Violent clashes erupted Saturday in Paris as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest new security legislation, with tensions intensified by the police beating and racial abuse of a Black man that shocked France.Several fires were started in Paris, sending acrid smoke into the air, as protesters vented their anger against the security law that would restrict the publication of police officers’ faces.About 46,000 people marched in Paris and 133,000 in total nationwide in about 70 cities, including in Bordeaux, Lille, Montpellier and Nantes, the Interior Ministry said. Protest organizers said about 500,000 joined nationwide, including 200,000 in the capital.President Emmanuel Macron said late Friday that the images of the beating of Black music producer Michel Zecler by police officers in Paris last weekend “shame us.” The incident magnified concerns about alleged systemic racism in the police force.”Police everywhere, justice nowhere,” “police state” and “smile while you are beaten” were among the slogans brandished as protesters marched from Place de la Republique to the nearby Place de la Bastille.”We have felt for a long time to have been the victim of institutionalized racism from the police,” said Mohamed Magassa 35, who works in a reception center for minors. “But now we feel that this week all of France has woken up.”People with banners and posters attend a demonstration against security legislation, in Paris, Nov. 28, 2020.”The fundamental and basic liberties of our democracy are being attacked — freedom of expression and information,” added Sophie Misiraca, 46, a lawyer.Several cars, a newspaper kiosk and a brasserie were set on fire close to Place de la Bastille, police said.Some protesters threw stones at the security forces, who responded by firing tear gas and using water cannon, an AFP correspondent said.Police complained that protesters impeded fire services from putting out the blazes and said nine people had been detained by the early evening.French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin condemned “unacceptable” violence against the police, saying 37 members of the security forces had been injured nationwide.Investigation launchedAn investigation has been opened against the four police involved, but commentators say the images, first published by the Loopsider news site, might never have been made public if the contentious Article 24 of the security legislation had been made law.The article would criminalize the publication of images of on-duty police officers with the intent of harming their “physical or psychological integrity.” It was passed by the National Assembly, although it is awaiting Senate approval.Cars burn during a demonstration against the “Global Security Bill” opposed by rights groups in France, in Paris, Nov. 28, 2020.The controversy over the law and police violence is developing into another crisis for the government as Macron confronts the pandemic, its economic fallout and a host of problems on the international stage.In a sign that the government could be preparing to backtrack, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Friday that he would appoint a commission to redraft Article 24.But he was forced into a U-turn even on this proposal after parliament speaker Richard Ferrand, a close Macron ally, accused the premier of trying to usurp the role of parliament.For critics, the legislation is further evidence of a slide to the right by Macron, who came to power in 2017 as a centrist promising liberal reform of France.”The police violence has left Emmanuel Macron facing a political crisis,” said the Le Monde daily.’Anger and fear’The issue has also pressured the high-flying Darmanin, who was promoted to the job this summer despite being targeted by a rape probe, with Le Monde saying tensions were growing between him and the Elysee.The images of the beating of Zecler emerged days after the police forcibly removed a migrant camp in central Paris.A series of high-profile cases against police officers over mistreatment of Black or Arab citizens has raised accusations of institutionalized racism. The force has insisted violations are the fault of isolated individuals.Three of the police involved in the beating of Zecler are being investigated for using racial violence and all four are being held for questioning after their detention Saturday was extended for another 24 hours, prosecutors said.In a letter seen by AFP, Paris police chief Didier Lallement wrote to officers warning them they risked facing “anger and fear” in the coming weeks but insisted he could count on their “sense of honor and ethics.”
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Month: November 2020
Catholics in France Oppose Prayer Service Restrictions Imposed on Places of Worship
As French authorities ease some measures taken due to the coronavirus pandemic, Catholics in the country are challenging the size limit still imposed by the government on prayer services.The coronavirus pandemic places a heavy burden on France, where more than 50,000 people have died of COVID-19. Places of worship were still open during the lockdown, but regular prayer services were banned due to health concerns.Believers in France were relieved this week when French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that prayer services could resume Saturday in places of worship.During a press conference, Castex explained it would be progressive in places of worship, as they have become clusters during the pandemic, in France and all over the world. Only 30 people at a time will be allowed at prayer services inside places of worship and with stringent sanitary measures. That number might increase by December 15, when the lockdown ends, if the epidemic is under control, the French prime minister said.France’s Catholics Protest Lockdown MeasuresAs COVID infections rise, safe-distance restrictions include bans on public masses, prompting observant French Catholics to take to the streetsSince the announcement, the government has been heavily criticized for the arbitrary number. The 30-person limit for any building no matter the size – from tiny churches to gothic cathedrals – is not acceptable to a lot people, like Christiane, a Catholic from Paris.She says with this decision, authorities are making fun of them, as 30 people in a cathedral does not make sense to her. She said it shows disdain toward Catholics.Some Catholic clergy has vowed to fight the decision and said it hopes the government will shift its restriction on places of worship, according to Roman Catholic Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, a city near Paris.“Many Catholics and non-Catholics find the decision ridiculous, unfair and disrespectful of Catholics,” said Rougé. Thirty people in a very large church is ridiculous. Why such a repeated mistake? These are institutional failures. There is, also, I think, a lack of consideration for faith or believers.”Shops regarded as “non-essential” also reopened in the country Saturday. Bars and restaurants will not reopen until at least January 20.
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Government: Ethiopian Military Has Taken ‘Full Control’ of Tigray Capital
Ethiopian federal forces have taken “full control” of the Tigray region’s capital Mekelle, the prime minister and the military’s chief of staff said on Saturday evening.Authorities had said earlier that government forces were in the final stages of an offensive in the region and would take care to protect civilians in Mekelle, a city of 500,000 people.
Tigray Leader: Ethiopian Forces Conducting Offensive to Capture MekellePM Abiy rejects call from AU for negotiations with regional leadersThere was no immediate comment from the Tigrayan forces in the northern region, who have been fighting government troops for the past three weeks.
“The federal government is now fully in control of the city of Mekelle,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement posted on his Twitter page.
That followed a statement saying the same from the army chief of staff, Birhanu Jula, on the military’s official Facebook page.
Claims from all sides are difficult to verify since phone and internet links to the region have been down and access has been tightly controlled since fighting began on Nov. 4.
Earlier on Saturday, a diplomat in direct contact with residents, and the leader of Tigrayan forces said federal forces had begun an offensive to capture Mekelle.
The government had given the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) an ultimatum that expired on Wednesday to lay down arms or face an assault on the city.
Thousands of people are believed to have died and around 43,000 refugees have fled to neighboring Sudan during the conflict. The northern region of Tigray also borders the nation of Eritrea.
Abiy accuses Tigrayan leaders of starting the war by attacking federal troops at a base in Tigray. The TPLF says the attack was a pre-emptive strike.
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Effort Launched to Reunite Cameroonian Families, Children Separated by Crises
Humanitarian organizations in Cameroon have launched a program to reunite with their families the increasing numbers of children who have fled the Boko Haram conflict and the separatist crisis in the English-speaking regions. The groups say the effort was launched after the number of such children jumped from about 10,000 to 25,000 in major cities within three months. Among the children who are ready to return to their families are teenagers who fled economic hardships caused by the spread of COVID-19.Three police officers lead 10 representatives of humanitarian organizations to where children separated from their families are living in Cameron’s capital, Yaoundé. Eleven-year-old Alain is one of 15 children who have agreed to leave the streets.Alain says hunger and mistreatment by his father were unbearable, and in July, he and his brother escaped from their home in Batouri, on Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic to Yaoundé. Alain says he will return to the family home when he is sure he will be given food and education.Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family, Marie Theres Abena Ondoua, says Alain is one of several thousand children who fled their homes because of the economic hardship caused by COVID-19.She says many parents lost their jobs, became poorer and could not provide for their families as a result of the economic nosedive after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Cameroon on March 5. Ondoua says many children who had to stay home under government measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 fled to towns in search of food and better living conditions.Ondoua said the children living on the streets as a result of COVID-19 are in addition to those escaping Boko Haram terrorism on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. Other children on the street have fled separatist crisis in the western English-speaking regions of the French-majority bilingual country.Fourteen-year-old Erasmus says he escaped from the English-speaking northwestern town of Jakiri in September. He says fighters attacked his family for violating separatist instructions that no one should go to school.”My uncle died before I found my way outside [out of Jakiri],” Erasmus said. “I am telling my mother that I will be back and that I am still alive. I am not dead. Maybe she will be thinking that I am dead, but I am not dead. I am still alive.”Cameroon began rounding up street children in April. The country found 10,000 street children in Yaoundé and the economic hub, Douala.Cameroon says the number of street children has increased to 25,000 in the past three months. Fighters have increased attacks on English schools that defied separatist instructions and opened their doors when the 2020-2021 school year started in September and COVID-19 has made an unknown number of people either close their businesses or become jobless.August Ewudu of the Cameroon Red Cross program to restore family links says they want to reunite at least 10,000 children with their families before the end of the year.He says he is asking communities to direct all children who have fled crises to any Red Cross staff member or Red Cross office. He says people in search of family members displaced by the crises Cameroon is facing should contact their local Red Cross offices.Ewudu said lists of children who cannot trace their parents are available at Red Cross offices.Cameroon’s government and humanitarian organizations are also pleading with concerned cirizens to take care of children in need should it be impossible to trace their family members. The government says it will be giving either education or job training to the children who refuse to be reunited with their families.
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Cluster Munitions Ban is Saving Lives and Livelihoods
A report by the Cluster Munition Coalition finds significant progress has been made in stigmatizing and eliminating these weapons since the global treaty banning cluster munitions came into force 10 years ago. Activists note that over the past decade, 1.5 million cluster bombs containing more than 178 million bomblets have been destroyed. This represents 99% of all stocks declared by the 110 state parties to the treaty.The director of Human Rights Watch’s Arms Division, Stephen Goose, says no state party to the convention has used or produced cluster munitions for the past 10 years. However, during this period, he says the Cluster Munition Monitor has documented the sporadic use of these weapons by eight countries that have not signed the treaty. He says Syria has used cluster munitions without stop since 2012.“We have documented more than 686 cluster munition attacks in Syria since July of 2012,” said Goosei. “This is the real black spot on the issue of cluster munitions around the world, with the degree to which Syria, with great assistance from Russia has been a regular user of cluster munitions.” The Monitor reports cluster bombs were used by Libya and Syria in 2019. This year, it notes the use of these weapons by Syria and by Armenia and Azerbaijan in the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.The Monitor has identified at least 4,315 cluster munition casualties in 20 countries and other areas during the past decade, although the real total is probably higher. Editor and research leader of the Monitor Loren Persi says more than 80% of the global casualties have been recorded in Syria, with children accounting for half of them.“One of the things to keep in mind is that the success of the convention is such that apart from this use in Syria, the number of casualties in most affected countries from the remnants of cluster munitions has actually been decreasing significantly over this period from hundreds of casualties recorded in some countries, particularly in Laos the most affected,” said Persi.Persi says Laos has reported just five casualties this year. He calls this a milestone and a sign of the ban treaty’s great success in preventing casualties from cluster munitions globally.
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Pope Installs New Cardinals, Including First African-American
Pope Francis on Saturday installed 13 new cardinals Saturday, including the first African-American to hold the high rank, further expanding the pontiff’s impact on the group that will one day elect his successor.The cardinals were installed in a ceremony, known as a consistory, that was markedly slimmed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.Instead of the usual thousands, only 10 guests per cardinal were allowed in St. Peter’s Basilica as the pope gave the men their ring and traditional red hat, known as a biretta.Nine of the 13 are under 80 and eligible under Church law to enter a secret conclave to choose the next pope from among themselves after Francis dies or resigns.It was Francis’ seventh consistory since his election in 2013. He has now appointed 57% of the 128 cardinal electors, most of whom share his vision of a more inclusive and outward-looking Church.Thus far, he has appointed 18 cardinals from mostly far-flung countries that never had one, nearly all of them from the developing world. In Saturday’s consistory, Brunei and Rwanda got their first cardinals.While Europe still has the largest share of cardinal electors, with 41%, it is down from 52% in 2013 when Francis became the first Latin-American pope.With each consistory, Francis has increased the chances that his successor will be another non-European, having beefed up the Church in places where it is either a tiny minority or where it is growing faster than in the stagnant West.The nine new electors come from Italy, Malta, Rwanda, the United States, the Philippines, Chile, Brunei and Mexico.In his homily, Francis told the men to keep their eyes on God, avoid all forms of corruption, and not succumb to a “worldly spirit” that can accompany the prestige and power of their new rank.Everyone in the basilica except the pope wore a mask. Each new cardinal removed theirs when they knelt before him to be invested.Wilton Gregory, the 72-year-old archbishop of Washington, D.C, becomes the first African-American cardinal at a time the United States is examining race relations after a spate of police killings of unarmed Black people.Gregory made headlines in June when he blasted President Donald Trump’s visit to a Catholic shrine in Washington, after police and soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters so Trump could be photographed in front of a historic Washington church holding a Bible.Gregory said he found it “baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated”.Catholic conservatives condemned Gregory and sided with Trump.In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Gregory said he wanted to find common ground with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden despite disagreements on issues such as abortion.Gregory was one of a handful of new cardinals who were quarantined for about 10 days in their rooms in the Vatican guest house where the pope also lives. Cardinals from Brunei and the Philippines could not travel and will receive their ring and hat from a papal delegate.Four non-electors over 80 were given the honour after a long service to the Church. The most prominent is Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, an Italian-American who has worked around the world and is one of the Church’s top experts on immigration.
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IS-linked Militants Kill 4 Christians in Indonesia: Police
Islamic State-linked extremists killed four people in a remote Christian community on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, authorities said Saturday, with one victim beheaded and another burned to death.The group of sword-and-gun wielding attackers ambushed Lembantongoa village in Central Sulawesi province Friday morning, killing several residents and torching half a dozen homes, including one used for regular prayers and services, police said.No arrests had yet been made and the motive for the attack was not immediately clear.But authorities pointed the finger at the Sulawesi-based East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), one of dozens of radical groups across the Southeast Asian archipelago that have pledged allegiance to IS.Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim majority nation, has long wrestled with Islamist militancy and terror attacks, while Central Sulawesi has seen intermittent violence between Christians and Muslims for decades.”We reached the conclusion that they (the attackers) were from MIT after showing pictures of its members to relatives of the victims” who witnessed the ambush, said Sigi Regency police chief Yoga Priyahutama.The makeshift church was empty at the time of the early morning attack by around eight militants, he added.”People were just in their homes when it happened,” Priyahutama said.Lembantongoa village head Rifai, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said one victim was beheaded and another was nearly decapitated.One of the other all-male victims was stabbed while a fourth was burned to death in his home, he added.”Some residents managed to escape, but the victims didn’t make it,” Rifai told AFP.Indonesia’s Christians have been targeted in the past, including in 2018 when IS-linked group Jamaah Ansharut Daulah staged a wave of suicide bombings by families — including young children — at churches in the country’s second-biggest city Surabaya, killing a dozen congregants.If confirmed to be the work of MIT, Friday’s killings would be its first significant attack since the organisation’s leader was killed four years ago by Indonesia’s elite anti-terror squad, according to Jakarta-based terrorism expert Sidney Jones.”Through the attack… they want to show that police efforts to arrest and kill members of the group did not have any effect on” them, she said.In 2018, MIT was believed to have sent radicals posing as humanitarian workers into Central Sulawesi’s quake-tsunami hit Palu city in a bid to recruit new members, Jones said.
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Tigray Leader: Ethiopian Forces Conducting Offensive to Capture Mekelle
The Tigray regional government said Saturday that Ethiopian government forces are already conducting a military offensive to capture the regional capital, Mekelle.Reuters is reporting that in a text message to the news agency, Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said Mekelle was under “heavy bombardment.”French news agency AFP said aid workers confirmed heavy shelling hit the capital of Tigray.Reuters also is quoting Billene Seyoum, a spokeswoman for the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s office as saying that that Ethiopian forces would not “bombard” civilian areas, adding, “the safety of Ethiopians in Mekelle and Tigray region continues as priority for the federal government.”Friday Ethiopia’s news agency said Ethiopian forces were advancing in several towns near Tigray’s regional capital. Ethiopian Forces Claim Gains in Tigray RegionEthiopian PM rejects call from African Union for negotiations with regional leaders Lieutenant-General Hassan Ibrahim said in a statement Friday that federal forces have captured Wikro “and will control Mekelle in a few days.” There was no independent confirmation of the government claims. Phone and internet connections to the region have been down since the government’s military offensive began in early November.Meanwhile, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, following a meeting with African Union envoys, again ruled out negotiating with leaders of the Tigray region.Abiy met Friday in Addis Ababa with three AU envoys — former Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa.A statement issued after the meeting said Abiy appreciated the commitment of the AU envoys “to the principle of African solutions to African problems.” He said his government was committed to the “protection and security of civilians” but made no mentions of holding talks with the TPLF.Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending a two-decade standoff with Eritrea, announced a military offensive against the regional government in Tigray on November 4 saying it was in response to an attack by Tigray forces on a government military base. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed since then.More than 43,000 refugees have fled to Sudan.The International Rescue Committee said Friday it is extremely concerned about an impending humanitarian disaster, noting that a half-million people live in the Tigrayan regional capital of Mekelle.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed Friday the need to ensure the protection of civilians, human rights and aid access, according to U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.A Vatican statement Friday said Pope Francis has renewed a call for an end to the conflict and for political dialog to resolve it. The pope appealed to both sides for the protection of civilians.
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Los Angeles Issues Stay-at-Home Order to Curb COVID
A surge in new coronavirus cases has led California’s Los Angeles County to issue a new three-week, stay-at-home order which will go into effect Monday.The county had said previously that it would issue the restrictive order when new COVID-19 cases reached an average of 4,500 per day over a five-day period.On Friday, the five-day average was 4,751.The order prohibits gatherings, publicly or privately, of people who do not live in the same household.Stores deemed essential will be allowed to remain open, operating at 50% capacity. Other retail stores will remain open but will only be able to operate at 20% capacity during the holiday shopping season.U.S. health officials say the numbers of new COVID-19 cases may appear erratic in the coming days, a result of fewer tests being administered during the Thanksgiving holiday and the reduced schedules of tests sites.Reports of new cases may seem lower than usual because of the holiday, but the numbers, experts say, would not give an accurate account of where the U.S. is in fighting the virus. On Friday, the U.S. surpassed the 13 million mark in number of coronavirus cases, more than anyplace else in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and a George Washington University professor, told the Associated Press, “I just hope that people don’t misinterpret the numbers and think that there wasn’t a major surge as a result of Thanksgiving, and then end up making Christmas and Hanukkah and other travel plans.”The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States reached 90,000 Friday after nearly doubling in the last month, according to the Reuters news agency. The hospitalizations follow weeks of rising infection rates in the United States and have increased worries that the recent Thanksgiving gatherings would lead to even more infections and hospitalizations.A couple wearing face masks as a precaution against the coronavirus passes by a statue with a face mask at a shopping street in Goyang, South Korea, Nov. 28, 2020.The British newspaper The Guardian said its partner, Kaiser Health News, has conducted a review of hundreds of U.S. health care workers’ deaths that went unreported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, even though reports of such deaths are required. The deaths that could have been workplace COVID-related were not reported to authorities in the early days of the pandemic, the report said.“Work-safety advocates say OSHA investigations into staff deaths can help officials pinpoint problems before they endanger other employees as well as patients or residents,” the newspaper said.The World Health Organization’s top vaccine expert said the agency needs to evaluate coronavirus vaccines and their immune responses based on more than just a press release.Kate O’Brien, WHO’s director of immunization, vaccines and biologicals said at a press briefing in Geneva on Friday that it is still not clear if vaccines against COVID-19 are able to reduce people’s ability to spread the virus.”It’s really important that we actually start to get more information about what the vaccines do, not just for preventing disease, but for actually preventing the acquisition of the virus,” O’Brien said.British drugmaker AstraZeneca said Thursday it is cooperating with government regulators in investigating a manufacturing error of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine.The pharmaceutical company and Oxford University have admitted that a lower dosage of the vaccine performed better than a full dosage, according to a spokesman who spoke after AstraZeneca’s CEO said a further global trial was likely.The statement comes as the company prepared to provide a temporary supply of the drug ahead of its plans to distribute 4 million doses of the vaccine by the year’s end.The England-based pharmaceutical company said earlier this week its vaccine was 70% effective overall, but there were differences between two dosing regimens. One was 90% effective. The other was 62%.Drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna have also announced initial results from late-stage trials showing their vaccines were nearly 95% effective.WHO has also announced that it is sending a team of 10 scientists to Wuhan, China, to investigate how COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans.Dancers wearing face shields to prevent the spread of the coronavirus perform in Tangerang, Indonesia, Nov. 28, 2020,“We need to start where we found the first cases — and that is in Wuhan in China — and then we need to follow the evidence after that wherever that leads,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program.The team includes renowned virus hunters, public health specialists and experts in animal health from Britain, the United States, Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Qatar, Germany, Vietnam and Russia.Denmark said Friday that hundreds of dead mink are reemerging from the trenches where millions of the animals were buried after being culled to stop the spread of a mutated form of the coronavirus that passed from humans to the animals and back to humans.The order to cull the 17 million mink was determined to be illegal and resulted in the resignation last week of Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen.“Zombie mink” is what the Danish media have dubbed the animals coming out of the trenches at a military area in western Denmark.Reuters reports that the animals are being “pushed out of the ground by what authorities say is gas from their decomposition.”In Ireland, the government said it would allow shops, restaurants and gyms to reopen next week after the latest round of shutdowns. Prime Minister Micheal Martin said travel would be permitted between counties in the week preceding Christmas.”We now have the opportunity to enjoy a different, but special Christmas,” he said in a televised address.Officials in France said the rate of new coronavirus infections slowed again Friday, as the country prepares to allow for the reopening Saturday of stores selling nonessential goods.Italy is also seeing a gradual decline in hospitalizations from coronavirus, leading the government to announce that it would ease restrictions in five regions from Sunday, including the populous Lombardy region.The number of coronavirus infections in Germany topped 1 million on Friday. The country’s disease control center, the Robert Koch Institute, reported 22,806 cases overnight, bringing the country’s total since the start of the outbreak to more than 1 million.Iran on Friday announced that its government offices would operate only with essential staff because of a surge in coronavirus cases. Officials reported a record number of new cases on Friday — 14,051 — bringing the country’s total to more than 922,000.In other developments, Australia’s second-largest state, Victoria, has recorded no new coronavirus infections or deaths in the past 28 days, health officials said Friday. The state did not have any active cases after the last COVID-19 patient was discharged from the hospital Monday.While Victoria has achieved the 28-day benchmark, widely accepted by health experts as eliminating the virus from the community, cases of the coronavirus infections have been detected in other parts of the country.
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Biden Win Means Some Guantanamo Prisoners May be Released
The oldest prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay detention center went to his latest review board hearing with a degree of hope, something that has been scarce during his 16 years locked up without charges at the U.S. base in Cuba.Saifullah Paracha, a 73-year-old Pakistani with diabetes and a heart condition, had two things going for him that he didn’t have at previous hearings: a favorable legal development and the election of Joe Biden.President Donald Trump had effectively ended the Obama administration’s practice of reviewing the cases of men held at Guantanamo and releasing them if imprisonment was no longer deemed necessary. Now there’s hope that will resume under Biden.“I am more hopeful now simply because we have an administration to look forward to that isn’t dead set on ignoring the existing review process,” Paracha’s attorney, Shelby Sullivan-Bennis, said by phone from the base on Nov. 19 after the hearing. “The simple existence of that on the horizon I think is hope for all of us.”Guantanamo was once a source of global outrage and a symbol of U.S. excess in response to terrorism. But it largely faded from the headlines after President Barack Obama failed to close it, even as 40 men continue to be detained there.Those pushing for its closure now see a window of opportunity, hoping Biden’s administration will find a way to prosecute those who can be prosecuted and release the rest, extricating the U.S. from a detention center that costs more than $445 million per year.Biden’s precise intentions for Guantanamo remain unclear. Transition spokesman Ned Price said the president-elect supports closing it, but it would be inappropriate to discuss his plans in detail before he’s in office.His reticence is actually welcome to those who have pressed to close Guantanamo. Obama’s early pledge to close it is now seen as a strategic mistake that undercut what had been a bipartisan issue.“I think it’s more likely to close if it doesn’t become a huge press issue,” said Andrea Prasow, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch.The detention center opened in 2002. President George W. Bush’s administration transformed what had been a sleepy Navy outpost on Cuba’s southeastern tip into a place to interrogate and imprison people suspected of links to al-Qaida and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.FILE – A US flag flies inside the razor wire of the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba, in April 2019.U.S. authorities maintain the men can be held as “law of war” detainees, remaining in custody for the duration of hostilities, an open-ended prospect.At its peak in 2003 — the year Paracha was captured in Thailand because of suspected ties to al-Qaida — Guantanamo held about 700 prisoners from nearly 50 countries. Bush announced his intention to close it, though 242 were still held there when his presidency ended.The Obama administration, seeking to allay concerns that some of those released had “returned to the fight,” set up a process to ensure those repatriated or resettled in third countries no longer posed a threat. It also planned to try some of the men in federal court.But his closure effort was thwarted when Congress barred the transfer of prisoners from Guantanamo to the U.S., including for prosecution or medical care. Obama ended up releasing 197 prisoners, leaving 41 for Trump.Trump in his 2016 campaign promised to “load” Guantanamo with “some bad dudes,” but largely ignored the issue after rescinding Obama’s policies. His administration approved a single release, a Saudi who pleaded guilty before a military commission.Of those remaining, seven men have cases pending before a military commission. They include five men accused of planning and supporting the Sept. 11 attacks. Additionally, there are two prisoners who were convicted by commission and three facing potential prosecution for the 2002 Bali bombing.Commission proceedings, including death penalty cases related to the Sept. 11 attacks, have bogged down as the defense fights to exclude evidence that resulted from torture. Trials are likely far in the future and would inevitably be followed by years of appeals.Defense attorneys say the incoming administration could authorize more military commission plea deals. Some have also suggested Guantanamo detainees could plead guilty in federal court by video and serve any remaining sentence in other countries, so they wouldn’t enter the United States.Detainee advocates also say Biden could defy Congress and bring prisoners to the U.S., arguing that the ban wouldn’t stand up in court.“It’s either do something about it or they die there without charge,” said Wells Dixon, a lawyer for two prisoners, including one who has pleaded guilty in the military commission and is awaiting sentencing.The remaining detainees include five who had been cleared for release before Trump took office and have languished since. Advocates want the Biden administration to review the rest, noting that many, had they been convicted in federal court, would have served their sentences and been released at this point.FILE – A guard tower in front of the detention facility on Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba in 2019.“Whittle it down to the folks who are being prosecuted and either prosecute them or don’t, but don’t just hang on to them,” said Joseph Margulies, a Cornell Law School professor who has represented one prisoner. “At great expense, we walk around with this thing around our necks. It does no good. It has no role for national security. It’s just a big black stain that provides no benefit whatsoever.”Over the years, nine prisoners have died at Guantanamo: seven from apparent suicide, one from cancer and one from a heart attack.Paracha’s attorney raised his health issues, which include a heart attack in 2006, at his review board, speaking by secure teleconference with U.S. security and defense agencies.She also raised an important legal development. Paracha, who lived in the U.S. and owned property in New York City, was a wealthy businessman in Pakistan. Authorities say he was an al-Qaida “facilitator” who helped two of the Sept. 11 conspirators with a financial transaction. He says he didn’t know they were al-Qaida and denies any involvement in terrorism.Uzair Paracha, his son, was convicted in 2005 in federal court in New York of providing support to terrorism, based in part on the same witnesses held at Guantanamo that the U.S. has relied on to justify holding his father. In March, after a judge threw out those witness accounts and the government decided not to seek a new trial, Uzair Paracha was released and sent back to Pakistan.Had his father been convicted in the U.S., his fate might have been the same. Instead, it will likely be in Biden’s hands and, Sullivan-Bennis said, time is of the essence. “It could be a death sentence.”
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Hundreds of ‘Zombie Mink’ Resurfacing from Mass Graves
Denmark’s government said on Friday it wants to dig up mink that were culled to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, after hundreds resurfaced from mass graves.Denmark ordered all farmed mink to be culled early this month after finding that 12 people had been infected by a mutated strain of the virus that causes COVID-19, which passed from humans to mink and back to humans.The decision led to 17 million animals being destroyed and to the resignation last week of Food and Agriculture Minister Morgens Jensen, after it was determined that the order was illegal.Dead mink were tipped into trenches at a military area in western Denmark and covered with 2 meters of soil. But hundreds have begun resurfacing, pushed out of the ground by what authorities say is gas from their decomposition. Newspapers have referred to them as the “zombie mink.”Jensen’s replacement, Rasmus Prehn, said on Friday he supported the idea of digging up the animals and incinerating them. He said he had asked the environmental protection agency to investigate whether it could be done, and parliament would be briefed on the issue on Monday.The macabre burial sites, guarded 24 hours a day to keep people and animals away, have drawn complaints from area residents about possible health risks.Authorities say there is no risk of the graves spreading the coronavirus, but locals worry about the risk of contaminating drinking water and a bathing lake less than 200 meters away.
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US Sanctions Chinese, Russian Firms Over Iran Dealings
The U.S. announced economic sanctions Friday on Chinese and Russian companies that Washington said had supported the development of Iran’s missile program.The four firms, accused of “transferring sensitive technology and items to Iran’s missile program,” will be subject to restrictions on U.S. government aid and on their exports for two years, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.The sanctions, imposed Wednesday, were against two China-based companies, Chengdu Best New Materials and Zibo Elim Trade, as well as Russia-based Nilco Group and Joint Stock Company Elecon.”We will continue to work to impede Iran’s missile development efforts and use our sanctions authorities to spotlight the foreign suppliers, such as these entities in the PRC (China) and Russia, that provide missile-related materials and technology to Iran,” Pompeo added.President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal established three years earlier under then-President Barack Obama.Trump has since reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic in what he calls a campaign of “maximum pressure.”The Trump administration has also since shown its determination to sanction any foreign country or company that does not comply with its Iran policies.
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Ethiopian Forces Claim Gains in Tigray Region
Ethiopian forces are making gains in several towns near Tigray’s regional capital, one day after the government said it was beginning the “final phase” of an offensive in the northern region, the country’s news agency said Friday.Lieutenant General Hassan Ibrahim said in a statement Friday that federal forces had captured Wikro “and will control Mekelle in a few days,” according to the Reuters news agency.There was no independent confirmation of the government claims. Phone and internet connections to the region have been down since the government’s military offensive began in early November.The continued fighting came as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, following a meeting with African Union envoys, again ruled out negotiating with leaders of the Tigray region.Abiy met with three AU envoys — former Presidents Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Kgalema Motlanthe of South Africa — in Addis Ababa on Friday.A statement issued after the meeting said Abiy appreciated the commitment of the AU envoys “to the principle of African solutions to African problems.” He said his government was committed to the “protection and security of civilians” but made no mention of holding talks with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed greets an African Union envoy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nov. 27, 2020, in this picture obtained from social media.Abiy, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for ending a two-decade standoff with Eritrea, announced a military offensive against the regional government in Tigray on November 4, calling it a response to an attack by Tigray forces.Calls for negotiations have been growing as the conflict has spilled into neighboring Eritrea and threatens the stability of the wider Horn of Africa region.Tigray officials have accused Eritrean troops of entering the conflict on the side of Abiy’s government in Ethiopia. Eritrean officials deny any involvement.The French news agency AFP, citing diplomats, reported that Tigrayan forces had fired at least one rocket toward neighboring Eritrea on Friday, the second such attack since the conflict broke out.Eritrea has long been at odds with the TPLF, experts said, and they fear it could be drawn into the conflict between the TPLF and Ethiopia’s federal government.Thousands of people are believed to have been killed since Abiy sent the national defense force into Tigray after accusing local forces there of attacking a military base.More than 43,000 refugees have fled to Sudan.Disaster fearedThe International Rescue Committee said Friday that it was extremely concerned about an impending humanitarian disaster, noting that a half-million people live in the Tigrayan regional capital of Mekelle.George Readings, IRC lead crisis analyst, said that “500,000 people are at risk as violence in Mekelle escalates.”U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed Friday the need to ensure the protection of civilians, human rights and aid access, according to U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq.A Vatican statement Friday said Pope Francis renewed a call for an end to the conflict and for political dialogue to resolve it. The pope appealed to both sides for the protection of civilians.
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Burkina’s Kabore Says Opposition Leader Congratulated Him on Victory
Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said Friday he had received the congratulations of the leader of the opposition, a day after official results showed he was reelected by a landslide.”I have received on Friday evening the congratulations of the presidential candidate, Zephirin Diabre,” Kabore wrote on Twitter. “I salute his approach which is in line with the republican spirit of our political class,” he said, accompanying his tweet with a photo of the two.When the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced Kabore’s landslide victory Thursday, the opposition had said it “reserved the right” to challenge the results.Diabre’s Union for Progress and Change (UPC) said on its website before Kabore’s tweet it wished to “point out the major shortcomings” that had “marred” the ballot.”Considering the difficult situation our country is going through” it reaffirmed its “renewed desire to always preserve peace, stability and security in Burkina Faso by placing the interest of the nation above all other considerations.”Eddie Komboigo, the champion of ousted president Blaise Campaore’s party, came in second in Sunday’s vote with 15.48% of the ballot.He was followed in the 13-candidate field by Diabre, who had been considered by pundits to be the best-placed opposition hopeful, with 12.46% of votes cast.
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Macron Calls Images of Police Beating Black Man Shameful for France
President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that images showing Paris police beating up a Black music producer were shameful for France and that government would have to find a way to restore public confidence in the force.Prosecutors are investigating the violent arrest of Michel Zecler, who said he was also racially abused by the officers, after CCTV footage of the incident was released. The police watchdog is also investigating.Four police officers were being held for questioning as part of the investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.The beating inside the entrance of a building was captured on closed circuit television and mobile phone footage, which has circulated widely online and has made headlines around Europe.”The images we have all seen of the aggression against Michel Zecler are unacceptable. They are shameful for all of us. France should never allow violence or brutality, no matter who it comes from. France should never let hate or racism prosper,” Macron said in a statement on his Facebook page.’Respect the law’He added that the police force should be exemplary.”Those whose job it is to apply the law should respect the law,” he said, adding that he has asked the government to urgently make proposals about how to restore confidence in the police.The beating of Zecler risks inflaming racial tension, with allegations of repeated police brutality against Black and ethnic communities at the forefront of many people’s minds after the death of Black American George Floyd in Minneapolis in May added fuel to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.Dominique Sopo, president of anti-racism group SOS Racisme, told Reuters Zecler had been the target of a “racist attack.””For police officers to act that way, they must have a tremendous feeling of impunity. This situation is a symptom of an impunity that has been going on for too long,” he said.Paris police already faced criticism this week after social media photos and videos showed officers hitting protesters as they cleared out an illegal migrants’ campsite in a central Paris square.Incident at studioThe music producer told reporters he was set upon by police at his studio in Paris’s 17th arrondissement on Saturday.He said he had been walking in the street without a face mask — against French COVID-19 health protocols — and, upon seeing a police car, went into his nearby studio to avoid being fined. However, he said, the police followed him inside and began to assault and racially abuse him.Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 television on Thursday that the officers would be punished if the alleged wrongdoing was confirmed.Zecler’s arrest came amid fierce debate in France over legislation that would limit journalists’ ability to document French police officers at work.Around 3,500 people marched against the bill in the western city of Nantes, where police used tear gas and made several arrests. Many in the march also protested against police violence, some with their faces bandaged in support of Zecler. A similar demonstration is planned in Paris on Saturday.The outrage generated by Floyd’s death in the U.S. in May has resonated in France, particularly in deprived city suburbs where police often clash with youths from ethnic minority backgrounds.Protests in Paris in June focused on unsolved cases of people dying during police operations, such as Adama Traore, who died in police detention near Paris in 2016.
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8 Dead After Cyclone Hits Somalia’s Puntland; Spread of Locusts Feared
A cyclone that hit parts of Somalia this week killed eight people and displaced thousands, flooded farmlands and could worsen a locust plague, an official and U.N. agencies said.The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said Thursday that Tropical Cyclone Gati made landfall in the semiautonomous Puntland region Sunday and subsided Tuesday, but moderate and light rain continued to fall.The cyclone killed eight Yemeni fishermen, Mohamed Yusuf Boli, commissioner for the coastal district of Hafun, told Reuters.”It also destroyed many boats and houses. The town is in water and in bad situation,” Boli added.In addition to the deaths, UNOCHA said the cyclone had displaced 42,000 people from their homes.”The cyclone has disrupted livelihoods by destroying fishing gear, killing livestock, and flooding agricultural land and crops,” the agency said in a report.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said earlier this week that the cyclone could also allow immature desert locust swarms in Hargeisa and Jigjiga in Ethiopia to mature faster and lay eggs.The effect of the cyclone could also allow the swarms to move southeast to Ogaden region and lay eggs there, too, the FAO said.The insect plague hitting Somalia is part of a once-in-a-generation succession of swarms that have swept across East Africa and the Red Sea region since late 2019, driven by unusual weather patterns.
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Trump Administration Moves Ahead on Removing Bird Protections
The Trump administration moved forward Friday on removing long-standing federal protection for the nation’s birds, over objections from former federal officials and many scientists that billions more birds will likely perish as a result.The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its take on the proposed rollback in the Federal Register. It’s a final step that means the change — greatly limiting federal authority to prosecute industries for practices that kill migratory birds — could be made official within 30 days.The wildlife service acknowledged in its findings that the rollback would have a negative effect on the many bird species covered by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which range from hawks and eagles to seabirds, storks, songbirds and sparrows.The move scales back federal prosecution authority for the deadly threats migratory birds face from industry — from electrocution on power lines, to wind turbines that knock them from the air, to oil field waste pits where landing birds perish in toxic water.Industry operations kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of roughly 7 billion birds in North America, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and recent studies.The Trump administration maintains that the act should apply only to birds killed or harmed intentionally and is putting that change into regulation. The change would “improve consistency and efficiency in enforcement,” the Fish and Wildlife Service said.Judge’s rejectionThe administration has continued to push the migratory bird regulation even after a federal judge in New York in August rejected the administration’s legal rationale.Two days after news organizations announced President Donald Trump’s defeat by Democrat Joe Biden, federal officials advanced the bird treaty changes to the White House, one of the final steps before adoption.Trump was “in a frenzy to finalize his bird-killer policy,” David Yarnold, president of the National Audubon Society, said in a statement Friday. “Reinstating this 100-year-old bedrock law must be a top conservation priority for the Biden-Harris administration” and Congress.Steve Holmer with the American Bird Conservancy said the change would accelerate bird population declines that have swept North America since the 1970s.How the 1918 treaty gets enforced has sweeping ramifications for the construction of commercial buildings, electric transmission systems and other infrastructure, said Rachel Jones, vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers.Jones said the changes under Trump would be needed to make sure the bird law wasn’t used in an “abusive way.” That’s a long-standing complaint from industry lawyers despite federal officials’ contention that they bring criminal charges only rarely.It’s part of a flurry of last-minute changes under the outgoing administration benefiting industry. Others would expand Arctic drilling, favor development over habitat protections for imperiled species and potentially hamstring future regulation of environmental and public health threats, among other rollbacks.
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Treason Trial of Cambodian Opposition Supporters Gets Underway
For more than a year, the Cambodian government has been rounding up supporters of the banned Cambodian National Rescue Party and charging them with treason. Amid tight security and chaotic scenes, 129 of them appeared Thursday before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, although their trials have now been put off until early next year. With David Potter contributing, Luke Hunt reports from Phnom Penh.Producer: Luke Hunt. Camera: David Potter, Luke Hunt.
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Blast Kills at Least 7 in Mogadishu After US Defense Secretary Visit
A huge blast went off in Mogadishu on Friday, killing at least seven people, hours after U.S. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller made an unannounced visit to the Somali capital.Witnesses say a suicide bomber blew himself up near Gelato Devino, a popular ice-cream shop along the road to the airport, killing an unknown number of people and wounding some others.FILE – National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller testifies during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 24, 2020.Amin Ambulance, one of Mogadishu’s ambulance services, said at least seven people were killed in the attack.It was unclear who was behind the attack, but militant group al-Shabab frequently carries out attacks in Mogadishu as part of its bid to overthrow the Somali government.The Pentagon said Friday that Acting Secretary of Defense Miller celebrated Thanksgiving on Thursday with U.S. military personnel and contractors in Mogadishu and at Camp Lemonnier in nearby Djibouti.Miller’s surprise visit came following reports that U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to withdraw most of the 750 U.S. military personnel who are in Mogadishu, training and supporting the Somali National Army.
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US Appeals Court Rejects Trump Appeal Over Pennsylvania Race
President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected its latest effort to challenge the state’s election results.Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judge’s assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here,” Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote for the three-judge panel.The case had been argued last week in a lower court by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who insisted during five hours of oral arguments that the 2020 presidential election had been marred by widespread fraud in Pennsylvania. However, Giuliani failed to offer any tangible proof of that in court.U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann had said the campaign’s error-filled complaint, “like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together” and denied Giuliani the right to amend it for a second time.The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called that decision justified. The three judges on the panel were all appointed by Republican presidents. including Bibas, a former University of Pennsylvania law professor appointed by Trump. Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, sat on the court for 20 years, retiring in 2019.Friday’s ruling comes four days after Pennsylvania officials certified their vote count for President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump by more than 80,000 votes in the state. Nationally, Biden and running mate Kamala Harris garnered nearly 80 million votes, a record in U.S. presidential elections.Trump has said he hopes the Supreme Court will intervene in the race as it did in 2000, when its decision to stop the recount in Florida gave the election to Republican George W. Bush. On Nov. 5, as the vote count continued, Trump posted a tweet saying the “U.S. Supreme Court should decide!”Ever since, Trump and his surrogates have attacked the election as flawed and filed a flurry of lawsuits to try to block the results in six battleground states. But they’ve found little sympathy from judges, nearly all of whom dismissed their complaints about the security of mail-in ballots, which millions of people used to vote from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.Trump perhaps hopes a Supreme Court he helped steer toward a conservative 6-3 majority would be more open to his pleas, especially since the high court upheld Pennsylvania’s decision to accept mail-in ballots through Nov. 6 by only a 4-4 vote last month. Since then, Trump nominee Amy Coney Barrett has joined the court.“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis tweeted after Friday’s ruling. “On to SCOTUS!”In the case before Brann, the Trump campaign asked to disenfranchise the state’s 6.8 million voters, or at least the 700,000 who voted by mail in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and other Democratic-leaning areas.“One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption,” Brann wrote in his scathing ruling on Nov. 21. “That has not happened.”A separate Republican challenge that reached the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this week seeks to stop the state from further certifying any races on the ballot. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is fighting that effort, saying it would prevent the state’s legislature and congressional delegation from being seated in the coming weeks.On Thursday, Trump said the Nov. 3 election was still far from over. Yet he offered the clearest signal to date that he would leave the White House peaceably on Jan. 20 if the Electoral College formalizes Biden’s win.“Certainly I will. But you know that,” Trump said at the White House, taking questions from reporters for the first time since Election Day.Yet on Friday, he continued to baselessly attack Detroit, Atlanta and other Democratic cities with large Black populations as the source of “massive voter fraud.” And he claimed, without evidence, that a Pennsylvania poll watcher had uncovered computer memory drives that “gave Biden 50,000 votes” apiece.All 50 states must certify their results before the Electoral College meets on Dec. 14, and any challenge to the results must be resolved by Dec. 8. Biden won both the Electoral College and popular vote by wide margins.
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During the Pandemic, Santa Makes Video House Calls
This holiday season, the traditional visit with Santa Claus is going digital. Virtual visits with Santa Claus are being offered as a safer way for children to interact with Santa during the pandemic, as Tina Trinh reports.
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In Santa’s Mailbag, a Peek into Children’s Pandemic Worries
Jim, from Taiwan, slipped a face mask inside the greeting card he sent to Santa and marked “I (heart) u.” Alina, 5, asked in her Santa letter written with an adult’s help that he please use the front door when he drops in, because the back door is reserved for Grandma and Grandpa to minimize their risk of contamination. And spilling out her heavy little heart to “Dear Father Christmas,” 10-year-old Lola wrote that she is wishing “that my aunt never has cancer again and that this virus no longer exists.” “My mother is a care-giver and sometimes I am scared for her,” Lola explained, signing off her handwritten letter with, “Take care of yourself Father Christmas, and of the Elves.” The emotional toll wrought by the pandemic is jumping off pages in the deluge of “Dear Santa” letters now pouring into a post office in southwest France that sorts and responds to his mail from around the world.
Arriving by the tens of thousands, the letters, notes and cards — some mere scribbles, other elaborate labors of love in colored pens — are revealing windows into the tender minds of their young authors, and of adult Santa fans also asking for respite and happiness, at the tail end of a year of sickness and tumult. Like this letter from young Zoe, who limited her requests to a music player and amusement park tickets because “this year has been very different from others because of COVID-19.” “That’s why I am not asking you for many thing(s) to avoid infection,” Zoe wrote, signing off with “Merci!” and a heart. In theory, and often in practice, any letter addressed “Pere Noel” — French for Father Christmas — and slipped into any post box around the world is likely to wend its way to the sorting office in France’s Bordeaux region that has been handling his mail since 1962. Toiling out of sight among vineyards, his secretariat of workers (who call themselves “elves”) spends the months of November and December slicing open envelopes decorated with hearts, stickers and colors, and spreading Santa magic by responding on his behalf. From the first letters opened at the secretariat from Nov. 12, it quickly became apparent how the pandemic is weighing on children, says the chief elf, Jamila Hajji. Along with the usual pleas for toys and gadgets were also requests for vaccines, for visits from grandparents, for life to return to the way it was. One letter in three mentions the pandemic in some way, Hajji says. “The kids have been very affected by COVID, more than we think. They are very worried. And what they want most of all, apart from presents, is really to be able to have a normal life, the end of COVID, a vaccine,” she says. “The letters to Father Christmas are a sort of release for them. All this year, they have been in lockdowns, they have been deprived of school, deprived of their grandpas and grandmas. Their parents have been occupied by the health crisis and whatnot. So we, of course, can tell that the children are putting into words everything they have felt during this period.” “We are like elf therapists,” she adds. Replying to 12,000 letters per day, the team of 60 elves sets aside some that move them or catch the eye. Lola’s is among those that have stood out so far, with its heartfelt confession to Santa that “this year more than the others, I need magic and to believe in you.” The elves say their sense is that children are confiding worries that they may not have shared with parents. Emma Barron, a psychiatrist specializing in the mental health of children and adolescents at the Robert Debré pediatric hospital in Paris, says landmark dates, including birthdays and holidays like Christmas, provide structure in childhood. Amid the pandemic’s uncertainty, the Dec. 25 anchor of Christmas is particularly important to kids this year. “Children are quite surprising in that they can adapt to many things,” Barron says. “But rhythms, rituals and things like that are an integral part of children’s mental stability.” As the letters flood in, it’s also clear that this goes beyond childhood. Santa is proving a beacon to adults, too, with some writing to him for the first time since they were kids. One asked for “a pandemic of love.” A 77-year-old lamented that “lockdown is no fun! I live alone.” A grandparent asked Santa to “say ‘Hi’ to my two grandkids that I won’t be able to see this year because of the health situation.” “Your mission will be hard this year,” wrote Anne-Marie, another adult suppliant. “You will need to sprinkle stars across the entire world, to calm everyone and revive our childhood souls, so we can dream, at last, and let go.”
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Thai Protesters Vow Weekend of Rallies as Coup Rumors Swirl
Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators flooded a Bangkok intersection late Friday, vowing to resist any attempts at a coup amid rumors of a coming military intervention to break a deadlock between the vibrant reform movement and a stubborn royalist government.Thailand has had 13 coups since a 1932 revolution established a constitutional monarchy, led by an army which refuses to leave the political stage – or allow full democracy to take root – and whose actions are endorsed by a palace which is at the pinnacle of power.The last coup, in 2014, was led by Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, the then army chief who transformed into a civilian premier after elections last year under rules heavily favoring the military-aligned party he leads.Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha waves as he attends an agreement signing ceremony for purchase of AstraZeneca’s potential COVID-19 vaccine at Government House, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Bangkok, Nov. 27, 2020.But after six years in power Prayuth is on the ropes, his name denigrated nightly on the streets by protesters who are demanding his resignation, the drafting of a new constitution and – most significantly – reform of the monarchy.With the government refusing to cede ground and a rising threat of clashes between pro-democrats and pro-monarchists, experts say dangerous days lie ahead for Thailand.That has stirred speculation that Prayuth could soon be removed from power by the courts or an army faction called in to smother the protests with martial law.On Friday at the ‘rehearsal against the coup’ protest, rally-goers said they feared the only way for the establishment to mute their calls for palace reform was a coup.Protesters hold inflatable toys during a pro-democracy rally demanding the prime minister to resign and reforms on the monarchy, in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 27, 2020.”The government is ready to stage a coup, they’re waiting for the last straw,” said Banlue, aged 45, giving one name only like many of the wary protesters.The movement has been broadly peaceful, but dozens of people were injured in clashes earlier this month between young demonstrators and ‘yellow shirt’ loyalists to King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who insist the monarchy must remain off-limits.”I’m only 17 and I’ve seen two coups already,” said protester Teeramet, as the normally busy intersection assumed a festival feel with music, food and political speeches – accompanied by inflatable rubber ducks, the latest fun protest emblem.“This is Thailand, the land of the wicked coup cycle,” he added.The new Thai army chief has a reputation as a royalist hardliner, feeding speculation he could lead a takeover to silence protests which now openly mock the king and flout a strict royal defamation law.Thailand Army Chief Gen. Narongpan Jittkaewtae speaks during press briefing at the Thai Army headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, Oct. 6, 2020.Dismissing the speculation, Army Chief Narongphan Jitkaewtae told reporters to stop using the term “coup d’état.”“There is always a way out, we just need to see what it is,” he said.But in a country notorious for its sudden power plays at times of political crisis, few on the streets believe him.“Thailand’s coups are never about keeping peace and order. They are about how long can they (the army) hold onto power,” said Knot, 27, as protesters unfurled a vast banner depicting the faces of the 13 army chiefs who have staged coups in the last 10 decades.Royal defamationThe protesters’ calls for reform have become focused on King Vajiralongkorn, whom they accuse of being profligate with billions of dollars of public money. He is renowned for his lavish lifestyle, including ownership of a fleet of jets for travel to his overseas home in Germany.On Wednesday they massed at the Siam Commercial Bank to demand that the king return “the people’s wealth” from an institution in which the king is the largest shareholder, with a personal stake amounting to around $2.3 billion.Crucially, they accuse the palace of pulling the strings of government through the army and its political proxies and demand that the king’s powers be constrained by the constitution.King Vajiralongkorn, long known for his for aloofness and distance from his subjects, has tried to reclaim the initiative with near-nightly walkabouts among his adoring royalist supporters which have been broadcast on television.In a late October meet-and-greet, he spoke to a royalist who had confronted the protesters, saying, “Very brave, good job, thank you.” A video clip of the exchange went viral and was seen as an endorsement of the yellow shirts, who have been mobilizing in rival rallies.But the king has not addressed the demands of the pro-democracy movement directly. Instead insults aimed at the monarchy have mounted as a young, social media-savvy generation rides roughshod over Thailand’s stiff social hierarchy, which they accuse of embedding inequality and forcing obedience rather than critical thinking.Thai ‘Bad Students’ Slam Government as ‘Dinosaurs’Youth protests continue as a kingdom bitterly divided by age, politics and attitudes toward its rulers lurches deeper into crisisGraffiti, banners and speeches flout the once-feared royal defamation law – known as ‘112’ – which provides for up to 15 years in jail for every charge of insulting, threatening or defaming the monarchy.At least a dozen protest leaders faced police action under 112 as the government this week used the law to try to quash the growing anti-monarchy sentiment. But it appeared to have a limited immediate effect.Activist Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, jailed in 2017 for two years and six months for lese majeste after sharing an unflattering article about the monarch over Facebook, said he had again been charged under the law.”I got 112’d for the second time under Rama X,” he posted defiantly on Facebook, referring to the king’s dynastic title without detailing the allegation against him. “Very brave, good job, thank you.”
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Lawmakers Throw Pig Guts, Punches on Taiwan Parliament Floor
Lawmakers in Taiwan got into a fist fight and threw pig guts at each other Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef. Premier Su Tseng-chang was due to give a regularly scheduled policy report to lawmakers on Friday morning about the pork policy when opposition party lawmakers from the Nationalist party, also known as the KMT, blocked his attempt to speak by dumping bags of pig organs. Legislators from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party attempted to stop them, resulting in chaos and an exchange of punches.Taiwan lawmakers throw pork intestines at each other during a scuffle in the parliament in Taipei, Taiwan, Nov. 27, 2020.A DPP lawmaker wrestled a KMT lawmaker to the floor in the scuffle. President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration lifted a longstanding ban on imports of U.S. pork and beef in August, in a move seen as one of the first steps toward possibly negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. The ban is due to be lifted in January. That decision has met with fierce opposition, both from the KMT and individual citizens. The new policy allows imports of pork with acceptable residues of ractopamine, a drug that some farmers add to animal feed that promotes the growth of lean meat. On Sunday, thousands of people marched in Taipei to protest the imports. U.S. pork would account for a small percentage of the island’s consumption, but the Nationalist party has seized on the issue in an effort to mobilize support following successive failures at the polls. “When you were in the opposition, you were against U.S. pork, now that you’re in power, you’ve become a supporter of U.S. pork,” said KMT legislator Lin Wei-chou, who led the group of lawmakers protesting the policy on Friday. They wore black T-shirts that read “oppose ractopamine-pork.” DPP lawmakers called for peace. “You have blocked Premier Su from reposting to the parliament for 12 times,” said Hsu Sheng-chieh, a DPP legislative member. “Please return to reason.”
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