#planned organised crimes wars violence and fear

[awesomecooperlove]

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[probablyasocialecologist]

In a 2,300-word letter written to Al Jazeera by eight UK-based journalists employed by the corporation, the BBC is also said to be guilty of a “double standard in how civilians are seen”, given that it is “unflinching” in its reporting of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Fearing reprisal, the journalists requested anonymity. The group does not plan to send the letter to BBC executives, believing such a move was unlikely to lead to meaningful discussions.

[...]

The BBC journalists said that across British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) platforms, terms like “massacre” and “atrocity”, have been reserved “only for Hamas, framing the group as the only instigator and perpetrator of violence in the region. This is inaccurate but aligns with the BBC’s overall coverage”. The Hamas assault, while “appalling and devastating … does not justify the indiscriminate killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians, and the BBC cannot be seen to support – or fail to interrogate – the logic that it does,” their letter reads. “We are asking the BBC to better reflect and defer to the evidence-based findings of official and unbiased humanitarian organisations.”

[ausetkmt]

As Vélina Élysée Charlier ventured on to the streets of her conflict-stricken city last week, she encountered scenes that will haunt her for many years to come.

Armed civilians dragging bodies through the streets. Smouldering corpses. Young men with machetes chasing suspected gangsters they planned to kill.

“I’ve seen enough dead people for many lifetimes,” said the Haitian human rights activist. “Since Monday, if you get killed, you get burned. It’s kill, burn, kill, burn … It’s nothing I would want anyone else to witness. It stays with you … It’s hell, you know?”

The nightmarish events unfolding in Haiti’s coastal capital, Port-au-Prince, began before dawn on Monday when members of one of its notorious gangs reportedly tried to seize control of the city’s Turgeau area.

“What they didn’t count on was the population striking back,” said Charlier, who works in the neighbourhood.

Over the coming hours, civilians brandishing knives, rocks and handguns rose up against the heavily armed criminals who control more than 80% of Haiti’s capital and whose activities have led the United Nations to compare the situation there to a war.

As the sun rose, the bloodshed spread. In the Canapé-Vert neighbourhood, 13 suspected gangsters were beaten, stoned to death and burned after their minibus was stopped by police. In Turgeau another six men were reportedly set on fire.

The violence continued on Tuesday as Canapé-Vert’s residents formed self-defence brigades and took to their barricaded streets with rocks and knives.

“We are planning to fight and keep our neighbourhood clean of these savages,” one vigilante, a 37-year-old called Jeff Ezequiel, told the Associated Press.

On Wednesday, as groups sprang up in other communities, another lynching was reported: this time, eight suspected criminalsin the community of Debussy.

“We’re already dead, so we might as well die fighting,” Charlier remembered one person in Turgeau telling her.

The lynchings have sparked a strange and disturbing mix of horror, fear and optimism in Haitian communities fed up with being terrorised by the gangs.

“Seeing the population fighting back – even though there are lots of human rights violations, even though justice by the people is never the way to go because it just spirals into a cycle of violence that never stops – gives you ... the sense that people are as mad as you are,” said Charlier. “What’s happening is giving hope to the population that they can fight back.”

“It is obscene,” the author and activist Monique Clesca said of the lynchings. “But that’s what these bandits have pushed us to.”

“It’s more than frustration ... [Rage] is the only word,” Clesca added, blaming the surge of mob justice on years of elite political corruption and connivance with organised crime.

Daniel Foote, the outspoken former US special envoy to the Caribbean country, said he was also unsurprised at the violence, given the police’s failure to bring the gangs to heel.

“At some point I thought they were going to start to take matters into their own hands because they’ve got no choice. They’ve got nothing else,” Foote said.

“The Haitians, like anybody, can only take so much. The gangs have stolen their lives from them,” Foote added, as a spokesperson for Haiti’s embattled and enfeebled national police force implored citizens to stop. “Do not take justice into your own hands,” Garry Desrosiers told reporters on Wednesday.

That plea looks likely to fall on deaf ears, given the scale of the security catastrophe facing one the Caribbean’s largest cities, which was levelled by an earthquake in 2010 and has been struggling to find its feet ever since.

As people in Port-au-Prince fought to reclaim their communities, the UN secretary general’s special envoy to Haiti offered a chilling overview of the country’s “rapidly deteriorating security situation” and the parallel humanitarian crisis that have left almost half of Haiti’s 11 million citizens going hungry.

María Isabel Salvador told the UN security council that March had seen Haiti’s highest number of reports of murders, rapes, kidnappings and lynchings since 2005. Children had been shot in classrooms and snatched at school gates. Snipers had indiscriminately targeted civilians. Women had been terrorised by “multiple-perpetrator” rape.

“Faced with these increasingly violent armed gangs vying for control of neighbourhoods of the capital, with limited or no police presence, some residents have begun to take matters into their own hands,” the Ecuadorian diplomat reported. “These dynamics lead unfailinglyto the breakdown of social fabric with unpredictable consequences for the entire region.”

The human rights activist Rosy Auguste Ducéna called the lynchings a “worrisome” development. Her group had been unable to calculate the exact death toll. But some suspect dozens, perhaps scores, have been killed in recent days.

Ducéna blamed the government of the prime minister, Ariel Henry – who took power after the 2021 assassination of the then president, Jovenel Moïse – for the uprising as it had failed to dismantle and prosecute gang members and surrendered many areas to their rule. “There is a certain complicity between [the gangs] and the state authorities,” Ducéna said, adding that “permanent calm” would only come if authorities stopped protecting criminal groups.

Clesca said it was hard to know where the nascent anti-gang insurrection would lead. “They are small [incidents], but they are significant. Will they multiply? What will happen? I think we have to watch and we have to be very sensitive to that,” she said, predicting the coming weeks would see “more people, cities and towns rising up and saying: ‘We are not taking this. Enough is enough.’”

Foote also wondered whether the rebellion might signal a new phase in Haiti’s political, humanitarian and security crises, “because this is the first time that people have really taken matters into their own hands, which is how the Haitians won independence [in 1804] and have kept their independence a number of times since then”.

The dire outlook has prompted calls for an international intervention – a call repeated by Salvador at the UN. “The Haitian people cannot wait. We need to act now,” she said, calling for the urgent deployment of “an international specialised force” to fight gangs.

Foote said he was “100% ideologically opposed” to another foreign intervention, given the miserable track record of previous efforts including the 2004-2017 UN stabilisation mission, whose peacekeepers brought cholera to Haiti and were accused of sexual abuse and exploitation.

“But I believe that they’re going to need an intervention. It’s just that bad, to be honest with you,” Foote said. “It’s not Haiti any more; it’s a prison … People stay in their houses and only leave if they absolutely have to … It is dangerous as fuck.”

Charlier rejected calls for a foreign intervention. “I recognise the police cannot deal with this alone,” the activist said, but nor did she want thousands of heavily armed foreign troops to return “to put a Band-Aid on a cancer”.

After navigating six vigilante roadblocks to reach work on Thursday morning, Charlier voiced despair at how the bloodshed would affect Haitian children. “Kids are going to school witnessing dead burning bodies on the side of the road … I cannot even think about the collective trauma we are going to have to deal with in a couple of years,” she said, comparing parts of her city to a war zone.

“Honestly, I don’t know [how I feel]. I just hope this is going to end very soon because I’m mentally drained and I’m exhausted,” Charlier said before concluding with a grim prophecy.

“What we are seeing in Haiti will end in blood and in ashes,” she warned. “In people being killed and in houses being burned.”

[bluebellhairpin]

No Strings, On Me!

Dick Grayson/Nightwing X Villain!Reader

A/N: Am I shamelessly using a Marvel song for a DC fic? Yes, I am. Fight me! - Nemo

Song: “No Strings on Me (Trailer Soundtrack)’ from Avengers: Age of Ultron

Warning(s): Blood, Violence, Death (of no one too important though) 

Summary: In the beginning, as far as Gotham went, you were just another pickpocket. Your simple pocketing moved to stealing, and eventually you became the most renowned and feared thief in Gotham. Then your gear upgraded too, and with that you donned a proper name; The Operator. 

Masterlist  

Your story, like every story, started small. 

You grew up in one of the worst parts of Gotham, your parents were nobodies, and they did some horrible things to simply get money for rent. Eventually your life and theirs became two parallel lines. All it took was one rainy night in Gotham, and you never saw either of them again.

You were taken into one of Gotham's crime rings, giving their boss a pair of small, nimble fingers to weave in and out of pockets and around the wrists of the wealthy at galas. 

As you grew, as a person and as a pick-pocket, you found your bargain with the leaders of the ring wasn’t very pleasing to you. It was very one-sided, and that made you very upset.

One job gave you an opportunity to correct this bargain. So now as a young adult, your plan was falling into action. 

A gala you were meant to steal from was meant for showing off a companies technology to help combat the Joker, and aid soldiers fighting in wars. The prototype in prime place was your commission, and was worth millions. It was as deadly as it was costly. 

All it took was one fire alarms and a couple codes, and it was all yours. 

I've got no strings To hold me down

You made it back to your boss’s penthouse a couple hours after you stole the weapon. It was a staff, one end tipped like a glaive with a razor sharp blade, the other end looked like a halberd axe. The dual bladed ends wasn’t what caught your attention most, instead the power that surged through you when you first grabbed hold of it. 

Previously you hadn’t known exactly what the weapon was, and now it was yours and you had forever to work out the kinks. 

Still clad in your gala clothes, you stepped through the elevator. Your ‘Boss’ was there in the sunken couch with a couple businessmen, busy chatting them up and dishing out orders for drinks. He didn’t even notice you until the look of horror came across the others faces. He turned to face you standing above him, not being able to move further due to the blade at his neck. 

“(y/n),” he started, his voice going quiet, swallowing hard and flicking his eyes from yours to the staff in your hand, “What are you doing?” 

“Did you know that one sting from a box jellyfish can cause a grown man to go into cardiac arrest?” you said, running the blade slowly from his neck up his throat to his chin. “I wonder what exactly I’d have to do to cause you cardiac failure, instead.” 

To make me fret Or make me frown

Despite having many headlines, one stood out to Dick most. 

‘Long-Time Gotham Crime-Lord found Dead’ 

A picture of the man flashed on the screen, and Dick noted it was a man Bruce had been after for a while. The only way he could be dead is if someone got to him before Bruce.  Not even five minutes later Bruce called and asked if he could come back to Gotham to help figure out who did it.

Who could’ve done it was obvious; either a rival or someone from his ring that got too riled-up. Which definitely helped narrow down the suspects to a smaller group. When the bat-signal went off that night, both he and Bruce went to it. There they found Commissioner Gordon, he gave them a USB, telling them that it was best they watch it back at the cave. And that they did. 

‘I had strings, but now there are no strings on me.’

The last sickly-sweet words of the woman who killed the Crime-Lord rang out in the vast cave.‘I had strings, but now there are no strings on me.’ 

“Looks like we have a new villain, huh?” Dick said, leaning back on the desk with crossed arms. 

“No, only you. I’m too old to deal with anyone new.” Bruce said, mimicking Dick and leaning back in his chair. “I already have one crazy blood-thirsty super villain in the form of Joker. Her? Man, Dick, she’s all yours.” 

I had strings But now I'm free

The first time Dick and You met, you both had blood on your hands. Him from the men he had to fight to get to you, and you from the man you were interrogating before he got to you. 

“So you’re Nightwing.” You said, circling him with your staff in your hand. “Batsy’s original Boy-Wonder.” 

From Intel and research Dick had gathered on you, the staff as what caused you to go off the rails. Despite being mostly human-made, it had a power source that was other-worldly that enhanced emotions of the wielder. If you were striving for justice you’d be a much nicer person now, but instead all you wanted was vengeance. 

“And you’re (y/n) (l/n), it’s not rocket science.” he said, eyeing you and you kept walking. 

“Oh dear Bluebird, I’m sorry, but your sources got that one wrong.” you said, lazily draping yourself over one of the couches nearby, motioning to the bartender nearby to get you a drink. “‘(y/n)’ died the same night old Mr. Lord did. She was the one who did the nasty work of dumping his parts into the closet he was found in.” you said, wiping your knuckles free of the red with the cloth the bartender brought with your drink.

“So ‘Not-(y/n)’, who are you?” Dick said, ‘casually’ making his way to sit on the couch opposite you. 

“You’re funny,” you smiled into your glass, “And I already like you, despite you smashing to pieces some of my men. I’m The Operator.” 

I've got no strings Now, I'm free

Unlike Bruce’s relationship with Joker, you and Dick were much friendlier. 

You had information Dick sometimes needed, and you’d give it to him in exchange for his help. 

One such instance was that of a girl named Ace. She was the daughter of one of your most loyal allies, and had been taken by someone you miraculously didn’t know. What Dick needed was information on Joker for Bruce, and you needed Ace back. To you it was a fair trade, and you did rather like Ace’s piano playing. After all you had a policy of not hurting children. 

A policy Dick scoffed at whenever Damian popped into his head. 

Dick did managed to track her down, and when he organised to get her back with the help of some of your men, he was more than a little shocked when he found you rocked up to help too. When your group found Ace, he was shocked further when you handled her so gently. A far cry from the later ferocity you had when dealing with the handful of men who’d taken her. 

It made Dick think you weren’t so far gone after all. In fact when he thought about it, you only ever hurt someone if they genuinely deserved it. 

He told you if you ever wanted to do the proper thing, the true ‘right thing’, that the Titans were there. You declined with a knowing smile, but told him that if there was ever another girl in Ace’s situation in Gotham that you were ready and waiting to help. 

He knew why you said no, and it all had to do with what he first heard you saying. 

There are no strings on me

[pavys-originals]

Fandoms I will be writing for + the original characters within

Including a brief summary of each. 

Birds of Prey Valerie Steward - Crime boss, rival of Roman Sionis, has Renfield Syndrome, usually likes the most expensive and lush possessions. Has very large circles beneath her (In a social/hierarchical sense).  Can be incredibly eccentric, and very passionate.

One/Omni- The first of the Blackcoats, a large group of highly trained marshal-like operatives. Omni himself usually does not get involved in combat, and pays close attention to details. 

Two/Hyinth- The second in the first thirteen/High Council of the Blackcoats. Isn’t quick to rush to violence, though they will do what they must to get things done. 

Three/Cettie- The financial backer of the council. Doesn’t usually get involved with the violent sectors of the organisation, she finds it a waste of time. 

Four/Aven- Pure bodyguard material. That’s it, that’s Aven. Not himbo- he’s to smart and sharp for that- just muscly man who will protect at all costs.

Five/Aretha- Now when I tell you that this woman knows how to kill someone and get away with it, I mean it. She trained to be Valerie’s understudy in a sense, and has perfected her own technique in disposing of people when asked.

Six/Giga- The techie. Honestly, they know so much about random stuff they will RAM it down your throat. They’re also kind of jokey, hence the pun. 

Seven- Seven gave up his name when he was fairly young, and is now one of the most powerful and down-to-earth of the Blackcoat high council, as he is the one who oversees the training regimens.

Eight/Axel- A total wild card of the group. Rarely follows orders, and lashes out with violence fairly frequently. He’s honestly a big softie though. 

Nine/Jerra- Usually the one that gets sent in when they need an undercover job done, or a mole of some description. He’s a phenomenal actor. 

Ten/Rocsas- One of the youngest. He’s very ‘in’ with the word on the streets of Gotham,and often informs the council of riots/coups that are being planned by the gangs of the city of crime.  

Eleven/Ixi- Iris/Thirteen’s twin. They are very detached, and don’t often show emotion in the work place. It is suspected that they show lots of affection in a domestic setting though. 

Twelve/Brutus- As his name suggests, he is the strongest of the group, naturally born this way and has honed his skills in since starting training. He is very protective, and follows orders. Not always the brightest spark though, but occasionally he will get a good idea. 

Thirteen/Iris- Sometimes referred to as the ‘softest’ of the High Council, as she is much more compassionate than the majority of her peers. She doesn’t mind it all that much, and often interjects in debates with the more emotional side of the story. 

Twenty-Six/Kalmiya- Almost an entirely blank slate, she is seen as the perfect soldier. Little room for emotions, much room for logic. However, she does seem to learn social cues and expressions very quickly off of other people. 

CATS  A note- about the cats ocs; Just because they are stated to have mated with another Tom/Queen does not mean I won’t write for them. If I write for the children, the bond between parents is not usually mentioned.  

Ariadne-A witch’s cat. She is quite mysterious, but once she warms up to you she’ll adore you like there’s no tomorrow. She is able to teleport over a short distance, has slight telepathy, and sometimes has visions of the future. 

Graciette- The pub cat. Daughter of Skimbleshanks and Jennyanydots, younger sister to the mischievous twins Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, and older sister to the young kitten Electra. She is always on  time, and is very enthusiastic about overseeing the games in the pub. 

Leviticus- The oldest triplet, son of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger. He is very close with his grandfather, Old Deuteronomy, and very wise. 

Squiggletigs-The middle triplet, second son of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger. He is usually found with Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, he is much more playful than his older brother. He’s like the middle ground between Leviticus and Pixietrick.

Pixietrick- The youngest child of Ariande and the Rum Tum Tugger, and their only daughter. She’s very much like her father, both in appearance and in personality. 

Fantasma- The inventor’s cat, and daughter of Graciette and Alonzo. A lot of her time in the junkyard is spent finding random little trinkets and other doo-dads to use for her inventions, or just random collections she has. She’s very shy, and very sweet. 

Zilke- The blind cat, mother of Quaxo/Mistoffelees and Victoria. She tried to stick by Macavity when he was kicked from the tribe, her love blinding her to the near regicide that was committed. Eventually, she became actually blind. 

Seattine- One of the two pirate cats, rumoured to be descendants of Growltiger himself. They rarely come ashore, but when they do, they play many a shanty for old Gus. Seattine favours the concertina as her instrument, and is usually very upbeat.

Hurdeon- One of the two pirate cats, rumoured to be descendants of Growltiger himself. They rarely come ashore, but when they do, they play many a shanty for old Gus. Hurdeon favours the hurdy gurdy, and is a lot calmer than his twin sister. 

Doctor Sleep  Elva Warren- The owner of a sweet little antique shop in New Hampshire. She is always welcoming to new faces, and she knows just what cheers them up when she meets them, what to say to make them smile, all because of her Shine. 

IANOWT  Marilyn Higgins - An uncool kid like Stan and Sid, though a lot of people consider her to be less cool then them. Mostly because of all the morbid facts she spouts, especially during Science class. Probably also doesn’t help that she knows a fair few ways that the world could end that make some people uneasy.

IT  Melissa Farley- A British exchange student from a small village in Norfolk. She is very kind to those around her, even willing to take them in and introduce them to her family’s traditions and interests. She has even offered to tutor some of the Losers, should they ever need it.  Tiffany Crandall- A farming gal from Ludlow, Maine. She moved to Derry with her grandmother and grandfather after her parents were hit by a speeding Orinco truck. She is neughbour’s with Mike Hanlon, and has very little fear when it comes to brawls. It’s traffic and roads she doesn’t like. 

Moulin Rouge  Celine Bisset- A dancer in the Moulin Rouge. She is usually quite gentle, unless her client asks for her to be rougher and more assertive. She ended up becoming a dancer there because her fiance left her stranded when he ran off with another woman. 

Overwatch Asteria Murphy- After surviving an omnic siege where Blackwatch was sent to free the inhabitants of an apartment block, Asteria joined Overwatch to try and make sure nothing like that happened again. 

Mars Virgil- Son of Asteria Murphy, and Jesse McCree. Grew up in Deadlock Grange with his mother, and Robert Virgil- the man he assumed was his father. He joined Overwatch after  an attack on his mother’s diner, and found out his true family soon after.

Resident Evil Village Ihrin Moreau- Sister of Salvatore Moreau. Unlike her brother, her experience with the Cadou did not mutate her into a fish at first glance. It is when she comes into contact with water that her first stage mutation reveals itself, and her true mutated form shows when she is critically injured. She is vain and practically unfeeling unless something catches her eye.

Aeolus Aetos- Self proclaimed “Lord of the Wing”. Aeolus is a man who’s mutation made him think so highly of himself that he only concerns himself with his own problems. He is vain, and keeps himself the most pristine he can. Being mutated to appear part eagle gives him both his pride and his expert hunting skills

Mori Russell- One of the village hunters, who survived the lycan attacks by fleeing into the forests, and hiding out of sight. 

Lena Vaughn- Daughter of the local brewer. Also survived the lycan attacks, but because of her skill with a shotgun rather than running away. 

Shallow Grave Deirdre Sullivan- A failing artist who moved from her family home in Ireland to chase her dreams. She’s partway there, she’s just lacking in the money.Money that she has a hand in keeping away from David. 

Star Wars  Alaana Rohiikshuul- A Jedi consular/seer. She is very down to earth, and tries her best to have the mysteries of the Force reveal themselves to her so that she may write of them. It is this constant search for knowledge that has her meditating for days on end, lost in her own thoughts. Alessandro  Rohiikshuul - Alaana’s twin brother, and the slightly more impulsive of the two. This is not to say he is outwardly violent. Like Alaana, he makes sure to exhaust all other options beforehand. He is much more openly passionate.  Othkiir Rohiikshuul- A young, feline force sensitive from Alaana and Alessandro’s home planet, Tmryn. He can be a little all over the place sometimes, but he tries to do everything he  can for the greater good. 

Daesha’Tiatkin- A Twi’lek force sensitive who deserted the Jedi Order in her late teens- opting to live a scoundrel’s life. She does what betters her, and usually her alone, though you should not mistake this for having no moral compass. She is impulsive, and almost always optimistic. 

Kyden Kenobi- Son of Sith!Obi-Wan and Sith!Alaana. Captain/Commander of the Night Witches squadron in the Empire’s fleet. Usually incredibly goofy and sweet. 

Trainspotting Ava Byrne- (First film)- A philosophy student who got stuck in Edinburgh when she left her home. She got stuck in the same apartment building as Renton and the other boys, but refuses to divulge in their illegal activities.  (Second film)- Ava didn’t end up leaving Edinburgh, the best thing she managed to do was write “The Ethics of Drug Use”, which was of course inspired by the boys’ old lives. She hasn't properly seen the boys since Mark left, though she will occasionally pass Simon or Daniel in the street, and give them a semi-respectful nod.

Misc  (Special Ingredients- my original story in the works) Tex Hudson-  The eldest brother of the trio of brothers, and he was the one to change his name when he got married the first time, as if it would help him in his family’s “business”. He has quite a temper, and is usually rather gruff. There are occasions where he can be sweet, they’re just growing exceedingly rare. Sloane Sawyer- The middle brother, and arguably the most elegant of the three. Always in a suit, he acts like the perfect gentleman in front of others, however when there’s no one else around, he tends to gloat about how many kills he has under his belt.  James ‘JJ’ Sawyer- The youngest brother, but also the tallest. Standing at a whopping six foot nine, Jamie may seem like a beast of a man, but he actually quite gentle. He’s a little slower than the others when it comes to figuring some things out, but he doesn’t let that slow him down anywhere else. He is incredibly sweet, quite passionate, and not afraid to show his vulnerable side when his brother’s aren’t around. 

Victoria/Victor Farley- A pirate captain who sails within the Devil’s Ring (more on that in their first piece), and acts however they so please within the pirate code. Born as Victoria Farley on mainland England, they followed their father through to the centre of the Devil’s Ring- becoming one of his crew in the process. From there they fought on and on, till they became a ship’s captain themselves. 

Scenarios/genres I will write -Fluff -Angst -Smut* -Horror -A combination of those stated above *This will only be written when I am in the mood. Bear in mind these may take longer than usual because I have to be in the correct mindset. I will edit this when necessary

Character Q&A is currently open! 

I will include trigger warnings and such at the beginning of each Oneshot/imagine/headcanon list.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide 2019

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. Please add the causes and charities you give to in the forums!

Friends of the Merril Collection I'm on the board of the charity that fundraises for Toronto's Merril Collection, a part of the Toronto Public Library system that is also the world's largest public collection of science fiction, fantasy and related works (they archive my papers). Since its founding by Judith Merril, the Merril Collection has been a hub for creators, fans, and scholars. I wouldn't be a writer today if not for the guidance of its Writer in Residence when I was a kid. —CD

The Tor Project The Tor anonymity and privacy tools are vital to resistance struggles around the world, a cooperative network that provides a high degree of security from scrutiny for people who have reasons to fear the powers that be. From our early hominid ancestors until about ten years ago, humans didn't leave behind an exhaust-trail of personally identifying information as they navigated the world -- Tor restores that balance. —CD

Planned Parenthood Because we deserve health care, including reproductive, gender, and sexual health care. Because access to birth control and safe abortion is a human right. Because Trump's regime wants to destroy all of this. —XJ

Software Freedom Conservancy Software Freedom Conservancy does the important, boring, esoteric work of keeping the internet from tearing itself to pieces, playing host organization to free software projects like Git, Selenium and Samba (to name just three). The Conservancy keeps these projects legally sound and gives them a scaffold to hang their institutional structures on them. Without the Conservancy, the software you love and depend on would be in dire peril.

Electronic Frontier Foundation I have been proudly associated with EFF for a decade an a half now and have watched, half-awed, as it grew from a scrappy, brilliant little organization to a powerhouse of enormous scale and power. Every cause, every fight enumerated on this page and in your life and mine will be lost or won on the internet. EFF is the best hope we have of keeping that internet free, fair and open. —CD, MF

Creative Commons Creative Commons is best known as a tool for sharing-friendly artists, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since the beginning, and all over the world, CC has provided governments, agencies, research and scholarly institutions and NGOs with the tools to easily share across borders and the bewildering array of copyright laws. We can't beat trumpism without collaboration tools, and that includes legal tools. —CD

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) For 16 years, Wikipedia has been figuring out how to negotiate truth among diverse and even warring points of view. It's not always pretty and it's not always nice, but no one's yet found a better way to let ideas bash against each other until something everyone agrees upon emerges. It's not pretty, but compared to our democracy, it's a beauty queen. —CD, KS

Human Rights Data Analysis Group For more than twenty-five years, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG) has used data and statistical analysis to hold accountable the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. HRDAG is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that provides rigorous quantitative evidence for trials, truth commissions, UN Missions, and human rights monitors around the world. In 2019, HRDAG estimated the number of women held as sexual slaves by Japanese authorities in World War Two; the number of people disappeared in the final three days of the Sri Lankan civil war; and the number of people killed in drug-related violence by the police and other perpetrators in the Philippines. In the US, HRDAG critiqued the growing use of machine learning in the US criminal justice system, especially those used in place of bail to determine who should be released while awaiting trial. HRDAG's analysis has shown that machine learning can amplify biases in criminal justice data, for example by worsening racial disparities in policing. Other ongoing HRDAG projects include research on mass violence in the Philippines, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and several confidential projects in the US and abroad . —CD

Institute for the Future There are no facts about the future, only fictions. As we've learned in this crazy political season, nothing is certain about tomorrow. But even as our attention is captured by the present, we can begin to write the story to come. A place to start is the Institute for the Future's Future for Good fellowship. Institute for the Future, where Mark and David are researchers, is a 50-year-old nonprofit that helps the public think about the future to make better decisions in the present. The Fellowship directly supports inspiring social innovators who are working to make tomorrow a better place. You can help too. Make a donation of $100 and you’ll receive IFTF Distinguished Fellow Bob Johansen's new book "The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything." —DP, MF

The National Wildlife Federation National Wildlife Federation is a voice for wildlife, dedicated to protecting wildlife and habitat and inspiring the future generation of conservationists. Now's the time: for the people currently in charge of U.S. policy, the cruelty is the point. —RB

The Marine Mammal Center When seals, sea lion, or many other sea going pals need help, if they get lucky, they may be taken to The Marine Mammal Center, a veterinary hospital just for them. Thousands of heartbreakingly cute, but very wild, animals are rescued, rehabilitated and released on an annual basis. I'm a volunteer. In addition to the hundreds of highly trained volunteers that make the hospital run, the center always needs cash for fish and medicine. —JW

Winn Feline Foundation The Winn Feline Foundation advances feline health by supporting research and education. Winn has funded over $6.4 million in health research for cats at more than 30 partner institutions worldwide. Current campaigns include funding for research on Chronic Kidney Disease, a condition estimated to affect more than 50% of senior cats. —KS

The Southern Poverty Law Center & the Anti-Defamation League The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defemation League fight hate, teach tolerance, and help secure justice, and fair treatment for all. "There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us." --Greg Boyle —JW

Facing History and Ourselves Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational group that helps young people study issues around racism, antisemitism, and prejudice in history, from the Holocaust to today's immigrant experiences to the killing fields of Cambodia. Their aim is to teach young people "to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility--and the responsibility--to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens." —DP

Free Software Foundation/Defective By Design The Free Software Foundation's principled litigation, license creation and campaigning is fierce, uncompromising and has changed the world. You interact with code that they made possible a million times a day, and they never stop working to make sure that the code stays free. —CD

Free Software Foundation Europe Software has eaten the world, and software freedom is increasingly synonymous with human freedom. In Europe, far-right parties and authoritarians are inheriting a constellation of gadgets and devices that are "defective by design," built to allow corporations spy on and control their owners -- and those thugs are contemplating how they can use those companies' extraordinary powers to put whole populations under their thumbs. Free software in Europe, free software everywhere! —CD

The Internet Archive: In an era where the control of information has been weaponized, the Internet Archive's mission -- universal access to all human knowledge -- is a revolutionary manifesto. The Archive has taken on a new mission: to re-decentralize the internet and restore it to its indie, distributed glory. —CD

Open Rights Group The UK's answer to Electronic Frontier Foundation, and never more badly needed than now, with authoritarianism on the rise and the constant battering of the electorate with political misadventures and grandstanding. Brexit could allow the UK to escape the oversight of the European courts, paving the way for even-more-extreme measures. —CD

Amnesty International I just looked up Amnesty's founding principles and found tears rolling down my cheeks: "Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done." These values need our support more than ever. —CD

ACLU On November 9, 2016 ACLU changed its homepage to a picture of Trump superimposed with the words SEE YOU IN COURT. ACLU's deep bench of kick-ass lawyers has been lately augmented by a much-needed group of freedom-fighting technologists, welded into the fighting force we'll need until the next election and beyond: from voter suppression to free speech, the ACLU is key to the fight. —CD, MF

Liberty With the UK plunging into surveillance dystopia where human rights are an afterthought and racial profiling is becoming official doctrine, it needs Liberty, an organisation with 80+ years' track record fighting for human rights in many incarnations of the British project. The Tories ran on a platform of repealing the Human Rights Act: when the government is officially anti "human rights," you need someone like Liberty to take the "pro" side. —CD

826 National Born in San Francisco’s Mission District in the back room of a pirate supply store, 826 National teaches young people the art and magic of creative writing through classes, DIY publishing projects, in-school programs, and drop-in tutoring at seven centers around the US. And it’s all free for the kids. Help open more 826 locations around the country! —DP

Fight for the Future Some of the Internet's savviest, hard-working-est activists. Fight for the Future has kept hope alive for Net Neutrality, leading the charge to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn the FCC's Neutrality-killing sneak attack. —CD

Demand Progress Aaron Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, and as you'd expect from that history, they're relentless in reinventing the activist playbook for the 21st century. —CD

MySociety Software in the public interest -- it's a damned good idea. MySociety produces software like Pledgebank ("I will risk arrest by refusing to register for a UK ID card if 100,000 other Britons will also do it") and TheyWorkForYou (every word and deed by every Member of Parliament). It's plumbing for activists and community organizers. —CD

https://boingboing.net/2019/12/03/charitablegivingguide2019.html

[hungarianrhapsodyof1986]

I am Number 39 (Hardzzello fic based on an AU I made)

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Before the Citadel came into being, there was a war so great it tore apart each nation with the uncontrollable power of fear and pride. Countries big and small in size engaged in conflicts against one another; innocent souls of men, women and children claimed all too early as the violence that spread like a disease consumed the entire world. Thousands died everyday, and it seemed there would be no end to this war; a war greater and more dire than the first two... until the Forefathers came with their promise of a paradise for those who wished it.

Tired of the fighting and the unbearable pain, the people of the Old Earth accepted the Forefathers’ offer of Utopia. In exchange however of that great blessing, microchips were embedded in the people’s bodies - through a simple and noninvasive manoeuvre, really - and they, as promised, took away the pain of... everything. The remaining few; imbeciles, as I like to call them, refused and were forced to stay outside the Citadel. They now remain in Outside; nothing but an absolute wreckage of the world that used to be.

All that happened 263 years ago.

Now, we have a fully organised community with people (now known as Residents) who live in proper houses, have jobs just suited for them, Partners that match them perfectly and enough nutritious food and drink. Not forgetting, of course, the Academy where everyone has the opportunity to be educated formally.

Seriously, who wouldn’t want that?

The Youth can grow to become Scientists who make scientific breakthroughs that further improve the state of the Citadel. They can become Matchmakers in charge of Matching two Residents together. They can also become Agriculturists trained in the art of agriculture. Deliverers who deliver Morning and Evening Meals to their Assigned Residency, too. Or they could become Builders who build new Residencies. Manufacturers who craft devices and microchips, Nurses who care for the Newborns or -

“For the Job Assignment of Sentinel we have...” call the mighty members of the Sovranty in unison.

Yes, Sentinels.

Sentinels are the ones Assigned to protect Residents from threats to the community such as Abductors from Outside. Ever since the beginning of the Citadel, the Outsiders have been finding ways to take away what has been built by our Forefathers. Out of spite or out of jealousy, I don’t know, but what matters is that our Sentinels are there to protect us from those threats.

There are two types of Sentinels: Inner and Active. Inner Sentinels guard the Citadel from inside, doing their best to capture Abductors. Active Sentinels are sent to Outside where they discover the plans of the Outsiders and prevent attacks from occurring in the Citadel.

“Number 35, Inner. Number 24, Inner. Number 16, Active. Number 28, Inner. Number 30, Inner... and Number 39...”

I perk up when Number 39 is called, because that’s me.

I’m Number 39.

“Active Sentinel.”

Me, Number 39, Active Sentinel. It’s... amusing, actually. I know I did well during my Placement Examination, but I never expected this. I am but seven years old, and I know it’ll be many years before I’m finally sent to Outside, but the training will be a new experience.

I hardly blink as I stare ahead, everyone in the Atrium clapping their hands together in polite applause.

***

***20 years later, Year 283, the Citadel***

The bright rays of the morning sun is filtering through my white curtains as I wake up and check my bedside alarm clock. Printed digitally on its screen is ‘6.00 am’.

As punctual as always.

Sitting up in bed, I wait for -

Ding dong!

Never mind.

I pad my feet on the white-tiled floor for a moment before rushing to the lavatory to wash my face and tidy my hair. When I arrive, I splash some cold water onto my face then wipe it with a towel. After that, I look closely at myself in the mirror, grabbing a comb from atop the white sink and tidying my hair, styled in an undercut. I then study every feature, attempt to smile and to frown, furrow my brows, marvelling at how expressive my pale green eyes turn out to be. Perhaps that’s one reason why I was Assigned the Job Active Sentinel.

I didn’t honestly expect much when I was first called to be a Sentinel. I didn’t expect anything at all, actually. All I cared about was that I do my Job and I do it well. That’s what the Sovranty expects of us, and I believe that’s exactly what we were born to do. Serve the Sovranty. After all, they did save our lives from the harsh world of Outside.

Turns out, the training was more arduous than told to be. I, along with Number 16, was taught to be perceptive, to know how to act when appropriate. We were taught to express what they at the Training Centre called ‘emotions’. Emotions. What a waste of time. We were taught how to laugh and how to cry. To scream and to cower in fear. We were taught to analyse another’s emotions and sympathise with them. It was a drag, but that was what I needed to do.

For the sake of the Citadel.

Once I’ve made sure I look presentable, I proceed down the stairs carefully, holding the metal railing tightly in order to avoid slipping. The walls are hardly decorated; in fact, they’re as good as plain. The white of the concrete makes the whole place look almost blinding to the eyes, but that’s the standard set by the Sovranty, and it’s a standard the Builders must meet. The plainness of everything doesn’t bother me. All I really care about is that I have a home to live in just like the rest of the Residents in the Citadel. I doubt I’ll even have one where I’m going.

The pictures shown of Outside in my history holo-books and holo-pads depict a land of wreckages; bits of metal, concrete, and glass strewn about in an empty wasteland. It’s quite hard to believe it’s actually habitable there, but the Outsiders have found a way to survive, unfortunately, and that’s what’s important here.

The Outsiders are threats; constantly sneaking into the Citadel despite the efforts made by both the Inner and Active Sentinels to prevent them from doing so. They abduct our people, and who knows what happens to those they successfully do. They never come back.

Once I reach the bottom of the stairs, I open the door and see my Deliverer standing right before me; Number 23. I recognise Number 23 from my days in the Academy. I watched as he performed in the Placement Examination. The man was horrible at agriculture, crafting, physical activity and sciences, but he was pretty proficient in direction. It was only right he’d become a Deliverer.

I barely know him since we talk only little, but sometimes a small chat would be livening.

“Greetings, 39,” 23 tells me as he salutes. “Final day today?”

“Yeah. I’ll be going to Outside tomorrow,” I reply. “What’s today’s Morning Meal?”

“Cereal. I don’t know how it tastes, really, but I’ll find out soon enough.” He sets down his now-empty bag.

Trying to hold out the conversation a little longer, I ask “anything of interest happening today?”

“The only thing I know’s the public executing of Outsider Number 436. You’ll be watching it, of course. An alarm’s set for the event. First time watching?” 23 replies.

“Yeah.”

“Strange.”

“True.”

“Third time for me. It’s quite an... intriguing experience. I won’t talk to you about it just for the sake of not spoiling the entire thing, but all I could say is you wouldn’t want to miss it.” He checks his watch, huffing. “Anyway, don’t wanna be late. Gotta go.”

I nod. “Won’t be seeing you again, 23.”

With a final salute, 23 slings his bag on his shoulders and heads to his bicycle. I don’t know to whom he will be Assigned to deliver next after I’m gone, but the Sovranty will no doubt have a plan for him. The Sovranty cares for their Residents, arranging everything from our Daily Meals to mangaging the entire Citadel, and all it asks in return is effieciency and loyalty. It’s not much to ask for, so we must be thankful.

Bringing the metal box to the dining table, my bare feet remain cold as they step on the frigid tile. Implanted on the wall facing the street are large windows that allow me to glance outside and see the Residencies - they all look the same - across mine. I will remember the sight of plain houses when I see the wreckage of Outside and maybe even long for it again, but this is my Job. This was what I was created to do.

When I sit down after grabbing my utensils, the alarm atop my television sounds. The execution 23 was talking about must be starting now. I wish to see the fruit of my Job, see what happens when I achieve, so I decide to watch.

“Television, on.”

In a flash the television comes to life. I’ve used it once before; it was nothing but a try at it. I remember tapping on the screen and searching for both a button and a remote but finding none. Then came the brilliant idea to consult my holo-pad. Apparently, all I needed to do was say ‘television on’. I merely shrugged off the matter afterwards.

What, or rather who, appears on the television is nobody I recognise. It was earlier in the week when O436 - who is dressed as one of us - was caught in the act of an Abduction. No one knows whether O436 was acting alone, and while I think it’s about time the Sovranty put an end to that problem, I believe they have a plan, as they always do.

O436’s complexion comprises of a stubbed nose, dark brown eyes, pale skin and blond hair. O436 is a male, and he wears an expression I identify as indignation. What I don’t understand is why he believes he has a reason to be indignant. He’s the one committing the crime here. Whatever he will say or do, he deserves the punishment he’s to receive. However, if the Sovranty’s merciful enough to give leniency to him and offer a chance to be part of the Community, then let it be so.

The members of the Sovranty start speaking in unison.

“Were you alone in committing this offence against the Residents of the Citadel?” they ask.

“If you think I’m going to answer that, you’re gravely mistaken,” O436 replies. The audacity, I think, stopping mid-chew.

I continue to eat, although I register how I nearly drop my spoon onto the table due to how much my focus is being driven into the spectacle happening before me. “You must answer, otherwise no mercy shall be given,” the Sovranty says meanwhile.

“I don’t need your mercy,” O436 spits out, nostrils flaring as his face grows a brighter red. “You keep these poor people confined in this - this hellhole, and all you care about is progress when what should matter are their lives! You only want power when you have enough, and now you’re torturing these poor people for your benefit! I don’t need your mercy, and if you’re gonna kill me, that’s alright. I did my job, and I did it for the sake of what’s right.”

The Sovranty remains quiet for a short while before one woman speaks up from the row, saying “is that all you shall say, O436?”

“The name’s Devotion,” O436 says. “But all I wish to say now is goodbye... to my wife, Joy, and my son, Joseph.”

“Very well,” says the woman once more. “Bring in Doctor 54.”

An elderly man wearing a full white attire emerges from the doorway. The Sovranty’s centre is connected to one of the Hospitals in the Citadel for the members of the Sovranty’s easy access to healthcare lest one of them need it. Elder Doctors are in charge of caring for the Sovranty’s members; they have been in the industry for years by then and are specialists, so they offer only the best services. He walks in front of the row of seats where the members of the Sovranty are seated then takes a bow.

The Sovranty nods in acknowledgment of his greeting.

After the men and women of the Sovranty recognise him, 54 walks to the centre of the Atrium, bringing along with him a white suitcase. It’s a mystery to me; what’s inside the suitcase, but I’ll find out soon enough. After all, 54’s already made his way to O436’s side.

54 opens the suitcase and therefore reveals a small syringe and a set of phials. The phials are filled with a strange, clear liquid, and I realise what the Doctor’s intent is: he’s going to administer into O436 a lethal poison.

54 opens one of the phials and dips the needle into it, pushing the plunger. The barrel is filled with poison, and 54 recaps the phial and returns it into the suitcase.

O436 makes yet another show of bravery by staring at Death right in the face: as the needle of the poison-filled syringe is inserted into the skin of his arm, he looks at it intently, never blinking. Whatever belief the Outsiders have, it seems almost cult-like; the way they would sacrifice their lives for a belief that isn’t even remotely true.

O436 says nothing to calm him; in fact, he looks pretty serene now. It’s almost as if he isn’t about to die.

Nothing seems to be happening for a matter of minutes until suddenly O436 starts scratching at where the needle was inserted into him, the skin of his arm growing red with his efforts. The redness then spreads to the rest of his skin; to his face, his hands, wherever visible. There’s no doubt it has also spread to his legs and his arms, and even his bare feet have turned red.

After a while, O436 loses consciousness, his head dropping, his chin touching his chest. He would have collapsed were it not for the restraints that clasp his hands to the chair’s arms and legs to the chair’s, well... legs.

“Has he perished?” asks one man from the Sovranty.

54 places his stethoscope to the O436’s chest, to the left of his head where his heart lies. 54 says nothing; just raises a hand, implying that no, O436 is still breathing.

A minute or two passes, then 54 puts down his hand.

O436 is dead.

Everyone in the Atrium claps their hands together, then the television is switched off, indicating the end of the event.

I hardly bat an eye.

If I do my job well, there will be more to execute and less Outsiders to trouble us, so as I finish my cereal, I prepare myself for my Sending Out tomorrow; an unimposing ceremony but a great one nonetheless, readying myself for what’s to come.

***

“You are about to be Sent Out,” Head Sentinel 74 - a middle-aged man with whitened hair on the sides of his scalp and beard - says. “Remember, you’re not doing this for glory nor for the esteem of the Residents, but rather for their safety and the Sovranty’s.”

“Yes, sir,” I reply.

“You’re not being Sent Out to become one of them and if you ever betray us, we have the right to execute you. Understood?”

“Understood, sir.”

It’s now the day, but it feels like any other. I had no time for a Morning Meal, for I was expected to be at the Training Centre before the sun rose. The alarm came in handy. I woke up at 3 o’clock.

I wore my shoes and took my bike and cycled on through the dimly lit streets of the Citadel, the white of my clothes glaring under the streetlights. My Residence was built to be near the Training Centre for my convenience, so the journey wasn’t long. I arrived after 5 minutes.

I spent most of my day yesterday at the built-in gymnasium in my Residence, training. There wasn’t much to do, truthfully, and it was better I use my time for something productive than laze around. That wasn’t what I was trained to do. I was trained to strain myself; go past my limits for service to the Sovranty and the Residents of the Citadel. I was trained to maim, to kill, to prevent Abductions. I was trained to sacrifice my freedom, my everything for the sake of the greater good.

When I arrived at the Training Centre, the Head Sentinel was at the gates. I greeted him with a salute as is proper before parking my bicycle where it belongs. It will be disposed of; thrown to Outside, but I can’t bring myself to care. I was then brought to the gates of the Citadel; large barriers of a thick, unbreakable glass, and that’s when I first caught sight of Outside.

As pictures had shown me earlier on during my Training, Outside was nothing but a land of wreckages and death. Giant remains of tanks and buildings protruded from the ground, and although it seems empty, I know the City where the Outsiders life must be way farther beyond the borders of the Citadel. I still don’t see how anyone can survive this environment, however.

“The Outsiders’ City is farther north from here. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to provide you with transportation past the borders of the Citadel for fear of detection, but I promise you the journey won’t be long. Now, come. If you’re to appear as if you’ve escaped this place, you need to look roughed up.”

Head Sentinel 74 smears mud on my face, hands, shoes, clothes and hair, messing it up. I look positively haggard afterwards, but that’s all part of the job. It’s dirty work, figuratively and literally, and it’s my mission in life.

“You be careful,” Head Sentinel 74 tells me. “We don’t wanna hear you’ve been caught few months into the job.” He hands me a transmitter. “This is for when we contact you, or when you need to contact us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“When we contact you, it will buzz. Best you go somewhere private so nobody notices you.”

“Yes, sir,” I say, keeping the transmitter in my pocket. It’s no bigger than my palm and can fit in anywhere easily.

“The others have gone and we presume they’ve been killed by the Leaders. They’re savages, and we don’t know how they handle things there, so do your best not to get caught. We’re all counting on you, Sentinel 39. The fate of the Residents and the Sovranty rests in your hands.”

“Understood, sir,” I say, saluting.

“Now, let’s move while the day’s still young.”

We board a hovercraft and rapidly move away from the gates noiselessly. I sit down and buckle up as Head Sentinel 74 stands near the front, gripping the handle and steering us away from the Citadel. I’ll never be seeing it again, but I feel nothing. I’ve been trained in the art of imitating emotions, but I never felt them.

The sun is still down, and there’s nothing to be seen save for the path illuminated by the lights of the hovercraft. The land is parched and cracked, nothing able to grow from the dead soil. However, as we travel further away, the soil appears richer, spots of grass growing from the ground. I remain vigilant all throughout the trip, just in case there are Outsiders lurking about, suspecting.

Soon, I see a yellow, glowing light in the distance. That must be the Outsiders’ City Centre.

“Is that truly...?” I ask.

“Your intuition has not failed you yet, Sentinel 39. Indeed, that’s the City Centre. It’s much like our District 1, but... primitive. If you gain the favour of at least one of the Leaders, you’ll be able to live there. I suggest that you do. From what I’ve heard, the outer parts of the City are nasty places. Just nasty.” He sniffs. “Anyway, this is where we say goodbye.”

I unbuckle my seatbelt and salute. “It was an honour training with you, sir,” I say.

Head Sentinel 74 merely nods. Then he tells me to go, turning the hovercraft around and zooming away from where I stand.

That’s when I start running.

It’ll be soon when I’ll need to get my act together; to fool the Outsiders into thinking I have escaped the Citadel, but for now... it’s time to keep going.

For the Sovranty.

***

“Help!” I cry out as I near the Outskirts of the City. More mud smears my white shoes (which are now battered due to the long run) as I run upon grass and soil. I sound absolutely terrified, and I can see from the corners of my eyes how lights are lit and people are awakened by my shouting. I mind them not as I proceed to the City Centre, hoping to get the attention of one of the Leaders there.

As I rush across muddy roads, more people are roused from their slumber, and I see children and elders alike, looking at me with horror plain on their faces. “Help!” I continue to shout, and I can hear murmurs from the crowd that begins to follow me as I carry on to the centre.

“Someone help that poor man,” I hear a woman say.

The lights grow brighter as I near the Centre, and suddenly I bump into someone, ultimately stopping my run. The person falls down when I do, but they rise quickly as I pretend to be dazed.

“Hey, are you alright?” the person asks. Male. Fairly young.

“Where am I? Where the hell am I?” I ask, the panic a part of my act.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” the man tells me. “You’re Outside now. You’re saved. Now let me help you up.”

He grabs my arm gently and pulls me up as carefully as he can. “Who are you?” he asks me quietly. I’m aware of the spectacle I’ve created as well as the huge crowd of people gathered around us, but all I care about’s the man who helped me up. Is he a Leader?

“I - I - I don’t know,” I reply.

“You’re from the Citadel?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. What was your Number, then?”

“39.”

The man pauses in his steps, and he looks at me. His hazel eyes seem to gleam with something even I can’t put a name to, but it lasts all but a while. I just notice then how I’m an inch taller than him, but I decide that information is useless.

“Well, we can’t have that here,” the man says, smiling. “You’re now Ben. And now that you’ve got a name, it’s time to introduce myself. My name’s Joseph, but you can call me Joe. Another name of mine’s Love, and that’s ‘cause I’m a Leader of this place. You’ll love it here, I’ll promise you that, but first, it’s time to get you cleaned up. Come with me.”

As I’m brought to who-knows-where, I formulate a plan to befriend this ‘Joe’. Maybe he’ll be my key to knowing every plan they’ve made. Maybe he’ll be the one to bring me victory.

*************************

So, that’s the end of the first part! What are your thoughts so far? Confused about this AU? Don’t worry! I’ve made a post about it! Just check it out on my page if you need a reference. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading the first part, and if you have any title suggestions (‘cause I can’t decide djeoendodk), just tell me! Till the next part!

[southeastasianists]

A campaign of state-orchestrated violence has seen Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing their homes into neighbouring Bangladesh. The countries are talking of repatriating the refugees, but is such a move feasible?

In the country they called home, they lived in fear and were denied rights other citizens take for granted. In August, they began to flee violence orchestrated by the army and Buddhist mobs that burnt their homes and destroyed entire villages. The perpetrators of the violence raped and maimed, shot and killed.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar have paid a high price for an attack on police and army posts by a small group of extremists known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). The Myanmar military’s response has been brutal, and refugees have since flooded Cox’s Bazar in neighbouring Bangladesh.

Aid agencies estimate that nearly 900,000 Rohingya, of whom 700,000 are new arrivals, live in refugee camps there, and UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein warned in February that the crisis poses a risk to regional security. There doesn’t seem to be an end in sight for the plight of the refugees, though a repatriation deal was signed as far back as November – while thousands of refugees were still flooding across the border. A joint working group was to be set up within three weeks and the repatriation was slated to begin in January. However, that announcement was immediately followed by reports that logistical constraints had delayed the exercise, perhaps indefinitely.

“The [Bangladeshi] government has postponed the repatriation until further notice. And the UN – everybody in the UN – says: ‘We cannot repatriate anyone until the [correct] conditions in the home country… are in place,’” Benjamin Steinlechner, Unicef’s spokesman overseeing communications and outreach programmes in Cox’s Bazar, told Southeast Asia Globe.

Myanmar continues to prevent human rights groups and journalists from visiting Rakhine State, the scene of the violence and home to the majority of the Rohingya. Nonetheless, evidence that security forces committed atrocities, which human rights groups say may constitute war crimes, continues to emerge and has led to calls for repatriation to be voluntary and dignified.

“Any repatriation that does go ahead must be voluntary; otherwise Bangladesh will be breaching international protocol on returning refugees to sites where they face a risk of threats to their lives,” Francis Wade, a journalist and author of Myanmar’s Enemy Within, told Southeast Asia Globe.

Wade said reports of mass graves near Rohingya villages have surfaced, adding: “The communal dynamic in Rakhine State remains highly volatile, [meaning] that the potential for a repeat of the mob violence of recent years – if not a military campaign – is high.”

The Myanmar government wants to set up temporary camps until the Rohingya refugees are rehabilitated, said Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s director for South Asia. But the refugees, she added, fear they could end up in military-run camps, basically returning to the custody of the very people that brutalised them.

“What is needed is for the Burmese authorities to ensure that people are able to return to their homes in safety. For that, these terrible crimes need to be investigated, and those responsible held to account,” she said.

Discrimination, such as the Myanmar state refusing to use the term Rohingya, as well as their exclusion from the official list of the country’s 135 ethnic groups, is uppermost in the minds of many refugees in Bangladesh. Although conditions in the refugee camps are dire, some refugees have said they will never go back home.

“If you ask refugees, their answers vary from: ‘Yes, absolutely,’ to: ‘No, never.’ Some refugees will tell you they are willing to go back and want to go back under the right conditions,” said Unicef’s Steinlechner, who has worked in Cox’s Bazar for three months. “They always say they will go back once it is safe… and once they get their rights, full rights, as citizens. Others have gone through atrocities that are really beyond imagination… The people who just arrived said they would rather die here than go back.”

Repatriation was always going to be a daunting task. Returning 700,000 refugees to Myanmar over a period of two years would mean that at least 30,000 refugees are repatriated every month. The financial burden would be huge, and it is not clear exactly who would meet the cost. Zaw Htay, spokesperson of the Myanmar State Counsellor’s Office, didn’t respond to requests for an interview, and the Bangladeshi ambassador to Myanmar could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, in another barrier to potential repatriation to Rakhine, food insecurity and undernutrition have persisted in the state, says the World Food Programme (WFP), one of the few foreign agencies allowed by the Myanmar government to distribute relief aid. The WFP said child malnutrition rates in the district of Maungdaw were above emergency thresholds even before the violence broke out and that the fighting and displacement of people had affected the already poor nutritional status.

“We are concerned about food insecurity and undernutrition in Rakhine State, especially for the health of women and children,” Arsen Sahakyan, head of communications for the WFP in Myanmar, told Southeast Asia Globe.

Worse, the Myanmar military “is in effect starving out the remaining population through denying access to rice fields at harvest time, destroying or blocking access to markets and severely restricting aid access”, said Matthew Wells, senior crisis advisor at Amnesty International.

Indeed, the organisation’s field research carried out from 17-31 January in the Bangladesh refugee camps suggests more Rohingya have continued to flee Myanmar.

Wells added that as a shortage of food makes more Rohingya families leave for Bangladesh, the Myanmar security forces are delivering what he called a final blow: the “systematic theft at checkpoints of money and other valuables”.

“The military’s ongoing actions appear designed toward the same goal that defined its acute campaign of violence in late August and September: to make northern Rakhine State unliveable for the Rohingya population,” he said.

Wells said that the mooted plans for repatriation were “alarmingly premature” and blamed the international community for not doing enough to resolve the crisis, saying it has failed to put enough pressure on Myanmar’s military to stop its “ethnic cleansing”. Targeted financial sanctions, he said, are urgently needed to send a message that violations will not be tolerated.

Reports of ethnic cleansing are corroborated by Human Rights Watch (HRW), which, after being denied access, used satellite imagery to document the arson attacks inside Rakhine State and found that hundreds of Rohingya settlements were burned to the ground, said Ganguly, the group’s South Asia director.

Graziella Leite Piccoli, communications and public relations officer for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Asia division, said repatriation would only be a durable solution if it ensured safety and dignity. The ICRC has provided food and water to affected communities in Rakhine State, but Piccoli said humanitarian needs remain enormous and that markets and shops remain closed. “If you move to rural areas, markets have been disrupted as trade and investment has stopped. ICRC teams are trying to help people and communities, and we focus on being truly impartial with regards to the effects of this violence on different communities,” she told Southeast Asia Globe.

In Bangladesh, Unicef has improved access to health facilities, said spokesman Steinlechner, but deaths have occurred due to disease outbreaks, sporadic violence and elephants raiding refugees’ makeshift camps.

“These people need a lot of support. Bangladeshi authorities are doing a lot of good work, but as of now, these people are all crowded into a small area in rather squalid conditions. Experts fear that once the monsoon starts in a few months, there is risk of flooding, landslides and disease,” said HRW’s Ganguly.

Even for a people forced to live in such atrocious conditions, returning to the place they call home is perhaps even less desirable. After all, the choice between living in fear and living in destitution really is no choice at all.

[newstfionline]

How Andrés Manuel López Obrador will remake Mexico

The Economist, Jun 23rd 2018

Mexico City and Villahermosa, Tabasco--Even a short walk in Tabasco can feel unbearable. When Graham Greene visited Mexico 80 years ago, he lamented the tropical southern state’s “blinding heat and the mosquito-noisy air” that left “no escape for anyone at all”. Now Tabascans can at least endure the humidity with fans and air-conditioning. But half of the state’s residents are poor and electricity prices are among the highest in the country. Twenty-three years ago a local politician decided to do something radical. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (known as AMLO), fresh from an unsuccessful run for governor, organised a campaign of “civil resistance”, instructing Tabascans not to pay their electricity bills.

The campaign has lasted for over two decades. Some 570,000 Tabascan households have racked up debts with the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) averaging 10,500 pesos ($500) each. In 2015 the CFE began another bout of cutting off non-payers. Mr López Obrador, by then head of his newly created party, the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena), summoned a brigade of vigilante electricians to reconnect them. He also warned the state’s governor, Arturo Núñez Jiménez, that his palatial office would suffer power cuts were he to try disconnecting people again.

These events sum up what many Mexicans have long liked about Mr López Obrador, and what others fear. His concern for the poor and wish to improve their lot is sincere. However, Mr López Obrador has a shaky grasp of economics--urging some people not to pay their bills tends to drive up prices for everyone else, for example. And he has little respect for rules or institutions. This matters because Mr López Obrador is set to become Mexico’s president in an election on July 1st. He has a poll lead of 25 points over his nearest challenger, Ricardo Anaya of the conservative National Action Party (PAN). José Antonio Meade, a non-party candidate picked by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), is further adrift. There is also a chance that a coalition led by Morena, founded four years ago, will win control of congress.

Mexicans are likely to deliver a voto de castigo (punishment vote) because the president, Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, is the least popular leader for decades. People are also angry at the PAN. Though the PAN turfed the PRI from power in 2000, ending seven decades of one-party rule, it failed to govern much better and the PRI returned under Mr Peña in 2012.

Mr López Obrador promises drastic change. Mexico will have a charismatic president for the first time since the 19th century, says Enrique Krauze, a historian who first called him a “tropical messiah”. On the campaign trail he says that a “fourth transformation” of Mexico is coming, after independence in 1821, a civil war and liberal reforms in the 1850s and 1860s, and a revolution that began in 1910. The change will be “as profound” as the revolution, but “without violence”, he promises. He vows to overthrow the “mafia of power”, that he believes holds back Mexico.

When he says he will “uproot the corrupt regime”, he is talking about everyone in the political class except himself and his circle. His opponents say he wants to unravel the market-friendly policies that the PRI and PAN have cleaved to since the 1980s. Some fear that in a country where democracy is barely old enough to order a tequila, a charismatic populist might seriously undermine it.

Mexicans are fed up. During 30 years of growing democracy and economic liberalisation, they were told that Mexico would become a rich country. Income per head has risen by 40% over the same period. But growth has been uneven. The parts of the country near the United States have prospered while peasants in the south still toil outdoors in the sun. The economy has been sluggish in recent years, partly thanks to a low oil price. Meanwhile, Mexicans are furious about corruption and terrified of gang violence.

Mr López Obrador governed Mexico City between 2000 and 2005, before unsuccessful presidential runs with the centre-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) in 2006 and 2012. The question as he seeks the presidency for a third time is whether he will fix some of what is wrong with Mexico, or replace its (admittedly imperfect) institutions with a more personal and messianic style of government.

The acronym of Mr López Obrador’s party is an allusion to La Virgen Morena of Guadalupe, Mexico’s patron saint. It is also a term used to describe darker-skinned Mexicans, who often live in the poor south. The gap between Mexico’s richest and poorest regions is twice as wide as the next-biggest one in the OECD, in Chile. That is partly because the North American Free-Trade Agreement largely benefited northern Mexico, where American firms built factories and created millions of jobs. Mr Núñez says Tabasco is “forgotten” by central government, a feeling many southerners share.

Mr López Obrador, who would become the first president born south of Mexico City in half a century, wants to redress the imbalance. He has plans for new infrastructure in the south, vowing to pave every road in Oaxaca, a mountainous state with a poverty rate of 70%. He also promises a railway from Quintana Roo to Chiapas, and a road and rail corridor across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in Oaxaca and Veracruz, paid for with loans from China. He would also build two oil refineries, in Campeche and Tabasco. A fanciful scheme for “food self-sufficiency” would include price guarantees for crops produced by southern farmers.

Winning votes in the south was never hard for Mr López Obrador. What is different this time is that northerners, who used to worry that he would wreck the economy, are warming to him. Incredibly, he is now more popular among the richest third of voters than among the poorest. “He has matured,” insists Rafael De Dávila, a previously PAN-voting electrical engineer in Escobedo, a suburb of Monterrey, the state capital of fast-growing Nuevo León.

That may be true. Mr López Obrador has courted voters who wearily recall his antics in 2006, when his protesting supporters shut down Mexico City for months after he lost the presidential election narrowly to Felipe Calderón. He is making fewer mistakes on the campaign trail this time. Advisers have, for example, persuaded him to drop contentious plans for a referendum to repeal energy reforms, which in 2014 allowed foreign oil firms into Mexico for the first time since 1938.

His campaign produces lighthearted videos, most recently a series featuring middle-class Mexicans confessing to friends and family that they are “AMLOvers”. Crucially, he is more relaxed. When rumours spread that Russia was meddling in the election to favour him, he responded with a video on social media. Standing by a harbour, he introduced himself with a smile as “Andrés Manuelovich” and said he was waiting for a submarine to arrive with a delivery of Russian gold.

His argument that the political system is broken has been assisted by the torrid tenure of Mr Peña, who entered office on a wave of optimism. Mr Peña forged a coalition of Mexico’s main parties to pass sweeping reforms and aimed for growth of 6% by the end of his term. But the most important changes--to energy and education--will take years to be felt. The collapse of oil prices in 2014 hurt the economy. Under Mr Peña the economy has grown by only 2.5% a year.

Mr Peña is unpopular mainly because his government has been passive and unaccountable on the two issues that matter most to Mexicans, corruption and security. Mr Peña vowed to halve a murder rate that had rocketed after his predecessor, Mr Calderón, sent the army to fight drug cartels. But after locking up several drug kingpins, his administration did not respond when their would-be heirs began to fight each other and diversify beyond drug smuggling. Mexico is on course for 32,000 murders this year, a record high and double the toll in 2014.

The best-known violent crime during Mr Peña’s tenure was the disappearance in 2014 of 43 student teachers, who were pulled off buses and almost certainly murdered. An early investigation was botched. Later ones showed that local officials and drug gangs were shockingly entwined. Mr López Obrador’s rivals talk about a “smarter” approach to crime. He offers a vague “amnesty” to low-level drug dealers. Many Mexicans, hungry for peace, think he cannot do worse than today’s government.

Then there is corruption. Under Mr Peña, it has grown more blatant, or at least been exposed more effectively. Two ministries run by Rosario Robles, now secretary of agrarian development, saw 1.3bn pesos vanish from their coffers. Several governors from the PRI face charges of treating state funds as personal piggy banks. The government is accused of shelving a bribery investigation into Emilio Lozoya, a member of Mr Peña’s campaign team who went on to run Pemex, the state oil firm. During Mr Peña’s tenure Mexico has fallen 30 places in Transparency International’s corruption index. It is now 135th, tied with Russia.

Any public faith that Mr Peña would curb graft melted away in 2014 when a journalist revealed that his wife’s $7m house had belonged to a businessman who had won several contracts under his presidency. Under previous governments, crooked bigwigs would typically build, say, a road and take a cut, explains Armando Santacruz of Mexico United Against Crime, an NGO. Now, he says, they invoice for the road, funnel the money through phantom companies, build nothing and run off with all the loot.

Corruption has grown more visible not because the state is adept at investigating it but because of a nascent civil society and social media. In 2015 when David Korenfeld, boss of the state water authority, took a government helicopter to go on holiday with his family, a neighbour snapped some photos of them and their suitcases. Mr Korenfeld, an old friend of Mr Peña, resigned after the images went viral.

Mr Peña’s government has hampered the fight against corruption. Civil-society leaders and journalists say they report corruption to ministers, but nothing happens. Institutions to catch and prosecute graft remain pliable and neglected. Critics point to a bribery scandal involving Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction firm, which has led to people being charged in nearly every Latin American country. The exceptions are despotic Venezuela--and Mexico.

Mr López Obrador promises to “eliminate, not reduce” corruption through an attitude of zero tolerance and the shining example of his own incorruptibility. Yet in 2003 while he was mayor of Mexico City René Bejarano, a close political associate, was caught on video accepting $45,000 in cash from a businessman. As mayor he refused to enforce rulings from the supreme court, including one to clear a bottling factory taken over by striking workers. He was the superior arbiter in this case, he explained, because the court lacked “social sensitivity”. He seems uninterested in creating the independent institutions needed to expose and prosecute graft effectively. “He thinks there will be a big bag of corruption money he can find and spend on the poor,” huffs an aide to a rival candidate.

Mr López Obrador pledges referendums to solve policy questions, including a recall vote every two years during his presidential term. To some that looks like accountability. To others it is a troubling break with representative democracy and the principle of single-term presidencies enshrined by the revolution.

In stump speeches Mr López Obrador touts a brand of austere populism. There can be “no rich government with a poor populace,” he says. He vows to halve the president’s salary and those of senior bureaucrats, refrain from spending public money on clothes, sell the presidential plane and move the official residence to somewhere more humble. He derides a $13bn airport proposed for Mexico City, saying that its construction was unnecessary and riddled with corruption. Government ministries in the capital are to be scattered around the country.

Strangely absent from this populist brew is anti-Americanism, despite the unpopularity of America’s president. Mr López Obrador insists he will not recklessly provoke Donald Trump. “We have to have enough patience to get to grips with President Donald Trump, to maintain the relationship,” he said on June 10th.

To soothe fears that he would be fiscally irresponsible, he is rumoured to be adding to his team Guillermo Ortiz, a former chief of the central bank, and Santiago Levy of the Inter-American Development Bank. Their task will be to find the money to pay for their boss’s policies. The most expensive include a universal pension for the elderly and disabled, scholarships for poor students and an overhaul of water infrastructure. Those promises alone would cost 1.7% of GDP each year at a time when the budget deficit is 2.9% of GDP.

Unlike Mr Trump, who abhors policy details, Mr López Obrador obsesses over them. One adviser recounts his poring over the party’s 461-page election manifesto and crossing out policies he deemed unaffordable. As mayor of Mexico City he worked with the private sector to refurbish the city centre. He did not run up huge debts and left office with an approval rating of 85%. All this points to a pragmatic streak. Optimists hope that he will offset extra spending with cuts elsewhere.

Pessimists note that Hugo Chávez initially posed as a moderate, too. Mr López Obrador will surely not plunge Mexico into tyranny and destitution the way Chávez did Venezuela. But many question his sincerity. If he really cares about curbing corruption, why did he enlist Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, a mining-union leader accused of embezzling millions of dollars, as a senate candidate for his party? If the PRI is part of the mafia of power, why is he encouraging its senior officials to join him? And if he truly cares about the poor, why does he vow to roll back reforms that would make their schools better by hiring teachers on the basis of merit?

The most likely answer to these questions is a cynical one. His young party needs foot-soldiers to knock on doors and get out the vote. Last year it had just 320,000 members, according to the National Electoral Institute. The PRI had double that in the state of Puebla alone. By opposing education reforms, Mr López Obrador wins the support of a 100,000-strong teachers’ union. His overtures to Mr Urrutia, whose union boasts 120,000 members, will bring more recruits and lure other union bosses. The trickle of PRI officials defecting to Morena may become a flood if the PRI is thrashed on election day.

One thing looks certain. In whichever direction he takes Mexico, resistance will be weak. For the first time a single party is set to control the presidency, capital and congress all at once. Presidents in the 20th century were subservient to the PRI. Mr López Obrador has created a party which answers to him. Every other party faces destruction at the polls with only a divided PAN in a position to oppose him.

[awesomecooperlove]

🧨🛡️⚰️

[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

The Rooks were a crime syndicate active in London during the 19th century and early 20th century. At the height of the Industrial Revolution, the Rooks were led by the Assassin siblings Jacob and Evie Frye.

Founded in March 1868, the Rooks were formed through the liberation of the last remaining criminal competition to the Templar-controlled gang Blighters ( a Templar-controlled gang in London during the 19th century. Led by Maxwell Roth and his seven lieutenants, originating in Westminster's worst slum, Devil's Acre, and quickly spread across the city), the Clinkers (a street gang active in the borough of Whitechapel that was nearly wiped out by the Blighters). Led by the Fryes, the Clinkers and other volunteers formed the Rooks. The criminal syndicate was regularly involved in fighting the Blighters, vying for influence and territory in the city. This was done mainly through overrunning their strongholds, hunting their members, liberating the child laborers in Blighters' run factories, and eventually engaging in gang wars. By eliminating the Blighters' leaders of each borough, the Rooks thrived as they gained recruits from their rivals and eventually had control over all boroughs.

In 1888, a former Assassin initiate, who would soon become known as the infamous Jack the Ripper, usurped control of the Rooks from Jacob, and elected to use Whitechapel as the center of his operations. Jack trained the Rooks in combat techniques that would allow them to better challenge the surviving Assassins in the city. Under his orders, the Rooks provided security for Lady Olwyn Owers' brothels, reopened fight clubs, trafficked opium and stole antiquities from the colonies.

During the early 20th century, the Rooks still operated in the Tower Bridge area of Southwark and were at least associated with, if not led by, Lydia Frye.

In Real Life:

The 19th century was a period of incredible change in Britain. The technological advancements made during the industrial revolution led to massive urbanization and completely transformed the structure of British society. Millions of working-class people, who for centuries had lived in rural communities centered around agricultural labor, were forced to relocate to the booming cities of the industrial north and the arrival of the steam engine meant that increasing numbers of immigrants were also flocking to these cities. Slum areas expanded rapidly, becoming tense, overcrowded melting pots where different social, religious, ethnic and political groups were forced to fight for their place in the new world.

Meanwhile, individuals of a more predatory nature were quickly realizing that crime was much easier, more profitable and had higher chances of success with the help of like-minded people. Powerful street gangs began to emerge in cities across the country and violent turf wars erupted as they sought to carve out their territories.

The gangs of Victorian London posed a huge problem for the Metropolitan Police, and, for that matter, for many of the citizens of the 19th-century Metropolis. In many people eyes, the gangs were uncontrollable and had succeeded in turning certain parts of the Capital into no-go zones, where respectable, law-abiding citizens feared to tread, and into which even hardened police officers ventured with trepidation.

Evidence of these gangs and the various criminal activities of their members can be found within our collection of historic British newspapers and England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment records.

(Image source)

A few of the gangs include The Forty Elephants (an all-female crime syndicate who were based in the Elephant and Castle area of the city that specialized in shoplifting and smash and grab raids), The Scuttlers (a collection of neighbourhood-based youth gangs formed in working-class areas of Manchester, Salford, and the surrounding townships), The High Rip Gang (located in Liverpool, which became famous for their extreme violence, vicious street robberies and carefully planned revenge attacks), The Peaky Blinders ( a sophisticated organisation that ran an extensive criminal empire based around illegal betting, protection rackets and the cities black market), and The Cock Road Gang (a criminal family who specialized in highway robbery, burglary and horse theft).

Sources:

https://blog.findmypast.com/the-criminal-gangs-of-18th-century-britain-1406151569.html

https://listverse.com/2015/02/19/10-deadly-street-gangs-of-the-victorian-era/

https://www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com/generalnews/the-fighting-gangs-of-london/

[shurathadinagainstterrorxww-blog]

The Best Strategy To Use For Fight Against Terror

Fight Against Terror for Dummies

Bolivia's interim authorities is looking for Israel's aid to overcome violence in the South American nation, Interior Minister Arturo Murillo said on Friday. The review happened a full week after Bolivia declared it was actually revitalizing sharp connections with Israel after a 10-year respite under the management of ex-president Evo Morales, right now in exile.

Bolivia's interim government, headed through Head of state Jeanine Anez, unveiled a new anti-terrorism law enforcement agency it claimed was actually focused on dismantling overseas groups "threatening" the distressed South American nation. Murillo stated Friday that the systems were actually "difficult and not messing all around," and also many nations had helped with training. He also said he had actually asked Israel for aid, mentioning its experience with violence.

The 6-Second Trick For Fight Against Terror

" They're made use of to handling terrorists. They understand how to manage them," he pointed out of the Israelis. "The only trait we want is actually to take peace." During a service this full week to present the brand-new troop, Murillo pointed out the anti-terrorist devices have a "objective of dismantling completely all the terrorist tissues that are actually imperiling our birthplace." Members of the GAT anti-terrorist unit stand up protector throughout its own discussion in Los angeles Paz, Bolivia on December 3, 2019.

Morales surrendered on Nov 10 amid swelling protests over what political challengers said was his equipment of Oct twenty political elections. He took off to Mexico the following time after losing the support of the armed forces and also authorities, declaring to be the victim of a successful stroke. The transitional government of Anez, a previous rival of Morales, has actually denounced international effect in the country due to the fact that getting power, calling Colombians, Peruvians, Cubans and also Venezuelans at various opportunities.

Fascination About Shurathadin, Fight Against Terror

File image: Bolivia's President Evo Morales, center, talks in the course of an interview at the armed forces bottom in El Alto, Bolivia, Nov. 10, 2019 (AP Photo/Juan Karita) Recently, the international official of the Latin United States nation's transition authorities, Karen Longaric, announced in a briefing with reporters that Bolivia will revitalize associations along with Israel.

But the step was implemented observing the ouster of Morales "who was dangerous to Israel," Katz pointed out, as well as the appearance of a government sympathetic to the Jewish state. Bolivia had cut sharp ties along with Israel in January 2009 after Operation Directed Lead, a war versus the Hamas fear group in Gaza.

Shurathadin, Fight Against Terror Fundamentals Explained

The new Bolivian authorities has actually shown up excited to reset the country's diplomacy after the departure of Morales. Recently, La Paz assigned its own 1st emissary to the USA in 11 years. Under Morales, the country's associations with the USA were actually strained. Associations took a spin for the worse under More help previous US leader George W.

Considering that declaring herself interim president, Anez, that has been actually recognized through the United States, has lost no time revising Bolivia's international plan. She broke ties with socialist Cuba as well as Maduro of Venezuela. Anez's initial foreign policy decision was actually to realize Venezuela's adversary innovator Juan Guaido as the nation's head of state, signing up with a group of around 50 countries.

The Greatest Guide To Fight Against Terror - Shurat Ha Din

For over forty years, the Council of Europe has assisted to build and reinforce key lawful requirements to stop as well as suppress actions of terrorism. Taking a complete technique, the Council of Europe operates to aid member Conditions deal with violence better by boosting and also improving their national regulation, along with help with international co-operation.

The Authorities of Europe Committee on Counter-Terrorism (Committee of Specialists on Terrorism (CODEXTER) is the vital coordinating body system for the Council of Europe activities to fight violence. Building on the introducing work of the CODEXTER, the CDCT's key objectives are actually to manage and also make certain the prosperous application of relevant Authorities of Europe legal musical instruments while additionally providing a method for global pros to study as well as reply to developments in the counter-terrorism region, consisting of by means of worldwide standard-setting.

The Only Guide to Fight Against Terror - Shurat Ha Din

The Greatest Guide To Shurathadin, Fight Against Terror

An Additional Process to the Event on the Prevention of Terrorism is actually made to attend to unlawful law parts of the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters and also returnees. The Method, which opened for trademark on 22 October 2015 in Riga and also became part of power on 1 July 2017, requires Events to criminalise taking part in an association or even group for the reasons of terrorism, obtaining terrorist instruction, travelling abroad for the functions of terrorism and lending or planning traveling for this purpose.

Press-release The Council of Europe is actually also presently establishing means to assist in extra successful activity against multinational organised crime (find the Malaga Association ). The Authorities of Europe's #No Hate No Concern campaign was actually http://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=fight agains terror aimed at on the web hate speech for terrorism and also terrible extremism. The Council of Europe Administrator for Civil Rights Issue Newspaper on Democratic as well as Helpful Lapse of National Security Solutions is actually additionally offered online in numerous main languages.

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/sudan-coup-protesters-defy-curfew-after-military-ousts-bashir/

Sudan coup: Protesters defy curfew after military ousts Bashir

Image copyright EPA

Image caption Anti-government protesters continued to throng the streets of Khartoum

Thousands of protesters have vowed to stay on the streets of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in defiance of a curfew imposed by the country’s new military council.

Long-time President Omar al-Bashir was overthrown and arrested on Thursday after months of street protests.

But demonstrators say the military council is part of the same regime.

The fresh stand-off has raised fears of a violent confrontation between protesters and the army.

There is also a real danger that different elements of the security forces and militia could turn their guns on each other, BBC World Service Africa editor Will Ross says.

The UN and the African Union have both issued calls for calm.

A mood of celebration that followed news of 75-year-old Mr Bashir’s arrest quickly evaporated when organisers of the demonstrations called for a mass sit-in outside military headquarters to continue.

“This is a continuation of the same regime,” said Sara Abdeljalil of the Sudanese Professionals Association. “So what we need to do is to continue the fight and the peaceful resistance.”

Sudan’s unrest in 300 words

Bashir ousted: Five significant moments

Later, an official statement carried by state-run media said a curfew would run from 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) to 04:00.

“Citizens are advised to stick to it for their safety,” it said, adding: “The armed forces and the security council will carry out its duty to uphold peace and security and protect citizens’ livelihoods.”

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionAnti-Bashir protesters celebrate

Crowds on the streets of Khartoum waved flags and chanted “Fall, again!” – refashioning their previous anti-Bashir slogan of “Fall, that’s all!”.

Mr Bashir is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s western Darfur region.

It is not clear what will happen to him now that he is in custody.

How did the coup unfold?

Early on Thursday, military vehicles entered the large compound in Khartoum housing the defence ministry, the army headquarters and Mr Bashir’s personal residence.

State TV and radio interrupted programming and defence minister Awad Ibn Ouf announced “the toppling of the regime”. He said Mr Bashir was being held “in a secure place” but did not give details.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionThe announcement was made by the defence minister Awad Ibn Ouf

Mr Ibn Ouf said the country had been suffering from “poor management, corruption, and an absence of justice” and he apologised “for the killing and violence that took place”.

He said the army would oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections.

Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa?

The minister also said a three-month state of emergency was being put in place.

Sudan’s constitution was being suspended, border crossings were being shut until further notice and airspace was being closed for 24 hours, he added.

‘A volatile and unpredictable situation’

This is a military coup with no clear roadmap for how the generals plan to hand over power to civilian rule.

The fear will be that they have no such intention. The security elite has calculated that removing Omar al-Bashir and imposing a curfew will buy them time and end the protests. If so this represents a serious miscalculation.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) – which has spearheaded the demonstrations – and other civil society groups have made it clear they won’t accept a cosmetic change. They have the numbers and are highly organised.

The military has the guns and the capacity for imposing brutal repression. But what then? A crackdown will not resolve the desperate economic crisis that brought years of simmering resentment on to the streets last December.

There is also the question of the cracks within the Sudanese security establishment, evident during the clashes between soldiers and intelligence/militia forces in recent days. It is a volatile and unpredictable situation that demands cool heads and compromise on the part of the military. The stability of Sudan depends on how they react to continued protests.

How did protesters react?

The SPA said the military had announced a “coup” that would merely reproduce the same “faces and institutions that our great people revolted against”.

It urged people to continue the sit-in outside the military complex – that began on Saturday – and to stay on the streets of cities across the country.

“Those who destroyed the country and killed the people are seeking to steal every drop of blood and sweat that the Sudanese people poured in their revolution that shook the throne of tyranny,” the statement read.

The SPA has previously said that any transitional administration must not include anyone from what it called the “tyrannical regime”.

How did the protests begin?

Demonstration began in December. They were originally triggered by a rise in the cost of living, but crowds then began calling for the president to resign and his government to go.

Image copyright AFP

Image caption Omar al-Bashir had been in power since 1989

Government officials said 38 people had died since December but Human Rights Watch said the number was higher.

In February, it looked as though the president might step down, but instead Mr Bashir declared a state of national emergency.

What international reaction has there been?

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for “calm and utmost restraint by all” and urged a transition that would meet the “democratic aspirations” of the people. The UN Security Council is to discuss the situation in a closed-door meeting on Friday.

UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that a two-year military council was “not the answer”.

“We need to see a swift move to an inclusive, representative, civilian leadership. And we need to ensure there’s no more violence,” he said on Twitter.

The US called on Sudan’s military to bring civilians into the transitional government and said a two-year timeline was too long.

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Media captionSudan protests: So what’s going on?

The African Union condemned the military takeover. AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said it was not an appropriate response to the challenges facing the country and the aspirations of its people.

Russia, which has twice hosted Mr Bashir, called for calm and said it was monitoring the situation.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo said that justice was “long overdue” for Mr Bashir.

“Omar al-Bashir is wanted for some of the most odious human rights violations of our generation and we need to finally see him held accountable,” Mr Naidoo added.

Who is Omar al-Bashir?

Formerly an army officer, he seized power in a military coup in 1989.

His rule has been marked by civil war. The civil conflict with the south of the country ended in 2005 and South Sudan became independent in 2011.

Another civil conflict has been taking place in the western region of Darfur. Mr Bashir is accused of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity there by the ICC.

Despite an international arrest warrant issued by the ICC, he won consecutive elections in 2010 and 2015. However, his last victory was marred by a boycott by the main opposition parties.

The arrest warrant has led to an international travel ban. However, Mr Bashir has made diplomatic visits to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 2//28/2019

Good MORNING  #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Thursday 28th February 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

NO CRIME CRISIS – Certain crimes, particularly murder, are on the up, but the situation has not yet reached crisis stage. Deputy Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce gave Barbadians this assurance as he addressed the National Strategic Consultation On The Social Response To Crime In Barbados conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday. “The Royal Barbados Police Forces sees the recent crime events in Barbados as a major cause of concern . . . . However, we do not believe by the stretch of the imagination that we are in a crime crisis,” he said. Boyce said the 12 murders (nine males and three females) and over 15 reports of shootings for the year were unprecedented, but serious crime rates had fallen within the past few years. (DN)

STUDY: 6 GANGS, GUNS FOR RENT – There are six major gangs in Barbados, and guns are being circulated or rented for up to $10 000. These were among the findings from a study conducted by the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, and director Cheryl Willoughby said there were over 50 blocks in Barbados in both rural and urban areas. She said the Royal Barbados Police Force’s Special Branch had identified these six gangs, which ranged from 25 to 50 people, while smaller ones had a membership of 15 to 30. The general age range was 17 to 40 years old, with the average age of members in the mid-20s, but research showed some as young as 15 were frequenting the blocks.  The crimes committed by those groups, she said, included theft, robbery, drug possession and distribution, firearm possession, serious bodily harm, woundings and murder, and they were “very organised”. Speaking at the National Strategic Consultation On The Social Response To Crime In Barbados conference at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre yesterday, Willoughby said some communities had warring factions and this led some young people to get involved in gangs and criminal activity. “During our research, we learnt of a phenomenon, I refer to as the ‘Circle’, where inmates spoke of being in groups where firearms could be easily obtained and passed from one person to another if you were of a particular circle or group,” she said.   (DN)

GANJA ‘FOR MEDICINE NOT FUN’ – A prominent evangelical pastor has given his blessing to medical marijuana but holds firm against decriminalising the drug for recreational use. Senior Pastor at Apostolic Teaching Center, Eliseus Joseph, based his stance against freer use of the herb on his belief that the drug affects individuals in different ways, saying ganja “does not agree” with every human being. Saying that not everybody has the same genetic make up, he told reporters: “We need to understand that we can’t legalise this whole idea of marijuana for recreational purpose. “The idea of having marijuana for medicinal purpose, we are not arguing against that. But the point is that when we legalise marijuana for recreational purposes, there is a challenge for some people who are not genetically predisposed for one smoke.” The Pentacostal preacher and professional counsellor gave his views to journalists at the Restoration Ministries, Brittons Hill Church, on Tuesday, to announce plans for a Weekend of Prayer. Late last year, Prime Minister Mottley announced that there was soon to be a framework for medical cannabis put in place, and pointed out that Barbados could no longer afford to miss out on the emerging marijuana industry. But she said that allowing the drug for recreational use would be put to a referendum. Mottley said that Barbados would not be going about it carelessly, and indicated that thorough research would have to be carried out. Joseph continued: “We believe that one drink does not fit all. You could have one person who drinks one beer, and he can engage in psychotic behaviour, because his genes don’t predispose him to drink one beer. “The same thing applies to marijuana. One smoke does not fit all. We as a church understand that there are people who might smoke one spliff, and that spliff would certainly predispose them to psychotic behaviour.” Reverend John Carter told the news conference that Government ought to be specific about the purpose for which it would legalise the drug. Carter declared that right now, people “are just growing whatever they can grow”. He told journalists: “There is nobody in Barbados, as far as I know, who is specifically growing medical marijuana. The marijuana that is being grown in Barbados, [or] is being imported, it is for recreation. And the Government has to be very careful with that approach.”  (BT)

POLICE BLAMED – Relatives of the 18-year-old who was shot and killed by police at London Road, Brittons Hill, St Michael, on Tuesday, are crying foul. In fact, they have already sought legal advice and are planning to sue the cops. Kadeem Ifill’s immediate family confirmed the pending action against the Royal Barbados Police Force in an interview, hours after the death of their loved one, who police claimed was one of two males who attacked them as they responded to a report that there were two armed men at the location. This morning, members of the London Road community, and the deceased’s friends, gathered in the area, reflecting on the loss of one of the younger members of the community. Still reeling from the pain of the loss, the teenager’s grieving relatives expressed anger and outrage over what they described as an unfair killing. His aunt Michelle Ifill said that while she would not seek to assure Barbadians that her nephew was “a saint or a good boy”, she believed his death was unjustified. “We the family know for sure, Kadeem ain’t had nothing. We know Kadeem did nothing but get scared and attempt to flee. That was his only mistake and unfortunately it was fatal. Police ain’t had no right to do it, and they know it too,” Michelle said. A statement from the Police Public Relations Officer, Inspector Rodney Inniss, indicated that lawmen responded to reports that two men with guns were at London Road. According to the statement, two police units responded and upon arrival at the scene, they came under attack from two individuals with what appeared to be firearms. “As a result the police responded. One man fell to the ground, and one loaded firearm was recovered,” Inniss said. However, Michelle who described some of what was reported by police as a “smear campaign”, said she was standing firm to her belief that her nephew, whom she claimed had no criminal record, was innocent. “The police has in essence, launched a smear campaign on an 18-year-old who we know is innocent. Just come and let the family know that it was a grave error by one of your own, and deal with the one of your own who made the grave error. “Do not try to subject the family to further shame and scandal, like if we don’t know how to train up we children,” Michelle said. The aunt also stressed that the family was displeased with the way they were treated at the scene. Ifill’s mother, Angela Ifill, who was being comforted by loved ones, lamented that she was still in disbelief that the last of her four sons was “gone”. The mother said she had the best ever relationship with her son who was unemployed, but did odd jobs for family members. “Out of all the boys Kadeem was the closest to me. I cannot say he was an angel. I am not the type of mother to say ‘not my child’, because in these times, on the streets, anything goes. “But to me, he was the best out of the lot. When I say the best I mean he was closer to me than the rest. Kadeem would call me every day at lunchtime to see if I good,” the mother said. Ifill said she would forever remember that phone call she received, when the other person on the line told her to hurry and get home because something had happened to her child. The relatives also argued that they found it hard to believe that Ifill, who was still recovering from an injury, was able to run from the police. One of Ifill’s friends said she was already missing the teenager who she said was a “nice, loving” boy. “We went to St George Secondary together and he was humble and peaceful. He wasn’t a troublemaker at school. He don’t get in nobody way. “He just used to smile. If his mother quarreling he would just smile. He was a peaceful boy. He used to do he own thing, and talk to he friends. He was irie.  This death break down a lot of people. It is hurtful. The friend said she saw Ifill about 30 minutes before he died, close to the area where the incident took place. About seven hours before the incident, a group of pastors gathered at Restoration Ministries Church, just a stone’s throw away from where Ifill died, to announce plans for an upcoming weekend of prayer. The pastors, including David Durant, who is known throughout the Brittons Hill community, called for an end to gun violence. “We are appealing to the youths to please, please put down the guns and desist from the violent activities. Also to the drug lords who are mobilising our youths, please reconsider the destructive paths being created and the fear in communities that this is causing. “And to the importers of illegal guns, recognize that every person murdered or robbery committed with these weapons, you had a part to play in that lawless violent activity. Let’s bring a halt to this downward slide,” Durant said. Pastor Durant visited Ifill’s relatives this afternoon where he offered them words of comfort. (BT)

POLICE INVESTIGATE FATAL SHOOTING AT BLACK ROCK, ST MICHAEL – Police are on the scene of another shooting at Clevedale Road, Black Rock, St Michael. Reports are that two males were shot and one has died. More details as they come to hand. (BT)

MAN REMANDED ON FIREARM, ASSAULT CHARGES – A 24-year-old man who appeared before a Bridgetown Magistrate this afternoon was remanded to HMP Dodds for sentencing next month. Shaquille Ricarla Calderon, of Thores Gap, Lands End, Spring Garden, St Michael, was not required to plead to having a firearm without a valid licence last December 20. He was also not required to plead to the indictable offences of assaulting Linda Abbott with intent to rob her last December 8 and robbing Elke Sommer of a $500 cell phone last December 20. However, he pleaded guilty to three counts of breaking and entering and two counts of theft, but denied two other robbery charges. He returns to court on March 27 for sentencing. (DN)

JORDAN GETS SIX MONTHS – A reputed thief added yet another conviction to his name when he pleaded guilty to an offence dating back to December 16, 2018. Fifty-year-old Richard Dacosta Jordan, of no fixed place of abode, was sentenced to six months in prison after admitting to being on the premises of Capri Condominium with intent to comment theft. “I am sorry for going on the property. I was playing racquetball and the ball deviated and went on the property. I shouted for someone to come and assist me but no one came, so I went for the ball but I was wrong,” Jordan who has over 50 convictions for offences of a similar nature told Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant. “I beg you don’t send me to jail,” he pleaded. However, his plea fell on deaf ears.  (BT)

‘I WAS OUT OF WORK’ – Standing in the docks of the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court today a 24-year-old man used his unemployment as a defence for committing four of ten criminal offences beginning in January last year. “I try to get back to work . . . this is not my life . . . I couldn’t pay my rent,” Thornes Gap, Lands End, Spring Garden, St Michael resident Shaquille Ricarla Calderon told Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant this afternoon after the facts were detailed by police constable Kenmore Phillips. The 24-year-old first got an automatic 28-day remand at HMP Dodds for allegedly having a firearm in his possession on December 20, 2018 without a valid licence. He was not required to plead to this indictable charge nor to robbing Elke Sommer of a $500 cellular phone on the same day and assaulting Linda Abbott with intent to rob her on December 8, 2018. The accused then entered not guilty pleas to robbing Patricia Stroudley of a cellular phone and case worth $1,068.89 on December 2018, stealing an $800 cellular phone when he burglarized the home of Monica Maynard on January 20, 2018 and stealing US$200 belonging to Jean-Luc Beauhieu on December 10, 2018. Calderon however pleaded guilty to entering the home of Melvia Callender as a trespasser between January 21 and 22, 2019 and stealing a number of electronic devices worth $2,185 as well as robbing Shanice Gilkes of a cellular phone, a chain, and a purse worth $1,055, which also included $85 cash. He told Cuffy-Sargeant that he was the one who took three watches and a cellular phone totaling $1,700 when he burglarized the home of Daniel Debidin on February 21 as well as a $2,000 television from the home of Mark Downie on the same day. The prosecutor revealed that in most of the crimes the complainants secured their homes and later returned to discover the items missing. Another complainant was woken to a light flashing in the bedroom and the culprit ran away when he realized that he had been spotted. In the case involving Gilkes, Calderon came from behind a tree and demanded her phone. She first refused but the accused pushed his hand in his pocket, pulled a weapon and made good his escape after snatching her purse. Investigations into those four crimes were still ongoing. However, Calderon admitted to committing the offences when he was detained in connection with other crimes on February 22. “I was working, I got laid off . . . the reason for the offences was I was out of work I accustom to working but I try to get back work but I did not get it so. . . . “I apologise to the complainants, to the court for my crimes because this is not my life. I just could not pay my rent or my bills,” Calderon stated moments before he was remanded until March 27 when he will be sentenced.  (BT)

MAN WITH 81 CONVICTIONS GOES BACK TO PRISON – A 50-year-old handyman was intoxicated on December 3 last year when he loitered on the property of another man with intentions of burglarizing the place. For that crime, Alvin Anthony Harris, of Clevedale Road, Black Rock, St Michael was sentenced to six months in prison. But, having already spent two months on remand, he will have to spend only four more months of the sentence imposed by Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today. “I was under the influence of alcohol because I does drink really hard and I am asking for you to be lenient. I was wrong,” Harris said to the District ‘A’ Magistrate who revealed that the accused had over 81 convictions to his name. “I don’t know how many I have but that was my past, when I used to smoke cocaine . . . that’s five or six years ago. I don’t smoke now,” the offender said. However, Cuffy-Sargeant told him that explanation did not bode well for him as it highlighted that he committed other offences even when he was not under the influence of drugs. “Ma’am that was when I was young and stupid,” he added before the sentence was imposed. (BT)

CARMICHAEL JAILED FOR BREACHING BOND, BURGLARY – Claims that he was a “psychiatric patient” were not enough to save a 53-year-old man from an 18-month prison sentence for two burglaries. But before his sentencing on the two matters, Andrew Delisle Anderson Carmichael of No. 10 Pine Plantation, St Michael received a three-month prison term for breaching a bond imposed on him two weeks ago after pleading guilty to similar offence. Standing before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant this afternoon Carmichael pleaded guilty to entering the home of Valdeen Broome as a trespasser and stealing an $800 vase, a $900 ornament and two bowls worth $800 between December 1, 2018 and February 23, 2019. He also admitted to burglarizing the home of Lemuel Smith on January 6, 2019 and stealing a spray can, a pair of shears, a hoe, a chair and a bowl worth $362. Prosecutor, Station Sergeant Cameron Gibbons revealed that Smith was at home when she spotted a man moving from the area of her basement with several items in his hands. However, Carmichael threw a coffee bottle at Smith as she approached and then ran away. In the other case the caretaker for the Broome residence was notified that that a man was seen leaving the property with a number of items. When asked if he had anything to say in his defence Carmichael responded: “I am a psychiatric patient”.  (BT)

GAYLE NOT ENOUGH – Veteran Chris Gayle struck a scintillating 25th one-day international hundred and passed 10 000 career runs, but the task of completing their highest-ever successful run chase proved too much for West Indies and they slipped to a 29-run defeat to England in an entertaining fourth ODI here yesterday. Faced with a daunting target of 419 at the Grenada National Stadium after Jos Buttler and captain Eoin Morgan had pummelled high-quality hundreds, West Indies appeared poised to spring a massive surprise when the left-handed Gayle smashed a breathtaking 162 off 97 deliveries. But despite Darren Bravo’s 61 from 59 balls and Carlos Brathwaite’s maiden ODI half-century in gathering 50 from 36 deliveries towards the end, the Windies suffered a late collapse to be all out for 389 off 48 overs– their highest ever ODI total. The hosts lost wickets in clusters as speedster Mark Wood, with four for 60, triggered a middle-order collapse before leg-spinner Adil Rashid polished off the tail with five for 85, in an anticlimactic end to the high-scoring affair. The Windies were under pressure at 301 for six in the 36th over before Brathwaite and Ashley Nurse (43) revived their hopes with a sensible 88-run, seventh-wicket partnership. (DN)

BRITISH JOCKEY EXPECTS BIG RUN – First-time jockey in the Sandy Lane Gold Cup, Sean Levey, is hoping for a big run in the Caribbean’s biggest horse race at the Garrison Savannah on Saturday. The 30-year-old English international, who will sit in the saddle of American horse Bodie Tap for the Gold Cup told NATION SPORT that despite not being familiar with the track he was confident ahead of his first mounting Barbados. “I’m looking forward to it. This is really a big race. I’m not worried about the conditions. My horse is in very good form no doubt about that. Obviously, he is not a local horse and he would not have been around this track before; that is the only thing I am worried about. He seems very versatile and I’m hoping for a big run,”Levey said. “It’s tighter than normal tracks I’m used to going around but I have a couple favourite tracks and I think I will be alright,” added the experienced Levey, who has running starts in Europe and Africa. (DN)

DRUMS COMING BACK – Music and the party-LIKE atmosphere that have been part of every secondary school track and field championships for more than two decades, are likely to beat again for the first time in ten years in a more organised fashion. It had been mooted for some time and confirmed yesterday at a Barbados Association of Principals of Public Secondary Schools (BAPPSS) meeting at Harrison College.  A highly-placed source told the NATION students would be allowed to play music on finals days of the Barbados Secondary Schools Athletics Championships (BSSAC) on March 21 and 22. “The music will be back but it will be in a structured form. Selected students from across the schools will provide the music,” the source said. (DN)

NO KITE FLYING IN RESTRICTED AREAS – The Barbados Civil Aviation Department has received reports of kite flying taking place in some districts that pose a danger to low flying aircraft. And the department is reminding those people who fly kites in these districts that they may be prosecuted if caught doing so. Kite flying restrictions are in place for districts which fall within five kilometres of the perimeter of the Grantley Adams International Airport, which runs from Oistins in Christ Church to Boarded Hall in St George, and Brereton and Six Roads in St Phillip, back to South Point and Oistins. The districts in Christ Church where kite flying restrictions exist include: Silver Hill, Gall Hill, Kingsland, Wotton, Maxwell, Cane Vale, Newton, Scarborough, Pegwell, Gibbons, Thornbury Hill, Silver Sands, Ealing Park, Wilcox, Lowlands, Coverley, Charnocks, Pilgrim Road, Fairy Valley, Durants, Callenders, Chancery Lane, Parish Land and Leadvale. Other areas where kite flying is prohibited are: Gemswick, Mangrove, Heddings, Foul Bay, Ocean City, Diamond Valley, and Rock Hall, all in St Philip. Offenders found guilty of flying kites in these restricted areas are liable on summary conviction to a fine of $50 000, or imprisonment for a term of 12 months, or on indictment, to a fine of $100 000, or to imprisonment for a term of two years. (BGIS)

A NIGHT OF MASH-UPS AND MISSES – Machel Monday had great moments. To say, however, Machel Montano’s concert performance at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain on Monday night was his Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) would be a large oversell. The soca GOAT promised a diverse musical experience reflecting the nuances of cultural expressions that are the Caribbean. And in many ways he did just that. The problem is, the show was far too long and at times lacked clarity to allow patrons the opportunity to fully appreciate the wealth of talent on offer. In some cases, guest artistes seemed reluctant to leave the spotlight and lingered on stage needlessly.  Montano clearly aimed to give all his guests a fair opportunity to shine, but the people didn’t come to see Destra Garcia or Calypso Rose in concert and their extended performances affected the flow and energy of Montano’s set. Intermittent rain didn’t help either. Montano may have buried his grouse with the self-proclaimed soca water lord Iwer George with an open invitation for him to attend and/or perform at Machel Monday. Iwer, however, refused, citing a lack of rehearsal time with Montano’s band. But his presence was surely felt with the amount of water that fell from the skies and doused the scampering feteing crowd. Montano started well enough when he took to the stage at 10:30 p.m., with a huge pyrotechnic-fuelled opening to his three-hour-plus set. Dressed in a gold and black tracksuit with matching headband, soca’s biggest star ran on stage beneath a larger-than-life matching Carnival portrayal to the sound of his Road March contender Release. The band was emphatic and the fireworks above the stadium majestic. The problem was the energy of the stage presentation didn’t match that song, at least the public reception of it. And that reality became even more evident when he cued his band, moments later, into the opening notes of his hit collaboration with Skinny Fabulous (Gamal Doyle) and Bunji Garlin (Ian Alvarez) Famalay. “It will be Bunji’s first and we welcome Skinny, one Caribbean. I am looking for Road March number what?” Montano asked, showing the crowd his ten fingers. His perfect opening sequence was completed when he followed with a medley of his road dominators that included Like A Boss, Advantage and Ministry of Road. Cuban fusion star Cimafunk (Erik Alejandro Rodriguez) brought a Latin swing to the stage when he appeared with dance troupe et al. Though they may not have understood a word of Spanish, the crowd showed appreciation to the rising talent when he performed his hits Me Voy and Parar el Tiempo. Not to be outdone, Montano showed his pedigree with a performance of his Spanish-language hit La Vida. About an hour later when he invited Kassav lead singer Jacob Desvarieux, he created another one of those special memorable moments. Desvarieux’s voice is pure gold. The veteran performer didn’t require any backing tracks when the duo sang their 2019 hit Dance. The performance compelled everyone to get on their feet and dance in the pouring rain. The decision to have acts sing atop backing vocal tracks was perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the showcase. Some artistes couldn’t match their studio recordings and ended up going off key as was the case of Nessa Preppy (Vanessa John). Another poor decision was the inclusion of Candice, the dancer made famous for rolling down the Diego Martin main road like a car tyre in a viral video. Candice did the most toppling, rolling, contorting and jumping into split positions. All this happened in full view of several minors in attendance at the show. American R&B star Ashanti Douglas, meanwhile, restored a level of class to the show with immaculate vocal runs during a fantastic performance of her collaboration with Montano The Road. Ashanti shocked the audience when she leapt off her feet and asked them to jump and wave. They obliged wholeheartedly. And when she arched her back and rotated her hips and instructed them to wine the entire venue lit up just as brightly as during the concert’s opening sequence.  (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 307 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[samanthasroberts]

Mexico after El Chapo: new generation fights for control of the cartel

The wave of violence suggests if El Chapo had a plan for succession, it has fallen into chaos, turning Sinaloa into one of Mexicos most violent states

Engines revved, tires squealed and tail lights faded into the distance as an Audi raced a Mini Cooper down the street past apartment buildings and empty lots. The spectators boys in baseball caps, girls in short skirts lounged against their own luxury vehicles, drinking beer.

The drag races roared for more than an hour as darkness fell over Culiacn, but the neighbours never complained about noise, and the police never turned up to put an end to the fun.

No wonder: the racers were most probably the children of some of Mexicos most powerful crime bosses. Known collectively as narco-juniors, this generation of narcos has discarded the discretion of their elders, replacing it with conspicuous displays of wealth, violence and impunity.

And it is a generation that is now on the frontlines of a violent struggle for control of the Sinaloa cartel, which has been sunk into a war of succession since the capture and extradition to the US of Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn.

The generational change has started and it seems like the process is not going so well, said Adrin Lpez, editor of the Sinaloa newspaper Noroeste. And with El Chapo sitting in a US prison, theres no longer anyone to referee the disputes between them.

The disputes have turned Sinaloa a long sliver of pine-clad mountains and Pacific coast beaches into one of Mexicos most violent states in 2017. But the shockwaves have been felt across the country.

This week, a former policeman once described as Guzmns right-hand man was arrested in Mexico City, after reportedly clashing with El Chapos sons.

Federal officials say Dmaso Lpez Nez who once helped El Chapos escape from prison had sought to partner with the upstart Jalisco New Generation cartel, which has disputed Sinaloa cartel territories up and down the Pacific coast.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzmn Salazar Photograph: Handout

Lpezs war with Guzmns sons Ivn Archivaldo Guzmn Salazar and Jess Alfredo Guzmn Salazar, known collectively as Los Chapitos is believed to be behind a wave of violence in Sinaloa and Baja California Sur.

El Chapo was born in the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre, where he grew up in abject poverty before becoming one of the most powerful figures in the Sinaloa cartel.

Those mountains were his unquestioned fiefdom, but with Guzmn locked up in a New York high-security unit, rival crime groups are now making brazen incursions.

Last year, gunmen from the smaller Beltrn Leyva cartel looted the home of Guzmns elderly mother in the hamlet of La Tuna.

More recently, violence has focused on the sun-scorched agricultural valleys around Culiacn and at the crossroads town of Villa Jurez, where rival factions are fighting over local drug sales.

In one incident this February, a convoy of trucks including one with a .50 calibre machine mounted in a rotating turret pulled into Villa Jurez and opened fire at a Pemex petrol station. Four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed.

Three months later, the bullet holes that pock the filling stations facade are still visible under a fresh coat of paint, but locals are still unwilling to talk. I dont want to get involved in it, said an employee while a jaunty narcocorrido a song lionizing drug lords blared in the background.

All the violence, said the employee, Its like being in Afghanistan or something.

As he spoke, he kept an eye on the steady stream of motorcycles that buzzed past the preferred mode of transport for cartel lookouts.

In the unkempt town square, a street vendor refused to make eye contact as he slowly set out gleaming tubes of lipstick on his table. Yes, theres violence, he allowed, but then fell silent.

The racers in Culiacn were most probably the children of some of Mexicos most powerful crime bosses. Photograph: David Agren for the Guardian

The wave of violence suggests if El Chapo had a plan for succession, it has fallen into chaos. In his 2016 Rolling Stone interview with Guzmn, Sean Penn described Ivn as the heir apparent. Hes attentive with a calm maturity, Penn said of Ivn, who was charged in the 2004 murder of a Canadian exchange student and a male companion as they left a Guadalajara-area bar.

A 2005 psychological profile from a prison stay said the younger Guzmn demonstrated probable psychological violence toward persons that he does not consider on his socio-economic level.

Cartel observers say that Ivn and Jess Alfredo who grew up in a life of luxury are not ready to take over their fathers empire. The only thing theyre good at is spending El Chapos money, said Mike Vigil, former DEA head of international operations. Theyve never had to get their hands dirty. Theyre not street smart like El Chapo.

Vigil pointed to a confusing incident last year, in which Jess Alfredo was seized by gunmen possibly from the rival CJNG from a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, before being released after an apparent deal.

Theyre very lucky to be alive, Vigil said.

Locals, however, say that Ivn retains one important advantage over the CNJG and the remnants of Lpezs faction: the lingering affection for his father felt by many in the state, where among the states rural and poor population El Chapo is revered as a Robin Hood figure who thumbed his nose at the authorities even as he doled out patronage and charity.

He owns this town, said a journalist covering organized crime in Culiacn. He said that Ivn Guzmn is thought to have an army of hitmen in Culiacn, along with spies in all parts everyone from youngsters on motorcycles to people washing windshields at intersections to employees at hotels. Ivn Guzman isnt shy about showing off. He tweets to flash his fancy cars, trips on private planes and exotic animals in his keep. He also rails against the government and denounces the many who have turned on us.

Locals say that the younger Guzmn is fond of racing a red Ferrari through Culiacn, a city of around 900,000 that is home to the kind of premium auto dealerships and luxury shops seldom seen in provincial Mexican cities.

And few doubt that the Guzmns word is law in the city: one local described seeing cartel bodyguards stop traffic so one of El Chapos sons could do doughnuts in his white Nissan GT-R at a traffic junction.

Unlike the first generation of cartel bosses, the new wave of cartel are often university educated and more likely to choose Italian slip-ons and Jaguars than their fathers ostrich skin cowboy boots and Hummers.

But the generational changes go beyond material tastes. One former cartel gunman, expressed dismay at the ethical shortcomings of the younger bosses, and over a plate of seak tacos reminisced about a time when narcos had honour.

15, 20 years ago, if we wanted to kill you and you turned up with your wife and children, we couldnt do anything. We couldnt touch you, said the man, who once worked for Ismael El Mayo Zambada, a contemporary of El Chapo.

Now, they dont give a damn If they see you in a taco stand, theyll come and shoot it up, he said.

Over decades, the people of Sinaloa have grown used to living alongside organised crime; now, however, many fear that changes are on their way and that change will inevitably bring more violence.

Leticia Villegas insists that her brother Adolfo a teacher and part-time contract lawyer had nothing to do with the underworld. But in March, he was grabbed from his small Chevy less than a block from his home and hasnt been seen since.

They say this is a dispute between different groups, she said, but its harming innocent people.

This article was amended on 6 May to clarify that Leticia Villegass brother Adolfo is a part-time contract lawyer.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/mexico-after-el-chapo-new-generation-fights-for-control-of-the-cartel/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/01/14/mexico-after-el-chapo-new-generation-fights-for-control-of-the-cartel/

[allofbeercom]

Mexico after El Chapo: new generation fights for control of the cartel

The wave of violence suggests if El Chapo had a plan for succession, it has fallen into chaos, turning Sinaloa into one of Mexicos most violent states

Engines revved, tires squealed and tail lights faded into the distance as an Audi raced a Mini Cooper down the street past apartment buildings and empty lots. The spectators boys in baseball caps, girls in short skirts lounged against their own luxury vehicles, drinking beer.

The drag races roared for more than an hour as darkness fell over Culiacn, but the neighbours never complained about noise, and the police never turned up to put an end to the fun.

No wonder: the racers were most probably the children of some of Mexicos most powerful crime bosses. Known collectively as narco-juniors, this generation of narcos has discarded the discretion of their elders, replacing it with conspicuous displays of wealth, violence and impunity.

And it is a generation that is now on the frontlines of a violent struggle for control of the Sinaloa cartel, which has been sunk into a war of succession since the capture and extradition to the US of Joaqun El Chapo Guzmn.

The generational change has started and it seems like the process is not going so well, said Adrin Lpez, editor of the Sinaloa newspaper Noroeste. And with El Chapo sitting in a US prison, theres no longer anyone to referee the disputes between them.

The disputes have turned Sinaloa a long sliver of pine-clad mountains and Pacific coast beaches into one of Mexicos most violent states in 2017. But the shockwaves have been felt across the country.

This week, a former policeman once described as Guzmns right-hand man was arrested in Mexico City, after reportedly clashing with El Chapos sons.

Federal officials say Dmaso Lpez Nez who once helped El Chapos escape from prison had sought to partner with the upstart Jalisco New Generation cartel, which has disputed Sinaloa cartel territories up and down the Pacific coast.

Ivan Archivaldo Guzmn Salazar Photograph: Handout

Lpezs war with Guzmns sons Ivn Archivaldo Guzmn Salazar and Jess Alfredo Guzmn Salazar, known collectively as Los Chapitos is believed to be behind a wave of violence in Sinaloa and Baja California Sur.

El Chapo was born in the rugged mountains of the Sierra Madre, where he grew up in abject poverty before becoming one of the most powerful figures in the Sinaloa cartel.

Those mountains were his unquestioned fiefdom, but with Guzmn locked up in a New York high-security unit, rival crime groups are now making brazen incursions.

Last year, gunmen from the smaller Beltrn Leyva cartel looted the home of Guzmns elderly mother in the hamlet of La Tuna.

More recently, violence has focused on the sun-scorched agricultural valleys around Culiacn and at the crossroads town of Villa Jurez, where rival factions are fighting over local drug sales.

In one incident this February, a convoy of trucks including one with a .50 calibre machine mounted in a rotating turret pulled into Villa Jurez and opened fire at a Pemex petrol station. Four people, including a pregnant woman, were killed.

Three months later, the bullet holes that pock the filling stations facade are still visible under a fresh coat of paint, but locals are still unwilling to talk. I dont want to get involved in it, said an employee while a jaunty narcocorrido a song lionizing drug lords blared in the background.

All the violence, said the employee, Its like being in Afghanistan or something.

As he spoke, he kept an eye on the steady stream of motorcycles that buzzed past the preferred mode of transport for cartel lookouts.

In the unkempt town square, a street vendor refused to make eye contact as he slowly set out gleaming tubes of lipstick on his table. Yes, theres violence, he allowed, but then fell silent.

The racers in Culiacn were most probably the children of some of Mexicos most powerful crime bosses. Photograph: David Agren for the Guardian

The wave of violence suggests if El Chapo had a plan for succession, it has fallen into chaos. In his 2016 Rolling Stone interview with Guzmn, Sean Penn described Ivn as the heir apparent. Hes attentive with a calm maturity, Penn said of Ivn, who was charged in the 2004 murder of a Canadian exchange student and a male companion as they left a Guadalajara-area bar.

A 2005 psychological profile from a prison stay said the younger Guzmn demonstrated probable psychological violence toward persons that he does not consider on his socio-economic level.

Cartel observers say that Ivn and Jess Alfredo who grew up in a life of luxury are not ready to take over their fathers empire. The only thing theyre good at is spending El Chapos money, said Mike Vigil, former DEA head of international operations. Theyve never had to get their hands dirty. Theyre not street smart like El Chapo.

Vigil pointed to a confusing incident last year, in which Jess Alfredo was seized by gunmen possibly from the rival CJNG from a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta, before being released after an apparent deal.

Theyre very lucky to be alive, Vigil said.

Locals, however, say that Ivn retains one important advantage over the CNJG and the remnants of Lpezs faction: the lingering affection for his father felt by many in the state, where among the states rural and poor population El Chapo is revered as a Robin Hood figure who thumbed his nose at the authorities even as he doled out patronage and charity.

He owns this town, said a journalist covering organized crime in Culiacn. He said that Ivn Guzmn is thought to have an army of hitmen in Culiacn, along with spies in all parts everyone from youngsters on motorcycles to people washing windshields at intersections to employees at hotels. Ivn Guzman isnt shy about showing off. He tweets to flash his fancy cars, trips on private planes and exotic animals in his keep. He also rails against the government and denounces the many who have turned on us.

Locals say that the younger Guzmn is fond of racing a red Ferrari through Culiacn, a city of around 900,000 that is home to the kind of premium auto dealerships and luxury shops seldom seen in provincial Mexican cities.

And few doubt that the Guzmns word is law in the city: one local described seeing cartel bodyguards stop traffic so one of El Chapos sons could do doughnuts in his white Nissan GT-R at a traffic junction.

Unlike the first generation of cartel bosses, the new wave of cartel are often university educated and more likely to choose Italian slip-ons and Jaguars than their fathers ostrich skin cowboy boots and Hummers.

But the generational changes go beyond material tastes. One former cartel gunman, expressed dismay at the ethical shortcomings of the younger bosses, and over a plate of seak tacos reminisced about a time when narcos had honour.

15, 20 years ago, if we wanted to kill you and you turned up with your wife and children, we couldnt do anything. We couldnt touch you, said the man, who once worked for Ismael El Mayo Zambada, a contemporary of El Chapo.

Now, they dont give a damn If they see you in a taco stand, theyll come and shoot it up, he said.

Over decades, the people of Sinaloa have grown used to living alongside organised crime; now, however, many fear that changes are on their way and that change will inevitably bring more violence.

Leticia Villegas insists that her brother Adolfo a teacher and part-time contract lawyer had nothing to do with the underworld. But in March, he was grabbed from his small Chevy less than a block from his home and hasnt been seen since.

They say this is a dispute between different groups, she said, but its harming innocent people.

This article was amended on 6 May to clarify that Leticia Villegass brother Adolfo is a part-time contract lawyer.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/mexico-after-el-chapo-new-generation-fights-for-control-of-the-cartel/