The United States is denying a report on Iranian state television that Tehran has reached a deal with Washington and Britain to free prisoners with Western ties in exchange for billions of dollars in new economic aid.”Reports that a prisoner swap deal has been reached are not true,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said Sunday. “As we have said, we always raise the cases of Americans detained or missing in Iran. We will not stop until we are able to reunite them with their families.”White House chief of staff Ron Klain also denied the Iranian report on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” show, saying, “There is no agreement to release these four Americans. We’re working very hard to get them released.”Iranian state TV quoted a source as saying, “The Americans accepted to pay $7 billion and swap four Iranians who were active in bypassing sanctions for four American spies who have served part of their sentences.”Iran is known to hold four Americans in prison, including Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi. The state TV report did not name the Iranians that Tehran hoped to have repatriated in the swap.In addition, the state TV report quoted the source as saying Britain had agreed to pay $552 million for the release of a British-Iranian woman, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.FILE – Richard Ratcliffe, husband of charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, imprisoned in Iran, calls for his wife’s release, outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Jan. 16, 2017.The British Foreign Office said the country continues to explore options to resolve the case, adding, “We will not comment further as legal discussions are ongoing.”Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced last week to an additional year in prison, her lawyer said, for participating in a protest in front of the Iranian embassy in London in 2009.The new sentence came after she completed a five-year prison term in the Islamic Republic on her conviction for plotting to overthrow Iran’s government, a charge that she has denied. She was employed at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of the news agency, when she was taken into custody at the Tehran airport in April 2016 as she was returning home to Britain after visiting family.The Iranian hostages-for-cash report came amid recent indirect talks in Vienna between the U.S. and Iran over U.S. President Joe Biden’s effort to rejoin the 2015 international compact with Tehran to curb Iran’s program to build a nuclear weapon. Biden’s immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement in May 2018.Tehran says its nuclear weapons program is for peaceful purposes but has recently increased its enrichment of uranium.
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Month: May 2021
US Denies Hostage Deal With Iran
Posted by Worldcrew On 03/05/2021
Wyoming Backs Coal With $1.2M Threat to Sue Other States
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
While most states pursue ways to boost renewable energy, Wyoming is doing the opposite with a new program aimed at propping up the dwindling coal industry by suing other states that block exports of Wyoming coal and cause Wyoming coal-fired power plants to shut down. The law signed April 6 by Republican Gov. Mark Gordon creates a $1.2 million fund for an initiative that marks the latest attempt by state leaders to help coal in the state that accounts for the bulk of U.S. coal production, which is down by half since 2008. “Wyoming is sending a message that it is prepared to bring litigation to protect her interests,” Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said of the fund signed into law April 6. The law puts West Coast states and Colorado on notice — all seek to get a large share of their electricity from renewables but still get some from aging Wyoming coal-fired power plants. The approach may run into legal troubles, though, according to one constitutional expert. Lawsuits between states aren’t unusual and often involve natural resources, such as water rights. Such cases can go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court, if the justices agree to hear them.Last year, Wyoming and Montana — another major coal state — asked the Supreme Court to override a decision by Washington state to deny a permit to build a coal export dock on the Columbia River. The interstate lawsuit followed years of unsuccessful attempts by the dock’s developer, Utah-based Lighthouse Resources, to contest the permit denial in federal court.The Supreme Court hasn’t said yet if it will hear the case, but the new legal fund approved resoundingly by the Wyoming Legislature and overseen by Gordon could help cover the cost of that litigation, Pearlman said.All the while, prospects for Wyoming’s coal industry are as dim as ever, even after then-President Donald Trump rolled back regulations on mining and burning the fossil fuel. Wyoming coal production, which accounts for about 40% of the nation’s total, has been in decline as utilities switch to gas, which is cheaper to burn to generate electricity. Solar and wind power also are on the rise as coal’s share of the U.S. power market shrinks from about half in the early 2000s to less than 20% now.Hope that other countries will use more U.S. coal, meanwhile, is fading fast. Lighthouse Resources filed for bankruptcy in December, further setting back the coal dock proposal.So can state vs. state lawsuits help the coal industry?”We’re supportive of all the efforts of the state right now to protect and defend the industry,” Wyoming Mining Association Executive Director Travis Deti said.Wyoming could waste a lot of money trying to convince courts to help coal, countered University of Maryland environmental law professor Robert Percival.”I don’t think they have a legal leg to stand on,” Percival said.The U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause prohibits states from barring goods and services based on their state of origin. States are free, however, to regulate or outright prohibit certain goods and services — coal and coal-fired electricity included — as long as they don’t intentionally target other states, Percival said. Who might be targets of future Wyoming coal litigation isn’t yet known. Pearlman declined to speculate, saying Gordon and Attorney General Bridget Hill would need to study their chances of success, but they could include West Coast states including, again, Washington.Portland, Oregon-based utility PacifiCorp plans to reduce its coal-fired generation by two-thirds by 2030, partly by retiring generators at two southwestern Wyoming power plants starting in 2023, as much as five years sooner than envisioned just a few years ago. The utility serves four states with renewable energy standards or goals — California, Oregon, Utah and Washington — and two that don’t: Idaho and Wyoming.PacifiCorp has been meeting renewable standards by getting electricity from the lowest cost and least risky sources like it has always done, so the standards haven’t factored into its decisions to retire coal-fired power, company spokesman David Eskelsen said.PacifiCorp has no position on the legal fund, but the Wyoming Rural Electric Association supports the message it sends to states such as Colorado, which has renewable energy standards and gets coal-fired electricity from southeastern Wyoming, Executive Director Shawn Taylor said.”It’s just kind of part and parcel of folks feeling that states and state agencies and entities outside Wyoming are having more of an impact on our energy resources than we do,” Taylor said.The coal litigation fund followed a 2020 bill that established a $1 million fund to promote Wyoming coal. Wyoming is paying a nonprofit, the Energy Policy Network, $250,000 a year from the fund to contest plans in other states to shut down coal-fired power.”I will not waver in my efforts to protect our industries, particularly our coal industry. The use of coal is under assault from all directions. And we have stood firm in our support of it throughout,” Gordon said in his state of the state address in March.He called for Wyoming to be carbon negative — capturing more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide than it emits — by investing in technology and infrastructure to trap carbon dioxide at power plants and keep the gas out of the atmosphere.Carbon capture remains economically unproven on a scale needed to meaningfully reduce current carbon dioxide emissions. Wyoming has been funding research into the technology, however, including $10 million in a just-approved bill that slashed Wyoming’s budget by over 10% amid weak revenue from oil, gas and coal extraction.Connie Wilbert, director of the Sierra Club’s Wyoming chapter, said the state should put its tight budget to more productive use than coal lawsuits.”Coal is on the way out,” Wilbert said. “The sooner our elected leadership acknowledges that and starts looking for things the state can do to actually help us through the transition, the better.”
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Black Candidate Challenges Political Status Quo in Spain
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
Two young Senegalese men met on a Europe-bound migrant boat in 2006, a year that saw a record influx of Africans to Spain’s Canary Islands. Since then, one died of a heart attack running away from Spanish police and the other is running in a polarized election Tuesday for a seat in Madrid’s regional assembly.Serigne Mbaye not only wants to fight what he considers to be “structural racism” against African migrants but also to defy a history of underrepresentation of the Black community and other people of color in Spanish politics.“That’s where all discrimination begins,” the 45-year-old told The Associated Press.In 2018, having failed to secure legal work and a residence permit, the man he met on the boat — Mame Mbaye, no relation — died of a heart attack eluding a police crackdown on street vendors.After that, Serigne Mbaye, who at the time represented a group of mostly Black African hawkers, became one of the most vocal voices against Spain’s Alien Law, saying it ties migrants arriving unlawfully to the underground economy. The regulation also punishes them with jail for committing minor offenses, leaving them with a criminal record that weighs against their chances of getting a residence permit.“His image at night when we were on the boat always haunts me,” said Serigne Mbaye, who is now a Spanish citizen. “The sole fact that he is dead and I’m alive is because of an unjust law that condemns and punishes us. Some of us make it. Some can spend 20 years in a vicious circle without papers.”Mbaye is running on a ticket with the anti-austerity United We Can party, the junior partner in the country’s ruling, Socialist-led coalition.Only a handful of Black people have succeeded in at the top level of Spanish politics. Equatorial Guinea-born Rita Bosaho, now the director of racial and ethnic diversity at Spain’s Equality Ministry, in 2015 became the first Black national lawmaker in four decades of democratic rule. Luc André Diouf, who also migrated from Senegal, also won a seat in Spain’s Lower House in 2019. At a lower, regional level, Mbaye wants to show that “Madrid is diverse.”“That a Black person is running in the lists has surprised many. In that way, this is making many people think,” he said.Vox, the country’s increasingly influential far-right party, has responded to Mbaye’s candidacy with an Instagram post vowing to deport him, even though that’s impossible because the far-left candidate is a Spanish citizen. With its mixture of patriotism and populist provocation, Vox has become the third force in the national parliament and might emerge as the kingmaker in Madrid’s May 4 election.“They are basically saying that because I’m Black there is no place for me here,” said Mbaye. “These are the kind of messages that criminalize us and that we continue receiving.”Vox has also made waves with large subway ads citing inaccurate figures comparing Madrid’s alleged public spending on unaccompanied foreign minors with the alleged average stipend for a retiree. The party blames the minors — a total of 269 people in the region’s population of 6.7 million — for increased insecurity.Judges have ruled that the billboards fall under free speech. But when Vox is accused by opponents of being racist, the party says its crusade is only against illegal migration and that a racist party wouldn’t have a mixed-race spokesman in northeastern Catalonia’s regional parliament. That’s Rafael Garriga, a dentist of Belgian and Equatorial Guinean descent.“By surrounding themselves with what they see as some kind of respectability, they try to legitimize clearly racist speech while not crossing certain legal lines,” said Antumi Toasijé, a historian who heads the National Council Against Ethnic and Racial Discrimination.The ascent of the far-right and the polarization in social media has normalized hate speech in Spain, he said.The Black Lives Matter movement led last year to some of the largest protests against racism seen in Spain. But while many condemned the murder of Black citizens by police in the United States, few reflected on domestic racism or Spain’s own history of colonialism, slavery and, according to Toasijé, “a long tradition of attempts to conduct ethnic cleansing.”In a country where the census doesn’t ask about race or ethnicity, like in much of Europe, a recent government study put the number of Black people in Spain at just over 700,000.Toasijé’s own estimation elevates the figure to at least 1.3 million “visibly” Black people, including sub-Saharan Africans, Black Latin Americans and Afro-descendants born in Spain. That would be 2.7% of the population, or at least nine Black lawmakers if the 350-seat Congress of Deputies reflected the country’s diversity. There is currently one Black lawmaker.Still, quotas or other measures that would help address racial inequality aren’t even part of the debate, said Toasijé.That underrepresentation also affects Spain’s Roma people, a community of 700,000 that scored a historic victory in 2019 by snatching four parliamentary seats, close to the 1.5% share it represents in the total population. But one of them failed to retain his seat in a repeated election. The situation isn’t better for descendants of Latin Americans or Moroccans, who represent some of the largest groups of non-white Spaniards, or the more than 11% of foreign-born residents who can’t even run in regional or national elections.Moha Gerehou, a Spanish journalist and anti-racism activist, said “structural racism” is inbred in Spanish life.“It has a lot to do with education, because the main bottleneck is in access to universities, leaving low-paid and precarious employment like domestic work or harvesting, where there is rampant exploitation,” he said.Barring sports figures and some artists, people of color are pretty much invisible in high-powered Spanish circles from academia to big business, said Gerehou, who just published a book on growing up as a Black person in a provincial northern Spanish capital.His description is of a largely white country that considers itself non-racist and welcoming to migrants, even when numerous studies have captured rampant discrimination against people of color, especially in jobs or housing.”The problem is that the debate of racial representation is still on the fringes,” Gerehou said. “We need to go much faster.”
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Berlin Police Slam ‘Unacceptable’ May Day Violence
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
Nearly 100 police officers were injured and over 300 people arrested after May Day rallies in Berlin descended into “unacceptable” violence, police and local authorities said Sunday.Around 30,000 people from across the political spectrum took part in several marches in the German capital on Saturday as part of the traditional Labor Day workers’ rights demonstrations. Most of the demonstrations passed off peacefully, police said. But the mood darkened in the evening after police pulled far-left “black bloc” protesters out of the crowd for not adhering to pandemic hygiene regulations such as social distancing. Along with thousands of others, they had been marching in the “Revolutionary May Day” demonstration to protest against racism, capitalism and rising rents in the city. Heavy scuffles ensued, with protesters throwing glass bottles and stones at police and setting dustbins and wooden pallets ablaze in the streets. At least 93 officers were injured in the clashes, Berlin’s interior ministry said, and 354 people were detained. “Violence during demonstrations is absolutely unacceptable,” said Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik. “The situation did degenerate but was quickly brought under control,” she added. Berlin state interior minister Andreas Geisel strongly condemned the “blind destruction rage” and violence towards police. Berlin mayor Michael Mueller said “violence, hatred and ignorance have no place in our society, not on May 1 or any other day.”Organisers behind the “Revolutionary May Day” rally said in a statement that dozens of protesters were injured in “groundless beatings” by police. The German capital had deployed around 5,600 officers on Saturday to monitor the May Day protests, which have turned violent in the past. Large rallies in Hamburg and Frankfurt also saw unrest, with police in both cities using water cannon to disperse protesters throwing bottles or setting off fireworks. Similar May Day protests took place around the world on Saturday, some of which also descended into skirmishes. In Paris, police fired tear gas at protesters who smashed the windows of bank branches, set dustbins alight and threw projectiles at police. France’s CGT union said 21 of its members had been injured in clashes with other protesters in Paris, four of them seriously, although they have since been discharged from hospital. The union said the perpetrators were “a large group of individuals, some of whom identified themselves as yellow vests”, the anti-elite protest movement that rocked France two years ago. “In 20 years of unionism, I have never seen anything like it,” CGT official Benjamin Amar told BFM television, saying it was difficult to know who was behind the violence but that they had thrown homophobic sexist and racist insults associated with the far-right.
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SpaceX Returns 4 Astronauts to Earth in Rare Night Splashdown
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
SpaceX returned four astronauts from the International Space Station on Sunday, making the first U.S. crew splashdown in darkness since the Apollo 8 moonshot.The Dragon capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City, Florida, just before 3 a.m., ending the second astronaut flight for Elon Musk’s company.It was an express trip home, lasting just 6 1/2 hours.The astronauts, three American and one Japanese, flew back in the same capsule — named Resilience — in which they launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in November.Their 167-day mission is the longest for astronauts launching from the U.S. The previous record of 84 days, about 3 months, was set by NASA’s final Skylab station crew in 1974.Saturday night’s undocking left seven people at the space station, four of whom arrived a week ago via SpaceX.“Earthbound!” NASA astronaut Victor Glover tweeted after departing the station. “One step closer to family and home!”Glover — along with NASA’s Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — should have returned to Earth last Wednesday, but high offshore winds forced SpaceX to pass up a pair of daytime landing attempts. Managers switched to a rare splashdown in darkness, to take advantage of calm weather.SpaceX had practiced for a nighttime return, just in case, and even recovered its most recent station cargo capsule from the Gulf of Mexico in darkness. Infrared cameras tracked the capsule as it re-entered the atmosphere; it resembled a bright star streaking through the night sky.All four main parachutes could be seen deploying just before splashdown, which was also visible in the infrared.Apollo 8 — NASA’s first flight to the moon with astronauts — ended with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific near Hawaii on Dec. 27, 1968. Eight years later, a Soviet capsule with two cosmonauts ended up in a dark, partially frozen lake in Kazakhstan, blown off course in a blizzard.That was it for nighttime crew splashdowns — until Sunday.Despite the early hour, the Coast Guard was out in full force to enforce an 18-kilometer keep-out zone around the bobbing Dragon capsule. For SpaceX’s first crew return in August, pleasure boaters swarmed the capsule, a safety risk.Once aboard the SpaceX recovery ship, the astronauts planned to hop on a helicopter for the short flight to shore, then catch a plane straight to Houston for a reunion with their families.Their capsule, Resilience, will head back to Cape Canaveral for refurbishment for SpaceX’s first private crew mission in September. The space station docking mechanism will be removed, and a brand-new domed window put in its place.A tech billionaire has purchased the entire three-day flight, which will orbit 120 kilometers above the space station. He will fly with a pair of contest winners and a physician assistant from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, his designated charity for the mission.SpaceX’s next astronaut launch for NASA will follow in October.NASA turned to private companies to service the space station, after the shuttle fleet retired in 2011. SpaceX began supply runs in 2012 and, last May, launched its first crew, ending NASA’s reliance on Russia for astronaut transport.Boeing is not expected to launch astronauts until early next year.
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US Secretary of State to Hold Talks in Ukraine About Russian Aggression
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken leaves for Europe on Sunday, where he will hold meetings in London and Kyiv.Blinken’s first stop will be London, where he will meet with the foreign secretaries from the Group of Seven countries. Later in the week, he will travel to Kyiv to show U.S. support for Ukraine’s government as it faces threats to its sovereignty from Russia.The meetings in London with the G-7 ministers are in preparation for the meeting of the G-7 leaders in June in Cornwall.The ministers are also expected to discuss their handling of challenges they are all facing, including the coronavirus outbreak and climate change.Blinken is also scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.In Kyiv, Blinken will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other senior government officials. His appearance is designed to show Washington’s support for Ukraine’s government against Russian threats.While Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Russia has most recently engaged in a military buildup along its border with Ukraine.State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken will “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”
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2 Killed in Shooting at Wisconsin Casino; Gunman Slain
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
A gunman killed two people at a Wisconsin casino restaurant and seriously wounded a third before he was killed by police late Saturday, in what authorities said appeared to be a targeted attack.Brown County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Pawlak said investigators believe the gunman was seeking a specific person.“He was targeting a specific victim who was not there, but he decided to still shoot some of the victim’s friends or co-workers, it appears,” Pawlak said.Neither the gunman nor the shooting victims were immediately identified.Pawlak was not sure if the shooter was a former employee of the restaurant but said “it appears there’s some relationship that had to do with employment.”“Whether or not they all worked there, we’re still working on,” he said.The wounded person was being treated at a Milwaukee hospital, Pawlak said.The attack happened around 7:30 p.m. at the Oneida Casino, operated by the Oneida Nation on the western side of Green Bay, in the upper Midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin, with the casino tweeting that an active shooter was on the scene.There is currently an active shooter situation at the Oneida Casino. Several Law Enforcement agencies are working to secure the location. Please do not go near the Main Casino on Hwy 172. We’ll post information as it becomes available.— Oneida Casino (@OneidaCasino) May 2, 2021Jawad Yatim, a witness, said he saw at least two people shot.“I know for sure two, because it happened right next to us, literally right next to us,” Yatim said. “But he was shooting pretty aggressively in the building, so I wouldn’t doubt him hitting other people.”Yatim said the shooting began in a casino restaurant.“We got the hell out of there, thank God we’re OK, but obviously we wish the best for everybody who’s been shot,” he said.Attorney General Josh Kaul tweeted shortly before 10 p.m. that the scene was “contained. There is no longer a threat to the community.”Webster said the casino is connected to a large hotel and conference center, the Radisson, also owned by the Oneida Nation.Gambler Max Westphal said he was standing outside after being evacuated for what he thought was a minor issue.“All of a sudden we hear a massive flurry of gunshots — 20 to 30 gunshots for sure,” Westphal told WBAY-TV. “We took off running towards the highway … There had to have been 50 cop cars that came by on the highway. It was honestly insane.”Pawlak said authorities called for a “tactical alert” after receiving the report of an active shooter. That “brings every agency from around the area to the casino, to the Radisson,” he said of the large law enforcement presence.Gov. Tony Evers issued a statement late Saturday saying he was “devastated” to hear about the shooting.“Our hearts, thoughts, and support go out to the Oneida Nation, the Ashwaubenon and Green Bay communities, and all those affected by this tragedy.”The Oneida tribe’s reservation lies on the west side of the Green Bay area.
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‘London to Delhi’ Cycle Raises Cash for India’s COVID Crisis
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
For British IT consultant Yogen Shah, India’s COVID-19 crisis is deeply personal.The pictures of people hooked up to oxygen bottles on the streets of New Delhi and patients sharing beds in overcrowded hospitals remind him of his uncle in India, who recently contracted the disease.So Shah joined volunteers from one of Britain’s largest Hindu temples who set out to raise 500,000 pounds ($690,000) by racking up 7,600 kilometers (4,722 miles) on stationary bikes — roughly the distance from London to Delhi — in 48 hours.”I think every single person of Indian origin will have someone affected over there,” Shah, 40, said Saturday outside the temple in northwest London. “And anywhere around the world that you have COVID, you feel for that human being, you feel for that person, whether they’re Indian origin or not.”The ride at Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in London’s Neasden neighborhood is one of many fundraising drives taking place across the U.K. as members of the Indian diaspora seek to help India battle the raging pandemic. The British Asian Trust, a charity founded by Prince Charles, has launched an emergency appeal to buy oxygen concentrators, which can extract oxygen from the air when hospital supplies run short.Grim milestoneIndia recorded more than 400,000 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the first time daily infections topped that milestone. The country reported 3,523 coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, raising overall virus fatalities to 211,853. Experts believe both figures are undercounts.A man takes part in “Cycle to Save Lives,” a 48-hour nonstop static relay cycle challenge, at the Neasden Temple, the largest Hindu temple in the U.K., in north London, to raise money to help coronavirus relief efforts in India, May 1, 2021.In normal times, British Indian families might respond to a crisis in the homeland by buying a plane ticket and going back to help their relatives. But these aren’t normal times for the 1.4 million people in the U.K. who have Indian roots.Looking for a way to help, members of the Hindu temple in Neasden decided to organize a fundraiser that would be socially distanced and attract young people. They decided on the bikeathon because they also wanted to bring London and New Delhi closer together — connecting the two capitals in spirit even though most travel is barred by COVID-19 restrictions.The need is dire, but so is the message of solidarity, said Tarun Patel, one of the organizers.”India is starving for oxygen,” he said. “We need to help.”Hundreds of ridersOrganizers arranged a bank of 12 bikes in front of the temple. Joining with temples in Leicester and Chigwell, they attracted 750 riders.Each volunteer gets an hour on the bike — 50 minutes to clock up the kilometers and 10 minutes to sanitize the bike before handing it over. Each volunteer has set up a fundraising page that goes toward an overall fundraising goal.The efforts won’t solve India’s pandemic catastrophe, but the bikers of Britain want everyone in India to know that they did their best to ride to the rescue.”You are not alone in this fight,” Patel said. “We are with you. We may geographically be thousands of miles away, but we are with you.”
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More Than 800 Migrants Rescued at Sea Head to Italy
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
Two Italian ports faced an influx of hundreds of migrants on Saturday, as a charity ship sailed toward a Sicilian port with 236 people rescued in the Mediterranean from traffickers’ boats, while Italian coast guard and border police brought 532 others to a tiny island.The maritime rescue group SOS Mediterranee said a ship it operates, Ocean Viking, pulled the migrants to safety four days ago from two rubber dinghies. Upon instructions from Italian authorities, the Ocean Viking was sailing to Augusta, Sicily, with its passengers, 119 of whom were reported to be unaccompanied minors.SOS Mediterranee said some passengers told rescuers they had been beaten by smugglers based in Libya and forced to embark on the unseaworthy dinghies despite high waves.On Italy’s southern island of Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than to the Italian mainland, Mayor Salvatore Martello said migrants from four boats that needed rescuing stepped ashore overnight. They were brought to safety by Italian coast guard and customs police boats.Separately, an Italian navy vessel rescued 49 migrants, Italian state TV reported.Another boatStill in the central Mediterranean Sea on Saturday was another charity boat, Sea-Watch 4, with 308 people aboard who had been rescued in four separate operations from trafficker-launched vessels, Sea-Watch said in a statement. The first rescue, of 44 people, took place Thursday, it said.Sea-Watch 4 has asked Italy and Malta for a port at which to disembark the migrants.”The fact that we, as a civil rescue ship, saved so many people from distress at sea in such a short time again demonstrates the fundamental rescue gap European states have created at the world’s most dangerous maritime border,” said Hannah Wallace Bowman, the head of mission for Sea-Watch 4.Warmer weather in the spring often increases the number of vessels launched toward Europe by Libya-based migrant traffickers.Last month, SOS Mediterranee personnel and a merchant ship spotted several bodies from a shipwrecked dinghy, believed to have been carrying 130 migrants. People on the boat had appealed for help in the waters off Libya, but no coast guard vessels from Libya, Italy or Malta came to their aid, the group said. No survivors were found.Humanitarian groups have been urging European Union nations to resume the deployment of military vessels on rescue patrols in the Mediterranean. After hundreds of thousands of rescued migrants, many of them ineligible for asylum, were brought to Italy by ships from the coast guard, navy, border police and other nations, large-scale rescue operations in the sea north of Libya were ended.Italy has been equipping and training the Libyan coast guard to save migrants in their search-and-rescue area and to discourage traffickers.Harsh treatment reportedHuman rights groups and U.N. agencies have denounced inhumane treatment at Libyan detention centers, where migrants rescued or intercepted by the Libyan coast guard are taken. They say migrants endure beatings, rapes and insufficient rations.On Friday, the United Nations’ child welfare agency said a total of 125 Europe-bound children were among those intercepted at sea earlier in the week by Libyan authorities off the Mediterranean coast. UNICEF said most of those rescued were sent to overcrowded detention centers with no or limited access to water.”Europe can no longer remain passive in the face of recurring shipwrecks while consciously upholding a system of unspeakable abuse by supporting forced returns to Libya,” SOS Mediterranee said.The risk migrants run of perishing at sea is high. UNICEF says at least 350 people, including children and women, have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since January.According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of Friday, 9,000 migrants had reached Italy by sea this year.Both the Italian and Maltese governments in recent years have claimed that private charity boats effectively facilitate trafficking by rescuing migrants at sea. At times, rescue vessels, including commercial ones, have been kept waiting for long stretches before safe ports were assigned.
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Europeans Mark International Workers’ Day with Protests, Grim Mood
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
Europeans marked International Workers’ Day, May 1, with traditional lily of the valley flowers and street protests. But this year’s mood was grim, with many countries feeling the health and economic backlash of COVID-19, including a double-dip recession in the 19-member euro currency zone.The weather was cold and damp in Paris as thousands of protesters marched down Boulevard Voltaire to Place de la Nation — or Nation’s Square — a favorite guillotine spot during the French Revolution.A protester holds a sign denouncing profiteers who have enriched themselves from the COVID crisis, in Paris, May 1, 2021. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)There was no such bloodshed during Saturday afternoon’s march, but there was a similar spirit of revolt. “We’re here, we’re here … even if Macron doesn’t like it, we’re still here,” protesters chanted, referring to President Emmanuel Macron. They brandished signs that said “The Profiteers Must Pay for the Covid Crisis” and “Slavery by Banks.”Jean-Pierre, a member of the Lutte Ouvriere workers union, said it was important to fight, especially against capitalists using the pandemic to enrich themselves.Graffiti in Paris says, “University students, left to their own devices.” Conditions around COVID-19 have hit many young people hard, with reports of some going hungry. (Lisa Bryant/VOA)“We’re manifesting against the change of tariffs for university, for foreign students,” he said. “A lot of things pertaining to the university and how the public system is being neglected. They’re wanting more money to create equality for all the students in France.”A year before presidential elections, Saturday’s protests had particularly sharp political overtones. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who placed her party’s annual wreath at the Joan of Arc statue in Paris, warned that another term for Macron would be a disaster for France. A number of prominent leftist leaders joined the Paris march.
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North Korea Slams Biden’s New Approach to Diplomacy
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
North Korea has lashed out at President Joe Biden, warning the U.S. will face a “very grave situation,” after the White House announced the broad outlines of its plan for diplomacy with Pyongyang.The statement, issued Sunday by a senior North Korean diplomat, was the country’s first official reaction to the Biden administration’s just-completed North Korea policy review, which expresses an openness to talks with the nuclear-armed country.Kwon Jong Gun, director general of the Department of U.S. Affairs of the North’s Foreign Ministry, dismissed the U.S. approach as a “spurious signboard for covering up its hostile acts” against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name.“Now that … the keynote of the U.S. new DPRK policy has become clear, we will be compelled to press for corresponding measures, and with time the U.S. will find itself in a very grave situation,” Kwon said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.“The U.S. will face worse and worse crisis beyond control in the near future if it is set to approach the DPRK-U.S. ties, still holding on the outdated policy from Cold War-minded perspective and viewpoint,” he added.Middle approachFollowing a monthslong internal review, the White House on Friday announced a general overview of its North Korea plan. The policy attempts to take a middle approach between those of Biden’s recent predecessors.“Our policy will not focus on achieving a grand bargain, nor will it rely on strategic patience,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “Our policy calls for a calibrated, practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy with the DPRK and to make practical progress that increases the security of the United States, our allies and deployed forces.”FILE – Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in Hanoi, Vietnam, Feb. 28, 2019.North Korea has boycotted talks with the U.S. since 2019. In February of that year, a summit between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended abruptly after Trump rejected Kim’s offer of sanctions relief for partial steps to dismantle his nuclear program.Biden, who took office in January, has long been critical of Trump’s meetings with Kim. He believes top-level meetings should occur only if there is progress on denuclearization.But Biden is also attempting to discard aspects of the approach taken by former President Barack Obama, who relied on a policy of “strategic patience.” That plan sought to apply carefully calibrated economic and military pressure until Pyongyang was ready to make concessions at the negotiating table.Human rightsNorth Korea seems unhappy with either approach. In their statements Sunday, North Korean officials slammed recent joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. It also accused the Biden administration of “insult[ing] the dignity of our supreme leadership” by criticizing Pyongyang’s human rights record.Last week, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement noting the “millions of North Koreans who continue to have their dignity and human rights violated by one of the most repressive and totalitarian states in the world.”In response, a North Korean Foreign Ministry official said Sunday that Pyongyang “will be forced to take corresponding measures.”“We have warned the U.S. sufficiently enough to understand that it will get hurt if it provokes us. The U.S. will surely and certainly regret for acting lightly, defying our warnings,” the official said.FILE – People watch a TV showing an image of North Korea’s new guided missile during a news program at the Suseo Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, March 26, 2021.More tests coming?North Korea in March conducted its first ballistic missile test in about a year. Many experts had expected North Korea to resume tests near the outset of Biden’s term, as it has done with past U.S. administrations.Kim said in January of last year that he no longer felt bound by his self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests.Pyongyang has not conducted a nuclear test or launched an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017, before Kim’s diplomacy with Trump.
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Eli Broad, Billionaire Entrepreneur who Reshaped LA, Dies
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist, contemporary art collector and entrepreneur who co-founded homebuilding pioneer Kaufman and Broad Inc. and launched financial services giant SunAmerica Inc., died Friday in Los Angeles. He was 87.Suzi Emmerling, a spokesperson for the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. Emmerling said Broad died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after a long illness. No services have been announced.The New York Times first reported his death.”As a businessman Eli saw around corners, as a philanthropist he saw the problems in the world and tried to fix them, as a citizen he saw the possibility in our shared community, and as a husband, father and friend he saw the potential in each of us,” Gerun Riley, president of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, said in a statement Friday.It was Broad who provided much of the money and willpower used to reshape Los Angeles’ once moribund downtown into a burgeoning area of expensive lofts, fancy dining establishments and civic structures like the landmark Walt Disney Concert Hall. He opened his own eponymous contemporary art museum and art lending library, the Broad, in 2015 in the city’s downtown next to Disney Hall.”Eli Broad, simply put, was L.A.’s most influential private citizen of his generation,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Twitter. “He loved this city as deeply as anyone I have ever known.”Business opportunitiesAs a young accountant in the 1950s, Broad saw opportunity in the booming real estate market. He quit his job and partnered with developer Donald Kaufman and began building starter homes for first-time buyers eager to claim their slice of the American Dream. The company eventually became KB Home, one of the most successful home developers in the nation.Nearly 30 years later, Broad spotted opportunity once more and transformed the company’s insurance arm into a retirement savings conglomerate that catered to the financial needs of aging baby boomers.In the process, Broad became one of the nation’s wealthiest men, with a financial net worth estimated by Forbes magazine Friday at $6.9 billion.He also gained a reputation for being a driven, tenacious dealmaker.”If you play it safe all of the time, you don’t get very far,” Broad told Investor’s Business Daily in 2005.Civic involvementOutside work, Broad used his wealth and status to bring about civic, educational, scientific and cultural improvement projects, particularly in Los Angeles. The New York native had moved to the city’s tony Brentwood section in 1963. His charitable foundations donated millions to such projects, particularly those aimed at improving public education, and established endowments at several universities across the nation.In the 1990s, Broad led the campaign to help raise money to build the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall and was a major underwriter of Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art, among other institutions. An avid art hound since the 1960s, Broad had a collection estimated to be worth $500 million in 2003.In 1984, he established the Broad Art Foundation to lend works from his collection for public viewing.A decade later, he famously purchased Roy Lichtenstein’s “I … I’m Sorry” for $2.5 million at an auction with a credit card and donated the more than 2 million frequent flier points he racked up to students at the California Institute for the Arts. In 2008, with his money, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened its new Broad Contemporary Art Museum featuring works from Broad’s collection.Broad also exercised considerable political muscle. A Democrat, he led the push to lure the party’s national convention in 2000 to Los Angeles. He sometimes split with his party, however, most notably in 1972 when, disillusioned with Sen. George McGovern’s campaign, he served as co-chair of Democrats for Nixon.Years after Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace, Broad told Los Angeles Magazine that his efforts on Nixon’s behalf were something “I hate to admit to.” But it wasn’t the last time he would support a Republican. He also backed his close friend, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, with whom he shared a mutual vision of public school reform.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) lauded Broad and his wife, Edythe, for their philanthropic efforts.”Their leadership to support our schools, advance scientific and medical research and ensure that all have access to the arts leaves a lasting and remarkable legacy,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Our entire nation is particularly indebted to the Broads for their commitment to supporting the arts, which they knew to be an essential, unifying force in the world.”Immigrant sonThe son of Lithuanian immigrants, Broad was born June 6, 1933, in New York City but was raised in Detroit. His father was a house painter and small-business owner.Broad earned his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University in 1954. In 1991, he endowed the university’s Eli Broad College of Business and Eli Broad Graduate School of Management.At 20, he passed Michigan’s certified public accountant exam, becoming the youngest person at the time to do so. The following year, he married his hometown sweetheart, Edythe. The couple had two sons, Jeffrey and Gary. His wife and sons survive him, according to the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.Eager to leave school and start his career, Broad began working for several clients, including Kaufman. Soon Broad took note of the real estate market and began studying the field, reading industry journals and using his accounting know-how to analyze the business. He gradually became convinced there was money to be made.In 1957, at the age of 23, he went into business with Kaufman, selling homes in the suburbs of Detroit. The first homes sold for about $12,000, about 10% less than competitors because they were built without customary basements and in about half the time.Kaufman and Broad took their approach West, first to Arizona then California. They relocated the company’s corporate headquarters to Los Angeles in 1963, two years after it became the first homebuilder to go public.In 1971, Broad bought an insurance company as a hedge against the boom and bust cycles of the housing market. Broad began doing research on the insurance market and saw financial planning for retirees as a better business. He began shifting the subsidiary’s focus toward selling annuities and other retirement savings products.The company was renamed SunAmerica in 1989, with Broad as its chairman and chief executive. In 1998, New York-based American International Group acquired SunAmerica for $16.5 billion.Two years later, Broad stepped down as chief, but retained the title of chairman.In recent years, Broad spent much of his time engaged in philanthropic work through his foundations, advocating for public education reform, promoting the rebirth of Los Angeles’ downtown as a commercial and residential center and other causes.In 1999, the Broads founded the Broad Foundation, which committed more than $500 million toward improving urban public education in its first five years.Broad took a CEO’s approach, believing that troubled schools often could be vastly improved if they were better managed by their principals.”These are huge enterprises,” Broad said of urban school districts in an interview with Forbes magazine in 2003. “You don’t start at the bottom. You start at the top.”
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Many Americans Anxious About Returning to ‘Normal’ After Pandemic
Posted by Worldcrew On 02/05/2021
In the United States, as millions of people are getting vaccinated and signs indicate the pandemic is easing, there is an excitement about the possibility of things going back to normal.Many people are looking forward to attending sports events and concerts and dining inside restaurants again. But for others, returning to normalcy provokes an uneasiness about what the new normal will look like.FILE – Diners eat in isolated rooms outside the Townhouse restaurant, in Birmingham, Mich., March 25, 2021. While many people are eager to discard this kind of protection, others will hesitate about the transition back to a new normal.”Transitions are hard, especially after a collective trauma,” Lucy McBride, a primary care physician in Washington, told VOA.”While planning for a post-pandemic life can feel comfortable, thinking about the future too much can also increase our anxious thoughts,” said Kevin Antshel, director of the clinical psychology program at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.According to a survey by the American Psychological Association, about half of adults are uncomfortable about returning to in-person interactions after the pandemic. Their concerns range from getting COVID-19 to communicating with friends, family and co-workers again.”Some people will feel paralyzing anxiety about resuming their normal activities after being in a fear mode for more than a year,” McBride said. Even when the threat is gone and they’ve been vaccinated, it is going to take time for them to be comfortable reentering society after the pandemic, she said.That’s true for Cassie Davis in Pensacola, Florida, whose uncle died of the virus. Even though she got vaccinated, she is nervous about being near people in shopping centers.”When my uncle died, it really hit home how terrible the virus is and that it might never completely go away,” she said.FILE – A man walks into a restaurant displaying a “Now Hiring” sign, March 4, 2021, in Salem, N.H. For some people, looking for a new job to replace one lost to the pandemic will be a stressful experience.Some people will “feel a loss because things are different,” said Karestan Koenen, a professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. That could mean feeling uncomfortable with a good friend you haven’t seen for a long time or losing a job and looking for new one.Some ‘quite comfortable’Others, however, have found contentment in their lifestyle during the pandemic.They “have grown quite comfortable being alone,” Antshel pointed out. “They’ve grown accustomed to not having to interact with people or fearing scrutiny and rejection from others.””I have been enjoying my own company by being at home,” said Elizabeth Albrecht, a single 27-year-old who lives in Washington. “I have no desire to go out with my friends all the time like I did before.”FILE – Kyree Kayoshi, his dog Kumi, and Miranda De Llano use circles marked for social distancing at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio, March 3, 2021. What will happen when restrictive, virus-related rules for interaction are all gone?It’s also going to be stressful unlearning some of the things you were supposed to do during the pandemic, said Deborah Serani, a psychologist and professor at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. For example, she said, “how do I interact with everyone with their masks off?”Patrick Reed in Alexandria, Virginia, who just got vaccinated, is trying to figure that out. Virginia’s mask mandate recently changed to allow fully vaccinated people to participate in outdoor activities and small outdoor gatherings without wearing masks.”I didn’t like wearing a mask for months and then got used to it,” he said, “and now I don’t feel comfortable not having it on around people.”A matter of timeAccording to Christine Runyan, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, it will take time for everyone to adjust to the changes, but some will do that quicker than others.”Our nervous systems are quite sensitive to these rapid adjustments,” she said. “A lot of people might find themselves really tired after in-person social engagements because they’re not used to it.”Antshel suggested that people “reacclimate gradually” back into society and not isolate themselves.”I’m hoping we’re going to come back together with a greater appreciation and gentleness for each other,” Serani said.
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Diplomats From 5 Nations Resume Iran Nuclear Talks in Vienna
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
High-ranking diplomats from China, Germany, France, Russia and Britain resumed talks Saturday focused on bringing the United States back into their landmark nuclear deal with Iran.The U.S. will not have a representative at the table when the diplomats meet in Vienna because former President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the country out of the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in 2018. Trump also restored and augmented sanctions to try to force Iran into renegotiating the pact with more concessions.U.S. President Joe Biden wants to rejoin the deal, however, and a U.S. delegation in Vienna is taking part in indirect talks with Iran, with diplomats from the other world powers acting as go-betweens.The Biden administration is considering a rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions in a bid to get Iran to come back into compliance with the terms of the nuclear agreement, according to information from current and former U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter earlier this week.Ahead of the main talks, Russia’s top representative Mikhail Ulyanov said JCPOA members met on the side with officials from the U.S. delegation but that the Iranian delegation was not ready to meet with U.S. diplomats.“JCPOA participants held today informal consultations with the U.S. delegation at the Vienna talks on full restoration of the nuclear deal,” Ulyanov tweeted. “Without Iran who is still not ready to meet with U.S. diplomats.”The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, promised Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. The reimposition of U.S. sanctions has left the Islamic Republic’s economy reeling. Tehran has responded by steadily increasing its violations of the restrictions of the deal, such as increasing the purity of uranium it enriches and its stockpiles, in a thus-far unsuccessful effort to pressure the other countries to provide relief.The ultimate goal of the deal is to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something it insists it doesn’t want to do. Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make a bomb, but nowhere near the amount it had before the nuclear deal was signed.The Vienna talks began in early April and have included several rounds of high-level discussions. Expert groups also have been working on proposals on how to resolve the issues around American sanctions and Iranian compliance, as well as the “possible sequencing” of the U.S. return.Outside the talks in Vienna, other challenges remain.An attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel recently struck Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, causing an unknown amount of damage. Tehran retaliated by beginning to enrich a small amount of uranium up to 60% purity, its highest level ever.
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Turkish Police Detain Hundreds at Lockdown May Day Marches
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Turkish police detained 212 demonstrators after scuffles broke out at May Day marches Saturday amid a coronavirus-related curfew, according to the Istanbul governor’s office and Reuters witnesses.
Riot police and plainclothes officers jostled with union leaders and other demonstrators and threw some to the ground before detaining dozens of them near Istanbul’s Taksim Square, Reuters video and images showed.
The governor’s office said some labor unions were allowed to hold memorials to mark the annual holiday, while others who had “gathered illegally” in violation of the lockdown, and ignored calls to disperse, were detained.
State-owned Anadolu Agency said 20 protesters were also detained in the western city of Izmir.
Turkey this week adopted a 17-day partial lockdown, including stay-home orders and the closure of schools and some businesses, to curb a wave of coronavirus infections.
Local media reported efforts by police in Istanbul and Ankara to block reporters from filming the May Day demonstrations and detentions, with officers citing a new police circular.
Turkish media reported Friday that officers were instructed to prevent people from filming or recording security forces on smartphones while they are on duty, a move critics called unlawful and a threat to citizens’ rights.
Turkish police have not commented on the reports. The DISK press union said on Twitter that journalists filming the May Day events “are being blocked by police,” adding “a police circular cannot prevent” coverage.
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Prosecutors Seek Higher Sentence for Chauvin in Floyd Death
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Prosecutors are asking a judge to give Derek Chauvin a more severe penalty than state guidelines call for when he is sentenced in June for George Floyd’s death, arguing in court documents filed Friday that Floyd was particularly vulnerable, and that Chauvin abused his authority as a police officer.Defense attorney Eric Nelson is opposing a tougher sentence, saying the state has failed to prove that those aggravating factors, among others, existed when Chauvin arrested Floyd on May 25, 2020. Chauvin, who is white, was convicted last week of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn’t breathe and went motionless.Even though he was found guilty of three counts, under Minnesota statutes he’ll only be sentenced on the most serious one — second-degree murder. While that count carries a maximum sentence of 40 years, experts say he won’t get that much. Prosecutors did not specify how much time they would seek for Chauvin. Under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, the presumptive sentence for second-degree unintentional murder for someone with no criminal record like Chauvin would be 12 1/2 years. Judges can sentence someone to as little as 10 years and eight months or as much as 15 years and still be within the advisory guideline range. To go above that, Judge Peter Cahill would have to find that there were “aggravating factors,” and even if those are found, legal experts have said Chauvin would likely not face more than 30 years. In legal briefs filed Friday, prosecutors said Chauvin should be sentenced above the guideline range because Floyd was particularly vulnerable with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was face-down on the ground, and that he was intoxicated. They noted that Chauvin held his position even after Floyd became unresponsive and officers knew he had no pulse. Prosecutors also said Chauvin treated Floyd with particular cruelty during the lengthy restraint, saying Chauvin inflicted gratuitous pain and caused psychological distress to Floyd and to bystanders. “Defendant continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendant’s actions were killing him,” prosecutors wrote. They added that he stayed in position as Floyd cried out for his mother, stopped speaking and lost consciousness. “Defendant thus did not just inflict physical pain. He caused Mr. Floyd psychological distress during the final moments of his life, leaving Mr. Floyd helpless as he squeezed the last vestiges of life out of Mr. Floyd’s body,” prosecutors wrote. They also said that Chauvin abused his position of authority as a police officer, committed his crime as part of a group of three or more people, and that he pinned Floyd down in the presence of children — including a 9-year-old girl who testified at trial that watching the restraint made her “sad and kind of mad.”Nelson disagreed, writing that “Mr. Chauvin entered into the officers’ encounter with Mr. Floyd with legal authority to assist in effecting the lawful arrest of an actively-resisting criminal suspect. Mr. Chauvin was authorized, under Minnesota law, to use reasonable force to do so.” Nelson said Floyd was not particularly vulnerable, saying he was a large man who was struggling with officers. He wrote that courts have typically found particular vulnerability if the victims are young, or perhaps sleeping, when a crime occurs. Nelson also said Floyd was not treated with particular cruelty, saying that there is no evidence that the assault perpetrated by Chauvin involved gratuitous pain that’s not usually associated with second-degree murder.“The assault of Mr. Floyd occurred in the course of a very short time, involved no threats or taunting, such as putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger … and ended when EMS finally responded to officers’ calls,” Nelson wrote. He also said the state hasn’t proven that any of the other officers actively participated in the crime for which Chauvin was convicted. Those officers are scheduled to face trial on aiding and abetting charges in August. He also wrote that the presence of children in this case is different from cases in which children might be witnessing a crime in a home and unable to leave. And, he said, the state failed to prove that Chauvin’s role as a police officer was an aggravating factor, saying that Floyd’s struggle with officers showed that Chauvin’s authority was irrelevant to Floyd. Cahill has said he will review the attorneys’ written arguments before determining whether aggravating factors exist that would warrant a tougher sentence. No matter what sentence Chauvin gets, in Minnesota it’s presumed that a defendant with good behavior will serve two-thirds of the penalty in prison and the rest on supervised release, commonly known as parole.
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US Formally Begins Afghanistan Troop Pullout
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
The U.S. and NATO formally began withdrawing their last troops from Afghanistan Saturday, according to White House and military officials, bringing America’s longest war closer to an end.
U.S. President Joe Biden set May 1 as the official date on which the remaining troops would begin pulling out, although the military has been flying equipment out of the country in recent weeks.
There are between 2,500-3,500 U.S. troops and about 7,000 NATO troops remaining in Afghanistan, the last of whom will leave by the end of the summer.
Afghan security forces are on high alert for possible attacks on the troops by an emboldened Taliban as they complete the withdrawal, ushering in a new era of uncertainty in the country.
The U.S. and NATO allies entered the South Asian country on October 7, 2001, to find al-Qaida perpetrators of the September 11, 2001, terrorists attack on the U.S. who being were protected by Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders.
Two months later, al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his fighters were on the run. He was located and killed in 2011 by U.S. Navy SEALS in neighboring Pakistan.
More than 47,240 Afghan civilians have been killed in the 20-year war, according to the Costs of War project at Brown University. Between 66,000 to 69,000 Afghan troops have been killed.
Some 2,442 U.S. troops have been killed, according to the U.S. Defense Department, along with an estimated 3,800 U.S. private security contractors.
More than 1,140 troops from NATO countries have been killed.
The U.S. is estimated to have spent more than $2 trillion in Afghanistan during the course of the war, according to the Costs of War project.
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Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume in Vienna
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Saturday, parties to the Iran nuclear agreement are to resume the third round of negotiations in Vienna aimed at bringing the United States back into the accord.
The deal, which curbs Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, has been on life support since then U.S. president Donald Trump bolted in 2018.
The remaining partners to the 2015 accord have been engaged in negotiations since early April to try to revive it.
The third round of talks started on Tuesday and, after several days of technical discussions between expert groups and delegations, will resume on Saturday.
The service of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement that delegates from Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran and Russia would meet in person at around 3 pm (1300 GMT).
“Participants will continue their discussions in view of a possible return of the United States to the JCPOA and on how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA,” the statement said, using the acronym of the agreement’s formal name.
After the talks, the delegations will return to their respective capitals to receive instructions, Iran’s foreign ministry said.
A European diplomat said that the American, European, Russian and Chinese delegations held a joint meeting on Saturday morning, but without Iranian representation as Tehran has refused to negotiate with the U.S. directly.
As well as bolting from the accord, Trump’s administration slapped sweeping sanctions on Iran, which in turn started ramping up its nuclear activities.
New U.S. President Joe Biden supports the agreement — with which Iran was in compliance before Trump’s sanctions — but has called on Tehran to roll back its measures before Washington ends sanctions.
After almost a month of talks, the parties this week expressed a desire to “speed up” the negotiations.
The hope of the talks is to achieve a concrete result “by the end of May” — before Iran’s presidential election in June — a diplomat familiar with the discussions told AFP during the last round.
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Kentucky Derby Set for Saturday Amid Controversies
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Before the horses leave the gates at this year’s Kentucky Derby on Saturday, there will be another highly anticipated ceremony — at least highly anticipated by its five participants.The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky will naturalize five new U.S. citizens from Cuba, Germany, Japan, Portugal, and the United Kingdom in a judicial naturalization ceremony at the Kentucky Derby.Later, Saturday marks the 147th running of the horses at America’s iconic Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, also known as “the most exciting two minutes in sports.”This year also marks the return of spectators to the event, after last year’s competition was pushed back until September without any spectators, moves made necessary by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.The contagion still looms large over this year’s event, however, with crowd size reduced from 150,000 fans to 50,000 who can more easily practice social distancing with the reduced numbers.Essential Quality is the favored horse this year in the 19-horse race. Twenty horses usually run down the track, but King Fury was withdrawn because of a fever.Essential Quality is owned by Dubai ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. Human rights activists have questioned whether his horses should be allowed to run because of the controversy surrounding the disappearance of one of his daughters Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, several years ago.Louisville, the Kentucky city where the race is held, has not escaped the racial protests that have been held across the country. Police entered the apartment of Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend in March 2020. The couple thought they were being burglarized. Taylor’s boyfriend fired off a shot and the police fired off more than 20 shots. Taylor was killed. Protesters have called for the race to be canceled.A persistent controversy of the race is the use of the song My Old Kentucky Home, Kentucky’s state song. The song is about slave plantation life and the original lyrics contain a racist slur.It is normally a sing-along song as the horses are taken to the track. Last year, however, it was performed as an instrumental piece, without any singing. It is not clear what form it will take this year.
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UN: 125 Europe-bound Children Intercepted off Libyan Coast
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
A total of 125 Europe-bound children were among those intercepted at sea this week by Libyan authorities off the Mediterranean coast, the United Nations child welfare agency said Friday, adding that most were brought to detention centers.The children, fleeing war and poverty across the perilous maritime route to Europe, included 114 unaccompanied minors, UNICEF added in a statement.”The majority of those rescued are sent to overcrowded detention centers in Libya under extremely difficult conditions and with no or limited access to water and health services. Nearly 1,100 children are in these centers,” read the statement.UNICEF urged the Libyan authorities to release all children and to put an end to immigration detention.In the years since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, war-torn Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing Africa and the Middle East.”The Central Mediterranean continues to be one of the deadliest and most dangerous migration routes in the world,” UNICEF said, adding that at least 350 people, including children and women, have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean since January.Last week, 130 Europe-bound migrants went missing in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast, in the deadliest shipwreck since the beginning of the year.
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Russia Bars Eight EU Citizens in Sanctions Retaliation
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Russia on Friday barred eight officials from European Union countries from entering the country in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Russian citizens by the EU.Russia’s foreign ministry said those banned included Vera Jourova, vice president for values and transparency at the executive European Commission, David Sassoli, the president of the European parliament, and Jacques Maire, a member of the French delegation at the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.”The European Union continues to pursue its policy of illegitimate, unilateral restrictive measures against Russian citizens and organizations,” the ministry said in a statement.It accused the EU of “openly and deliberately” undermining the independence of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy.Sassoli, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council chief Charles Michel said in a joint statement they condemned Russia’s “unacceptable” action in “the strongest possible terms” and said it showed Moscow had chosen a path of confrontation with the bloc.”The EU reserves the right to take appropriate measures in response to the Russian authorities’ decision,” they saidSassoli said in a tweet that no sanctions or intimidation would stop the parliament or him defending human rights, freedom and democracy.”Threats will not silence us. As Tolstoy wrote, there is no greatness where there is no truth,” his tweet read.Russia banned three officials from the Baltic states: Ivars Abolins, chairman of Latvia’s National Electronic Media Council, Maris Baltins, director of the Latvian State Language Center, and Ilmar Tomusk, head of Estonia’s Language Inspectorate.It also banned Jorg Raupach, Berlin’s public prosecutor, and Asa Scott of the Swedish Defence Research Agency.Scott was among officials who said Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny had been poisoned in Russia with a Soviet-era nerve agent.Navalny recovered from the poisoning in Germany and was detained upon his return to Russia in January, and sentenced in February to 2-1/2 years in prison for parole violations on an earlier embezzlement conviction that he says was politically motivated.The EU imposed sanctions in March on two Russians accused of persecuting gay and lesbian people in the southern Russian region of Chechnya. The EU also imposed sanctions on four senior Russian officials close to President Vladimir Putin in March.
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Police Find More Than 90 People Inside Houston Home; Smuggling Suspected
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
Police responding to reports of a kidnapping said Friday that they had found more than 90 people crammed into a two-story suburban Houston home that they suspected was being used in a human smuggling operation.The 90 victims, all but about five of them men, were removed from the house and given food and water, said Daryn Edwards, assistant chief of the Houston Police Department.”They basically [were] in there in their basic clothing and all, all huddled together. So that’s what we saw when we got in,” he said. No children were found among them.Several of the people showed symptoms of COVID-19 infection, including fever and an inability to taste or smell, Edwards said. The victims told police they had not eaten recently.The victims were issued personal protective gear and put into white buses. It was not immediately clear where they were being taken.U.S. Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen at the house, along with local police and firefighters.Edwards said no arrests had been made in the case as of Friday afternoon. He declined to offer further details, saying the investigation was continuing.
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Next Major War Will Be ‘Very Different,’ US Defense Secretary Says
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
The United States needs to prepare for a potential future conflict bearing little resemblance to “the old wars” that have long consumed the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday in his first significant policy speech.Austin called for harnessing technological advances and better integrating military operations globally to “understand faster, decide faster and act faster.””The way we fight the next major war is going to look very different from the way we fought the last ones,” Austin said during a trip to the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command.Austin did not explicitly mention rivals like China or Russia. But his remarks came as the United States starts an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan, on orders from President Joe Biden, aimed at ending America’s longest war and resetting Pentagon priorities.Austin acknowledged that he has spent “most of the past two decades executing the last of the old wars.”Critics say withdrawing from Afghanistan will not end the Asian country’s internal conflict or extinguish the threat of terrorism.Austin’s remarks did not appear to prescribe specific actions or predict any specific conflict. He instead appeared to outline broad, somewhat vague goals to drive the Pentagon under the Biden administration.”We can’t predict the future,” Austin said. “So what we need is the right mix of technology, operational concepts and capabilities — all woven together in a networked way that is so credible, so flexible and so formidable that it will give any adversary pause.”Preventing a conflict would mean creating “advantages for us and dilemmas for them,” he said.U.S. responses could be indirect, he said, outlining a scenario in which cyberwarfare could be used “to respond to a maritime security incident hundreds of miles away.”
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US First Lady Marks Arbor Day With White House Tree Planting
Posted by Worldcrew On 01/05/2021
U.S. first lady Jill Biden observed Arbor Day — a national day dedicated to trees — by helping to plant a tree on the north lawn of the White House on Friday. With press gathered, the first lady walked to a tree which already had been placed in a hole in the White House lawn, took a shovel from a U.S. National Park Service member and deposited several scoops of dirt into the hole surrounding the new tree. Dressed more for indoor activities, in a skirt and blazer, Biden quipped, “Who doesn’t plant trees in high heels?” The new tree is reported to be a Linden, replacing one removed last month after it began to rot. Arbor Day originated in the state of Nebraska in 1872 as a day meant to promote the planting of trees, particularly among schoolchildren. It was reported that an estimated one million trees were planted on that day. Since then, Arbor Day became informally observed nationwide. President Richard Nixon established Arbor Day as a national holiday in 1972.
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