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  • French TV star scrutinized in book about sex abuse, #MeToo

    French TV star scrutinized in book about sex abuse, #MeToo

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    PARIS (AP) — “At a certain level of fame, no French man has ever been convicted for sexual abuse.”

    These words are from the book “Impunity,” by Hélène Devynck, who says she was raped by France’s most famous TV presenter.

    Devynck is among dozens of women who have spoken out recently to accuse Patrick Poivre d’Arvor of rape, sexual abuse or harassment from 1981 to 2018. Her book, published last month, investigates accusations against Poivre d’Arvor, denounces France’s historically lax attitude toward sexual abuse allegations and questions why the #MeToo movement in her country has had such limited impact.

    Poivre d’Arvor, who hosted France’s most popular news program for more than two decades and remains a revered personality, denies sexual wrongdoing and insists relations with his accusers were consensual.

    Now 75 and retired, Poivre d’Arvor has sued 16 of his accusers — including Devynck — and a French newspaper that reported on the allegations.

    Most accusations are now too old to prosecute, but French magistrates opened an investigation that examines alleged abuses by Poivre d’Arvor. French media report that over 20 women have filed legal complaints, although no charges have been brought.

    In the United States, several high-profile sexual assault trials are unfolding across the country: movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, actor Danny Masterson and filmmaker Paul Haggis all face accusations linked to #MeToo. All deny wrongdoing.

    France, meanwhile, has not seen any major figure prosecuted in the #MeToo era, and has had a more fraught relationship with the movement. Even as more and more people in France are standing up against sexual misconduct, debate continues about where seduction ends and sexual harassment and abuse begins, especially in a context where the myth of the “French lover” remains popular and positively perceived.

    The book by Devynck, 55, comes after multiple recent accounts of women accusing Poivre d’Arvor in French media outlets.

    Devynck said she was raped in 1993 by Poivre d’Arvor when she was working as an assistant to him at TF1, a leading European broadcaster. At the time, Poivre d’Arvor drew in up to 10 million viewers every night.

    Poivre d’Arvor’s accusers told Devynck that his fame and power made it seem futile to speak out when he abused them because they felt nobody would believe them and it would ruin their careers.

    In an interview with The Associated Press, Devynck said the point of her book “is to show how that impunity was built, forged, maintained. And since we have spoken out… impunity continues.”

    Accusations poured in after author Florence Porcel, now 39, first filed a complaint in February 2021 against Poivre d’Arvor, accusing him of raping her in 2004 and 2009.

    The AP generally does not identify those who say they have been sexually assaulted, except when they publicly identify themselves.

    Devynck said she spoke with about 60 women accusing Poivre d’Arvor of sexual misconduct while writing the book. Since its publication, she said about 30 more women have come forward with allegations against him. Not all have spoken to police, she said, because some prefer to remain anonymous and avoid a long, difficult judicial process.

    A few of the women knew each other through work, though most did not.

    Poivre d’Arvor was the star presenter of TF1′s evening newscast “20 Heures” between 1987 and 2008 and one of the most famous people in France, where he is widely known as just “PPDA.” An author, he also used to anchor a prestigious TV literary program.

    A couple of weeks after Porcel’s complaint, in his only interview about the allegations to date, Poivre d’Arvor acknowledged “small kisses in the neck, sometimes small compliments or sometimes some charm or seduction” — things that he said are not accepted anymore by younger generations.

    “Never in my life, ever, have I accepted a relation that would not be consensual,” he added, speaking on TMC, a channel that belongs to the TF1 group.

    Devynck said she noticed strong similarities between the accounts of the women she spoke to.

    “We all tell the same story, he was using the same words. He was starting with, ‘Are you in a relationship? Are you faithful?’ And then, he was doing the same gestures and he had a very well-oiled process,” she told the AP.

    Poivre d’Arvor used to offer women to watch “20 Heures” in the television studio, then invite them into his office, Devynck said. “Not all were raped. Some were abused, others harassed. But every time, all those who speak out say he tried (sexually-oriented acts),” she said.

    That, she described in her book, is exactly what happened to her.

    “I remained silent. I did not speak while I was working at TF1. If I had spoken, it was the end of my professional life and I had absolutely no chance to make my voice heard,” she told the AP.

    Devynck decided to make her story public 28 years later. She filed a complaint to police last year after seeing Poivre d’Arvor’s interview on French television, following Porcel’s complaint.

    “The image shown by that man compared to what I knew, me, about him, was so wrong that the next day, I called investigators to give my testimony,” she recalled in her interview with the AP.

    “I spoke to defend other women,” she added.

    She argued in her book that the image of Poivre d’Arvor, often described as a charmer, helped protect him. Because he was known to try to seduce lots of women, people assumed that all relations were consensual, Devynck said.

    Poivre d’Arvor’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, declined to speak to the AP about the case. She referred to previous comments she made last year after Porcel’s case was initially closed following the preliminary investigation.

    Closing the case without pressing charges was “the only possible decision” after a “thorough investigation,” Laffont said at the time. She said that Poivre d’Arvor had been able to bring “evidence” for his defense showing that Porcel “was lying.”

    Porcel then filed another complaint, leading a magistrate to reopen a judicial investigation. The Nanterre prosecutors’ office said several other accusations made more recently were combined with that investigation.

    Only 12% of alleged victims of rape or attempted rape file a complaint — and only a small proportion of those cases lead to a trial, according to French government statistics.

    The French Interior ministry said, however, that there was a 33% increase in 2021 in the number of sexual abuse complaints reported to police, a trend it partly attributes to the #MeToo movement prompting women to go public with incidents from their past.

    “Before #MeToo, women were even more afraid of saying what happened to them,” said Violaine de Filippis, a lawyer and activist who specializes in women’s rights.

    “So now, to say ‘No, it’s not meant to be, it’s not normal, it’s illegal and it’s serious,’ that’s very important,” she said.

    She did not specifically refer to Poivre d’Arvor’s case.

    France’s justice minister Eric Dupont-Moretti sent a note last year to prosecutors encouraging them to investigate sexual abuse allegations even if they appear too old to prosecute. One goal, he said, is to find other potential victims; another is for magistrates to be able to hear from the people accused.

    Devynck said she would like to see Poivre d’Arvor in a courtroom.

    “I hope there will be a trial one day, but that I don’t know,” she said.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the #MeToo movement: https://apnews.com/hub/metoo

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  • ‘It’s about time’: Celebrations of Diwali illuminate NYC

    ‘It’s about time’: Celebrations of Diwali illuminate NYC

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    By MALLIKA SEN

    October 24, 2022 GMT

    NEW YORK (AP) — The week dawned gloomily in New York, but the drab mist was little match for the holiday at hand: Diwali, the festival of lights that symbolizes the triumph over darkness.

    Celebrated across South Asia in some fashion by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Buddhists, the multi-day festival has secured a sturdy foothold far from the subcontinent in places with significant diaspora populations — like New York.

    “One thing I would say — the whole country celebrates, right? So it’s lit up,” fashion designer Prabal Gurung said of celebrations in Nepal, where Diwali is better known as Tihar. He sees signs of Diwali’s increased popularity in New York. But, he said, the whole city “is not celebrating yet — so I’m just giving them a year or two.”

    Gurung was one of the hosts of Diwali New York, a glitzy soiree held Saturday at The Pierre, fittingly a Taj Hotel. The party, now in its third year, highlights Diwali by bringing together high-powered South Asians with other New York luminaries — people who “the world saw as leaders and role models,” said host Anita Chatterjee, CEO of A-Game Public Relations.

    Five miles east of the five-star hotel, those already familiar with the holiday were embarking on preparations for their personal celebrations. Earlier Saturday, the first of the five-day celebration, the streets of Jackson Heights were replete with reminders of the festivities.

    The many sweets shops of the Queens neighborhood, known for its South Asian community, were packed to the gills with little room for movement. In the stands outside Apna Bazaar, a grocery store, a sea of small clay pots and wicks for Diwali lamps lay alongside fresh bunches of cilantro and above bags of onions. Handwritten blue signs advertised Diwali specials for everything from 40-pound bags of rice to ghee, tea and pitted dates.

    Every year, Sapna Pal comes to Butala Emporium to do her Diwali shopping. Carrying a basket brimming with tea lights and other decorations, the Delhi native said her Diwali celebrations in the United States are usually intimate family affairs because most people prefer to pray in their own homes.

    When asked if she misses Diwali in India, Pal — who has lived in Queens for almost 25 years — responded: “Yes! Every day, every year, every year.” But she nonetheless still enjoys Diwali here, looking forward to the sweets — gulab jamun, rasmalai and different types of barfi are among her favorites — and the puja ceremonies.

    Outside a Patel Brothers grocery store branch, Bhanu Shetty has run a pop-up Diwali stall for two decades. Her son Pratik says the temporary Flowers by Bhanu stall typically draws around 3,000 customers over three days. She is more circumspect: “People come.”

    “We’ve always been known for flowers, but just for these three days we showcase all the temple offerings,” Pratik Shetty said, motioning to 3D stickers, garlands, stencils for the colored powder designs known as rangoli, pictures and, naturally, flowers. Most of the flowers are locally sourced, but the Diwali specialty is the $5 lotus imported from India.

    Ratan Sharma, a manager at India Sari Palace, says sweet shops and grocery stores are the biggest beneficiaries of the Diwali shopping. But his clothing store does well, too: “Once a year we give a benefit to the customers,” she said, “and they take advantage of it.” Sharma said the silk saris — typically on the more expensive end — are the most popular item during the annual Diwali sale.

    Jackson Heights is a multiethnic, multi-religious neighborhood, and some stores still featured signs offering Eid sales. Suneera Madhani, the Pakistani American founder of Stax, attended the Diwali party at The Pierre as a gesture of South Asian solidarity. She says she would love to heighten Eid’s profile in New York in a similar manner.

    The Diwali gala was certainly high-profile: Host Radhika Jones, the top editor at Vanity Fair, mingled with Ronan Farrow and Kelly Ripa, all clad in South Asian fashions. Chatterjee said her firm helped connect some non-South Asian attendees to designers, including fellow hosts Falguni and Shane Peacock.

    The party was at time raucous, with several bear hugs that lifted grown men clear off the ground. Gurung, clad in a glittering Abu Jani-Sandeep Khosla ensemble, tore up the dance floor to the 2014 hit “Baby Doll.” He was subsequently handed blotting paper by a pink salwar kameez-clad Ripa, whose husband, actor Mark Consuelos, pat the table to the beat. Padma Lakshmi and Sarita Choudhury embraced for the camera, with the former demonstrating some hip-shaking thumkas.

    “Our generation has really embraced our culture and the expression of it,” said another host, Anjula Acharia, Priyanka Chopra Jonas’ manager.

    Normally, she’d be spending the holiday with her illustrious client. But, marveling at the progress Diwali has made outside of South Asia and its diaspora, she said she’s spending it this year with President Joe Biden.

    “A few years ago, it really occurred to me: Diwali is not on the New York social scene in a way that I felt like it deserved to be, needed to be and I wanted it to be,” said restaurateur Maneesh Goyal, another host and the mastermind of the event.

    While he said that Diwali is “personally” a day of reflection, it’s also about celebrations and “happiness, positivity, bringing people together.”

    For Diwali to really permeate American culture, Gurung said, it will take “just us showing up consistently, constantly in the most graceful, beautiful, thoughtful way.” The resonance of the holiday’s themes alone — the victory of good over evil, light over dark — should do the rest of the work.

    “It’s the right time,” he said. “And also, it’s about time.”

    ___

    Mallika Sen is the entertainment news editor for The Associated Press. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mallikavsen

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  • Hurricane Roslyn heads for weekend hit on Mexico’s coast

    Hurricane Roslyn heads for weekend hit on Mexico’s coast

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    MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Roslyn moved off Mexico’s Pacific coast Friday night, with forecasters predictng a weekend landfall between the resorts of Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan.

    The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Roslyn became a Category 1 hurricane in the evening and its maximum sustained winds increased to 85 mph (140 kph) late Friday.

    The storm was centered about 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of Cabo Corrientes — the point of land jutting into the Pacific south of Puerto Vallarta — and moving west-northwest at 7 mph (11 kph).

    Forecasters said Roslyn could become a strong Category 2 hurricane before curving northward Saturday, brushing Cabo Corrientes and then reaching the coast Saturday night or early Sunday.

    Hurricane Orlene made landfall in roughly the same region, about 45 miles (75 kilometers) southeast of Mazatlan, on Oct. 3.

    The hurricane center said hurricane-force winds extended out 15 miles (30 kilometers) from Roslyn’s core, while tropical storm-force winds extended out to 70 miles (110 kilometers).

    Mexico issued a hurricane warning covering a stretch of coast from Playa Perula south of Cabo Corrientes north to El Roblito and for the Islas Marias.

    The National Water Commission said rains from Roslyn could cause mudslides and flooding. and the U.S. Hurricane Center warned of dangerous storm surge along the coast.

    Jalisco state Gov. Enrique Alfaro said on Twitter that any school activities in the region would be cancelled Saturday and he urged people to avoid touristic activities at beaches and in mountainous areas over the weekend.

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  • Germany to massively expand electric car charging network

    Germany to massively expand electric car charging network

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    BERLIN (AP) — Germany wants to massively expand the country’s charging network for electric cars, spending 6.3 billion euros ($6.17 billion) over the next three years as it expects more and more drivers to turn away from combustion cars to more climate-friendly vehicles.

    The country’s transportation minister on Wednesday presented a “master plan” for improving the charging infrastructure that had been passed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ cabinet earlier in the day.

    “We are not just any automotive location, but a leading one in the world. And that’s why it’s important to us that what we’re preparing succeeds well,” Volker Wissing told reporters in Berlin. “We need a forward-looking expansion of the nationwide charging infrastructure that meets demand and is user-friendly.”

    The share of electric vehicles in Germany grew 24.8% year-on-year to a total share of 14.6% of all newly registered automobiles, according to figures released by the country’s Federal Office for Motor Vehicles.

    There are around 70,000 charging points in the country but only 11,000 of those are fast-chargers, the ministry said.

    That is not enough to sufficiently fulfill the current needs, and it will be even less so as the number of electric cars grows quickly. There is also a big difference in availability of charging points between big cities and rural areas, where it is even harder to find charging stations.

    The German government’s goal is to have 1 million publicly accessible charging points in the country by 2030.

    In order to boost the number of charging points, the federal government will, among other initiatives provide real estate, especially along highways, where new charging stations can be built. Private owners of electric cars will be offered subsidized plans to install solar energy panels at their homes to charge their cars overnight.

    Electric charging is also supposed to get more user-friendly with new digital offers showing drivers where they can charge their cars on the road or being able to check online how much the different charging points demand, the minister said.

    Another issue the government wants to tackle is getting the country’s electric grid ready for the increased demand as more people turn to electric cars.

    “We are expecting an exponential increase in registered vehicles with battery electric drive in the next few years and must prepare accordingly,” the minister said.

    Switching Germans from combustion-engine automobiles to electric cars plays a key role in achieving the government’s climate targets set for the transport sector.

    The transformation to electric cars has also been boosted by a mix of regulatory pressure, tax breaks, improving battery range, and a wider range of vehicles to purchase.

    Europe in general is leading the push into battery-powered cars as electric vehicles enter the mainstream and has promised to phase out internal combustion cars by 2035.

    But availability of charging points is a problem not just in Germany but almost everywhere across the continent.

    “Not only is there an insufficient number of electric charging points along the road networks in most European Union countries, but the vast majority of these do not charge quickly enough,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said.

    Or as the German minister said: “Electric mobility will only find acceptance if charging is as easy as refueling is today.”

    ___

    Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.

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  • Norway intel agency takes over probe into drone sightings

    Norway intel agency takes over probe into drone sightings

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    COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s domestic security agency on Wednesday took over investigations of drone sightings near key infrastructure sites hours after the airport in the country’s second-largest city briefly closed due to area residents spotting at least one drone nearby.

    Bergen Airport, which is near Norway’s main naval base, shut down at around 6:30 a.m. when the area’s air space was closed and reopened 2½ hours later. Bergen police spokesman Ørjan Djuvik said several drone sightings were reported near the airport.

    “There can also be observations that could be other phenomenon, for instance weather,” Djuvik said. “We are sure that there is at least one.”

    North of Bergen, a drone was reported near the small, domestic Foerde airport, which also closed temporarily, Norwegian news agency NTB said.

    Numerous drone sightings have been reported near offshore oil and gas platforms and other Norwegian infrastructure in recent months, Hedvig Moe, deputy chief of the Norwegian Police Security Service, said.

    “We believe (the drone flights are) carried out in a way that makes it difficult to find out who is really behind it,” but Norwegian authorities suspect Russian involvement in operating unmanned aerial vehicles that “can be used for espionage or simply to create fear,” Moe said.

    “Russia simply has more to gain and less to lose by conducting intelligence activities in Norway now compared to the situation before the war,” she said during a news conference. “It is simply because Russia is in a pressed situation as a result of the war (in Ukraine) and is isolated by sanctions.”

    ”We are in a tense security-political situation, and at the same time a complex and unclear threat picture that can change in a relatively short time,” she said.

    At least seven Russian citizens were detained over the past few weeks for flying drones or taking photographs of sensitive sites in Norway.

    A 47-year-old man with dual Russian and British citizenship was jailed Wednesday for two weeks on suspicion of flying drones on Norway’s Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, NTB reported. He is accused of breaching sanctions which came into force after Russia went to war against Ukraine, Moe said, declining to elaborate.

    Under Norwegian law, it is prohibited for aircraft operated by Russian companies or citizens “to land on, take off from or fly over Norwegian territory.” Norway is not a member of the European Union but mirrors its moves.

    “It is not acceptable that foreign intelligence is flying drones over Norwegian airports. Russians are not allowed to fly drones in Norway,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK. “We do not want anyone to fly this type of craft over important installations in Norway.”

    Airport operator Avinor told NRK on Tuesday that 50 possible drone observations have been reported at Norway’s civilian airports so far this year, 27 of them since July.

    NTB said 17 and 14 drone sightings were reported in 2021 and 2020, respectively, while the number was 44 in 2019.

    The Norwegian Police Security Service, known by the acronym PST, plans to work closely with local police agencies which have conducted investigations, Moe said.

    Other European nations heightened security around key energy, internet and power infrastructure following last month’s underwater explosions that ruptured two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea that were built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.

    The damaged Nord Stream pipelines off Sweden and Denmark discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • 8 killed in Somalia as militants attack port city hotel

    8 killed in Somalia as militants attack port city hotel

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    MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Eight people were killed after militants stormed a hotel in Somalia’s port city of Kismayo, an attack that started with a suicide bombing Sunday before gunmen forcibly entered and exchanged fire with security forces.

    The Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, saying its fighters had penetrated the Tawakal Hotel.

    Security forces from the southern Somali state of Jubaland later ended the siege, killing the gunmen and rescuing scores of people, state media reported.

    There was no official word on casualties, but a doctor at Kismayo Hospital told The Associated Press of eight dead people, four of whom were security personnel.

    At least 41 people were wounded in the attack, the doctor said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge such information.

    Journalists were prevented from getting close to the scene of the attack. Footage shared on social media showed ambulances collecting the wounded from outside the hotel in central Kismayo.

    The city is located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

    The attack began when a car driven by a suicide bomber rammed the entrance gate of the hotel and then exploded, police officer Abshir Omar said by phone. A number of small businesses along the street were destroyed.

    Some government officials and traditional elders were eating lunch in the hotel at the time of the explosion, he said.

    Mohamed Nasi Guled, a senior police official in Jubaland, said three attackers entered the hotel’s premises.

    The hotel is popular as a meeting place for government officials. Al-Shabab is believed to have a strong presence in the areas surrounding Kismayo, the largest city and commercial capital of Jubaland.

    Al-Shabab, which has ties with al-Qaida, regularly carries out attacks in the Horn of Africa nation. Many of the group’s attacks target popular hotels.

    Al-Shabab opposes the Mogadishu-based federal government, which it perceives as a puppet of foreign governments. The group also opposes the presence of foreign troops in Somalia.

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  • Brazil pol and Bolsonaro ally refuses arrest, injures police

    Brazil pol and Bolsonaro ally refuses arrest, injures police

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    COMENDADOR LEVY GASPARIAN, Brazil (AP) — A Brazilian politician attacked federal police officers seeking to arrest him in his home on Sunday, prompting an hours-long siege that caused alarm and a scramble for a response at the highest level of government.

    Roberto Jefferson, a former lawmaker and an ally of President Jair Bolsonaro, fired a rifle at police and threw grenades, wounding two officers in the rural municipality Comendador Levy Gasparian, in Rio de Janeiro state. He said in a video message sent to supporters on WhatsApp that he refused to surrender, though by early evening he was in custody.

    The events were stunning even for Brazilians who have grown increasingly accustomed to far-right politicians and activists thumbing their noses at Supreme Court justices, and comes just days before Brazilians go to the polls to vote for president.

    The Supreme Court has sought to rein in the spread of disinformation and anti-democratic rhetoric ahead of the Oct. 30 vote, often inviting the ire of Bolsonaro’s base that decries such actions as censorship. As part of those efforts, Jefferson was jailed preventatively for making threats against the court’s justices.

    Jefferson in January received permission to serve his preventative arrest under house arrest, provided he complies with certain conditions. Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in a decision published Sunday that Jefferson has repeatedly violated those terms — most recently by using social media to compare one female justice to a prostitute — and ordered he be returned to prison.

    “I didn’t shoot anyone to hit them. No one. I shot their car and near them. There were four of them, they ran, I said, ’Get out, because I’m going get you,’” Jefferson said in the video. “I’m setting my example, I’m leaving my seed planted: resist oppression, resist tyranny. God bless Brazil.”

    Later, Brazil’s federal police said in another statement that Jefferson was also arrested for attempted murder.

    Bolsonaro was quick to criticize his ally in a live broadcast on social media. He denounced Jefferson’s statements against Supreme Court justices, including the threats and insults that led to his initial arrest, and Sunday’s attack. He also sought to distance himself from the former lawmaker.

    “There’s not a single picture of him and me,” Brazil’s president said. His opponents promptly posted several pictures of the two together on social media.

    Bolsonaro also said he dispatched Justice Minister Anderson Torres to the scene, without providing details on what his role would be.

    Bolsonaro’s base had mixed reactions, with some on social media hailing Jefferson as a hero for standing up to the top court. Dozens flocked to his house to show support as he remained holed up inside. They chanted, with one group holding a banner that read: “FREEDOM FOR ROBERTO JEFFERSON”.

    Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is campaigning to return to his former job, told reporters in Sao Paulo that Jefferson “does not have adequate behavior. It is not normal behavior.”

    Earlier this year, the Supreme Court convicted lawmaker Daniel Silveira for inciting physical attacks on the court’s justices as well as other authorities. Bolsonaro quickly issued a pardon for Silveira, who appeared beside the president after he cast his vote in the election’s first round on Oct. 2.

    The runoff vote between Bolsonaro and da Silva is set for Oct. 30

    “Brazil is terrified watching events that, this Sunday, reach the peak of the absurd,” Arthur Lira, the president of Congress’ Lower House and a Bolsonaro ally, wrote on Twitter. “We will not tolerate setbacks or attacks against our democracy.”

    ____

    Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.

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  • Fears over Russian threat to Norway’s energy infrastructure

    Fears over Russian threat to Norway’s energy infrastructure

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    STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Norwegian oil and gas workers normally don’t see anything more threatening than North Sea waves crashing against the steel legs of their offshore platforms. But lately they have noticed a more troubling sight: unidentified drones buzzing in the skies overhead.

    With Norway replacing Russia as Europe’s main source of natural gas, military experts suspect the unmanned aircraft are Moscow’s doings. They list espionage, sabotage and intimidation as possible motives for the drone flights.

    The Norwegian government has sent warships, coastguard vessels and fighter jets to patrol around the offshore facilities. Norway’s national guard stationed soldiers around onshore refineries that also were buzzed by drones.

    Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has invited the navies of NATO allies Britain, France and Germany to help address what could be more than a Norwegian problem.

    Precious little of the offshore oil that provides vast income for Norway is used by the country’s 5.4 million inhabitants. Instead, it powers much of Europe. Natural gas is another commodity of continental significance.

    “The value of Norwegian gas to Europe has never been higher,” Ståle Ulriksen, a researcher at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, said. “As a strategic target for sabotage, Norwegian gas pipelines are probably the highest value target in Europe.”

    Closures of airports, and evacuations of an oil refinery and a gas terminal last week due to drone sightings caused huge disruptions. But with winter approaching in Europe, there is worry the drones may portend a bigger threat to the 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) of gas pipelines that spider from Norway’s sea platforms to terminals in Britain and mainland Europe.

    Since the start of the war in Ukraine in late February, European Union countries have scrambled to replace their Russian gas imports with shipments from Norway. The suspected sabotage of the Nordstream I and II pipelines in the Baltic Sea last month happened a day before Norway opened a new Baltic pipeline to Poland.

    Amund Revheim, who heads the North Sea and environment group for Norway’s South West Police force, said his team interviewed more than 70 offshore workers who have spotted drones near their facilities.

    “The working thesis is that they are controlled from vessels or submarines nearby,” Revheim said.

    Winged drones have a longer range, but investigators considered credible a sighting of a helicopter-style bladed model near the Sleipner platform, located in a North Sea gas field 250 kilometers (150 miles) from the coast.

    Norwegian police have worked closely with military investigators who are analyzing marine traffic. Some platform operators have reported seeing Russian-flagged research vessels in close vicinity. Revheim said no pattern has been established from legal marine traffic and he is concerned about causing unnecessary, disruptive worry for workers.

    But Ulriksen, of the naval academy, said the distinction between Russian civilian and military ships is narrow and the reported research vessels could fairly be described as “spy ships.”

    The arrest of at least seven Russian nationals caught either carrying or illegally flying drones over Norwegian territory has raised tensions. On Wednesday, the same day a drone sighting grounded planes in Bergen, Norway’s second-biggest city, the Norwegian Police Security Service took over the case from local officers.

    “We have taken over the investigation because it is our job to investigate espionage and enforce sanction rules against Russia,” Martin Bernsen, an official with the service known by the Norwegian acronym PST. He said the “sabotage or possible mapping” of energy infrastructure was an ongoing concern.

    Støre, the prime minister, warned that Norway would take action against foreign intelligence agencies. “It is not acceptable for foreign intelligence to fly drones over Norwegian airports. Russians are not allowed to fly drones in Norway,” he said.

    Russia’s Embassy in Oslo hit back Thursday, claiming that Norway was experiencing a form of “psychosis” causing “paranoia.”

    Naval academy researcher thinks that is probably part of the plan.

    “Several of the drones have been flown with their lights on,” he said. “They are supposed to be observed. I think it is an attempt to intimidate Norway and the West.”

    The wider concern is that they are part of a hybrid strategy to both intimidate and gather information on vital infrastructure, which could later be targeted for sabotage in a potential strike against the West.

    “I do not believe we are heading for a conventional war with Russia,” Ulriksen said. “But a hybrid war … I think we are already in it.”

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Iran protests trigger solidarity rallies in US, Europe

    Iran protests trigger solidarity rallies in US, Europe

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Chanting crowds marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington DC and Los Angeles on Saturday in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of that country’s morality police.

    On the U.S. National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages — wearing green, white and red, the colors of the Iran flag — shouted in rhythm. “Be scared. Be scared. We are one in this,” demonstrators yelled, before marching to the White House. “Say her name! Mahsa!”

    The demonstrations, put together by grassroots organizers from around the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington D.C. area, with some travelling down from Toronto to join the crowd.

    In Los Angeles, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside of Iran, a throng of protesters formed a slow-moving procession along blocks of a closed downtown street. They chanted for the fall of Iran’s government and waved hundreds of Iranian flags that turned the horizon into a undulating wave of red, white and green.

    “We want freedom,” they thundered.

    Shooka Scharm, an attorney who was born in the U.S. after her parents fled the Iranian revolution, was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in English and Farsi. In Iran “women are like a second-class citizen and they are sick of it,” Scharm said.

    Iran’s nationwide antigovernment protest movement first focused on the country’s mandatory hijab covering for women following Amiri’s death on Sept. 16. The demonstrations there have since transformed into the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement over disputed elections. In Tehran on Saturday, more antigovernment protests took place at several universities.

    Iran’s security forces have dispersed gatherings in that country with live ammunition and tear gas, killing over 200 people, including teenage girls, according to rights groups.

    The Biden administration has said it condemns the brutality and repression against the citizens of Iran and that it will look for ways to impose more sanctions against the Iranian government if the violence continues.

    Between chants, protesters in D.C. broke into song, singing traditional Persian music about life and freedom — all written after the revolution in 1979 brought religious fundamentalists to power in Iran. They sang one in particular in unison — “Baraye,” meaning because of, which has become the unofficial anthem of the Iran protests. The artist of that song, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested shortly after posting the song to his Instagram in late September. It accrued more than 40 million views.

    “Because of women, life, freedom,” protesters sang, echoing a popular protest chant: “Azadi” — Freedom.

    The movement in Iran is rooted in the same issues as in the U.S. and around the globe, said protester Samin Aayanifard, 28, who left Iran three years ago. “It’s forced hijab in Iran and here in America, after 50 years, women’s bodies are under control,” said Aayanifard, who drove from East Lansing, Michigan to join the D.C. march. She referred to rollbacks of abortion laws in the United States. “It’s about control over women’s bodies.”

    Several weeks of Saturday solidarity rallies in the U.S. capital have drawn growing crowds.

    In Berlin, a crowd estimated by German police at several tens of thousands turned out to show solidarity for the women and activists leading the movement for the past few weeks in Iran. The protests in Germany’s capital, organized by the Woman(asterisk) Life Freedom Collective, began at the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten park and continued as a march through central Berlin.

    Some demonstrators there said they had come from elsewhere in Germany and other European countries to show their support.

    “It is so important for us to be here, to be the voice of the people of Iran, who are killed on the streets,” said Shakib Lolo, who is from Iran but lives in the Netherlands. “And this is not a protest anymore, this is a revolution, in Iran. And the people of the world have to see it.”

    ___

    Blood reported from Los Angeles.

    Follow AP’s coverage of Iran at: https://apnews.com/hub/iran

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  • Illegal border crossings to US from Mexico hit annual high

    Illegal border crossings to US from Mexico hit annual high

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    SAN DIEGO (AP) — A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua in September brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.

    Migrants were stopped 227,547 times in September at the U.S. border with Mexico, the third-highest month of Joe Biden’s presidency. It was up 11.5% from 204,087 times in August and 18.5% from 192,001 times in September 2021.

    In the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before, according to figures released late Friday night. The annual total surpassed 2 million for the first time in August and is more than twice the highest level during Donald Trump’s presidency in 2019.

    Nearly 78,000 migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua were stopped in September, compared to about 58,000 from Mexico and three countries of northern Central America that have historically accounted for most of the flow.

    The remarkable geographic shift is at least partly a result of Title 42, a public health rule that suspends rights to see asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

    Due to strained diplomatic relations, the U.S. cannot expel migrants to Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua. As a result, they are largely released in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.

    Title 42 authority has been applied 2.4 million times since it began in March 2020 but has fallen disproportionately on migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

    U.S. officials say Venezuelan migration to the United States has plunged more than 85% since Oct. 12, when the U.S. began expelling Venezuelans to Mexico under Title 42. At the same time, the Biden administration pledged to admit up to 24,000 Venezuelans to the United States on humanitarian parole if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport, similar to how tens of thousands of Ukrainians have come since Russia invaded their country.

    The first four Venezuelans paroled into the United States arrived Saturday — two from Mexico, one from Guatemala, one from Peru — and hundreds more have been approved to fly, the Homeland Security Department said.

    “While this early data is not reflected in the (September) report, it confirms what we’ve said all along: When there is a lawful and orderly way to enter the country, individuals will be less likely to put their lives in the hands of smugglers and try to cross the border unlawfully,” said CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus.

    The expansion of Title 42 for Venezuelans to be expelled to Mexico came despite the administration’s attempt to end the public health authority in May, which was blocked by a federal judge.

    Venezuelans represented the second-largest nationality at the border after Mexicans for the second straight month, being stopped 33,804 times in September, up 33% from 25,361 times in August.

    Cubans, who are participating in the largest exodus from the Caribbean island to the United States since 1980, were stopped 26,178 times at the border in September, up 37% from 19,060 in August.

    Nicaraguans were stopped 18,199 times in September, up 55% from 7,298 times in August.

    The report is the last monthly reading of migration flows before U.S. midterm elections, an issue that many Republicans have emphasized in campaigns to capture control of the House and Senate. Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee released a one-sentence statement Saturday in response to the numbers: “You’ve got to be kidding.”

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  • China’s Xi expands powers, promotes allies

    China’s Xi expands powers, promotes allies

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    BEIJING (AP) — President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader in decades, increased his dominance Sunday when he was named to another term as head of the ruling Communist Party in a break with tradition and promoted allies who support his vision of tighter control over society and the struggling economy.

    Xi, who took power in 2012, was awarded a third five-year term as general secretary, discarding a custom under which his predecessor left after 10 years. The 69-year-old leader is expected by some to try to stay in power for life.

    The party also named a seven-member Standing Committee, its inner circle of power, dominated by Xi allies after Premier Li Keqiang, the No. 2 leader and an advocate of market-style reform and private enterprise, was dropped from the leadership Saturday. That was despite Li being a year younger than the party’s informal retirement age of 68.

    “Power will be even more concentrated in the hands of Xi Jinping,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a Chinese politics expert at Hong Kong Baptist University. The new appointees are “all loyal to Xi,” he said. “There is no counterweight or checks and balances in the system at all.”

    On Saturday, Xi’s predecessor, 79-year-old Hu Jintao, abruptly left a meeting of the party Central Committee with an aide holding his arm. That prompted questions about whether Xi was flexing his powers by expelling other leaders. The official Xinhua News Agency later reported Hu was in poor health and needed to rest.

    Xi and other Standing Committee members — none of them women — appeared for the first time as a group before reporters in the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China’s ceremonial legislature in central Beijing.

    The No. 2 leader was Li Qiang, the Shanghai party secretary. That puts Li Qiang, who is no relation to Li Keqiang, in line to become premier, the top economic official. Zhao Leji, already a member, was promoted to No. 3, likely to head the legislature. Those posts are to be assigned when the legislature meets next year.

    Leadership changes were announced as the party wrapped up a twice-a-decade congress that was closely watched for initiatives to reverse an economic slump or changes in a severe “zero-COVID” strategy that has shut down cities and disrupted business. Officials disappointed investors and the Chinese public by announcing no changes.

    The lineup appeared to reflect what some commentators called “Maximum Xi,” valuing loyalty over ability. Some new leaders lack national-level experience as vice premier or Cabinet minister that typically is seen as a requirement for the post.

    Li Qiang’s promotion served as apparent confirmation, as it puts him in line to be premier with no background in national government. Li Qiang is seen as close to Xi after they worked together in Zhejiang province in the southeast in the early 2000s.

    Li Keqiang was sidelined over the past decade by Xi, who put himself in charge of policymaking bodies. Li Keqiang was excluded Saturday from the list of the party’s new 205-member Central Committee, from which the Standing Committee is picked.

    Another departure from the Standing Committee was Wang Yang, a reform advocate suggested by some as a possible premier. Wang, 67, is below retirement age.

    Other new Standing Committee members include Cai Qi, the Beijing party secretary, and Ding Xuexiang, a career party functionary who is regarded as Xi’s “alter ego” or chief of staff. Wang Huning, a former law school dean who is chief of ideology, stayed on the committee. The No. 7 member is Li Xi, the party secretary of Guangdong province in the southeast, the center of China’s export-oriented manufacturing industry.

    The Central Committee has 11 women, or 5% of the total. Its 24-member Politburo, which has had only four female members since the 1990s, has none following the departure of Vice Premier Sun Chunlan.

    Party plans call for creating a prosperous society by mid-century and restoring China to its historic role as a political, economic and cultural leader.

    Those ambitions face challenges from security-related curbs on access to Western technology, an aging workforce, and tensions with Washington, Europe and Asian neighbors over trade, security, human rights and territorial disputes.

    Xi has called for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation” and a revival of the party’s “original mission” as social, economic and culture leader in a throwback to what he sees as a golden age after it took power in 1949.

    During the congress, Xi called for faster military development, “self-reliance and strength” in technology and defense of China’s interests abroad, which raises the likelihood of further conflict.

    The party has tightened control over entrepreneurs who generate jobs and wealth, prompting warnings that rolling back market-oriented reforms will weigh on economic growth that sank to 2.2% in the first half of this year — less than half the official 5.5% target.

    “Clearly, it’s a return to a much more state-controlled type of economy,” said Cabestan. “This means, for private business, they will be on an even shorter leash, with party committees everywhere.”

    Under a revived 1950s propaganda slogan, “common prosperity,” Xi is pressing entrepreneurs to help narrow China’s wealth gap by raising wages and paying for rural job creation and other initiatives.

    Xi, in a report to the congress last week, called for “regulating the mechanism of wealth accumulation,” suggesting entrepreneurs might face still more political pressure, but gave no details.

    “I would worry if I were a very wealthy individual in China,” said economist Alicia Garcia Herrero of Natixis.

    In his report, Xi stressed the importance of national security and control over China’s supplies of food, energy and industrial goods. He gave no indication of possible changes in policies that prompted then-President Donald Trump to launch a tariff war with Beijing in 2018 over its technology ambitions.

    The party is trying to nurture Chinese creators of renewable energy, electric car, computer chip, aerospace and other technologies. Its trading partners complain Beijing improperly subsidizes and shields its suppliers from competition.

    Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, has kept punitive tariff hikes on Chinese goods and this month increased restrictions on China’s access to U.S. chip technology.

    The party has tightened control over private sector leaders, including e-commerce giant Alibaba Group. Under political pressure, they are diverting billions of dollars into chip development and other party initiatives. Their share prices on foreign exchanges have plunged due to uncertainty about their future.

    The party will “step up its industrial policy” to close the “wide gap” between what Chinese tech suppliers can make and what is needed by smartphone, computer and other manufacturers, said Garcia Herrero and Gary Ng of Natixis in a report.

    Abroad, Chinese efforts to assert leadership will lead to “more tension and difficulty,” because “countries are not just going to follow the Chinese model,” said Steve Tsang, director of the University of London’s China Institute.

    With potential dissenters forced out, “there is nobody in Beijing who can advise Xi Jinping that this is not the way to go,” Tsang said.

    Xi gave no indication Beijing will change its “zero-COVID” strategy despite public frustration with repeated city closures that has boiled over into protests in Shanghai and other areas.

    Xi’s priorities of security and self-sufficiency will “drag on China’s productivity growth,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, Sheana Yue and Mark Williams of Capital Economics in a report. “His determination to stay in power makes a course correction unlikely.”

    The central bank governor, Yi Gang, and bank regulator, Guo Shuqing, also were missing from Saturday’s Central Committee list, indicating they will retire next year, as expected.

    Xi suspended retirement rules to keep Gen. Zhang Youxia, 72, on the Central Committee. That allows Zhang, a veteran of China’s 1979 war with Vietnam, to stay as Xi’s deputy chairman on the commission that controls the party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army.

    The party elite agreed in the 1990s to limit the general secretary to two five-year terms in hopes of avoiding a repeat of power struggles in previous decades. That leader also becomes chairman of the military commission and takes the ceremonial title of president.

    Xi has led an anti-corruption crackdown that snared thousands of officials, including a retired Standing Committee member and deputy Cabinet ministers. That broke up party factions and weakened potential challengers.

    Xi is on track to become the first leader in a generation to pick his own successor but has yet to indicate possible candidates. Hu Jintao and his predecessor, Jiang Zemin, both were picked in the 1980s by then-supreme leader Deng Xiaoping.

    Ahead of the congress, banners criticizing Xi and “zero COVID” were hung above a major Beijing thoroughfare in a rare protest. Photos of the event were deleted from social media. The popular WeChat messaging app shut down accounts that forwarded them.

    Xi’s government also faces criticism over mass detentions and other abuses against mostly Muslim ethnic groups and the jailing of government critics.

    ___

    AP video producer Caroline Chen contributed.

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  • Ukrainian woman’s quest to retrieve body of prisoner of war

    Ukrainian woman’s quest to retrieve body of prisoner of war

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    CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — In the last, brief conversations Viktoria Skliar had with her detained boyfriend, the Ukrainian prisoner of war was making tentative plans for life after his release in an upcoming exchange with Russia.

    The next time Skliar saw Oleksii Kisilishin, he was dead — one of several bodies in a photo of people local authorities said were killed when blasts ripped through a prison in a part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

    For months, Skliar had held out hope she would reunite with her partner, who had been one of the defenders of the Azovstal steel plant, the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the besieged city of Mariupol.

    Now, she has retrained her focus on getting his body back. Against enormous odds, Ukraine has now received the remains of dozens of prisoners who were held at the prison in Olenivka. But with experts still needing months to identify all the bodies — and no guarantee Kisilishin is among them — Skliar’s quest is far from over.

    That she even knows her boyfriend is dead is remarkable. She recognized his tattoos in a photo shared on social media following the July 29 blasts. It showed him laid out, semi-naked, on the ground in a line with eight other bodies.

    “When I saw the photo, my eyes did not go beyond Oleksii’s body,” Skliar told The Associated Press. “I didn’t have time to cry. I cried all my tears when they were in Azovstal. My first thought was to get the body back somehow.”

    Skliar said she contacted representatives with the International Committee of the Red Cross, told them about the photo and gave them his name in the hopes that they’d be able to arrange for him to be brought home. The humanitarian organization couldn’t tell her much — the group had to wait for official lists of prisoners and agreements from politicians before it could help repatriate any bodies.

    While she waited for word, Skliar feared her loved one would end up in a mass grave.

    Kisilishin, who died at 26, was called back to the Azov Regiment, part of the Ukrainian National Guard, where he’d served until 2016, two weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. The animal caregiver and activist had chosen to return to defend his hometown of Mariupol, rather than stay in Kyiv, where he’d met Skliar at an equestrian club a year before.

    When Kisilishin was holed up at the Azovstal steel mill during a three-month siege of the city, they spoke every day until Russian forces encircled the plant.

    In May, he was captured when the last Azovstal defenders were told by Ukraine’s military to turn themselves over to Russian forces.

    From captivity, Skliar continued to have phone calls from him, though they never lasted longer than a minute. Her boyfriend said little about himself, responding only “it’s OK” or “bearable” when she asked him how he was.

    Then, Skliar said she received a call from Kisilishin — and his voice was cheerful. “He said that they will be taken somewhere. He hoped for an exchange,” she said.

    She believes he was taken to Olenivka that day or soon after. Later, she said she heard from the Red Cross that he would be part of an upcoming prisoner exchange. But three weeks after that, he was dead.

    Authorities at the prison and Russian officials have said 53 Ukrainian POWs died in the blasts and another 75 were wounded. On a list of the victims released by Moscow and published in Russian media, Kisilishin was number 43.

    What exactly happened in Olenivka remains unknown.

    Russia claims Ukraine’s military hit the prison with rockets. The Ukrainian military denied launching any strikes and accused Russia of mining it. Kyiv alleges that the Kremlin’s forces tortured prisoners held in Olenivka — and that the blasts were meant to cover up any evidence of those crimes.

    The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights raised concerns recently about reports that prisoners in Olenivka and elsewhere were subjected to beatings, electrocution and other abuse.

    The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Ukrainian allegations of what happened in Olenivka.

    Russia and Ukraine agreed in August to a U.N. fact-finding mission, but U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said just over a week ago that the “appropriate security guarantees” were not in place for the work to start.

    When other Ukrainian POWs returned in September, the photos showed emaciated but smiling faces. Skliar believes Kisilishin was supposed to be among them.

    Instead, he probably returned to Ukraine in a bag labeled “Olenivka” — with 62 other bodies that were exchanged on Oct. 11. Relatives of soldiers have given DNA samples, and experts are now working to identify the remains, said the representative of the Patronage Service of the Azov Regiment, Natalia Bahrii.

    It’s not clear why there were more than 60 bodies in the exchange, even though authorities put the death toll from the blasts at just over 50.

    Kisilishin’s father, Oleksandr — who himself was captured as a POW and released — has given a sample.

    To honor his son, the father, working with the NGO UAnimals, plans to arrange grants for animal shelters — continuing the work that Kisilishin devoted his life to.

    The older Kisilishin and Skliar don’t talk much about their loved one. “We can’t have him back anyway,” Skliar recounted the father once said to her.

    Still, Skliar hopes she will one day be able to bury him.

    “He fought for the free people of a free country; he defended his city, Mariupol,” Viktoria said. “He is a warrior. And he has the right to be buried in the land he defended.”

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Russia’s defense chief warns of ‘dirty bomb’ provocation

    Russia’s defense chief warns of ‘dirty bomb’ provocation

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    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s defense chief alleged Sunday that Ukraine was preparing a “provocation” involving a radioactive device, a stark claim that was strongly rejected by U.S., British and Ukrainian officials amid soaring tensions as Moscow struggles to stem Ukrainian advances in the south.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu made the allegations in phone calls with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, France and Turkey.

    Russia’s defense ministry said Shoigu voiced concern about “possible Ukrainian provocations involving a ‘dirty bomb,’” a device that uses explosives to scatter radioactive waste. It doesn’t have the devastating effect of a nuclear explosion, but could expose broad areas to radioactive contamination.

    Russian authorities repeatedly have made allegations that Ukraine could detonate a dirty bomb in a false flag attack and blame it on Moscow. Ukrainian authorities, in turn, have accused the Kremlin of hatching such a plan.

    British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace strongly rejected Shoigu’s claim and warned Moscow against using it as a pretext for escalation.

    The British Ministry of Defense noted that Shoigu, in a call with Wallace, “alleged that Ukraine was planning actions facilitated by Western countries, including the UK, to escalate the conflict in Ukraine.”

    “The Defense Secretary refuted these claims and cautioned that such allegations should not be used as a pretext for greater escalation,” the ministry said.

    The U.S. also rejected Shoigu’s “transparently false allegations,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement. “The world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.”

    In a televised address Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested that Moscow itself was setting the stage for deploying a radioactive device on Ukrainian soil.

    “If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means only one thing: that Russia has already prepared all of it,” Zelenskyy said.

    The mention of the dirty bomb threat in Shoigu’s calls seemed to indicate the threat of such an attack has risen to an unprecedented level.

    The French Ministry of the Armed Forces said Shoigu told his counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu, that the situation in Ukraine was rapidly worsening and “trending towards uncontrollable escalation.”

    “It appears that there is a shared feeling that the tensions have approached the level that could raise the real threat for all,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, the Kremlin-connected head of the Council for Foreign and Defense policies, a Moscow-based group of top foreign affairs experts.

    The rising tensions come as Russian authorities reported building defensive positions in occupied areas of Ukraine and border regions of Russia, reflecting fears that Ukrainian forces may attack along new sections of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line of the war, which enters its ninth month on Monday.

    In recent weeks, Ukraine has focused its counteroffensive mostly on the Kherson region. Their relentless artillery strikes cut the main crossings across the Dnieper River, which bisects the southern region, leaving Russian troops on the west bank short of supplies and vulnerable to encirclement.

    Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Russian-installed regional administration in Kherson, said Sunday in a radio interview that Russian defensive lines “have been reinforced and the situation has remained stable” since local officials strongly encouraged all residents of the region’s capital and nearby areas Saturday to evacuate by ferry to the river’s east bank.

    The region is one of four that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed last month and put under Russian martial law on Thursday. Kherson city has been in Russian hands since the early days of the war, but Ukraine’s forces have made advances toward reclaiming it.

    About 20,000 Kherson residents have moved to places on the east bank of the Dnieper River, the Kremlin-backed regional administration reported. The Ukrainian military said Sunday that Russia’s military also withdrew its officers from areas on the west bank, leaving newly mobilized, inexperienced forces.

    The Ukrainian claim could not be independently verified.

    As Ukraine presses south after liberating the Kharkiv region in the north last month, authorities in the western Russian provinces bordering northeastern Ukraine appeared jittery.

    The governor of Russia’s Kursk region, Roman Starovoit, said Sunday that two defensive lines have been built and a third one would be finished by Nov. 5.

    Defensive lines were also established in the Belgorod region, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

    More defensive positions were being built in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, said Yevgeny Prigozhin, a millionaire Russian businessman who owns the Wagner Group, a mercenary military company that has played a prominent role in the war.

    Prigozhin said his company was constructing a “Wagner line” in the Luhansk region, another of the Ukrainian provinces Putin illegally annexed last month. Prigozhin posted images last week showing a section of newly built defenses and trench systems southeast of the town of Kreminna.

    The British Defense Ministry said Sunday “the project suggests Russia is making a significant effort to prepare defenses in depth behind the current front line, likely to deter any rapid Ukrainian counteroffensives.”

    Russia’s forces captured Luhansk several months ago. Pro-Moscow separatists declared independent republics in the region and neighboring Donetsk eight years ago, and Putin made controlling all of both provinces a goal at the war’s outset.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank in Washington, said Sunday that Russia’s latest strategy of targeting power plants appeared aimed at diminishing Ukrainians’ will to fight and forcing the government in Kyiv to devote more resources to protecting civilians and energy infrastructure.

    It said the effort was unlikely to damage Ukrainian morale but would have significant economic impacts.

    President Zelenskyy said Sunday that utilities workers were well on their way to restoring electricity supplies cut off by large-scale Russian missile strikes Saturday, but acknowledged that it would take longer to provide heating.

    Nine regions across Ukraine, from Odesa in the southwest to Kharkiv in the northeast, saw more attacks targeting energy and other critical infrastructure over the past day, the Ukrainian army’s general staff said. It reported a total of 25 Russian airstrikes and more than 100 missile and artillery strikes around Ukraine.

    In response, Zelenskyy appealed to mayors and other local leaders to ensure that Ukrainians heed official calls to conserve energy. “Now is definitely not the time for bright storefronts and signs,” he said.

    ___

    Aamer Madhani and Lolita Baldor in Washington and Joanna Kozlowska in London contributed to this report.

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • 5 Australian Women Sue Qatar Over Forced Airport Vaginal Exams

    5 Australian Women Sue Qatar Over Forced Airport Vaginal Exams

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    Five Australian women are suing the government of Qatar over forced vaginal exams and other invasive medical procedures at gunpoint at the Doha airport two years ago.

    The women are seeking damages from both Qatar Airways and the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority — owned by the Qatari government — over the “unlawful physical contact” and damage to their mental health, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    The case has been filed just weeks before Qatar’s controversial hosting of the World Cup — a venue decision linked to massive bribes of soccer officials — amid concerns about treatment of female fans who may kiss or have sex with their boyfriends, drink alcohol and wear revealing clothing.

    The plaintiffs and several women on a Qatar Airways flight headed to Sydney — including citizens from Australia, New Zealand and Britain —were pulled off the aircraft and subjected to invasive gynecological exams in October 2020 after an abandoned newborn was discovered in an airport bathroom. Abandoned newborns are a problem in the country, which imprisons women who become pregnant out of wedlock.

    The women were taken to ambulances on the tarmac, some at gunpoint, the lawsuit stated, locked inside and told to remove their underwear for an examination, the BBC reported at the time.

    One of the women, a 33-year-old nurse, told The New York Times that she has not traveled since. “It completely changed me as a person, that day,” she said.

    “It seems like they’ve just moved on, they’re not sorry for it,” she added. “They’re going on with their lives normally while we’re all here, quite affected.”

    Officials initially insisted the searches were “wholly inconsistent with Qatar’s culture and values.” After a cascade of controversy, officials apologized, and an airport officer who arranged the searches was arrested and eventually given a suspended sentence.

    Australia filed an official complaint after the nation’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison blasted the “appalling” searches, and Foreign Minister Marise Payne called the measures “grossly disturbing [and] offensive.”

    Attorney Damian Sturzaker, partner at the Marque Lawyers firm, which is representing the women who are suing, told the Guardian this week he was “proud to stand with this group of brave women who have been forced to take on the Qatar government after it gravely breached their human rights.”

    As of Saturday night, the Qatar government hadn’t yet responded to the suit.

    The newborn discovered the day of the searches survived and was turned over to social services. The baby’s mother and father, later tracked down, were both reportedly from “Asian countries,” officials said. In Qatar, that typically means nations in South Asia, a source of a large number of migrant workers in the country. Human rights activists have sharply criticized Qatar not only for its treatment of women, but of migrants as well.

    It’s illegal to have sex outside of marriage in the ultraconservative nation, and migrant women who become pregnant out of wedlock risk imprisonment, driving some to abandon their babies.

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  • 2022 Midterm Election updates as Democrats, GOP fight to win House of Representatives, Senate

    2022 Midterm Election updates as Democrats, GOP fight to win House of Representatives, Senate

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    Dem candidate’s support for abolish ICE movement is ‘disgraceful,’ former immigration official says

    EXCLUSIVE:
     A former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, who served during the final days of President Trump’s tenure in the White House, is warning of the danger some congressional Democratic candidates pose to the agency’s mission of securing America’s borders and protecting United States citizens.

    Several Democrats running for office in states around the country have come under fire for their views on immigration and how they believe issues at the southern border should be handled as border patrol agents continue to be overwhelmed by large influxes of illegal migrants.

    One Democratic Senate candidate in particular, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is seeking to unseat incumbent GOP Sen. Ron Johnson in the Badger State’s Nov. 8 midterm election, has liked numerous tweets that called for ICE to be abolished and criticized the agency. Similarly, in 2019, Barnes told the Wisconsin-based immigration group Voces de la Frontera Action that the “wrong ICE is melting.”

    In an interview with Fox News Digital, Jonathan Fahey, a former deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security who later served as the acting director of ICE from December 2020 to January 2021, reacted to the rhetoric from Barnes and considered it to be detrimental to ICE’s mission to provide safety for Americans.

    “It’s kind of interesting how he’s trying to walk this back now because he’s running for election, trying to center himself to the middle,” Fahey said of Barnes. “He was associated with groups, liked tweets and other stuff to show that he wanted ICE abolished and it’s really just anti-ICE. He and others have been on this crusade to just take down ICE, demonize ICE agents in every single respect by calling them racists, delegitimizing what they’re doing, and treating them like they’re doing something heavy-handed, unlawful, when they’re simply just doing their job, trying to keep our communities safe and our country safe.… It really is disgraceful.”

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    Dem candidate’s support for abolish ICE movement is ‘disgraceful,’ former immigration official says

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  • Saudis Sentence U.S. Citizen To 16 Years Over Tweets: Family

    Saudis Sentence U.S. Citizen To 16 Years Over Tweets: Family

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    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.

    Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

    There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.

    State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel, speaking to reporters in Washington, confirmed Almadi’s detention Tuesday.

    “We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington DC as well and we will continue to do so,” he said. “We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as yesterday.”

    It appeared to be the latest in a series of recent cases in which Saudis received long jail sentences for social media posts critical of the government.

    Saudi authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has adopted a hard line toward any criticism.

    JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – SEPTEMBER 27: The new Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz (not seen) after the change in the cabinet with the Royal Decree of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on September 27, 2022. The new cabinet, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Khalid bin Salman became the Minister of Defense. (Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

    Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

    A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student at Leeds University in England was sentenced to 34 years for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, a case that drew international outrage.

    Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 “mild tweets” posted on Twitter over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption. He says his father was not an activist but a private citizen expressing his opinion while in the U.S., where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.

    President Joe Biden traveled to the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Prince Mohammed, in which he said he confronted him about human rights. Their meeting — and a widely criticized fist-bump — marked a sharp turnaround from Biden’s earlier vow to make the kingdom a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

    Ibrahim said his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Oct. 3 on charges of supporting terrorism. The father was also charged with failing to report terrorism, over tweets that Ibrahim had posted.

    His father was also slapped with a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 upon his release and barred from returning home to the U.S. unless he reaches the age of 104.

    Ibrahim said Saudi authorities warned his family to stay quiet about the case and to not involve the U.S. government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.

    Ibrahim also accused the State Department of neglecting his father’s case by not declaring him a “wrongfully detained” American, which would elevate his file.

    “They manipulated me. They told me to stay quiet so they can get him out,” Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. “I am not willing to take a gamble on the Department of State anymore.”

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  • US: French cement firm admits Islamic State group payments

    US: French cement firm admits Islamic State group payments

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    NEW YORK (AP) — French cement company Lafarge pleaded guilty Tuesday to paying millions of dollars to the Islamic State group to keep a plant operational in Syria — at a time when the militant group was engaged in torturing kidnapped Westerners — and agreed to pay roughly $778 million in penalties.

    The Justice Department accused the company of turning a blind eye to the conduct of the Islamic State, negotiating a revenue-sharing agreement with the militant group as it was acquiring new territory and as Syria was mired in a brutal civil war. The company’s actions, already investigated by French law enforcement authorities, occurred before it merged with Swiss company Holcim to form the world’s largest cement maker.

    Justice Department officials described it as the first case in which a company has pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Lafarge and a long-defunct Syrian subsidiary entered the plea in federal court in Brooklyn, agreeing to criminal fines of $90.78 million and a forfeiture of $687 million.

    “There is no justification – none – for a multi-national corporation authorizing payments to a designated terrorist group. Such payments are egregious violations of our laws, justify maximum scrutiny by U.S. authorities, and warrant severe punishment,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official.

    Prosecutors say the company paid through intermediaries nearly $6 million to IS and al-Nusrah Front, another militant group, in 2013 and 2014. The fixed monthly payments weren’t because of the company’s ideological alignment with the groups, the Justice Department said, but made purely in pursuit of an economic advantage.

    The company had constructed a $680 million plant in northern Syria in 2011, and facing competition from cheaper cement imported from Turkey, regarded the payments to IS as a way to ensure the continued operations of the plant and to protect its employees and the transport of raw materials into the facility.

    The Justice Department accused the company of using fake contracts and falsified invoices to hide the partnerships, and of committing to a revenue-sharing agreement with IS in hopes that it would incentivize the group to protect the company’s interests.

    In one message, a company executive told colleagues that “we have to maintain the principle that we are ready to share the ‘cake,’ if there is a cake.’”

    And after Lafarge evacuated the plant in September 2014, IS took possession of the cement that the company had produced and sold it at prices that would have yielded the group about $3.21 million, prosecutors say.

    The payments came at a time when other companies were pulling operations out of the region and at a time when beheading videos released as publicity by IS made clear to the world the Islamic State’s barbaric actions.

    Charging documents, for instance, quote an Aug. 20, 2014, email exchange in which company officials describe their negotiations with IS, with one talking about the need to check with a company lawyer about “the consequences of this kind of deal.” One day earlier, IS had released a grisly video of the murder of freelance American journalist James Foley.

    “Make no mistake: Lafarge and its leadership had every reason to know exactly with whom they were dealing — and they didn’t flinch,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday.

    “Instead,” she added, “Lafarge forged ahead, working with ISIS to keep operations open, undercut competitors, and maximize revenue. And all the while, through their support and funding, Lafarge enabled the operations of a brutal terrorist organization.”

    The allegations involve conduct that was earlier investigated by authorities in France. Lafarge had previously acknowledged funneling money to Syrian armed organizations in 2013 and 2014 to guarantee safe passage for employees and supply its plant.

    In 2014, the company was handed preliminary charges including financing a terrorist enterprise and complicity in crimes against humanity.

    A French court later quashed the charges involving crimes against humanity but said other charges would be considered over payments made to armed forces in Syria.

    That ruling was later overturned by France’s supreme court, leading another French court earlier this year to state that Lafarge must face charges of complicity in crimes against humanity.

    No date for a trial of Lafarge and eight of its executives has been set yet in France.

    The wrongdoing precedes Lafarge’s merger with Holcim in 2015, though the Justice Department said the transaction was completed without a thorough examination of Lafarge’s past activities in Syria.

    In a statement, Holcim said that when it learned of the allegations from the news media in 2016, it voluntarily conducted an investigation and disclosed the findings publicly. It fired the former Lafarge executives who were involved in the payments.

    “None of the conduct involved Holcim, which has never operated in Syria, or any Lafarge operations or employees in the United States, and it is in stark contrast with everything that Holcim stands for,” the company said. “The DOJ noted that former Lafarge SA and LCS executives involved in the conduct concealed it from Holcim before and after Holcim acquired Lafarge SA, as well as from external auditors.”

    Lafarge said in its own statement that it has “accepted responsibility for the actions of the individual executives involved.” It added: We deeply regret that this conduct occurred and have worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to resolve this matter.“

    It said the “conduct occurred during a period of intense violence and coercive pressure from terrorist groups,” as the company “tried to manage the grave security challenges in the area surrounding its cement plant during the Syrian civil war.”

    The Islamic State group is abbreviated as IS and has been referred to as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

    ___

    Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report.

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  • New Zealand arts funder rejects Shakespeare as ‘imperialism’

    New Zealand arts funder rejects Shakespeare as ‘imperialism’

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    WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Is Shakespeare still relevant to today’s students?

    New Zealand’s arts council appears to have its doubts after ending funding for a popular school Shakespeare program, arguing it relied too heavily on busy schools, failed to show relevance to “the contemporary art context” and relied on a genre “located within a canon of imperialism.”

    But many have taken issue with the decision by Creative New Zealand, including Jacinda Ardern, the nation’s prime minister — and former student thespian.

    “I was a participant in Shakespeare in Schools. I thought it was a great program,” Ardern said.

    She said students interested in drama and debate have limited opportunities to interact with peers from other schools.

    “I was one of those kids. And so I would like to continue to see other kids have those opportunities,” she said.

    Ardern added that the funding decision wasn’t up to her, or even to the government. Creative New Zealand is funded by taxpayers but is run independently.

    The school programs, workshops and festivals have been run for about 30 years by the Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand. Students can act, direct make costumes or create a soundtrack. Often the plays are set in contemporary times or have different takes on the originals written by William Shakespeare more than 400 years ago.

    The center has been receiving about 30,000 New Zealand dollars ($17,000) each year from the arts council, about 10% of its overall budget.

    Dawn Sanders, the center’s chief executive, said the initial rejection last month, which remained in place after a crisis meeting Friday, blindsided her.

    “I was gobsmacked and disgusted,” she said.

    She said more than 120,000 students had been involved in the festivals and programs over the years, and many became professionals in theater or film.

    Others, she said, had used their acting skills in their jobs, for instance lawyers who were better able to argue their cases or doctors who developed a more engaging bedside manner.

    Creative New Zealand did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    In its 11-page rejection note, however, one arts council assessor said the center had “proved the ongoing value” of its regional and national Shakespeare competition model, with some 4,600 young people participating in 24 regional festivals annually.

    “The application does make me reflect on the ongoing relevance of Shakespeare, and question whether a singular focus on an Elizabethan playwright is most relevant for a decolonizing Aotearoa in the 2020s and beyond,” the assessor added, using the Indigenous name for New Zealand.

    A panel concluded that the Shakespeare center “seems quite paternalistic” and that its funding proposal “did not demonstrate the relevance to the contemporary art context.”

    Sanders said she would try to find alternative funding and vowed the show would go on. Since the dispute became public, she said, people had already donated thousands of dollars through online crowdsourcing.

    Former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters wrote on Facebook that the decision amounted to political and social engineering by “overpaid sickly liberal bureaucratic wokester morons.”

    Ardern, meanwhile, said it would be wrong to extrapolate a wider comment on society from a single funding decision. And she demurred on saying what Shakespeare role she had played as a student, saying such a disclosure could become a distraction.

    “So I might just leave out the details for now,” she said.

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  • Iran’s celebrities face reprisals for supporting protests

    Iran’s celebrities face reprisals for supporting protests

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    BAGHDAD (AP) — Singers, actors, sports stars — the list goes on. Iranian celebrities have been startlingly public in their support for the massive anti-government protests shaking their country. And the ruling establishment is lashing back.

    Celebrities have found themselves targeted for arrest, have had passports confiscated and faced other harassment.

    Among the most notable cases is that of singer Shervin Hajipour, whose song “For …” has become an anthem for the protest movement, which erupted Sept. 17 over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for not abiding by the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.

    The song begins with a soft melody, then Hajipour’s resonant voice starts, “For dancing in the streets,” “for the fear we feel when we kiss …” — listing reasons young Iranians have posted on Twitter for why they are taking to the streets against the ruling theocracy.

    It ends with the widely chanted slogan that has become synonymous with the protests: “For women, life, freedom.”

    Released on his Instagram page, the song quickly went viral. Hajipour paid the price: The 25-year-old was arrested and held for several days before being released on bail on Oct. 4.

    Since the protests took off — and expanded from anger at Amini’s death to a complete challenge to the 43-year-old rule by conservative Islamic clerics — a string of celebrities have faced reprisals, from singers and soccer players to news anchors.

    At least seven public figures have been detained inside the country, most of whom were released on bail and could face charges, according to Iranian news outlets. Others were questioned and released.

    But their popularity has also made it difficult to crack down too hard on them — in contrast to protest activists whom security forces have arrested in large numbers. Iran has a vibrant scene of singers and actors, as well as sports stars, who are closely followed by the public.

    Holly Dagres, an Iranian-American non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said the attempts to intimidate public figures were no surprise.

    “Celebrities — be it athletes, actors, singers or artists — have a large following inside Iran, particularly on social media, and their support gives life to these protests,” she said.

    Their support has helped invigorate protesters struggling with widespread internet outages that limit their ability to have their voices heard and facing a brutal government crackdown. There have been widespread arrests, dozens have died and many more wounded. Still, protests have spread to dozens of cities, drawing broad segments of Iranian society, from schoolgirls to oil workers.

    One of Iran’s most beloved singers of classical Persian music, Homayoun Shajarian, projected a large photo of Amini behind him on stage as he sang a traditional song, “Dawn Bird,” during a tour in Australia in September.

    The audience joined him in singing one of the song’s most iconic lines: “The tyrant’s oppression like a hunter has blown away my nest. God, Sky, Nature, bring dawn to our dark night.”

    When Shajarian returned to Iran, his passport and that of actress Sahar Dolatshahi, who was traveling with him, were seized at the airport. He later said on his Instagram account that they had been barred from travel.

    Similarly, a soccer legend in Iran, Ali Daei, had his passport confiscated at the airport when he returned from abroad. He had urged the government on social media to “solve the problems of the Iranian people rather than using repression, violence and arrests.”

    A few days later, the passport was returned to him, he told the press.

    Two well known former soccer players, Hossein Mahini and Hamidreza Aliasgari, were arrested and released on bail. Mona Borzoui, a female songwriter and Mahmoud Shahriari, a former state TV showman, have also been arrested and face charges.

    Iranian leaders blame foreign governments for fanning the protests. Iranian Deputy Interior Minister Majid Mirahmadi said celebrities in particular have had a “steering role” in the unrest.

    Mirahmadi said celebrities who have backed the protests will be allowed to atone for their “mistaken actions.”

    He denied any athletes had been arrested but said some had received “guidance.” He said Mahini, for example, had been released and given “the chance to make good on his mistakes,” according to the Mehr News Agency.

    Public figures have not been deterred.

    Amirhossein Esfandiar, a national volleyball player, reposted a video of violent confrontations between security forces and protesters, writing, “You have no sense of humanity, why do you beat and kill innocent people?”

    Qasim Haddadifar, a veteran sportsman and former soccer captain, published photos of girls protesting and wrote he was proud of them in an Instagram story.

    Some players on the soccer team Persepolis F.C. reportedly wore black armbands during a Wednesday match in solidarity with the protest movement and were later summoned by security, reported British-based Iran International.

    Actress Hediye Tehrani said Iranian security had warned her about her posts to her nearly 1 million Instagram followers. Still, she continues to share images in support of the protests. “Millions of girls are now Mahsa Amini,” she wrote in a recent post.

    Celebrities outside of Iran have also raised their voices, from Dua Lipa and Shakira to the fashion house Balenciaga. On Instagram, Angelina Jolie posted a photo of a protester holding up an image of Amini and wrote, “To the women of Iran, we see you.”

    The ruling establishment clearly sees danger in celebrities’ wide reach. Ali Saaedi Shahroudi, a former representative of the Supreme Leader of Revolutionary Guards, called for an organization to oversee the behavior of musicians, actors and sports stars, similar to institutions regulating professional groups.

    But the damage may have already been done.

    Although Hajipour was forced to remove his song from Instagram, it continues to reverberate, sung by everyone from Iranian school girls to protesters in European capitals.

    A campaign is under way to nominate the song for a Grammy, in the best song for social change category.

    “While using #MahsaAmini might seem like keyboard activism, Iranians see the world’s attention is on them and they appreciate it,” said Dagres. “The solidarity invigorates protesters to keep braving batons and bullets to make a change in their country. It gives them hope.”

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  • Ukrainians’ resilience persists despite new Russian barrage

    Ukrainians’ resilience persists despite new Russian barrage

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    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When massive, coordinated Russian bombardments shook cities and towns across Ukraine a week ago to trigger a new phase in the Kremlin’s war, one strike left a huge crater in a popular Kyiv children’s playground and ripped open a central intersection.

    The next day, traffic flowed over the newly asphalted road, and life in the capital had returned to near normal. The response to Russia’s new wave of attacks was to get back to work, stroll in the warm autumn sun and tend to final harvests from summer vegetable gardens.

    A similar scene played out in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro that day, where city workers repaired a road overnight after it was destroyed by shelling in that coordinated attack.

    “We worked all night, gritting our teeth,” wrote Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov on Facebook the day after the Oct. 10 attack. The post included before and after photos of where the strike had hit and the completed repairs.

    “We will restore and rebuild everything. But our hatred will live for centuries,” he said.

    Ukrainians’ resilience in the nearly 8-month-old war continues to be unwavering, despite an uptick in attacks that are seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vengeful response to an explosion that damaged a Moscow-built bridge to the Kremlin-annexed Crimean Peninsula on Oct. 8.

    Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones struck at least 10 regions across the country two days later, targeting critical infrastructure such as power plants and waterworks in major urban centers. The barrage left 19 dead and more than 100 wounded in the most extensive attacks since the early days after the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

    On Monday, explosives-laden suicide drones struck Kyiv, setting buildings ablaze and sending residents running for cover. City life quickly resumed, though hours later air raid sirens were triggered again, and metro stations filled up with worried but calm residents.

    The strikes were an intensified version of what has been a shift in Russian tactics aimed at making life more difficult for Ukrainians, particularly for those far from the front lines.

    But the more the Kremlin threatens to make the upcoming winter intolerable, the more Ukrainians seem to unite in their intent to defeat Putin.

    The Ukrainian government is urging a national reduction of energy consumption and, in some regions, implementing rolling blackouts as repairs are done to damaged power stations and facilities.

    Ukrenergo, the state energy company, reported that on Oct. 15, residents of the Kyiv region had reduced their daily average electricity consumption by 7%, allowing the utility to avoid forced blackouts.

    “This is a direct result of the fact that Ukrainians deliberately limited the use of electrical appliances in the evening hours,” the company said in a Facebook post Sunday.

    Danylo, 20, a student in Kyiv, said he has reduced his electricity use at home “because we understand that this is a way to protect ourselves from complete loss.”

    Danylo, who declined to give his last name, added: “Now, it is a trend to work for a common victory,” he said.

    Similar resilience also can be seen emerging from the devastation and ruins along the front lines in eastern and southern Ukraine.

    After retreating from eastern regions like Kharkiv, Russia has focused its strikes on Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and surrounding towns nearly every night as a Ukrainian counteroffensive makes steady gains in the partially occupied southern flank.

    Of all the Ukrainian areas that have paid a high price in the war, the Saltivka neighborhood on the northeastern edge of Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, has borne some of the greatest burdens.

    The area’s residential blocks were once home to about a third of Kharkiv’s 1.4 million residents. But as Russian forces launched the invasion, they swept in to reach the neighborhood’s edge and pummeled it with rockets and artillery. Dozens were killed.

    Saltivka, especially its northern reaches, was pounded for months until scarcely a building remained without major damage, leaving vast swaths of the area virtually uninhabitable. Tens of thousands were forced to flee.

    Those who remained wander now like ghosts among the charred skeletons of what was once one of Ukraine’s largest residential areas. Despite what they’ve lost, many say they are unwilling to compromise with Russia to stop the fighting.

    “Without victory, there is no Ukraine,” said Hryhorii Ivanovich, 67, as he applied rebuilt a brick wall on his balcony that was destroyed by a Russian rocket, along with the front half of his living room. “There is no compromise, only Ukrainian victory.”

    Maintaining such resolve, however, is more difficult for those who have lost a loved one in the war.

    Lyubov Mamedova, whose son was killed this month by a Russian land mine, said he had enthusiastically signed up to fight at the beginning of the war, certain that Ukraine would defeat the invaders.

    Mamedova, between fits of tears, said Ukraine must continue to protect its freedom, something she said was important to her son.

    “We will fight,” she said. “He always said, ‘Victory is ours.’”

    While many Ukrainians remain steadfast in their determination to drive Russia out by military means, some believe a political solution must be sought to end the bloodshed.

    Oleh Postavnychyi, 39, was filling water bottles from a public faucet in a courtyard near his home in Saltivka, where he’s remained since the war began despite his apartment being significantly damaged.

    A diplomatic solution needed to be reached to halt the violence, Postavnychyi said, but not one that cedes any Ukrainian lands.

    “We need to find some compromise because neither (the Russians) nor us need this war,” he said. “Normal people shouldn’t suffer … but we can’t give them our territories. These are our territories. They were conquered not only by our great-grandfathers but our great-great-grandfathers.”

    ___

    Spike reported from Kharkiv, Ukraine.

    __

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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