US filings for jobless aid lowest since April 2022

By MATT OTT

A worker passes a hiring sign at a construction site, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023, in Portland, Maine. On Thursday, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

U.S. applications for jobless aid fell again last week to their lowest level since April, further evidence that the job market has withstood aggressive rate hikes by the Federal Reserve as it attempts to cool the economy and bring down inflation.

Applications for jobless aid in the U.S. for the week ending Jan. 28 fell by 3,000 last week to 183,000, from 186,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was the third straight week claims were under 200,000 and the third straight weekly decline.

Jobless claims generally serve as a proxy for layoffs, which have been relatively low since the pandemic wiped out millions of jobs in the spring of 2020.

The four-week moving average of claims, which flattens out some of the week-to-week volatility, declined by 5,750 to 191,750.

The Fed on Wednesday raised its main lending rate by 25 basis points, its eighth rate hike in less than a year. The central bank’s benchmark rate is now in a range of 4.5% to 4.75%, its highest level in 15 years. Chair Jerome Powell appeared to suggest Wednesday that he foresees two additional quarter-point rate hikes.

So far, the Fed’s aggressive policy has pushed inflation down, but has had less impact on a resilient U.S. job market.

On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. job openings rose to 11 million in December, up from 10.44 million in November and the highest since July. For 18 straight months, employers have posted at least 10 million openings — a level never reached before 2021 in Labor Department data going back to 2000. The number of openings in December meant that there were about two vacancies for every unemployed American.

Last month’s job report told a similar story: U.S. employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in December, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.5%, matching a 53-year low.

The Labor Department releases its monthly jobs report for January on Friday, where analysts expect the U.S. economy to have added another 185,000 jobs. That would be the lowest number in more than two years.

Within the monthly jobs data, there is some evidence of slowing wage growth, another of the Fed’s goals. Average hourly pay growth in December eased to its slowest pace in 16 months, which could reduce pressure on employers to raise prices to offset their higher labor costs.

Though the U.S. labor market remains robust, layoffs have been mounting in the technology sector, which is dealing with falling demand after a pandemic boom. IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce, Facebook parent Meta, Twitter and DoorDash have all announced layoffs recently.

The Fed’s interest rate hikes have hit the real estate sector the hardest, largely due to higher mortgage rates — currently above 6% — that have slowed home sales for 11 straight months. That’s almost step-in-step with the Fed’s rate hikes that began last March.

About 1.66 million people were receiving jobless aid the week that ended Jan. 21, down 11,000 from the week before.

ZIONIST CULTURAL GENOCIDE
Israel probes legality of US giving artifact to Palestinians

By ILAN BEN ZION

2,700-year-old ivory incense spoon plundered from a site in the occupied West Bank — seized in late 2021 by the Manhattan District Attorney's office as part of a plea deal with billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt, displayed at the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. Earlier this month, American officials handed over the artifact to the Palestinians in what the U.S. State Department's Office of Palestinian Affairs said was "the first event event of such repatriation" by the U.S. to the Palestinians. 

(AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)


BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — An ivory spoon dating back 2,700 years that was recently repatriated to the Palestinian Authority from the United States has sparked a dispute with Israel’s new far-right government over the cultural heritage in the occupied West Bank.

The clash brings into focus the political sensitivities surrounding archaeology in the Middle East, where Israelis and Palestinians each use ancient artifacts to support their claims over the land.

Israel’s ultranationalist heritage minister has ordered officials to examine the legality of the U.S. government’s historic repatriation of the artifact to the Palestinians earlier this month, and is calling for annexing archaeology in the occupied West Bank.

The artifact — a cosmetic spoon made of ivory and believed to have been plundered from a site in the West Bank — was seized in late 2021 by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office as part of a deal with the New York billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt.

It was one of 180 artifacts illegally looted and purchased by Steinhardt that he surrendered as part of an agreement to avoid prosecution.

American officials handed an artifact over to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Jan. 5 in what the U.S. State Department’s Office of Palestinian Affairs said was “the first event of such repatriation” by the U.S. to the Palestinians.

Dozens of Steinhardt’s surrendered artifacts have already been repatriated to Italy, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Libya and Israel. This spoon was the first and only item ever to be repatriated to the Palestinians.

The repatriation coincided with the first weeks of Israel’s new government, which is composed of ultranationalists who see the West Bank as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people and inextricably linked to the state of Israel.

Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu’s office said last week that the legality of the repatriation “is being examined by the archaeology staff officer with the legal counsel, which will examine all aspects of the matter, including the Oslo Accords that the U.S. has signed.”

The case underscores how archaeology and cultural heritage are intertwined with the competing claims of the Israelis and Palestinians in the decades-long conflict.

“Any artifact that we know that it comes out illegally from Palestine, we have the right to have it back,” said Jihad Yassin, director general of excavations and museums in the Palestinian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry. “Each artifact says a story from the history of this land.”

The ministry is part of the Palestinian Authority, the government established as part of the Oslo Accords in the 1990s that exercises limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Those agreements between Israel and the Palestinians were supposed to include coordination on a raft of issues, including archaeology and cultural heritage.

But the agreements have largely unraveled. Yassin said that the archaeology committee has not met in around two decades, and that there is virtually zero coordination between Israel and the Palestinians concerning antiquities theft prevention in the West Bank.

“We try to do our best to protect these archaeological sites, but we face difficulties,” he said.

Yassin said that around 60% of the West Bank’s archaeological sites are in territory under complete Israeli military control, and that his ministry’s theft prevention workers “manage to control in a high percentage the looting” in areas under Palestinian Authority control.

Nonetheless, many of the illicit artifacts that have made their way to Israel’s legal antiquities market were looted from the West Bank, he said.

According to court documents, Steinhardt bought the ivory cosmetic spoon in 2003 from Israeli antiquities dealer Gil Chaya for $6,000. The artifact had no provenance — paperwork detailing where it came from and how it had entered the dealer’s inventory — but Chaya said the object was from the West Bank town of El-Koum, which is under Palestinian Authority control.

Another artifact believed to have been looted from the same town, a “Red Carnelian Sun Fish amulet (that) dates to circa 600 B.C.E.,” remains missing, according to the DA’s office. Steinhardt has yet to locate the item, but if it is found, it will be repatriated to the Palestinians, the office said.

American authorities returned 28 objects to Israel last year, not including three that were seized in place at the Israel Museum of Jerusalem. Seven others meant to be returned to Israel have yet to be found. Several of the items returned to Israel are believed to have been looted from the West Bank.

The Israel Antiquities Authority declined comment on the artifact’s repatriation to the Palestinians.

Heritage Minister Eliyahu, a religious ultranationalist in Netanyahu’s government now in charge of the country’s Antiquities Authority, denies the existence of a Palestinian people.

Since taking office, he has accused the Palestinian Authority of committing “national terrorism” and “erasing heritage” at an archaeological site in a Palestinian-controlled area near the West Bank city of Nablus.

It remains unclear what impact, if any, a review by the ministry’s legal counsel could have. It appears unlikely Israel could confiscate the artifact from the Palestinians, but a legal opinion against the move could potentially complicate future repatriations.

Earlier this week, Eliyahu said he would be giving the Israel Antiquities Authority full control over archaeological sites, cultural heritage and theft prevention throughout the West Bank — a move that critics say would in effect apply Israeli law over occupied territory in breach of international law.

Currently, archaeological excavations and antiquities in the West Bank are managed by the Civil Administration’s archaeology staff officer, which is part of the Defense Ministry. Israel has not formally annexed the West Bank, and the territory is treated as occupied and is governed under military law.

“All heritage on both sides of the green line will earn full protection, at an international and scientific standard,” Eliyahu wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. He said the state of Israel would “act in a uniform and professional manner from the (Mediterranean) sea to the Jordan.”

Alon Arad, director of Israeli cultural heritage non-governmental organization Emek Shaveh, said that putting the Israel Antiquities Authority in charge of archaeology in the occupied territory was “activating Israeli law in the West Bank, which means annexation.”

Eliyahu’s office declined repeated interview requests.

Yassin said that for the time being, the artifact will remain at the ministry, where it will be studied by one of its archaeologists. Then, he said, it will be displayed at one of the West Bank’s museums.

“It’s not the only one,” Yassin said. “It is the beginning.”

2 rivals from factory floors facing off in race to lead UAW


By TOM KRISHER and MIKE HOUSEHOLDER


In a frame grab from video, Shawn Fain, a candidate for president of the United Auto Workers, is interviewed, Friday, Jan. 13, 2023, in Detroit. Fain is facing incumbent UAW president Ray Curry. The two men, who began their careers on factory floors, are competing to lead the 373,000 members of the UAW, a union that helps set standards for wages across the nation's manufacturing sector.

 (AP Photo/Mike Householder)

DETROIT (AP) — Two men who began their careers on factory floors are competing to lead the 373,000 members of the United Auto Workers, a union that helps set standards for wages across the nation’s manufacturing sector.

It will be the first-ever direct election of a UAW president in the union’s 88-year history.

The election pits the 57-year-old incumbent, Ray Curry, who started his career on the assembly line at a Freightliner truck plant in North Carolina, against Shawn Fain, 54, who began as an electrician at a Chrysler metal casting plant in Kokomo, Indiana.

Curry and Fain were the top two finishers in a five-candidate race held in December for a four-year term as UAW president. Because neither man won more than 50% of the vote, they were placed in a runoff election, with ballot counting to start March 1. Separate runoff races are being held for two other UAW positions — a vice president and a regional director.

Until this year, the leaders of the UAW had always been chosen by delegates to a convention rather than by rank-and-file union members. But in the aftermath of a bribery-and-embezzlement scandal involving union officials, members voted to hold a direct election this time.

Candidates who have positioned themselves in opposition to the established union leadership won six of 14 seats on the International Executive Board and could end up capturing as many as eight seats.

Under Curry’s leadership for the past 19 months, the UAW has taken a more aggressive stance in labor talks, having gone on strike against Volvo Trucks, John Deere, the University of California and CNHI, a maker of agricultural and construction equipment.

In forthcoming contract negotiations, Curry and Fain have each said they would seek to restore traditional pensions, which, beginning in 2007, were replaced by a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan for new hires. Both also want cost-of-living and general pay raises and an end to differing tiers of wages and benefits for workers doing the same jobs, depending on their length of service.

United Auto Workers President Ray Curry speaks during an interview, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in Detroit. Curry faces Shawn Fain, who began his career as an electrician at a Chrysler metal casting plant in Kokomo, Indiana, in an election to lead the 373,000 members of the UAW, a union that helps set standards for wages across the nation's manufacturing sector. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Minnesota moves toward 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040


By STEVE KARNOWSKI

Solar panels stand near corn growing on Barb and Gerald Bauer's farm on Aug. 20, 2021, near Faribault, Minn. Minnesota utilities would be obligated to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 under a bill slated for a vote on the Senate floor Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Jim Mone, File)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota utilities would be obligated to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 to step up the fight against climate change under a bill speeding through the Legislature.

The bill was slated for a final vote on the Senate floor Thursday night after passing the House 70-60 last week. It’s a top priority for Democrats, who control both chambers, and for Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who has made it an important part of his climate agenda.

“Climate change is coming and has been here, and it affects everything we do,” the lead author, Democratic Sen. Nick Frentz, of North Mankato, said at the start of a debate that was expected to last well into the night.

The Senate’s two meteorologists — Democratic Sens. Nicole Mitchell, of Woodbury, and Robert Kupec, of Moorhead — detailed for their colleagues how climate change is accelerating across Minnesota. They said it’s leading to more extreme weather events, as well as hotter summers with more droughts and warmer winters with shorter ice-fishing seasons.

Senate Republicans said they planned to offer a long list of amendments that they said would reduce the costs to consumers and risks to the power grid, but the one-seat Democratic majority held firm on the first several votes.

According to the Clean Energy States Alliance, 21 other states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have already established some kind of 100% clean-energy standards or goals, most with target dates between 2040 and 2050.

Minnesota’s previous standard, set in 2007 by a Democratic-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, set a goal of reducing overall statewide greenhouse emissions to at least 15% below 2005 levels by 2015, 30% by 2025 and 80% by 2050.

State regulators reported Tuesday that Minnesota’s greenhouse gas emissions declined by 23% between 2005 and 2020 and said the state was on track to achieve 30% by 2025. The biggest drop was in power generation, where emissions fell 54% amid the switch from coal to renewable energy.

This year’s bill aims to further shift utilities away from fossil fuels to wind and solar, but it also allows them to use hydropower, biomass, hydrogen and existing nuclear plants to go carbon-free. Utilities that can’t quit coal or gas on their own could ask regulators to let them use “off ramps” to delay compliance, or they could use renewable energy credits to make up the difference.

Minnesota’s biggest utility, Xcel Energy, supports the legislation, saying it fits with its own goals, even though company officials say they’re not exactly sure yet how they’ll get all the way to carbon-free by 2040. But the state’s smaller rural electric cooperatives and municipal power systems say it would be a lot harder for them and that the costs to their customers will be high.

Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and other top officials in his state threatened last week to sue Minnesota if the bill is enacted, saying it would prevent North Dakota utilities from continuing to export power generated from coal and gas to Minnesota.

GOP critics in Minnesota have dubbed it a “blackout bill,” saying that it will undermine the reliability of the state’s power grid — especially on the coldest winter nights and hottest summer days — in addition to forcing consumers to pay higher energy costs.

They held a news conference before the debate to propose a different approach, which would repeal the state’s moratorium on new nuclear power plants and allow utilities to continue to use gas and coal to ensure reliable baseload power supplies.

“Democrats are pushing for strict mandates to force utilities and our energy producers to use carbon-free energy at a pace that current technology does not support,” GOP Sen. Andrew Matthews, of Princeton, told reporters. “Hoping that cleaner technology becomes available along the way up to the goals is not a plan.”

Court: US needs to consider effects of drilling near Chaco


By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN

1 of 3

A hiker sits on a ledge above Pueblo Bonito, the largest archeological site at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, in northwestern New Mexico, on Aug. 28, 2021. A federal appeals court has sided with environmentalists Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, ruling that the U.S. government failed to consider the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the approval of nearly 200 drilling permits in an area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. 

(AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A federal appeals court has sided with environmentalists, ruling that the U.S. government failed to consider the cumulative effects of greenhouse gas emissions that would result from the approval of nearly 200 drilling permits in an area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Home to numerous sites significant to Native American tribes, the region has been a focal point of conflict over energy development that has spanned multiple presidential administrations. Now, environmentalists and some tribal leaders have accused the Biden administration of “rubber-stamping” more drilling.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, a three-judge panel for the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal land managers violated the law by not accounting for the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of air pollution from oil and gas drilling.

The court also put on hold the approval of additional drilling permits pending a decision from a lower court.

Kyle Tisdel, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, accused the Bureau of Land Management of prioritizing oil and gas extraction at the expense of those who live in northwestern New Mexico, including many Navajo communities.

“Frontline Diné communities and their allies were vindicated today in a step toward environmental justice. We will continue to demand justice, and that their water, health and the climate stop being sacrificed to big oil profits,” Tisdel said in a statement.

Environmentalists have long complained about pollution from increased drilling, but the fight took on new urgency when Native American tribes began raising concerns that a spider web of drill pads, roads, processing stations and other infrastructure was compromising culturally significant sites beyond Chaco park’s boundaries.

The Bureau of Land Management had an informal process of not leasing land within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of Chaco park to address those concerns.

During the Obama administration, the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the first time joined federal land managers in planning how to manage resources. Following a visit by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt during the Trump administration, oil and gas leasing within a certain distance of the park was put on hold.

Now, the U.S. Interior Department is considering formalizing the 10-mile buffer around the park, putting off limits to future development of more than 507 square miles (1,310 square kilometers) of federal mineral holdings.

As part of the effort, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland — a member of Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a U.S. Cabinet agency — wants to create a system for including tribal perspectives and values when land management decisions are made.

She first detailed the steps her agency would be taking during a visit to Chaco park in November 2021. That process is ongoing.

Much of the land surrounding the park belongs to the Navajo Nation or is owned by individual Navajos. While the federal government’s planned 20-year withdrawal would not affect tribal lands, the Navajo Nation and allottees have expressed concerns about being landlocked and losing out on leasing revenue and royalties.

There are about 23,000 active oil and gas wells in the San Juan Basin in northwestern New Mexico. The BLM is required to approve an application for permit to drill before a developer can begin work. As part of that process, the agency typically prepares a site-specific environmental assessment to determine whether the project will have significant environmental effects.

The judges noted their review was limited to only those applications for permits to drill that had already been approved by the Bureau of Land Management, not pending applications.

While the Bureau of Land Management’s analysis of potential impacts to water resources was sufficient, the court noted that the agency was unreasonable in using one year of direct emissions to represent total emissions over the 20-year lifespan of a well.

It will be up to a lower court to decide how the agency can fix deficiencies in the environmental assessments that sparked the legal challenge.

Biden, Black caucus agree on path forward on police reform


By CHRIS MEGERIAN, FARNOUSH AMIRI and SEUNG MIN KIM

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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023. From left are Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.,, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C.,Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and caucus chair Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev. 

(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the Congressional Black Caucus left a meeting Thursday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris with an agreement on how to address the issue of policing in America after the recent killing of Tyre Nichols.

“We have agreement on how we will continue to work forward both from a legislative standpoint as well as executive and community-based solutions, but the focus will always be on public safety,” Rep. Steven Horsford of Nevada, the chairman of the Black Caucus, told reporters later Thursday.

Also at the White House were Sens. Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Cory Booker of New Jersey — two of the three Black senators — and Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Joe Neguse of Colorado.

The group of Black lawmakers did not disclose details about the agreement made in the room but said there will be more information about the “legislative package” in the days ahead.

“This is going to require all of us, including Republicans, to get across the finish line,” Horsford said.

Before the meeting began, Biden said his hope was that “this dark memory spurs some action that we’ve all been fighting for.”

At Nichols’ funeral Wednesday in Memphis, Tennessee, Harris said the White House would settle for nothing less than ambitious legislation to address police brutality.

“We should not delay. And we will not be denied,” Harris said. “It is nonnegotiable.”

Bipartisan efforts in Congress to reach an agreement on policing legislation stalled more than a year ago, and Biden ended up signing an executive order named for George Floyd, whose murder at the hands of Minneapolis police set off nationwide protests nearly three years ago.

Even some political allies of Biden are frustrated with what they view as his excess caution on the issue.

“I think the president is missing the opportunity to be a historic president when it comes to the social issues that continue to plague our country,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y. “That’s what we need.”

Bowman described Biden as “a champion of the status quo in many ways” and said Biden needs to be “a champion of a new vision for America.”

The solution, Bowman said, is not “thoughts and prayers, come to the State of the Union after your kid gets killed,” a reference to Nichols’ mother and stepfather being invited to attend next week’s speech.

Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he was in touch with the White House last Friday, when video of Nichols’ beating became public, about whether the situation could be a catalyst to “get things moving again.”

His organization, the nation’s largest police union, had participated in previous attempts to reach a bipartisan deal, and Pasco said “we welcome any constructive effort to help us do our jobs better.” The union’s president, Patrick Yoes, has condemned Nichols’ killing and said that “our entire country needs to see justice done — swiftly and surely.”

Pasco said “we’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode right now,” with Republicans recently regaining control of the House, making legislative progress much harder. “You’ve got to look at the political realities here,” he said.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Thursday signaled an openness to discussing the issue.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the sole Black Republican senator, said resurrecting the previous Democratic bill is a “nonstarter.” He has implored Democrats to put aside “tribalism” in order to strike a deal.

“I’ve been working toward common ground solutions that actually have a shot at passing,” Scott said. “Solutions to increase funding and training to make sure only the best wear the badge.”

Biden has embraced calls for overhauling how police do their jobs while also emphasizing his longtime support for law enforcement and rejecting proposals to cut money. He was elected with strong support from Black voters and is now preparing a reelection campaign for 2024.

Harris, a former prosecutor and the first person of color to serve as vice president, has faced scrutiny for her approach to police issues.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, said he was encouraged that Harris attended the funeral. “This is what people expect, that you’ll be there for them at a time of need,” he said.

Now, Morial said, “we need a substantive response, not a political response where they say, ‘Let’s just pass something.’”

Biden’s executive order was the product of negotiations among civil rights leaders and law enforcement organizations. It mostly focuses on federal agencies by requiring them to review and revise policies on the use of force. The administration is also encouraging local departments to participate in a database to track police misconduct.

But steps such as making it easier to sue officers for misconduct allegations have remained elusive. And the White House made it clear Thursday that no executive action taken by the president can substitute for federal legislation.

“We haven’t gotten even a fraction of the changes that are necessary,” said Rashad Robinson, president of the activist group Color of Change. “We haven’t gotten the kind of structural change to policing that is required.”

___

Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

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For more coverage of the Tyre Nichols case, go to https://apnews.com/hub/tyre-nichols

In Haiti, gangs take control as democracy withers
HAITI WAS NEVER A DEMOCRACY

By MEGAN JANETSKY and PIERRE RICHARD LUXAMA

January 31, 2023

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Jimmy Cherizier, the leader of the "G9 et Famille" gang, talks with members of his gang while taking a ride on the back of a motorcycle in his district of Delmas 6 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023. Cherizier, best known by his childhood nickname Barbecue, has become the most recognized name in Haiti. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Jimmy Cherizier zips through Haiti’s capital on the back of a motorcycle, flanked by young men wielding black and leopard print masks and automatic weapons.

As the pack of bikes flies by graffiti reading “Mafia boss” in Creole, street vendors selling vegetables, meats and old clothes on the curb cast their eyes to the ground or peer curiously.

Cherizier, best known by his childhood nickname Barbecue, has become the most recognized name in Haiti.

And here in his territory, enveloped by the tin-roofed homes and bustling streets of the informal settlement La Saline, he is the law.

Aerial view of La Saline district in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 24, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Fernanda Pesce)

Internationally, he’s known as Haiti’s most powerful and feared gang leader, sanctioned by the United Nations for “serious human rights abuses,” and the man behind a fuel blockade that brought the Caribbean nation to its knees late last year.

But if you ask the former police officer with gun tattoos running up his arm, he’s a “revolutionary,” advocating against a corrupt government that has left a nation of 12 million people in the dust.

“I’m not a thief. I’m not involved in kidnapping. I’m not a rapist. I’m just carrying out a social fight,” Cherizier, leader of “G9 Family and Allies,” told The Associated Press while sitting in a chair in the middle of an empty road in the shadow of a home with windows shattered by bullets. “I’m a threat to the system.”

At a time when democracy has withered in Haiti and gang violence has spiraled out of control, it’s armed men like Cherizier that are filling the power vacuum left by a crumbling government. In December, the U.N. estimated that gangs controlled 60% of Haiti’s capital, but nowadays most on the streets of Port-au-Prince say that number is closer to 100%.

“There is, democratically speaking, little-to-no legitimacy” for Haiti’s government, said Jeremy McDermott, a head of InSight Crime, a research center focused on organized crime. “This gives the gangs a stronger political voice and more justification to their claims to be the true representatives of the communities.”

It’s something that conflict victims, politicians, analysts, aid organizations, security forces and international observers fear will only get worse. Civilians, they worry, will face the brunt of the consequences.

————

Haiti’s history has long been tragic. Home of the largest slave uprising in the Western Hemisphere, the country achieved independence from France in 1804, ahead of other countries in the region.

But it’s long been the poorest country in the hemisphere, and Haiti in the 20th century endured a bloody dictatorship that lasted until 1986 and brought about the mass execution of tens of thousands of Haitians.

The country has been plagued by political turmoil since, while suffering waves of devastating earthquakes, hurricanes and cholera outbreaks.

The latest crisis entered full throttle following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. In his absence, current Prime Minister Ariel Henry emerged in a power struggle as the country’s leader.

A woman and her daughter run past a barricade that was set up by police protesting bad police governance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph,File)

Haiti’s nearly 200 gangs have taken advantage of the chaos, warring for control.

Tension hums in Port-au-Prince. Police checkpoints dot busy intersections, and graffiti tags reading “down with Henry” can be spotted in every part of the city. Haitians walk through the streets with a restlessness that comes from knowing that anything could happen at any moment.

An ambulance driver returning from carrying a patient told the AP he was kidnapped, held for days and asked to pay $1 million to be set free.

Such ransoms are now commonplace, used by gangs to fund their warfare.

An average of four people are kidnapped a day in Haiti, according to U.N. estimates.

The U.N. registered nearly 2,200 murders in 2022, double the year before. Women in the country describe brutal gang rapes in areas controlled by gangs. Patients in trauma units are caught in the crossfire, ravaged by gunshots from either gangs or police.

“No one is safe,” said Peterson Pean, a man with a bullet lodged in his face from being shot by police after failing to stop at a police checkpoint on his way home from work.

Bullet holes cover the windshield of a police car in Petion-ville, Haiti, Jan. 25, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Meanwhile, a wave of grisly killings of police officers by gangs has spurred outrage and protests by Haitians.

Following the slaying of six officers, video circulating on social media – likely filmed by gangs – showed six naked bodies stretched out on the dirt with guns on their chests. Another shows two masked men using officers’ dismembered limbs to hold their cigarettes while they smoke.

“Gang-related violence has reached levels not seen in years … touching near all segments of society,” said Helen La Lime, U.N. special envoy for Haiti, in a late January Security Council meeting.

Henry, the prime minister, has asked the U.N. to lead a military intervention, but many Haitians insist that’s not the solution, citing past consequences of foreign intervention in Haiti. So far, no country has been willing to put boots on the ground.

The warfare has extended past historically violence-torn areas, now consuming mansion-lined streets previously considered relatively safe.

La Lime highlighted turf wars between Cherizier’s group, G9, and another, G-Pep, as one of the key drivers.

In October, the U.N. slammed Cherizier with sanctions, including an arms embargo, an asset freeze and a travel ban.

The body accused him of carrying out a bloody massacre in La Saline, economically paralyzing the country, and using armed violence and rape to threaten “the peace, security, and stability of Haiti.”

At the same time, despite not being elected into power and his mandate timing out, Henry, whose administration declined a request for comment, has continued at the helm of a skeleton government. He has pledged for a year and a half to hold general elections, but has failed to do so.

—————-

In early January, the country lost its final democratically elected institution when the terms of 10 senators symbolically holding office ended their term.

It has turned Haiti into a de-facto “dictatorship,” said Patrice Dumont, one of the senators.

He said even if the current government was willing to hold elections, he doesn’t know if it would be possible due to gangs’ firm grip on the city.

“Citizens are losing trust in their country. (Haiti) is facing social degradation,” Dumont said. “We were already a poor country, and we became poorer because of this political crisis.”

At the same time, gang leaders like Cherizier have increasingly invoked political language, using the end of the senators’ terms to call into question Henry’s power.

“The government of Ariel Henry is a de-facto government. It’s a government that has no legitimacy,” Cherizier said.

Jimmy Cherizier, the leader of the "G9 et Famille" gang, walks with children as he visits La Saline district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Cherizier, a handgun tucked into the back of his jeans, took the AP around his territory in La Saline, explaining the harsh conditions communities live in. He denies allegations against him, saying the sanctions imposed on him are based on lies.

Cherizier, who would not tell the AP where his money came from, claims he’s just trying to provide security and improve conditions in the zones he controls.

Cherizier walked through piles of trash and past malnourished children touting an iPhone with a photo of his face on the back. A drone belonging to his team monitoring his security follows him as he weaves through rows of packed homes made of metal sheets and wooden planks.

Tailed by a cluster of heavily armed men in masks, he would not allow the AP to film or take photos of his guards and their weapons.

“We’re the bad guys, but we’re not the bad-bad guys,” one of the men told an AP video journalist as he led her through a packed market.

While some have speculated that Cherizier would run for office if elections were held, Cherizier insists that he wouldn’t.

A child walks past piles of trash in La Saline district of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 24, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

What is clear, said McDermott, of InSight Crime, is that gangs are reaping rewards from the political chaos.

InSight Crime estimates that before the killing of the president, Cherizier’s federation of gangs, G9, got half of its money from the government, 30% from kidnappings and 20% from extortions. After the killing, government funding dipped significantly, according to the organization.

Yet his gangs have significantly grown in power after the group blocked the distribution of fuel from Port-au-Prince’s key fuel terminal for two months late last year.

The blockade paralyzed the country in the midst of a cholera outbreak and gave other gangs footholds to expand. Cherizier claimed the blockade was in protest of rising inflation, government corruption and deepening inequality in Haiti.

Today, G9 controls much of the center of Port-au-Prince and fights for power elsewhere.

“The political Frankenstein long ago lost control of the gang monster,” McDermott said. “They are now rampaging across the country with no restraint, earning money any way they can, kidnapping foremost.”

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Civilians like 9-year-old Christina Julien are among those who pay the price.

The smiling girl with dreams of being a doctor wakes up curled on the floor of her aunt’s porch next to her parents and two sisters.

She’s one of at least 155,000 people in Port-Au-Prince alone that have been forced to flee their homes due to the violence. It’s been four months since she has been able to sleep in her own bed.

Their neighborhood in the northern fringes of the city once was safe. But she and her mother, 48-year-old Sandra Sainteluz, said things began to shift last year.

The once bustling streets emptied out. At night, gunfire would ring outside their window and when neighbors would set off fireworks, Christina would ask her mother if they were bullets.

“When there were shootings I couldn’t go in the yard, I couldn’t go see my friends, I had to stay in the house,” Christina said. “l had to always lay down on the floor with my mother, my father, my sister and my brother.”

Christina Julien does her homework on a chair in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 22, 2023. 

(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Christina started having heart palpitations due to the stress and Sainteluz, a teacher, worried for her daughter’s health. At the same time, Sainteluz and her husband feared their kids could get kidnapped on the way to school.

In October, during Cherizier’s blockade, armed men belonging to the powerful 400 Mawozo gang stormed their neighborhood. That same gang was behind the kidnapping of 17 missionaries in 2021.

Christina saw a group of men with guns from a friend’s house and ran home. She told Sainteluz, “Mommy we have to leave, we have to leave. I just saw the gangsters passing by with their weapons, we need to leave!”

They packed everything they could carry, and sought refuge in the small, two-bedroom home of family members in another part of the city.

Life here is not easy, said Sainteluz, the main provider for her family.

“I felt desperate going to live in someone else’s home with so many children. I left everything, I left with just two bags,” she said.

Sainteluz scrambles to scrub clothes, cook soup for her family in the dirt-floored kitchen and help Christina sitting on an empty gasoline container meticulously doing her math homework.

Whenever a gust of wind blows through the nearby hills, the rusted metal rooftop of the house they share with 10 other people shudders.

The mother once worked as a primary school teacher, earning 6,000 Haitian gourdes ($41) a month. She had to stop teaching two years ago due to the violence. Now she sells slushies on the side of the road, earning a fraction of what she once made.

Young Christina said she misses her friends and her Barbie dolls.

But, the sacrifice is worth it, Sainteluz said. Over the past few months, she’s heard horror stories of her daughter’s classmates getting kidnapped, neighbors having to pay ransoms of $40,000 and killings right outside their house.

At least here they feel safer. For now, she added.

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Associated Press journalists Evens Sanon and Fernanda Pesce contributed to this report from Port-au-Prince.

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Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

Hawaii whale dies with fishing nets, plastic bags in stomach


By AUDREY McAVOY

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This photo released by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows debris found in a dead sperm whale at Lydgate Beach in Kauai County, Hawaii on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris. 

(Daniel Dennison/Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)

HONOLULU (AP) — A whale that washed ashore in Hawaii over the weekend likely died in part because it ate large volumes of fishing traps, fishing nets, plastic bags and other marine debris, scientists said Thursday, highlighting the threat to wildlife from the millions of tons of plastic that ends up in oceans every year.

The body of the 56-foot (17-meter) long, 120,000-pound (54,431-kilogram) animal was first noticed on a reef off Kauai on Friday. High tide brought it ashore on Saturday.

Kristi West, the director of the University of Hawaii’s Health and Stranding Lab, said there were enough foreign objects in the opening of the whale’s intestinal tract to block food.

“The presence of undigested fish and squid lends further evidence of a blockage,” she said in a news release from the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The whale’s stomach contained six hagfish traps, seven types of fishing net, two types of plastic bags, a light protector, fishing line and a float from a net. Researchers also found squid beaks, fish skeleton and remains of other prey in the whale’s stomach.

It’s the first known case of a sperm whale in Hawaii waters ingesting discarded fishing gear, West said.

The whale’s stomach was so large West’s team wasn’t able to examine it completely. They suspect there was more material they weren’t able to recover.

Researchers found nothing wrong with other organs they examined. They collected samples to screen for disease and conduct other follow-up tests.

Sperm whales travel across thousands of miles in the ocean so it’s not clear where the debris came from.

Scientists say that more than 35 million tons (31.9 million metric tons) of plastic pollution is produced around Earth each year and about a quarter of that ends up around the water.

Marine debris harms numerous species.

Seabirds can ingest as much as 8% of their body weight in plastic. Endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles can get caught in plastic nets and die. Sharks and other apex predators eat smaller fish that feed on microplastic, which can then endanger their own health.

In addition to eating plastics, large whales are harmed when they become entangled in fishing gear or other ropes in the ocean. The drag from debris can force whales to use more energy to swim and make it harder for them to eat, causing starvation.

On Tuesday, marine mammal responders freed a humpback whale that was caught in rope, a bundle of gear and two buoys off the Big Island.

Sperm whales are an endangered species found in deep oceans across the world. A 2021 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated there were about 4,500 sperm whales in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands, from the Big Island in the south to Kure Atoll in the north.

Indian gay couples begin legal battle for same-sex marriage

By SHEIKH SAALIQ

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Indian gay couple Utkarsh Saxena, left, and Ananya Kotia, chat inside a public park in New Delhi, India, Jan. 18, 2023. The gay couple, now fifteen years into their relationship, have set out for a bigger challenge and filed a petition to India’s Supreme Court that seeks the legalization of same-sex marriage. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

NEW DELHI (AP) — Utkarsh Saxena and Ananya Kotia’s love story began just like any other college romance. Except no one else knew about the gay couple’s relationship.

It was 2008. Homosexuality was yet to gain a degree of acceptance in deeply conservative India, with many gay couples facing stigma and isolation. So Saxena and Kotia took their time, watching from a distance how people’s acceptance of homosexuality was changing.

“We were actually quite scared about the consequences,” said Saxena, a public policy scholar at the University of Oxford. “We were very fragile and vulnerable, a young couple figuring out ourselves, and didn’t want, you know, something as drastic as this to break us in some sense.”

Over the years, as Indian society became more accepting of homosexuality and much of the country’s LGBTQ community began celebrating their sexuality openly, the couple decided to make their relationship known to their friends and family. Most of them were accepting.

Now, 15 years into their relationship, they have set out for a bigger challenge and filed a petition to India’s Supreme Court that seeks the legalization of same-sex marriage. Three other gay couples have filed similar petitions that will be heard by the country’s top court in March.

If legalized, India would become the second economy in Asia after Taiwan to recognize same-sex marriage, a significant right for the country’s LGBTQ community more than four years after the top court decriminalized gay sex. A favorable ruling would also make India the biggest democracy with such rights for LGBTQ couples but run counter to the ruling Hindu nationalist government’s position, which opposes same-sex marriages.

“Our relationship has been, in a social sense, undefined for so long that we would like it to now be embraced in the same way as any other couples’ relationship,” Saxena said.

Legal rights for LGBTQ people in India have been expanding over the past decade, and most of these changes have come through the Supreme Court’s intervention.

In 2014, the court legally recognized non-binary or transgender persons as a “third gender” and three years later made an individual’s sexual orientation an essential attribute of their privacy. The historic ruling in 2018 that struck down a colonial-era law that had made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison expanded constitutional rights for the gay community. The decision was seen as a landmark victory for gay rights, with one judge saying it would “pave the way for a better future.”

Despite this progress, legal recognition of same-sex marriage has been met with resistance by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

In a court filing last year it said same-sex marriages would cause “complete havoc with the delicate balance of personal laws in the country.” Sushil Modi, a lawmaker from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, told Parliament in December that such marriages would be “against the cultural ethos of the country” and a decision on that should not be left to “a couple of judges.”

India’s Supreme Court has, however, signaled it could challenge the government’s position.

In January, its collegium — comprising the Chief Justice of India and two Justices — said the government was opposing a gay judge’s nomination in part because of his sexual orientation. India’s federal government did not respond to the allegations.

Gay couples and LGBTQ activists argue that by refusing to recognize same-sex marriage, the government is depriving homosexual couples of their right to equality enshrined in the constitution and opportunities enjoyed by married heterosexual couples.

“Basically, you need to be treated the same as any other citizen. It’s not special rights that are being asked for, it’s just the right that every other citizen has,” said Ruth Vanita, an expert on gender studies and author of “Love’s Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West.”

In India, marriage is governed by a set of different laws tailored to the country’s religious groups, and a secular law for interfaith couples called the Special Marriage Act. All limit marriage between men and women.

With no legal backing for same-sex marriages, many couples say they have faced a host of hurdles.

Indian law restricts owning and inheriting property to LGBTQ individuals. Gay and lesbian couples are not allowed to have children born with the help of an Indian surrogate mother. And LGBTQ persons can only apply for adoption as single parents.

Many such couples believe that legal recognition of same-sex marriage would not just be a vital step toward equality but also result in more people coming out as homosexuals and strengthening their relationship with the state.

“We would want the state to recognize marriage as an institution also for same-sex couples … for acceptance at a social level,” said Kotia, an economics scholar at the London School of Economics.

Homosexuality has long carried a stigma in India’s traditional society, even though there has been a shift in attitudes toward same-sex couples in recent years. India now has openly gay celebrities and some high-profile Bollywood films have dealt with gay issues. According to a Pew survey, acceptance of homosexuality in India increased by 22 percentage points to 37% between 2013 and 2019.

But many same-sex couples continue to face harassment in many Indian communities, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian.

In December, India’s LGBTQ community found support from an unexpected quarter.

The head of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist group that is the ideological parent of Modi’s party, said LGBTQ people are “a part of the Indian society” and that Indian civilization has traditionally acknowledged the community. Mohan Bhagwat’s comments, which could force the government to reassess its position, were a departure from the group’s long-held views on homosexuality, which has a tangled history in India, even though some of Hinduism’s most ancient texts are accepting of same-sex couples.

“In the West, right up to the 19th century, people were executed for same-sex relations, or they were put in prison. India has, as far as we know, no such history. We have always written about it (homosexuality), talked about it, and discussed it,” said Vanita.

Without the legal right to marriage, many LGBTQ couples have still been participating in commitment ceremonies, particularly in big cities. Such marriages are not legally binding under Indian laws, but it has not stopped them from having traditional Indian wedding rituals.

Saxena and Kotia said they were planning one as well, preferably if the court rules in their favor.

“I think we would like a big wedding. Our relatives and our family and friends would like an even bigger wedding,” Saxena said.

Ally claims Bolsonaro plotted coup to block Lula presidency


By ELÉONORE HUGHES and MAURICIO SAVARESE

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Protesters, supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, storm the the National Congress building in Brasilia, Brazil, Jan. 8, 2023. Brazil’s federal police searched the home of a nephew of Bolsonaro on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, in connection with the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings in the capital by far-right protesters. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian magazine on Thursday released audio of a senator claiming then President Jair Bolsonaro sought help in a plot to annul the October elections and keep himself in power.

In the recording, Sen. Marcos do Val tells the magazine Veja that the idea was discussed when he met with Bolsonaro and lawmaker Daniel Silveira on Dec. 9 at the presidential residence, three weeks before leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was set to take office.

Do Val, who was an ally during Bolsonaro’s four-year term, said the far-right leader gave him the “mission” of recording Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who also heads Brazil’s electoral authority, while trying to get the judge to admit he overstepped his powers under the constitution.

“‘I annul the election, Lula isn’t sworn in, I stay in the presidency and arrest Alexandre de Moraes because of his comments,’” do Val quotes Bolsonaro as saying.

Veja released the audio in response to denials the senator issued following the magazine’s report Thursday morning about the purported plot, which had not cited him as its source. Do Val told reporters after the magazine published its story that the plot had been Silveira’s idea and that the former president hadn’t said a word during the meeting.

Later Thursday, de Moraes ordered the Federal Police to take do Val’s sworn testimony within five days. Bolsonaro, who has been keeping a low profile in Florida since Dec. 30, did not comment on the matter on any of his social media channels. He recently applied for a six-month tourist visa to stay in the U.S.

Contacted by The Associated Press, Bolsonaro’s lawyer Frederick Wassef declined to comment.

The alleged meeting adds to the growing list of woes for Bolsonaro, who is already under investigation for his possible role in his supporters’ uprising in the Brazilian capital on Jan. 8.

Bolsonaro cast doubt on the nation’s electronic voting system for months in the lead-up to the election, and he then refused to concede defeat. His die-hard supporters have accused de Moraes of rigging the election in Lula’s favor, without offering any evidence, and of overstepping his authority by blocking social media accounts and ordering allegedly arbitrary arrests and searches.

Suspicions of a coup plot increased after police searching the home of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister found a draft decree that would have seized control of the electoral authority and potentially overturned the election. The origin of the unsigned document is unclear, and it remains unknown if Bolsonaro or his subordinates took any steps to implement the measure.

Lula said in an interview Thursday that Bolsonaro tried to stop him from taking office. He also said supporters of the former president had hoped to invade government buildings on his inauguration day but had to settle for Jan. 8, one week later.

“Now I am aware, and I will say it loud and clear: That man prepared the coup. They wanted to make that mess on January 1st, but they noticed they could not because there was too much police, too many people on the street,” Lula told the TV network RedeTV!.

Do Val told both Veja magazine and journalists later Thursday that he informed de Moraes of what was discussed at the meeting with Bolsonaro and Silveira, and that he declined to participate in the alleged plot.

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son, said he was aware of the meeting, which he described as an attempt by Silveira to persuade the other two men to do something “absolutely unacceptable, absurd and illegal.” But discussing such an idea does not constitute a crime, he said.

Silveira was arrested Thursday on de Moraes’ order for violating terms of his release from prison. Silveira was previously sentenced for anti-democratic acts after issuing threats against de Moraes and other justices, but was released after Bolsonaro pardoned him. Still, he was prohibited from using his social media accounts and required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet as other investigations targeting him proceed.
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Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.