The lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would allow the government to label journalists, bloggers, and social media users as foreign agents.
 
The bill, which still needs approval from the Federation Council, the upper chamber, and President Vladimir Putin’s signature to become law, expands on existing “foreign agent” measures already targeting select foreign media and Russian NGOs.The laws have been criticized by human rights groups as highly restrictive but lauded by Kremlin loyalists as essential to protect Russian sovereignty.
 
Under the new expanded version, restrictions would now apply to journalists and individuals working for media organizations designated as foreign agents by Russia’s Justice Ministry.The new measure would require those who work for suspect media outlets to label any published materials as “made by a foreign agent” and personally submit to regular audits and inspections of their work and finances.Employees and contractors with Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and several affiliated partner projects — such as Current Time TV — would appear to be prime targets of the new bill.The U.S. government-funded outlets are currently the only media on the Justice Ministry foreign agent media blacklist created in 2017.The blacklist of foreign agents, seen here in a screenshot from the Russian Justice Ministry’s website, shows Voice of America (1), Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (7) and Current Time (5) among others.Yet, given the vague wording of the measure, the foreign agent label could also be applied to individuals who distribute suspect media content — a move that could have significant implications for Russia’s blogosphere and social media, both of which are largely considered open platforms for political debate.  How Russian authorities would enforce the foreign agent restrictions against individuals is not yet clear.
 Political overtones
 
The bill’s co-author, the chairman of the State Duma’s Commission on the Investigation of Foreign Interference in Russia’s Internal Affairs, Vasily Piskarev, vigorously defended law as a necessity — citing his commission’s findings that accused several foreign and domestic media outlets of interfering in Russia’s regional fall elections.
 
That vote was tarnished by the banning of nearly all opposition candidates from participating in the election — prompting a wave of street protests in Moscow through the summer.  While foreign and independent media covered the events, Russian state broadcasters largely ignored voters’ frustrations.
 
“Russian viewers and readers have the right to know of the foreign roots of these media outlets and where they get their money from,” Piskarev said in comments following Thursday’s vote.“After inclusion on the register, these citizens and media entities can continue their creative activities and continue to publish, provided they fulfill certain conditions,” he added.
 
Piskarev also insisted Russia was merely introducing measures to mirror those faced by Russian journalists elsewhere — an apparent reference to what Russia says is the harassment of its RT America and the network’s journalists working in the United States.
 
RT America was forced to register as a foreign agent with the U.S. Justice Department in 2017, a move that prompted similar measures against American government-funded media.FILE – Vehicles of Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT are seen near the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, June 15, 2018. The potential info-chill to come
 
Rights groups warn the new foreign agents law would cast a much wider chill over Russians’ access to free speech over the airwaves and online.
 
“The new ‘foreign agent’ legislation quite simply is intended to silence critical voices and further limit Russian citizens’ right to access information,” said Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia director, in a statement on the organization’s website.
 
Russia’s daily Kommersant newspaper, a Kremlin-favored publication known for providing light critiques of state policy, noted the vagueness of the law in the face of the Internet sharing culture would mean that nearly “half the country” would risk running afoul of its provisions — including Russians who work in companies with foreign funding or scientists who receive international grants.
 
Russian foreign agents laws were first introduced in 2012 in an effort to end foreign funding of Russian NGOs, a move that civil society advocates said had echoes of Soviet days when they were likened to potential traitors and spies.Indeed, Putin argued at the time that foreign-funded NGOs were less interested in developing civil society and more intent on fomenting revolution for their Western donors.FILE – A man passes by the office of “Memorial” rights group in Moscow, Russia. The building has the words “Foreign Agent (Loves) USA” spray-painted on its facade.Given the choice to identify themselves as foreign agents or face mounting penalties and court ordered fines, many organizations chose to shutter their doors.  The law’s political overtones have again been apparent of late as authorities have used it as a blunt instrument against perceived enemies at home.The Justice Ministry last month said it was adding the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an NGO led by opposition leader and Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny, to the foreign agent registry.The move came after the organization — which has long tortured the Kremlin with a series of anti-corruption investigations into government malfeasance — supported a series of pro-democracy protests over the summer that led to the arrest of over 2,000 demonstrators.
 
Russia’s officials justified the decision by saying the organization — which exists on crowdfunded donations from Russian citizens — had received two small wire transfers from abroad.   
 
Then, in early November, Russia’s Supreme Court used the law to rule for the dissolution of For Human Rights, an organization with roots in the Soviet dissident movement that was defending the rights of Russians arrested in police sweeps tied to the summer’s unrest.
 
Speaking on the respected Echo of Moscow radio station, the organization’s founder, 78-year-old Lev Ponomarev, criticized the proposed additions to the foreign agent laws.“It is, likely, the latest nail in the coffin for the human rights movement in Russia — since all human rights organizations are financed by foreign foundations,” he said. 
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A Turkish court on Thursday upheld its conviction of 12 former employees of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper despite a higher court ruling, a lawyer for the newspaper said.The court acquitted a 13th defendant, journalist Kadri Gursel, due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court, Turkey’s highest, said the lawyer, Tora Pekin.In a case that drew global outrage over press freedom under President Tayyip Erdogan, 14 employees of Cumhuriyet – one of the few remaining voices critical of the government – were sentenced in April 2018 to various jail terms on terrorism charges.They were accused of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party and the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front militant groups, as well as the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says  organized a 2016 failed coup. Gulen denies any involvement.The Cumhuriyet staff have been in and out of jail for the duration of their trials. The 14th defendant, Cumhuriyet accountant Emre Iper, was released last month and his case is still under court review.The Court of Cassation, Turkey’s high court of appeals, had ruled in September for the 13 defendants to be acquitted, with the exception of journalist and politician Ahmet Sik. The court said Sik should be tried for a different crime.The case of the 12 defendants will now be re-evaluated by the Court of Cassation, Pekin said.”With the Court of Cassation ruling (in September), we thought this endless arbitrariness and injustice were ending. But we understood in court today that it wasn’t so,” said Pekin.Since the failed coup, authorities have jailed 77,000 people pending trial, while 150,000, including civil servants, judges, military personnel and others have been sacked or suspended from their jobs. Some 150 media outlets have also been closed.A global press watchdog said on Tuesday more than 120 journalists were still being held in Turkey’s jails, a global record.Turkey’s Western allies have voiced concern over the scale of the crackdown. Rights groups accuse Erdogan of using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent.
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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday sent a proposal to Congress that seeks to offer greater protection to police and soldiers who kill while on specific operations, known as Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) missions.The highly divisive bill, which comes amid a sharp rise in killings by police across Brazil, is likely to face stiff opposition from some lawmakers and human rights groups.FILE – Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro looks on during a ceremony at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 12, 2019.It would reduce sentences or even provide full judicial protection to officers who kill in situations in which they face “unfair, current or imminent aggression,” either to themselves or another person. Examples of “unfair aggression” would include terrorism, and any “conduct capable of causing death or personal injury,” such as carrying a firearm.The bill is similar to part of an earlier, broader crime-fighting proposal, pushed by Justice Minister Sergio Moro, that also sought to offer greater protection to officers who kill.Nonetheless, Moro’s proposal is currently languishing in Congress, where lawmakers stripped the section offering police more cover, arguing that it could incentivize them to kill more.Speaking about his proposal on Thursday, Bolsonaro said it would represent a “shift” in the fight against violence in Brazil.”We will now depend on lawmakers, congressmen and senators to approve this,” the far-right president said in Brasilia.GLO missionsGLO missions are temporary military operations, created by direct order of the president, to tackle sporadic cases of uncontrollable violence or high-risk situations, such as international summits.So far this year, Brazil has used GLO missions to provide security at the BRICs Summit in Brasilia, in the fight against Amazon rainforest fires, and in the transfer of high-risk prisoners to federal prisons.Bolsonaro, a longtime advocate of preemptive police violence, has said that he would consider ending GLOs if lawmakers do not pass his bill.
 
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The first Honduran asylum-seeker arrived in Guatemala on Thursday from El Paso, Texas, under a controversial U.S. agreement that establishes Guatemala as a safe third country to process people fleeing persecution in their homelands. Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart said the 
Honduran man arrived on a flight from the United States earlier 
in the morning. The Honduran was among Guatemalan deportees flown into the 
Central American country on one of four U.S. deportation flights scheduled on Thursday, Degenhart said. The new effort began after the administration of Republican 
President Donald Trump brokered an agreement with the Guatemalan government in July. The deal allows U.S. immigration officials to force migrants requesting asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to apply for asylum in Guatemala first. Campaign issueTrump has made cracking down on immigration a central issue 
of his 2020 re-election campaign. His administration has worked 
to restrict asylum access in the United States to curb the number of mostly Central American families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. officials earlier this week said the program initially would be applied at a U.S. Border Patrol station in El Paso. A first phase will target adults from Honduras and El Salvador, and the aim will be to process them within 72 hours, according to the officials and notes taken by one of the officials during a training session of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asylum officers. Democrats and pro-migrant groups have opposed the move and 
contend asylum-seekers will face danger in Guatemala, where the 
murder rate is five times that of the United States, according to 2017 data compiled by the World Bank. Guatemalan President-elect Alejandro Giammattei, who takes office in January, has said he will review the agreement. 
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A French court is to rule Thursday on whether to convict a mountain guide of helping migrants enter the country illegally — the latest case that is testing France’s “principle of fraternity” allowing humanitarian aid for irregular migrants.The cases have centered on the Alps, where migrants traverse snowy passes between Italy and France, many ill-equipped for the cold. Each year some die of hypothermia.Pierre Mumber, a 55-year-old ski instructor and member of migrant rights organization Tous Migrants, came across several West African migrants in January 2018 as he hiked through the Montgenèvre pass in search of people needing help.Mumber argues he was giving legal humanitarian assistance. Tous Migrants co-president Michel Rousseau said Mumber was bringing warm clothes and drinks to migrants when he was arrested. Mumber’s lawyer, Philippe Chaudron, has argued that his client helped them on French soil.A court in the city of Gap convicted Mumber earlier this year for “aiding the irregular entry of foreigners,” giving him a three-month suspended sentence. It pointed to the fact that his cell phone signals bounced off the Italian side as evidence that Mumber had illegally helped them cross the border.His lawyer says the prosecutor had insufficient evidence and appealed, and the regional appeals court in Grenoble is handing down its verdict Thursday. Lawyer Chaudon argues that in the Alps, cell phone signals and ski slopes often straddle both sides of the border.“My client is reproached for going back and forth between the two countries, but he is a ski instructor and the slopes of Montgenèvre cross into Italy,” Chaudon told The Associated Press.Between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants tried to illegally cross the border between France and Italy during a three-month period that winter, fueling both humanitarian efforts to help them and calls by nationalist politicians for a crackdown. It’s part of a Europe-wide migrant challenge, since both countries are part of the European Union’s border-free travel zone.The case is one of several that has tested how the French judiciary handles citizens providing aid to migrants since France’s Constitutional Council upheld the “principle of fraternity” in 2018.That ruling came after the high-profile case of farmer Cedric Herrou, who housed some 200 migrants in the Alps’ Roya valley and helped them travel within France. He was convicted in 2017 of helping migrants illegally cross the border.EU rules criminalize those who help migrants without the proper documentation from crossing into or transit through member states, as well as those who house migrants for financial gain. Some countries have more stringent restrictions; Denmark, for instance, has prosecuted hundreds of its citizens for giving migrants food or a lift. Germany and Switzerland have also seen similar court cases.France used to ban individuals from giving migrants free housing or transportation on French soil. The Constitutional Council, however, ruled that France’s motto of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” gives citizens freedom “to assist others for a humanitarian purpose,” even if they are in the country illegally. The decision, codified in French law in September 2018, excludes from punishment any person who helps migrants with a humanitarian goal without compensation.Fewer cases involving migrant assistance have wound up in French courts since then, Chaudon said. Still, prosecutions have continued — particularly in regions along the Italian and Spanish borders.Rousseau of Tous Migrants said lingering ambiguities over what constitutes a “humanitarian goal” and compensation under the law “opens the door to any interpretation.”Lola Schulmann of Amnesty International in France said a court decision to deny Mumber’s appeal could dissuade benevolent citizens who want to save migrants’ lives, particularly as winter sets in.“These people should not find themselves in front of a court; they should be encouraged and celebrated,” she told The AP.
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Ukraine says three captured naval vessels returned by Russia earlier this week were in poor condition and stripped of key components.After inspecting the returned vessels, the chief of Ukraine’s navy, Vice Adm. Ihor Voronchenko, was quoted by Ukraine’s “4th Channel” TV as saying the ships’ return to safe harbor had been hampered by their poor condition.  “They do not move on their own,” the vice admiral said, according to the report.  “The Russians ruined them — even took off the lamps, power outlets and toilets. We will show the whole world the Russian barbarism towards them.”Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later inspected the ships upon arrival at the port of Ochakiv and reportedly said repairing them would take three months. The Ukrainian leader also demanded Russia return missing components.Back in Moscow, officials from Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, suggested sabotage.Russia’s RIA-Novosti wire service quoted FSB officials as claiming the ships had been returned in “normal condition, and plumbing equipment in working order.” The FSB also provided what it said was video of the ships in what appeared to be reasonable condition, noting that Ukrainian officials had signed off on the exchange in neutral waters Monday without registering complaints.“If Ukraine managed to ruin the vessels and their bathroom equipment as they crossed the coast of Crimea to Ochakiv, that’s Ukraine’s problem,” said a Russian FSB official, according to a separate report by Russia’s Interfax news service.Russian media reported earlier that the Ukrainian ships had been returned stripped of their guns — a detail that has yet to be confirmed by either side.Misplaced optimism?The return of the vessels had been widely viewed as a trust-building measure ahead of a December summit in Paris aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in the Donbas that has left some 13,000 people dead over the past five years.   Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin have both indicated they would join French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the event — billed as the latest attempt to jump-start peace negotiations after several previous failed attempts by the so-called “quartet” to end the fighting between Ukraine government forces and Moscow-backed rebels.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits the port of Ochakiv, Nov. 20, 2019, to see the three Ukraine’s naval ships, captured in the Kerch Strait in Nov. 2018 and then returned by Russia.Zelenskiy had signaled the return of the three Ukrainian vessels as the latest in a series of small step measures aimed at normalizing relations with Russia and ending the war in the Donbas.  “Step by step, we’re making peace, seeking diplomatic solutions, and fighting for our Ukraine to be united once again,” wrote Zelenskiy in a post to Twitter just hours before he reviewed the ships’ condition for himself.The ships and their crew were seized by Russia after its border patrol fired on the vessels off the coast of Crimea in November 2018 — arguing the ships had violated what had become Russia’s territorial waters after the Kremlin’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.The incident caused outrage in Kyiv and beyond, with the United States launching a new round of sanctions targeting Russia over its military actions in Ukraine.Moscow portrayed the incident as a ploy by Ukraine’s former president, Petro Poroshenko, to stoke nationalist sentiment ahead of elections he would ultimately lose by a landslide to Zelenskiy.Zelenskiy has made ending the war in east Ukraine a top priority of what he says will be his sole term in office.Among his successes thus far is a negotiated deal with Putin that saw the release of the Ukrainian ships’ 24 crew members as part of a wider prisoner swap last September. 
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Colombian unions and student groups are planning a strike on Thursday, with marches to insist the government maintain minimum wages for young people and the universal right to a pension.At a time of widespread unrest in other Latin American countries, police this week raided activists and a culture magazine ahead of the protest while Colombia’s President Ivan Duque warned his government will not tolerate violence.The president also has repeatedly denied that he plans to propose pension and tax reform laws containing the changes alleged by protesters. He said he immediately rejected the idea of reducing youth salaries when a think tank proposed it.”No reform has been proposed,” Duque told viewers during a rare Facebook Live broadcast this week, adding he does not want to raise the pension age. “It has been said that we want to pay young people less than the minimum wage. That’s also a lie.”Other groups of marchers are expected to participate to protest what they say is a lack of government action to prevent the murder of hundreds of human rights activists, corruption at
universities and other issues.Supporters of the march, which include major unions, allege Duque’s government also wants to make the public pension fund Colpensiones private and differentiate salaries by region.Police raids late on Tuesday drew wide criticism on social media when staff at the Cartel Urbano magazine posted videos showing cops rifling through artwork while staff questioned the
reason for the raid.In Bogota, marchers are set to gather at seven meeting points before converging on the central Bolivar Plaza, home to congress and a block from the presidential palace.Elsewhere in the region, Chile’s conservative government is grappling with anti-austerity marches, the biggest crisis to hit the country since its return to democracy in 1990.Protests in Bolivia over vote-tampering allegations led long-time leftist President Evo Morales to resign earlier this month, and his ouster has inflamed tensions in crisis-hit Nicaragua.Duque this week authorized local authorities to adopt exceptional measures to contain protests if needed, including curfews and limits on carrying weapons and the sale of alcohol. Marchers are also against an announced plan by the government to join state companies under a single holding umbrella, alleging that this will cost jobs and eliminate direct control over public funds.The country’s migration agency has shut land and river border crossings until early Friday morning because of the strike.The agency said it has expelled 24 foreign nationals who were “affecting public order and national security.” 
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Chilean police and soldiers backed by their commanders have carried out “generalized” attacks on people protesting over inequality with the intention of “punishing and harming” them, Amnesty International said in a report published on Thursday.Erika Guevara Rosas, the rights group’s Americas Director, told Reuters that its investigative team sent to the country to weigh allegations of excessive force and rights violations by security forces had found evidence of abuses not normally seen outside troubled Latin American nations like Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras.She said they had been “shocked” to find evidence of them in Chile, until recently widely seen as one of the region’s most democratic and stable nations.Amnesty said it had confirmed five deaths at the hands of security forces, as well as credible evidence of protesters being shot at with live ammunition, sexually abused, tortured, beaten, and run over. There was a repeated pattern of abuse that suggested intention, it said.Rosas said police and army personnel had broken international law in the use of live ammunition in crowd control and its own protocols in the liberal use of rubber bullets and tear gas.The police and army did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.Rosas said Chilean President Sebastian Pinera held responsibility by failing to acknowledge the abuses or condemning them swiftly. She said his claim last month that “we are at war” fed “the violent repression we have seen on the streets.””There was an intention to punish people and this came not just from the police and military on the streets but also those under whose command they were,” she said.”If this was punishment of the people who were protesting against government policies then the highest levels of government including Pinera have a responsibility for the human rights violations.”Pinera’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.On Sunday, the president acknowledged there had been “some” excessive use of force, abuse and crime and vowed “no impunity” for police and soldiers found responsible.Chile has seen a month of both peaceful protests and violent riots that started over anger at a hike in public transport fares and broadened to include grievances over low pensions and salaries, the high cost of living, and security force abuses.The unrest has left at least 23 dead, 7,000 detained, over 2,000 demonstrators hospitalized and more than 1,700 police officers injured, according to authorities and rights groups.Over 200 people have been hit in the eyes with tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, doctors have said.Prosecutors are examining more than 2,000 allegations of abuses by security forces, the head of the public prosecutor’s rights division told Reuters last week. 
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A sculptor known for trying to redress history through her art is creating the first statue of real-life women for New York’s Central Park, where the only females so honored until now have been fictional characters.Meredith Bergmann’s vision for the sculpture, chosen from 91 submissions, features three women’s rights pioneers — Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth. While honoring their specific efforts on behalf of women’s suffrage, women’s civil rights and the abolition of slavery, Bergmann hopes her latest work will also make a statement about the need to recognize the contributions ofWax statues at at the Occoquan Workhouse Museum in Lorton, Virginia, show the 1917 force-feeding of suffragist Lucy Burns, an American women’s rights advocate who was on hunger strike. (Photo by Diaa Bekheet).“This monument has a very focused message,” she said in an interview at her studio in Ridgefield, Connecticut. “The fact of the monument itself, that it exists at all, that it will be where it is, is the message.”Of the 23 statues of historical figures in the 840-acre, 166-year-old public park, none honors actual women. There are statues of three female fictional characters: Alice in Wonderland, Mother Goose and William Shakespeare’s Juliet, who appears with Romeo.There had been a moratorium on erecting any new statues in Central Park. But in 2014, a volunteer, nonprofit group called Monumental Women, made up of women’s rights advocates, historians and community leaders, set out to break what they’ve called the “bronze ceiling” and develop a statue depicting real women. With the help of the Girl Scouts, private foundations and others, they raised $1.5 million in private funding for the 14-foot-tall monument, to be located on the park’s famed Literary Walk. It’s scheduled to be unveiled on Aug. 26, 2020, marking the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrined the right for women to vote.“It’s fitting that the first statue of real women in Central Park depicts three New York women who dedicated their lives to fighting for women’s rights,” said Pam Elam, president of Monumental Women, in a written statement last month after the project received approval from a city commission. “This statue conveys the power of women working together to bring about revolutionary change in our society. It invites people to reflect not just on these women and their work for equality and justice, but on all the monumental women who came before us.”Women’s Suffrage MovementTeaser DescriptionThe Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery looks back at the women’s suffrage movement – one of the longest reform movements in U.S. history – with an exhibition called, “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence.”  Curator Kate Clarke Lemay shows us some of the art and artifacts from that era and how creating visual displays for their cause created a different understanding about women’s freedom and voting rights.  
Reporter:  Julie Taboh, Camera: Adam Greenbaum; Adapted by:  Martin SecrestMidway into the massive and multi-faceted project, Bergmann and her assistants have nearly finished sculpting from foam and clay an imagined scene of the three women having a conversation at a table. Truth is speaking, Anthony is organizing and Stanton is writing, which Bergman describes as the three essential elements of activism.The current design is the result of a long process that involved various changes, including the late addition of Sojourner Truth, an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist who was born into slavery but escaped to freedom in 1826. It originally included Anthony, a writer, lecturer and abolitionist who fought for the rights of women to vote and own property; Stanton, another leading figure in the women’s voting rights movement, and an abolitionist and author; and a scroll with a list of 17 other women involved in the women’s movement from 1848 to 1920.New Zealand Celebrates Women’s Suffrage Anniversary

        New Zealand has marked the 125th anniversary of a historic move to give women the vote. It was the first country in the world to enact suffrage for women.

Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s third female prime minister said the nation’s 19th century fight for economic independence and equal rights was still continuing.

The gender pay gap in the South Pacific nation is, on average, 10 percent, although for working mothers it is about 17 percent — a pay difference known as the “motherhood penalty.” Women…
Once the sculpting work is done, likely in the coming weeks, Bergmann said molds will be taken and they will eventually be cast in bronze at a foundry in New York. Detailed work will need to be performed, such as making sure the women’s heads are at the right tilt and the ends of the granite base are curved perfectly.It has become a labor of love for Bergmann, albeit a challenging one.“I haven’t had a project on this scale, with this ferocious of a deadline. And it is, it is nerve-wracking. And I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked,” said Bergmann. “All summer, all fall, this is what I’m doing. And it’s thrilling.”
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Around the world, national leaders and diplomats have expressed their hopes that the United States will reverse its decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement on fighting climate change. In Washington, some others have chosen to act in small ways rather than wait. 
 
Ambassadors and aides from all 28 members of the European Union joined forces last week with volunteers from Casey Trees, a local conservation group, to plant trees in a Washington city park, hoping to earn goodwill and make a symbolic point with their labor. EU countries’ representatives joined National Park Service staff and volunteers from Casey Trees to plant oak, holly, tuliptree and American elm trees at Montrose Park in northwest Washington, Nov. 15, 2019. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Trees soak up and store some of the excess planet-warming carbon dioxide that human activities produce.”The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,” the enthusiastic planters were told as they gathered in a sunny corner of Washington’s Rock Creek Park by Stavros Lambrinidis, ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the United States. “The second best time is now.”  Speaking afterward to VOA, Lambrinidis elaborated on the significance of individual citizens’ actions.”Every single thing every single citizen does is as important as the grand things that governments do,” he said, noting that the EU has committed itself to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.Benjamin Roehrig, senior counselor at the French Embassy in Washington, tells VOA that the door is always open should the U.S. change its mind concerning the Paris Agreement. (Natalie Liu/VOA)Estonian emissary Jonatan Vsevoiv, one of about a dozen ambassadors who took up shovels, said the effort “symbolizes the EU’s effort on the climate front.” He added that the oak tree he helped plant holds special meaning to his native Estonia, just as it does in the United States.”I would say this is a national tree. It symbolizes strength and longevity — and stability,” he said.Having spent half of the past decade in diplomatic posts in the U.S. capital, Vseviov added that Washington has become for him “almost like my second hometown. … I’m glad to do something that gives back to the city.”  The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. (Natalie Liu/VOA)The tree-planting effort was led by Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi of Finland, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency. She said her nation has a special affinity for trees, given that 70% of its surface is covered by woods and that Finns basically “live in and outside of the forest.” 
 
Even as Finland is often imagined as a land of ice and snow, the trees in her Nordic country “have no problem surviving the winter,” she said. “Then we have a very nice summer, a lot of sunlight. That’s when the trees grow.”   
 
Eva Hunnius Ohlin, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, was laboring with two other female embassy staffers when Juan Urbano, the Spanish Embassy’s robust agricultural attaché, offered a hand. 
 
The self-sufficient women declined his offer, but Ohlin cheerily told Urbano he should not take it personally “because we had earlier turned down the Finnish ambassador.”  Eva Hunnius Ohlin, right, senior adviser for energy and environment at the Swedish Embassy, with two of her colleagues insisted on Swedish sovereignty in their planting effort. (Natalie Liu/VOA)On a more serious note, Ohlin told VOA that her embassy has been increasingly engaged on climate change with institutions on the city and state level, even as the federal administration is seen as retreating on the issue. 
 
The interest in the issue in the big coastal states such as New York and California is well known. But, Ohlin said, citizens are also active “in the middle of the country,” in states like Colorado. 
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The new president of the largest party in the European Parliament launched a scathing attack Wednesday against autocratic and populist leaderships within the group’s ranks.Outgoing European Council President Donald Tusk spoke at the opening of the two-day congress in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, of the European People’s Party, which elected him its new leader.Without mentioning Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban or other hard-line European leaders, Tusk said the EPP should fight against “political populists, manipulators and autocrats.”Hungarian PM Viktor Orban leaves the stage after delivering a speech at the National Museum in Prague, Czech Republic, Nov. 17, 2019, during an event marking the 30th anniversary of the pro-democratic Velvet Revolution.The EPP did not invite Orban to the congress because his Fidesz party was suspended in March due to his government’s perceived violation of democratic standards. Some have urged the EPP, which has dominated European policies for decades, to expel Fidesz, which has been accused of undermining the rule of law in Hungary.“We will not sacrifice values like civic liberties, the rule of law, and decency in a public life on the altar of security and order, because there is simply no need,” Tusk said. “Because they don’t exclude one another. Whoever is unable to accept it, is de facto placing himself outside our family.”At the congress, the European center-right parties in the EPP group will elect new leadership after scoring a relative victory in May’s European elections. A number of heads of state or government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, are attending the event.High on the agenda is the European Union’s enlargement in the Western Balkans following France’s recent decision to veto opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.Croatia’s prime minister Andrej Plenkovic speaks during the European Peoples Party congress in Zagreb, Croatia, Nov. 20, 2019.Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the EPP meeting that the EU’s recent decision not to start membership talks with the two countries is a “regrettable mistake.”France led a group of EU countries calling for an overhaul of the procedures to admit new members before beginning negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.Plenkovic said that the existing procedures and the criteria for becoming a member are very detailed and tough. He added that “any European country has the right to seek membership.”Merkel said after meeting Plenkovic that extensive discussions with France over the membership process were necessary.“There still has to be a realistic perspective of membership for the countries of the Western Balkans,” she said. “We cannot end up in breaking our promises.”There are fears within the EU that the stalling membership talks could lead to increased Russian and Chinese influence in the region that was at war in the 1990s.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating presidency at the beginning of January.
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A former employee of the British Consulate in Hong Kong says he was detained and tortured by Chinese secret police trying to extract information about massive anti-government protests in the territory.Simon Cheng said in an online statement and media interviews that he was hooded, beaten, deprived of sleep and chained to an X-shaped frame by plainclothes and uniformed agents as they sought information on activists involved in the protests and the role they believed Britain played in the demonstrations.FILE – Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Oct. 24, 2019.British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab summoned the Chinese ambassador in London to demand Beijing investigate.”I summoned the Chinese Ambassador to express our outrage at the brutal and disgraceful treatment of Simon in violation of China’s international obligations,” Raab said in a statement. “I have made clear we expect the Chinese authorities to investigate and hold those responsible to account.”Chinese police in August announced Cheng’s release after 15 days of administrative detention but gave no details of the reasons behind his detention.China reactionChina’s foreign ministry responded angrily to the allegations and the summoning of the ambassador at a daily briefing Wednesday.Ambassador Liu Xiaoming will “by no means accept the so-called concerns or complaints raised by the British side,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said.FILE – Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang speaks during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing, Jan. 29, 2019.”The Chinese ambassador to the U.K. will lodge the complaints with the U.K. to express our strong opposition and indignation to the U.K.’s wrong words and deeds on Hong Kong in these days,” Geng said.Geng did not address Cheng’s allegations directly, but cited a statement by Shenzhen police from August saying his lawful rights had been protected and that he had “admitted his offense completely,” an apparent reference to a confession of soliciting prostitution that Cheng says was coerced. Cheng has strongly denied the charge.Police in Shenzhen did not immediately respond to faxed questions about Cheng’s allegations.Cheng worked for the consulate as a trade and investment officer with a focus on attracting Chinese investment in Scotland. That required him to travel frequently to mainland China and he was detained at the border with Hong Kong after returning from a one-day business trip.Hong Kong’s nearly six months of pro-democracy protests began in opposition to proposed legislation that would have allowed criminal suspects in the semi-autonomous city to be extradited to face trial in mainland China, where critics say their legal rights would be threatened. While Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has since withdrawn the bill, demonstrations have continued unabated as strong anti-government sentiment continues.China says it doesn’t allow suspects to be tortured or make false confessions, although both practices are believed to be common.’Blindfolded and hooded’In his account on Facebook, Cheng wrote that he had been asked about the supposed British role in the protests, his own involvement in them and mainland Chinese who joined in demonstrations.China has long accused “anti-China foreign forces” of fomenting the protests, which have grown increasingly violent, without providing direct evidence.FILE – Demonstrators hold posters in support of Simon Cheng, a staff member at the consulate who went missing after visiting the neighboring mainland, during a protest outside the British Consulate-general office in Hong Kong, China, Aug. 21, 2019.Cheng wrote that while being held he was shuttled between detention and interrogation centers while hooded and handcuffed. In addition to being shackled to the frame, he wrote he was ordered to assume stress positions for “countless hours,” and was beaten with what felt like “sharpened batons” and poked in the knee if he faltered. He was also punished for dozing off during the sessions by being forced to sing the Chinese national anthem, he wrote.”I was blindfolded and hooded during the whole torture and interrogations, I sweated a lot, and felt exhausted, dizzy and suffocated,” Cheng wrote.One interrogator speaking Hong Kong’s native Cantonese dialect cursed him, saying, “How dare you work for the British to supervise Chinese,” while another speaking in a northern Mandarin accent told him they were from China’s secret intelligence service and that he had “no human rights in this place,” Cheng wrote.He said the interrogators expected him to confess that Britain had instigated the protests by donating money and materials, that he personally led that effort and paid the bail of mainland participants. At the detention center, he witnessed police questioning other young inmates who appeared to be Chinese mainland nationals being punished for participation in the protests.Cheng said he refused but confessed to the minor offense of “soliciting prostitution” in order to avoid harsher treatment and a heavy sentence on national security charges. Some of the officers holding him said they could “abduct” him back to the mainland if he didn’t “behave,” he said.Cheng no longer works at the consulate and has fled to a third country. Raab, the foreign minister, said the U.K. is working to support Cheng, including a possible move to Britain.
 
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A new survey shows about one in four Europeans holding anti-Semitic beliefs, with such attitudes on the rise in eastern countries and mostly steady in the west.The poll of 14 European countries released Thursday by the New York-based Anti-Defamation League found anti-Semitic attitudes most prevalent in Poland, Ukraine and Hungary, with more than 40% of the respondents in each country expressing such views.The governments of all three countries have been criticized by Jewish groups recently, though all deny being anti-Semitic.In western Europe, the study found anti-Semitic views were either stable or down, with decreases in Britain, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany and Austria. Denmark and Belgium saw minor increases, while France was unchanged and Sweden had the lowest rate, at 4%.Italy and Austria both posted significant decreases.
 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn clashed over Brexit in the first televised debate Tuesday, ahead of the December 12 election. Both men faced laughter and heckling from the audience, and polls show much of the voting public appeared unimpressed by the debate.Recent polls give Johnson’s Conservatives a lead of between 8 and 12 percentage points over Labour, which still may not be enough to give the prime minister a parliamentary majority.Boris Johnson’s campaign promiseDuring the debate, Johnson promised to end what he called the ‘national misery’ of Brexit, and said a Conservative government would leave the European Union in January – adding that reaching a trade deal with the EU would be easy.“We have ample time to do a fantastic free trade deal with our friends and partners in the EU because we’re already in a state of perfect alignment, both for tariffs and for quotas,” Johnson told the audience in Salford, Manchester.He said a win for his Labour opponents would see more Brexit confusion.“We don’t know on which side Mr. Corbyn would campaign. Is he going to campaign for leave or remain?”Jeremy Corbyn’s policyCorbyn insisted his policy is clear: to negotiate a better Brexit deal. “Three months to negotiate, six months for a referendum, and that will bring that process to an end,” the Labour leader said.He accused Johnson of planning to sell out Britain’s National Health Service, the NHS. “What we know of the government’s proposals, what we know of what Mr. Johnson has done, is a series of secret meetings with the United States in which they were proposing to open up our NHS markets, as they call them, to American companies,” he said.Johnson insists Britain’s National Health Service won’t be on the table in any U.S. trade deal.Views on climate and environmentBoth men agreed climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the country.“I think it’s a colossal issue for the entire world, and the UK is meeting that challenge with the most far-reaching ambition to get to carbon neutral by 2050. And I know you don’t want me to say this, but we need to get Brexit done in order to deliver on those priorities,” Johnson told the audience.His Labour opponent pledged to go further on environmental issues.“This is the most massive issue facing the whole world,” Corbyn said. “When the poorest people in the poorest countries lose out because of flooding and unusual weather patterns, when we have unusual weather patterns in this country, when we have extreme levels of air pollution, we have to have a green industrial revolution where we invest for the future in sustainable industries and jobs and prevent the continuing damage to our natural world and our environment.”Voters appear unimpressedAfter the debate, polls showed the public was evenly divided over who emerged victorious – and many were unimpressed. “I didn’t think anyone won, I didn’t think it was very meaningful, or kind of, revealing debate at all,” said Emily, a voter from Kent in southeast England. “It was pretty underwhelming all-round really,” said London resident James Davies.There was anger among other opposition parties over their exclusion from the debate. The Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party launched a failed court case against the host broadcaster ITV to try to force them to include smaller parties.Jo Swinson, the leader of the Liberal Democrats criticized the debate format Wednesday. “I think people at home will be forgiven for thinking, surely we deserve better than this. There was a huge gap in that debate. Both of them want Brexit and yet the voice of remain wasn’t there,” he said.Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon leader renewed her party’s pitch for independence. “It really underlines the importance for Scotland of getting our future out of the hands of Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, a broken Westminster system and taking our future into our own hands,” Sturgeon said Wednesday.Both leaders pledged big increases in spending on health, education, and tackling climate change. But in reality, Brexit will still likely dominate the next parliament, says analyst Ian Bond of the Center for European Reform.“If we leave the EU on 31st January, then we will have several more years of uncertainty while we negotiate the future trade deal with the EU.”Whoever becomes Britain’s next Prime Minister, their time in office will likely still be defined by Brexit. 
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The son of former German president Richard von Weizsaecker was stabbed to death while he was giving a lecture at a hospital in Berlin where he worked as a head physician, police said Wednesday.A 57-year-old German man is in custody after he jumped up from the audience at the Schlosspark-Klinik and attacked Fritz von Weizsaecker with a knife on Tuesday evening.An off-duty police officer in the audience who tried to stop the attack was seriously wounded and had to undergo surgery.Von Weizsaecker died at the scene despite immediate attention from colleagues.“We cannot yet say anything about the attacker’s motive,” said police spokesman Michael Gassen.Police said later that the man, who was not a patient at the hospital, had been questioned overnight. Police were also investigating if von Weizsaecker or his family had received threats in the past.The 59-year-old was the son of one of Germany’s most esteemed presidents. Richard von Weizsaecker became West Germany’s head of state in 1984 and when the country was unified, became the first president of the new nation, serving until 1994. He died in 2015.Fritz von Weizsaecker was one of the ex-president’s four children. His sister Beatrice posted a picture of Jesus on the cross on Instagram after the killing of her brother and wrote, “Take care of my brother …”Both politicians and colleagues expressed shock over the brazen murder.Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to his widow and the family, her spokesman said.“We don’t know much about what happened here in Berlin last night,” spokesman Steffen Seibert said. “It’s a horrible blow to the von Weizsaecker family and the chancellor’s condolences, and certainly also those of all the members of the government, go to the widow, to the entire family.”Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democrats party, of which Fritz von Weizsaecker was a member, expressed shock at the murder.“I’m stunned and have to share my sadness,” Lindner tweeted. “Once more one wonders what kind of world we live in.”The board of Berlin’s Charite hospital said they were “deeply shocked by the violent death of the highly regarded friend and colleague. Our thoughts are with his family and the colleagues at Schlosspark-Klinik.”Von Weizsaecker studied and worked at several hospitals in Germany and abroad, including the Harvard Medical School in Boston and a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland. His fields of expertise were internal medicine and gastroenterology.On Tuesday night, he was giving a lecture about fatty liver disease, an increasingly common medical condition. The lecture was open to everybody and local media reported that several colleagues were in the audience as well.The slaying of von Weizsaecker echoes a similar incident in 2016 when a man fatally shot a doctor at Berlin’s Benjamin Franklin Hospital before killing himself.The von Weizsaeckers are one of Germany’s most prominent families. Richard von Weizsaecker was not only one of the most popular but also one of the country’s most respected presidents.In 1985, then-West German President von Weizsaecker called the Nazi defeat Germany’s “day of liberation” in a speech marking the 40th anniversary of the war’s end. His words were supported by most Germans, and to this day the speech is often cited by politicians and taught in schools.
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Croatia’s first-ever presidency in the European Union will come at come at a “critical period” for the 28-nation bloc, outgoing EU leader Donald Tusk said Tuesday.The EU’s newest member could end up in charge of launching the bloc’s post-Brexit negotiations with Britain, the European Council president said after talks with Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, takes over the bloc’s six-month rotating chairmanship at the beginning of January while Britain’s departure from the bloc is now set for Jan. 31.”Your task is not easy,” said Tusk. “It will be a critical period for the EU and we will be relying on your steady leadership.”Tusk expressed confidence in Croatia’s preparation for the job, adding that Croatia also needs to focus on the EU’s enlargement agenda and the volatile Western Balkans.EU aspirations in the Western Balkans have been dealt a blow after France and the Netherlands blocked the opening of membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania.”I deeply believe that you (Croatia) will do everything in your power to restore EU unity and enlargement while demonstrating positive EU engagement in the region,” Tusk said.Tusk was in Zagreb, the Croatian capital, for a meeting of the European People’s Party, the main center-right bloc in the European Parliament. The Polish politician is expected to be elected the leader of the alliance during the two-day gathering.”I am leaving the EU in good hands,” he said. 
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A Brazilian tribe that has been fighting for 15 years to preserve land they use to gather food won a victory on Monday when public pressure made Portuguese hotel group Vila Gale cancel plans to build a 500-room luxury resort on the Bahia coast.Indigenous group Tupinambá de Olivença, numbering 4,631 people, has been fighting for the land to be designated as a reserve since 2003. Brazil’s indigenous rights agency Funai approved the request in 2009, and Brazil’s second-highest court unanimously voted in favor of the Tupinambá in 2016.But the tribe still requires final sign-off from the Ministry of Justice and the president himself for the protected status of the territory to become official. Despite multiple requests from the tribe, nothing has happened since 2016.Last week, Brazil National Human Rights Council urged the Bolsonaro government to speed up the final demarcation of the Tupinambá land, which is located in the coastal Atlantic forest in southern Bahia, known for its coconut tree-lined beaches that attract millions of tourists each year.Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has not yet made a decision on the specific case of the Tupinambá but stated on multiple occasions that he does not intend to sign off any more territory for indigenous groups, saying earlier this year there is “too much land for too few indigenous people.”Vila Gale said a local businessman offered them the land in 2018. Regional and state government representatives approved of the project, as did Embratur, Brazil’s tourism agency. The company put the project on its website, with a note saying it was due to open in 2021.The company’s CEO Jorge Rebelo de Almeida consistently denied that there were any traces of an indigenous population on the territory in question, a claim repeated in the company’s statement to Portuguese press on Monday.”In the region and in a radius of many kilometers, there was no sign of any occupation or utilization, nor signals of any extractive activity from anyone. There is no indigenous reserve in this area, nor will there be,” the statement said.FILE – Indigenous people from ethnic groups Pataxo and Tupinamba attend a protest to defend indigenous land, outside Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct. 16, 2019.While the Tupinambá do not live on the land, they use it for gathering food. Portuguese anthropologist Susana Viegas, who has led studies on the Tupinambá since 2003, said access to the land was “essential for the community’s survival.” Tupinambá chief Ramón Tupinambá said at a meeting in Brasilia in late October that there would be “war” if Vila Gale followed through.Pressure on the company, Portugal’s second-largest hotel group, to retract its plans began to grow after a letter published in the Intercept on Oct. 27 showed Brazil’s tourism agency urging the government to cancel the process of classifying the land as indigenous territory on the grounds that the hotel could bring $200 million of investment and generate 2,000 jobs.In response to numerous articles in the Portuguese press following the Intercept’s leak, pressure from Portugal’s third-largest political party Bloco da Esquerda, and multiple requests from Portuguese anthropologist Susana Viegas, who studied the Tupinambá for Funai since 2003, to retract their plans, the company insisted they would wait until the Ministry of Justice and president made the final call.But in its statement on Monday, the company changed its mind, saying it did not want the hotel to go ahead “in this atmosphere of war,” and so despite viewing the accusations levied against it as “unfair” and “baseless,” it canceled its plans.Under Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, which guarantees the rights of indigenous people to their ancestral lands, and a presidential decree in 1996, any building on land where the boundaries have already been drawn by the Funai faces confiscation with no compensation.”This is totally illegal. The land rights of indigenous people take precedence over any other rights,” said Juliana Batista, a lawyer for the Brazilian Socio-Environmental Institute, an NGO that defends indigenous rights. She said local authorities had gone ahead and licensed the hotel project without involving federal agencies. 
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The Organization of American States said on Tuesday that Nicaragua was experiencing a “critical human rights situation” that had upset the country’s constitutional order, following President Daniel Ortega’s crackdown on opponents.Major demonstrations last year left some 300 people dead.Protests – including two hunger strikes by mothers of detained activists – have started up again in recent days, leading to clashes with Ortega supporters and arrests.The report by a commission of the Washington-based OAS followed United Nations criticism earlier in the day of the arrest of 16 anti-government protesters on charges it said seemed “trumped-up.”The OAS recommended a special session of its general assembly be convened immediately to review affairs in the country.”It is clear that Nicaragua is experiencing a critical human rights situation that urgently demands the attention of the Inter-American community and the world at large,” the OAS said.The Nicaraguan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously dismissed the creation of the OAS commission, viewing it as an attempt to interfere in its affairs.A demonstrator wearing the national flag looks at pictures of protesters who died during the protests against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government last year, in Managua, Nov. 2, 2019.On Monday, Nicaraguan authorities said the 16 detainees were suspected of planning terrorist attacks in the Central American country.Those detained include prominent student protesters such as Nicaraguan and Belgian national Amaya Coppens, who has been arrested previously.Rupert Colville, a spokesman in Geneva for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters the arrests looked like an attempt to silence criticism of the government.”We are very concerned that these apparently trumped-up charges may constitute a renewed attempt to stifle dissent,” said Colville.He also urged the government to respect the rights of a separate group of hunger strikers in Managua’s cathedral.Father Edwin Roman attempts to convince the police to allow relatives of imprisoned and dead anti-government demonstrators to enter the San Miguel Arcangel Church in Masaya, Nicaragua, Nov. 14, 2019.The Roman Catholic Church on Monday accused groups linked to the government of beating a priest and violently taking control of the cathedral.”We condemn these acts of desecration, harassment and intimidation, which are not contributing to the peace and stability of the country,” the Church said in a statement.On Monday, seven mothers of people detained earlier by authorities had said they would begin a hunger strike in the cathedral to demand the release of their children before Christmas.Colville said everyone who may have been “arbitrarily detained” in the country should be released.”The government must end the persistent repression of dissent and the ongoing pattern of arbitrary arrests,” he said. 
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