Trump says impeachment is 'dirty, filthy, disgusting word'

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday scornfully rejected “disgusting” talk among Democrats about launching an impeachment inquiry against him in the aftermath of the Russia probe, saying he did nothing to merit such an outcome. Talking to reporters on the White House South Lawn ahead of a trip to Colorado, Trump grew animated in reacting to a statement from U.S. special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday. Mueller said his report on Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential campaign did not clear Trump of obstruction of justice and indicated it was up to Congress to decide whether he should be impeached. Mueller’s statement fueled an increase in calls from Democratic lawmakers for impeachment proceedings, and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, reacting to Mueller’s statement, said “nothing is off the table.” Asked if he expected to be impeached, Trump said: “I don’t see how … It’s a dirty, filthy, disgusting word … It’s a giant presidential harassment.” He cited the U.S. Constitution’s language that a president can be charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors.” “There was no crime. There was no misdemeanor,” he said. While House Democrats have yet to decide whether to pursue impeachment, they are pressing forward with a number of investigations spinning off from the Russia probe. The Trump administration is fighting those congressional efforts, including an attempt by the Democratic chairman of the House tax-writing panel to obtain the president’s tax returns. The top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, Ron Wyden, said on Thursday the U.S. Treasury had been “unresponsive” to questions about Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s decision not to comply with the House demand for Trump’s returns, and he threatened to attempt to block any Treasury nominees if the department was not forthcoming. “Congress has a constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” he said in a statement. In a morning tweet, Trump had left the impression that he was acknowledging that Russian interference helped him win the 2016 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Answering questions from reporters, he later said the exact opposite. “No, Russia did not help me get elected,” he said, adding that he needed no help in winning the election. Trump heaped scorn on Mueller, calling him “totally conflicted” in part because he had wanted to head the FBI. “I told him NO. The next day he was named Special Counsel — A total Conflict of Interest. NICE!,” Trump said on Twitter, without providing evidence that Mueller, a Republican, had sought the FBI job. Speaking to reporters, Trump also said that Mueller is a close friend of former FBI Director James Comey, who Trump fired weeks after taking office in early 2017. “I think Mueller is a true ‘never Trumper,’ ” Trump said.

impeachment
donald trump
democrats
russia probe
robert mueller
u.s .


Trump would be 'in handcuffs' if he wasn't president, says Democrat Elizabeth Warren

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Democratic White House hopeful Elizabeth Warren said Thursday that if Donald Trump were not protected by his presidential status, he would be “in handcuffs and indicted” for obstructing the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference. The progressive U.S. senator from Massachusetts, one of the leading Democrats for the party’s 2020 nomination, was the first presidential candidate to speak out in favor of launching impeachment proceedings against Trump. “If he were anyone other than president of the United States, he would be in handcuffs and indicted,” Warren said on ABC talk show “The View.” Warren had called for an impeachment inquiry the day after the April 18 publication of special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report on Moscow’s election interference. Following a nearly two-year probe, Mueller concluded in his report that there was no evidence of outright collusion between Trump and Moscow. He also said that, having detailed at least 10 possible acts of obstruction by Trump, it was not possible to say the president committed no crime. This week, the special counsel said he was bound by the longstanding policy that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. “Mueller … says, basically, by the time you get to the end of the report, there are all the facts, multiple examples, of obstruction of justice, I can’t indict, it’s up to Congress,” Warren said. Democrats hold a majority in the House of Representatives and are therefore able to launch an impeachment inquiry. But even if the House impeaches Trump, the effort to oust him is likely to fail in the Republican-led Senate. While several other Democratic presidential hopefuls are also calling for impeachment proceedings, House leaders remain reluctant to begin the process during the 2020 election campaign. They argue it could prove very unpopular with voters, and its ultimate failure would galvanize Trump’s core supporters and fuel his narrative that he is a victim of a system that wants him ousted. Instead, Democratic leaders are urging rank-and-file members to allow ongoing congressional investigations of Trump to run their course. Trump meanwhile repeated his claim that the report offered him total exoneration, and that he has been the victim of “giant presidential harassment.” After a rare public statement by Mueller the previous day, Trump on Thursday swatted away the Democrats’ threat of impeachment. “I don’t see how they can,” he said.

elizabeth warren
donald trump
impeachment
robert mueller
congress
u.s .
russia probe


Trump briefly admits Russia boosted his election, then walks remarks back

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time Thursday that Moscow helped him win the White House in 2016 — before retracting himself to launch a fiery attack on Robert Mueller and the Russia probe. “Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax,” Trump tweeted, in an outburst against special counsel Mueller’s suggestion that Congress impeach him for obstructing the two-year investigation. “And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected,” Trump said. It appeared to be the first time that Trump accepted claims by U.S. intelligence chiefs that Russian government meddling aided his stunning upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Shortly afterward he sought to walk back the admission, telling reporters as he left on a trip to Colorado that Russia “if anything, helped the other side,” or Clinton. “Russia did not get me elected. You know who got me elected? I got me elected,” he said. “Russia didn’t help me at all.” Trump has stridently rejected any suggestion his victory was illegitimate ever since U.S. intelligence chiefs announced in January 2017 that Moscow interfered heavily in the election, hacking computers and manipulating social media largely to damage Clinton and boost Trump’s campaign. His outburst came a day after Mueller — in his first public comments on the investigation he was named to lead in May 2017 — said it had established there “were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election.” “Russian intelligence officers who were part of the Russian military launched a concerted attack on our political system,” he said, with their hacking “designed and timed… to damage a presidential candidate.” Mueller also reiterated that the investigation found evidence of attempts to obstruct his investigation by Trump. “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that,” he said. But he said he was blocked from charging the president by Justice Department regulations and indicated that it is up to Congress to launch impeachment proceedings to determine if Trump committed a crime. “When a subject of an investigation obstructs that investigation or lies to investigators, it strikes at the core of the government’s effort to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable,” Mueller said. Trump in response slammed Mueller as conflicted and said the investigation had produced no evidence against him. “Robert Mueller should have never been chosen,” to lead the probe, he told reporters Thursday. “I think he is a total conflicted person. I think Mueller is a true never-Trumper.” “He is somebody that dislikes Donald Trump. He is somebody that didn’t get a job that he requested.” Asked about a growing clamor in Democratic ranks for the launch of impeachment proceedings against him, Trump called it “presidential harassment.” “To me it’s a dirty word , the word impeach, it’s a dirty, filthy, disgusting word, and it had nothing to do with me,” he said. “There was no high crime and there was no misdemeanor,” he said, referring to the grounds defined in the U.S. Constitution for removing a president. “So how do you impeach based on that?” Democratic leaders have remained cautious about taking the politically fraught step to remove the president, with elections less than 18 months away. On Wednesday Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in Congress, said in a statement that Congress would step up investigations, while studiously avoiding the word impeachment. “The Congress holds sacred its constitutional responsibility to investigate and hold the President accountable for his abuse of power,” she said. “The American people must have the truth.”

elections
donald trump
robert mueller
russia probe
nancy pelosi
u.s .
2016 u.s. presidential election


French parcel bomb suspect pledged allegiance to Islamic State, source says

Abstract: PARIS - An Algerian suspected of setting off a package bomb in southeast France last week has told investigators that he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadi group, a judicial source said Thursday. The 24-year-old man, identified as Mohamed Hichem M., was arrested Monday after an extensive manhunt since Friday, when 13 people were wounded by the explosion on a busy pedestrian street in Lyon. Sources close to the case said that after initially refusing to talk, the suspect admitted Wednesday to planting the bomb, packed with screws and ball bearings and a relatively small amount of acetone peroxide, or APEX. It was the same volatile compound used in the deadly Paris terror attacks of November 13, 2015, which prompted a wave of jihadi attacks in France that have killed more than 250 people. The Islamic State group has been behind several of the attacks, though police had said no one had claimed the Lyon blast. The suspect’s brother was also arrested and is still being held for questioning by anti-terror investigators in Paris, although their parents were released from custody on Thursday. A search of the man’s home had already turned up “elements likely to be used for making APEX,” one source told AFP, and searches of his computers pointed to internet searches related to jihad and bomb-building. Thirteen people were wounded in the blast — eight women, four men and a 10-year-old girl. The package was placed in front of a bakery near the corner of two crowded pedestrian streets in the historic heart of Lyon at around 17:30 p.m. (1530 GMT) last Friday. Video surveillance cameras led police to identify the man after he fled the scene on a bicycle. He was arrested while getting off a bus in a suburb just south of the city. Lyon Mayor Gerard Collomb said this week that the suspect had not been known to the police.

islamic state
france
lyon
terrorism
algeria
mohamed hichem m .


Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone faces hurdles in quest to get indictment dismissed

Abstract: WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump’s longtime political adviser, Roger Stone, faced an uphill battle in court on Thursday, as a federal judge poked holes in nearly every argument his lawyers made for why she should dismiss an indictment stemming from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson repeatedly expressed skepticism about everything from claims the case violates the U.S. constitution to allegations the indictment is defective because Congress never formally asked the Justice Department to investigate Stone for perjury or obstruction. In one striking exchange, Stone’s attorney, Bruce Rogow, pointed to a dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to support his claim that the Constitution prohibits the executive branch’s Justice Department from investigating Trump or members of his campaign under its Vesting Clause. “Is there any reason why, as a district court judge, I am supposed to apply the law of a dissent, no matter how well written or thoughtful one might consider it to be, when there is authority otherwise?” she asked. “The Supreme Court in United States v. Nixon specifically said that the executive branch can investigate the executive branch. Um, I’m not bound by that?” she asked, referring to the landmark unanimous case ordering President Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and other subpoenaed materials. “You are,” Rogow then conceded. Stone has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering as part of special counsel Mueller’s investigation. He is accused of lying to investigators for the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee who were looking into allegations that Russia hacked the emails of senior Democrats. The indictment against Stone also says he told members of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign that he had advance knowledge of plans by the WikiLeaks website to release damaging emails about Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Mueller, who completed his investigation on March 22, on Wednesday made his first public statement on the probe since it started two years ago. While the probe uncovered multiple contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, it did not establish a criminal conspiracy. Mueller also did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice. Stone is one of more than 30 individuals who have faced charges brought by or stemming from Mueller’s probe. His attorneys contended their client is being targeted for selective prosecution and are hoping for access to unredacted portions of the Mueller report for evidence. Jackson raised doubts about the idea that Stone was targeted, citing a host of others also charged with lying in connection with the Russia probe. She sounded more sympathetic to a request to obtain materials from the redacted report, however, especially since more than 400 pages was already public, she said. She said she had reviewed some of the redacted portions herself. A lot of it seemed “duplicative” to what the government already provided and “therefore largely harmless,” she said.

roger stone
donald trump
robert mueller
congress
russia probe
u.s .


New Hampshire repeals death penalty in vote overriding governor's veto

Abstract: CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE - New Hampshire, which hasn’t executed anyone in 80 years and has only one inmate on death row, on Thursday became the latest state to abolish the death penalty when the state Senate voted to override the governor’s veto. The Senate vote came a week after the 400-member House voted by the narrowest possible margin to override Republican Gov. Chris Sununu’s veto of a bill to repeal capital punishment. “Now it’s up to us to stop this practice that is archaic, costly, discriminatory and final,” said Sen. Melanie Levesque, D-Brookline. With New Hampshire’s action, 29 states allow capital punishment, but in four of them, governors have issued moratoriums on the death penalty, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Twenty-one states have abolished or overturned it. New Hampshire’s death penalty applies in only seven scenarios: the killing of an on-duty law enforcement officer or judge, murder for hire, murder during a rape, certain drug offenses, or home invasion and murder by someone already serving a life sentence without parole. The state hasn’t executed anyone since 1939, and the repeal bill would not apply retroactively to Michael Addison, who killed Manchester Officer Michael Briggs and is the state’s only inmate on death row. But death penalty supporters argued that courts will interpret it differently, giving Addison a chance at life in prison. “If you think you’re passing this today and Mr. Addison is still going to remain on death row, you are confused,” said Sen. Sharon Carson, R-Londonderry. “Mr. Addison’s sentence will be converted to life in prison.” Carson argued that New Hampshire has a narrowly drawn law and a careful, deliberative process to ensure innocent people are not executed. “This is not Louisiana of the 1920s where Old Sparky was put on a flatbed truck and driven from prison to prison and people were executed. We are not those people,” she said. “That doesn’t happen here in New Hampshire.” The Senate vote, 16-8, was exactly the two-thirds majority necessary to override the veto. Twelve Democrats and four Republicans supported ending the death penalty, while six Republicans and two Democrats voted to keep it. The latter included Sen. Lou D’Allesandro, D-Manchester, who represents the district in which Officer Briggs was killed. He urged his colleagues to remember law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day. “I can’t abandon these people,” he said. “These people are there for us. They’re there for us, and I believe strongly we have to support them.” Sununu, who vetoed the repeal bill surrounded by officers at a community center named for Briggs, said Thursday he was incredibly disappointed in the vote. “I have consistently stood with law enforcement, families of crime victims, and advocates for justice in opposing a repeal of the death penalty because it is the right thing to do,” he said in a statement. But Sen. Bob Giuda, a Republican and former FBI agent, said while he greatly respects law enforcement, the death penalty is at odds with his pro-life principles. He called execution a “ghastly” process and urged his colleagues to “move our civilization” past it. “I think we’re better than that,” he said. “I choose to move our state forward to remove the death penalty.” New Hampshire lawmakers have been considering and rejecting repeal efforts for the last two decades. Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, vetoed a similar bill in 2000. Another Democrat, former Gov. John Lynch, signed a bill in 2011 expanding the death penalty to cover home invasions in response to a machete and knife attack that killed a woman and maimed her daughter in Mont Vernon.


Claus von Bulow, once accused of murdering heiress wife, dies at 92

Abstract: FRANKFURT - Claus von Bulow, the Danish-born socialite who avoided a 30-year prison sentence in the 1980s after he was retried and acquitted of attempting to murder his wealthy wife with insulin injections, has died. He was 92. He died on Saturday at his home in London, The New York Times reported, citing Riccardo Pavoncelli, his son-in-law. Von Bulow was embroiled in one of America’s most notorious criminal cases after he was indicted for trying to kill his wife, Martha “Sunny” von Bulow, on successive Christmas vacations in 1979 and 1980 at their seaside mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. The heiress, who slipped into comas on both occasions, spent almost 28 years in a vegetative state after the second incident, which two of her children claimed had been deliberately caused by Claus von Bulow. She died in a nursing home in 2008 at age 76. He was found guilty in a televised 1982 trial and was handed a 30-year sentence before winning an appeal led by Alan Dershowitz, who was then a professor at Harvard Law School. Von Bulow won a 1985 retrial that captivated the nation with a classic whodunit tale involving money, sex and betrayal. “This is the story of how Claus von Bulow was convicted of a crime that probably never happened and then succeeded in vindicating himself — both in the eyes of the law and in the minds of many, though certainly not all, observers,” Dershowitz wrote in his 1986 book “Reversal of Fortune.” A 1990 film adaptation earned Jeremy Irons an Academy Award for his portrayal of von Bulow; actress Glenn Close played his doomed wife. The prosecution asserted that von Bulow had injected his wife with insulin to cause her death and claim a $14 million inheritance from her will. Her net worth at the time was about $75 million. He also had a mistress, television soap-opera actress Alexandra Isles, whom he had wanted to marry. The defense, led by Thomas Puccio in the retrial, painted Sunny von Bulow as a drug addict and alcoholic who had overdosed. Puccio died in 2012. “There was no animosity between Sunny and me,” von Bulow said in a 1985 interview with television personality Barbara Walters. “There was an irreconcilable difference about her wish to lead a retired life and my wish to still work.” Debonair and articulate, von Bulow continued with his high-society lifestyle and took up with Hungarian-born aristocrat Andrea Reynolds after Isles testified against him in the first trial. His two stepchildren, Annie-Laurie and Alexander von Auersperg, as well as Sunny von Bulow’s longtime maid, Maria Schrallhammer, also attempted to incriminate him at the trials. His daughter, Cosima — born to Sunny von Bulow — took her father’s side, prompting her maternal grandmother to disinherit Cosima. “Whatever one felt personally about the guilt or innocence of the man, one could not deny his charm, which was enormous, in a European, upper-class, courtly sort of way,” Dominick Dunne wrote in a 1985 Vanity Fair article. Claus von Bulow was born as Claus Cecil Borberg on Aug. 11, 1926, in Copenhagen. His father was a playwright and theater critic who was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and his mother was the daughter of a former Danish justice minister. Von Bulow’s parents divorced when he was 4 and he was raised by his mother in London after being smuggled out of Nazi-occupied Denmark during World War II. He attended Cambridge University and earned a law degree after the war. Von Bulow apprenticed as a barrister and then worked for oil baron J. Paul Getty as a chief assistant. In 1966, von Bulow married the former “Sunny” Crawford, who was the only child of George Crawford, the founder of Columbia Gas & Electric. They had met at a London dinner party a few years earlier while she was married to Prince Alfred von Auersperg, an heir to Austria’s Habsburg dynasty. Von Bulow added the aristocratic “von” to his name around the time of his marriage, Dershowitz wrote. The von Bulows lived in a Fifth Avenue apartment in Manhattan and their Newport summer mansion, Clarendon Court. In a 1987 out-of-court settlement with his stepchildren, who had filed a $56 million civil lawsuit against him after his acquittal, von Bulow agreed to divorce his comatose wife, give up claims to her estate and relinquish the right to make money by writing books or giving speeches about the case. In return, Cosima von Bulow was to receive a one-third share of her maternal grandmother’s estate. “This was a tragedy and it satisfied all of Aristotle’s definitions of tragedy,” von Bulow said in a forum at Harvard Law School several weeks after his acquittal. “Everyone is wounded, some fatally.”


Gunman kills self, two female hostages in Zurich apartment

Abstract: BERLIN - Swiss police say an armed man took two women hostage at an apartment in Zurich and all three died after shots were heard. Police in Switzerland’s biggest city said the 60-year-old Swiss man took the women hostage early Friday. The man told them he had two hostages and threatened to shoot them if police didn’t leave. After about three hours, the man said he would give up shortly and turn himself in. But several shots were then heard; police stormed the apartment and found a man and two women with serious injuries. All died at the scene. Police seized a handgun apparently used in the shooting. There was no immediate information on a possible motive. The women were aged 34 and 38. Their nationality wasn’t immediately clear.


Prosecutors push back on enforcing new state abortion laws

Abstract: ATLANTA - New state abortion laws likely to become bogged down in legal challenges face another potential obstacle: prosecutors who refuse to enforce them. The Associated Press reached out to nearly two dozen district attorneys across seven states, and several said they would not file criminal charges against doctors who violate the laws. Even a few who left open potentially charging doctors said they would not prosecute women for having an abortion, which some legal observers say could be a possibility under Georgia’s law. “I am never going to enforce a law that’s unconstitutional, and furthermore, especially not one that targets women and girls,” said David Cooke, chief prosecutor in Macon, Georgia, about 80 miles (130 km) southeast of Atlanta. The four district attorneys who said they would not enforce the laws at all cited the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide, saying their states’ abortion laws clearly conflict with that decision. The new laws, which are not yet in effect, take aim at Roe in hopes that a new conservative majority on the court will overturn it. For Cooke, the decision was also partly personal. Georgia’s law bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen in the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. It includes an exception for rape victims, but Cooke said his experience as a sex crimes prosecutor showed him that many victims are afraid to report the crime to police, often because the perpetrator has power over them. “I’ve spent my entire career protecting women and girls and doing everything I can to get justice for them, and I am not about to abandon them now,” he said in a phone interview. Sherry Boston, whose district includes parts of Atlanta, cited her gender and role as a mother, saying she believed it was a woman’s right to make decisions about her body and medical care. She also said her constituents don’t want her to pursue women and doctors. “My community has spoken very clearly that they want me to put my time and resources into human trafficking, domestic violence, gun and gang violence that ultimately are a detriment to our community,” she said in a phone interview. In Salt Lake City, Utah, District Attorney Sim Gill said he’s received angry calls from some residents since announcing that he would not prosecute doctors for any violations of Utah’s ban on abortion after 18 weeks. Gill’s county includes the state’s only two abortion clinics. “I called some of them back, and I said to them, ‘This isn’t about my politics, but let me ask you, ‘Do you want me to use the authority of my office to violate the constitutional rights of somebody?’ ” he said during a recent phone interview. The pushback highlights the vast authority of elected prosecutors and raises the potential for uneven enforcement of abortion laws within states. “DAs have a tremendous amount of discretion,” said Peter Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, which trains prosecutors and guides them on their professional responsibilities. “All DAs have a lot more on their plate than they can possibly do when they’re looking at cases on whether or not they prosecute.” Of the district attorneys AP contacted in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Utah, Louisiana, Ohio and Missouri — states that have recently enacted or are about to enact abortion restrictions — most did not respond or declined to comment. Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner in St. Louis, Missouri, said in a statement that her office was examining the effect of the state’s abortion law on health care providers in the city. Missouri banned abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy without exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Doctors who violate the cutoff could face five to 15 years in prison. Other prosecutors were critical of decisions not to enforce the law. John Melvin, acting district attorney in Cobb County, an Atlanta suburb, said in a statement that prosecutorial discretion is important. “It does not allow prosecutors to ignore whole cloth the laws that our legislature passes. To do so would violate their oath to enforce the laws as well as their ethical obligations to do the same,” he said. Ryan Leonard, district attorney in a county about 20 miles (33 km) west of Atlanta, told the Daily Report that women could be prosecuted for murder under the state’s law and should not have an abortion if they want to avoid criminal charges. He did not return a message from The Associated Press. The new laws will almost certainly be put on hold while legal challenges play out. Boston said she would still refuse to prosecute anyone under Georgia’s law if the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the law went into effect. Gill said prosecutors could still try to find “a measure of justice” in cases presented to them. “Justice is defined by proportionality,” he said. “It’s defined by equity and equality.”


Alleged ringleader admits in Morocco trial to slaying Scandinavian hikers on behalf of Islamic State

Abstract: SALé, MOROCCO - The alleged leader of a jihadi cell accused of killing two Scandinavian hikers in Morocco admitted the murders at trial Thursday, saying they were carried out in the name of the Islamic State group. Danish student Louisa Vesterager Jespersen, 24, and 28-year-old Norwegian Maren Ueland had their throats slit while camping in an isolated area of the High Atlas mountains in December. “I beheaded one of them … I regret it,” former street vendor Abdessamad Ejjoud, 25, told the court, blaming co-defendant Younes Ouaziyad for killing the other hiker. “We loved IS and we prayed to God for it,” he said. Twenty-four defendants — facing charges including promoting terrorism, forming a terrorist cell and premeditated murder — appeared in the court in Sale, near Rabat, under heavy security. Three are suspected of direct involvement in the killings. Ejjoud had been jailed for trying to join IS in Syria. In theory, the killers could face the death penalty, but Morocco has had a de facto freeze on executions since 1993. The main suspects are all from the Marrakesh region, near the site of the killings, which shocked the North African country. Nature lovers Jespersen and Ueland shared an apartment and went to Norway’s Bo University, where they were studying to be guides. They had traveled together to Morocco for their Christmas holidays. Their lives were ended in the foothills of Toubkal, the highest summit in North Africa, some 80 km (50 miles) from the city of Marrakesh, a tourist magnet. According to the charge sheet, the assailants traveled to the High Atlas mountains on Dec. 12 on a mission to kill tourists. Several potential targets were passed over because the foreigners were accompanied by guides or local residents. It was four days before the killers selected their targets, according to the prosecution. It said two of them carried out the killings while the third filmed them on a phone. After the bodies were discovered, the Moroccan authorities were initially cautious, referring to a “criminal act” and wounds to the victims’ necks. But that changed when the video surfaced showing a victim being beheaded. In it, one of the killers refers to “enemies of Allah” and says the murders are to avenge the killings of jihadis in Syria. A separate video published in the initial aftermath of the murders showed the alleged killers pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The only foreigner among the defendants is Spanish-Swiss 25-year-old Kevin Zoller Guervos, who moved to Morocco after converting to Islam. The others come from modest backgrounds, scraping by on odd jobs and living in neglected areas of Marrakesh, the North African kingdom’s main tourist city. Investigators said the “cell” was inspired by IS ideology, but Morocco’s anti-terror chief insisted the accused had no contact with the jihadi group in conflict zones. IS has never claimed responsibility for the murders. At a previous hearing, the court accepted a request by the Jespersen family’s lawyer for the government to be held “morally responsible” for the killings so they could receive compensation. The trial opened on May 2 but was adjourned to May 16 and then paused again after a brief hearing.

morocco
islamic state
louisa vesterager jespersen
maren ueland
abdessamad ejjoud
younes ouaziyad
terrorism
scandinavia


Brazil reduces top environment council and trims independents in move seen stifling NGOs

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is slashing the size of a council that oversees environmental policy, effectively reducing the role of nongovernmental organizations and increasing that of political appointees. Activists and scientists said they feared Bolsonaro’s action could lead to more deforestation and less environmental oversight in the nation that holds about 60 percent of the Amazon rainforest. The decree issued Wednesday cuts the size of the National Council of the Environment from 100 to 21 members. It also eliminates 105 “alternate” members who traditionally have taken part in debates. Many of those are environmental activists or independent experts, and critics say the change will stifle their voices. The highly influential council debates and recommends policies to the federal officials, and the Environment Ministry said the change was meant to make it more agile. Critics disputed that. “The idea that this is to create more efficiency doesn’t hold,” said Carlos Rittl, executive secretary of the Brazilian Climate Observatory, which includes several nonprofit groups. Rittl said Bolsonaro’s administration wants “more power concentrated in the hands of the government and the privileged in private initiative, and to weaken civil society.” The new council will be composed of five representatives of state governments, two members of city councils, four environmentalists, two business leaders and eight members of the federal government. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles will remain as the chairman of the body. Bolsonaro has vowed to loosen environmental restrictions on development, but the Environment Ministry says the change is meant to make the council more agile. He said in a statement that with the change, the council’s actions “will be more objective and focused on the efficiency and quality of environmental public policies decisions.” In April, The Associated Press reported a transition plan for the incoming administration complained that the council was “confusing” and “acts emotionally, without due technique, being subjected to ideological interference.” Activists say the council has helped the South American country slow global warming and support world climate systems. “We were hoping that Bolsonaro’s campaign promises … were just rhetoric,” Rittl said. “But this change within the council corresponds to an agenda that is moving forward, which seeks the weakening of the environmental legislation.”

brazil
environment
jair bolsonaro
amazon
agriculture
mining
forests


Saudi king calls for firm Arab stance against threats from Iran

Abstract: MECCA, SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia’s king told an emergency Arab summit on Friday that decisive action is needed to stop Iranian “escalations” in the region following attacks on Persian Gulf oil assets, and American officials said a U.S. military deployment had deterred Tehran. A Persian Gulf Arab statement and a separate communique issued after the wider summit supported the right of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to defend their interests after the attacks on oil pumping stations in the kingdom and tankers off the UAE. “The absence of a firm deterrent stance against Iranian behavior is what led to the escalation we see today,” King Salman told the two consecutive meetings late on Thursday night. The ruler of the world’s top crude exporter said Shiite Iran’s development of nuclear and missile capabilities and its threatening of world oil supplies posed a risk to regional and global security. But in a sign of regional tensions, Iraq, which has good ties with Iran and Washington, said it objected to the Arab communique, which stated that any cooperation with Tehran should be based on “noninterference in other countries.” Iraqi President Barham Salih, asking the gathering to support Iraq’s stability, said rising tensions with Iran could spark a war if not managed well and voiced hope that Iran’s security would not be targeted. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday that the attacks on the four vessels near a major bunkering hub, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, were “efforts by Iranians to raise the price of crude oil around the world.” Pompeo has warned Iraqi leaders that if they failed to keep in check Iran-backed militias, which now form part of Baghdad’s security apparatus, the United States would respond with force. Riyadh accused Tehran of ordering the drone strikes, which were claimed by the Iran-aligned Houthi group that has been battling a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen for four years. U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said on Thursday that evidence of Iran being behind the tanker attacks would be presented to the U.N. Security Council as early as next week. Tensions have risen between the United States and Iran after U.S. President Donald Trump a year ago withdrew Washington from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and boosted its military presence in the Persian Gulf. Bolton has said that Iranian mines were “almost certainly” used in the tanker attacks. An Iranian official dismissed that as “a ludicrous claim.” The Islamic Republic has said it would defend itself against any aggression. Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri has said Tehran was not allowed to pursue development of nuclear weapons as it was banned by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The final communique said regional stability required the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along 1967 borders to include Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, said on Thursday that a repositioning of U.S. military assets in the region had deterred Iran, but that the United States would respond with military force if its interests are targeted. The United States has deployed 900 additional troops to the region and extended the stay of 600 other service members, after speeding up deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and sending bombers and additional Patriot missiles. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi told the summit it was time to renew discussions on joint Arab defense mechanisms. The United States and the UAE, which hosts a U.S. air base, on Wednesday activated a defense cooperation agreement signed earlier this year. Persian Gulf states have a joint defense force under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but the alliance has been fractured by a boycott imposed on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and non-GCC Egypt since mid-2017. The communique said the six nations had discussed the GCC defense mechanism during their meeting. Qatari premier Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, whose country hosts the largest U.S. military base in the region, attended the summits, the most senior Qatari official to visit the kingdom since the embargo.

iran
saudi arabia
military
king salman
mike pompeo
john bolton


Republican redistricting expert linked to census citizenship question

Abstract: NEW YORK - A longtime Republican redistricting expert played a key role in adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, according to court papers filed Thursday by opponents of the move. The filing in Manhattan federal court said the discovery of new documents revealed that Thomas Hofeller contributed vital language to a letter used to justify adding the question for the first time since 1950. Lawyers for opponents of adding the question asked a judge to issue sanctions or consider contempt remedies, saying a Justice Department official and a transition official for President Donald Trump testified falsely by hiding Hofeller’s role in asking the question. The new documents may challenge the administration’s argument that the citizenship question in the 2020 census is needed to protect minority voting rights. Instead, opponents argue, they show the census change is part of a wider Republican effort to restrict the political power of Democrats and Latino communities. In their new filing, lawyers said new evidence revealed that Hofeller played a significant role in “orchestrating the addition of the citizenship question … to create a structural electoral advantage for, in his own words, ‘Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites,’ and that defendants obscured his role through affirmative misrepresentations.” The change announced in spring 2018 seems poised for approval by the U.S. Supreme Court, which heard arguments in April and is likely to rule by July. The Justice Department is planning to file a response in the New York case, said a senior Justice Department official who was not authorized to speak for quotation because the matter is before the courts. “We were not aware of these documents. The Solicitor General’s arguments were based on the record. These were not in the record,” the official said. Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say the commerce secretary has wide discretion to design the census questionnaire. States, cities and rights groups had sued in New York and elsewhere, arguing that the question would suppress the count of immigrants. States with large numbers of immigrants tend to vote Democratic. Opponents say adding the question will discourage immigrants from participating and strengthen congressional representation and funding for areas where mostly Republicans reside. Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s voting rights project and a lawyer who argued against adding the citizenship question before the Supreme Court, said documents found after Hofeller’s death last year revealed the administration’s “goal was to dilute the voting power of minority communities. That’s literally the diametric opposite of what the administration has been saying all along.” It’s not yet clear if the Hofeller documents might affect the pending Supreme Court case. “We are considering all options right now,” Ho said. The Hofeller documents cited by lawyers were discovered when his estranged daughter found four external computer hard drives and 18 thumb drives in her father’s Raleigh, North Carolina, home after his death last summer. The New York Times reported that she contacted Common Cause, which had recently sued in state court to challenge North Carolina’s legislative districts which had been drawn by Hofeller. On Thursday, Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn said in a release that documents revealed “that the plan to add the citizenship question was hatched by the Republicans’ chief redistricting mastermind to create an electoral advantage for Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.” She said the documents contradict testimony by administration officials that they sought to add the question to benefit Latino voters. In New York, U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman set a hearing for June 5. Furman ruled in January that the question could not be included on the census, saying fewer people would respond to the census and that the process used to add it was faulty. Besides the citizenship question, the Supreme Court also is expected to rule within weeks whether North Carolina and Maryland can set limits for the first time on drawing districts for partisan advantage.

donald trump
u.s .
u.s. supreme court
hispanics
thomas hofeller . republicans


China warns Canada of 'consequences' of helping U.S.

Abstract: BEIJING - China warned Canada on Friday that it needs to be aware of the consequences of aiding the U.S. in an extradition case involving Chinese tech giant Huawei that is believed to have sparked the detentions of two Canadians in China. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang’s comments came after U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Both were arrested on Dec. 10 after Canada detained a Huawei executive wanted by the United States on fraud charges. While China has denied they were taken in retaliation, it has repeatedly implied that there is a strong connection between the cases. Korvig, a former diplomat and Asia expert at the International Crisis Group, and Spavor, a businessman, have been accused of colluding to steal state secrets. Canada has repeatedly urged their immediate release, calling their detentions arbitrary. Neither has been permitted access to lawyers or family members. “We hope that the Canadian side can have a clear understanding of the consequences of endangering itself for the gains of the U.S. and take immediate actions to correct its mistakes so as to spare itself the suffering from growing damage,” Geng said at a daily news briefing. Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of the company’s founder, is accused of lying to banks about the company’s dealings with Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions. Her attorney has argued that comments by U.S. President Donald Trump suggest the case against her is politically motivated. Washington has pressured other countries to limit the use of Huawei’s technology, warning they could be opening themselves up to surveillance and theft of information. China and the U.S. are currently embroiled in a trade dispute that is weighing heavily on global financial markets. Another Canadian held in China, Robert Schellenberg, was re-sentenced to death in a drug case following Meng’s detention. His case is currently under appeal.

china
canada
huawei
justin trudeau
meng wanzhou
donald trump


Mideast peace plan hopes dim amid Israeli political crisis

Abstract: JERUSALEM - President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday to push the Trump administration’s long-awaited plan for Mideast peace, just as Israel was thrust into the political tumult of an unprecedented second election in the same year. Kushner and U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt stopped in Israel as part of a Middle East tour to rally support for the administration’s upcoming economic conference in Bahrain, which the White House bills as the first portion of its peace plan. The U.S. is hoping to draw Arab states with deep pockets to participate in the workshop, which envisions large-scale infrastructure work and investment in the Palestinian territories. In brief joint remarks, Kushner touted American-Israeli cooperation, saying, “The security of Israel is something that is critical to the relationship between America and Israel and also very important to the president, and we appreciate all of your efforts to strengthen the relationship. … It’s never been stronger.” But public attention was dominated by Israel’s political crisis. Netanyahu attempted to play down concerns that the Israeli parliament’s dramatic dissolution would further postpone the U.S. peace plan rollout. “You know, we had a little event last night,” he said. “That’s not going to stop us.” At the White House, President Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu, weighed in expressing dismay at the prime minister’s failure to form a governing coalition. Calling Netanyahu a “great guy,” Trump said he feels “very badly” that the country has to face another election because there is “enough turmoil” in the region. Israel’s reopened election season presents another stumbling block for Trump’s Mideast peace process, which the Palestinians, citing the administration’s pro-Israel bias, have rejected out of hand. The Trump administration had hinged the plan’s unveiling on Netanyahu’s victory in elections last month. Now, it seems the proposal will have to wait for the outcome of another tumultuous election cycle, after which Trump’s own race for re-election will be kicking into gear. Meanwhile, Netanyahu is facing indictment on a series of corruption charges, with his first hearing set for October. His legal troubles throw his long rule into question, along with the feasibility of a future peace plan. Traveling this week to Jordan and Morocco, Kushner and Greenblatt strove to drum up support for the economic conference in Bahrain, scheduled for June 25-26. Neither state has announced plans for participation. After more than two years of work, Kushner’s team still has not unveiled its political vision. But glimpses of the plan hint it will focus heavily on so-called economic peace while sidelining or ignoring the longstanding Palestinian goal of independence. The two-state solution continues to enjoy the broad support of the international community. Meeting with the U.S. presidential advisers, Jordan’s King Abdullah II stood by his country’s commitment to the two-state solution, exposing a rift with the administration and raising doubts about how Trump’s team will win over skeptical Arab states. Dennis Ross, the veteran Middle East negotiator, says the plan’s outlook has dimmed, considering the “many unknowns” that may indefinitely defer its rollout. Specifically, if Netanyahu pivots even farther to the right on the campaign trial, appealing to voters by promising to annex West Bank settlements again, “the political climate will only get more difficult … it will make it harder for Arab leaders to accept anything.” But, he said, Trump has attached particular importance to this peace agreement, and is eager for an accomplishment. If the administration manages to ditch the stigmatized tagline of “economic peace,” and sells the Bahrain workshop as a step toward “economic stabilization” with the help of wealthy Gulf states, the constant deferral of the plan’s thornier political portion, such as the status of contested Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, could work in its favor. “It might be difficult for the Palestinians to reject reconstruction and development projects given the financial crises destabilizing the West Bank and Gaza right now,” said Ross. At this early point, the cash-strapped Palestinian leadership “would be saying no only to the improvement of the terrible economic conditions in Gaza and the West Bank … that could be helped without their having to give anything up politically.” Still, the Palestinians say they will not attend the Bahrain meeting, rejecting the parameters of the conference and the role of the U.S. as mediator. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his autonomy government in the West Bank cut off ties with the White House after Trump recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017. Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967 and annexed it to its capital. Though Trump said his declaration did not determine the city’s final borders, the Palestinians saw the move as unfairly favoring Israel. U.S. cuts in aid, and the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic office in Washington, further deepened their suspicions.

donald trump
jared kushner
benjamin netanyahu
israel
jason greenblatt
middle east
bahrain
palestinians
jordan


Trump claims he had nothing to do with keeping USS John S. McCain out of sight during Japan visit

Abstract: NEW YORK - President Donald Trump and his acting defense secretary distanced themselves Thursday from an order to keep a warship named for the late Sen. John McCain, a Trump thorn, out of sight during the commander in chief’s recent visit to Japan. The Pentagon’s acting chief, Patrick Shanahan, said he never authorized attempts to make sure Trump would not see the USS John S. McCain at its homeport in Japan and would have his chief of staff investigate. Trump said he was not involved in the matter. Trump, who long feuded with McCain, told reporters at the White House that he “was not a big fan” of the Arizona Republican and onetime presidential nominee “in any way, shape or form.” But, Trump added, “I would never do a thing like that. “Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn’t like him, OK? And they were well-meaning, I will say,” he said, while insisting he was kept in the dark. The order that a Navy destroyer be kept out of sight reflected what appeared to be an extraordinary White House effort to avoid offending an unpredictable president known for holding a grudge, including a particularly bitter one against McCain. Three U.S. officials confirmed to The Associated Press that the White House told the Navy to keep the warship named for McCain out of Trump’s sight during Trump’s visit Tuesday to a base outside of Tokyo. The Wall Street Journal first reported that a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official wrote an email to Navy and Air Force officials about Trump’s Memorial Day weekend visit, including instructions for preparations for the USS Wasp, where he was to speak. “USS John McCain needs to be out of sight,” according to the email, obtained by the Journal and whose existence was confirmed to AP by the three U.S. officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private email correspondence. When a Navy commander expressed surprise at the instruction, the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official answered, “First I heard of it as well,” the Journal reported. The official said he would talk to the White House Military Office to get more information about the directive, the newspaper reported. Trump tweeted late Wednesday that he “was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan.” Still, he added Thursday that he “was very, very angry with McCain because he killed health care. I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape or form.” As a senator, McCain broke with the president in key areas. He incensed Trump with his thumbs-down vote foiling the effort to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law. Trump also mocked McCain’s military service, which included years of imprisonment and torture during the Vietnam War. The warship, commissioned in 1994, was originally named for the senator’s father and grandfather, both Navy admirals named John Sidney McCain. Last year, the Navy rededicated the ship to honor the senator as well. Shanahan told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday that he had been unaware of the request about the USS John S. McCain. “I never authorized, I never approved any action around the movement or activities regarding that ship,” Shanahan said. He said the military “needs to do their job” and stay out of politics. The Journal, citing photos it reviewed, reported that a tarp was placed over the USS John S. McCain’s name before Trump’s arrival and that sailors were instructed to remove any coverings from the ship that included its name. Asked if the tarp was meant to block Trump’s view of the ship, the officials said the tarp had been placed on the ship for maintenance and removed for the visit. Navy Cmdr. Clay Doss, spokesman for U.S. 7th Fleet, told AP that the tarp was on the ship on Friday but was removed by Saturday morning, the day Trump arrived in Japan. “All ships remained in normal configuration during the President’s visit,” he said. Two U.S. officials told AP that all the ships in the harbor were lined up for Trump’s visit, and they were visible from the USS Wasp. The officials said most of their names probably could not be seen since they were side by side but that the name of the USS John S. McCain could be seen from the pier. Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, Navy public affairs officer, tweeted Wednesday night: “The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.” POTUS stands for president of the United States. A paint barge was in front of the USS John S. McCain on Saturday morning when 7th Fleet officials walked the pier to see how everything looked for the visit. The barge was then ordered to be moved and was gone by the time Trump arrived, the officials said. The Journal reported that sailors on the USS John S. McCain, who usually wear hats with the ship’s name on it, were given the day off when Trump visited. Two U.S. officials told AP that sailors on the USS John S. McCain were not told to stay away but that many were away for the long weekend. The officials also said that about 800 sailors from more than 20 ships and Navy commands were on the USS Wasp during the president’s visit, and all wore the same Navy hat that has no logo, rather than wearing individual ship or command hats. Trump was not welcome at McCain’s funeral and raised the White House’s U.S. flag back to full-staff shortly after McCain’s death last August, despite U.S. Flag Code stating that it should remain at half-staff for another day. The flag returned to half-staff later in the day. McCain’s daughter, Meghan, tweeted Wednesday that Trump will “always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life.” She added, “There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won’t let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him. “It makes my grief unbearable.”

uss john s. mccain
donald trump
john mccain
patrick shanahan
yokosuka
u.s. navy


Angela Merkel awarded with Harvard honorary degree

Abstract: CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University. The Ivy League school gave Merkel an honorary Doctor of Laws degree Thursday in advance of her keynote speech at Harvard’s 368th commencement ceremony. Others receiving honorary degrees included former Harvard President Drew Faust and Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. The 64-year-old Merkel was elected to lead Germany in 2005 and is serving her fourth term, which she has said will be her last. Harvard President Larry Bacow calls Merkel one of the most “influential statespeople of our time.” Merkel comes to Harvard after her party finished first in Germany’s European Parliament election Sunday, but had its worst showing in a nationwide vote since World War II.

angela merkel
harvard
massachusetts
germany
u.s .


Russia calls U.S. nuclear-test accusation 'smear'

Abstract: MOSCOW - Russia rebuffed as a baseless smear on Thursday a U.S. allegation that Moscow may be conducting low-level nuclear tests in violation of a moratorium. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Russia was in full compliance with the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), which Moscow ratified in 2000. It called for the United States itself to ratify the treaty. The head of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said on Wednesday that Russia was probably not adhering to its nuclear testing moratorium in line with the “zero-yield” limit set by the CTBT. “Such accusations are absolutely groundless and aimed at trying again to smear our country,” the ministry statement said. Negotiated in the 1990s, the CTBT enjoys wide global support but must be ratified by eight more nuclear technology states — among them Israel, Iran, Egypt and the United States — to come into force. “We again call on the United States to show a responsible approach and to ratify the CTBT, without which its entry into force is not possible,” Russia’s statement said.

russia
ctbt
u.s .
weapons
nuclear weapons


D-Day still takes an emotional toll on vets, 75 years on

Abstract: SOUTHWICK, ENGLAND - Leonard “Ted” Emmings has had a mission for 75 years. The night before the D-Day landings, Emmings and his shipmates on a Royal Navy landing craft learned their mission was to ferry 36 Canadian troops to Juno Beach, a stretch of Normandy coast fortified with artillery, mortars, mines and machine gun emplacements. The men made a pact: Whatever happened, they would look after those who didn’t make it back. The next morning, the teenage British coxswain pointed his landing craft at the French shoreline and gunned the engines through meter-high (3-foot) waves as gunfire and explosions filled the air. The boat struck a mine but made it to the beach, where the crew discovered the ramp was jammed. Emmings and another crewman climbed over the side to free it. “I got back on the craft but he didn’t,” Emmings told The Associated Press. “That’s the reason I go over there, because we made that promise and I’ve tried to keep it up every year. It still brings a tear to my eyes, even now, when I talk about it.” Emmings, now 94, will honor his pledge once again on June 6, when he joins the dwindling cohort of D-Day veterans and dignitaries from around the world to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the invasion that marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany. But he doesn’t need the anniversary to remember D-Day — it’s a trauma that Emmings will never forget. Whether you call it post-traumatic stress disorder, survivor’s guilt or simple grief, the events of June 6, 1944, still mark the lives of the men who fought on the Normandy beaches. The emotions are even more pronounced this year, as the aging survivors prepare to take part in what may be the last major commemoration of the landings in which veterans take part. As difficult as it is for the veterans to talk about their experiences, they know they are running out of time to tell their stories. All hope that future generations will remember the sacrifice of those who died. They often weep, or stare off in the distance as they describe how ordinary people did extraordinary things. “Coming to the end of their lives, these guys are reflecting on, ‘What have I done that was worth anything? Was it a waste? Do I have anything that I can point to?’ ” said Frank Farley, a psychology professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and an expert on heroism. “Their resume has D-Day on it, and they can hang a lot on that. That is valued.” Emmings would tell you himself he’s an ordinary guy who became a husband, a father of two and a forester, dedicated to expanding and protecting the nation’s woodlands. Born and raised in the village of Shere, 30 miles (48 km) southwest of London, Emmings had never been out of the country when he was assigned to the first wave of the assault on Juno Beach, where 359 Canadian soldiers would die. His superiors didn’t seem to worry about what would happen once the landing craft were lowered into the water, as long as the coxswains kept heading for the beach 6 miles (10 km) away. Emmings scanned the horizon and picked out the landmark he had been told to aim at: a large house on the seafront at Bernieres-sur-Mer and the bunker to its left. “It looked a bit frightening on the way in, because they were still shelling then and they were dropping stuff on the beach and whatever and there was still quite a bit of firing going on,” he recalled. “It seemed murderous, if I may use that word, to let the guys run ashore when they’re going to go in under heavy (bombardment).” Things quickly went bad for Emmings and his passengers. Damage from the mine explosion slowed the boat and jammed the bow ramp, forcing Emmings and a crewman into the water where they struggled to free it. The commotion attracted the attention of Germans in the bunker, and the Canadians were cut down as they left the craft. As the boat left the beach and headed back out to sea it hit another mine, and another crewman was killed. Emmings and his crew struggled on, but the landing craft sank before it reached the mother ship. They were eventually picked up by a passing landing craft. “You didn’t have time to be scared, not really. I never even (gave) it a thought that I could get shot,” Emmings said. “When I think about it, I think I was bloody lucky, you know, especially when the craft got hit, and you see a guy that dies in front of you more or less. “But the main people that I do feel really sorry for are the Canadians, because they came over here, they trained in a strange country and they died in a strange country.” One Canadian in particular, an officer who was shot down as he tried to cross the beach, haunts the old sailor’s memories. Emmings wanted to tell the officer’s family what he saw, but he didn’t know the man’s name. But Emmings has kept his promise to his crew. His hair is now a thatch of silver, and he walks with a pair of canes. But he is adamant about the need to just keep talking about D-Day, no matter how painful it is to remember. And he goes to Normandy every year to honor his shipmates and put crosses on their graves. “I will do these interviews, hoping that somebody will read it and remember it every year,” he said. “This must never be left to die. D-Day, it must always be there. You’ve got to remember all those guys.”

d-day
anniversaries
germany
france
wwii
europe
u.s .
history
u.k .
ptsd


At least four killed as Iraqi city of Kirkuk is rocked by six blasts

Abstract: BAGHDAD - Iraqi security officials say a series of explosions in the northern city of Kirkuk has killed at least four people and wounded 23. The officials said the six blasts went off in quick succession Thursday night after iftar, the meal that breaks daylong fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. They struck center of the city when streets are typically crowded. The nature of the blasts was not immediately clear, but the officials said they appeared to be improvised explosive devices. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. Iraq declared victory against the Islamic State group in 2017, but the group continues to carry out attacks through sleeper cells, particularly in the country’s north.


Hope fades for finding 21 missing in Budapest boat disaster, with seven South Koreans confirmed dead

Abstract: BUDAPEST - Hungarian rescue officials said there was little chance of finding survivors after a boat with South Korean tourists on board sank on the Danube River in Budapest, with seven people confirmed dead and 21 missing. The boat was cruising when it collided with a larger luxury passenger boat during a rainstorm on Wednesday evening, causing it to capsize and sink with 33 South Korean tourists and tour guides and two Hungarian crew aboard. “I wouldn’t say there is no hope, rather that there is a minimal chance (of finding survivors),” Pal Gyorfi, a spokesman for the Hungarian national ambulance service, told the M1 state broadcaster. “This is not just because of the water temperature, but (also) the strong currents in the river, the vapor above the water surface, as well as the clothes worn by the people who fell in,” he added. Police said the smaller boat turned on its side and sank within seconds of the collision under a bridge near Hungary’s parliament building. They said a criminal investigation was underway to determine the cause of the accident. Police declined to say if the bigger vessel, the 135-meter (443 ft) Viking Sigyn, put out any signals for help. Police said its investigation yielded evidence that raised personal responsibility, so it questioned the Viking Sigyn captain, a 64-year-old Ukrainian, as a suspect, and later moved to take him into custody for reckless misconduct in waterborne traffic leading to mass casualties. Police said it initiated the formal arrest of the captain, identified as C. Yuriy from Odessa. Officials said the hull of the Mermaid, a 27-meter (89-ft) double-decker river cruise boat, had been found on the riverbed a few hundred meters from its usual mooring point. A crane ship docked near the wreck on Thursday in preparation for recovery operations and divers prepared equipment. Police said the rescue efforts were hampered by high water levels, strong currents and bad visibility. “Those who were trapped in the hull or were stuck underneath can be lifted only once the wreckage is pulled out,” a police statement said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban offered his condolences to Seoul. South Korean President Moon Jae-in said the authorities would work with the Hungarian government to investigate the cause of the accident. “What’s most important is speed,” Moon said in Seoul. Some South Korean relatives of those on board started to depart for Hungary. Several family members were seen at Incheon International Airport in Seoul on Thursday night. South Korean rescue teams and officials including South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha also left for Budapest on Thursday. She will hold a news conference with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at 0730 GMT on Friday. The foreign ministry said 30 South Korean tourists, including at least one child, three South Korean tour guides and two Hungarian crew were on board when the accident occurred at around 9 p.m. (1900 GMT). Seven South Koreans were rescued, seven died, and 19 South Koreans were among the 21 missing, said Kang Hyung-shik, a foreign ministry official. The crew members were also missing. The seven people rescued were suffering from hypothermia but stable, a Hungarian ambulance spokesman said. Police said the seven people who died had no life vests on. Video footage from a security camera screened by police showed the bigger boat catching up from behind at a higher speed, clipping the Mermaid’s por t side. “The (Mermaid) for some reason, turns into the way of the Viking. And the Viking as it bumps into it, pushes it… and within seven seconds … (th e Mermaid) sinks,” Pal said, describing the video. Rescue officials deployed boats, divers, floodlights and radar, scouring the river for several kilometers downstream from the site of the accident. Police said efforts were hampered by the fast currents of the flooding Danube, whose deep water was full of debris, at 12 degrees Celsius (53.6°F), and flowing at a speedy 10 kph (6.2 mph). Well-wishers laid flowers outside the South Korean Embassy in Budapest, and candles burned on the Danube bank. The Mermaid’s owner said the boat — a Soviet model manufactured in 1949 and refurbished in the 1980s — had been in its fleet since 2003, with regular maintenance. “We are mobilizing every resource we have to protect human lives,” the owner Panorama Deck Ltd. told state media through a spokesman. The larger Viking Sigyn is a 95-room floating hotel of the kind that has multiplied as Danube river cruises gained popularity in recent years. “There were no injuries to Viking crew or Viking guests. We are cooperating with the authorities as required,” said a spokesperson for operator Swiss-based Viking Cruises Ltd .

budapest
hungary
danube
viking sigyn
viktor orban
moon jae-in
south korea
marine accidents


Florida air-conditioning pioneer first dismissed as a crank now celebrated by state

Abstract: MIAMI - Residents of hot, mosquito-infested Florida know that life there sans air conditioning would be unbearable. Yet the state’s 19th-century pioneer in the field was dismissed during his lifetime as a crank. John Gorrie, a medical doctor who moved to steamy north Florida in 1833 determined to alleviate outbreaks of yellow fever, was once described by a New York Globe writer as a crank “who thinks he can make ice by his machine as good as God Almighty.” Gorrie’s unrecognized feat lives on in a museum in the Florida panhandle town of Apalachicola, nestled between heavily forested swamps, debris from the last hurricane and spires of the town’s many churches. Gorrie was a respected member of the community when he first moved to Apalachicola. He founded its first Episcopal church, “the oldest church today still very valuable to us,” said Jeremy Roundtree, a Florida Park Services ranger at the tiny John Gorrie Museum, the pride of Apalachicola. “He ran the very first bank out of Pensacola, Florida, he was a postmaster, which was a very lucrative job, he was a mayor here.” But after he made an ice machine and got it patented in 1851, the verdict was: “He’s crazy,” Roundtree said. The Spaniards, the first Europeans to settle in Florida in the mid-1500s, could never attract enough people to live on the peninsula and eventually ceded the land to the United States in 1819. Born in 1803, Gorrie spent his sweat-drenched life in Florida searching for ways to create winter with the goal of defeating yellow fever. Outbreaks of the often-deadly disease were more terrifying than hurricanes. The New York-trained doctor quickly linked the yellow fever to heat, but was convinced that it was transmitted by “swamp gas.” His solution: cool the patient’s room with machine-made ice. It took another 50 years for experts to realize that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes, which thrive in swamps and die in the cold. “Which is why today the nation calls him the ‘Father of Refrigeration,’ and not an amazing doctor,” said Roundtree. “But he was an amazing doctor — he just finds himself fighting the wrong thing at the right place.” Gorrie’s machine is a steam engine with a series of cranks and handles held in a wooden frame on a brick platform that condenses and expands air until, thanks to the thermodynamic cycle discovered just years earlier, it produces ice. By 1848 the machine was producing 12 blocks of ice a day. Gorrie would put ice inside a bucket that was hung from the ceiling over the patient’s bed or high point near a window. Hot air, which tends to rise, was thus cooled, and eventually the room temperature — and the patient’s fever — would drop. Gorrie was far ahead of his time when he patented his machine. Religious Americans, however, were unprepared for a device, clearly inspired by the devil, that could reproduce God’s creation. “It had nothing to do with God but, instead, science,” Roundtree said — “which, you know, today probably doesn’t still walk hand in hand with religion.” He may have improved the lives of his patients, but Gorrie was unable to sell his ice-making machine. He died in 1855, mocked and bankrupt. The first proper air-conditioning machine came out about half a century after his death. “Dr. G. came up with a brilliant, far-sighted innovation that helped people, so of course he was labeled a crackpot and died penniless — only to be honored by the state after his death,” said Craig Pittman, a local writer specializing in the offbeat stories that Florida is well known for. Florida was the least populated U.S. state up to the 1940s. Hotels closed during the summer because of the heat and the clouds of mosquitoes the descended on visitors. It wasn’t until air conditioning became popular and pesticides such as DDT came into use in the 1950s that Florida became truly habitable. “Everyone said he was a crazy man,” said Roundtree. But today in Apalachicola “as you can see we love and honor Dr. Gorrie because of his sacrifices.”


Central U.S. river flood risk mounts as rain lets up after deadly twisters

Abstract: LOS ANGELES/ATLANTA/NEW YORK - Rain-swollen rivers threatened more flooding on Thursday in Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois and Oklahoma, as Tulsa’s mayor warned that the decades-old levee system in his city would be at risk even as waters receded through the weekend. Since early last week, a spate of deadly tornadoes has caused widespread damage across the central United States while torrential downpours unleashed record floods, turning highways into lakes and submerging all but the roofs of some homes. The violent weather has been blamed for least 16 deaths across several states in the nation’s midsection. In Tulsa, Oklahoma’s second-largest city, the state’s National Guard conducted round-the-clock patrols of the 20-mile (32-km) levee system that protects some 10,000 people. “To have a 70-year-old levee system that has been poorly maintained and protects thousands of people and their homes and property and to have it go through a historic level of stress at that age and in the condition it’s in, it’s been an area of high risk,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a phone interview. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was gradually reducing the level of water behind the berms, aiming to return it to a safe level by Sunday night, Bynum said. “You have all this material that has high pressure on it and is saturated with water, as that pressure is relieved, you see material start to fall away. That can endanger the integrity of the levee,” Bynum said. “That risk won’t be relieved until late this weekend.” There were no reports of major levee breaks on Thursday, the National Weather Service said. Waterways posing the greatest threats included the Mississippi, Arkansas and Missouri rivers. Oklahoma has borne much of the brunt so far, with six fatalities attributed to flooding and severe weather confirmed by the state’s chief medical examiner, and hospitals reporting more than 100 injuries. Missouri’s Highway Patrol has confirmed seven weather-related deaths since May 21 — three victims of tornadoes and four from rain and flooding. Floodwaters also swept a motorist to his death on Tuesday in Arkansas, while twisters that pulverized buildings in western Ohio on Monday killed one person and injured scores of others, authorities said. A tornado last week in Adair, Iowa, claimed one life there. On the brighter side, the region appears to be headed for a few days without rain heading into the weekend, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Flooding in Arkansas has already closed 12 state highways, and 400 households have agreed to voluntary evacuations, said Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson. Rivers were expected to crest by early June to the highest levels on record as far south as Little Rock, Arkansas, forecasters said. Little Rock mayor Frank Scott Jr. said municipal workers have distributed thousands of sandbags to residents around the city, parts of which were hit with flash flooding on Wednesday night. “We are in unprecedented times here in Arkansas, and the Arkansas River will reach historic level,” Scott said at a news conference on Thursday. “We just received information that it’s now going to be 29 feet with the crest next week.” In Louisiana, the Mississippi River was also at record flood levels due to record-breaking rains this spring, forecasters said. More than 300 tornadoes have touched down in the Midwest in the past two weeks.

floods
arkansas
tornadoes
weather
u.s .
disasters


Modi to face foreign pressures in second term

Abstract: NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a second term in office after responding to a suicide attack on Indian paramilitary forces in troubled Kashmir with an airstrike inside Pakistan, allowing him to turn voters’ attention away from the country’s highest unemployment rate in decades. Now, after his swearing-in on Thursday, he will need to deftly navigate a trade war between the United States and China as well as rising tensions between the U.S. and Iran, an important source of cheap oil for India’s fast-growing economy. Modi will also face pressure to protect India’s traditional sphere of influence in South Asia. Many Modi supporters credit the 68-year-old leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party with India’s growing status abroad, and messages from U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulating him on his party’s victory even before all results were in seemed to bolster that belief. Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to Washington, said foreign policy has been one of Modi’s most pronounced achievements, as he pursued it with vigor “that we have not seen in any other prime minister so far.” As Modi returns to power for another five years, global leaders are looking to India to take on a larger burden of responsibility in the world, acting as a security buffer in the Indo-Pacific, opening its markets and responding to climate change, even though Modi struggled to manage many of India’s domestic issues in his first term. “Maneuvering in the current international situation will be quite a challenge for Modi,” said Dilip Sinha, a retired Indian diplomat. The U.S. wants India to act as a counterweight to Beijing to prevent the rise of Chinese hegemony in Asia but it also wants the Modi administration to lower barriers to trade. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross complained to leaders in New Delhi in May that American companies struggle to access India’s markets because of tariffs and myriad regulations. To help reduce the trade imbalance, India has signed more than $15 billion in U.S. defense contracts. According to the World Economic Forum, India is poised to become the world’s third-largest consumer market, growing from $1.5 trillion this year to $6 trillion by 2030. At the same time, with the Trump administration scaling up sanctions on Iran and ending waivers for countries that import Iranian goods, including India, India must replace its third-largest source of imported oil. The fear of a further conflagration in the Persian Gulf region could make oil more expensive and threatens the security of 7 million Indians working as migrant laborers. “It’s an extremely difficult and challenging position for India,” Sinha said. During the Cold War, India didn’t have open relations with Israel, leaning heavily in favor of the Palestinians. But over the last 25 years, ties between the two countries have warmed. Trade between them has skyrocketed from $200 million in 1992, when India and Israel established diplomatic ties, to $4.16 billion in 2016. The growing ties risk upsetting India’s long-standing relationship with other Middle Eastern countries. The U.S. weapons purchase agreements, coupled with Russia’s improving ties with Pakistan and China, also pose a challenge to Russia-India relations, which date back to the Cold War. “India’s Russian ties are also beginning to fray. The recent fighter aircraft deals with France and other military hardware purchases from the USA have resulted in sidelining India’s usual defense partner,” the opposition Indian National Congress party said in a statement. India faces perhaps its biggest challenge with China at its northeastern border as Beijing invests billions in infrastructure development in South Asia. India takes years to execute projects, whereas China delivers quickly on what it promises. India needs to maintain close ties with Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and the Maldives, its traditional sphere of influence. But delays by Indian companies have led to cost overruns, prompting India’s neighbors to look toward China for speedy development. Modi has carefully cultivated ties with Xi since a 2017 border standoff over Chinese construction of a road in Doklam near a tri-border area with Bhutan. India and China fought a bloody war in 1962 over a border dispute that continues to simmer. But their relations have thawed recently, with Beijing deciding against blocking the U.N. designation of Masood Azhar, the leader of the Pakistan-based militant group that claimed responsibility for the February suicide bombing in Kashmir, as a global terrorist. Though Modi invited then-Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other South Asian leaders to attend his swearing-in ceremony in 2014, the neighbors were at the brink of nuclear war in February. Modi has refused an official dialogue with Islamabad until it ends support for what India calls terrorism emanating from its territory. They have fought two of three wars over control of divided Kashmir since they won independence from Britain in 1947. In Kashmir, the majority Muslims see Modi’s re-election as causing more hardship. In the past five years, Modi’s government gave the military a free hand to crush resistance to Indian rule, targeting not just armed militants but also civilians supporting their cause, to keep Kashmir a part of India at any cost. Some in Kashmir see Modi’s win as “a blessing in disguise,” saying his tough approach could energize the movement for self-determination in the region. “The fog around India’s policies on Kashmir is increasingly getting removed thanks to Modi and Co.,” said Sajjad Ahmed, a schoolteacher.

india
narendra modi
kashmir
pakistan
trade
iran
_asia


In South Korea, disturbing parallels drawn between sinking on Danube and Sewol ferry disaster

Abstract: SEOUL - The sinking of a boat carrying South Korean tourists in Hungary is touching a nerve in South Korea, where many are still traumatized over a 2014 ferry sinking that killed more than 300 people, mostly students. The grief is compounded by claims by some South Korean tour agents and travelers that there were past safety issues on the Danube River where the accident happened. A total of 33 South Koreans were on the small boat enjoying the night view of Budapest on Wednesday evening despite a downpour. A preliminary investigation showed none was wearing a life jacket when the boat collided with a larger cruise ship on the river, according to the South Korean government and their tour agency in Seoul. Nearly a day after the sinking, seven people had been confirmed dead on Thursday, seven had been rescued, and 19 South Koreans and two Hungarian crew members were listed as missing. Rescuers were scouring the Danube far downriver, but prospects for more rescues were dimming because the river was flowing rapidly and rising as heavy rain continued. The water temperature was about 10 to 12 degrees Celsius (50 to 53 Fahrenheit). While the exact cause of the collision still wasn’t known, some said there could have been a lack of safety awareness, as in the sinking of the ferry Sewol in South Korea five years ago that was blamed on a culture that has long sacrificed public safety standards for profit and convenience. The Sewol, which was overloaded with poorly secured cargo, sank while sailing to the southern South Korean resort island of Jeju, killing 305 people, including 250 high school students. Lim KyoungJae, head of a Seoul-based travel agency who has taken South Korean tourists to Budapest about five times in recent years, said he would have seriously considered whether to go ahead with the boat tour in the strong rain. “Heavy rain must have made the current of the river faster and caused low visibility,” Lim said. “If you don’t have a good night view, then you really don’t need to take a boat ride.” Many sightseeing boats on the Danube turn their lights low to have a better night view of the city. If that was the case for the boat that capsized Wednesday, Lim said those navigating the larger cruise ship may have found it difficult to see the small boat sailing nearby. The South Koreans’ tour agency, Very Good Tour, said the boat trip was part of a package tour to Europe. It said the agency went ahead with the excursion after the tourists agreed on it. “Other boats were making tours too and we decided to go on after passengers agreed,” senior tour agency official Lee Sang-moo said. “Our company humbly accepts all the responsibility that is ours.” According to the tour agency and South Korea’s Foreign Ministry, none of the South Koreans — 30 tourists, two guides and a photographer — was wearing a life jacket at the time of the accident. Lee admitted that there was a possibility that there were no life vests on the boat. Senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official Kang Hyung-shik said it is “customary” for tourists on Danube boat trips not to wear life jackets. The boat, the Hableany (Mermaid), is described on the sightseeing company’s website as “one of the smallest members of the fleet.” Built in 1949, it has two decks and a capacity of 60 people, or 45 for sightseeing cruises. Mihaly Toth, a spokesman for the Panorama Deck boating company, said the Hableany was on a “routine city sightseeing trip” when the accident happened. Lee Deok-sun, a South Korean who took the Hableany on a package tour in April, said he and about 28 other South Korean tourists didn’t wear life jackets. He said his group wasn’t given instructions on the use of life vests and he didn’t even know where they might be. He said he saw only one or two small rubber boats tied with ropes at the boat’s bow. “It was a very old boat and I felt some anxiety,” Lee said in a phone interview with the YTN television network. “The railings looked unstable … and the river was deep so I worried that we would get into big trouble if some accident happened.” After the capsizing, South Korean President Moo Jae-in canceled all of his scheduled events and ordered officials to mobilize all available resources to support rescue efforts in cooperation with the Hungarian government. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and divers who took part in the rescue work when the Sewol sank were to fly to Hungary later Thursday. The swift government reaction was in sharp contrast to that after the Sewol sinking, which triggered an explosion of anger over the previous government’s botched rescue efforts and regulatory failures. South Korean investigators found that the Sewol’s crew had overloaded the vessel with 185 cars when it had room for only 97. Crew members failed to properly fasten the vehicles and containers so they could squeeze in more cargo. Although the captain reported 657 tons of cargo, investigators said the real amount exceeded 2,140 tons, which likely prevented the vessel from regaining balance after making a sharp turn. Rescue officials then missed a series of opportunities to save most of the passengers before the ship completely sank about three hours after crew members lost control. Rescuers saved 172 people, including the ferry’s captain. He is now serving a life prison sentence after a court found him guilty of homicide through willful negligence because he fled without issuing an evacuation order. The public uproar over the Sewol’s sinking was so large that it contributed to the ouster of Moon’s conservative predecessor, Park Geun-hye, who is currently serving a lengthy prison term over a separate corruption scandal. The Danube River flows south, meaning that the missing people were likely to be swept through the well-populated, historic part of Budapest. The South Korean tourists included families and a 6-year-old girl. Her status wasn’t immediately clear but she was not on a list of survivors provided by the tour agency.

south korea
danube
sewol
hungary
accidents
budapest
tourism
maritime accidents


With cameras and crackdowns, another Tiananmen-style movement now 'impossible' in China

Abstract: BEIJING - Thirty years after the crackdown on Tiananmen protesters, the tanks that lined Beijing’s central avenue have been replaced by countless surveillance cameras perched like hawks on lampposts to keep the population in check. The Chinese Communist Party has gone to great lengths to prevent another pro-democracy movement, clamping down on student activists, labor movements and lawyers with the help of high-tech surveillance. But the party has also pushed economic reforms that have made millions of people wealthier — and less interested in rebelling like the students whose protest ended with hundreds killed on June 4, 1989. Over the past decade, small police booths have been set up block by block across the country to monitor neighborhood disputes, prevent crime and keep tabs on anyone suspected of disturbing social order. Now China’s obsession with artificial intelligence and facial recognition is adding another layer of sophistication to this intricate surveillance web, allowing police to pound on the door of any perceived troublemaker, several activists have said. Others said the party’s infiltration of universities and a crackdown on “liberal spaces,” including independent bookstores, has made it difficult for people to even discuss reform. “Enhanced surveillance technology makes it much more difficult to see any mass demonstrations like the Tiananmen protests in 1989 to happen nowadays,” said Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International. Instead there have been smaller “spontaneous protests” led by labor activists, students or families affected by vaccine or food scandals in recent years, he said. But even that has become difficult as Beijing tries to nip them in the bud and quickly erases any mention of them on social media, Poon said. “Even now, every time I go out of town I have to report to the community police,” said Yi Wenlong, a businessman from northern China’s Shanxi province, whose daughter developed epilepsy after a faulty vaccination. “If we can’t talk about a concrete issue like poor-quality vaccines, do you think it’s possible to put out banners calling for bigger changes?” added Yi, who has protested about shoddy vaccines outside the local and provincial government offices. Censors and cameras The government has severely reduced the space for civil liberties since President Xi Jinping took power in 2012, rounding up rights lawyers in a sweep in 2015 and Marxist students in the past year. Censors have stepped up their policing of social media, monitoring the activities of millions of people and blocking any politically sensitive material, such as what really happened at Tiananmen in 1989. All language versions of Wikipedia — whose pages include details about the Tiananmen crackdown — were blocked from the Chinese internet weeks before the anniversary. “Freedom of speech is the starting point of all freedoms,” said Hu Jia, a prominent Chinese dissident. “Without it, another Tiananmen is unthinkable.” The new arsenal of the Chinese police state also includes voice-recognition software that can identify speakers in phone calls and a sweeping program of DNA collection, said Xiao Qiang, a theoretical physicist who became a human rights activist after the Tiananmen protests. Several Chinese activists said they rely on encrypted messaging apps such as Telegram or WhatsApp to communicate, but it is becoming harder to meet in person due to mass video surveillance. “The space for civic activities is narrowing,” said a political dissident who was imprisoned from 2013 to 2016, adding that even data such as hotel bookings and transport can be used to track individuals. In 2015, the government launched the Sharp Eyes project, which it described as an “omnipresent, fully networked, always working and fully controllable” mass-video surveillance system incorporating facial-recognition technology. China had about 176 million video surveillance cameras monitoring its streets, buildings and public spaces in 2016, compared to 50 million in the United States, according to data provider IHS Markit. By 2022, the number is expected to reach 2.76 billion, in a country with a population of 1.4 billion. Rights activists warn that facial recognition has the potential for errors and mismatches, and it relies on vast databases that may have little or no oversight. Wealthier China Adding to those concerns has been the deployment of surveillance cameras inside mosques, restaurants and other public areas to track the movements of the Uighur ethnic minority in the restive border region of Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million mostly Muslim people are held in internment camps. Marxist students are another group now targeted by communist authorities. Dozens have been detained or disappeared after their support for a labor movement last year. The tight policing of what is taught or discussed in universities and other liberal spaces makes it “impossible” for a recurrence of another “ideological movement” as seen in 1989, said Li Datong, a former editor at Beijing Youth Daily. Li has been under surveillance since he wrote an open letter critical of the 2018 constitutional amendment to remove Xi’s presidential term limits. He sees a second reason why another Tiananmen-like upheaval in China is unlikely. “The current generation is also selfish because they have been lulled into a coma by China’s growing wealth,” he said. “They can’t be compared to the students in the 1980s who were idealists.”

china
protests
rights
anniversaries
censorship
history
tiananmen square