Authorities in Hong Kong are stepping up surveillance of the city’s 7 million residents with plans to deploy automated police drones, artificial intelligence and thousands of new cameras in public places, including taxis, according to recent government announcements.
The police are currently installing an additional 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places including the controversial smart lampposts targeted by protesters in 2019, Senior Superintendent of Police for Operations Leung Ming-leung told a meeting of the Independent Police Complaints Council on Dec. 17.
By 2027, an additional 7,000 cameras will be installed to monitor “crime black-spots,” with a pilot scheme already rolled out in Mong Kok, which saw mass pro-democracy protests and gatherings in 2014 and 2019, as well as the “Fishball Revolution” of 2016.
Thousands have been arrested on public order charges and hundreds under two national security laws, which ban criticism of the authorities or references to the protests.
Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.(Wei Sze/RFA)
“At places where there is a higher footfall, we would install the CCTV with a view to preserving public order and public safety,” Leung said.
Police will also install “public address systems” to boost communication with the public, he added.
Facial recognition
As early as 2019, protesters were damaging and toppling controversial “smart lampposts” that had been newly installed in the city, saying their specification included facial recognition functions, although officials said at the time they hadn’t been activated.
Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said in February that use of facial recognition technology to track people caught by the cameras was likely in future.
Leung told the Council that footage captured by CCTV has helped solve 97 cases so far this year, including assaults and murders, but it is currently not intended for use in traffic violations like running a red light.
He said the authorities used surveillance cameras to estimate the size of crowds in the Lan Kwai Fong bar district at Halloween, “to help with manpower deployment.”
Automated drone patrols
Secretary for Security Chris Tang told lawmakers police are currently looking at bringing in automated drone patrols along default routes across Hong Kong, with images analyzed by AI for policing purposes.
“This can lead to greater operational effectiveness and higher work quality,” Tang said, adding that the program would comply with current safety and privacy laws.
Hong Kong’s police force is already equipped with a range of different drones and monitoring instruments, and are already increasingly being used by police, customs and immigration for investigation purposes, Tang told the Legislative Council on Dec. 11.
Police also use drones to conduct high-rise patrols at crime black spots, he said.
“For instance, mounted thermography and infrared detection systems are used to detect the presence of suspicious persons lingering or hiding at remotely located places or at difficult terrains,” Tang told lawmakers.
Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.(Wei Sze/RFA)
Meanwhile, the Transport Advisory Committee has said it plans to amend the law to mandate in-vehicle and dashboard cameras and GPS systems in all taxis.
“The camera system proposal … will better safeguard the interests of taxi drivers and passengers in cases of disputes and enhance driving safety for taxis,” Committee Chairman Stephen Cheung said in a statement on Dec. 17.
“These two measures will be conducive to enhancing the overall quality and image of taxi services,” he said.
‘It’s overkill’
Not everyone thought the additional cameras would make them safer, however.
“I don’t think it will,” a passerby who gave only the surname Lai for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. “On the contrary, if the streets are being monitored, there will be no privacy.”
“I really think it’s overkill.”
A taxi driver who gave only the surname Wong for fear of reprisals said: “I don’t really agree with it, because of the privacy issues.”
“Who gets to see it? It could be misused, or used as a political tool by the government,” he said. “I’m very worried about that.”
A passerby who gave only the surname Chan told RFA in an earlier interview that he had doubts about the true purpose of the surveillance cameras because there isn’t much street crime in Hong Kong.
“There really aren’t that many thieves,” he said. “But it’ll mean that if we have something we want to speak out about in future, or to oppose, we won’t be able to.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze, Luk Nam Choi and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.
Authorities in Hong Kong are stepping up surveillance of the city’s 7 million residents with plans to deploy automated police drones, artificial intelligence and thousands of new cameras in public places, including taxis, according to recent government announcements.
The police are currently installing an additional 2,000 surveillance cameras in public places including the controversial smart lampposts targeted by protesters in 2019, Senior Superintendent of Police for Operations Leung Ming-leung told a meeting of the Independent Police Complaints Council on Dec. 17.
By 2027, an additional 7,000 cameras will be installed to monitor “crime black-spots,” with a pilot scheme already rolled out in Mong Kok, which saw mass pro-democracy protests and gatherings in 2014 and 2019, as well as the “Fishball Revolution” of 2016.
Thousands have been arrested on public order charges and hundreds under two national security laws, which ban criticism of the authorities or references to the protests.
Taxis drive along a street in Hong Kong, Dec. 19, 2024.(Wei Sze/RFA)
“At places where there is a higher footfall, we would install the CCTV with a view to preserving public order and public safety,” Leung said.
Police will also install “public address systems” to boost communication with the public, he added.
Facial recognition
As early as 2019, protesters were damaging and toppling controversial “smart lampposts” that had been newly installed in the city, saying their specification included facial recognition functions, although officials said at the time they hadn’t been activated.
Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said in February that use of facial recognition technology to track people caught by the cameras was likely in future.
Leung told the Council that footage captured by CCTV has helped solve 97 cases so far this year, including assaults and murders, but it is currently not intended for use in traffic violations like running a red light.
He said the authorities used surveillance cameras to estimate the size of crowds in the Lan Kwai Fong bar district at Halloween, “to help with manpower deployment.”
Automated drone patrols
Secretary for Security Chris Tang told lawmakers police are currently looking at bringing in automated drone patrols along default routes across Hong Kong, with images analyzed by AI for policing purposes.
“This can lead to greater operational effectiveness and higher work quality,” Tang said, adding that the program would comply with current safety and privacy laws.
Hong Kong’s police force is already equipped with a range of different drones and monitoring instruments, and are already increasingly being used by police, customs and immigration for investigation purposes, Tang told the Legislative Council on Dec. 11.
Police also use drones to conduct high-rise patrols at crime black spots, he said.
“For instance, mounted thermography and infrared detection systems are used to detect the presence of suspicious persons lingering or hiding at remotely located places or at difficult terrains,” Tang told lawmakers.
Surveillance cameras on a Hong Kong street, November 2024.(Wei Sze/RFA)
Meanwhile, the Transport Advisory Committee has said it plans to amend the law to mandate in-vehicle and dashboard cameras and GPS systems in all taxis.
“The camera system proposal … will better safeguard the interests of taxi drivers and passengers in cases of disputes and enhance driving safety for taxis,” Committee Chairman Stephen Cheung said in a statement on Dec. 17.
“These two measures will be conducive to enhancing the overall quality and image of taxi services,” he said.
‘It’s overkill’
Not everyone thought the additional cameras would make them safer, however.
“I don’t think it will,” a passerby who gave only the surname Lai for fear of reprisals told Radio Free Asia on Thursday. “On the contrary, if the streets are being monitored, there will be no privacy.”
“I really think it’s overkill.”
A taxi driver who gave only the surname Wong for fear of reprisals said: “I don’t really agree with it, because of the privacy issues.”
“Who gets to see it? It could be misused, or used as a political tool by the government,” he said. “I’m very worried about that.”
A passerby who gave only the surname Chan told RFA in an earlier interview that he had doubts about the true purpose of the surveillance cameras because there isn’t much street crime in Hong Kong.
“There really aren’t that many thieves,” he said. “But it’ll mean that if we have something we want to speak out about in future, or to oppose, we won’t be able to.”
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Roseanne Gerin.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Wei Sze, Luk Nam Choi and Edward Li for RFA Cantonese.
NEW YORK and WASHINGTON D.C.- Manhattan resident Chen Jinping has pleaded guilty to a charge in federal court related to running a secret Chinese police station in New York.
Chen Jinping, a U.S. citizen, had assisted with administrative tasks at the hidden outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 2022.
According to U.S. prosecutors, it was set up by officials at China’s Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a branch of its Ministry of Public Security, and was used to intimidate and silence critics of the Chinese government in New York.
Chen’s plea in Brooklyn on Wednesday is the first time a person involved in one of these overseas outposts has been held to account in court.
More than 100 of the Chinese police outposts have apparently been opened in cities around the world.
Chen, 61, admitted to conspiring to act as a foreign government agent, for which he faces up to five years in prison.
The existence of the police station in Chinatown and in other locations around the world was first reported in a 2022 report by the Spain-based human-rights group, Safeguard Defenders.
The former office of the America ChangLe Association, described by U.S. authorities as a Chinese “secret police station,” is seen on the fourth floor of the Royal East Plaza building in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York, April 17, 2023.(BING GUAN, Bing Guan/Reuters)
“I hope the outcome of cases like this will encourage victims of the PRC’s transnational repression to come forward in greater numbers,” Laura Harth, the campaign director of Safeguard Defenders, told RFA, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“I also hope that the 53 countries where ‘overseas police stations’ have been uncovered take note and take action. This case serves as a warning to anyone considering assisting the CCP in its covert operations: there is no advantage in doing so,” she said, using an acronym for the Chinese Communist Party.
Chen Jinping was arrested in April 2023. He was charged with conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He did not plead guilty to the second charge. He will be sentenced on May 30, 2025.
Chen Jinping, a home health aide, wore a dark blue suit and a red tie to appear before Judge Nina Morrison of the Eastern District of New York.
Rising to address the court, he read from a sheet of paper. “I knowingly acted as a foreign agent,” he said in Mandarin. An interpreter from Fujian Province translated.
When RFA asked later how he felt after pleading guilty, he only smiled.
RFA visited the association last year, and members of the Chinese community in New York disclosed that while the association had helped some in the diaspora with paperwork and logistics, it had also played a role in harassing others.
Responding to Chen’s plea Wednesday, Zhou Fengsuo, a community leader, told RFA: “This is a representative case for the U.S. system, in which justice is served and evil is punished.”
“We hope that more overseas police stations will be closed and investigated so that Chinese people living abroad will face less oppression and threats from the CCP,” he added.
Lu is due in court in 2025.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not return a request for comment by press time, but the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry has previously denied the existence of overseas police stations.
Edited by Boer Deng
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Jane Tang, Tara McKelvey.
Vanuatu is taking stock of damage from a powerful 7.3 magnitude earthquake that has killed at least 14 people and collapsed buildings in the capital Port Vila, as the first trickle of international assistance began arriving in the disaster-prone Pacific nation.
The quake rattled the island nation, located about 1900km northeast of the Australian city of Brisbane, not long after midday on Tuesday, sending people in restaurants and shops running into the streets of Port Vila.
The National Disaster Management office said in a report that 14 people had been confirmed dead and 200 treated for injuries, with the numbers expected to increase.
Of those killed, six died in a landslide, four at the Vila Central Hospital and four in the Billabong building, which collapsed in downtown Port Vila.
Two Chinese nationals were among the dead, Chinese Ambassador to Vanuatu Li Minggang told state media yesterday.
On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Charlot Salwai declared a week-long state of emergency and set a curfew of 6 pm to 6 am.
Rescue efforts are focused on downtown Port Vila on the main island Efate, where the NDMO said at least 10 buildings, including one housing multiple diplomatic missions, suffered major structural damage.
Survivors trapped
Emergency teams worked through the night in a bid to find survivors trapped in the rubble, using heavy machinery such as excavators and cranes, along with shovels and hand grinders, videos posted to social media showed.
Two major commercial buildings, the Wong store and the Billabong shop, collapsed in the quake, according to Basil Leodoro, a surgeon and director of Helpr-1 Operations at Respond Global in Vanuatu.
Teams from the Vanuatu Mobile Force and ProRescue stand outside a damaged building in downtown Port Vila on Tuesday. Image: Vanuatu Police/BenarNews
“Vanuatu Mobile Force, ProRescue and ambulance teams are helping to remove casualties from the wreckage. So far they’ve been able to pull two,” said Leodoro in a social post yesterday morning, citing official reports.
“There are several others reported to be missing, still under the wreckage, coming to a total of about seven.”
People wounded in the disaster are being treated at two health facilities, the Vila Central Hospital and a second health clinic opened at the Vanuatu Mobile Force (VMF) base at Cooks Barracks, he said.
“From the initial reports at Vila Central Hospital, we know the hospital is overrun with casualties being brought in,” Leodoro said.
“The emergency team at the hospital have been working overnight to try to handle the number of casualties and walking wounded that are coming in, with triage being performed outside.”
“There are 14 confirmed deaths, and that number is likely to rise.”
The building in Port Vila’s CBD that hosts the US, British, French and New Zealand missions partially collapsed and was split in half by the earthquake. Image: Michael Thompson/BenarNews
‘Ring of Fire’
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update that there was damage to the hospital and the “operating theatre is non-functional, and overall healthcare capacity is overwhelmed.”
Vanuatu, an archipelago that straddles the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world and is frequently hit by cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
The UN agency estimated 116,000 people could be affected by this earthquake.
The government reported damage to power lines and water supplies in urban areas, while telecommunications were down, with Starlink providing the main form of connectivity to the outside world.
“Two major water reserves in the Ohlen area which supplies water to Port Vila are totally destroyed and will need reconstruction,” the NDMO said on Tuesday.
The Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC) said in a statement that its facilities were damaged in the quake and it was operating only a limited radio service.
Australia, New Zealand and France said they had dispatched aid and emergency response teams to Vanuatu and were helping to assess the extent of damage.
Airport closed
Airports Vanuatu CEO Jason Rakau said the airport was closed for commercial airplanes for 72 hours to allow humanitarian flights to land, VBTC reported.
A post on X from France’s ambassador to Vanuatu, Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, showed that three military engineers with satellite communications equipment had arrived by helicopter from the French territory of New Caledonia.
Aid supplies are already stationed in locations across Vanuatu as part of their disaster preparations, Katie Greenwood, head of the Pacific delegation at the Red Cross, said in another post to X.
Glen Craig, the chairman of the Vanuatu Business Resilience Council, said most damage was centered within 5km of Port Vila’s central business district.
“In terms of residential housing, it is far, far less significant than a cyclone,” he told BenarNews.
Most damage to businesses would be insurable, but of more concern would be a loss of income from tourism, he said.
“If tourists keep coming, we’re going to be okay,” he said. “If tourists just suddenly decide it’s all too hard, we’re in a bit of trouble.”
Vanuatu is home to about 300,000 on its 13 main islands and many smaller ones.
Its government declared a six-month national emergency early last year after it was hit by back-to-back tropical cyclones Judy and Kevin and a 6.5 magnitude earthquake within several days.
Republished from BenarNews with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
World Vision’s Vanuatu country director says electricity and water are still affected in the capital Port Vila and strategic bridges connecting the city are damaged, nearly 24 hours after a 7.3 earthquake just before 1pm on Tuesday afternoon.
The city has had multiple aftershocks since, with the strongest this morning reaching a magnitude 5.5.
At least 14 people are confirmed to have been killed and more than 200 people are injured.
World Vision’s Clement Chipokolo said the aftershocks are making everyone more vulnerable.
“We’re still out of electricity; we’re out of water as well and most of the stores are closed,” Chipokolo said.
“We have queues that are forming in the stores that are open for people to get essentials, especially water.”
He said the main priority is to recover those buried under rubble and recover bodies, while service providers were frantically trying to restore water and power.
‘Compromised strategic bridges’
“There are a number of compromised strategic bridges that are very essential for connecting the town those are the ones that I’m worried about for now,” Chipokolo said.
Telephone lines were now up and running but there was no internet connectivity.
He said the public was starting to come to grips with what had happened.
“I think we did not really gauge the scale of the impact yesterday, but now the public are sucking it in — how much we went through yesterday and by extension today.”
Vanuatu is one of the most natural disaster-prone countries in the world. It was hit by three severe tropical cyclones last year.
“We are a country that’s quite resilient to disasters but this was not a disaster that we anticipated or probably prepared for,” Chipokolo said.
However, he said the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO). which is the government arm that manages disasters, were on standby to support because of the cyclone season.
RNZ News also reports that help is slowly arriving, with incoming support from New Zealand, Australia and France. The airport in Port Vila is not operational other than for humanitarian assistance.
There are concerns about a lack of safe drinking water and Unicef Vanuatu Field Office Eric Durpaire told RNZ Midday Report there had been an increase in cases of diarrhoea.
Two Ministry of Foreign Affairs staff previously unaccounted for have been found safe.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
My friend Jamie just shared this video of the moment the earthquake struck his home. Amazing. pic.twitter.com/FaR24r2DeJ
A global civil society watchdog has condemned Fiji for blocking protest marches over the Palestine genocide by Israel and clamping down on a regional Pacific university demonstration with threats.
However, while the Civicus Monitorrates the state of civic space in Fiji as “obstructed” it has acknowledged the country for making some progress over human rights.
“While the government took steps in 2023 to repeal a restrictive media law and reversed travel bans on critics, the Public Order (Amendment) Act, which has been used to restrict peaceful assembly and expression and sedition provisions in the Crimes Act, remains in place,” said the Civicus Monitor in a statement on its website.
“The police have also restricted pro-Palestinian marches” — planned protests against Israel’s genocide against Gaza in which more than 44,000 people have been killed, mostly women and children.
The monitor said the Fiji government had “continued to take steps to address human rights issues in Fiji”.
In July 2024, it was reported that the Fiji Corrections Service had signed an agreement with the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission to provide them access to monitor inmates in prison facilities.
In August 2024, a task force known as Fiji’s National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting, and Follow-up (NMIRF) was launched by the Attorney-General Graham Leung.
The establishment of the human rights task force is to coordinate Fiji’s engagement with international human rights bodies, including the UN human tights treaty bodies, the Universal Periodic Review and the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
In September 2024, it was announced that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) would be established to investigate and address human rights violations since 1987.
TRC steering committee chair and Assistant Minister for Women Sashi Kiran said that they were working on drafting a piece of legislation on this and that the commission would operate independently from the government.
“In recent months, the police once again blocked an application by civil society groups to hold a march for Palestine, while university unions were threatened with a pay dock for their involvement in a strike,” the Civicus Monitor said.
Police deny Palestine solidarity march “The authorities have continued to restrict the right to peaceful assembly, particularly around Palestine.”
On 7 October 2024, the police denied permission for a march in the capital Suva by the NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji.
Fiji’s Assistant Commissioner of Police Operations Livai Driu . . . “The decision [to ban a pro-Palestine march] was made based on security reasons.” Image: FB/Radio TaranaThe Fiji Police Force ACP Operations Livai Driu was quoted as saying: “The decision was made based on security reasons.”
“The march was intended to express solidarity with the Palestinian people amidst the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The coalition’s application to hold the march was met with repeated delays and questioning by government authorities,” said the Civicus Monitor.
“The coalition said that this was ‘reminiscent of a dictatorial system of the past’.
The coalition added: “It is shameful that the Fiji Coalition Government which has lauded itself internationally and regionally as being a promoter of human rights and peace has continued to curtail the rights of its citizens by denying permit applications calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza.”
Today, a group was given a permit to march through Suva in support of Israel + wave Israeli flag but Fijians calling for an end to #GazaGenocide for 1 year gathered @ the FWCC compound due to ongoing arbitrary restrictions on marches on #GazaGenocide & the use of Palestine flags pic.twitter.com/hOvG5y8Bwj
“The restriction around protests on Palestine and waving the Palestinian flag has persisted for over a year.
“As previously documented, the activists have had to hold their solidarity gatherings in the premises of the FWCC office as the police have restricted solidarity marches, under the Public Order (Amendment) Act 2014.
“The law allows the government to refuse permits for any public meeting or march deemed to prejudice the maintenance of peace or good order.
“It has often been misused by the authorities to restrict or block peaceful gatherings and demonstrations, restricting the right to peaceful assembly and association.
The UN Human Rights Council and human rights groups have called for the repeal of restrictive provisions in the law, including the requirement for a police permit for protests, which is inconsistent with international standards.
These restrictions on solidarity marches for Palestine are inconsistent with Fiji’s international human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which guarantees freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
These actions also contravene Fiji’s constitution that guarantees these rights.
University threatens union members In October 2024, members of the Association of the University of the South Pacific (USP) and the University of the South Pacific Staff Union who went on strike were reportedly threatened by the university, reported the Civicus Monitor.
The human resource office said they would not be paid if they were not in office during the strike.
The unions commenced strike action on 18 October 2024 in protest against the alleged poor governance and leadership at the university by vice-chancellor Pal Ahluwalia and the termination of former staff union (AUSPS) president Dr Tamara Osborne Naikatini, calling for her to be reinstated.
“The unions expressed dissatisfaction following the recent release of the Special Council meeting outcome, which they say misleadingly framed serious grievances as mere human resource issues to be investigated rather than investigating [Professor] Ahluwalia.
“The unions say they have been raising concerns for months and called for Ahluwalia to be suspended and for a timely investigation.”
Alongside the staff members currently standing in protest were also several groups of students.
On 24 October 2024, the students led a march at the University of the South Pacific Laucala campus that ended in front of the vice-chancellor’s residence. The students claimed that Professor Ahluwalia did not consider the best interests of the students and called for his replacement.
The USP is owned by 12 Pacific nations, which contribute a total 20 percent of its annual income, and with campuses in all the member island states.
Florida’s Broward County is poised to erase the criminal convictions of thousands of people who were arrested for purchasing drugs, particularly crack cocaine. Why, you may ask? Did the holiday season lead Broward county’s Supreme Court to suddenly grow a heart, Grinch-style, realizing punitive measures to address drug use and addiction will never help people? No, it’s because it was found that those drugs were produced by the cops themselves in the Sheriff’s office. You sure did read that right. As reported by Democracy Now, “For years, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office produced crack cocaine to be sold by undercover police to the public.”
Several media houses recently reported that Californium, a rare radioactive material, along with sensitive documents related to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), were seized from the residence of Francis Ekka, the husband of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Amrita Ekka, in Naxalbari, Darjeeling.
The seizure, according to reports, followed a coordinated raid on November 26, 2024 by the Central Disaster Response Force (CDRF) and the Panighata police in the Belgachi Tea Garden area of Naxalbari block.
Californium (Cf) is a synthetic radioactive element with the atomic number 98. It was first synthesized in 1950 by a team at the University of California, Berkeley. Californium is not found in nature. It is produced through nuclear reactions, typically by bombarding curium with helium ions. The element is used in nuclear reactors to initiate reactions, optimize performance, and in radiation therapy for treating cancers. It also plays a key role in industrial applications such as neutron radiography, metal detectors for gold prospecting, and neutron activation analysis for trace element identification. Its unique radioactive properties make it valuable in both medical and industrial fields.
Californium is expensive because of its limited availability, high production costs, and the need for specialized shipping containers.
Zee News published a report under the headline “Rare Radioactive ‘Californium’ Seized From Home Of Bengal TMC Leader’s Husband; Its Cost Per Gram Will Shock You”. The report said, “The availability of this highly sensitive substance and confidential documents has raised serious concerns about his links with the underworld network.”
NDTV India (@ndtvindia) tweeted a news bulletin by Siddharth Prakash, which reported that police and NDRF had seized dangerously radioactive Californium, valued at approximately Rs 17 crore per gram, along with sensitive DRDO documents from Francis Ekka, a TMC leader. Siddharth raised concerns whether the incident could be part of a larger conspiracy.
Shehzada Poonawala, the BJP national spokesperson, accused TMC of indulging in activities that threaten national security.
Husband of TMC leader caught with secret DRDO documents and radioactive substance
NUCLEAR MATERIAL FOUND AT TMC NETA’s HOUSE
Dangerous and valuable *nuclear chemical ‘Californium’ has been recovered from the house of TMC leader Francis Ekka*. The price of this chemical in the… pic.twitter.com/PgiJKc5CoD
— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) November 30, 2024
BJP leader Arjun Singh, in a press conference, said “At the direction of Nabanna, a conspiracy is being hatched to murder some BJP leaders.” He added, “This is such a chemical that if someone passes from its side without protection, their body will decay in a month”.
Rishi Bagree tweeted on the incident calling it to be “nothing less than national treason”. (Screenshot below)
During our investigation, we found a video report by ANI on their YouTube channel, where Darjeeling SP Praween Prakash, while addressing the media, refuted the claims of Californium and DRDO papers were found with the accused person.
Prakash said, “A source told us that a person was trying to sell radioactive materials… we initially thought that this kind of things generally kept on happening and people would try to cheat others by doing all these kinds of activities… But because it came to our notice we thought even if it was a cheating gang we had to investigate what was going on behind that. We were told that they were trying to sell some kind of radioactive material that they had in boxes and some DRDO documents… But later on, when we investigated, we had to take the help of the NDRF team… if there was any kind of radiation in the room where the material was kept… Nothing was found. But according to protocol, we had to inform of the department of the atomic energy (DAE).”
The SP further revealed that during the interrogation, the accused, Francis Ekka, confessed to being a part of a larger gang of three/four more individuals. They were scheming to deceive people by falsely claiming that the materials they were selling were radioactive, which, in reality, they were not. The boxes and the forged documents used in the scam were all locally fabricated. The accused was actively seeking potential buyers in order to defraud them.
Prakash also pointed out that Ekka had been accused of involvement in similar fraudulent activities in the past as well. In 2018, a case was registered in Mirik, where he was allegedly involved in some kind of transportation of stolen material like anti-radiation jackets.
While answering the question of a journalist, the Darjeeling SP clarified that there was no “anti-national angle” to the case. He added, “These people hardly have an idea of what they are claiming and what they are doing. This is a simple case of cheating.”
A keyword search led us to a news report by ABP Ananda, the headline, when translated, reads, “Chemical recovered from Trinamool leader’s house is not ‘Californium’, tests reveal”. The report says that according to a report of the department of atomic energy, the chemical recovered from the residence of Francis Ekka was not radioactive.
Several local media outlets reported on the case. Kalimpong News published a report with the headline, “No radioactive material found in arrest of Francis Ekka, police investigate alleged forgery scheme.”
Siliguri Times shared a video report on its Facebook page with a detailed statement from SP Prakash. He mentions that Ekka’s plan was to cheat people. The box that he had assembled mentioned Iridium. The SP says he has no idea where the media found any mention of Californium. He adds that the accused admitted that there was no radioactive material. The whole plan was to dupe/cheat people. The NDRF had confirmed there was no presence of any radioactive material. However, according to protocol, the DAE had been informed.
Californium Rumours in Bihar, UP
We would like our readers to know that in August 2024, a similar incident took place in Bihar. On August 9, Bihar police arrested three members of a smuggling gang and seized 50 grams of ‘Californium’ worth 850 crores. But later, a three-member team of scientists from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, visited Gopalganj followed by the seizure of the ‘radioactive substance’ and, “during the preliminary investigation by the team, no radioactivity was detected in the sample”.
Similarly, Lucknow police had arrested eight people and claimed to have recovered 340 grams of material suspected to be Californium from them on May 28, 2021. Later, the DAE found that the material confiscated was not radioactive.
To sum up, the media reports that dangerously radioactive chemical Californium was found in possession of Francis Ekka in Bengal are false.
Pacific police chiefs have formally opened the headquarters and training center for a new stand-by, mutual assistance force in Australia to support countries during civil unrest, natural disasters and major events.
The Pacific Policing Initiative was declared operational just 17 months after chiefs agreed in 2023 on the need to create a multinational unit, with US$270 million (A$400 million) in funding from Australia.
The PPI comes as Australia and its allies are locked in a geostrategic contest for influence in the region with China, including over security and policing.
Riots in Solomon Islands and violence in Papua New Guinea, the region’s increased exposure to climate change impacts, escalating transnational crime and securing a higher standing internationally for the Pacific’s forces were key drivers.
PNG Police Commissioner David Manning (centre) flanked by Vanuatu Police Commissioner Robson Iavro (left), Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw (second right) and Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus at the PPI launch on Tuesday. Image: BenarNews/Stefan Armbruster
At a flag-raising ceremony in Brisbane on Tuesday, Papua New Guinea’s Police Commissioner David Manning hailed the PPI’s funding as an “unprecedented investment” in the region.
“The PPI provides a clear, effective, and agile mechanism to which we can support our Pacific family in times of need to uphold the law and maintain order in security,” said Manning, who chairs the PPI design steering committee.
He said issues in deploying foreign police throughout the region still needed to be resolved but the 22 member nations and territories were “close to completing the guiding legal framework around Pacific Island countries to be able to tap into this.”
The constitutional difficulties of deploying foreign police are well known to Manning after PNG’s highest court ruled two decades ago that a deployment of Australian Federal Police there was illegal.
“That incident alone has taught us many lessons,” he said, adding changes had been made to the Constitution and relevant legislation to receive assistance and also to deploy to other countries lawfully.
Manning said no deployments of the Pacific Support Group had currently been requested by Pacific nations.
Impetus for the PPI was a secretive policing and security deal Beijing signed with Solomon Islands in 2022 that caused alarm in Washington and Canberra.
Several other Pacific nations — including Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati — also have policing arrangements with China to provide training and equipment. On Monday, Vanuatu received police boats and vehicles valued at US$4 million from Beijing.
“I wouldn’t say it locks China out, all I’m saying is that we now have an opportunity to determine what is best for the Pacific,” Manning said.
“Our countries in the Pacific have different approaches in terms of their relationship with China. I’m not brave enough to speak on their behalf, but as for us, it is purely policing.”
Samoan Police Minister Lefau Harry Schuster on Tuesday also announced his country would be hosting the PPI’s third “center of excellence”, specialising in forensics, alongside ones in PNG and Fiji.
He said the PPI will use the Samoan Police Academy built by China and opened in June.
“We wanted it to be used not just for Samoa, but to open up for use by the region,” Schuster said in Brisbane.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the PPI “symbolises our commitment as part of the Pacific region” and enhances the Pacific’s standing internationally.
“Asia represents Australia and the Pacific at the moment at Interpol,” he said. “We want to show leadership in the region and we want a bit more status and recognition from Interpol.”
Kershaw said “crime in our region is becoming more complex”, including large seizures of drug shipments.
“The fact is that we’re able to work together in a seamless way and combat, say, transnational, serious and organized crime as a serious threat in our region.”
“At the same time, we’ve all got domestic issues and I think we’re learning faster and better about how to deal with domestic issues and international issues at the same time.”
Police ministers and chiefs from across the Pacific attended the launch of the PPI’s Pinkenba Hub on Tuesday. Image: BenarNews/Stefan Armbruster
Asked about tackling community policing of issues like gender-based violence, he said it was all part of the “complex” mix.
The Australian and Samoan facilities complete the three arms of the PPI consisting of the Pacific Support Group, three regional training centers and the co-ordination hub in Brisbane.
The Pinkenba centre in Brisbane will provide training — including public order management, investigations, close personal protection — and has accommodation for 140 people.
Training began in July, with 30 officers from 11 nations who were deployed to Samoa to help with security during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in October, the largest event the country has ever hosted.
Schuster expressed surprise about how quickly the PPI was established and thanked Australia and the region for their support.
“This is one initiative I’m very happy that we didn’t quite do it the Pacific way. [The] Pacific way takes time, a long time, we talk and talk and talk,” he joked.
“So I look forward to an approach like this in the future, so that we do things first and then open it later.”
This article is republished from BenarNewswith permission.
The NZ prime minister’s comments followed the ICC announcing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel’s former defence minister Yoav Gallant on allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 13-month war on the besieged Gaza Strip that has killed more than 44,000 people — mostly women and children.
Netanyahu and Gallant are now fugitives from global justice after the ICC issued the arrest warrants against them.
Although Israel — and the US — does not recognise the authority of the ICC, the highest international criminal court, and Netanyahu and Gallant will not turn themselves in, the pair’s world has got a lot smaller.
The Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, includes 124 state parties across six continents.
“The law operates on the basis of a presumption that people will obey it. That’s how all laws are created,” Kuttab told Al Jazeera.
“You expect everybody to respect the law. Those who don’t respect the law are themselves violating the law.”
He added that there were early signs that countries would not ignore the court’s decision.
Many of Israel’s allies — including several European Union countries — have committed to enforcing the arrest warrants.
The ICC was set up in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves. It is based in The Hague in the Netherlands.
The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top UN court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide, an allegation Israeli leaders deny.
A total of 124 countries are state parties to the Rome Statute, which founded the International Criminal Court. They include 29 nations from the Americas: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Map: CC AJ Lab
Despite it being illegal in Australia to recruit soldiers for foreign armies, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) recruiters are hard at work enticing young Australians to join Israel’s army. Michael West Media investigates.
INVESTIGATION:By Yaakov Aharon
The Israeli war machine is in hyperdrive, and it needs new bodies to throw into the fire. In July, The Department of Home Affairs stated that there were only four Australians who had booked flights to Israel and whom it suspected of intending to join the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
The Australian Border Force intervened with three of the four but clarified that they did not “necessarily prevent them from leaving”.
MWM understands a batch of Australian recruits is due to arrive in Israel in January, and this is not the first batch of recruits to receive assistance as IDF soldiers through this Australian programme.
Many countries encourage certain categories of immigrants and discourage others. However, Israel doesn’t just want Palestinians out and Jews in — they want Jews of fighting age, who will be conscripted shortly after arrival.
The IDF’s “Lone Soldiers” are soldiers who do not have parents living in Israel. Usually, this means 18-year-old immigrants with basic Hebrew who may never have spent longer than a school camp away from home.
There are a range of Israeli government programmes, charities, and community centres that support the Lone Soldiers’ integration into society prior to basic training.
The most robust of these programs is Garin Tzabar, where there are only 90 days between hugging mum and dad goodbye at Sydney Airport and the drill sergeant belting orders in a foreign language.
The Garin Tzabar website. Image: MWM
Garin Tzabar
In 2004, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon asked Minister for Aliyah [Immigration] and Integration, Tzipi Livni, to significantly increase the number of people in the Garin Tzabar programme.
The IDF website states that Garin Tzabar “is a unique project, a collaborative venture of the Meitav Unit in the IDF, the Scout movement, the security-social wing of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption, which began in 1991”. (Translated from Hebrew via Google Translate.)
The Meitav Unit is divided into many different branches, most of which are responsible for overseeing new recruits.
Powerful and unique journalism by @yaakov_aharon on a story that receives shamefully little coverage in Australia; the recruitment of Australians to serve in the Israeli military: https://t.co/OdNVzzMEbx
However, the pride of the Meitav Unit is the branch dedicated to recruiting all the unique population groups that are not subject to the draft (eg. Ultra-Orthodox Jews). This branch is then divided into three further Departments.
In a 2020 interview, the Head of Meitav’s Tzabar Department, Lieutenant Noam Delgo, referred to herself as someone who “recruits olim chadishim (new immigrants).” She stated:
“Our main job in the army is to help Garin Tzabar members to recruit . . . The best thing about Garin Tzabar is the mashakyot (commanders). Every time you wake up in the morning you have two amazing soldiers — really intelligent — with pretty high skills, just managing your whole life, teaching you Hebrew, helping you with all the bureaucratic systems in Israel, getting profiles, seeing doctors and getting those documents, and finishing the whole process.”
The contact point for Australian recruits is Shoval Magal, the executive director of Garin Tzabar Australia. The registered address is a building shared by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Zionist Council of NSW, the community’s peak bodies in the state.
“Until three months ago, Tali [REDACTED], from Sydney, Australia, and Moises [REDACTED], from Mexico City, were ordinary teenagers. But on December 25, they arrived at their new family here in Israel — the “Garin Tzabar” family, and in a moment, they will become soldiers. In a special project, we accompanied them from the day of admission (to the program) until just before the recruitment.“ (Translated from Hebrew via Google Translate).
Michael Manhaim was the executive director of Garin Tzabar Australia from 2018 to 2023. He wrote an article, “Becoming a Lone Soldier”,’ for the 2021 annual newsletter of Betar Australia, a Zionist youth group for children. In the article, Manhaim writes:
“The programme starts with the unique preparation process in Australia.
. . . It only takes one step; you just need to choose which foot will lead the way. We will be there for the rest.”
A criminal activity MWM is not alleging that any of the parties mentioned in this article have broken the law. It is not a crime if a person chooses to join a foreign army.
A person commits an offence if the person recruits, in Australia, another person to serve in any capacity in or with an armed force in a foreign country.
It is a further offence to facilitate or promote recruitment for a foreign army and to publish recruitment materials. This includes advertising information relating to how a person may serve in a foreign army.
The maximum penalty for each offence is 10 years.
Rawan Arraf, executive director of the Australian Centre for International Justice, said:
“Unless there has been a specific declaration stating it is not an offence to recruit for the Israel Defence Force, recruitment to a foreign armed force is a criminal offence under Australian law, and the Australian Federal Police should be investigating anyone allegedly involved in recruitment for a foreign armed force.”
Army needing ‘new flesh’ If the IDF are to keep the war on Gaza going, they need to fill old suits of body armour with new grunts.
Reports indicate the death toll within IDF’s ranks is unprecedented — a suicide epidemic is claiming further lives on the home front, and reservists are refusing in droves to return to active duty.
In October, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid accused Bibi Netanyahu of obscuring the facts of Israel’s casualty rate. Any national security story published in Israel must first be approved by the intelligence unit at the Military Censor.
“11,000 soldiers were injured and 890 others killed,” Lapid said, without warning and live on air. There are limits to how much we accept the alternative facts”.
In November 2023, Shoval Magal shared a photo in which she is posing alongside six young Australians, saying, “The participants are eager to have Aliya (immigrate) to Israel, start the programme and join the army”.
These six recruits are the attendees of just one of several seminars that Magal has organised in Melbourne for the summer 2023 cycle, having also organised separate events across cities in Australia.
Magal’s June 2024 newsletter said she was “in the advanced stages of the preparation phase in Australia for the August 2024 Garin”. Most recently, in October 2024, she was “getting ready for Garin Tzabar’s 2024 December cycle.”
Magal’s newsletter for Israeli Scouts in Australia ‘Aliyah Events – November 2024’. Image: MWM
There are five “Aliyah (Immigration) Events” in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. The sponsoring organisations are Garin Tzabar, the Israeli Ministry for Aliyah (Immigration) and Integration, and a who’s who of the Jewish-Australian community.
The star speaker at each event is Alon Katz, an Australian who joined Garin Tzabar in 2018 and is today a reserve IDF soldier. The second speaker, Colonel Golan Vach, was the subject of two Electronic Intifadainvestigations alleging that he had invented the 40 burned babies lie on October 7 to create a motive for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.
If any Australian signed the papers to become an IDF recruit at these events, is someone liable for the offence of recruiting them to a foreign army?
MWM reached out for comment to Garin Tzabar Australia and the Zionist Federation of Australia to clarify whether the IDF is recruiting in Australia but did not receive a reply.
Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian journalist living in Wollongong. He enjoys long walks on Wollongong Beach, unimpeded by Port Kembla smoke fumes and AUKUS submarines. First published by Michael West Media and republished with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
Police and prosecutors in the Canadian province of Alberta have classed a monument to Ukrainian veterans who fought for Nazi Germany as a protected “war memorial,” for the purpose of charging a journalist who allegedly defaced it, according to news website The Maple.
The Canadian government has previously been accused by Russia of protecting Nazi war criminals who emigrated to the country after WWII.
Police in the city of Edmonton in the province of Alberta claim that journalist Duncan Kinney vandalized the structure in St. Michael’s Cemetery. The monument honoring Ukrainian veterans of the SS “1st Galician Division” was sprayed with the words “Nazi Monument 14th Waffen SS” in August 2021.
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS consisted mostly of Western Ukrainians, and was implicated in war crimes. Many of its members immigrated to Canada after WWII.
According to police, Kinney was also arrested and charged in October 2022 with one count of “mischief relating to war memorials” for allegedly spraying the words “Actual Nazi” on a statue of a Ukrainian nationalist and Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych located at the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in Edmonton.
Shukhevych was involved in the massacre of tens of thousands of Poles and Jews during the Second World War.
The journalist has denied the allegations and is contesting the charges in court, The Maple wrote. If found guilty, he could be sent to prison for up to 10 years. Kinney’s legal defence has argued that he has been deliberately targeted by police for investigating “numerous” cases of misconduct in the force.
According to Polish-born former Alberta deputy premier and cabinet minister Thomas Lukaszuk, the authorities are misinterpreting the law by extending the protection it offers to Canada’s wartime enemies and those who committed war crimes.
“I think it clearly shows that Edmonton police and the Crown prosecutor’s office… are lacking, grossly, in historical knowledge,” Lukaszuk told The Maple.
The monument to Ukrainian SS veterans, allegedly defaced by Kinney, has a family link to Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, The Maple noted.
Freeland’s maternal grandfather, Michael Chomiak, served as a Nazi propagandist in occupied Poland during the war and helped to raise the money for the monument, journalist and author Peter McFarlane told the outlet.
One member of the 1st Galician Division was 99-year-old Yaroslav Hunka, who received two standing ovations in the Canadian parliament in September 2023 during Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s visit. The parliamentary speaker later resigned over the incident, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued an apology.
Russia has accused Canada of “whitewashing” the crimes of Adolf Hitler’s regime by failing to prosecute the former Nazi soldier, and rejecting a request by Moscow to extradite Hunka.
Despite Australia’s draconian anti-protest laws, the world’s biggest coal port was closed for four hours at the weekend with 170 protesters being charged — but climate demonstrations will continue. Twenty further arrests were made at a protest at the Federal Parliament yesterday.
SPECIAL REPORT:By Wendy Bacon
Newcastle port, the world’s biggest coal port, was closed for four hours on Sunday when hundreds of Rising Tide protesters in kayaks refused to leave its shipping channel.
Over two days of protest at the Australian port, 170 protesters have been charged. Some others who entered the channel were arrested but released without charge. Hundreds more took to the water in support.
Thousands on the beach chanted, danced and created a huge human sign demanding “no new coal and gas” projects.
Rising Tide is campaigning for a 78 percent tax on fossil fuel profits to be used for a “just transition” for workers and communities, including in the Hunter Valley, where the Albanese government has approved three massive new coal mine extensions since 2022.
Protest size triples to 7000 The NSW Labor government made two court attempts to block the protest from going ahead. But the 10-day Rising Tide protest tripled in size from 2023 with 7000 people participating so far and more people arrested in civil disobedience actions than last year.
The “protestival” continued in Newcastle on Monday, and a new wave started in Canberra at the Australian Parliament yesterday with more than 20 arrests. Rising Tide staged an overnight occupation of the lawn outside Parliament House and a demonstration at which they demanded to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
News of the “protestival” has spread around the world, with campaigners in Rotterdam in The Netherlands blocking a coal train in solidarity with this year’s Rising Tide protest.
Of those arrested, 138 have been charged under S214A of the NSW Crimes Act for disrupting a major facility, which carries up to two years in prison and $22,000 maximum fines. This section is part of the NSW government regime of “anti-protest” laws designed to deter movements such as Rising Tide.
The rest of the protesters have been charged under the Marine Safety Act which police used against 109 protesters arrested last year.
Even if found guilty, these people are likely to only receive minor penalties.Those arrested in 2023 mostly received small fines, good behaviour bonds and had no conviction recorded.
On Sunday I was arrested for blockading the world’s largest coal port, and now I am here in Canberra, to voice the anger of my generation.
I wrote to @AlboMP weeks ago inviting him to stand here today, on these lawns, and explain himself to the young people of Australia. pic.twitter.com/QgxjTApS92
Executive gives the bird to judiciary The use of the Crimes Act will focus more attention on the anti-protest laws which the NSW government has been extending and strengthening in recent weeks. The NSW Supreme Court has already found the laws to be partly unconstitutional but despite huge opposition from civil society and human rights organisations, the NSW government has not reformed them.
Two protesters were targeted for special treatment: Naomi Hodgson, a key Rising Tide organiser, and Andrew George, who has previous protest convictions.
George was led into court in handcuffs on Monday morning but was released on bail on condition that he not return to the port area. Hodgson also has a record of peaceful protest. She is one of the Rising Tide leaders who have always stressed the importance of safe and peaceful action.
The police prosecutor argued that she should remain in custody. The magistrate released her with the extraordinary requirement that she report to police daily and not go nearer than 2 km from the port.
Planning for this year’s protest has been underway for 12 months, with groups forming in Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra Sydney and the Northern Rivers, as well as Newcastle. There was an intensive programme of meetings and briefings of potential participants on the motivation for protesting, principles of civil disobedience and the experience of being arrested.
Those who attended last year recruited a whole new cohort of protesters.
Last year, the NSW police authorised a protest involved a 48-hour blockade which protesters extended by two hours. Earlier this year, a similar application was made by Rising Tide.
The first indication that the police would refuse to authorise a protest came earlier this month when the NSW police successfully applied to the NSW Supreme Court for the protest to be declared “an unauthorised protest.”
But Justice Desmond Fagan also made it clear that Rising Tide had a “responsible approach to on-water safety” and that he was not giving a direction that the protest should be terminated. Newcastle Council agreed that Rising Tide could camp at Horseshoe Bay.
People got the power! Eye witnesses say 24 protestors were arrested for protesting at parliament today, demanding the Albanese Government stop new coal. pic.twitter.com/ueNjHogzWZ
Minns’ bid to crush protest The Minns government showed that its goal was to crush the protest altogether when the Minister for Transport Jo Haylen declared a blanket 97-hour exclusion zone making it unlawful to enter the Hunter River mouth and beaches under the Marine Safety Act last week.
On Friday, Rising Tide organiser and 2020 Newcastle Young Citizen of the year, Alexa Stuart took successful action in the Supreme Court to have the exclusion zone declared an invalid use of power.
An hour before the exclusion zone was due to come into effect at 5 pm, the Rising Tide flotilla had been launched off Horseshoe Bay. At 4 pm, Supreme Court Justice Sarah McNaughton quashed the exclusion zone notice, declaring that it was an invalid use of power under the Marine Safety Act because the object of the Act is to facilitate events, not to stop them from happening altogether.
When news of the judge’s decision reached the beach, a big cheer erupted. The drama-packed weekend was off to a good start.
Friday morning began with a First Nations welcome and speeches and a SchoolStrike4Climate protest. Kayakers held their position on the harbour with an overnight vigil on Friday night.
On Saturday, Midnight Oil front singer Peter Garrett, who served as Environment Minister in a previous Labor government, performed in support of Rising Tide protest. He expressed his concern about government overreach in policing protests, especially in the light of all the evidence of the impacts of climate change.
Ships continued to go through the channel, protected by the NSW police. When kayakers entered the channel while it was empty, nine were arrested.
84-year-old great-gran arrested, not charged By late Saturday, three had been charged, and the other six were towed back to the beach. This included June Norman, an 84-year-old great-grandmother from Queensland, who entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience.
The 84-year-old protester Jane Norman . . . entered the shipping channel at least six times over the weekend in peaceful acts of civil disobedience. Image: Wendy Bacon/MWM
She told MWM that she felt a duty to act to protect her own grandchildren and all other children due to a failure by the Albanese and other governments to take action on climate change. The police repeatedly declined to charge her.
On Sunday morning a decision was made for kayakers “to take the channel”. At about 10.15, a coal boat, turned away before entering the port.
Port closed, job done Although the period of stoppage was shorter than last year, civil disobedience had now achieved what the authorised protest achieved last year. The port was officially closed and remained so for four hours.
By now, 60 people had been charged and far more police resources expended than in 2023, including hours of police helicopters and drones.
On Sunday afternoon, hundreds of kayakers again occupied the channel. A ship was due. Now in a massive display of force involving scores of police in black rubber zodiacs, police on jet skis, and a huge police launch, kayakers were either arrested or herded back from the channel.
When the channel was clear, a huge ship then came through the channel, signalling the reopening of the port.
On Monday night, ABC National News reported that protesters were within metres of the ship. MWM closely observed the events. When the ship began to move towards the harbour, all kayaks were inside the buoys marking the channel. Police occupied the area between the protesters and the ship. No kayaker moved forward.
A powerful visual message had been sent that the forces of the NSW state would be used to defend the interests of the big coal companies such as Whitehaven and Glencore rather than the NSW public.
By now police on horses were on the beach and watched as small squads of police marched through the crowd grabbing paddles. A little later this reporter was carrying a paddle through a car park well off the beach when a constable roughly seized it without warning from my hand.
When asked, Constable Pacey explained that I had breached the peace by being on water. I had not entered the water over the weekend.
Kids arrested too, in mass civil disobedience Those charged included 14 people under 18. After being released, they marched chanting back into the camp. A 16-year-old Newcastle student, Niamh Cush, told a crowd of fellow protesters before her arrest that as a young person, she would rather not be arrested but that the betrayal of the Albanese government left her with no choice.
“I’m here to voice the anger of my generation. The Albanese government claims they’re taking climate change seriously but they are completely and utterly failing us by approving polluting new coal and gas mines. See you out on the water today to block the coal ships!”
Each of those who chose to get arrested has their own story. They include environmental scientists, engineers, TAFE teachers, students, nurses and doctors, hospitality and retail workers, designers and media workers, activists who have retired, unionists, a mediator and a coal miner.
They came from across Australia — more than 200 came from Adelaide alone — and from many different backgrounds.
Behind those arrested stand volunteer groups of legal observers, arrestee support, lawyers, community care workers and a media team. Beside them stand hundreds of other volunteers who have cleaned portaloos, prepared three meals a day, washed dishes, welcomed and registered participants, organised camping spots and acted as marshals at pedestrian crossings.
Each and every one of them is playing an essential role in this campaign of mass civil disobedience.
Many participants said this huge collaborative effort is what inspired them and gave them hope, as much as did the protest itself.
Threat to democracy Today, the president of NSW Civil Liberties, Tim Roberts, said, “Paddling a kayak in the Port of Newcastle is not an offence, people do it every day safely without hundreds of police officers.
“A decision was made to protect the safe passage of the vessels over the protection of people exercising their democratic rights to protest.
“We are living in extraordinary times. Our democracy will not irrevocably be damaged in one fell swoop — it will be a slow bleed, a death by a thousand tranches of repressive legislation, and by thousands of arrests of people standing up in defence of their civil liberties.”
Australian Institute research shows that most Australians agree with the Council for Civil Liberties — with 71 percent polled, including a majority of all parties, believing that the right to protest should be enshrined in Federal legislation. It also included a majority across all ages and political parties.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is a fear of accelerating mass civil disobedience in the face of a climate crisis that frightens both the Federal and State governments and the police.
As temperatures rise Many of those protesting have already been directly affected by climbing temperatures in sweltering suburbs, raging bushfires and intense smoke, roaring floods and a loss of housing that has not been replaced, devastated forests, polluting coal mines and gas fields or rising seas in the Torres Strait in Northern Australia and Pacific Island countries.
Others have become profoundly concerned as they come to grips with climate science predictions and public health warnings.
In these circumstances, and as long as governments continue to enable the fossil fuel industry by approving more coal and gas projects that will add to the climate crisis, the number of people who decide they are morally obliged to take civil disobedience action will grow.
Rather than being impressed by politicians who cast them as disrupters, they will heed the call of Pacific leaders who this week declared the COP29 talks to be a “catastrophic failure” exposing their people to “escalating risks”.
Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was the professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism. She is a Rising Tide supporter, and is a long-term supporter of a peaceful BDS and the Greens.
While speaking on issues of officers refusing to take statements of domestic violence victims, she said some officers refused to acknowledge cases of gender-based violence, despite the laws in place.
“There are some officers who do not respond to it, and at times, the justice system does not support the interests of women.”
She said if authorities did their job, men would be a bit more scared.
“There’s a reluctance to address domestic violence because of the patriarchal mindset, and this attitude often comes from within the force itself.”
In response, Police Commissioner Juki Fong Chew said the actions of a few were not representative of the way the organisation perceived cases of gender-based violence.
“We have disciplinary measures in place to deal with officers as claimed by Ms Ali, and we encourage the sharing of information so that the officers can be dealt with,” he said.
Fong Chew said these issues could be addressed promptly.
New Caledonia’s Great Chief William Boarat has been found dead and police have arrested a 24-year-old man as investigations continue.
Great Chief Boarat was found dead in the early hours of yesterday in circumstances described as involuntary homicide.
Public prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a statement that initial findings on the crime scene in the village of Ouaco pointed to an initial assault from a 24-year-old man on a woman he was in a de facto relationship with.
Chief Boarat, 66, who was present at the scene, reportedly tried to stop the man from hitting his partner in their village residence.
The young man, believed to be under the influence of alcohol, is then reported to have grabbed a wooden post and hit the chief on the head.
A medical team later found the old chief unconscious, with severe head wounds.
Attempts to revive him proved unsuccessful.
The suspect has been taken into custody, and investigations are ongoing.
He faces charges of murder and assault against his de facto partner.
Witnesses are also being questioned as part of the inquiry.
A post-mortem has been ordered to further establish the exact cause of death.
The Boarat clan is the main chiefly entity of the Koumac area, which itself belongs to the chiefly area of Hoot ma Waap (one of the eight chiefly areas represented in New Caledonia’s Customary Senate).
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Istanbul, November 27, 2024—Turkish authorities should stop treating journalists like terrorists by raiding their homes and detaining them, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
“Turkish authorities once more raided the homes of multiple journalists in the middle of the night, in order to portray them as dangerous criminals, and detained them without offering any justification. CPJ has monitored similar secretive operations in the past decade, and not one journalist has been proven to be involved with actual terrorism,” said Özgür Öğret, CPJ’s Turkey representative. “The authorities should immediately release the journalists in custody and stop this systematic harassment of the media.”
In a statement Tuesday, Turkey’s Interior Ministry said police had conducted simultaneous operations in 30 cities and detained a total of 261 people who suspected of having ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) or alleged offshoot organizations. At least 12 journalists are reported to be held in custody:
The reasons for the detentions are unknown, as there is a court order of secrecy on the investigation, preventing the detainees and their lawyers from being informed of the investigation’s details and possible charges, a common practice in such crackdowns.
CPJ emailed Turkey’s Interior Ministry for comment but received no reply.
Separately, Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), threatened the pro-opposition outlet Halk TV and its commentators for criticizing his party with a vow that the MHP will make them suffer.
“We are taking note, one by one, of the ignorant and arrogant commentators, especially Halk TV,” Bahçeli said Tuesday at a MHP meeting in Ankara. In October, he had told the outlet to “watch your step.”
Editor’s note: The alert was updated to correct the name of Ahmet Sümbül.
This week the Undercover Policing Inquiry – the so-called Spycops Inquiry – will hear shocking, long-awaited, evidence from three women who were targeted for relationships by two of the most notorious undercover police officers from the Special Demonstration Squad. It will be a test of the inquiry process – showing whether it can regain any credibility.
Spycops Inquiry: a week of damning evidence
On Tuesday 26 November, Belinda Harvey will give her evidence – primarily about how she was targeted for a long-term relationship by notorious Spycop Bob Lambert (cover name Bob Robinson). Belinda had no connection to activism, yet will talk about how the direction of her life was steered and de-railed by Lambert, whose ‘exit’ strategy from his deployment, and his relationship with Belinda was cruel – severely damaging Belinda in the process:
‘She was not politically active – but lived next door to campaigners in south London and socialised with them.’
On Wednesday 27November, Helen Steel will give her account of how she was targeted for years of intrusive reporting by Bob Lambert. In the past weeks evidence has been accumulating that Lambert fabricated and embellished his reports. Helen’s evidence will be crucial to exposing fabrications in his ‘intelligence’ reporting, highlighting how the Inquiry is treading dangerous ground if it takes the officers’ accounts at face value.
Helen was also targeted for a two-year relationship by officer John Dines (cover name John Barker) at a time when she was embroiled in the longest libel trial in British legal history – known as the McLibel trial. Dines did all he could to damage Helen’s reputation and her personally, and has refused to give live evidence to the Inquiry.
Disappointingly, the Inquiry refuses to compel Dines, even refusing to read his witness statement into evidence.
On Thursday 28 November we will hear evidence from ‘Jacqui’ about how Bob Lambert targeted her for a relationship that ended with the birth of their child. Lambert abandoned them both when his deployment ended. It was only when his child, known publicly as ‘TBS,’ was 26 years of age that he found out who his father really was.
Lambert giving evidence
Lambert himself will give evidence between 2-5 December 2024. This will be a decisive moment for the Inquiry in how they handle evidence from an officer who has been thoroughly discredited by the ‘targets’ of his infiltration.
Of course, the stories of the abuse these women suffered at the hands of Lambert have been some of the most shocking of the entire Spycops revelations. So, the week will be a test of the inquiry – to see whether it can pull itself back from so far being unfit for purpose, to being something meaningful.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is facing a furious backlash after footage emerged of cops violently forcing Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) kids out of Manchester city centre and onto trains. It appeared to be a targeted operation against young people from those communities – and already GMP is being questioned over its racist policing tactics.
Racist pigs – yet they’re the ones doing the herding
Footage emerged of the incident on Saturday 23 November on social media:
Cattle Plod
Distressing footage of Gypsy and Traveller children being forcibly herded onto a train in Manchester has emerged over the weekend. @Drive2Survive3 is campaigning for Greater Manchester Police to be held accountable. https://t.co/ifuF8povw5pic.twitter.com/CAIVtGT37K
It seems that GRT kids had travelled to central Manchester to visit the Christmas markets. However, GMP had put in place a Section 35 Dispersal Order. This falls under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It gives cops the power to exclude a person/persons from an area for up to 48 hours.
According to one of the deputy mayors of Greater Manchester Kate Green, cops put the Dispersal Order in place due to:
concerns about large groups of people causing disturbances at Christmas markets.
Kate has shared the following statement regarding the dispersal order issued by Greater Manchester Police in Manchester city centre yesterday. pic.twitter.com/EnuUrrUi4V
— Deputy Mayor for Safer and Stronger Communities (@DeputyMayorofGM) November 24, 2024
GMP told Manchester Evening News:
We are responding to reports of hundreds of youths gathering in Manchester city centre and causing disturbances for retail staff and patrons of the markets.
Additional powers have authorised enabling officers to manage groups involved in anti-social behaviour more effectively, and so far, we have issued 40 dispersal orders which instructs someone likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress to leave an area immediately.
However, it seems that at best this was overreach by GMP. It admitted that it only arrested two people as a result of the 40 Dispersal Orders. Oh, and it “broke up fights” as well.
GMP targeting GRT kids for no good reason
Back in the real world, and it seems that actually, racist GMP was just targeting kids from GRT communities:
Footage showing cops herding GRT kids onto trains doesn’t seem like a response to anti-social behaviour. It seems like racist policing of a minoritised community on the prejudiced assumption that they were going to cause trouble; much like Stop and Search and Section 60s against Black and brown communities in London and beyond.
It was a clearly organised campaign – with the cops even lining up like something reminiscent of an authoritarian state (except of course, for minoritised communities we actually are one):
Distressing footage of Gypsy and Traveller children being forcibly herded onto a train in Manchester has emerged over the weekend. Drive 2 Survive is campaigning for Greater Manchester Police to be held accountable.
Those who thought the dark days of uniformed officers herding Gypsies into train carriages were over have been shocked to see footage over the weekend of Gypsy and Traveller youth being forced onto train carriages. The brave and restrained youth remained calm despite the provocation and have captured the incident on their phones. Drive 2 Survive has contacted Greater Manchester Police’s Chief Constable to demand some answers.
There was one very obvious case of police assault that we know of:
Gypsies and Travellers have been the two ethnic groups where it’s been okay to be openly racist against, almost to the point where it’s expected really, nobody bats an eyelid if someone’s being overtly racist… I used to hear it every week…
This is backed up by qualitative evidence. Research found that three quarters of GRT community members had experienced unconscious bias, racism, and discriminatory behaviour by police.
So, GMP’s overly racist rounding up of GRT kids and purging Manchester city centre of them is the thin end of the wedge in institutionally racist Britain – where cops and politicians alike can be openly racist towards members of these communities, and still keep their jobs.
These actions by GMP raise serious questions on its operational approach, decision-making processes, and how it allowed so many innocent Romany and Irish Traveller children to be treated in such a reprehensible and violent manner in its hands.
This is extremely distressing for the young people involved, their families and the wider communities, and FFT will be pushing for a full and comprehensive explanation of the decisions that led to children being restrained and subjected to brutality.
It’s vile that instead of being allowed to act like the children they are, Romany and Irish Traveller kids are criminalised, humiliated and abused daily.
This is a serious example of how structural racism sustains the ‘cradle to grave’ policing pipeline of Romany Gypsy and Irish Traveller communities.
Sadly, it’s unlikely anything much will happen – given how embedded racism is in British society for anyone who isn’t white.
GMP’s actions towards GRT children is just another example of ‘two-tier policing’. It’s just that this time, it’s the very real kind again, against actual minoritised communities – not the far-right fairytale that somehow they’re the oppressed ones.
Georgian opposition parties have alleged fraud and are protesting the results of the October 26 parliamentary election, in which the ruling Georgian Dream party was declared winner.
“Georgian police officers’ detention of camera operator Sergi Baramidze and forceful obstruction of other journalists covering ongoing election protests is unacceptable and threatens the Georgian people’s access to information on important public events,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Authorities in Georgia should swiftly investigate all instances of police violence against members of the press and ensure that perpetrators are held to account.”
Police used force against these four journalists during the November 19 protest:
Sergi Baramidze, a camera operator for pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi, shows his injuries from police after he filmed a protest contesting the results of Georgia’s parliamentary election in Tbilisi on November 19, 2024. (Photo: Facebook/Mtavari Arkhi)
Five or six officers grabbed Sergi Baramidze, a camera operator for pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi, while he filmed police dragging a protester, according to news reports and footage of the incident posted by his employer. The officers pulled Baramidze, held him by the neck, and briefly detained him at a police station.
Tamta Muradashvili, director of Mtavari Arkhi, told CPJ the journalist was released after signing a document agreeing to appear if summoned, adding that it is unclear if he’ll be charged.
Muradashvili told CPJ that Baramidze sustained injuries to his eye and lip.
Three officers repeatedly shoved Mindia Gabadze, a reporter for independent news website Publika, while he filmed police dispersing. Gabadze told CPJ he identified himself to police as a journalist and described one of the shoves as “forceful,” leaving him in significant pain.
Officers briefly confiscated the phone of independent regional outlet OC Media chief editor Mariam Nikuradze, obstructing her work.
Officers pushedGivi Avaliani, a reporter with independent news website Netgazeti, preventing him from filming police.
Georgia’s Special Investigation Service, a government body responsible for investigating crimes against journalists, opened investigations into incidents of obstruction of journalistic activities during the protests. CPJ’s message to the service on its Facebook page for comment did not immediately receive a reply.
During the elections, media rights groups recorded dozens of incidents of obstruction and intimidation of journalists, many of them reporting on alleged election fraud. Local journalists and advocates previously told CPJ they feared the ruling party’s victory could diminish press freedom in the country.
Counter-terror cops have raided the homes, and then arrested, another 10 people in connection to Palestine Action’s action against Israel weapons company Elbit Systems. It shows that the British state continues to abuse counter-terrorism powers against activists in order to protect the interests of Israel’s genocidal campaign.
Palestine Action: the state yet again abusing counter terror powers
On 19 November, counter-terrorism police raided and arrested 10 more people in relation to an action taken by Palestine Action against Elbit’s Filton-based research and development hub on 6 August 2024.
Reports of the raids undertaken today, include family members and roommates being expelled from their own homes by counter terrorism police for up to three days. The mother and younger brother of one arrested today were also cuffed during the initial raid, despite not being accused of any offence.
These arrests were made in relation to the case of the ‘Filton10’ – ten individuals who have been detained since August, following an action which cost Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, over £1million in damages.
As the Canary reported at the time, during the early hours of the morning of Tuesday 6 August, Palestine Action activists were arrested after they broke inside and damaged weaponry inside the highly secured Bristol manufacturing hub of Israel’s largest weapons company, Elbit Systems.
A larger group from Palestine Action used a prison van to smash through the outer perimeter and the roller shutters into the building. Once six were inside, they began damaging the contents inside, including machinery and Israeli quadcopter drones.
Elbit: actively enabling genocide
Elbit’s Horizon facility at Belvedere Close in Filton is a key premises for the arms company, described as a research, development, and manufacturing hub for electronic warfare, land vehicle, simulation, and vision technologies. Freedom of Information disclosures show Filton’s ‘Elbit Systems UK’ has existent export licenses for the sale of weaponry to Israel.
The Filton site was opened in July of last year, with Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotevely in attendance to show off the Bristol produced-weapons technologies of the “Israeli defence company”. Also in attendance was Elbit’s CEO Bezalel Machlis, who recently boasted, too, of Elbit’s crucial role in supporting the ongoing genocide and of the gratitude received by Elbit from the Israeli military for their services.
Products seen inside the factory are the same as those used in the Gaza genocide, including Elbit’s ‘Torch-X Command and Control’ systems, Thor quadcopter drones and its nv33 Night Vision technologies.
Elbit Systems, more broadly, supplies up to 85% of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment, while its British exports to Israel mostly concern drone and aircraft components, military electronics, and target and acquisition systems.
Palestine Action are not the terrorists, here
Despite being arrested under the Terrorism Act, the Filton10 were all charged with non-terror offences including aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. However, the police have continued to use counter terror powers to deploy authoritarian powers against further people in relation to the case.
Amnesty International UK has issued alarm that British police are using these Terrorism Act powers to “circumvent normal legal protections”. The Filton10 are being held on remand ahead of a November 2025 trial, and are subjected to arbitrary and severe restrictions.
A Palestine Action spokesperson said of the counter terror raids and arrests:
The British state are wielding counter-terrorism powers against those they accused of being engaged in direct action against Israel’s weapons trade. They are acting to protect the interests of a foreign genocidal regime, over the rights and freedoms of it’s own citizens.
The only ‘terrorists’ here are those assisting and arming Israel’s genocide. Palestine Action will not bow to this repression.
An alleged plot involving firearms and threatening the life of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens when held hostage in Papua this year is being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.
The case involves “advancing a political cause by the separation of West Papua from Indonesia . . . with the intention of coercing by intimidation the governments of New Zealand and Indonesia”.
Named in the AFP search warrant seen by MWM is research scholar Julian King, 63, who has studied and written extensively about West Papuan affairs.
He has told others his home in Coffs Harbour, Queensland, was raided violently earlier this month by police using a stun grenade and smashing a door.
During the search, the police seized phones, computers and documents about alleged contacts with the West Papua rebel group Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM (Free Papua Organisation) and a bid to seek weapons and ammunition.
However, no arrests are understood to have been made or charges laid.
King, a former geologist and now a PhD student at Wollongong University, has been studying Papuan reaction to the Indonesian takeover since 1963. He has written in a research paper titled “A soul divided: The UN’s misconduct over West Papua” that West Papuans:
‘live under a military dictatorship described by legal scholars and human rights advocates as systemic terror and alleged genocide.’
Also named in the warrant alongside King is Amatus Dounemee Douw, confirmed by MWM contacts to be Australian citizen Akouboo Amatus Douw, who chairs the West Papua Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs Council, an NGO that states it seeks to settle disputes peacefully.
Risk to Australia-Indonesia relations The allegations threaten to fragment relations between Indonesia and Australia.
It is widely believed that human rights activists and church organisations are helping Papuan dissidents despite Canberra’s regular insistence that it officially backs Jakarta.
Earlier this year, Deputy PM Richard Marles publicly stressed: “We, Australia, fully recognise Indonesia’s territorial sovereignty. We do not endorse any independence movement.”
When seized by armed OPM pro-independence fighters in February last year, Mehrtens was flying a light plane for an Indonesian transport company.
He was released unharmed in September after being held for 593 days by the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat – TPNPB), the military wing of the OPM.
AFP is investigating alleged firearms plot which threatened the life of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens when held hostage in West Papua this year #auspolhttps://t.co/8ZXFIB1fre
Designated ‘terrorist’ group, journalists banned OPM is designated as a terrorist organisation in Indonesia but isn’t on the Australian list of proscribed groups. Jakarta bans foreign journalists from Papua, so little impartial information is reported.
After Mehrtens was freed, TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom alleged that a local politician had paid a bribe, a charge denied by the NZ government.
However, West Papua Action Aotearoa spokesperson Catherine Delahunty told Radio NZ the bribe was “an internal political situation that has nothing to do with our government’s negotiations.”
Sambom, who has spent time in Indonesian jails for taking part in demonstrations, now operates out of adjacent Papua New Guinea — a separate independent country.
Australia was largely absent from the talks to free Mehrtens that were handled by NZ diplomats and the Indonesian military. The AFP’s current involvement raises the worry that information garnered under the search warrants will show the Indonesian government where the Kiwi was hidden so that locations can be attacked from the air.
At one stage during his captivity, Mehrtens appealed to the Indonesian military not to bomb villages.
It is believed Mehrtens was held in Nduga, a district with the lowest development index in the Republic, a measure of how citizens can access education, health, and income. Yet Papua is the richest province in the archipelago — the Grasberg mine is the world’s biggest deposit of gold and copper.
OPM was founded in December 1963 as a spiritual movement rejecting development while blending traditional and Christian beliefs. It then started working with international human rights agencies for support.
Indigenous Papuans are mainly Christian, while almost 90 percent of Indonesians follow Islam.
Chief independence lobbyist Benny Wenda lives in exile in Oxford. In 2003 he was given political asylum by the UK government after fleeing from an Indonesian jail. He has addressed the UN and European and British Parliaments, but Jakarta has so far resisted international pressure to allow any form of self-determination.
Questions for new President Prabowo Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is in the UK this week, where Papuans have been drumming up opposition to the official visit. In a statement, Wenda said:
‘Prabowo has also restarted the transmigration settlement programme that has made us a minority in our own land.’
“For West Papuans, the ghost of (second president) Suharto has returned — (his) New Order regime still exists, it has just changed its clothes.”
Pleas for recognition of Papuan’s concerns get minimal backing in Indonesia; fears of balkanisation and Western nations taking over a splintered country are well entrenched in the 17,000-island archipelago of 1300 ethnic groups where “unity” is considered the Republic’s foundation stone.
Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia. He has been an occasional contributor to Asia Pacific Report and this article was first published by Michael West Media.
Police in Vietnam have arrested eight people – including five members of the same family – after violent clashes during an attempt to build a road in An Giang province.
The project requires the relocation of 641 households. Six of the families have refused to move.
On Monday morning, according to the An Giang news site, police were called to help protect workers trying to upgrade the road to Kien Giang province.
Eight people were accused of blocking the area with excavators and attacking police and soldiers with petrol bombs and other weapons. Five law enforcers were injured, according to the news report, although it did not show pictures of injuries or alleged damage to machinery at the construction site.
The police arrested Le Thi Ngoc Nhan, her husband Le Van Dien, along with their two sons Le Phuoc Hoang and Le Phuoc Sang, and nephew Nguyen Van Loc.
Three other residents were arrested, Le Cong Triet, Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy and Le Thi Thuong.
One photo shows Le Phuoc Hoang holding a lit Molotov cocktail on a rooftop, while another shows him wearing a bloody shirt.
Radio Free Asia was unable to verify the information published by state media.
Land disputes have become common in Vietnam in recent years, as incomes and land values have risen and also as a result of authorities promoting cash-crops plantations and encouraging people to move to the countryside to work on them.
RFA called Tinh Bien town police to ask for more information about the incident but the person who answered the telephone asked the reporter to come to the agency’s headquarters to get information.
According to the An Giang news site, in 2019, the district government offered to pay Ms. Nhan’s family the equivalent of US$10,500 for just over 120 square meters of land they needed for the road project. The family complained but were offered only a tiny increase in compensation in 2021.
The family then petitioned the central government but were told the complaint was not valid.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.
Police in Vietnam said on Thursday they had arrested three people including a well-known singer in connection with a drugs bust last year when authorities found cocaine and other drugs packed in toothpaste tubes in the luggage of flight attendants arriving from France.
Police in the southern business hub of Ho Chi Minh City identified the three as singer Chi Dan, whose real name they said was Nguyen Trung Hieu, model An Tay, or Andrea Aybar who police said was Spanish, and Nguyen Do Truc Phuong.
Police posted pictures of the three in handcuffs. Radio Free Asia was not able to determine if any of them had legal representation and was not immediately able to contact the Spanish embassy for comment.
In March last year, customs officers at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City found drugs in the baggage of four female flight attendants during a security check after they flew in from Paris.
They were found to be carrying 154 toothpaste tubes containing about 11 kilograms (18.5 lbs) of MDMA, commonly referred to as ecstasy, ketamine and cocaine.
The flight attendants said someone in France paid them more than 10 million dong, or about US$400, to help transport “some goods” to Vietnam. They said they were unaware of the narcotics and did not know the identity of the person who asked them to carry the toothpaste tubes.
A Vietnam Airlines representative said at the time the national flag carrier was working with relevant agencies on the case.
Police released all of the four flight attendants because of a lack of evidence, state media reported at the time.
From the misty peaks of Cape Reinga to the rain-soaked streets of Kawakawa, Aotearoa New Zealand’s national hīkoi mō Te Tiriti rolled through the north and arrived in Whangārei.
Since setting off this morning numbers have swelled from a couple of hundred to well over 1000 people, demonstrating their opposition to the coalition government’s controversial Treaty Principles Bill and other policies impacting on Māori.
Hundreds gathered for a misty covered dawn karakia at Te Rerenga Wairua, the very top of the North Island, after meeting at the nearby town of Te Kāo the night before.
Among them was veteran Māori rights activist and former MP Hone Harawira. He says the hīkoi is about protesting against a “blitzkreig of oppression” from the government and uplifting Māori.
Harawira praised organisers of the hīkoi and set out his own hopes for the march.
“It’s been a great start to the day . . . to come here to Te Rerenga Wairua with people from all around the country and just join together, have a karakia, have some waiata and start to move on. We’re ready to go and Wellington is waiting — we can’t keep them waiting.
“One of our kuia said it best last night. The last hīkoi built a party — the Māori Party — [but] let’s make this hīkoi build a nation. Let us focus on that,” Harawira said.
Margie Thomson and her partner James travelled from Auckland to join the hīkoi.
She said as a Pākeha, she was gutted by some of the government policies toward Māori and wanted to show support.
The national hīkoi passes through Kaitaia. Image: Peter de Graaf
“The spirit of the people here is really profound . . . if people could feel they would really see the reality of the kāupapa here — the togetherness. This is really something, there is a really strong Māori movement and you really feel it.”
By lunchtime the hīkoi had reached Kaiatia where numbers swelled to well over 1000 people. The main street had to be closed to traffic while supporters filled the streets with flags, waiata and haka.
Tahlia, 10, made sure she had the best view, as people lined the streets as Te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti drew closer to Kawakawa, on the first day, 11 November, 2024. Image: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
The hīkoi arrived in Whangārei this evening after covering a distance of around 280 km.
Kākā Porowini marae in central Whangārei was hosting some of the supporters and its chair, Taipari Munro, said they were prepared to care for the masses
“Hapu are able to pull those sorts of things together. But of course it will build as the hīkoi travels south.
“The various marae and places where people will be hosted, will all be under preparation now.”
Hirini Tau, Hirini Henare and Mori Rapana lead the hīkoi through Kawakawa today. Image: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
Three marae have been made available for people to stay at in Whangārei and some kai will also be provided, he said.
Meanwhile, the Māori Law Society has set up a phone number to provide free legal assistance to marchers taking part in the hīkoi.
Spokesperson Echo Haronga said Māori lawyers wanted to support the hīkoi in their own way.
“This helpline is a demonstration of our manaakitanga as Māori legal professionals wanting to tautoko those people who are on the hīkoi. If a question arises for them, they’re not quite sure how handle it during the hīkoi then they know they can call this number they can speak to a Māori lawyer.”
Ngāti Hine Health Trust staff and others wait to welcome Te Hīkoi mō te Tiriti, as it drew closer to Kawakawa today. Image: RNZ/Peter de Graaf
Haronga stressed that she did not anticipate any issues or disturbances with the police and the helpline was open to any questions or concerns not just police and criminal enquiries.
“It’s not actually limited to people causing a ruckus and being in trouble with the police, it also could be someone who has a question . . . and they wouldn’t know otherwise where to go to, you can also call us for that if it’s in relation to hīkoi business.”
Hīkoi supporters will stay in Whangārei for the night before travelling to Dargaville and Auckland’s North Shore tomorrow.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
![PNG police commissioner David Manning (center) flanked by Vanuatu Police Commissioner Robson Iavro (left), Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw (2nd right) and Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus at the PPI launch, pictured on Dec. 10, 2024. [Stefan Armbruster/BenarNews]](https://media.rnztools.nz/rnz/image/upload/s--VKcmxE_e--/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050/v1733947676/4KFAQQU_papacific_policing_initiative_2_jpeg?_a=BACCd2AD)
![Police ministers and chiefs from across the Pacific attended the launch of the PPI’s Pinkenba Hub, pictured on Dec. 10, 2024. [Stefan Armbruster/BenarNews]](https://media.rnztools.nz/rnz/image/upload/s--Zzq6dq4l--/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050/v1733947676/4KFAQQU_papacific_policing_initiative_1_jpeg?_a=BACCd2AD)
The monument to Roman Shukhevych near the Ukrainian Youth Association in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. © Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Eye witnesses say 24 protestors were arrested for protesting at parliament today, demanding the Albanese Government stop new coal. 
Michael West (@MichaelWestBiz) 
