EU calls Colombia’s president’s ‘total peace’ law a «major milestone


The European Union has described as an "important milestone for the Colombian people" the signing of the so-called 'total peace' law that allows the Colombian government, headed by Gustavo Petro, to hold talks with armed groups.


Colombian President Gustavo Petro - 

CHEPA BELTRAN / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO

"The European Union welcomes the signing of the 'total peace' law by President Gustavo Petro following the adoption in the Senate and House of Representatives with a large majority," EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said on his official Twitter profile. The EU "supports all efforts to consolidate peace in Colombia," he added.

This initiative will allow to build negotiations with those who are "outside the law" and will serve as a legal framework to negotiate or demobilize armed groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN) or dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Petro proposed during his electoral campaign for the Presidency to implement a 'total peace' with the objective of promoting dialogue with armed and political organizations with the intention of ending "the bloodbath" to which the country had been subjected for more than 50 years.

However, the measure has not convinced several retired Army generals, such as Sergeant Major Luis Orlando Lenis, who serves as president of a military foundation, and maintains that "the 'total peace' is simply another means of impunity" since it would open the possibility that guerrillas such as Luciano Marín Arango, alias 'Iván Marquez', could be pardoned.

Retired soldier Carlos Julio Rodríguez, who has assured that he is part of the military group that is concerned that this new Law 418 - its original name - will serve to violate the rights of the victims "as happened," he said, with the peace agreements of 2016 with the FARC guerrillas.

Despite these claims, the Colombian government has clarified on several occasions that these eventual negotiations are aimed at armed groups of a political nature, such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), not the FARC dissidents of which the aforementioned 'Iván Marquez' is a member.

A New York City neighborhood has scored a legal victory in its decade-long fight to protect a community garden

Alaa Elassar - Monday - CNN

Emmanuelle Chiche remembers the first time she stumbled upon Elizabeth Street Garden, a charming green space hidden between rows of concrete buildings in lower Manhattan.

It wasn’t like any other garden in the city, she remembers thinking. It transported her back to France, her home country, with its dozens of beautifully aging neoclassical sculptures and columns.

“In this place, I learned that there is such a thing as falling in love with a garden,” Chiche, 55, said while standing on a stone balcony overlooking a blossoming pink rose bush. Below, a visitor stops to bring one of the flowers to her nose. Eyes shut, she inhales deeply and basks in its scent.

Since 2013, Chiche and others in the Little Italy neighborhood have been worried about city plans to replace the garden with yet another building. But on Tuesday, they celebrated a victory in the legal battle to protect it.


Emmanuelle Chiche and her daughter, Elsa, sit in Elizabeth Street Garden, where Chiche volunteers. - Courtesy Sally Blue

State Supreme Court Judge Debra James granted a 2019 petition by Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates and maintains the garden, to block construction of an affordable housing complex in its place. James also ordered the City of New York, which owns the property, to conduct a full environmental impact statement before approval for the development can be granted.

“When I saw the notification I started shaking,” said Norman Siegel, the civil rights lawyer who represents the nonprofit. “The law in the case says they have to take a hard look at the environmental issues, and one of the biggest issues they have to look at is the loss of open space.”

Sitting on a bench in front of Central Park’s Upper West Side, Siegel offers a huge smile. “They won,” he said, adding it would be impossible for the city to defend the development plan without showing it would have a negative impact on the environment.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) called the judge’s decision “disappointing” and said in a statement to CNN it will appeal – indicating plans for a protracted fight.

A ‘false choice’ between affordable housing and green spaces

Haven Green, the project planned for the site, is a 123-unit affordable rental complex for senior citizens, according to the development’s website. It will also include a green space, retail stores and the new headquarters for Habitat for Humanity New York City.

HPD says Haven Green is necessary to address New York City’s growing problem with affordable housing, and was designed with the environment in mind.

“With 100,000 seniors currently waiting for access to affordable homes, we cannot allow a small number of anti-housing voices to continue standing in the way of projects our city so desperately needs,” HPD said in a statement to CNN.

Open New York, a grassroots group advocating for affordable housing, echoed HPD’s position. “Housing delayed is housing denied, and we simply can’t afford to let a small number of anti-housing voices block 100 percent affordable housing in a well-resourced neighborhood,” said executive director Annemarie Gray.

But Joseph Reiver, executive director of Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., says it’s not that simple.

His father, Allan Reiver, was the artist who decades ago transformed an empty, trash-filled lot into Elizabeth Street Garden. The elder Reiver, who ran an art gallery and filled the garden with his collection of sculptures and artifacts, died in 2021, leaving the garden in the hands of his son and thousands of volunteers who have been fighting for nearly a decade to protect it.

“It was my father’s legacy, but it’s not my garden,” Reiver said, sitting on a bench inside one of its many quiet nooks. “It belongs to this community, the community values it, and they would be devastated if they lost it.”

Norman Siegel, the lawyer for Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., cheers during a press conference announcing their legal victory. - Courtesy Nana Kumi

Reiver rejects claims by HPD and Open New York that Elizabeth Street Garden Inc. as a fringe group opposed to affordable housing.

“It’s a false choice, a divide and conquer tactic, to say, well, would you rather senior affordable housing or a lush community garden? You missed the issue. We are in dire need of both,” Reiver said. “We should heavily question any agency or leadership that says we can only have one or the other.”

Habitat for Humanity New York City CEO Karen Haycox contends Haven Green would provide both, as it has plans for 16,000 square feet of publicly accessible green space.

Siegel argues the green space the project promises “is not comparable to Elizabeth Street Garden” and will sacrifice necessary amenities the garden currently provides, including sufficient access to sunlight and space for large community activities.

District 1 Councilmember Christopher Marte, who represents the neighborhood where the garden grows, says the community has offered the city multiple proposals “to build senior affordable housing at other sites where we can get up to four times more units than at the Elizabeth Street Garden site.”

The city rejected those proposals, he said.

Razing the garden will have ‘monumental effects’

Supporters of Elizabeth Street Garden are confident an environmental impact statement will reveal construction of Haven Green would adversely impact the environment and quality of life in the neighborhood.

Christopher Kennedy, associate director at the Urban Systems Lab at The New School, says it’s a plausible conclusion.

“The more green space the better,” Kennedy, who authored a study about the positive impact of green spaces in cities, told CNN. “Green spaces offer endless climate related benefits, especially in relation to urban flooding issues. With extreme heat, which will become much more common in 50 years, the amount of vegetation coverage like trees and shrubs can cool the area substantially several degrees within an afternoon, which can be a life or death difference.

“When you take green spaces away, you increase the vulnerability of New Yorkers,” he added.

Razing the garden can also have “monumental” effects on the mental health of local residents, Kennedy said. Many rely on garden events and programs – including morning yoga, summer movie nights, poetry readings, and partnerships with local schools – for a sense of community.

“The garden is so unique because even though there are a lot of public parks and bigger parks, they can’t provide the same services the garden provides,” he said. “It isn’t just about getting outside for fresh air, it’s about the opportunity to connect with your neighbor and community and that translates to positive mental health impacts.”

New Yorkers gathered in Elizabeth Street Garden for afternoon music in the main green space, where public events are often held. - Courtesy Joseph Reiver

It could also affect local wildlife, supporters say. Elizabeth Street Garden, certified by the National Wildlife Foundation, is a registered way station for endangered monarch butterflies, providing them with nectar, milkweed and shelter.

The city has pointed to other parks that provide similar services, but it’s not the same said Councilmember Marte.

The neighborhood is “definitely underserved,” he said. “Our neighborhood shows that Elizabeth Street Garden is one of the only places to bring green to Little Italy, Chinatown, SoHo, and NoHo. Even though we love Washington Square Park, it’s not our neighborhood. It’s a completely different area, and most seniors can’t do that 20-minute walk to that park.”

Renée Green, a local senior and chairman of Elizabeth Street Garden Inc., says the garden has been vital to her health and wellness.

“From the time I moved here 15 years ago, I was riddled with arthritis,” said Green, 91. “The garden is everything to our community, and for people like myself, who are only growing older, losing it will mean losing our only access to nature, to a community, and that would be devastating.”

Nicholas O’Connell, 51, lives across the street from the garden. He says removing it would irrecoverably alter the community’s landscape.

“You walk around this neighborhood and there really isn’t trees, there’s no nature, and to destroy the garden and the ecosystem it has created would really be unacceptable,” he said. “We don’t want whatever they’re trying to bring, it will never match what we have here.”

‘We won’t give up ever’

Along with the distinctive sculptures from Allan Reiver’s collection, Elizabeth Street Garden boasts a gravel path bordered by stone ornamental railings designed by French landscape architect Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber during the Gilded Age.

Every corner of the sanctuary reveals another alcove, with benches hidden under canopies of colorful trees from which birds sing, providing respite from the noise of the bustling city. Those seeking sunshine have endless options to lie in between pear trees, beds of roses, dahlias, asters, dianthus, and geraniums.

“It’s like walking into the magical garden from a story book, it really is surreal,” said Geena DiGuilio, a garden volunteer.

On a balcony across from her a couple sits on a bench, hands intertwined, one reading a book aloud to the other. Later that afternoon, a newlywed bride and groom will laugh as they run down the path toward the garden’s entrance.

“My favorite thing is bringing my friends and watching their faces when they first walk in, that shocked ‘what is this place?’ And seeing them soak in the magic,” DiGuilio said.

A woman reads on the balcony, which overlooks a rose bush, hydrangea tree and various flower beds in Elizabeth Street Garden. - Courtesy Joseph Reiver

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development remains adamant Haven Green won’t harm the community, and says it’s committed to the project. “We stand by our environmental reviews, we are determined to bring Haven Green to this site, and we will pursue every avenue available to ensure that happens,” it said in its statement.

To counter those efforts, Reiver says the nonprofit will try to preserve Elizabeth Street Garden as a conservation land trust, so it can continue operating the garden and its community programs free of encroachment by the city.

In the meantime, Reiver is urging Mayor Eric Adams and other officials to visit the garden and see its impact for themselves. “Come see what’s at stake,” he said.

After last week’s legal victory, he and supporters believe anything is possible.

“So many people saw us as that little garden who will never win. But we won, at least for now, and we won’t give up ever,” Chiche said.

In Halloween crush, South Koreans see young people being failed again

Soo Youn - Monday

SEOUL, South Korea — Ushered by guides donning black ribbons, Ahn Soon Yi, 86, and her husband walked the semicircular path around Seoul Plaza. Then they placed white chrysanthemums on a memorial altar for the 156 mostly young victims of the Halloween crowd crush, and wrote condolences for scores of people who had departed this life decades too soon.

Afterward, Ahn sobbed into a handkerchief and fell to the ground: Her own granddaughter was the same age as many who had died.

“How can this keep happening in this country?” she said on Friday, referring to a 1999 fire at a Hwasong youth camp in which 23 children died. Older generations, she said, failed them like they failed the costumed partygoers on Oct. 29. “Why couldn’t the police have gotten there sooner?”

South Koreans across the country are asking the same questions. This year’s Halloween celebration in Seoul’s nightlife district of Itaewon drew a crowd of 100,000 revelers yet only 137 police officers, resulting in one of the worst peacetime disasters in the country’s history.


People pray for victims of a deadly accident during Halloween festivities in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 2, 2022. (Ahn Young-joon / AP)

Soon after the disaster, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a one-week period of national mourning as authorities scrambled to explain what happened. Throughout South Korea, thousands of people paid their respects at designated memorial sites in 17 cities.

Many expressed similar reasons for attending. Millennials and Generation Zers cited the sense that “it could have been me or my friends.” Those a generation older empathized with the victims’ parents. Across ages, people shared disappointment that adults could not protect the children.

South Korea has been wrestling with shock, grief and, as the days progress, anger. The release of transcripts of calls to police asking for help and warning of peril hours before the crush, and the Yoon government’s use of the word “accident” instead of “disaster” and “decedent” instead of “victim” added to frustrations with the government.

Police chief says response to Seoul Halloween crush was inadequate

View on Watch   Duration 1:31

On Friday, a bereaved mother whose son died in Itaewon visited the altar at Seoul’s City Hall, tearing down the flowers sent by Yoon and yelling, “Why did you send flowers without protecting them?” as she was pulled away by police.

One week after the Itaewon disaster, as the official mourning period drew to a close, tens of thousands of Koreans gathered at an evening vigil at City Hall to memorialize the victims and protest the Yoon government, holding signs saying, “The citizens are dead. Is this me?” and “Yoon Suk Yeol step down.”

Earlier in the day, hundreds of young people had organized a protest in Itaewon, carrying signs saying, “At 6:34 the country was not there [for the victims],” referring to the time the first panicked call was made to the police before the fatalities occurred.

On Monday, Yoon apologized for the crowd crush, vowing to improve police and safety management systems and hold accountable anyone found responsible.

The anti-Yoon protests have been going on for weeks with a heavy police presence, including the night of the Halloween crush, which has also angered critics, as has Yoon’s move out of the official presidential residence into a luxury apartment building. The move has increased his Itaewon-based security detail to about 700 officers.

People take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 156 people killed in the October 29 Halloween crowd crush in Seoul, South Korea, on Nov. 5, 2022. 

(Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images)

Yoon’s new home is the site of the former Sampoong Department Store, which collapsed in 1995, killing more than 500 people and injuring more than 900. There is no major public memorial at the site.

“The Korean government has a long history of censoring, erasing and misremembering any event that might be considered shameful,” said Areum Jeong, author of an upcoming book on the aftermath of the Sewol ferry disaster. “Creating a memorial would be admitting that there is something to document.”

More than 100 of those killed in the Halloween crush were in their 20s, a generation marked by the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014, which killed more than 300 high school students. The tragedy marked the beginning of the end for the last right-wing president, Park Geun-hye.

At the time, Busan resident Park Yun Eun, 20, was in sixth grade.

“I saw this horrible [Sewol] accident happen, and it was also under a conservative administration. To grow up watching that, and seeing this, it reaffirms my belief that no matter what we do, no matter how much we call the police … they’re not going to take care of us, they’re not going to save our lives,” she said.



People take part in a candlelight vigil to commemorate the 156 people killed in the October 29 Halloween crowd crush in Seoul on Nov. 5, 2022. 

(Jung Yeon-je / AFP - Getty Images)

Within the last century, Korea has emerged from Japanese colonialism, the Korean War, military dictatorships and a struggle for democracy, transforming itself into the world’s 10th-largest economy. As a result, the whiplash-inducing pace of change can wallpaper over generational trauma, experts say, which resurfaces when an event that seems preventable occurs.

“Koreans tend to force themselves to go on with their lives,” Jeong said. “People deal with such trauma by attending memorials or protests, posting condolences on social media and creating and viewing art that commemorates the victims.”

Some worried that the government seemed to have forced the country into mourning before the incident had been fully investigated.

Kang Hye-Won, a Seoul-based cultural critic, said that declaring a memorial week the day after the disaster, as the bodies were still being recovered and identified, seemed too soon.

“People are afraid the government will not properly figure out why it happened and what to improve after the disaster,” Kang said. “People are in deep sorrow, but at the same time they’re afraid that maybe things won’t change.”



A woman prays near a makeshift memorial for the 156 people killed in a Halloween crowd crush in Seoul's Itaewon district on Nov. 5, 2022.

(Kang Jin-kyu / AFP - Getty Images)

Jean Kim, a Korean American psychiatrist who has treated post-traumatic stress disorder, said that collective trauma can occur after long-term events, like a war or occupation, as well as after acute, short-term ones like the Itaewon tragedy, layering levels of grief.

In addition, the barrage of images and videos on social media can aggravate the PTSD symptom of abnormal memory processing in which an event gets replayed over and over and sets off panic, flashbacks and nightmares, Kim said.

“While it is important to look at what could be done differently for future safety, trauma also may set off unhealthy rumination, self-berating (such as survivor guilt) and anger,” she said.

Mental health services and counseling sessions are being offered at some universities, but many aren’t sure that Koreans would use them, since mental health treatments still carry some stigma.

Asked what would help her generation heal, Park said, “We grew up realizing that Sewol was dealt with in a terrible way. I don’t even know how to deal with that trauma, which was eight years ago. Now 156 deaths of people my age, I do not know how to deal with that. I don’t know how to be angry. I don’t know how to speak out against what’s happening. That’s the biggest problem with our generation right now, we don’t know how to think. It’s really sad.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Figures on migration to Italy: more than 1,300 deaths and 88,000 arrivals by 2022

Monday

The change of government has once again stirred up the debate on migration policy in Italy, with messages that are reminiscent of the first period of the ultra-right in power and that once again put on the table different ways of dealing with a drama that this year alone has seen more than 88,000 arrivals on Italian shores and more than 1,300 dead or missing.


Migrants disembarked at Roccella Ionica, in Calabria - 

Valeria Ferraro/ZUMA Press Wire/ DPA© Provided by News 360

The main arguments of the new Italian Executive, headed by Giorgia Meloni, revolve around the alleged lack of European solidarity and suspicions about the activities of NGOs, which the authorities continue to accuse of encouraging migration by deploying rescue ships in the central Mediterranean area.

The Italian Interior Ministry has denounced on Monday that, so far this year, some 88,100 people have already arrived on the coasts, more than the 55,794 recorded in the whole of 2021 and the 30,416 of 2020, years however where there was a general decline in migrations due to the restrictions on mobility applied worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Government, more than 2,800 migrants disembarked in November alone.

By nationality, Egyptians, Tunisians, Bangladeshis, Syrians and Afghans top the list, while the number of unaccompanied minors is now close to 10,000 - at least 9,930 as of October 31, according to official data.

NGOs and UN agencies, meanwhile, emphasize the other side of the coin, that of those seeking protection in southern Europe after a long journey that has as its penultimate stop Libya, a country marked by conflict for more than a decade and where all kinds of abuses of migrants and refugees have been noted.

Human Rights organizations insist that Libya can in no way be considered a safe port to authorize refoulements, but in early October the number of landings in the North African country already exceeded 16,600, all of them the work of a Coast Guard also questioned for its repressive practices.

The figure, collected by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is in addition to those who lose their lives trying to make the final leap to Europe. Since 2014, more than 25,000 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean, including almost 20,200 in the central area, the one connecting to Italy.

This year alone, 1,337 migrants and refugees have died in this part of the Mediterranean, so it is not ruled out that the figure of 1,567 victims corresponding to 2021, which was the deadliest year since 2017, will be reached. The worst recent year in terms of victims was 2016, with 4,574, although the UN has warned that it is not aware of all cases and these are statistical approximations.

More complicated, if anything, is establishing how many people lose their lives along the way, even on African soil. In the whole of North Africa, the IOM has registered 527 deaths so far this year and, of these, 88 correspond to the Sahara desert, although in such inhospitable areas many die without a trace.

California man blames meteorite after house goes up in flames

Edward Helmore - Monday-  The Guardian

Anorthern California man has claimed that his home was destroyed by a meteorite on Friday, after several witnesses reportedly saw a ball of light descending from the sky.


Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images

“I heard a big bang. I started to smell smoke and I went on to my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames,” local rancher Dustin Procita, whose home was destroyed, told the local television news station KCRA.

Related: Fireball seen over UK confirmed as meteor after day of confusion

“They said it was a meteor,” Procita, of Nevada county, California, added. “I did not see what it was, but from everybody I talked to – [it] was a flaming ball falling from the sky, landed in that general area.”

Procita said he had been shown a video of a fireball coming out of the sky around the time his house was destroyed. He said it looked “like a flaming basketball”.

Related video: Investigation into possible meteorite landing on NorCal home

Duration 4:35

View on Watch

“Definitely feel very lucky that it was 30 feet away from me and not five,” he added.

The Penn Valley fire department said it was working with the state agency Cal Fire to investigate what started the blaze at Procita’s house, which is nestled in a rural area that is home to ranchers and cattle farmers.

“Meteorite, asteroid – one of those two,” the department’s captain, Josh Miller, also told KCRA. “I had one individual tell me about it first and like, OK, I’ll put that in the back of my mind. But then more people – two, three or four more – started coming in and talking about it.”

According to the US space agency Nasa, the southern Taurids meteor shower is peaking this week. The cosmic display, which occurs each year from September to November, is created when Earth passes through a broad stream or “swarm” of pebble-sized fragments from the Comet Encke that then burn up in the atmosphere.

Procita said that his home being struck by what are sometimes called “Halloween’s Fireballs” made him think that the odds of fortune may be in their favor. “I guess I might be buying a lottery ticket today,” he said.

Indeed, experts say the odds of being struck by a meteorite are astronomically slim, though it’s happened before.

In fact, in 1954, a meteorite fell from the sky and struck Ann Hodges on her hip while she was in her home in Alabama. She suffered a grapefruit-shaped bruise but was otherwise physically fine, according to the website spacecentre.co.uk.

An astronomer said Hodges had greater chances of being hit simultaneously by a tornado, a lightning bolt and a hurricane.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/11/big-bang-meteor-destroyed-mans.html

https://www.livescience.com/27183-asteroid-meteorite-meteor-meteoroid.html

What Are an Asteroid, a Meteor and a Meteorite? - Live Science 

Feb 15, 2013 ... A meteor is an asteroid or other object that burns and vaporizes upon entry into the Earth's atmosphere; meteors are commonly known as "shooting ...

COVER UP
Judge seals autopsy reports of Uvalde mass shooting victims

Shimon Prokupecz - Monday - CNN

ATexas district court judge in Uvalde has sealed autopsy reports of those killed during the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in May.

Judge Camile Dubose of the 38th District Court on Friday ordered the records be sealed and provided to the local district attorney “for the purpose of assisting in the investigation and potential prosecution or prosecutions” connected to the ongoing investigation.

In a motion to seal the records, prosecutors had argued the autopsies could reveal information that authorities need to preserve until the investigation into the shooting is completed.

“The types, number, and manner in which injuries were inflicted in this case includes information vital to the investigation, apprehension and potential prosecution of individuals that may be criminally responsible,” the motion reads.

It is unclear how long the records will remain sealed, with the motion adding they will be hidden “from public inspection until further order of this court.”

The decision comes six months after a gunman stormed into the school and killed 19 children and two teachers inside two adjoining classrooms. Law enforcement from across the state arrived to the school within minutes, but the gunman remained alive in the classrooms for 77 minutes before a tactical unit finally forced their way and killed him, according to a timeline from authorities.

State officials have repeatedly misstated the timeline and the actions of the 376 law enforcement personnel who arrived to the scene, and the Uvalde mayor has accused the Texas Department of Public Safety of a “cover-up.”

Roland Gutierrez, a state senator whose district includes Uvalde, said at a news conference Monday that the families impacted by the massacre should have access to the autopsy records and unsealing the reports are crucial for transparency in the investigation of one of the worst school shootings in US history.

He echoed the frustration and anger of relatives of the victims who have seen a botched response by law enforcement on the day of the shooting and who have called for more openness as agencies investigate what went wrong on May 24.

Gutierrez, a Democrat, said, “The most important thing about these autopsies is to see which children were alive and how long they were alive.”

It remains unclear whether some of those who died might have survived if they had received prompt medical care for their wounds.

Deputies close to Evo Morales denounce the «fracture» of MAS and reproach Arce for the conflict over the census

Daniel Stewart - Monday -News 360

Deputies of the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) have reproached this Monday the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, and his vice-president, David Choquehuanca, for the "fracture" caused in the party and criticized the management of the census conflict with the opposition, which has provoked an indefinite civic strike in the province of Santa Cruz.


Archive - Evo Morales and Luis Arce in an archive image

 - JULIETA FERRARIO / ZUMA PRESS / CONTACTOPHOTO

"Today the bench of the Movement Towards Socialism is divided and fractured and who are the responsible ones? We are going to say it with absolute firmness: our president Luis Arce Catacora and David Choquehuanca. They are the ones who have divided. They are illegally electing a head of the national bench, and also in the style of Mrs. Jeanine Añez they are trying to impose the directive of the Chamber of Deputies", said MAS deputy Héctor Arce in a press conference, quoted by the newspaper 'Página Siete'.

In particular, he criticized the prolongation of the debate on the electoral census which has triggered an indefinite "civic" strike of the opposition in the province of Santa Cruz, which has already accumulated 17 days.

"This debate is bland. It is already three days on the census issue. It is dragging on to hide three things from the Government of Luis Arce and David Choquehuanca: they want to hide corruption, they want to hide the allegations of drug trafficking and they want to minimize this fracture that there is MAS and in our organizations", he has warned.

Related video: Roadblocks in Bolivia on second day of strike over national census

Duration 0:53

View on Watch

Héctor Arce has also regretted that in the two years of legislature the president of the Assembly has not discussed or debated with the opposition or given press conferences to defend the Government.

"I have not seen David Choquehuanca defend the bills or laws that have been sanctioned. In two years David Choquehuanca, as president of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly, has not been able to elaborate the legislative agenda, but he is very good at dividing. Today he has fractured MAS in the Assembly, today he is working to fracture our social organizations", he stated.

He also denounced the "illegal and trucha session" with which they tried to impose a directive with "elbows, kicks and fists" in the MAS parliamentary group.

"How sad, how shameful to reach this extreme of making a pact. In the neoliberal era there was talk of black briefcases. Now there is talk of black bags with five, six résumé folders. They pay tickets for deputies and senators to come and vote for Virginia Velasco in the Senate or Jerges Mercado in the Chamber of Deputies. We are ashamed to have this type of authorities", he said.

Héctor Arce was accompanied at the press conference by other deputies such as Gualberto Arispe, a MAS leader from the Tropic of Cochabamba considered close to Evo Morales.

COLD WAR TWO
Canadian intelligence warned PM Trudeau that China covertly funded 2019 election candidates: Sources

Sam Cooper - Monday - Global News

Canadian intelligence officials have warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that China has allegedly been targeting Canada with a vast campaign of foreign interference, which includes funding a clandestine network of at least 11 federal candidates running in the 2019 election, according to Global News sources.


Canadian intelligence briefs allege China’s consulate in Toronto directed a large, clandestine transfer of funds to a network of candidates in the 2019 election, sources say.

Delivered to the prime minister and several cabinet members in a series of briefings and memos first presented in January, the allegations included other detailed examples of Beijing’s efforts to further its influence and, in turn, subvert Canada’s democratic process, sources said.

Based on recent information from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), those efforts allegedly involve payments through intermediaries to candidates affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), placing agents into the offices of MPs in order to influence policy, seeking to co-opt and corrupt former Canadian officials to gain leverage in Ottawa, and mounting aggressive campaigns to punish Canadian politicians whom the People's Republic of China (PRC) views as threats to its interests.

CSIS told Global News it could not answer some questions for this story. But the service confirmed it has identified the PRC’s foreign interference in Canada, which can include covert funding to influence election outcomes.

“The Chinese Communist Party … is using all elements of state power to carry out activities that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty,” CSIS stated.

The briefings did not identify the 2019 candidates. But the alleged election interference network included members from both the Liberal and Conservative parties, according to sources with knowledge of the briefs.

Global News was not able to confirm from the sources which cabinet ministers may have been privy to the briefs nor the specific timing that the information was reportedly shared.

Chief among the allegations is that CSIS reported that China’s Toronto consulate directed a large clandestine transfer of funds to a network of at least eleven federal election candidates and numerous Beijing operatives who worked as their campaign staffers.

The funds were allegedly transferred through an Ontario provincial MPP and a federal election candidate staffer. Separate sources aware of the situation said a CCP proxy group, acting as an intermediary, transferred around $250,000.

The 2022 briefs said that some, but not all, members of the alleged network are witting affiliates of the Chinese Communist Party. The intelligence did not conclude whether CSIS believes the network successfully influenced the October 2019 election results, sources say.

CSIS can capture its findings through warrants that allow electronic interception of communications among Chinese consulate officials and Canadian politicians and staffers.

Sources close to this situation say they are revealing details from the 2022 briefs to give Canadians a clearer understanding of China’s attacks on Canada’s democratic system. Out of fear of retribution, they have asked their names be withheld.

In response to the briefing details, experts say the alleged interference points to weakness in Canada’s outdated espionage and counterintelligence laws, which sophisticated interference networks run by China, Russia and Iran are exploiting.

Still, the 2022 intelligence asserts that China conducts more foreign interference than any other nation, and interference threats to Canada increased in 2015 when Chinese president Xi Jinping elevated the CCP’s so-called United Front influence networks abroad.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) did not directly answer a series of questions from Global News, including whether or not Prime Minister Trudeau was briefed in 2022 on Canadian intelligence that alleged China had covertly funded a clandestine network of candidates in the 2019 election.

It also did not respond to a question on the need for tighter federal rules against foreign influence on Canadian politics.

"Protecting Canadians’ security is our top priority. Threats, harassment, or intimidation of Canadian citizens are unacceptable, and all allegations of interference are investigated thoroughly by our security agencies," a statement from the PMO said. "As threats evolve, so must the methods used to address them. That is why the Prime Minister has given the Minister of Public Safety the mandate to improve collaboration between Canadian security agencies.”

Conservative Party leadership did not respond to Global News questions by deadline for this story.

“We simply don’t have a prosecutorial end game to deal with foreign interference,” said Dan Stanton, a former CSIS officer who studies Chinese interference, but isn’t privy to recent CSIS reporting. “The sophistication of the threat: it is not the guy with the fedora and black coat, like the old days with the KGB. The whole point of influence networks is that anyone can be used by a foreign state as a co-optee, or agent, or source."

Stanton and other experts told Global News that CSIS benefits from modernized counter-terror laws that have enabled the service to mitigate terror planning and funding networks since 9/11, but Canada’s espionage laws are stuck in the Cold War era.

“So, until we make legislative changes on interference,” Stanton said, “it’s just CSIS telling our politicians, ‘Hey, be careful out there.'"

In April 2021, a private members bill in the House of Commons called for a foreign influence registry, but it did not become law.

Kenny Chiu, the B.C. Conservative MP who wrote the bill, was subsequently targeted by the CCP’s election interference network, sources said. Chiu says his law would have compelled anyone working for hostile regimes, such as Russia and Iran and China, to declare their interests, and this transparency would protect Canada’s democracy.

The Toronto Consulate and Chinese officials in Ottawa did not respond to questions from Global News about allegations in the 2022 briefs.

Money and influence

Interference on Canadian soil is orchestrated by the CCP’s powerful United Front Work Department, which mobilizes large sections of society abroad to fulfill Chinese Communist Party objectives, according to the 2022 briefs.

United Front operations can include politicians, media, business, student and community groups, and are aimed at consolidating support for CCP policy as well as targeting critics and the causes of ethnic groups seen as “poisons” by the CCP, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans.

Several federal candidates from Canada’s 2019 federal election met with China-based United Front Work Department officials, the intelligence alleges, but did not identify the politicians.

While Xi’s United Front is not itself an espionage agency, intelligence briefs allege its networks in Canada facilitate interference operations by China’s foreign espionage service, the Ministry of State Security.

The briefs also reported that Xi’s United Front operates through Chinese consulates in Canada, from which officials direct funds into Canada’s political system, using CCP proxies.

The CSIS briefs also point to the 2014 imbroglio over Toronto District School Board’s partnership with the Confucius Institute, China’s controversial state-funded, culture-education program. Many parents, teachers and students opposed the involvement of these schools, which are guided by the United Front Work Department, according to the U.S. State Department.

According to the briefs, the Toronto Chinese Consulate allegedly transferred $1 million to unidentified proxy groups, which in turn organized protests to support the continued integration of the program into Toronto’s district school board system. That effort ultimately failed when the TDSB voted to sever its ties to the organization.

But China’s alleged United Front campaigns extend beyond financing to the co-opting of politicians and harassment of critics.

One of the more dramatic allegations from the briefs pertained to a pivotal February 2021 vote in the House of Commons, in which members would either support or reject a United Nations resolution declaring China’s treatment of the Uyghur people a genocide.

The intelligence also alleges that, in the aftermath of the House vote, Chinese intelligence agents conducted in-depth background research into MPs who voted in favour of the resolution, declaring China guilty of genocide.

The agents studied the ridings of specific, targeted MPs in order to learn what industries and companies were present and whether these companies had economic links to China.

The objective was to judge whether China could leverage the local economies of Canadian politicians seen as the CCP’s enemies, sources said.

In addition, it was alleged that before the September 2021 federal election, a small number of MPs reported they feared for their families and their reputations and believed they were being targeted in operations to hurt their election chances.

One of the MPs whom the CCP allegedly targeted, MP Kenny Chiu, said he believes Chinese agents succeeded in smearing him as a racist in WeChat and Mandarin-language media reports. As the member from Steveston-Richmond, Chiu had advocated for transparent elections in Hong Kong, voted in favour of declaring China’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide, and tabled his April 2021 bill calling for a foreign influence registry.

“The CCP didn’t have to send me a death threat, they just tried to kill my political career,” Chiu said in an interview.

“So ahead of the 2021 election, I was given a distancing treatment by Chinese-language media. And during the campaign people were shutting the door in my face. The messages I was getting were, ‘Kenny Chiu is a racist. Kenny is Anti-Asian.’”

Some pundits, however, argued that Chiu swung his riding for the Conservatives in 2019 and the riding simply reverted to the Liberals two years later.

Chinese intelligence in the field

The 2022 briefs alleged that one official in Toronto’s Chinese Consulate directed a 2019 federal election-campaign staffer to control and monitor their candidates’ meetings. These efforts included preventing meetings with representatives of Taiwan, a democratic country that Beijing claims is a renegade province.

This kind of interference extends to elected officials as well, according to the briefs, which referred to instances in which clandestine operatives were placed alongside elected officials in an attempt to control the policy choices of federal MPs.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Harry Tseng, Taiwan’s deputy minister of foreign affairs and top diplomat in Ottawa. “This type of activity is directed from Beijing in many consulates abroad. I think China can be that coercive because they have a very comprehensive list of Canadian politicians.

And when they can find a connection to China, they can pull a string to influence the Canadians.”

The 2022 briefs also detailed Chinese intelligence efforts to infiltrate, surveil and “mess with” Chinese diaspora communities.

Fenella Sung, a Hong Kong Canadian community leader in Vancouver, said she has long believed that Chinese intelligence has infiltrated Canadian diaspora groups, by using business inducements and “subtle psychological warfare.”

She also believes that China’s United Front controls and funds an “interchangeable” network of candidates and nominations in some British Columbia and Ontario ridings.

Turnisa Matsedik-Qira, a Uyghur-Canadian activist, said many in her community believe Chinese agents monitored and harassed them. She provided photos from her December 2021 Facebook posting that showed one alleged incident. In the post, Matsedik-Qira says she was protesting outside the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver when a van pulled up, and two men jumped out.

“One of them spit on me and said, “I wish all your people died,” she said.

“I’m scared and worried for my safety. I think he is connected to the Chinese Consulate, for sure. The Consulate has many people in Canada working for China.”

Coerced Repatriations

The 2022 briefs also shed light on the PRC’s so-called Fox Hunt, a high-profile international campaign in President Xi’s efforts to battle corruption and persuade economic fugitives to return to China.

National security experts argue the Fox Hunt is less about battling corruption and more about the CCP extending tentacles of repression into diaspora communities abroad and clamping down on rivals and dissidents.

The 2022 briefs alleged that one of China’s Fox Hunt targets in Canada had connections to the Politburo, the CCP’s elite inner circle of leaders.

Concern was raised in 2020 when a Chinese police agent worked with a Canadian police officer to repatriate an economic fugitive. In another coerced repatriation, Chinese police brought a Fox Hunt target’s brother and father into Canada and would not allow them to return to China unless the economic fugitive also agreed to return, the 2022 briefs alleged.

A new report from the Spanish human rights NGO SafeGuard Defenders bolsters these suspicions, identifying three alleged secret Chinese police stations in Toronto, among 50 similar worldwide, which are used to repatriate Fox Hunt targets. SafeGuard Defenders cited Chinese state records that connect the Toronto locations to police bureaus in Fujian province.

Dan Stanton, the former CSIS official, and David Mulroney, Canada’s former ambassador to China, said that Canada is more exposed than other Western democracies to China’s interference, and yet as the United States, UK and Australia strengthen their counter-interference laws and ramp up investigations into Xi’s United Front networks, Ottawa remains strangely inactive.



“The two most worrying aspects of this are direct interference in our electoral process, and we're now seeing evidence of this,” Mulroney said, “and harassment of people in Canada of Uyghur and Tibetan origin who have vulnerable relatives back home.”

Global News also described some of the allegations sources say were briefed to Trudeau in 2022, including China’s election interference and targeting of MPs and diaspora communities in Canada, to Dennis Molinaro, a former senior CSIS analyst and expert on foreign interference, who now teaches legal studies at Ontario Tech University.

Molinaro said if the CSIS intelligence warnings sources say were provided to Trudeau are confirmed as accurate, they raise concerns about why the government hasn’t yet responded by tabling new legislation to counter the threats.

“The level of foreign interference activity you describe is serious and alarming,” Molinaro said. “And if confirmed, the level of interference you describe says to me that foreign adversaries understand the legislative loopholes that exist in Canada and are taking full advantage of them.”

Greta Thunberg says she's ready to hand over megaphone


Wednesday, 09 Nov 2022


Thunberg says her talks with world leaders have left her pessimistic about their ability to make progress on the issue of climate change. Photo: AFP

Four years after launching her "School Strike for the Climate", Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is ready to pass the baton to those on the front lines of climate change, she said in an interview on Nov 7.

"We should also listen to reports and experiences from people who are most affected by the climate crisis. It's time to hand over the megaphone to those who actually have stories to tell," the 19-year-old told Swedish news agency TT.

After urging the public in recent years to "listen to the science", Thunberg said the world now needed "new perspectives".

In the past four years, Thunberg's one-person strike outside the Swedish parliament has evolved into a massive global movement engaging millions of youths and unleashing a torrent of debate on the dangers of climate change.

Thunberg said she initially believed an urgent debate on the climate was needed to save the world for future generations.

But over time, she said, she has come to understand that the climate crisis is already having devastating consequences on people's lives.

"So it becomes even more hypocritical when people in Sweden for example say that we have time to adapt and shouldn't fear what will happen in the future," she said.

Thunberg has previously said she would skip the COP27 talks that started Nov 6 in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, slamming it as a forum for "greenwashing".

She said her talks with world leaders have left her pessimistic about their ability to make progress on the issue.

"Some of the things world leaders and heads of state have said when the microphone is off are hard to believe when you tell people", she said.

"Like, 'If I had known what we were agreeing to when we signed the Paris Agreement, I would never have signed', or 'You kids are more knowledgeable in this area than I am'," she said.

"The lack of knowledge among the world's most powerful people is shocking."

Thunberg, who is in her final year of high school in Stockholm, said meanwhile she hasn't yet decided what she will do after she graduates.

"We'll see. If I had to choose today, I would choose to continue my studies. Preferably something that has to do with social issues," she said. – AFP Relaxnews

Humanitarian groups accuse Italy of breaking international law

Humanitarian groups on Sunday said Italy had broken international law by refusing to let in migrants plucked from the sea as a German rescue charity said it would take legal action against Rome. As rescue ships in Catania waited for permission to disembark every last person, a migrant rescue hotline said some 500 others had run into difficulty on the perilous Mediterranean crossing. FRANCE 24's Liza Kaminov and Oliver Farry tells us more.

 

Italy defends migrant policy after claims of illegal rejections

AFP - Monday

Italy's new interior minister insisted Monday it was treating migrants "with humanity" after widespread criticism of moves to allow only the most vulnerable to disembark from charity rescue ships.


Meloni's government has promised to stop the tens of thousands of people who land on Italy's shores each year© VINCENZO CIRCOSTA


Situation on blocked migrant ship in Catania 'very critical', says MSF© Sonia LOGRE

Around 500 migrants disembarked in the Sicilian port of Catania over the weekend after being rescued by two charity ships from leaky, overcrowded boats seeking to cross from North Africa to Europe.



Many migrants have infectious dermatological diseases© VINCENZO CIRCOSTA

But around 250 from the two ships were denied permission to land under orders of Italy's new hard-right government, including a group of 35 men onboard the German-flagged Humanity 1, a vessel then ordered to leave.

NGOs said the move to select who could disembark was illegal and warned of desperate conditions onboard the two ships, which remain in the port.

Three men on Monday jumped from one of them, the Geo Barents, run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), before being swiftly picked up out of the water, the charity said.

Afterwards a dozen other migrants stood on the deck of the ship chanting "Help us", an AFP reporter witnessed.

"We are behaving with humanity but firmly based on our principles," said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, on the sidelines of an event in Rome.

He said migrants on other ships had been welcomed into Italian ports, and those left on board were being "constantly monitored by the competent authorities".

Authorities in Syracuse confirmed to AFP on Monday that more than 500 people found in distress off Malta had been rescued by Italian authorities and disembarked in Sicily.



Amnesty says Italy is breaching its international obligations© VINCENZO CIRCOSTA

Piantedosi said he was working at a national and European level to resolve the issue, after years of complaints from Rome that the EU was not doing enough.

Italy's new government, led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party, has vowed to stop the tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on the country's shores each year.

Situation on blocked migrant ship in Catania 'very critical', says MSF

Duration 1:25   View on Watch

One of her deputy prime ministers, League leader Matteo Salvini, is currently on trial for blocking migrant boats when he was interior minister in 2019.

He said Monday the arrivals must be stopped, tweeting: "They are organised trips, increasingly dangerous, which finance weapons and drugs. They must be cut off."

- 'Healthy men' -

After days at sea, Geo Barents was given permission to disembark 357 people, including children, while the authorities refused entry to 215 others.

Nearby, Humanity 1 disembarked 144 people, but 35 adult male migrants onboard were refused.

A government decree issued Friday said Humanity 1 was only allowed into an Italian port for the time it took to help those in "emergency conditions".

The charity SOS Humanity, which operates the ship, said authorities decided after a "brief" medical exam that the 35 men were "healthy" and so need not disembark.

But it said no translator attended and there was no psychological evaluation, and has launched legal action against the government for selecting who can disembark.

"If a port is secure, then it's secure for everybody," SOS Humanity lawyer Riccardo Campochiaro told AFP.

- International obligations -

UN agencies the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration all urged the disembarkation of the migrants "without delay".

In a joint statement Monday, they welcomed Italy's moves to let off many of the migrants but said "a solution is urgently needed for all remaining survivors".

They referred also to two other rescue ships, the Ocean Viking and Rise Above, which have been waiting off Sicily with around 230 and 90 migrants respectively.

Media reports late Monday said Rise Above had been assigned a port in southern Italy.

A group of civil society organisations, including ActionAid International, Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Refugee Council, echoed the call for a rapid disembarkation.

Amnesty International has accused Italy of "violating its international obligations", saying "the law of the sea is clear; a rescue ends when all those rescued are disembarked in a place of safety".

- Psychological stress -

One of those left onboard Geo Barents was later evacuated by ambulance after suffering "acute abdominal pain", MSF said on Monday, bringing the total remaining to 214.

Antonio Nicita, a senator with the centre-left Democratic Party, said he had visited the ship and found "a lot of suffering".

"Many people undressed in front of us to show their scabies infection," he told AFP.

"Their situation, their level of psychological stress is very, very high," added Riccardo Gatti, the chief of search and rescue at MSF.

"The ship has its limitations in terms of medical assistance: a ship is like an ambulance and people are still in the ambulance," he said.

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