#you get jailed for even Liking an anti-lukashenko post on social media

[syrenki]

my family was just robbed of two thousands and my grandmother was denied a permanent residence card despite her daughter and grandchildren having lived here for 20 years and despite her being 80, so she can only spend a total of 90 days here in the next 5 years, and we can't visit her because we'll be arrested as soon as we cross the border, all this together meaning she will probably die alone there. and how are the rest of you all doing

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Trudeau is met with flying gravel at campaign stop (Washington Post) Hours after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau vowed that he “won’t back down” in the face of the “anti-vaxxer mobs,” protesters—many of them opposed to coronavirus vaccinations and public health measures—threw gravel at him at a campaign stop on Monday evening. The incident occurred while Trudeau was boarding his campaign bus after an event at a brewery in London, Ontario, a city some 120 miles southwest of Toronto. Videos posted to social media of the episode show protesters throwing gravel in the direction of the prime minister and some of the reporters traveling with him. It was the latest ugly scene in a 36-day federal election campaign that has not been short of them. Vandals have defaced candidate lawn signs with antisemitic graffiti. Candidates of all political stripes have reported being targeted with sexist and racist slurs.

Ida’s aftermath (1440) The death toll from Hurricane Ida rose to at least 60 over the holiday weekend, with more than half of the victims coming from the Northeast. At least 27 people were confirmed dead in New Jersey, 17 in New York, and five in Pennsylvania, with a number of isolated deaths reported up the Mid-Atlantic. As of this morning, 13 victims have been identified in Louisiana and two in Mississippi. Assessing the storm’s weeklong path of destruction from the Gulf to Massachusetts, analysts estimated Ida caused as much as $95B in total damage and economic loss. More than half a million customers remained without power in Louisiana, mostly in New Orleans and surrounding parishes, as of this morning. Out in the Atlantic, Hurricane Larry is expected to strengthen into a Category 4 storm, but is not currently projected to make US landfall.

Powerful earthquake near Mexico’s Acapulco kills at least 1 (AP) A powerful earthquake struck near the Pacific resort city of Acapulco on Tuesday night, killing at least one person and causing buildings to rock and sway in Mexico City hundreds of kilometers away. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 7 and was centered 17 kilometers (about 10 miles) northeast of Acapulco. The mayor of Acapulco, Adela Román, said in statement to the television news outlet Milenio that “there is no really serious situation” so far and no reports of casualties. “There are nervous breakdowns; people are worried because there have been aftershocks,” she said, adding that there are “many gas leaks in many places” as well as some landslides and fallen walls.

El Salvador first country to make Bitcoin legal currency (BBC) From today, businesses in El Salvador will be obliged where possible to accept the controversial blockchain-backed currency as payment as the country has just become the first to make Bitcoin a legal tender. Millions of people are expected to download the government’s new digital wallet app which gives away $30 (€25) in Bitcoin to every citizen.

Bolsonaro’s Supporters Rally (Foreign Policy) Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets across the country today, answering—and protesting—a call by President Jair Bolsonaro for a popular show of force as corruption investigations, lagging poll numbers, and the reemergence of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have weakened his position ahead of the October 2022 presidential election. A September 1 poll shows Lula trouncing Bolsonaro by double digits in a one-on-one matchup. Those election polls pair with recent polls showing more than 50 percent of Brazilians say the Bolsonaro government is bad or terrible, although those that say his administration is good or excellent has held steady at roughly 25 percent.

Venice prepares to charge tourists (Reuters) From a control room inside the police headquarters in Venice, Big Brother is watching you. To combat tourist overcrowding, officials are tracking every person who sets foot in the lagoon city. Using 468 CCTV cameras, optical sensors and a mobile phone-tracing system, they can tell residents from visitors, Italians from foreigners, where people are coming from, where they are heading and how fast they are moving. Every 15 minutes, authorities get a snapshot of how crowded the city is—alongside how many gondolas are sliding on the Canal Grande, whether boats are speeding and if the waters rise to dangerous levels. City authorities are preparing to demand that tourists pre-book their visit on an app and charge day-trippers between 3 and 10 euros to enter, depending on the time of the year. Airport-like turnstiles are being tested to control the flow of people and, should the numbers become overwhelming, stop new visitors from getting in. Potential visitors are sceptical. “It brings the wrong tone in me when I hear that I have to pay entrance just to see the buildings in the streets of the city” said Marc Schieber, a German national in Venice for the current film festival. “I think it is probably a new way to generate money.”

Lukashenko continues crackdown on opposition (NYT) Belarusian opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova was found guilty Monday of conspiracy to overthrow the government in Minsk and sentenced to 11 years in prison after a closed trial. Kolesnikova is one of the key opposition figures jailed in Belarus after protests ignited in August last year over presidential elections rejected by opposition activists as rigged. President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, launched a violent crackdown on the protests, jailing hundreds of the regime’s opponents.

Myanmar resistance movement calls for nationwide uprising (AP) The main underground group coordinating resistance to Myanmar’s military government called for a nationwide uprising on Tuesday. The National Unity Government views itself as a shadow government composed of elected legislators who were barred from taking their seats when the military seized power in February. The group’s acting president Duwa Lashi La called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time” and declared what he called a “state of emergency.” The country has been wracked by unrest since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, with a low-level insurrection in many urban areas. There has been more serious combat in rural areas, especially in border regions where ethnic minority militias have been engaging in serious clashes with the government’s troops.

Forget Tiger Moms. Now China's 'Chicken Blood' Parents Are Pushing Kids To Succeed (NPR) They schedule their children's days in 15-minute increments. They scour online forums and swap tips on the most exclusive tutors and best sports coaches. Some even buy second homes next to the best public schools. Forget Tiger moms. These are China's jiwa or "chicken" parents, who are known for their attentive—some say obsessive—parenting style. The term is used to describe aggressive helicopter parenting, and comes from an unproven Chinese medicine treatment dating back to the 1950s, in which someone is injected with fresh chicken blood to stimulate energy. Jiwa parenting culture, a relatively new phenomenon, is now in the crosshairs of Chinese authorities. At a time when the government wants to see families having more children and raising more future workers, it fears that hyper-competitive parenting pressures—combined with the meteoric growth of China's private education sector, now worth billions—are deepening inequality and discouraging couples from having larger families, a priority of the country's new three-child policy. As more parents complain about the burnout brought on by jiwa culture, there's concern that the financial and emotional toll is making many reluctant to have a second, much less a third, child.

Singapore trials patrol robots to deter bad social behaviour (Reuters) Singapore has started trialing robots to patrol public areas and deter poor social behaviour in its latest effort to further augment its strong portfolio of surveillance tools. Ranked one of the safest countries in the world, Singapore has put two autonomous robots on trial to detect bad behaviour such as flouting of COVID-19 safety measures, smoking in prohibited areas and the improper parking of bicycles, Singapore’s Home Team Science and Technology Agency said in a statement on Sunday. It said the two patrol robots, named Xavier, are equipped with cameras that can detect bad social behaviour and trigger real-time alerts to the command and control centre. The agency said that during the three-week trial, the robots would be used for surveillance and displaying messages to educate the public on proper behaviour. Singapore’s home affairs minister, K Shanmugam, said in August the city-state aimed to have more than 200,000 police cameras by 2030, more than double the current number of cameras deployed.

3-year-old boy found after 3 days’ lost in Australian woods (AP) A 3-year-old boy wearing a sweat shirt and diapers was found sitting in a creek and cupping water in his hands to drink on Monday, three days after he was lost in rugged Australian woodland. Hundreds of people had been searching for Anthony “AJ” Elfalak, who has autism and is non-verbal, since he went missing from his family’s remote rural property near the village of Putty, north of Sydney, late Friday morning. His father, Anthony Elfalak, said AJ had been bitten by ants, had diaper rash and suffered abrasions. “It’s a miracle,” the father told reporters after he and his wife, Kelly Elfalak, were reunited with their son.

US-built databases a potential tool of Taliban repression (AP) Over two decades, the United States and its allies spent hundreds of millions of dollars building databases for the Afghan people. The nobly stated goal: Promote law and order and government accountability and modernize a war-ravaged land. But in the Taliban’s lightning seizure of power, most of that digital apparatus—including biometrics for verifying identities—apparently fell into Taliban hands. Built with few data-protection safeguards, it risks becoming the high-tech jackboots of a surveillance state. As the Taliban get their governing feet, there are worries it will be used for social control and to punish perceived foes. “It is a terrible irony,” said Frank Pasquale, Brooklyn Law School scholar of surveillance technologies. “It’s a real object lesson in ‘The road to hell is paved with good intentions.’”

The other Afghan women (New Yorker) Anand Gopal traveled to rural Afghanistan to meet women living under Taliban rule, whose voices are not often heard in international media. “Unlike in relatively liberal Kabul, visiting women in these hinterlands is not easy” since they don’t typically speak to unrelated men, Gopal writes. Many of those he interviewed seemed to prefer Taliban rule to the US-led occupation. “To locals, life under the coalition forces and their Afghan allies was pure hazard; even drinking tea in a sunlit field, or driving to your sister’s wedding, was a potentially deadly gamble,” Gopal writes. “What the Taliban offered over their rivals was a simple bargain: Obey us, and we will not kill you.”

Israel searches for 6 Palestinians after rare prison break (AP) Israel launched a massive manhunt in the country’s north and the occupied West Bank early Monday after six Palestinian prisoners tunneled out of their cell and escaped from a high-security facility in the biggest prison break of its kind in decades. The escape marks an embarrassing security breach just ahead of the Jewish New Year, when Israelis flock to the north to enjoy beaches, campsites and the Sea of Galilee. The prisoners appear to have gone into hiding and there was no indication Israeli authorities view them as an immediate threat. Israel’s Army Radio said 400 prisoners are being moved as a protective measure against any additional escape attempts. The radio said the prisoners escaped through a tunnel from the Gilboa prison, just north of the West Bank, which is supposed to be one of Israel’s most secure facilities.

Zuma on parole (BBC) Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been granted medical parole for an unknown illness. Zuma has been in hospital for the past month, where he has undergone surgery and will reportedly remain there until he has been discharged. The 79-year-old is serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court at Estcourt Correctional Centre. Zuma turned himself in to the authorities in July after being sentenced for failing to attend an inquiry into corruption during his presidency. The unprecedented jailing resulted in violent protests and looting by his loyal body of supporters. He also faces a separate corruption trial, which is due to resume on 9 September. The Democratic Alliance party criticized the parole, saying it’s “entirely unlawful and makes a mockery” of prison regulations.