

He said he was considering studying outside of province after high school.

"If this law gets passed, there might be no options for me in Quebec."

Kahnawake Survival School's mission, as stated on its website, is "to produce proud and self-sufficient Kanien'kehá:ka youth through a powerful curriculum based on Kanien'kehá:ka language, beliefs, and traditions."

Robin Delaronde, the director of education at the Kahnawà:ke Education Centre, was one of 300 high school students who walked out of their school in 1978 to protest Bill 101.

"It's so concerning, after all those years, to think that we have to once again fight the impositions that are put against us," Delaronde said, marching alongside the students Tuesday.

Help heal Indigenous residential school trauma, public safety minister tells RCMP

Tue, May 10, 2022, 

OTTAWA — Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino is directing the head of the RCMP to work closely with Indigenous communities to address the traumatic legacy of residential schools.

In a new mandate letter issued to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, Mendicino instructs the national police force to proactively disclose documents, help uncover truths and allow for alternative forms of investigation as communities "seek justice at their own pace."

The Liberal government says the discovery of unmarked graves and burial sites near former residential schools have underscored a need to move faster on the path of reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples.

In that vein, several of the minister's directions to the RCMP are aimed at fostering improved relations with Indigenous Peoples.

Mendicino says he looks forward to working with Lucki to accelerate RCMP reform over the next two years through improvement of force recruitment at all levels to better reflect the communities it serves, in particular Indigenous and Black ones.

He directs the RCMP boss to conduct an assessment of contract policing in consultation with provinces, territories, municipalities, Indigenous partners and others, and to collaborate with partners on the "stabilization and expansion" of the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program.

The letter updates one issued to Lucki upon her appointment as commissioner in 2018.

"As you know, the prime minister has given me a mandate to act in several important areas, and many of these touch upon the work of the RCMP," Mendicino writes. "Most notably, he has asked me to prioritize policing reform."

The minister says his central objectives are ensuring the RCMP meets the needs of Canadians, addressing systemic racism, eliminating harassment and discrimination, and creating a culture of accountability, diversity and inclusion.

In newly issued mandate letters to other agency heads in his portfolio, Mendicino instructs:

— Canadian Security Intelligence Service director David Vigneault to support broader efforts to safeguard economic security, including research and intellectual property, as well as address threats to democratic institutions by investigating all forms of ideologically motivated violent extremism such as those driven by worldviews based on xenophobia and opposition to authority;

— Canada Border Services Agency president John Ossowski to combat the trafficking of firearms and illicit drugs, and address irregular migration by increasing the efficiency of asylum claim processing;

— Correctional Service of Canada commissioner Anne Kelly to support the government's work to address systemic racism and the overrepresentation of Black and Indigenous people in the justice system, as well as create a new position of deputy commissioner for Indigenous corrections.

Among the tasks outlined in his letter to the RCMP's Lucki, Mendicino solicits support for measures to counter the smuggling of handguns and the implementation of a buyback program for prohibited firearms.

He also requests help in ensuring the RCMP's management advisory board is fully supported as it takes on a greater oversight role.

"Victims of intimate partner violence deserve our protection," Mendicino writes.

To that end, he asks Lucki to work with chief firearms officers across Canada so that they respond without delay to calls from Canadians who have safety concerns about anyone who has access to firearms, and to work with police of jurisdiction to remove firearms quickly as needed.

In addition, Lucki is asked to provide awareness and training on the importance of recording incidents involving dangerous behaviour and firearms. "This work will also involve implementing new procedures and educational tools in close partnership with community groups, women's shelters and organizations, academia and more."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

RCMP cleared border blockades without Emergencies Act powers, committee hears

Tue, May 10, 2022, 5:26 p.m.·1 min read


OTTAWA — RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says powers afforded to police by the government's invoking of the Emergencies Act were not used to clear blockades at Canadian border crossings.

Lucki's comments are part of a virtual appearance at a House of Commons committee studying how the powers were used after the government invoked the powers for the first time.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the government planned to invoke the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 in response to blockades at border crossings and in the streets of Ottawa.

The blockades were organized by the Freedom Convoy in protest of COVID-19 restrictions, vaccine mandates and Trudeau's government.

At the time, Trudeau pointed to the economic impact to Canada's trade at the border as one of the justifications for invoking the act.

Lucki says RCMP removed the blockades at the border without the powers offered under the act, though she says the Emergencies Act may have motivated some protesters to leave.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 10, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

iPod RIP: How Apple's music player transformed an industry



The device helped supercharge Apple into a global consumer company

Joseph BOYLE and Jules Bonnard
Wed, May 11, 2022, 

At the height of its powers the pocket-sized music player known as the iPod shifted tens of millions of units each year, helping Apple to conquer the globe and transforming the music industry.

But that was the mid-2000s –- a lifetime ago in the tech industry. After years of declining sales, the US tech giant announced on Tuesday it was stopping production after 21 years.

"Clearly this was one of the products that Apple launched that completely changed our lives," Francisco Jeronimo of analysis firm IDC told AFP.

Social media was awash with emotional tributes under the banner "iPod RIP".


"Noooo, iPod touch, you were too pure for this world!" tweeted entrepreneur Anil Dash.

"Goodnight, sweet prince. You won't be forgotten," tweeted Apple enthusiast Federico Viticci.

The device began life in 2001 with the promise of "putting 1,000 songs in your pocket".

At $400 it was hardly cheap.

But its 5GB of storage outstripped the competition, its mechanical wheel was instantly iconic and it allowed a constant stream of music uncoupled from conventional albums.

In the following years, prices came down, storage space grew, colours and models proliferated and sales exploded.

- 'We folded' -

"It didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry," Apple founder Steve Jobs said of the iPod in 2007.

Few would disagree.

Digital music was still in its infancy and closely associated with piracy.

File-sharing platform Napster had horrified the industry by dispensing with any idea of paying the record companies or musicians.

Against this background, Apple managed to persuade record company bosses to sanction the sale of individual tracks for 99 cents.

"We folded because we had no leverage," Albhy Galuten, an executive at Universal Music Group at the time, told the New York Times on Tuesday.

For years, bands from AC/DC to the Beatles and Metallica refused to allow Apple to sell their music.

But the industry has since found a way to stay hugely profitable and even embrace technology like streaming.

It was the first legal model for digital music, industry expert Marc Bourreau told AFP.

After the initial shock to the system, he said the industry has learnt to embrace -- and monetise -- technology.

"People are now spending money in ways they weren’t before," said Bourreau, highlighting money from streaming.

"By this logic, the music industry is doing just fine."

- Musical glasses -

But the writing was on the wall for the iPod as early as 2007 when Jobs launched the iPhone.

With theatrical flair, he told an expectant audience the new product was an "iPod, a phone and an internet communicator".

He was lighting a fire under his own product even though at the time it accounted for roughly 40 percent of Apple's revenue, according to analysis by Statista.

Five years later, the iPod's revenue share had plunged below 10 percent and it was being outsold by the iPhone.

People no longer needed both products in their lives, and Apple no longer needed both in its portfolio.

"I don't see why people would buy music players in the future," said Jeronimo.

"Music players are now a feature of other devices – in cars, smart speakers, watches, even in smart glasses."

The iPod and all its imitators seem likely to follow the Sony Walkman into a long twilight of nostalgic fandom and eBay listings of products from a bygone era.

jxb/rl

Polish editor and former dissident wins top Spanish prize


Michnik spent six years in jail for his efforts to end Poland's repressive regime 

(AFP/JANEK SKARZYNSKI) 

Wed, May 11, 2022,

Polish editor Adam Michnik, a leading communist-era dissident, was Wednesday awarded Spain's prestigious Princess of Asturias communications and humanities prize.

The jury honoured the 75-year-old editor-in-chief of Warsaw-based daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza "for his commitment to quality journalism and for his influence in restoring and defending democracy in Poland".

A member of the Solidarity trade union that led the Polish struggle against communist rule since it was founded in 1980, he spent six years in jail for his efforts to end his country's repressive regime.

After Poland's communist leaders were toppled in a 1989 election, Michnik took a seat in parliament and co-founded Gazeta Wyborcza, which is now one of Eastern Europe's most popular newspapers.

The jury noted that he is an authority on Russian politics who has "closely followed" Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "being highly critical of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin's decisions and acts".

In a statement, Michnik said he saw the award as "an appreciation of the democratic opposition in Poland" as well as "an appreciation of Gazeta Wyborcza, which has learnt a lot from Spanish free media".

Previous winners of the award include US feminist icon Gloria Steinem and Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of "Super Mario Bros".

The 50,000-euro ($53,000) award is one of eight Asturias prizes handed out yearly by a foundation named for Crown Princess Leonor.

Other categories include social sciences, sport and scientific research.

The awards are presented each autumn in the northern city of Oviedo in a ceremony broadcast live on Spanish television.

al-tpe/ds/

Midwives in Senegal birth scandal get suspended terms

AFP - 
© CARMEN ABD ALI


A Senegalese court on Wednesday handed six-month suspended terms to three midwives in the high-profile case of a mother-to-be who died in agony after pleading for hours to be given a caesarean.

The three were found guilty of the charge of failing to assist someone in danger, while three of their colleagues were acquitted, AFP journalists said.

The case involved Astou Sokhna, a woman aged in her thirties who was in her ninth month of pregnancy.

According to local media, she was admitted in pain to a public hospital in the northern town of Louga, begging to be given a caesarean section.

The staff refused, arguing that the operation had not been scheduled and even threatening to remove her from the hospital if she continued with her demand, the reports said.

She died in agony on the night of April 1 after suffering for around 20 hours, according to these reports.

Her death ignited a storm of indignation in the West African state, where many people took to social media to denounce failures in the healthcare system.

The affair quickly gained political traction, with President Macky Sall sending a message of condolence to Sokhna's family and ordering an investigation into what happened.

On April 14, Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr acknowledged that her death could have been avoided. The director of the hospital has since been fired and replaced.

Prosecutors at the trial, which began on April 27, had requested a term of one month in jail and 11 months suspended for four of the accused, and recommended the release of the other two.

The three convicted midwives were on night duty while the three others who were released were on day shift.

Abou Abdou Daff, a lawyer for one of the three convicted midwives, said the reasons for his client's sentence had not been given, and an appeal was being considered.

"The accused have denied and continue to deny" the allegations, Daff said. "A medical team has the duty to respond with what is available, not to provide the outcome."

mrb-lp/ri/raz

France’s unprecedented drought shows climate change is ‘spiralling out of control’

Aude MAZOUE 

AFP

As global warming accelerates, the spectre of drought haunts France’s once verdant farmland. Even now, before the start of summer, 15 administrative départements have had to restrict water use while farmers warn that the current situation will have an adverse impact on crop yields.

© Pascal Pochard-Casabianca, AFP

Few people in France are talking about this looming catastrophe – but all the signs of a record drought are there.

“No region has been spared. We can see the earth cracking every day. Yesterday I was at a farmer’s house in the Puy-de-Dôme region [in central France]; he was watering the wheat. If things carry on like this, farmers who can irrigate their crops will be able to deal with it but the others will face a dramatic reduction in their yields,” Christiane Lambert, the head of France’s biggest agricultural union the FNSEA, told AFP on Monday.

Since last autumn we’ve seen “huge droughts” in Spain and Portugal and the same phenomenon has spread to southern France, Lambert said. But “what is unusual this season is that drought is affecting regions north of the Loire”, the river that divides southern and northern France.

‘The water tables couldn’t be filled’

The French agriculture ministry is all too aware of the crisis. “Winter crops such as wheat and barley, currently growing [before cultivation later on], are starting to experience conditions that will affect yields,” a spokesperson said. The hot and dry weather France has seen over the past few weeks could also affect spring crops like corn, sunflower and beet – as well as the fodder needed to feed livestock.

Drought will not only undermine the food supply but has effects further afield. “As well as farming, drought has a huge impact on a lot of other things – like buildings,” warned hydrologist Emma Haziza. “We’re seeing more and more houses collapsing. This is unprecedented in France. The damage droughts create is more expensive to deal with than [the consequences of] floods and it will have huge long-term economic consequences.”

>> 'Code red for humanity': Bombshell UN climate change report shows global warming accelerating

France’s energy flows could also be affected. “What’s more, drought has a negative impact on energy production, as nuclear power plants need a lot of water to cool the reactors.”

A rise in temperatures this April – even after the first day of the month saw snowfall in France – caused a 25 percent drop in rainfall from normal patterns. This heatwave is “remarkable in terms of how early it is, how long it is lasting, and how widespread it is geographically”, France’s Meteorological Office said.

Combined with unusually low rainfall last winter, these conditions have produced the current drought: A deficit of rain over two successive seasons meant “the water tables couldn’t be filled”, Haziza said.

“So very quickly we ended up in a critical situation – before summer has even started.”

For Haziza, who studies how water is distributed and circulated around the planet, the reasons for the current shortage are clear.

>> ‘Humanity is bullying nature – and we will pay the price,’ WWF chief tells FRANCE 24

“The lack of rain is directly caused by climate change; there’s no doubt about that,” she said. “Drought is one of the first consequences we can see. As things stand, this phenomenon is occurring sooner and sooner and becomes more widespread every year.”

Indeed, this is the first time France has endured what meteorologists call a “flash drought” – a phenomenon usually experienced by countries that are more hot and arid, with soil and crops drying up in just five days.

‘Spiraling out of control’

Drought has hit some regions particularly badly – especially in southeastern France, the east of the country and the Poitou-Charentes region in the west. “Some regions’ water tables manage to fill up easily while others don’t,” Haziza said. “But now, even regions that thought they wouldn’t have a drought, like northern France – not to mention large parts of northern Europe, including Belgium – are beginning to suffer from its effects.”

By imposing restrictions on those 15 départements, the French government is managing the crisis – but remains far from tackling its root cause. The measures vary by département – from banning people watering gardens or fields at specific times to a total ban on using water for washing your car.

After talks with France’s water companies and farmers’ representatives, the agriculture ministry announced that the Third Agricultural Revolution, a fund launched in April aimed at helping farmers deal with climate change, will be doubled to €40 million.

The French government also announced in late April that water companies could spend an extra €100 million to help farmers adapt to climate change or to create new reservoirs.

France has done better than most developed countries at responding to the threat of climate change, and began transitioning away from fossil fuels to nuclear power in the 1970s. President Emmanuel Macron has recently reiterated his support for nuclear energy.

>> France unveils nuclear power overhaul – with an eye on China

Even so, measures aimed at dealing with the current drought are nothing compared to the forces of climate change driving it. France must make long-term changes to its agricultural model, Haziza said, including a shift from its current production-oriented paradigm – which fuels the drought problem by driving deforestation.

“The whole system is spiralling out of control,” she said. “We’re running head on into climate change.”

This article was translated from the original in French.

France Opens Torture Case Against Interpol's UAE President: Sources

The case into suspected complicity in torture by the top UAE official has been handed by French anti-terror prosecutors to an investigating magistrate.

Agence France-Presse

Updated: May 11, 2022 

His candidacy for the Interpol job prompted an outcry from activists.


Paris:

French authorities have opened a case against Interpol president Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi of the United Arab Emirates over accusations of torture and arbitrary detention filed by two Britons who were detained in the country, a source close to the investigation said Wednesday.

The case into suspected complicity in torture by the top UAE official has been handed by French anti-terror prosecutors to an investigating magistrate who will now decide whether to press charges, the source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

The two Britons, Matthew Hedges and Ali Issa Ahmad, accuse al-Raisi of having ultimate responsibility -- as a senior interior ministry security official -- for the torture and arbitrary detention they say they suffered in the UAE.

The source said the investigating magistrate must also decide if al-Raisi, who was elected Interpol president in November, enjoys diplomatic immunity from prosecution in France.

The Britons filed the complaint on the basis of universal jurisdiction, which allows states to prosecute serious crimes even if they were committed on foreign soil.

The opening of this case against al-Raisi goes a step further than the torture investigation opened against him by French prosecutors in November, over the detention of UAE dissident Ahmed Mansoor.

At the time, the UAE's foreign ministry rejected the complaints over Mansoor's detention conditions as "without foundation".

In the latest case, the inquiry is now in the hands of an investigating magistrate, a step that precedes the pressing of any charges.

This means that al-Raisi could potentially be detained for questioning in France if his visits the country. Interpol's headquarters are in the southeastern French city of Lyon.

He is already believed to have visited Lyon several times since January.

The case was opened at the end of March, the source added.

Both plaintiffs were in Paris on Wednesday to testify before the investigating magistrate.

Hedges says he was detained and tortured in the UAE from May to November 2018 after being arrested on false charges of espionage during a study trip.

Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was eventually released after international pressure led by the UK.

Ahmad, meanwhile, says he was repeatedly beaten and even stabbed during a month in detention in January 2019, allegedly for enthusiastically supporting the UAE's Gulf rival Qatar in a football clash.

In a statement, Hedges said it was a "real moment of pride" to give evidence to the magistrate about the torture he says he suffered.

"Given the human rights record of the UAE it was incredible that al-Raisi was even elected as president. The torture that myself, Ali, and countless other people in the UAE have suffered is unfortunately the norm in the UAE," he said.

Ahmad said: "So many times I have lost hope that al-Raisi and all the other men that did this to me would get away with it with total impunity, but today is a good day."

Al-Raisi's four-year term at Interpol is largely ceremonial, with Secretary General Jurgen Stock handling day-to-day management of the organisation.

His candidacy for the Interpol job prompted an outcry from activists, who pointed to the generous funding Interpol receives from the United Arab Emirates.

Families of trapped Burkina Faso miners still hopeful weeks into rescue effort

Issued on: 11/05/2022 

 

Families of miners trapped for weeks in a flooded mine in Burkina Faso are hopeful their loved ones will be found alive. The eight – six Burkinabe, a Zambian and a Tanzanian – have been missing since an underground section of the mine flooded on April 16 following heavy rain.

BAD CANADIAN MINING COMPANY DID NOT IMMEDIATELY RESPOND TO THE DISASTER TILL

AFTER FIVE DAYS WASTING PRECIOUS RESCUE TIME

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/burkina-faso-trapped-miners-families.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/burkina-faso-investigates-b.html