SISI BE CURSED
Egypt highway uproots graves, homes in 'City of Dead'

Issued on: 09/08/2020 - 

For those unable to afford prohibitively high rents in Cairo, the burial chambers provide shelter to eke out a largely tranquil, if bizarre, existence side-by-side with dead sultans, singers and saints Khaled DESOUKI AFP

Cairo (AFP)

Egyptian mother-of-three Menna said she was caught off guard when a bulldozer clearing space for a controversial highway flattened much of a mausoleum that doubled as her home in a sprawling cemetery.

"The earth mover suddenly hit the wall and we found ourselves throwing our things in a panic" outside, she told AFP.

"They kicked us out on the street," she said, surrounded by rubble and dust in the UNESCO-listed world heritage site.

Menna's parents and grandparents had made their home among the graves of the City of the Dead, the oldest necropolis in the Muslim world.

For those unable to afford prohibitively high rents in Egypt's capital, the burial chambers provide shelter for thousands like her.

Many built extensions to the original mausoleums, eking out a largely tranquil, if bizarre, existence side-by-side with dead sultans, singers and saints in the sprawling east Cairo cemetery.

But Menna said her peace -- and that of the dead -- was shattered by the arrival of workmen.

"It was awful. We moved the dead on straw mats," she said.

She and her husband shifted several bodies, including the remains of her father, to a segment of her home still intact.

Menna is now living with neighbours in part of the cemetery that is not in the demolition area.

Dozens of bodies were displaced by the construction work in the second half of July, according to local media, to make way for the 17.5 kilometre (11 miles) Al-Ferdaous, or Paradise, highway.

- 'Bulldozer policy' -

Ferdaous, connecting major Cairo road arteries, is the latest instalment of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's urban vision.

He is intent on transferring the centre of political power to a new capital, about 45 kilometres east of Cairo -- a mega-project in the desert overseen by the military's engineering arm.

Sisi led the army's overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 following mass protests against the Islamist leader's rule.

He won his first term as president in 2014 and was re-elected four years later with more than 97 percent of the vote.

It is not just residents of the City of the Dead who are upset by the demolition work undertaken there.

Galila El-Kadi, a Marseille-based veteran architect and urban researcher, said the site is "an important component" of the capital's urban history.

A final resting place for illustrious figures including singer Farid al-Atrash and writer Ihsan Abdel Kouddous as well as ordinary Egyptians, the Islamic necropolis founded in the seventh century stretches over 6.5 kilometres (four miles).

It is full of ornately designed domes with chiseled Koranic verses that have been the object of fascination for orientalist painters and historians.

Kadi, who authored a book on the City of the Dead (al-Qarafa in Arabic), said the demolition had reached a historic perimeter where luminaries are buried, including Sultan Abu Said Qansuh of the Mamluk dynasty in the 15th century.

She said the demolitions would result in a loss of Cairo's "visual identity and its memory".

They reveal the "blind and arbitrary" character of a haphazard urban planning vision, driven by a "bulldozer policy", Kadi alleged.

UNESCO told AFP that it was "neither informed nor consulted" about the demolition work undertaken in July.

"The World Heritage Centre is following up with the Egyptian authorities to review the matter and assess any potential impacts on the Outstanding Universal Value, authenticity and integrity of the property," it added.

- 'Abuse without mercy' -

On social media, Egyptians have documented the urban destruction with photos of their family vaults as well as historic ones.

A Twitter user with the handle @morocropolis said his maternal family had maintained a vault in Qunsah Street since the 1940s.

He declined to give his full name fearing his criticism of the highway project would land him in trouble.

The authorities "told us that they needed part of the women's burial chamber, but they started to destroy the fence and the tombstones before the remains were moved," he told AFP.

He said he will not be eligible for compensation since the crypt was partially, rather than fully, destroyed.

Egypt's ministry of antiquities defended the work undertaken in the cemetery last month and said "there was no destruction of monuments".

Only "recent graves" were moved, it said.

But Menna said she is haunted by the disturbed bodies.

"They abuse the living and the dead, without mercy... and in the end, no one cares about us."

ofha/mdz/ff/dwo

Nagasaki marks 75 years since atomic bombing
Issued on: 09/08/2020 - 

Doves fly during a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, at the city's Peace Park Philip FONG AFP

Nagasaki (Japan) (AFP)

The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Sunday commemorates the 75th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing a scaling back of ceremonies.

Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno three days after Hiroshima -- twin nuclear attacks that rang in the nuclear age and gave Japan the bleak distinction of being the only country to be struck by atomic weapons.

Early Sunday, people attended a mass held in memory of victims at Urakami Church, near the site of the bombing, while others took part in a memorial service at the city's Peace Park.


The number of participants has been reduced to roughly one tenth the figure in previous years, with proceedings broadcast live online in Japanese and English.

Terumi Tanaka, 88, who survived the Nagasaki bombing when he was 13 at his house on a hillside, remembers the moment everything went white with a flash of light, and the aftermath.

"I saw many people with terrible burns and wounds evacuating ... people who were already dead in a primary school-turned shelter," Tanaka told AFP in a recent interview, saying his two aunts died.

Atomic bomb survivors "believe that the world must abandon nuclear arms because we never want younger generations to experience the same thing", he said.

Tanaka suspects people have become complacent, believing another nuclear weapon will not be used.

"Human beings possess about 13,000 nuclear bombs now. Our question is how on Earth are we allowing that?" he said.

"Do people think they will never be used at all? You never know, really you never know."

The remembrance ceremonies come as worries linger over the nuclear threat from North Korea and growing tensions between the US and China over issues including security and trade.

The US dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing around 140,000 people. The toll includes those who survived the explosion itself but died soon after from radiation exposure.

Three days later, the US dropped a plutonium bomb on the port city of Nagasaki, killing 74,000 people.

Japan announced its surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945.

The United States has never acceded to demands in Japan for an apology for the loss of innocent lives in the atomic bombings, which many Western historians believe were necessary to bring a quick end to the war and avoid a land invasion that could have been even more costly.

Others see the attacks as unnecessary and even experimental atrocities.

Last year, Pope Francis met with several survivors on visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, paying tribute to the "unspeakable horror" suffered by the victims.

In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology for the attack but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons.

© 2020 AFP

Canadian brewer apologizes for naming beer 'pubic hair' in Maori

            ANOTHER MAORI LANGUAGE DRINK NAME FAUX PAS

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

Montreal (AFP)

A Canadian brewery has apologized for naming one of its beers after the Maori term for "pubic hair", and not "feather" as it had intended, CBC reported.

Hell's Basement Brewery in Alberta province launched its Huruhuru (The Feather) New Zealand pale ale two years ago, using the Maori term they believed meant feather to reflect its light citrus taste for a summer brew.

But earlier this week Maori former TV personality Te Hamua Nikora posted a Facebook video to explain "huruhuru" was more commonly used in Te Reo Maori to refer to pubic hair, and said it would have been prudent and respectful to have consulted an expert on the language.

Brewery founder Mike Patriquin said they did not intend to offend anyone.

"We acknowledge that we did not consider the commonplace use of the term huruhuru as a reference to pubic hair, and that consultation with a Maori representative would have been a better reference than online dictionaries," he said in a statement to CBC.

"We wish to make especially clear that it was not our intent to infringe upon, appropriate, or offend the Maori culture or people in any way; to those who feel disrespected, we apologize."

Patriquin said the brewery intended to rename the offending brew.

Nikora has also called out a leather shop in the New Zealand capital Wellington, which was also named Huruhuru.

ps/roc/mtp/amj

Une brasserie de la province canadienne d'Alberta a présenté des excuses pour avoir baptisé une de ses bières d'un nom Maori voulant dire "poils pubiens" et non "plume" comme elle le croyait, selon la chaîne CBC.

La brasserie albertaine Hells's Basement (le sous-sol de l'enfer) a mis en vente il y a deux ans une bière appelée "Huruhuru - The Feather" (Huruhuru - la plume), brassée avec des houblons de Nouvelle Zélande, censés lui donner de la légereté et un petit goût d'agrumes idéal pour l'été, selon ses concepteurs.

Mais au début de la semaine, Te Hamua Nikora, un Maori, a expliqué sur Facebook que dans la langue utilisée par les Maoris, la population autochtone de Nouvelle Zélande, le mot Huruhuru ne voulait pas dire plume mais plutôt poils pubiens, soulignant qu'il aurait été "prudent et respectueux" de consulter un expert du Te Reo Maori, la langue des Maoris.

Le patron de la brasserie Mike Patriquin a indiqué dans un message à la CBC qu'il n'avait pas l'intention "de s'approprier ou d'offenser la culture ou le peuple maoris" et qu'il présentait des "excuses à tous ceux qui ont pu se sentir offensés".

"Nous reconnaissons que nous n'avons pas envisagé que Huruhuru pouvait être compris comme une référence à des poils pubiens dans la langue commune et que la consultation d'un représentant maori aurait été une meilleure référence que celle de dictionnaires en ligne", a-t-il ajouté.

M. Patriquin a aussi indiqué avoir l'intention de rebaptiser sa bière.

M. Nikora avait aussi pris à partie sur Facebook une maroquinerie ouverte récemment à Wellington, également baptisée Huruhuru.

© 2020 AFP

BELARUS
Lukashenko: Soviet-style autocrat on Europe's doorstep

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

In power since 1994, Lukashenko has kept his landlocked homeland wedged between Russia and EU member Poland largely stuck in a Soviet time warp 

ON THE BORDER WITH UKRAINE, WAS ONCE PART OF UKRAINE, BELARUS IS AKA

WHITE RUSSIA AND LITTLE RUSSIA

Nikolay PETROV BELTA/AFP

Minsk (AFP)

Strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled over ex-Soviet Belarus for nearly three decades, is facing down the greatest challenge to his rule ahead of presidential elections on Sunday.

In the run-up to the vote in which Lukashenko will seek a sixth term, protests have erupted across the country straddling Russia and Europe, with 37-year-old stay-at-home-mother Svetlana Tikhanovskaya emerging as his toughest rival.

Critics have mocked Lukashenko, claiming his approval ratings have hit single digits and nicknamed the 65-year-old authoritarian leader "Sasha 3 percent."


One of Lukashenko's would-be rivals, Tikhanovskaya's husband Sergei, dubbed the famously mustachioed Lukashenko "the cockroach" and his supporters waved slippers at protests to symbolise stamping out his rule.

In response, Lukashenko, who is Europe's longest serving leader, jailed his main rivals including Tikhanovsky and told opponents not to call him names.

"Insulting people is not allowed in any country in the world," he said at a meeting with Belarusians in late June.

"Do you really believe that a sitting president can have a 3-percent rating?"

During an animated address to the nation this week, Lukashenko wiped sweat from his brow as he accused the opposition of planning mass riots in the capital Minsk and urged voters to renew his tenure to stave off an uprising.

"All kinds of arrows, poisoned and COVID-ridden, are targeted at Lukashenko in order to bring him down, humiliate him, stamp on him, and destroy him," he told the packed auditorium of officials, church leaders and military personnel.

- Blunt-speaking folksiness -

He has spent the lead-up to the election touring military bases and overseeing police drills to signal that he will not tolerate attempts to unseat him.

Yet the crackdown appears only to have energised the opposition.

Tikhanovsky's wife Svetlana -- who was allowed to register as a candidate -- has joined forces with the wife of another Lukashenko opponent and the female campaign chief of an ex-banker who was jailed and barred from running.

The president has however insisted that Belarus is not ready for a female leader.

A female president "would collapse, poor thing," he said.

Amnesty International has accused Lukashenko's government of "misogyny" and targeting female activists with discriminatory tactics.

Lukashenko is known for his blunt-speaking folksiness and the former collective farm director is routinely pictured in agricultural settings like tractor factories or potato fields.

Despite tens of thousands of coronavirus infections, he has dismissed the pandemic as a hoax and refused to introduce a lockdown or postpone the election.

He has offered dubious tips on avoiding the virus, recommending driving tractors in the countryside, drinking vodka and taking steam baths.

He has also advised Belarusian men to "keep kissing" their partners but not to "run after another woman".

- Between Russia and West -

In power since 1994, Lukashenko has kept his landlocked homeland wedged between Russia and EU member Poland largely stuck in a Soviet time warp.

A quarter of a century after the collapse of the USSR the tightly controlled eastern European nation still has a security service called the KGB, adheres to a command economy and looks to former master Moscow as its main ally, creditor and energy provider.

But Lukashenko has not been afraid to cross swords with the Kremlin as he nervously eyed its intervention in neighbouring Ukraine, and has sought to mend fences with the West.

In February, Lukashenko welcomed to Minsk US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during the first visit to Belarus by a US Secretary of State since 1994.

Despite recurring financial crises Lukashenko has stood firmly by Soviet-era economic policies.

He has also signed the country up to the Eurasian Economic Union, Russian President Vladimir Putin's pet project.

But while Belarus remains the most closely aligned former Soviet republic to Moscow, Lukashenko insists he is no Kremlin patsy, often switching from speaking Russian to Belarusian to show his independence.

When Putin seized Crimea from Ukraine and was accused of sparking a rebellion after the February 2014 ouster of Kiev's Moscow-backed leader, Lukashenko appeared wary of Russia's aggressiveness.

He has rejected the idea of outright unification with Russia and has accused Moscow of meddling in the current presidential campaign.

Less than two weeks before the polls Belarus arrested more than 30 Russian "militants", saying they were on a mission to destabilise the country.

© 2020 AFP

UPDATE
Belarus presidential challenger demands 'honest election'

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya casts her ballot in Minsk 
Sergei GAPON AFP

Minsk (AFP)

The main opposition candidate challenging Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko demanded a fair election as she cast her ballot in the presidential poll on Sunday.

"I really want the election to be honest, because if the authorities have nothing to fear, if all the people are for Alexander Grigoryevich (Lukashenko), then we will agree with that," Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said as she cast her ballot in the capital Minsk.

The 37-year-old English teacher and translator's campaign has emerged as the biggest challenge in years to Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet country of 9.5 million since 1994.

She stood for election after authorities barred her husband, popular blogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, from running and then jailed him.

Tikhanovskaya's campaign office said Sunday that one of her key allies, Veronika Tsepkalo, had left the country for Russia out of concern for her safety.

Tsepkalo, whose ex-diplomat husband Valery Tsepkalo was barred from standing in the election, had backed Tikhanovskaya in the campaign and her husband had already fled to Moscow fearing arrest."We have been in contact with Veronika Tsepkalo. She says she is in Moscow and will vote there," the press service for the campaign said.

"We respect Veronika's decision, the situation is not easy. Everyone has the right to assess their personal risks on their own."

Tsepkalo and Maria Kolesnikova, campaign chief of ex-banker Viktor Babaryko who was also dropped from the polls and is in jail, joined forces with Tikhanovskaya to mount a united campaign against Lukashenko.

Photographs of the three women standing together and making their signature gestures -- Tikhanovskaya's punched fist, Kolesnikova's fingers in a heart shape and Tsepkalo's victory sign -- have become an emblem of the opposition.

Kolesnikova was briefly detained on the eve of the vote on Saturday





Tikhanovskaya: Stay-at-home mum rocking Belarus polls

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

Presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya describes herself as 'a symbol of change' for Belarus, which has been under strongman rule for nearly three decades Sergei GAPON AFP


Minsk (AFP)

Stay-at-home-mother Svetlana Tikhanovskaya never had presidential ambitions.

But in a tale worthy of a Hollywood script, in a matter of weeks the 37-year-old has gone from an unknown to the strongest rival to Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko, who is seeking a sixth term in the August 9 poll.

Tikhanovskaya says she is contesting the election to get her jailed blogger husband out of prison and win much-needed freedom for the ex-Soviet country of 9.5 million people.

"I love my husband very much so I am continuing what he started," she said.

"I love Belarusians and I want to give them an opportunity to have a choice."

Tikhanovskaya, an English teacher by training, only made the decision to stand for president in May.

Her husband Sergei Tikhanovsky -- a popular 41-year-old YouTube blogger -- had been detained and could not submit his own presidential bid in time.

The electoral commission allowed Tikhanovskaya to stand, dropping two stronger opposition candidates.

Despite a lack of political experience, she has quickly emerged as the country's top opposition figure, with tens of thousands taking to the streets to support her bid.

In speeches, Tikhanovskaya calls herself an "ordinary woman, a mother and wife" and pumps up crowds with calls for change.

"I have become the embodiment of people's hope, their longing for change," she told AFP in an interview.

She acknowledged that she is standing despite receiving threats.

Her husband has been accused of plotting mass unrest and collaborating with Russian mercenaries, claims Tikhanovskaya has called "very scary."

Their five-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son have been taken abroad for their own safety.

She said the separation from her children -- including her son who is hearing impaired -- was difficult.

Tikhanovskaya stresses that if elected, she would free her husband and other detained opposition figures and hold fresh polls.

- 'Joan of Arc' -

Her bid has prompted scepticism from some, while others have compared her to historical heroines.

The Village, a Minsk-based news site, called her "an accidental Joan of Arc," the 15th century French peasant who helped achieve a pivotal military victory against the English before she was burned at the stake.

"You're a wife of a Decembrist!" one supporter shouted at a rally, referring to 19th-century aristocrats who followed their husbands into Siberian exile.

Hesitant in early television appearances, Tikhanovskaya has won praise for recent speeches.

Allocated live slots on state television, she listed alleged lies by Lukashenko's regime, repeating: "They won't show you this on television".

"Unexpectedly her first speech on television was strong, without false notes or weak points," wrote opposition newspaper Nasha Niva.

Belarusian Nobel-prize winning author Svetlana Alexievich has said she will vote for Tikhanovskaya.

Tikhanovskaya's simple but direct speeches have prompted lengthy cheers at crowded rallies.

"Are you tired of enduring it all? Are you tired of keeping silent?" she asked supporters recently.

"Yes," the crowd roared.

She has accused Lukashenko of showing blatant disregard for the people during the coronavirus epidemic, which the strongman has dismissed as a hoax.

Her bid for president has come under pressure, with her campaign manager Maria Moroz arrested on Saturday, the second time in a week, Tikhanovskaya's spokeswoman said.

Tikhanovskaya says that she lacks the "massive charisma" of her husband, who has travelled round Belarus interviewing ordinary people for hard-hitting videos.

- Charlie's Angels -

Image-wise, she pulled off a transformation with help from two women with more experience and political drive.

These are Veronika Tsepkalo, whose ex-diplomat husband Valery Tsepkalo was barred from standing, and Maria Kolesnikova, campaign chief of ex-banker Viktor Babaryko who was also dropped from the polls and is in jail.

The two women, more sharply dressed and confident speakers, flank her at rallies -- with one Belarusian news outlet nicknaming them "Charlie's Angels."

The women wear t-shirts with a design featuring their signature gestures: Tikhanovskaya's punched fist, Kolesnikova's fingers in a heart shape and Tsepkalo's victory sign.

Tikhanovskaya has started wearing her hair down and swapped severe dark clothing for pastels.

She has appeared uncomfortable over mounting pressure to explain her political views, acknowledging she was not a politician but a "symbol" of change.

Tikhanovskaya grew up in Mikashevichi, a small town south of Minsk.

With top grades she studied to become a teacher of English and German in the historic city of Mozyr. It was there she met her future husband, who owned a nightclub there.

video-am-as/lc

© 2020 AFP

UPDATE Belarus opposition figures detained as Lukashenko faces challenge in presidential vote

Issued on: 09/08/2020 -

A voting soldier looks at information on candidates at a polling station in Minsk during the presidential election on August 9, 2020. © Sergei Gapon, AFP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Belarus began voting in an election on Sunday pitting President Alexander Lukashenko against a former teacher who emerged from obscurity to lead the biggest challenge in years against the man once dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Washington.

The 65-year-old Lukashenko is almost certain to win a sixth consecutive term but could face a new wave of protests amid anger over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and his human rights record.

An ongoing crackdown on the opposition could hurt Lukashenko's attempts to mend fences with the West amid fraying ties with traditional ally Russia, which has tried to press Belarus into closer economic and political union.

A former Soviet collective farm manager, Lukashenko has ruled since 1994.



International election observers 'haven't even been invited' for Belarus vote

He faces a surprise rival in Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who entered the race after her husband, an anti-government blogger who intended to run, was jailed.

Her rallies have drawn some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights groups say more than 1,300 people have been detained in a widening crackdown.

>> Belarus opposition figures detained on eve of presidential vote

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus for a quarter of a century. Despite an election commission ban on the opposition holding an alternative vote count, Tikhanouskaya urged her supporters to monitor polling stations.

"We are in the majority and we don't need blood on the city streets," she said on Saturday. "Let's defend our right to choose together."

Opposition candidate in Belarus's presidential elections Svetlana Tikhanouskaya at a campaign rally in Minsk on July 30,2020. © AFP / FRANCE 24

Belarus’s ‘Joan of Arc’: The reluctant candidate taking on Europe’s ‘last dictator’

Portraying himself as a guarantor of stability, Lukashenko says the opposition protesters are in cahoots with foreign backers, including a group of 33 suspected Russian mercenaries detained in July and accused of plotting "acts of terrorism".

Analysts said their detention could be used as a pretext for a sharper crackdown after the vote.

"Lukashenko a priori made it clear that he intends to retain his power at any cost. The question remains what the price will be," said political analyst Alexander Klaskovsky.

(REUTERS)

UPDATE 
Belarus presidential challenger goes into hiding on eve of election
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is trying to unseat Alexander Lukashenko, fled her home after police detained staffers

Tikhanovskaya was expected to emerge to vote on Sunday. Photograph: Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA

Andrew Roth in Moscow and Yan Auseyushkin in Minsk

Published on Sun 9 Aug 2020 

Belarus’s opposition candidate for president was forced to go into hiding the night before challenging the country’s longtime leader, Alexander Lukashenko, on Sunday in the country’s most dynamic election in a generation.

Candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya left her apartment after police detained two senior staffers and seven other campaign members in what they called an attempt to scare the opposition before the crucial vote. She was expected to re-emerge to vote on Sunday with an entourage of campaign staffers and journalists.


Belarus president says opponents trying to organise massacre
Read more

Polls opened on Sunday after an unprecedented campaign that has seen the country’s largest opposition political rallies since the fall of the Soviet Union. Lukashenko, who has consolidated immense power over 26 years of rule, is expected to claim victory, but anger over vote rigging is likely to trigger protests.

In a final appeal before the vote, Tikhanovskaya condemned security services for arresting peaceful demonstrators and called on troops deployed across the city “not to carry out criminal orders”.

“We need changes,” she said in a YouTube video filmed in front of a bay of shuttered windows. “We need a new president.”

Squares near government buildings have been cordoned off and armed troops have appeared at highway entrances to Minsk. Lukashenko, who was subjected to sanctions by the US and the EU for the government’s heavy-handed crackdown on the opposition after elections in 2010, has warned that illegal protests will be met with force.

At Minsk’s Belarusian State Economic University, voters streamed into two polling stations on Sunday morning from the capital’s unusually quiet streets. Viktor Chonovoy, a vote monitor for the organisation Honest People, was perched on a red plastic chair peering through a window at the ballot box and tallying turnout.

“Nobody is letting me monitor [the vote],” he said. “It is just pro-government monitors replacing one another.” He said that the early voting results showing 642 ballots cast was more than double the actual number of voters, indicating ballot stuffing.

Pro-Tikhanovskaya voters said they wanted to see change, a popular slogan for the campaign, or thought that Lukashenko had overstayed his time in office. Many were pessimistic about the chances of the vote being counted fairly.

“I want a new government but that’s not going to happen,” said Vadim, a pensioner, who wore a white ribbon on his arm and said he was voting for Tikhanovskaya. “If Lukashenko loses power, then it’s obvious where he will end up.”

Valentina said: “I’m going to vote not for Lukashenko, not because I consider him a bad president, he’s done much good for the country, but I think that two presidential terms of five years is enough.” Lukashenko is seeking a sixth term in office. “He’s sat for long enough.”

Supporters of the government said they wanted to preserve stability under Lukashenko’s strong leadership or were concerned with preserving government benefits.

An election commission member holds a ballot box in a car before home voting. Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS

“We want stability, calm, to keep everything good that we’ve got,” said one pensioner going to vote for Lukashenko. “Of course I’m voting for Lukashenko, there’s no one else to vote for.”

There were already signs of a crackdown heading into the vote. On Saturday evening, riot police in balaclavas made arrests to break up impromptu demonstrations against Lukashenko. Pro-Lukashenko adverts on state television showed chaotic scenes of “colour revolutions” from other post-Soviet states. Belarusian media have warned of a possible internet shutoff to stifle protests following Sunday’s vote, and local activists said that VPNs and an online platform used by vote monitors were knocked offline in the morning.

Tikhanovskaya’s press secretary Anna Krasulina said in an interview that the candidate would travel with staffers and journalists throughout the day. “We can’t defend ourselves physically against armed people or the security services,” she said. “This is the most trustworthy defence we have.”

Belarus riot police detain a man on Saturday during an opposition rally on the eve of the presidential election in central Minsk. Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP/Getty Images

Lukashenko is facing unprecedented anger over his handling of the economy and a bungled coronavirus response. Before the elections he has jailed opposition candidates and targeted foreign allies, accusing Moscow of sending mercenaries to destabilise the country.

Tikhanovskaya was initially a stand-in candidate for her husband, a popular YouTuber jailed in spring by the authorities. She has grown into an effective campaigner, attracting more than 63,000 people to a campaign rally last month in Minsk, and thousands more in small cities and towns usually dominated by Lukashenko. She has been joined onstage by two other female politicians in a “trio” that has transformed the image of the country’s male-dominated politics.

More than 40% of Belarusians were reported to have already cast ballots in early voting, an unprecedented number that critics say indicate ballot stuffing by the government. Vote monitors contacted by the Guardian said they had been blocked from polling stations in favour of loyalists who were unlikely to raise challenges. A photograph showing a vote monitor standing on a stool peering through a polling station window with a pair of binoculars went viral.

One monitor, Anastasia Kadomskaya, 30, said she had managed to count turnout at her Minsk polling station by sitting in front of an open door in view of the ballot box. She said that her polling station’s official turnout matched her own tally of around 17%, less than half of the national average. “You feel colossal pressure and stress at every moment because you have to keep defending your right to watch the vote as a citizen and observer,” she said in an interview.

The opposition has said it will challenge vote rigging at polling stations but has stopped short of calling supporters out on to the streets. “We’re not calling people to a maidan,” Tikhanovskaya told Belarusian news site Tut.by in an interview published on Friday, referring to the 2014 revolution in Ukraine. “We want honest elections. Is that a crime?

UPDATE
Police and protesters clashed in Lebanon amid fiery demonstrations criticizing the government for the Beirut explosion

Sarah El Deeb and Bassem Mroue,
Associated Press

People clash with police during a protest against the political elites and the government after this week's deadly explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Felipe Dana/APLarge crowds of protesters clashed with police during fiery demonstrations in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday amid mounting fury over the explosion that devastated the city earlier this week. 

Activists called for action against alleged negligence from officials after the explosion that killed nearly 160 people.

Officials are investigating the blast that was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city's port for more than six years.


BEIRUT (AP) — Security forces fired tear gas and clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators Saturday in Beirut, and a group of protesters stormed the foreign ministry amid mounting fury over this week's explosion that devastated much of the city and killed nearly 160 people. Dozens were still missing and nearly 6,000 people injured.

Activists who called for the protest set up symbolic nooses at Beirut's Martyrs' Square to hang politicians whose corruption and negligence they blame for Tuesday's blast.

The explosion was fueled by thousands of tons of ammonium nitrate that had been improperly stored at the city's port for more than six years. Apparently set off by a fire, the blast was by far the biggest in Lebanon's troubled history and caused an estimated $10 billion to 15 billion in damage, according to Beirut's governor. It also damaged 6,200 buildings and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

DIY NO GOVERNMENT HELP LATER THEY WILL PROTEST

Women with brooms pass by a historic building damaged by Tuesday's explosion in the Gemmayzeh neighborhood, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Hassan Ammar/AP

The disaster has taken popular anger to a new level in a country already reeling from an unprecedented economic and financial crisis and near bankruptcy.

"Resignation or hang," read a banner held by protesters, who also planned to hold a symbolic funeral for the dead. Some nooses were also set up along the bridges outside the Port.

Khodr Ghadir, 23, said the noose was for everyone who has been in power for the last 30 years. "What happened was a spark for people to return to the streets."

A placard listed the names of the dead, printed over a photo of the blast's enormous pink mushroom cloud. "We are here for you," it read.

In a televised speech Saturday evening, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the only solution was to hold early elections, which he planned to propose in a draft bill. He called on all political parties to put aside their disagreements and said he was prepared to stay in the post for two months to allow time for politicians to work on structural reforms.

The offer is unlikely to soothe the escalating fury on the street.

In central Beirut, some protesters threw stones at security forces who responded with heavy tear gas. Near parliament, protesters tried to jump over barriers that closed the road leading to the legislature. The protesters later set on fire a truck that was fortifying barriers on a road leading to parliament.

THE ONLY SECTION OF THE GOVERNMENT TO APPEAR

People clash with police during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Hassan Ammar/AP

At least 142 people were hurt in the clashes, and 32 of them needed to be taken to the hospital, according to the Red Cross. Several protesters were seen being carried away with blood running down their faces. At one point, gunfire could be heard, but its source was not immediately clear.

In the capital's hard-hit Achrafieh district, a group of protesters, including retired army officers, stormed the building of the foreign ministry, vowing to make it the headquarters for the "revolution."


Documents that surfaced after the blast showed that officials had been repeatedly warned for years that the presence of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate at the port posed a grave danger, but no one acted to remove it. Officials have been blaming one another, and 19 people have been detained, including the port's chief, the head of Lebanon's customs department and his predecessor.

"We will support Lebanon through all available means," Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the secretary-general of the 22-member Arab League told reporters after meeting President Michel Aoun on Saturday morning. Aboul Gheit said he would take part in a donors conference for Lebanon in France on Sunday and convey Lebanon's demands to the international community.

Later on Saturday, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, arrived in Beirut for a brief visit. Turkey's vice president and the country's foreign minister met Aoun and said that Ankara was ready to help rebuild Beirut's port and evacuate some of the wounded to Turkey for treatment.

At the site of the blast, workers continued searching for dozens of missing people. Bulldozers were also seen removing debris near a cluster of giant grain silos that were heavily damaged but still partly standing.


International aid has been flowing to Lebanon for days, and several field hospitals have been set up around Beirut to help treat the wounded.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he had spoken by telephone with Aoun and French President Emmanuel Macron, who paid a brief visit to Lebanon on Thursday. Trump noted that medical supplies, food and water were being sent from the United States, along with emergency responders, technicians, doctors and nurses.

The ammonium nitrate, a chemical used in fertilizers and explosives, originated from a cargo ship called MV Rhosus that had been traveling from the country of Georgia to Mozambique in 2013. It made an unscheduled detour to Beirut as the Russian shipowner was struggling with debts and hoped to earn some extra cash in Lebanon. Unable to pay port fees and reportedly leaking, the ship was impounded.

In 2014, the material was moved from the ship and placed in a warehouse at the port where it stayed until the explosion.Read the original article on Associated Press. Copyright 2020. Follow Associated Press on Twitter.

UPDATE
Beirut port blast crater 43 metres deep: security official


Issued on: 09/08/2020 

An aerial view of parts of the devastated Beirut port taken on August 7 shows the crater caused by the colossal explosion three days earlier of a huge pile of ammonium nitrate that had languished for years in a port warehouse - AFP

Beirut (AFP)

The huge chemical explosion that hit Beirut's port, devastating large parts of the Lebanese capital and claiming over 150 lives, left a 43-metre (141 foot) deep crater, a security official said Sunday.

The blast Tuesday, which was felt across the county and as far as the island of Cyprus, was recorded by the sensors of the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS) as having the power of a magnitude 3.3 earthquake.It was triggered by a fire in a port warehouse, where a huge shipment of hazardous ammonium nitrate, a chemical that can be used as a fertiliser or as an explosive, had languished for years, according to authorities.

The huge blast also wounded at least 6,000 people and displaced more than 300,000 from their destroyed or damaged homes.

The revelation that the chemicals had languished for years like a ticking time-bomb in the heart of the capital has served as shocking proof to many Lebanese of the rot at the core of the state apparatus.

Demonstrators on Sunday called for renewed anti-government rallies after a night of angry protests saw them storm several ministries before they were expelled by the army.

It was a new tactic for a protest movement that emerged last October to demand the removal of a political class long accused of being inept and corrupt.

"The explosion in the port left a crater 43 meters deep," the Lebanese security official told AFP, citing assessments by French experts working in the disaster area.

The crater is much larger than the one left by the enormous blast in 2005 that killed former prime minister Rafic Hariri, which measured 10 metres across and two metres deep, according to an international tribunal investigating his murder.

French rescue and police teams are among a much larger group of international emergency response specialists that has flooded into Lebanon to ease pressure on local authorities unable to cope with the disaster relief on their own.

Qatari, Russian and German rescuers are also working at the port blast site.

BACKGROUNDER
The strange history of the chemical cargo that caused the Beirut blast

Issued on: 07/08/2020 -

Lebanese army soldiers stand guard in front of destroyed ships at the scene where an explosion hit on Tuesday the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. © Hussein Malla, AP

Text by:Sébastian SEIBT

Thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate, believed to be responsible for the devastating explosion in Beirut on Tuesday, have been traced back by journalists to a Moldovan-flagged boat that was supposed to deliver the chemicals to Mozambique. An impecunious crew living as “hostages on a floating bomb” and repeated requests to the Lebanese authorities to shift the cargo, which went unheeded, are part of the cargo ship’s devastating story.

The story that led to the tragic explosion in Beirut port on Tuesday began more than six years ago, 1,300 kilometres from the Lebanese capital. The Moldovan-flagged vessel Rhosus left the port of Batumi, Georgia, with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate on board. It never reached its intended destination, Mozambique, where the cargo was supposed to be sold to a factory manufacturing explosives for civilian use.

Thus, the ammonium nitrate – which is now seen as the cause of the disaster that killed at least 154 people and injured at least 5,000 – should never have ended up at Beirut port. But a combination of mismanagement of the ship, technical problems and legal complications kept the cargo there.

The Lebanese authorities have not yet released the conclusions of the official investigation into the tragedy. However, several publications – including The New York Times, CNN and Der Spiegel – were able to piece together a chronology of the facts.

‘Do you expect Putin to send special forces?’

The Rhosus belonged to Igor Grechushkin, a Russian businessman living in Cyprus who had been paid a million dollars to transport ammonium nitrate to Mozambique, the ship’s captain Boris Prokoshev told The New York Times.

During a stopover in Greece, the boat’s Russian owner warned the crew that he lacked the funds to pay for salaries and maintenance costs on a journey through the Suez Canal. So he asked them to make their way to Beirut, where he intended to receive more money to transport extra cargo, Der Spiegel reported.

It was a difficult crossing through the eastern Mediterranean, explained Prokoshev, who is now retired. The ship was in a bad condition, he said, with a hole in the hull forcing the crew to regularly throw water out.

Contrary to its owner’s plans, the ship stayed in Beirut. During an inspection of the Rhosus, the Lebanese port authority said that its papers were not in order and that the boat was not in a good enough condition to sail, CNN noted. Meanwhile Igor Grechushkin dropped off the radar. The crew lacked the resources to pay for shipping costs.

Without the means to maintain the boat or even buy food, the crew were “hostages on a floating bomb”, to quote a prescient headline on maritime news website Fleetmon in July 2014.

Lebanon allowed six people to leave the country, keeping just four people in place, including the captain. Prokoshev said he contacted the Russian embassy. “Do you expect President Putin to send special forces to get you out?” one of his interlocutors reportedly said.

‘The judiciary never acted’

In desperation, Prokoshev sold some of the ship’s fuel to provide lawyers to argue his case, he told radio station Echo Moscow on Wednesday. Eleven months after arriving in Beirut, the sailors finally won the legal right to go home, Charbel Dagher, one of the lawyers representing the crew, told specialist website ShipArrested in 2015.

The 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were then transferred to warehouse 12 in the port of Beirut. They never moved from there. Port officials say they repeatedly alerted the Lebanese authorities to the danger of keeping a stock of highly explosive products in a single hangar so close to the centre of Beirut.

Between 2014 and 2017, six unsuccessful applications were made to the Lebanese courts, asking for permission to dispose of the ammonium nitrate, The New York Times reported. “In view of the serious danger of keeping these goods in the hangar in unsuitable climatic conditions, we reaffirm our request to please request the marine agency to re-export these goods immediately to preserve the safety of the port and those working in it, or to look into agreeing to sell this amount,” read one such letter, obtained by Al-Jazeera. There was no response.

The port authorities say they proposed the cargo be offered to the Lebanese army or that it be sold to an explosive manufacturer. But to no avail. “We were told the cargo would be sold in an auction,” Hassan Koraytem, the general manager of Beirut’s port, told The New York Times. “But the auction never happened and the judiciary never acted.”

Six months ago, a team of inspectors sounded the alarm once again that there was enough ammonium nitrate to cause a massive explosion in Beirut, according to an anonymous source cited by Reuters.

Lebanese authorities announced their own inquiry into Tuesday's explosion and a military prosecutor on Thursday said 16 people had been detained, including Koraytem, a judicial source told Agence France-Presse.

As for the ship, the Rhosus, Prokoshev learned that it sank in 2015 or 2016 in the port of Beirut. But unlike the ammonium nitrate, it went quietly – without causing one of the worst non-nuclear explosions in history.

This article was translated from the original in French.

Police, protesters clash in wake of Beirut blasts 

BEIRUT LOOKS LIKE PORTLAND, EH

Riot police fire tear gas against anti-government protesters during a demonstration outside of the Lebanese Parliament in Beirut, Lebanon, on Saturday. Photo by Wael Hamzeh/EPA-EFE

ONLY RIOT COPS 
NO OTHER REPRESENTATIVES 
OF THE GOVERNMENT
OR POLITICAL CLASS

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Beirut police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday toward thousands of protesters calling for government accountability for this week's explosions at a port that killed over 150 people.

Police also shot live ammunition in the air to disperse the crowd.

Demonstrators erected mock gallows in the city's central Martyrs Square where they gathered from early afternoon, and stormed the foreign ministry, the environment ministry and the economy ministry, as well as the Banking Association, Saturday night.

Protesters accused the government of corruption and incompetence, which they said contributed to the explosions.

RELATED Lebanon's foreign minister resigns, says country could become 'failed state'

"The people want the fall of the regime," protesters chanted.

The demonstrators held posters saying, "leave, you are all killers."

The first tear gas was deployed after a group of protesters attempted to break through a barrier blocking a street to Parliament, The Guardian reported.

Many children and older people in the demonstrators left as clashes between police and protesters escalated.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Friday that all officials responsible for Tuesday's explosion would be held accountable.

The country's prime minister, Hassan Diab, has also vowed to hold early elections and will remain in power for two more months as the major parties work toward an agreement.

The U.S. embassy in Beirut on Saturday tweeted support for the protesters.

2/2 We support them in their right to peaceful protest, and encourage all involved to refrain from violence.— U.S. Embassy Beirut (@usembassybeirut) August 8, 2020

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump said he plans to join a conference call with other global leaders to discuss aid to Lebanon.

The explosion in the port of the Lebanon's capital Tuesday killed at least 157 people, injured 5,000, and left many homeless, exacerbating the country's severe economic crisis, already worsened by COVID-19 pandemic.

France and the United Nations are leading the conference call for aid, which Trump will join Sunday.

"We will be having a conference call on Sunday with [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron, leaders of Lebanon, and leaders from various other parts of the world," Trump tweeted Friday. "Everyone wants to help!"

Trump called the blasts a "horrible event" and said that doctors, nurses and three large aircraft were on the way with medical supplies, food, water and other emergency equipment.

Late Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo added in a tweet that the United States has pledged more than $17 million in disaster aid to Lebanon.

"We remain ready to assist the people of Lebanon as they recover from the horrible August 4th explosion," Pompeo also tweeted. "We keep everyone affected in this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers."

The blasts left about 300,000 people homeless and repairs are estimated to cost billions of dollars, Beirut Gov. Marwan Abboud said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Air Force delivered 11 pallets of food, water and medical supplies.

Lebanese officials on Thursday, arrested 16 people linked to their investigation into the explosion.

On the same day, Human Rights Watch invited international experts to do an independent investigation, saying that there was evidence that some judges knew ammonium nitrate was stored at the port and did nothing about it. The non-governmental human rights organization also said that there have been previous incidents where the judiciary failed to uphold the rule of law or conduct proper inquiry.

Lebanese security forces on Thursday clashed with protesters who blamed the explosion on government negligence. And UNICEF, the U.N. agency that oversees humanitarian aid for youth, said some 80,000 children are in need of support after being displaced by the blast.

A day earlier the government said it planned to place port officials under house arrest in as part of investigation into why 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate were stored at nearby warehouses. 

Tear gas, clashes in Beirut amid fury over massive blast  In pictures

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