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Shinzo Abe offers sincere apology for use of ‘comfort women’ by Japanese soldiers, removing major barrier to better relations Justin McCurry in Osaka Monday 28 December 2015 12.19 GMT Japan and South Korea have removed the biggest obstacle to better bilateral ties after agreeing to “finally and irreversibly” resolve Tokyo’s use of tens of thousands of Korean women as wartime sex slaves. In a breakthrough that barely seemed possible a few months ago, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, offered his “most sincere apologies” to the women in a statement issued in Seoul by his foreign minister, Fumio Kishida . It was not immediately clear if Abe would send a letter of apology to each surviving “comfort woman”. Later Monday, Abe called the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye , who has described the sex slave row as “the biggest obstacle” to improved ties with Tokyo, and reiterated his apology. He told reporters that the agreement was based on his commitment to stop future generations from having to repeatedly apologise. “Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era. We should not drag this problem into the next generation.” Park issued a separate statement saying the deal was the result of her government’s best efforts to resolve the sex slave issue. “I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased,” she said. Japan also offered to set up a new 1bn yen (£5.6m...$8.33M) fund, with the money, paid directly by the government, divided among the 46 former comfort women still alive, most of whom are in their late 80s and early 90s. Speaking after make-or-break talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, Kishida heralded a new era of better relations between the two countries, whose strong trade ties and military alliances with the US have been overshadowed by the controversy. “This marks the beginning of a new era of Japan-South Korea ties,” he told reporters. “I think the agreement we reached is historic and is a groundbreaking achievement. “[Abe] expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.” The Japanese government also conceded that its military authorities played a role in the sexual enslavement of the women. While avoiding any admission of legal responsibility, Kishida’s statement said: “The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honour and dignity of large numbers of women, and the government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities from this perspective.” Abe and other conservative politicians in Japan had previously questioned whether the Japanese government and military played any role in coercing the women, arguing that they had been procured by private brokers. Both countries said the agreement would resolve the issue “finally and irreversibly”, adding that they would refrain from making critical remarks on the subject at the United Nations and in other international forums. Yun said Seoul would cooperate, as long as Japan followed through on its promises. He also suggested that South Korea was willing to negotiate the removal of a statue of a girl symbolising the comfort women that stands outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Although the statue belongs to privately run campaign groups, Yun said the South Korean government would “strive to solve this issue in an appropriate manner through taking measures such as consulting with related organisations”. There is disagreement on the exact number of women forced into prostitution by Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Campaigners say as many as 200,000 women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – were forced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and Japan’s defeat in 1945. Most women took their secret to the grave. South Korean Kim Hak-soon became the first to testify about her experiences in public in 1991. “We must record these sins that were forced upon us,” she said. South Korea has long called on Japan to issue an official apology, pay compensation to the surviving women and recognise its legal responsibility. Japan stopped short of admitting legal responsibility and stressed that the new fund was a humanitarian gesture. The Japanese government initially denied the existence of wartime brothels. But in 1993, the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono , acknowledged and apologised for the first time for Japan’s use of sex slaves. Over the years, Japan has refused to directly compensate the women, saying all claims were settled in a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and included more than $800m in grants and loans to South Korea. In 1995, it set up the privately run Asian women’s fund, which drew on private donations. But many women refused money unless it came directly from the Japanese state. Only about 260 former sex slaves received cash – worth about 2m yen each – and the fund was disbanded in 2007. The agreement reached on Monday will be welcomed by the US, which has urged its two east Asian allies to settle their differences over second world war history and show a united front in the face of an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea. In Beijing, the foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: “We hope to see an improvement of the bilateral relationship between the Japanese and South Korean side.” Hiroka Shoji , an east Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Today’s agreement must not mark the end of the road in securing justice for the hundreds of thousands [of] women who suffered due to Japan’s military sexual slavery system. “The women were missing from the negotiation table and they must not be sold short in a deal that is more about political expediency than justice. Until the women get the full and unreserved apology from the Japanese government for the crimes committed against them, the fight for justice goes on.” The spread of frontline brothels coincided with Japan’s military campaigns in large parts of China and south-east Asia. As colonial ruler of the Korean peninsula, Japan was able to target poor and uneducated victims, typically aged between 13 and 19. Speculation that a comfort women agreement was in the offing had risen following a bilateral meeting between Abe and Park in early November, their first for three-and-a-half years, and the decision by a South Korean court to acquit a Japanese journalist accused of defaming Park. The South Korean president had voiced hope that a deal would be reached by the end of this year, 50 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo. South Koreans who lost family members during the second world war demand full compensation and an apology from Japan in Seoul. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/28/japan-to-say-sorry-to-south-korea-in-deal-to-end-dispute-over-wartime-sex-slaves

Pontiff uses annual Christmas speech to call for values such as humanity, accountability and humility after year of scandals in Vatican Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Rome Monday 21 December 2015 12.55 GMT Pope Francis presented the Catholic church’s bureaucracy with a list of “needed virtues” including humanity, accountability and humility, following a year in which the Vatican was shaken by a number of high-profile scandals. The annual Christmas speech delivered by the 79-year-old pontiff was remarkable in one respect: although he acknowledged that some of the “diseases” of the church’s ruling body in Rome had been on full display during the year, he struck a far more conciliatory tone before the crowd of senior church officials than last year, signalling a possible softening in his approach. “Diseases and even scandals cannot obscure the efficiency of the services rendered to the pope and to the entire church of the Roman Curia, with great effort, responsibility, commitment and dedication, and this is a real source of consolation,” Francis said. In what sounded like a pep talk for a beleaguered team in need of some spiritual sustenance, he listed 12 virtues that could serve as a practical aid to church officials. “Cases of resistance, difficulties, and failures on the part of individuals and ministers are so many lessons and opportunities for growth, and never for discouragement. They are opportunities for returning to the essentials, which means being ever more conscious of ourselves, of God and our neighbours,” said the pope. It was a far cry from the harsh speech he delivered last year, when he issued a scathing critique of the church’s highest ranking officials, saying the power-hungry body was consumed by narcissism and that officials were guilty of presenting a hardened, sterile face to the world instead of one that exuded God’s love. The change in tone may have reflected the pope’s intention to focus on the value of mercy in 2016, which has been designated a special jubilee year with a focus on that theme. The address came just two days after a charitable gesture by a former high-ranking church official that brought one of the biggest church scandals of the year back into focus. The Italian cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was the second most senior official during the papacy of Francis’s predecessor Pope Benedict XVI, donated €150,000 (£110,000...$163,837) to the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù hospital. Allegations emerged this year that Bertone had used hospital funds to renovate his lavish penthouse apartment in the Vatican. He has insisted that he reimbursed the hospital for the work. The allegations, however, add to an image that is in contrast to the one of the “poor church for the poor” that Pope Francis is trying to foster. In his address on Monday, the pontiff echoed calls he has made in speeches this year for the church to exhibit a greater sense of spirituality and humanity. “Humanity is what makes us different from machines and robots which feel nothing and are never moved,” Francis said. “Once we find it hard to weep seriously or laugh heartily, we have begun our decline and the process of turning from ‘humans’ into something else.” He also called on the Curia to set an example to others, including by “avoiding scandals which harm souls and impair the credibility of our witness”. The biggest scandal to hit the church this year followed the publication of two books that offered an insider account of alleged mismanagement of Vatican finances, including the saint-making office, which could not account for tens of millions of euros in expenses and had its accounts temporarily frozen. The other virtues included in the pope’s guide were a call for senior officials to be more pastoral in their approach, more reasonable and gentle, more charitable and honest, more open and mature, and more respectful, diligent and attentive. “Accountable and trustworthy persons are those who honour their commitments with seriousness and responsibility when they are being observed, but above all when they are alone; they radiate a sense of tranquility because they never betray a trust,” Francis said. Pope Francis held a Christmas audience for Vatican employees. Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/EPA http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/21/pope-francis-list-needed-virtues-catholic-church-christmas

Fractured parliament is as much an opportunity as a challenge. It all depends on the calibre of those elected Giles Tremlett in Madrid Monday 21 December 2015 12.17 GMT Spaniards wanted change, and at Sunday’s elections they got it. The two discredited parties that have run the country for three decades sank to historic lows while bright newcomers stormed their way into parliament. The upturned two-party system was tired and prone to cronyism, but it had one major advantage: much like Britain, it almost always produced stable governments. Sunday’s vote created an unprecedented mess, with the next government needing the support of up to five different parties. The now acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy began to discover on Monday that, despite his conservative People’s Party gaining most votes, it will be almost impossible for him to form a government and Spaniards were left wondering whether they will have to vote again by May. Spain has been divided not just along left and right lines, but also over visions of how centralist or federalist it should be and, more recently, whether it needs old parties mired in corruption allegations or new squeaky-clean ones. In these conditions it is hard to find common ground between two parties, let alone five. That said, an era of cross-party consensus is what Spain needs as it seeks new models of all kinds, for its political system, its economy and the balance between its regions. The most dramatic change is the appearance of anti-austerity Podemos, a party that only 19 months ago placed the pony-tailed profile of its leader, Pablo Iglesias, as its symbol on ballot papers for the European elections because, without it, many voters would not have known who they were. Meanwhile, Albert Rivera’s centre-right Ciudadanos has proved that the high-handedness and blatant cronyism of Mariano Rajoy’s People’s party (PP) was increasingly unbearable to rightwingers and liberals who want a system where power does not bring the right to bend, manipulate or ignore the rules. The breath of fresh air blows in both directions and Podemos should recognise that the desire for regeneration is not a narrow ideological one. Amid all the hype about insurgents and with the PP ahead in the polls, it was easy to ignore the clean-cut but unexciting Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez. He was clearly leading his party to it worst drubbing in recent history and it duly sank to just 22% of the vote. Yet as Spain wakes up to its most fractured parliament since the restoration of democracy in 1977, Sánchez holds the key to government. Rajoy has the most deputies but if he governs, it must be with the Socialists’ permission. Sanchez made clear on Monday that this will not be forthcoming, so it will be up to him to try stitching together a government backed by Podemos, the communist-led Popular Unity and either Ciudadanos or separatists from Catalonia. If he cannot do that, Spaniards must vote again. A Podemos-backed Sánchez government would open a new anti-austerity breach on Europe’s southern flank, as Spaniards reject a new economic model based on low wages and extreme job instability. Unemployment is still 21% in Spain, and the country’s economy is smaller than it was in 2008. A vote for Podemos was also, in a confused and erratic European Union, a vote for increased sovereignty. Yet Spain is not Greece. Not only has its economy survived without being taken over by the troika – the European Central Bank, European commission and International Monetary Fund – but the eurozone’s fourth largest economy is much harder to bully. The last laugh belongs to separatists in Catalonia. For the first time there is now a large separatist bloc which holds the balance of power between the left and the right. That is, perhaps, the most powerful proof that the status quo is bust. Basques and Catalans have held the balance of power before, backing both Socialist and PP minority governments. But back then the core bloc of Catalans termed themselves “nationalists” – basically regionalists demanding more money and autonomy without leaving Spain – rather than all-out separatists. The rise of separatism, like the rise of Podemos and Ciudadanos, has much to do with Europe and the economy. An electorate that has suffered a double-dip recession and unemployment that peaked at 26% needed hope. Both Podemos and Catalonia’s growing separatists urge their followers to “smile”. Part of the secret of Podemos’ success at these elections was to promise a referendum to Catalans, enabling it to win the race there. This appealed not just to separatists but to many of the majority of Catalans who wish to stay Spanish (support for a referendum is at 80%). On Sunday night Iglesias insisted that Spain was a “plurinational” country and that Catalonia needed special consideration in a rewritten constitution. Yet the People’s Party, which tacks right when in opposition, has just enough deputies to block constitutional reform. Agreement has to be truly cross-party, or not at all. In all the heady talk about changing the constitution to enshrine social rights and find a place for Catalonia, however, it is easy to lose sight of the everyday priorities of many Spaniards. They want jobs, preferably secure ones rather than stumbling between short-term, low-pay contracts. This cannot be the long-term model for Spanish growth. Four decades ago Spain surprised the world with a dynamic transition from rightwing dictatorship to democracy, catapulting itself in to the first division of world nations. The edifice built then is crumbling under the weight of abuse by a political establishment of parties, employers groups and trade unions who were handed exaggerated quotas of power to prevent the return of the authoritarians who had imposed their will for four decades. The messy, fractured parliament elected on Sunday is as much an opportunity as a challenge. Politicians are obliged to do two things: talk and reform. Rajoy was right when he said: “It won’t be easy, but difficult times call for real politicians.” If Spain’s politicians can reach broad, long-term agreements on everything from education to Catalonia, Spain’s second transition could start now. That may be too much to hope for. All depends on the calibre of those elected on Sunday. Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias after the results of Spain’s general election were announced in Madrid on Sunday. Photograph: Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images Results chart in link http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/21/spain-broad-consensus-messy-election-result-parliament-opportunity-challenge

Alfontish ‘Nunu’ Cockerham died days after he was shot by police in June Police say Cockerham pointed a gun, but moment does not appear in footage Zach Stafford and Brandon Smith in Chicago Monday 21 December 2015 13.00 GMT Last modified on Monday 21 December 2015 14.59 GMT The intersection of 71st and Merrill on Chicago’s south side was quiet on the late night of 19 June 2015, as most of the city slept through another warm summer night. But when the clock passed midnight, the block lost its quiet. Footsteps quickened and bodies began darting around the intersection when police arrived to investigate an emergency call about men in the area with guns, according to police. One of the men on that block was 22-year-old Alfontish “Nunu” Cockerham, who died days later as a result of police gunfire. Footage of the incident obtained by the Guardian, and the first-hand account of a witness on the scene, raise questions about the night, as a spotlight continues to shine on the Chicago police department. In the police narrative of that night, Cockerham pointed a gun at the cops, prompting them to shoot, according to police charging documents. According to an incident report, Cockerham was charged with aggravated assault for pointing a gun. However, the video – captured by a security camera at a payday lending business on the block – does not show Cockerham pointing a gun at police. Instead, the grainy video shows an object that appears to be a gun materialize on the ground a couple of feet away from where witness Natasha Mclemore said the officer fired his shots. If Cockerham did point the gun, he would have had to have done it before entering the frame of the camera. The only footage to be released from the night shows that after shooting Cockerham, officer Anthony Babicz runs toward Cockerham to get a closer look at the man – now on the ground – and then turns around to shine a flashlight directly on a gun that had fallen, very near where Babicz had fired his shots. Mclemore, who saw the incident from the lobby of her apartment building across the street, says she witnessed Babicz firing about four times while Cockerham was between two parked cars. Afterward, she walked outside, and she and the officer exchanged a few words following the shots. “I said, ‘You shot him! You killed him!,’” Mclemore said. “The officer yelled back, ‘Did you see what the **** he did? He had a ******* gun!’” Mclemore says she saw a gun on the sidewalk that Cockerham may have had on him before Babicz fired shots and Cockerham was already between the vehicles. Mclemore was at first reluctant to identify herself to tell her story, because in the days and weeks following, she said, police “harassed” her six times – five of those at her home. “They kept coming to my house, ringing my doorbell. I got harassed to the point where I didn’t even want to go outside,” she said. When asked whether police could have just been trying to obtain another statement about that night, she said: “I already gave my statement. It wasn’t just asking they was doing, it was intimidating. “They said, ‘You might not have saw what you think you saw.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, do I need a lawyer? I already told you what happened,’” Mclemore said. “I knew what I saw and I’m not going to change my story for nobody ... Somebody got to tell the truth. Somebody got to speak for Nunu because he can’t speak for himself.” Chicago police department representatives declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation. The new video footage comes in the wake of the explosive dashboard camera video of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being shot 16 times by a white Chicago cop, which caused protests to grip the city and prompted the launch of an investigation by the US Department of Justice into unconstitutional “patterns and practices” within the Chicago police department. In initial reports of Cockerham’s death, police said they were responding to an emergency call that involved men with guns standing outside. When officers arrived, Cockerham took off running and headed east, police said at the time. Once Cockerham had run around the corner of Merrill, the police said, an officer saw that he had a gun and told him to drop it. “Cockerham then turned, raised the gun at the officer and the officer shot at him,” the Chicago Tribune reported police saying. Cockerham was transported to a local hospital to be treated for gunshot wounds. After being charged, a court set his bail at $100,000 as he lay fighting for his life miles away. Cockerham died shortly thereafter. An autopsy released last week further complicates the picture of what happened that night, with a medical examiner finding that the first gunshot entered Cockerham’s upper leg from behind. The examiner wasn’t able to determine exactly from which direction another shot entered the upper part of Cockerham’s other leg. Cockerham’s family’s lawyer, Nenye Uche, argues that the inconclusive autopsy could mean that the second shot occurred while Cockerham was on the ground with his hands up. “Once circumstances are such that a suspect no longer poses a clear and imminent threat to the police,” the Cockerham family’s lawyer Nenye Uche told the Guardian, “then it is incumbent on the police to take him in so he can have his day in court. “The use of deadly force could not possibly be found to be reasonable and necessary under such circumstances,” he continued. Since the release of the McDonald video, protests have taken place almost daily in Chicago with the message is clear: mayor Rahm Emanuel and state’s attorney Anita Alvarez must resign, as many citizens and the nation continue to call for a broader justice department investigation – into the mayor and state’s attorney’s offices – to see whether those offices have covered up these or other police shootings. It’s this suspicion of coverup that led Uche and the Cockerham family to release the video, as the city continues to deny any misconduct. “They should at the very least be investigated just for that,” Uche said referring to what he believes are discrepancies between the police report that he has seen and the video. “That should be the starting point. No police officer should be writing sworn police reports that don’t match up with what is captured in the video evidence.” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/21/chicago-police-shooting-alfontish-nunu-cockerham-video-witness

Republican frontrunner defends endorsement by and of Putin, arguing he would ‘get along [with him] very well for the good of our country’ Oliver Laughland in New York Sunday 20 December 2015 19.12 GMT Donald Trump on Sunday defended Russian president Vladimir Putin’s record on press freedom, challenging journalists to provide him with evidence that the Kremlin has ever sponsored efforts to murder reporters. The Republican frontrunner also vowed again to work closely with Russia, if elected president. Trump was praised this week by Putin, who described the billionaire businessman as a “very colourful, talented person”. Putin’s words fuelled attacks by Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination. But Trump, whose lead in the polls has grown after a series of inflammatory Islamophobic slurs, called the Russian president’s remarks a “great honour” and described Putin as “a man highly respected within his own country and beyond”. Trump was called out on the platitudes during an interview with MSNBC on Friday. Asked to condemn the Kremlin’s alleged involvement in the assassination of reporters, he responded: “Our country does plenty of killing also.” In a heated interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Trump said: “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has.” Trump challenged reporters to name a journalist who had been killed in Russia at the hands of the government. Host George Stephanopoulos cited the 2006 murder of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, which some activists have long linked to the Russian government. “If he has killed reporters I think that’s terrible,” Trump replied. “But this isn’t like somebody that’s stood with a gun and he’s taken the blame or he’s admitted that he’s killed. He’s always denied it. “It’s never been proven that he’s killed anybody, so you know you’re supposed to be innocent until proven guilty at least in our country he has not been proven that he’s killed reporters.” In a retrial in 2014, five men were convicted of Politkovskaya’s murder. But the mastermind of the plot has never been found. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 36 journalists have been murdered since 1993, often in direct retaliation for their work. In only four cases was anyone convicted. The Putin administration is routinely accused of harsh crackdowns against political opponents and journalists in the region. Shortly after Putin was inaugurated for a third term in 2012, the federal assembly passed a series of bills restricting freedom of speech, which included greater censorship of online publishing, bolstering criminal defamation laws and curtailing the right to assemble. On Sunday, Trump defended his endorsement by and of Putin, arguing he would “get along [with him] very well for the good of our country”. “Obama doesn’t get along with Putin,” Trump said. “Putin can’t stand our president and it’s causing us difficulty and frankly, I said it a long time ago, if Russia wants to bomb the hell out of Isis and join us in that effort, then I’m absolutely fine with it. I think that’s an asset not a liability.” The warm remarks stand in contrast to Trump’s views on other world leaders and traditional allies of the US. Last week he said German chancellor Angela Merkel was “ruining Germany” with her stance on the refugee crisis in Europe, after she was named Time magazine’s person of the year. British prime minister David Cameron told parliament this week he believed Trump’s controversial plans to ban all Muslims from entering the US, following the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, California, were “divisive, stupid and wrong”. “If he came to visit our country, I think he would unite us all against him,” Cameron said on Wednesday. Donald Trump has challenged reporters to name a journalist who had been killed in Russia at the hands of the government. Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/20/donald-trump-defends-vladimir-putin-endorsement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya

Recent events have shifted the focus of the political landscape, but Sanders has maintained a rabid single-mindedness about his war on the 1% that has carried his insurgent campaign this far: ‘These guys have got to be confronted’ Dan Roberts in Waterloo, Iowa Friday 18 December 2015 13.00 GMT Bernie Sanders is waging war on millionaires and billionaires, one gymnasium at a time. Deep into his fourth campaign stop of the day, the would-be Democratic presidential candidate is seducing another packed sports hall in Iowa with talk of a new American revolution. “I am not the slickest guy in the world,” acknowledges the rumpled 74-year-old lecturing on stage. “Yeah you are,” shouts back a young voice from the crowd, one of many who believe a lost generation has finally found its champion. The idea of a Sanders White House is so implausible to many in Washington that this leftwing firebrand from Brooklyn has all but vanished from what he derisively calls the “corporate” media. Despite consistently attracting more nationwide support in the polls than Donald Trump, a recent study showed him receiving 0.4% of the television air time afforded to the motormouth Republican. Instead, Sanders is taking his message of polite class warfare to the streets. “Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!” chant the young audience beneath the golf championship pennants at Waterloo West high school, as he vows to smash the “oligarchy”. Two hours earlier, he was on the banks of the Mississippi in Dubuque before an older crowd waving placards declaring “No BS in Bernie Sanders”. Ninety minutes before that he was 60 miles away in Clinton, where a certain Democratic frontrunner by the same name who passed through days earlier attracted only a fraction of his audience. Compared to the big city stadiums Sanders was filling during an initial surge last summer, these are small venues. But, with another 46 days before the Iowa caucus, the mileage adds up to a key progressive swathe in the east of the first state to declare its 2016 intentions. By the time the senator reaches the college town of Mount Vernon the next day, he has clocked up a personal encounter with 28,125 Iowans since his campaign began. By way of comparison, 239,000 Democratic voters turned out in total during the Iowa caucus that helped propel Barack Obama to win the party’s nomination in 2008. “If you are talking to 10, 15 percent of the voters, that’s a lot,” says Sanders in an interview with the Guardian. “They have uncles and aunts and brothers and sisters and so forth ... right now, as we speak, we have people in Iowa and New Hampshire on the telephone, knocking on doors, talking to people. I think that is the most effective way to change minds, to bring people into the movement with direct, one-to-one discussion.” Few dispute there is a mountain still to climb, especially now Hillarious Clinton has regained her poise as the party establishment’s chosen candidate. Privately, even some of his own staff admit there is probably only a 30% chance of Sanders winning Iowa, where he is roughly nine points behind the former secretary of state in polling. A win in the other early state of New Hampshire seems more likely for the senator from neighbouring Vermont. But there is an obvious risk that by the time the Democratic race reaches the south on Super Tuesday in early March, his attempt to derail the White House ambitions of Hillar-y Clinton will have lost momentum. And yet there is an increasing feeling around him that something profound has already changed in American politics. Where once the presumption was that voters were mostly impervious to what critics used to call the politics of envy, Sanders has successfully awoken a generation to a breathtaking surge in inequality and the near collapse of the American dream. “I think there is a real hunger our there for people to understand, to try to think about why this country where it is today,” he said, during an extensive interview in New Hampshire this week. “Who talks about it? Technology is exploding, right? Worker productivity is up. [so] why are people working longer hours for lower wages? Why is the middle class in America for the last 40 years disappearing? Why do we have a massive level of wealth and income inequality? Think NBC is going to report it? CBS? Fox News? I don’t think so.” The blizzard of statistics that make up his stump speech is as hard to believe the 15th time you hear it as the first, but nonetheless undeniable. More than half of all the new income in America goes to the top 1% of wage earners. The top 0.1% own as much wealth as the bottom 90%. One family – the Waltons of Walmart fame – are worth as much as 40% of Americans combined. Where once it was assumed that only the very rich, or, more commonly, good friends to the very rich, could afford to run for president, Sanders has broken all records by securing 2m small contributions to propel his campaign. Whether he wins more than a handful of primary states, his creed of democratic socialism is no longer met with sniggers in a country most observers assumed was an impregnable temple to capitalism. Clinton has an apparently impregnable 55%-31% national lead over Sanders. Yet among voters aged under 30 Sanders’ idealism puts him ahead, while a New York Times/CBS News poll found the cut-off age under which more voters preferred Sanders to Clinton is 45. “I think we have shifted the debate,” says Sanders. “It’s very hard for any campaign to look around and see hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic people coming to our meetings, who are the future ... and people have got to look out there and say, my God, if we are worried about the future of the Democratic party we had better start listening and paying attention to what Sanders’ supporters want.” With hindsight the appeal is increasingly obvious, but few would have guessed that this ageing lawmaker and former mayor of small town Burlington, up near the Canadian border, would become a voice of the millennial generation. “If we had been sitting here six months ago, I would never have predicted that would happen,” he admits. “This generation, the younger generation, are supposed to apathetic, they are supposed to be not interested in politics and yet they are flocking out there to our meetings. “Why that’s so, I can’t tell you, but I think there is a hunger out there on the part of an entire generation that understands that something is profoundly wrong in the country today and we have got to move in a very, very different direction.” At the rallies, one common explanation is that supporters crave authenticity, an antidote to the groomed and the stage-managed alternatives. Bernie, as he is known by all, is certainly that. Staff fondly admit to fighting a losing battle with dandruff on his baggy blue suits. Asked by the Guardian’s video producer to accept some make-up powder to hide the shine from studio lights, he tolerates “only a little”. Up close in a New Hampshire hotel room, Brooklyn’s firebrand is a good deal less grumpy than he appears from a distance. On stage, his angry outdoor voice has become so strained that he almost lost it during a period of loud summer rallies. Inside, the growl becomes more avuncular, pausing only to bark out our producer when he attempts to pause the interview during some drilling next door. A gravelly accent born of a modest upbringing by Jewish Polish immigrants in a Brooklyn tenement building is an easy target for comic Larry David, whose impersonation is already legendary. Huge becomes ‘yuge’; the worn catchphrase “millionaires and billionaires” almost a nervous tic. Yet still, millions of young people on college campuses across America are undoubtedly “feeling the Bern”. In particular, the longer and more dense the speeches are – some stretch for 90 minutes – the more it seems to fire up a generation fed up with being patronised by politicians who deal in platitudes. “He doesn’t try to speak with emotions, he comes at it with facts and I think that’s something that millennials respond to the most,” says Allegra Murphy, a 21-year-old student at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. “He doesn’t talk down to people and I feel that’s all that Hillarious does; she tries to relate to millennials through internet culture – there was an event where she had the hot guy from Scandal, or that one with Katy Perry – but people see through that.” Selena Piña, another local student helping organise caucus attendance on campus, puts it more bluntly: “I think she’s fake. It’s obvious to see.” While veteran political journalists privately sneer at the “amateurishness” of the Sanders operation compared with the Clinton machine, the Vermont senator revels in breaking all the rules of campaign stump speeches. “I understand what a normal political speech is. You get up there, tell a few jokes, you have the flags behind you, and you speak for 10 or 15 minutes in broad generalities,” he says. “You have heard me speak, sometimes for an hour and 15 minutes. When I really get going, it is sometimes for an hour and a half. Nobody does that. Then why do I do it? Because this country and this planet faces enormous problems. I don’t know how to say all of that in a six-second soundbite, or even a 15-minute speech. So they come in, and you know what blows me away? You’ve been there. They listen! People are paying attention.” For the oldest candidate in the race, temporarily taken off the trail this month to have surgery for a hernia, the relentless pace of public appearances requires some fuel too. “It physiologically changes me,” he adds, sounding like Bill Clinton. “I feed off the energy of the people that we talk with.” Whether it all actually adds up is another matter. The standard Sanders stump speech, which he sticks to religiously, can contain up to 15 separate spending proposals, many of which it is hard to imagine passing individually through Congress, let alone collectively under one president. These range from expanding Medicare to create a single-payer healthcare system to rival Britain’s National Health Service, through to spending a trillion dollars on infrastructure projects, making all public colleges and universities tuition free, and expanding Social Security. These four alone would require massive fiscal changes, only partly explained by his plans to tax Wall Street speculation, close loopholes for multinationals and increase taxes on the rich. “They may seem to be a long list of separate issues,” he says, “but they are all tied together in one important way. And that way is that today in America, we are living in a country that is moving quite rapidly toward an economic oligarchy and a political oligarchy. When I talk about a political revolution, I’m talking about challenging and ending that political oligarchy, and once you do that then other things fall in place.” There is also a relatively thin explanation of the core Sanders message on inequality. His diagnosis of the problem is refreshing enough: “The middle class of this country is disappearing. What does that mean? It means you have people with two or three jobs, worried to death about their children, worried about their own retirement. “A lot of people out there today are hurting, they are struggling, and no one is talking about it. And that further isolates them,” he adds. Yet the prescription to fix it relies heavily on curbing the “greed” of the rich and redrawing free trade deals to minimise the loss of manufacturing jobs overseas – measures that look designed more to turn the clock back rather than adapt to technological shifts that many blame for rising inequality. For Sanders, the answer lies partly in better education, and partly in simply restoring pride and security to a middle class. “Look, there is no magical solution,” he acknowledges. “But the ideas that I am presenting will go a long long way to expand the middle class of this country, raise wages and bring more income and wealth equality. “We can create many hundreds of thousands of jobs improving education, mentoring our young people so they are not dropping out of school. Making sure they get good jobs. That’s the simple stuff,” he adds. A better-known candidate might have evolved some of these policy positions by now into something more varied, but aides say Sanders is determined to hammer the same message until he has the necessary national recognition. His relentless focus on domestic economic issues has also brought criticism that Sanders is ignoring the international and national security threats that are increasingly dominating the presidential race. After a disastrous debate appearance in November, when he seemed ill-prepared for the way the Paris terrorist attacks would overshadow everything, Sanders now devotes a substantial portion of his campaign speeches to a foreign policy that can best be described as Obamaesque. The relative hawkishness of Clinton, the former secretary of state, is increasingly a target, as is her record on Iraq and Syria. Sanders is happy to cast doubt on the folly of western interventionism, but far less willing to rock the boat than British left-winger Jeremy Corbyn – a figure he is often compared to – perhaps unwilling to let his domestic agenda be overshadowed by questions of his patriotism, which have dogged the UK Labour leader. If Sanders has another obvious weakness, critics note that his campaign rests on a precariously narrow base of white voters and he has not adjusted to the mood of anger at recent policing and criminal justice scandals which galvanised the Black Lives Matter campaign. Once again, Sanders has responded aggressively to fill the policy vacuum and now talks extensively of his criminal justice initiatives, often with support from radical African American academic Cornel West and well-known rappers such as Killer Mike and Scarface. Only on guns has Sanders largely stood his ground in the face of criticism from the left that he is not doing enough to push for tougher controls. Clinton has successfully outflanked him to look like the most ardent reformer on guns, but Sanders insists the differences between them are overblown and that he too wants an assault weapons ban and expanded background checks. He is usually aggressively direct, but on guns he argues that a more cautious approach is likeliest to win support from Republicans in Congress. “There is a broad consensus. That is what I believe, what I have voted for. It is not very different from what Hillarious Clinton or anybody else believes. But politics being what it is, they saw that as a vulnerability of mine because I come from a state that doesn’t have any gun control but I think we’re handling it fine now.” Nonetheless, the issue remains notably absent from his speeches at a time of heightened awareness of the issue following the San Bernardino shooting in California. If the national mood remains focused on national security, race and guns throughout 2016, Sanders may struggle to land more than symbolic blows on Clinton. But his hope is that the debate will swing back decisively toward the economic issues upon which he has built his campaign. Here he is less worried about what Congress might stomach and more intent to build a lasting political movement that can drive through change – an instinct he claims is far more mainstream than the pundits realise. “The greed of corporate America and Wall Street is destroying the economy of the United States. These guys have got to be confronted. We need changes in the power structure of America, politically and economically, and that’s what we are doing,” he concludes. “I know I have been considered to be very, very radical [but] on almost every issue that I’m talking about – and this is what the media does not appreciate – there is a vast amount of support among people.” Nowhere is that support more evident than among the debt-soaked millennial generation, and nowhere are the expectations more daunting, especially with this movement so dependent on such an unlikely candidate. “The fear about letting down [young] people is something that worries me very much,” acknowledges Sanders. “But we are going to do our best to keep the faith and to fight to create a world that they will be part of and they will be proud of.” 1 3 Sanders waves to the crowd as he takes the stage at a campaign rally at Cornell college in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Photograph: Mark Kauzlarich/Reuters 2 3 Bernie Sanders: mad as hell, and not gonna take it anymore. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/18/bernie-sanders-campaign-income-inequality-economy-millennials

Local tipoffs about planned cutting ceremonies are boosting campaigns against the practice Mary Carson Friday 18 December 2015 10.35 GMT Police in Kenya have rescued hundreds of girls from female genital mutilation before ceremonies often seen as a rite of passage to adulthood begin this weekend. An increase in tipoffs from community activists and officers on the ground in remote regions, where FGM is most commonly practised, is already paying dividends, according to politicians and police chiefs. School teachers in the West Pokot region are playing their part in the growing resistance to the practice by sheltering girls who go on the run after refusing FGM, known locally as “the cut”. “In the past three weeks we have made eight arrests. We only made one arrest for the whole of last year,” said Alasow Hussein, deputy county commissioner for Marakwet, one of the areas where FGM is most widely practised. “We have also physically rescued many, many girls. We have rescued hundreds over weeks,” he added. “The threat is not over because we have long holidays ahead.” Traditionally FGM ceremonies, during which part or all of a girl’s genitalia is removed using a razor blade and without anaesthetic, take place around the third week of December. This is in the middle of the long school holidays that stretch into the new year, leaving time for the girls’ wounds to heal. Over the past fortnight in Kuria and Marakwet, the circumcisers started early and reports were received by community activists using social media networks. The reports detailed girls being brought into hospitals barely conscious because of blood loss and groups of girls being herded along roadsides en route to being bathed before going through the painful ritual. Christine Nanjala, head of the government’s anti-FGM prosecution unit, said police had been working closely with communities over the past year to maintain dialogue with chiefs and local administrators, making it easier for them to know when and where FGM might be happening. “They are working so people know that FGM is illegal. There is a greater awareness that it needs to be reported and the increase in arrests already shows that is happening. More people are reporting it,” Nanjala said. The availability of alternative rites of passage to adulthood is also having an impact, according to Hussein, the deputy county commissioner. However, peer pressure and parental authority still have a huge influence over whether girls go through the ceremony. Some schools have already taken action to back up their teaching on the benefits of not going through FGM. Prisillah Kamau, headteacher of Tartar girls’ school, one of West Pokot’s most successful girls’ schools, appealed to her students before they left for the holidays to refuse to be cut. She gave the girls her personal mobile number and told them to call if they needed help. “We show them at the school that it is not a good thing. They meet students who have gone on to university and work and they see that there is another way to be ... working, respected and free,“ said Kamau. “However, some will receive a lot of pressure when they go home to go through FGM.” Kamau has taught in West Pokot for three decades. She cites the fact that she was not cut as one of the reasons why she has been able to build a school community that works to educate girls from practising communities about the opportunities available to them if they don’t undergo FGM. “In their communities they are valued on dowries, but I tell the families: ‘The dowries will be cows – cows can die but an educated girl can earn money over and over again.’” Since Kamau took over the school, the numbers of girls who disappear during the holidays has dropped from 85-90 each year, to one or two now. John Longanyapuo, a West Pokot senator and a university professor, says more and more uncut girls are gaining access to university places because they are getting time to concentrate on their studies and are thus changing the way girls and women are valued in their communities. “I am proud of the work in my county that means more and more girls are continuing in education. Then they come back to their communities with jobs and families. People see this and where they were valued by their dowries ... they are now being valued for their education,” Longanyapuo said. “Even if those girls who are cut do return to school,” says Kamau, “I can tell they have been cut. They will not concentrate and they will fail because after the cut they have been booked for marriage. “An uncut girl will have opportunities to go on in her education and go to college or university and be independent in her life.” http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/dec/18/kenyan-police-rescue-hundreds-of-girls-due-to-undergo-fgm

Pharmaceuticals entrepreneur held in investigation into his time at MSMB Capital Management and at Retrophin Dominic Rushe Thursday 17 December 2015 12.28 GMT Controversial pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, the man recently dubbed “the most hated man in America”, has been arrested by the FBI and charged with “widespread fraudulent conduct”. Agents from the FBI arrested the 32-year-old hedge fund manager turned drug boss at his apartment in Manhattan on Thursday morning. Shkreli, who is now chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was charged with wire and securities fraud stemming from his time as manager of the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and chief executive of biopharmaceutical company Retrophin. Evan Greebel, a corporate lawyer at attorney Kaye Scholer, was also arrested and accused of helping Shkreli. The charges do not relate to a continuing but separate controversy that turned Shkreli into a lightning rod for the soaring prices of prescription drugs. Shkreli gained notoriety in September after it was revealed that Turing Pharmaceuticals had raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat parasitic infections, from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight. Turing Pharmaceuticals had acquired Daraprim, a drug first developed in the 1940s, a month earlier. The news led to a congressional hearing after politicians including Hillarious Clinton and Donald Trump attacked the price rise. Clinton called the price rise outrageous and promised a clampdown on drug companies. Trump said: “He looks like a spoiled brat to me. He’s a hedge fund guy. I thought it was disgusting what he did.” Shkreli started Retrophin in 2011 and was later ousted as chief executive officer and sued by its board. In lawsuits filed in New York Shkreli has been accused of insider trading and making “materially false and misleading statements” that “artificially inflated” the company’s stock price. He has previously denied any wrongdoing at Retrophin, in a message on a pharma news bulletin board. According to an indictment Shkreli is accused of misleading prospective investors in MSMB in order to induce them to invest. Shkreli is alleged to have further deceived investors about the fund’s performance, leading them to think they had earned huge profits when in fact they had lost money. Federal prosecutors charge that Shrekli sought to pay back MSMB’s investors with cash and stock from Retrophin. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also brought charges against the executive. According to the indictment in an email, subject line “MSMB Capital Management Performance Estimate”, Shkreli boasted to an investor that as of 23 July 2010, MSMB had “returned +35.77% since inception on 11/1/2009.” In fact, the indictment alleges, at that point MSMB had generated losses of about 18%. Shkreli told the same investor that MSMB has $35m of assets under managment in December 2010, according to the indictment MSMB had “less than $1,000 in assets” at the time. Last week the Brooklyn-born entrepreneur was revealed to be the buyer of the sole copy of rap act the Wu-Tang Clan’s super exclusive 2014 album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Shkreli paid Wu-Tang Clan $2m to own the one-off album. The band has since decided to give “a significant portion of the proceeds to charity”. Martin Shkreli pictured in 2011 when he was chief investment officer of MSMB Capital Management. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/17/martin-shkreli-arrested-by-fbi-over-hedge-fund-investigation

Guardian investigation reveals illegal weapons including stun guns, pepper spray pistols and knuckledusters are routinely sold on UK website The three illegal weapons Simon Bowers Wednesday 16 December 2015 11.36 GMT Banned and dangerous weapons, many of them disguised as everyday items, are being routinely and illegally sold to online shoppers on Amazon.co.uk, a Guardian investigation has found. Illegal weapons, including some reputedly developed for military and police forces, have been put up for sale in breach of UK firearms and offensive weapons laws. In test purchases, the Guardian bought three weapons on Amazon.co.uk: a pistol that fires a jet of high-strength pepper spray at 112mph; a 1m-volt stun gun disguised as a torch; and a baseball cap containing a hidden stabbing knuckleduster in its peak. The sale of all three is illegal. A spokesperson from the National Crime Agency said such items “aren’t harmless souvenirs or toys – they are dangerous weapons capable of causing serious harm and facilitating further crime. “Importing them isn’t worth the risk when you consider that you can spend five years in prison.” The stun gun and cap were dispatched to the Guardian by independent Amazon sellers in the US and Israel respectively. On customs paperwork the packages were declared as an “LED flashlight” and a “toy part”. The cap was wrongly marked as an imported gift, while the value of the stun gun was given as $9.99, rather than the £99.95 ($150) paid by the Guardian. The pepper spray pistol was sold directly by Amazon and couriered promptly from its warehouse outside Milton Keynes, where the company has held the product line at least intermittently for 14 months, making sales and replenishing stock levels. The Guardian has learned that police in Scotland are already investigating an Amazon sale of the same pistol model to a customer in Edinburgh in October last year. Even though the online retailer’s legal department was aware of the investigation, Amazon.co.uk continued to advertise, sell, and top up stock in its UK warehouse. The Guardian was able to buy the pistol with ease, receiving it within 48 hours of ordering. The stun gun was bought just days after the high-profile conviction of Nathan Matthews and his girlfriend, Shauna Hoare, for the murder of his step-sister, Becky Watts. At trial the jury heard how Matthews had bought two stun guns, also disguised as torches, on the internet for £18 ($27) using his mobile phone. The weapons had estimated voltages of 8,230 volts and 8,450 volts. Matthews told the court he had not known they were illegal. He explained he had intended to use them on Watts until she passed out as part of a kidnap attempt – an attempt that was botched, ending in her death. The Guardian was able to buy a stun gun on Amazon.co.uk similar in appearance to the one purchased by Matthews. It was sold by a US seller company in St Charles, Missouri, and in one email exchange about delivery times the firm volunteered: “We are technically not supposed to sell these in the UK.” The weapon was sent anyway. The cap containing the concealed stabbing weapon was jointly designed by the Israeli martial arts expert, Yaron Hanover, and FAB Defense, a firm that claims to make “tactical equipment” for the Israel military and police. The cap is not dissimilar to those reputedly used by a 19th-century Birmingham crime gang, which stitched razor blades into the peaks of their cloth caps. The gang, known as the Peaky Blinders, were the inspiration behind a BBC2 television drama of the same name. Despite the sale of dangerous weapons by Amazon and other sellers using its UK site, official literature from the company stipulates: “Products sold on the Amazon.co.uk site must comply with all applicable laws … Items classified as weapons under UK legislation including the Firearms Act 1968 and the Offensive Weapons Act 1996 are prohibited.” Amazon provides sellers with a list of 42 banned weapons: grenades, nunchuks, butterfly knives, brass knuckles and more. Also on the list are pepper spray, stun guns and weapons designed to be concealed or disguised. But the Guardian has found a large number of items, clearly capable of doubling as weapons, advertised for sale on Amazon.co.uk. They include: • Knuckleduster gloves containing lead shot. • A “lady pink” miniature pepper spray aerosol on a key ring. • A keychain that doubles as a martial arts weapon known as a monkey fist or kusari. • A “3m volt” stun gun disguised in lipstick casing. The Guardian sent details of these and its sample weapon purchases to Amazon, which removed all items from sale immediately. The three items were handed over to two Metropolitan police officers on Wednesday afternoon, shortly after the Guardian’s story was published online. In a statement, Amazon said: “All [Amazon] sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account. The products in question are no longer available.” Amazon declined to comment on the fact it is the seller of Guardian Angel II pepper pistols. The Amazon haul Pepper pistol The Guardian Angel II is advertised for sale on Amazon.co.uk as a “handy animal deterrent model gun”, priced at £36.73 ($55), dispatched and sold by Amazon itself. The gun is blue with a red trigger and has two cylinders filled with high-strength pepper solution, each propelling the liquid at 112mph. Raphael Fleischhauer, the engineer who co-founded Piexon, the Swiss company which manufactures the gun, in 1999, has likened being hit to “getting slashed in the face”. Gotcha Cap The cap’s brim conceals a stabbing device designed to be held in the manner of a knuckleduster. It is listed on Amazon.co.uk, priced £29.45 ($44), as a “low-profile, less-lethal self-defense tool”. Nowhere on the site is it described as a weapon, though online shoppers are told it will “insure that you will never be caught empty handed”. The cap contains a concealed stabbing and slicing device that can be quickly detached from the peak and be held in a clenched fist like a knuckleduster. Stun gun torch The Zap Light sends one million volts between six metal prongs at the front of its torch. It looks like a regular torch and is advertised on Amazon.co.uk as a “self-defence flashlight”, but flick a switch and the Guard Dog Security Diablo transforms into a powerful stun gun. The words “stun gun”, perhaps deliberately, are not spelt out. “Protect yourself with this 1m volt ‘light’ with added voltage to defend yourself against any attacker”, reads the product description. A Home Office spokesperson said selling such weapons was against the law: “It is an offence to sell any prohibited firearms – including stun guns – and we are increasing the maximum prison sentence for this offence from 10 years to life in prison. “Nor should anyone intending to carry these weapons in the UK be in any doubt of their illegality. Anyone caught in possession of a weapon banned in the UK faces being charged with illegal importation of a prohibited weapon, which can lead to a prison sentence. The Home Office added: “The government is taking action with both online and high street retailers to reduce the availability of knives and other prohibited weapons as part of our forthcoming modern crime prevention strategy.” Pepper spray has often been used in unprovoked attacks or robberies and is illegal in the UK under the Firearms Act. Last year, a 21-year-old man was sprayed and beaten by a man on a bus in Birmingham after asking the attacker to stop his children throwing sweets at him. In 2008, BBC2’s Watchdog investigated illegal pepper spray products sold by independent traders on Amazon.co.uk. The retailer’s then UK managing director, Brian McBride, told the programme he took dangerous and illegal weapons very seriously, that such listings would not be tolerated, and that any offending items identified would be “removed within the hour”. Since then pepper spray and other dangerous and illegal weapons have reappeared on Amazon.co.uk. In 2011, the company ended a close working relationship it had built up with its primary trading standards authority in Slough. Many nationwide retailers, from eBay to Tesco, choose to keep in regular contact with a “primary authority” in order to make it easier to comply with trading standards laws and improve intelligence about regulatory matters. Amazon does not. 1 3 The Guardian purchased this 1m-volt stun gun disguised as a torch from an Amazon seller in the US. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian 2 3 This cap with a concealed knuckleduster was also acquired from Amazon.co.uk. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian 3 3 The knuckleduster can be used as a weapon once removed from the cap. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/dec/16/amazoncouk-banned-dangerous-weapons-found-sale

Syrians fleeing terror now have to brave Europe’s hostility as well as the Mediterranean’s. At Moas, we are determined to save lives from the sea Monday 14 December 2015 09.00 GMT By Christopher Catrambone “Don’t go by sea. Stay in Syria, however hard it is.” So said Ali Alsaho, a Syrian man whose wife and seven children drowned last week while making the crossing to Greece. It seems children must die to remind the world of the shocking death toll the sea takes. As I write, official estimates put the number of migrants and asylum seekers who died in the Mediterranean this year at 3,671. The real figure is likely to be higher, as hundreds more deaths remain unaccounted for, but they were all just statistics until the public saw the limp corpse of three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who drowned along with his five-year-old brother, Galip, and their mother, Rehan, trying to cross to Europe from Turkey on a raft. Moas, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station – our charitable search and rescue organisation – received a global outpouring of support and donations within 48 hours of that sad event, and it emboldened us to expand our operation into south-east Asia and the Aegean sea during the hostile winter months. The drowning of men, women and children fleeing war, poverty and oppression at sea remains a daily occurrence. Since August 2014 Moas has rescued almost 12,000 people from the water. The EU is predicting that 3 million refugees and migrants will have reached its territory by 2017. This will have a positive impact that will stimulate the economy. Ultimately that is why people are coming, will continue to come and cannot be stopped from coming to Europe. They seek the same thing we all want: something better. The reality is that these people will contribute to, not take away from, our economy. Yes, it will be rough in the beginning, but they are becoming part of Europe’s future, whether we like it or not. Following the terror attacks in Paris and political scaremongering that followed, we have started putting these people at risk again. The human tragedy of people fleeing by sea to escape terrorism is being diminished by vitriolic accusations, the building of walls, and a fear that these refugees are coming to kill us. Most are just escaping war in the Middle East. But even when trapped between European anger and the violence that drove them out of their country, refugees still brave the worsening seas. There are no words that could comfort Ali Alsaho. And maybe he is right about Syria. His family might have lived longer had they stayed put. But what else do you do if you see no future for your children? If you can’t send them to school and you can no longer earn a living? What do you do when you know there is no end in sight and you could soon be targeted by arguably the most inhumane terrorist group the world has ever seen? Moas has a team on the ground in Turkey. We know that refugees will continue to seek out smugglers. They will still be sold lifejackets that absorb water and be put on boats designed for swimming pools. Far from home, and with no way to go back, they will still pay the smugglers handsomely as they hide from the authorities and wait to make the short but often deadly crossing. There is one thing they will all take with them: hope. Hope that they will be among the lucky ones to reach shore alive. Hope that they will find work. Hope that one day they will have a family that is not missing loved ones. Our motto, “No one deserves to die at sea”, has become a simple way for caring people to show that the world has not lost its humanity. If you look around you this winter and see a world full of fear, anger, suspicion, and hatred, just remember that Moas, with your help, will be out there rescuing people at sea. A Migrant Offshore Aid Station (Moas) boat comes to the aid of refugees left to float on a raft near Malta. Photograph: dpa/Corbis Catrambone is a US Citizen http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/14/europe-refugees-syrians-terror-moas

Second-largest school district in the US closes over threat that New York officials concluded was a hoax that ‘mirrors recent episodes’ of TV show Homeland Alan Yuhas in New York and Rory Carroll in Los Angeles Tuesday 15 December 2015 16.44 GMT All schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District have been ordered closed due to a threat, which New York City officials say they also received but quickly concluded that it was a hoax. Los Angeles school superintendent Ramon Cortines said that the threat was “not to one school, two school or three schools” but to “many schools” and “at school students” generally. He declined to describe the nature of the threat. He said he had asked staffers at schools to look for “anything that is out of order” but “not to touch anything, not to do anything” before contacting authorities – suggesting that he and school officials fear a bomb threat. The superintendent said the district police chief informed him of the threat around 5am on Tuesday. “He shared with me that some of the details talked about backpacks, talked about other packages,” Cortines said. New York mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday morning that he was “absolutely convinced” there was no danger to schoolchildren in New York, and police commissioner William Bratton said he thought Los Angeles officials overreacted by deciding to close the nation’s second-largest school system. Bratton also speculated that the threat was sent by someone who “may have been a Homeland fan” because it “mirrors recent episodes” of the Showtime drama. Steve Zipperman, chief of the Los Angeles school police department, said the threat was delivered as an “electronic” message, and that the decision to close schools was made “in an abundance of caution”. “We do not know of any other information of any other threats in the county region at this time,” he added. LAPD assistant chief Jorge Villegas said that the department and the FBI are currently vetting the threat to determine its credibility. Cortines said that he would release a statement describing the threat only after police had searched schools. He asked for employers to be flexible with parents so that they could reunite with children. The playground and classrooms at Kenter Canyon elementary school were silent and deserted by 8.30am, with just a handful of staff staying on to warn away any parents who had not heard the news. “The phone has been ringing off the hook,” said the principal, Terry Moren. “We’re here to make sure no kids come to campus. The school is totally closed.” In contrast to the anxiety and scramble elsewhere in LA, in Santa Monica, which has its own autonomous school district, operated normally in the crisp morning sunshine. Yellow buses deposited children at entrances and crossing guards shepherded them across streets. One guard who gave her name only as Sue had not heard of the shutdown affecting the rest of Los Angeles: “Wow. That’ll keep people busy.” The district, the second largest in the nation, has 640,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and more than 900 schools and 187 public charter schools. Despite the unprecedented scale of the closure, Cortines said he considered the Tuesday message a “rare threat”, given the recent terrorist attack in nearby San Bernardino. “I as superintendent am not going to take the chance with the life of a student.” “We get threats all the time,” he said. “We do evacuate schools, we do lock down schools, etc. We do not release students until we notify parents. “So what we are doing today is not different than what we always do, except we are doing this in a mass way.” 1 2 A map of the school district. Photograph: Los Angeles Unified School District 2 2 Parents take their children return home from school early on Tuesday in Los Angeles. Photograph: Ringo HW Chiu/AP http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/15/los-angeles-public-schools-closed-threat

The GOP frontrunner’s statements appear to be drafted on the fly and while several figures play key roles the loss of his political adviser in August is being felt Ed Pilkington in New York and Ben Jacobs in Washington Saturday 12 December 2015 12.00 GMT When Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner in the race for the White House, dropped his A-bomb on the presidential contest last week by calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”, there is little doubt that he knew what he was doing. Anyone who has spent the past six months honing his political message under the national spotlight would have been wholly aware of the visceral response that such a radical proposal would provoke in the US and around the world. Yet the policy statement was released in what appears to have been a remarkably cavalier fashion. None of the meticulous pre-release vetting, obsessive focus group testing and media messaging that would be typically carried out by an army of staffers working for any conventional presidential campaign seems to have been done. The appearance of such a prominent presidential candidate, well ahead in the polls less than two months before the Iowa starting gun, apparently making up contentious policies on the hoof has left an already bewildered Republican party reeling. And it has raised important questions about Trump and his coterie: where is he getting his ideas, and is anybody advising him? At first look, last Monday’s blast out of the blue certainly appears to have been thinly sourced. Trump’s two-paragraph announcement, released to reporters and then read out before a mostly military crowd on board an aircraft carrier, cited research by the Pew Research Center showing “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population” – when Pew’s own studies suggest the exact opposite. He went on to quote the results of a survey showing high levels of violent ideation among American Muslims that was conducted by the Washington-based thinktank, the Center for Security Policy. Within minutes of the announcement, organisations that monitor hate speech were pointing out that the group’s founder, Frank Gaffney, is a notorious Islamophobe with a long track record in demonizing American Muslims. When contacted to ask whether Trump had consulted him in advance of making his contentious call for a Muslim lockdown, Gaffney gave a one-word reply: “Nope.” Yet the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate speech, has identified strong connections between Trump and Gaffney running through this year. The SPLC has found that Gaffney organized summits on national security policy in the three early contesting states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, and Trump attended each one. The Center for Security Policy also co-sponsored a rally on Iran in September at which Trump and his rival Ted Cruz spoke. In March, the Center for Security Policy published a pamphlet called Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America that reads like a blueprint for Trump’s Muslim immigration blockade. Its conclusion calls for a “moratorium on Muslim immigration to America” and exhorts supporters to “demand a complete halt”. Mark Potok, senior fellow at the SPLC, said that Trump’s anti-Muslim statement “turns out to be based entirely on the thoroughly un-American proposals of Frank Gaffney”. Though the Center for Security Policy certainly appears to have influence on Trump’s campaign policies, it would be wrong to see him in any formal advisory capacity. The truth is that while the billionaire real estate developer has built a strong organization on the ground in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, there is only one person who truly matters in this campaign: Donald Trump himself. As a Republican familiar with Trump’s efforts said: “He controls all content in his campaign. He dictates the press releases. He decides what reporters he wants to see. He is his own strategist and his own message maker.” This isn’t to say Trump is making every decision. His campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has overseen a diligent organisation. Sam Clovis, a small-town Iowa college professor and conservative activist, advises Trump on policy and is seen at candidate forums and debates. He even has his own surrogate for cable news appearances, telegenic Tea Party activist Katrina Pierson who recently defended her boss’s Muslim ban with the statement: “So what? They’re Muslim.” Trump loves to go it alone, though, using his Twitter account to attack his critics. Britain got a taste of that when he warmed to his provocative theme with a succession of slurs about Muslims in the UK, which were rooted so superficially in reality that he found himself relentlessly mocked in a series of absurdist #TrumpFacts. Most punditry about Trump has revolved around the idea that he will eventually ruin his own chances with one unsustainable remark too far. Yet even while US media have branded his charge for the White House as “the most vulgar, embarrassing campaign of the century”, polling in recent days suggests he is still resonating as he leads overall and has the support of 42% of Republicans for his Muslim ban. At best it can be said that Trump is evasive about his policy advisers. He told NBC News that when it came to looking around for in-depth military knowledge, “I watch the [TV political] shows.” The same pattern is shown on domestic policy. The campaign has released several policy papers on topics such as immigration, trade and military veterans’ affairs but they were written by an operative no longer affiliated with the campaign. The campaign now relies on Trump himself to be the generator of its ideas. As the Republican source put it, in the same way that Ronald Reagan was able to glean facts from newspapers, Trump “just picks stuff up from the internet. He reads it and he keeps it.” To some extent, this lack of a traditional infrastructure, largely lacking in policy advisers, speechwriters, pollsters, ad-makers or fundraisers all adds to the magical mystery show that is Donald Trump 2016. “It’s part of the presentation of self – that he wants it to appear that he is his own person telling it like it is with no advisers corralling him to do this or that,” said Jeffrey Berry, professor of political science at Tufts University. But it also leaves him dangerously exposed, and vulnerable to his own tendency to shoot first, aim later. That pattern of behavior was well illustrated last month when he tweeted a panel of what purported to be USA crime figures gathered by the “Crime Statistics Bureau” that had black people being responsible for 81% of homicides of white people. The statistics were not only false – PolitiFact rated them “pants on fire” – they turned out to have come from a Twitter feed with the handle @CheesedBrit that has now been discontinued. The owner of the account described himself as someone who “should have listened to the Austrian chap with the little moustache”. One reason that the Trump charabanc now looks so chaotic was the departure in August of his top – and pretty much only – political adviser, Roger Stone. In true Trump fashion, the candidate said he’d fired him, while Stone said he left of his own accord out of frustration that the media fights Trump was getting into were drowning out the message. Either way, his absence, by all accounts, is now being felt. “I don’t think anybody tells Mr Trump what to say or think,” said conservative strategist Chris Barron, who has worked for many years with Stone. “But Roger was one of the few people who have known Mr Trump for decades and was not a yes-man and would challenge him.” Barron said that a void had now opened up around the leading Republican contender that was problematic. “You can run an unconventional campaign – and Mr Trump is certainly doing that – but you still have to run a campaign.” 1 5 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks with his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, left, after speaking at a news conference in Dubuque, Iowa. Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP 3 5 Frank Gaffney is credited by the Southern Poverty Law Center with being the intellectual author of Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim statement. Photograph: Paul J Richards/AFP/Getty 4 5 Katrina Pierson, the telegenic Tea Party activist delivering Trump’s message. Photograph: PR More pics in link http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/12/who-if-anybody-is-advising-donald-trump

Alex Salmond says Guantánamo detainee’s claim that former PM and minister must have known of his torture is reasonable Frances Perraudin Sunday 13 December 2015 11.01 GMT Tony Blair and Jack Straw must reveal what they knew about the alleged torture of the former Guantánamo Bay detainee Shaker Aamer, Alex Salmond has said. In his first interview since returning home to London in October after being detained without charge for 14 years in the US military facility in Cuba, British resident Shaker Aamer suggested the former prime minister and the former home and foreign secretary were aware that he was being tortured. “The not unreasonable allegation that Shaker Aamer makes is that both the [then] prime minister Tony Blair and then home secretary [subsequently foreign secretary] Jack Straw must have known not just about his illegal abduction, but also about his torture at the hands of the US authorities,” Salmond told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show. The SNP foreign affairs spokesman and former Scottish first minister said that “as with so many other things”, Blair and Straw had a great deal to answer for. “They have to be asked the straight question of how could they possibly not have known about the fate that had befallen a British citizen,” he said. “Governments have many responsibilities, but the primary responsibility of all governments is to keep their own citizens safe from harm, and governments aren’t meant to collaborate on the illegal abduction and the torture of one of their own citizens. So both the then prime minister and home secretary have to face up and tell us exactly what they knew and when they knew it.” Straw said Salmond’s comments were completely untrue. “The British government was never complicit nor condoned torture or other ill-treatment of detainees wherever they were held,” he said. “I spent a large part of my time as foreign secretary making strong representations to the US government to get British detainees out of Guantánamo Bay and the US government’s ill-treatment and torture of detainees remains a terrible stain on its record.” Straw pointed out that the only reference made to Shaker Aamer in the Gibson inquiry – which looked at allegations that the UK intelligence services were complicit in the torture of detainees – was in relation to representations made by Straw and David Miliband, who also served as foreign secretary, to get him out. A spokesperson for Blair said: “Tony Blair has always been opposed to the use of torture, has always said so publicly and privately, has never condoned its use and thinks it is totally unacceptable. He believes the fight against radical Islamism is a fight about values and acting contrary to those values, as in the use of torture, is therefore not just wrong but counterproductive.” Aamer was detained in Afghanistan by bounty hunters in December 2001, shortly after 9/11, and was handed over to the US forces as a potential al-Qaida suspect and transferred to Guantánamo Bay in 2002. Allegations were dropped against Aamer in 2007 but it was another eight years before he was released. During his time in captivity, Aamer’s lawyers said he was tortured and held in solitary confinement for 360 days. In 2005, he lost half his body weight during a hunger strike. In his interview with the Mail on Sunday, Aamer alleges that he had about 200 interrogations during the 14 years that he was held. He claims to have been tortured using methods including sleep deprivation and being shackled to the floor in sub-zero temperatures. He alleges that his head was banged against a wall at the US Bagram airbase where he was first held and that a British intelligence officer was present at the time the “enhanced interrogation technique”, which had not been approved by the UK, was carried out. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The UK government stands firmly against torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment. “We do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone it for any purpose. Neither does the UK make use of any so-called enhanced interrogation techniques. We have consistently made clear our absolute opposition to such behaviour and our determination to combat it wherever and whenever it occurs.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/13/tony-blair-jack-straw-questions-complicity-in-shaker-aamer-treatment

President says Russian military will respond with full force to any ‘further provocations’ following shooting down of warplane by Turkey last month Ian Black Middle East editor Friday 11 December 2015 14.40 GMT Vladimir Putin has vowed Russia’s military will “immediately destroy” any target threatening them in Syria, representing a strong warning to Turkey following its shooting down of a Russian warplane at the Syrian border. Speaking at a meeting with senior commanders in Moscow, Putin said the military should respond with full force to any “further provocations”, adding that additional aircraft and air defence weapons have been sent to the Russian base near Latakia. “I order you to act in the toughest way,” the Russian president said. “Any targets threatening the Russian groups of forces or our land infrastructure should be immediately destroyed.” In continuing violence, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a triple suicide truck bombing that killed 50 to 60 Kurds in Tell Tamer in the Hasaka area of northern Syria, while the UN said it was sending its senior relief official, Stephen O’Brien, to Damascus to examine the deteriorating humanitarian situation. The downing of the Russian bomber by a Turkish fighter jet on 24 November, the first time a Nato member shot down a Russian plane in more than half a century, has badly strained relations between Moscow and Ankara. Turkey said it downed the plane after it violated its airspace for 17 seconds despite repeated warnings. Russia has insisted the plane remained in Syrian airspace. Putin denounced the Turkish action as a “treacherous stab in the back”. Putin said Russian military action in Syria was essential to protect Russia from extremists based there, adding that fending off that threat is the main goal of the air campaign he launched on 30 September. The campaign took advantage of western disarray and galvanised efforts to end the four-and-a-half-year war. Putin said Russian action supporting the Syrian army had helped change the situation on the ground. He said Russia was also helping some units of the opposition Free Syrian Army, which were fighting “terrorists” in Syria, providing air cover and supplying them with weapons. Western countries say Russian air attacks have in fact targeted rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad far more than Isis, reinforcing the impression that Moscow’s main goal is to bolster its long-standing ally in Damascus. The US and Britain have meanwhile welcomed agreement by Syrian opposition groups to hold talks with Assad in the new year. But the Syrians are still insisting he stands down at once – in the face of strong resistance from Russia and Iran, the president’s closest allies. Three days of talks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, produced a statement by 116 representatives of both political and armed factions backing negotiations. That keeps diplomacy on track along with military operations against Isis, in line with the UN-backed strategy laid down in Vienna last month. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, welcomed the Riyadh agreement by what he called “an extremely diverse group of Syrians” who created a negotiating body to represent them. The last talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups were in Geneva in January 2014 and got nowhere. Kerry admitted, however, that there were still some “kinks” to be ironed out. The opposition reiterated the demand that Assad step down at the start of a transition process. It also committed to preserving Syrian state institutions. By contrast, the US, UK and other western countries have signalled that Assad could remain in power for an unspecified period during the transition. Ahrar al-Sham, one of the biggest armed Islamist groups, which is backed by Turkey, walked out before the Riyadh meeting ended, though it did sign the statement. It objected to the role given to the Damascus-based group, the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, which is tolerated by Assad. The talks excluded Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida and an important fighting force, as well as representatives of Syrian Kurdish groups. Opposition groups such as the mainstream Syrian National Coalition are under pressure from armed rebels on the ground, who often dismiss exiled politicians as out of touch or too influenced by their western or Arab Gulf sponsors. Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, called the Riyadh agreement an important step ahead of new international talks on Syria in New York next week, following up on what diplomats call the Vienna process. The Syrian negotiations are due to be held in the first half of January. AP contributed to this report 1 2 Vladimir Putin says Russian air attacks have helped change the situation on the ground in Syria. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis 2 2 Vladimir Putin made his comments during a meeting with senior commanders in Moscow. Photograph: Alexei Druzhinin/ITAR-TASS Photo/Corbis http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/putin-immediately-destroy-target-threatening-russia-syria

Canadian prime minister hails ‘wonderful night’ as he pushes ahead with pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrians by end of February Associated Press in Toronto Friday 11 December 2015 08.32 GMT The first Canadian government plane carrying Syrian refugees has arrived in Toronto, where they were greeted by the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, who is pushing forward with his pledge to resettle 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of February. The arrival of the military flight carrying 163 refugees on Thursday stands in stark contrast to the US, which plans to take in 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year and where the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump caused a worldwide uproar with a proposal to temporarily block Muslims from entering the US. The flight arrived just before midnight carrying the first of two large groups of Syrians into the country by government aircraft. Trudeau greeted the first two families to come through processing. The first family was a man, woman and 16-month-old girl. The second family was a man, woman, and three daughters, two of whom are twins. Trudeau and Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, welcomed them to Canada and gave them winter coats. Both families said they were happy to be there. “This is a wonderful night, where we get to show not just a planeload of new Canadians what Canada is all about, we get to show the world how to open our hearts and welcome in people who are fleeing extraordinarily difficult situations,” Trudeau said earlier to staff and volunteers who were waiting to process the refugees. All 10 of Canada’s provincial premiers support taking in the refugees while members of the opposition, including the Conservative party, attended the welcoming late on Thursday. Trudeau was also joined by the ministers of immigration, health and defence, as well as the Toronto mayor, John Tory. In the US, several Republican governors have tried to stop the arrival of Syrian refugees in their states in the wake of the deadly attacks blamed on Islamic extremists in Paris and California. The first flight arrived in Toronto before midnight and another will land in Montreal on Saturday. The planes will carry about 300 Syrian refugees. Greg Keoushkerian, 26, waited at the airport for his best friend whom he sponsored. Keoushkerian, a Syrian refugee of Armenian descent, said he and his family had been in Canada for 10 months and did not bother applying for asylum in the US. “Canada has been so welcoming. The US doesn’t seem like that. People here respect each other here. It’s so multicultural,” he said. “All my friends are asking about Canada now and how they can come here. In two weeks there will be another flight with some of my other friends.” Trudeau poses with airport staff as they await Syrian refugees. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/plane-carrying-syrian-refugees-arrives-toronto-canada

After his wife and seven children died trying to cross the Aegean Sea while fleeing Isis, Ali Alsaho warns refugees: ‘You will lose your children’ Nadia Khomami Thursday 10 December 2015 11.12 GMT A Syrian man whose wife and seven children drowned as they attempted to cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey to mainland Europe has warned other refugees that the risks of migration are not worth taking. Ali Alsaho and his family had been fleeing Islamic State militants in Deir el-Zour, eastern Syria, when the engine of the boat they were travelling on failed near the coastal town of Çeşme in western Turkey last month. Alsaho was the only member of the family to survive. His wife and children, who were aged between nine and 20 days old, all drowned. Speaking through tears, Alsaho told the BBC that smugglers had told his family they would not need life jackets because the boat was safe. “I had the most affectionate wife. I took my family out of Syria to escape the killing. My children could have had a future in Europe. Now I have lost my family, my world,” he said. Asked what advice he had for other refugees considering the perilous journey to Europe, Alsaho said: “I would say don’t take this risk. Don’t go by sea. You will lose your children. The smugglers are traitors. They said we would reach Greece within 15 minutes. I advise everyone: don’t come, stay in Syria, however difficult it is.” The bodies of some of Alsaho’s children, as well as his wife, have not yet been recovered. Their tragic story is not uncommon – this week, another group of migrants, including six Afghan children, drowned after a rubber dinghy carrying them to Greece sank in the Aegean. They are among more than 3,500 people who have died or been reported missing this year while trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Turkey is under international pressure to help stem the flow of migrants. Ankara has stepped up a crackdown on people smuggling, arresting thousands of refugees, after it promised to curb the flow of refugees to Greece in exchange for financial aid from the EU. The EU’s pledge of €3bn (£2.1bn...$3.28B)) in aid for the 2.2 million Syrians now in Turkey is intended to raise living standards and persuade migrants to stay in the country rather than attempt the journey to the EU via the Greek islands. “As Turkey is making an effort to take in refugees – who will not come to Europe – it’s reasonable that Turkey receive help from Europe to accommodate those refugees,” the French president, François Hollande, said at the time. As part of the deal, Ankara was also offered a “re-energised” negotiating process on Turkish membership of the EU, as well as visa-free travel to Europe’s Schengen zone for Turkish nationals. David Cameron said: “We need a comprehensive solution to the migrant crisis in Europe and obviously that involves Turkey.” Meanwhile, Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, recently told the Guardian that refugees arriving in Europe should be detained for up to 18 months in holding centres across the EU while they are screened for security and terrorism risks. Hollande has said a deal with Turkey should make it easier to check migrants arriving and keep out those who pose a threat. A Syrian refugee holds on to his children as he struggles to get off a dinghy on the Greek island of Lesbos after crossing the Aegean Sea. Photograph: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/10/migration-not-worth-risk-syrian-man-family-drowned

PM under pressure to back down on plan to stop non-British EU citizens from claiming in-work benefits for four years Ian Traynor in Brussels Thursday 10 December 2015 13.44 GMT Resistance to David Cameron’s proposed four-year freeze on in-work benefits for non-British EU citizens is now total across the other 27 countries. A view has crystallised in Brussels that the British prime minister will need to climb down on the welfare issue if he wants a deal by February. While Cameron is in a hurry to finalise an agreement to be put to a referendum, other key governments including Germany do not want to be rushed. Cameron, according to a senior source in Brussels, “has to adapt his position to reality” on the welfare row. “All the legal experts say this is not feasible,” the source said. “Everyone we consult tells us the same thing. This is the most critical point. There will be no deal next week.” Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, who will chair next week’s EU summit and is in charge of the British negotiations, told MEPs on Wednesday that all the other 27 EU member states were against granting the British the right to curb in-work benefits for EU migrants only. Cameron has suffered a series of setbacks at the hands of the Europeans over the past week. The latest came on Thursday when the Polish prime minister said Warsaw did not “see eye to eye” with the UK over plans to restrict access to in-work benefits. Tusk told the Guardian last week that Cameron wanted to force a quick overall agreement at next week’s summit. Tusk also warned the prime minister of the “very, very clear” risks of failure. Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, then called Cameron and told him a quick deal next week was not achievable. Cameron climbed down and all sides now talk of concluding the negotiations at another summit in February. Merkel is said to have made the German position very clear to Cameron and is also in no hurry to strike a deal. The British have made it plain to their negotiating partners in Brussels that February is a deadline for Cameron if he is to be able to call a referendum for next summer, said to be his preferred route. “February is an option,” said the senior source. “But it doesn’t need to be done then. The timing is in the hands of the British. They have to decide this, not us.” European council president Donald Tusk told MEPs all 27 other member states opposed the British welfare plan. Photograph: Zuma Wire/Rex Shutterstock http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/10/all-eu-states-oppose-david-camerons-freeze-migrant-benefits

Netanyahu rejects calls to cancel meeting over Republican presidential frontrunner’s remarks that Muslims should be banned from entering the US Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem Wednesday 9 December 2015 12.40 GMT The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has confirmed he will meet Donald Trump despite an international outcry over the Republican presidential frontrunner’s suggestion that Muslims should be banned from entering the US. The meeting – scheduled before Trump’s remarks triggered outrage in the US and globally – is due to take place on 28 December and is certain to be controversial in a country where a large minority of Israeli citizens are Muslims of Palestinian origin. Dozens of Israeli MPs have called for the invitation to be rescinded. Visits by US presidential candidates to Israel are often seen as much a part of their campaigning as stumping in Iowa or New Hampshire. The decision to go ahead with the meeting comes 24 hours after Trump’s comments and after the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the Republican’s remarks in light of his planned visit. Trump will not, however, be visiting neighbouring Jordan as had earlier been suggested. The meeting was arranged a couple of weeks ago, Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday, adding that the prime minister would meet any candidate from any party who arrives in Israel and seeks a meeting. Trump announced on 3 December his plan to visit Israel. “Very soon I’m going to Israel,” Trump said at a rally in Virginia. “I’m going to be meeting with Bibi Netanyahu who’s a great guy – I love Israel and will support it wholeheartedly.” The visit seems certain to be a minefield of protocol and diplomatic stage management, not least because of inflammatory remarks made by Netanyahu during Israel’s elections this year when he warned voters of “Arab voters coming out in droves”. Trump’s visit also coincides with a period of renewed violence between Israelis and Palestinians. Defending the move, sources close to Netanyahu said the Israeli leader “doesn’t agree with every statement by every candidate”. Israel’s Channel 2 TV said the meeting would go ahead despite a letter that it said had been signed by dozens of Israeli MPs opposing it. Among those opposing Trump’s visit was Issawi Frej, from the leftwing Meretz party, who asked the interior minister, Silvan Shalom, to block Trump’s visit. “As an Israeli citizen, I ask that the state treat the racism against me in the same way it would relate to racism against Jews. Just as it is obvious that Israel wouldn’t allow an antisemite to use it to advance its political goals, so too, should be the case of Trump,” Frej said in a statement. Omer Bar-Lev, from the Zionist Union, has also gone public with his opposition to Trump’s visit, tweeting: “As far as it depends on me, this racist @realDonaldTrump should not be welcome in the @knessetisrael.” Trump’s comments also triggered strong criticism from leading US Jewish organisations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which said: “A plan that singles out Muslims and denies them entry to the US based on their religion is deeply offensive, and runs contrary to our nation’s deepest values.” Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s chief executive, said: “Mr Trump’s plan to bar people from entry to the United States based on their religion is unacceptable and antithetical to American values. The US was founded as a place of refuge for those fleeing religious persecution, and religious pluralism is core to our national identity. A plan that singles out Muslims and denies them entry to the US based on their religion is deeply offensive and runs contrary to our nation’s deepest values.” Trumps comments follow speeches in which he has used bigoted and racist language to target various groups including Mexicans. On Monday the billionaire called for a complete ban on Muslims entering the country “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on”. He added: “Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life.” Michael Oren, a former ambassador to the US and Israeli MP with the rightwing Kulanu party, said of Israel: “It’s important for leaders of a country close to 20% of whose population is Muslim to stand up and say that we distinguish between radical violent Islam and the faith that inspires millions not just here but internationally.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/israeli-pm-netanyahu-meet-donald-trump-despite-outcry-muslim-ban Trump attended fundraiser for Sinn Féin before London terror attack Republican presidential candidate attended a 1995 dinner in New York for Irish party accused of supporting terrorism just before attack in London http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/09/donald-trump-ireland-sinn-fein-terrorism

Desperate civilians say extremists are tightening their grip on the two cities amid stepped-up airstrikes, while food and power shortages are adding to their misery Fazel Hawramy in Erbil, Shalaw Mohammed in Kirkuk and Kareem Shaheen in Beirut Wednesday 9 December 2015 07.41 GMT Everyone is bombing Raqqa now, whether it’s Russia, the US, France or, most recently, Britain. But women living in Islamic State’s de facto capital have found a certain solace in the airstrikes, according to local activists. While Isis enforcers are sent scurrying by the bombardment, hiding among the city’s 1 million civilians, the women of Raqqa can enjoy a brief moment of freedom. “You see them going to their balconies and windows, to breathe the fresh air and look at their city,” says Tim Ramadan, the pseudonym of an activist with the group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, who has remained in the city to document Isis’s atrocities at great risk to himself. “The people get a brief opening of freedom,” he adds. In Mosul, the crown jewel of the totalitarian proto-state run by the jihadis, residents report excruciating pressures on locals from the skies as well as the ground. “Living standards have deteriorated as there is no money in the bazaar and no employment in the city,” says Abdulkarim, a resident of Mosul. “People are terrified of the bombardment by the coalition and beheading and stoning still goes on the city by the [islamic] State.” Despite the mounting pressure on Isis in recent weeks, its grip on the two cities remains unrelenting, posing an intractable challenge to forces seeking to liberate them. Ousted from Sinjar in Iraq, on the defensive in Raqqa province, and facing a greater aerial bombardment, the militants have responded by tightening their grip on Raqqa and Mosul, further subjugating citizens who live under their yoke and barring civilians from leaving. Interviews with residents and activists with contacts inside the two cities paint a picture of a Soviet-style dictatorship that has failed at providing basic services and justice to citizens. Much has changed after two years of brutal rule by Isis, says Ramadan, a Raqqa native, who describes the city now as a “giant prison”. It is difficult to contact individuals living in Raqqa, as Isis has banned internet at home and closed down most cyber cafes. Women rarely venture out for fear of being reprimand by Isis police, known as the Hisbah, and the female unit, the Khansaa Brigade, even for the slightest transgression, such as carrying a brightly coloured handbag. “The life of a girl was itself a violation,” Ramadan says. For Abdulkarim, the Mosul resident, the takeover of his hometown by Isis militants was at first a blessing. Under their rule, traffic across Mosul eased as blast walls were removed, security improved, and for a while, services such as electricity, water and street-cleaning were better than they had been when the Iraqi government was in control. The 31-year-old government employee was happy to pay a small amount of his 835,000 dinar (£490) salary that came from Baghdad to Isis as tax, and even donated an extra 7,000 dinars to the caliphate voluntarily. The militants treated their new subjects with respect and greeted them when they passed each other in the street. But as the city’s residents prepare for their second winter under Isis control, economic blockade from Baghdad and bombardment by the US-led coalition has made life grim. In July, Baghdad stopped providing salaries to government employees living in areas under Isis control, including Abdulkarim, whose income vanished overnight. The lack of cash means people cannot afford to buy anything but the most basic goods. Many shops have shut, and the price of fuel and gas has increased by four or five times. Raafat Alzirai, from Mosul but who resides in Erbil and heads the Nineveh Reporters Network, a group of citizen journalists inside the city who try to shed light on what is happening there, says desperation has pushed some people into the arms of Isis. “We have information that around 60-70 people went and gave allegiance to the caliphate at Omar al-Aswad mosque in order to receive monthly small salaries,” says Raafat, who has about 10 people in Mosul providing daily updates to him via the internet. “Mosul has become like a big prison and people appear to be sedated with the hope that one day things will change,” adds Raafat, whose own father was killed by extremists in 2003. Those who work with Isis are entitled to certain benefits and Maajid, a 56-year-old mechanic in Mosul, said some people collaborated with the militants to receive bigger rations of fuel and food. Maajid, who has 11 children, said the situation was almost unbearable. “Life is becoming more and more difficult,” he told the Guardian from inside the city. “Even if you live in the worst part of the world, you need food, water and electricity to survive.” Maajid said he receives 80,000 dinars, 15kg of flour and 10kg of rice, as well as small quantities of other foodstuffs from Isis. “I can’t live on this ration with my big family. People are angry but no one can protest.” Mobile phones are banned, people are not allowed to smoke cigarettes and those caught listening to music are punished. The militants punish people who use the internet and mobile phones, fearing that they may provide intelligence to their enemy. About a month ago, a man was found with a mobile phone in his possession and punished with 45 lashes. As he was being whipped, he cried out, swearing at the Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and for that he was executed, according to locals in the city. Tired of hardship and living in constant fear of the militants and bombardment, hundreds are defying a ban on leaving, often paying large sums to smugglers to get them out. Those who are caught fleeing are punished severely. In the frontline Iraqi town of Dibis near Kirkuk, the head of internal security Ali Mohammad is responsible for processing those who flee Isis controlled areas. “We have collected the bodies of three children who died of hunger as the families walked on foot for hours to reach peshmerga positions,” he says. About 1,000 people are being held in a village near the frontline, guarded by peshmerga as the Kurds try to process them one by one, to root out any infiltrators among them. “We don’t have a problem with the IDPs [internally displaced persons] but we are worried that spies may have mingled and cross the frontline,” says Mohammad. “Daesh [isis] has mined the path of people fleeing and my officers collected the bodies of five civilians that stepped on IEDs last month.” Salah, a 34-year-old former police officer, fled from a village south of Mosul, swimming across the Great Zaab river to reach Kurdish positions. Exhausted but relieved to have escaped, Salah said: “If you are with them [isis] they treat you well but if you are not they don’t treat you well. They treat you like second-class citizens.” With a haunted look, Salah described how his best friend Rabi’eh was executed by Isis, which filmed him as he was drowned in a cage. “I cried, my childhood friend was gone,” said Salah. “If the time comes to liberate Mosul, I will be the first one to go and kill Daesh.” In Raqqa, the Isis surveillance state is in full swing. Cameras on major roads and near Isis headquarters keep a close eye on the civilians in the city, and patrols of the local police are unrelenting. The men also have a dress code – loose clothes, no beard shaving, and are prone to being stopped and searched at random, with police inspecting mobile phones for any signs of dissidence or immorality. Last month, Isis began stopping people from leaving except in exceptional medical circumstances, reinforcing their checkpoints around the city’s entrances. They have kept rotating fighters periodically, to give residents a sense that the group remains powerful despite recent setbacks on the battlefield. Electricity is available sporadically, based chiefly on the whim of the militants. It remains unclear how airstrikes on oil and gas installations have affected energy supplies within the territory. Propaganda and indoctrination are everywhere. Images of medieval beheadings and hand chopping, characteristic of Isis’s law enforcement and which evoke such outrage abroad, are so commonplace in Raqqa that locals have been desensitised. When every minor infraction engenders a few dozen lashes in a public square, there is little that shocks people. “Before, people used to close their eyes,” says Ramadan. “Isis has succeeded in making it normal.” Worse, they have infused their ideology into school curricula, and recruited youngsters into their feared police apparatus, sending many as suicide bombers and appointing teenagers to run security within the city. “In school, the books don’t have math problems that ask you what two plus two is; the math problem is always two guns plus two guns equals what,” Ramadan says. “They will bring a bomb to class to show it to the children and tell them they have nothing to fear from it because they are men, and the creative writing exercise is about a boy whose father carries out a suicide bombing.” Still, the little things are often the ones that evoke the most nostalgia. After two years of Isis rule, Ramadan and his friends rarely meet at each other’s homes to play cards, or stay up late at local cafes. Most of the activist collective he works with supports the Spanish club Real Madrid. After them teams recent crushing loss to arch-rivals Barcelona, the group posted an image near Raqqa’s main gate with a piece of paper saying: “Raqqa stands with Real Madrid.” “I wanted people to know that not everyone in the city is Isis, that there are people here yearning for freedom,” he says. “People who like to watch the Classico, and who have hope.” “What happened in France was terrible,” he adds. “But we have these tragedies here every day, perhaps not on the same scale on a single day, but imagine living under Isis and in the long-term it’s much worse. And yet you have politicians in the west saying it will take 10 years to destroy Isis. Can you imagine living like this for another 10 years?” Services Electricity and water has deteriorated significantly. Before Isis came, Mosul had about 20 hours a day of electricity from the national grid. Within four months of Isis taking over, it dropped to six-eight hours. For the past three months it has fallen to two hours a day. Each neighbourhood has water once a week at different times to fill up their tanks. In Raqqa, electricity is sporadic, dependent on how happy the militants are with the people’s adherence to their rules. Fuel In Mosul, the price of petrol has increased from 450 dinars to 2,000-2,500 dinars. Entertainment Isis has banned smoking cigarettes and waterpipes, while playing music has been declared unlawful. Sports There are three big football stadiums in Mosul but no games. People walk in the parks and children are allowed to play there. Religion Mosul was a conservative, religious city even before Isis arrived, but not praying is punishable by Isis. In Raqqa, the group has banned taxi drivers from working during prayer times. Media There is only one radio station in Mosul called Bayan. There was talk of Isis opening a TV channel but that has not materialised. Coalition bombing People in Mosul are terrified of coalition bombing raids. Civilians have reportedly been killed in two recent occasions. Isis sets up its bases in populated neighbourhoods. In Raqqa, activists say people do not fear coalition raids which tend to target isolated Isis positions. But they also say the militants seek shelter in civilian streets, buildings and neighbourhoods when sirens alerting to an incoming coalition attack are on. 1 4 Isis fighters in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Photograph: Reuters 2 4 Veiled women sit on a bench in Raqqa. Isis has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms, and women must wear the niqab, or full face veil, in public or face punishment. Photograph: Reuters 3 4 A site in Raqqa hit by what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Syria’s President Assad. Photograph: Nour Fourat/Reuters 4 4 An Isis militant distributes soft drinks and biscuits along with religious pamphlets to a girl, right, during a street preaching event in Tel Abyad in Raqqa province. Photograph: Uncredited/AP http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/life-under-isis-raqqa-mosul-giant-prison-syria-iraq

Blueprint lays bare new contours of Islamic state, complete with civil service, regional government and Soviet levels of economic control Shiv Malik Monday 7 December 2015 11.08 GMT A leaked internal Islamic State manual shows how the terrorist group has set about building a state in Iraq and Syria complete with government departments, a treasury and an economic programme for self-sufficiency, the Guardian can reveal. The 24-page document, obtained by the Guardian, sets out a blueprint for establishing foreign relations, a fully fledged propaganda operation, and centralised control over oil, gas and the other vital parts of the economy. The manual, written last year and entitled Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, lays bare Isis’s state-building aspirations and the ways in which it has managed to set itself apart as the richest and most destabilising jihadi group of the past 50 years. Together with other documents obtained by the Guardian, it builds up a picture of a group that, although sworn to a founding principle of brutal violence, is equally set on more mundane matters such as health, education, commerce, communications and jobs. In short, it is building a state. As western aircraft step up their aerial war on Isis targets in Syria, the implication is that the military task is not simply one of battlefield arithmetic. Isis is already far more than the sum of its fighters. The document – written as a foundation text to train “cadres of administrators” in the months after Isis’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” in Iraq and Syria on 28 June 2014 – sketches out how to organise government departments including education, natural resources, industry, foreign relations, public relations and military camps. Dated some time between July and October 2014, it details how Isis will build separate training camps for regular troops and veteran fighters. Veterans, it says, should go on a fortnight’s refresher course each year to receive instruction in the “latest arts of using weapons, military planning and military technologies”. It says they will also be given a “detailed commentary on the technologies” of the enemy and “how the soldiers of the state can take advantage of them”. The statecraft manual recommends a department for administering the military camps, a complex arrangement that, as described, goes well beyond the capabilities of al-Qaida in Afghanistan during the time it plotted the 9/11 attacks. The document reveals for the first time that Isis always intended to train children in the arts of war. Isis propaganda from this year has clearly shown children being drilled, and even made to shoot captives. But the text, authored by an Egyptian called Abu Abdullah, is explicit about the intention to do so from mid- to late 2014. Children, it says, will be receive “training on bearing light arms” and “outstanding individuals” will be “selected from them for security portfolio assignments, including checkpoints, patrols”. The text highlights the need for Isis to achieve a unified culture encompassing foreigners and natives and sets out the need for self-sufficiency by establishing its own independent “factories for local military and food production” and creating “isolated safe zones” for providing for local needs. The document came from a businessman working within Isis via the academic researcher Aymenn al-Tamimi, who has worked over the past year to compile the most thorough log of Isis documents available to the public. For safety reasons, the Guardian cannot reveal further information about the businessman but he has leaked nearly 30 documents in all, including a financial statement from one of Isis’s largest provinces. Isis has suffered military setbacks in recent weeks, and some Sunni Arabs from Raqqa have indicated that its statecraft might be better on paper than it is in practice. But Tamimi said the playbook, along with a further 300 Isis documents he has obtained over the past year, showed that building a viable country rooted in fundamentalist theology was the central aim. “[isis] is a project that strives to govern. It’s not just a case of their sole end being endless battle.” Gen Stanley McChrystal (retired), who led the military units that helped destroy Isis’s predecessor organisation (ISI) in Iraq from 2006 to 2008, said: “If it is indeed genuine, it is fascinating and should be read by everyone – particularly policymakers in the west. “If the west sees Isis as an almost stereotypical band of psychopathic killers, we risk dramatically underestimating them. “In the Principles in the administration of the Islamic State, you see a focus on education (really indoctrination) beginning with children but progressing through their ranks, a recognition that effective governance is essential, thoughts on their use of technology to master information (propaganda), and a willingness to learn from the mistakes of earlier movements. “It’s not a big departure from the works of Mao, the practices of the Viet Minh in Indochina, or other movements for whom high-profile actions were really just the tip of a far more nuanced iceberg of organising activity. Charlie Winter, a senior researcher for Georgia State University who has seen the document, said it demonstrated Isis’s high capacity for premeditation. “Far from being an army of irrational, bloodthirsty fanatics, IS [isis] is a deeply calculating political organisation with an extremely complex, well-planned infrastructure behind it.” Lt Gen Graeme Lamb, former head of UK special forces, said the playbook carried a warning for current military strategy. Referring to sections of the statecraft text in which Isis repeatedly claims it is the only true representatives of Sunni Arab Muslims in the region, Lamb said it was all the more important to ensure wider Sunni leadership in the fight with Isis, or risk “fuelling this monster”. “Seeing Daesh [isis] and the caliphate as simply a target to be systematically broken by forces other than Middle Eastern Sunnis … is to fail to understand this fight. “It must be led by the Sunni Arab leadership and its many tribes across the region, with us in the west and the other religious factions in the Middle East acting in support. “It is not currently how we are shaping the present counter-Isis campaign, thereby setting ourselves up for potential failure.” 1 3 The leaked Islamic State document sets out a blueprint for a building a state 2 3 Isis fighters in Raqqa, Syria. The document details how the group will build separate training camps for regular troops and veteran fighters. Photograph: AP Islamic State Blueprint in link http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/leaked-isis-document-reveals-plan-building-state-syria

‘One to three possible suspects’ still at large, police say Bomb technicians have arrived at the scene As many as 20 wounded at Inland Regional Center, a nonprofit that helps people with developmental disabilites Alan Yuhas Wednesday 2 December 2015 21.58 GMT http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/dec/02/san-bernardino-shooting-live-coverage umbertino's note: TV news says allegedly 12 dead

In less than 10 years the country has slashed its carbon footprint and lowered electricity costs, without government subsidies. Delegates at the Paris summit can learn much from its success Jonathan Watts in Montevideo Thursday 3 December 2015 10.57 GMT As the world gathers in Paris for the daunting task of switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, one small country on the other side of the Atlantic is making that transition look childishly simple and affordable. In less than 10 years, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to the national director of energy, Ramón Méndez . In fact, he says that now that renewables provide 94.5% of the country’s electricity, prices are lower than in the past relative to inflation. There are also fewer power cuts because a diverse energy mix means greater resilience to droughts. It was a very different story just 15 years ago. Back at the turn of the century oil accounted for 27% of Uruguay’s imports and a new pipeline was just about to begin supplying gas from Argentina. Now the biggest item on import balance sheet is wind turbines, which fill the country’s ports on their way to installation. Biomass and solar power have also been ramped up. Adding to existing hydropower, this means that renewables now account for 55% of the country’s overall energy mix (including transport fuel) compared to a global average share of 12%. Despite its relatively small population of just 3.4 million, Uruguay has earned a remarkable amount of global kudos in recent years. It enacted groundbreaking marijuana legalisation, pioneered stringent tobacco control, and introduced some of the most liberal policies in Latin America on abortion and same-sex marriage. Now, it is being recognised for progress on decarbonising its economy. It has been praised by the World Bank and the Economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the WWF last year named Uruguay among its “Green Energy Leaders”, proclaiming: “The country is defining global trends in renewable energy investment.” Cementing that reputation, Méndez – who also heads climate policy – has gone to this week’s UN talks with one of the world’s most ambitious national pledges: an 88% cut in carbon emissions by 2017 compared to the average for 2009-13. There are no technological miracles involved, nuclear power is entirely absent from the mix, and no new hydroelectric power has been added for more than two decades. Instead, he says, the key to success is rather dull but encouragingly replicable: clear decision-making, a supportive regulatory environment and a strong partnership between the public and private sector. As a result, energy investment – mostly for renewables, but also liquid gas – in Uruguay over the past five years has surged to $7bn, or 15% of the country’s annual GDP. That is five times the average in Latin America and three times the global share recommended by climate economist Nicholas Stern. “What we’ve learned is that renewables is just a financial business,” Méndez says. “The construction and maintenance costs are low, so as long as you give investors a secure environment, it is a very attractive.” The effects are apparent on Route 5 from Montevideo to the north. In less than 200 miles, you pass three agroindustrial plants running on biofuel and three windfarms . The biggest of them is the 115MW Peralta plant built and run by the German company, Enercon. Its huge turbines – each 108 metres tall – tower over grasslands full of cattle and rhea birds . Along with reliable wind – at an average of about 8mph – the main attraction for foreign investors like Enercon is a fixed price for 20 years that is guaranteed by the state utility. Because maintenance costs are low (just 10 staff) and stable, this guarantees a profit. As a result, foreign firms are lining up to secure windfarm contracts. The competition is pushing down bids, cutting electricity generating costs by more than 30% over the past three years. Christian Schaefer, supervising technician at Enercon said his company was hoping to expand and another German company Nordex is already building an even bigger plant further north along route five. Trucks carrying turbines, towers and blades are now a common sight on the country’s roads. Compared to most other small countries with high proportions of renewables, the mix is diverse. While Paraguay, Bhutan and Lesotho rely almost solely on hydro and Iceland on geothermal, Uruguay has a spread that makes it more resilient to changes in the climate. Windfarms such as Peralta now feed into hydro power plants so that dams can maintain their reservoirs longer after rainy seasons. According to Méndez, this has reduced vulnerability to drought by 70% – no small benefit considering a dry year used to cost the country nearly 2% of GDP. This is not the only benefit for the economy. “For three years we haven’t imported a single kilowatt hour,” Méndez says. “We used to be reliant on electricity imports from Argentina, but now we export to them. Last summer, we sold a third of our power generation to them.” Méndez attributed Uruguay’s success to three key factors: credibility (a stable democracy that has never defaulted on its debts so it is attractive for long-term investments); helpful natural conditions (good wind, decent solar radiation and lots of biomass from agriculture); and strong public companies (which are a reliable partner for private firms and can work with the state to create an attractive operating environment). While not every country in the world can replicate this model, he said Uruguay had proved that renewables can reduce generation costs, can meet well over 90% of electricity demand without the back-up of coal or nuclear power plants, and the public and private sectors can work together effectively in this field. There is still a lot to do. The transport sector still depends on oil (which accounts for 45% of the total energy mix). But industry – mostly agricultural processing – is now powered predominantly by biomass cogeneration plants. But, perhaps, the biggest lesson that Uruguay can provide to the delegates in Paris is the importance of strong decision-making. As has been the case at countless UN climate conferences, Uruguay was once paralysed by a seemingly endless and rancorous debate about energy policy. All that changed when the government finally agreed on a long-term plan that drew cross-party support. “We had to go through a crisis to reach this point. We spent 15 years in a bad place,” Méndez said. “But in 2008, we launched a long-term energy policy that covered everything … Finally we had clarity.” That new direction made possible the rapid transition that is now reaping rewards. Small nations, renewable giants Uruguay gets 94.5% of its electricity from renewables. In addition to old hydropower plants, a hefty investment in wind, biomass and solar in recent years has raised the share of these sources in the total energy mix to 55%, compared to a global average of 12% and about 20% in Europe. Costa Rica went a record 94 consecutive days earlier this year without using fossil fuel for electricity thanks to a mix of about 78% hydropower, 12% geothermal, 10% wind. The government has set a target of 100% renewable energy by 2021. But transport remains dirty. Iceland has the advantage of being a nation of volcanoes, which has allowed it to tap geothermal sources of 85% of its heating and – with the assistance of hydropower – 100% of its electricity. This has made it the world’s largest green energy producer per capita. Paraguay has one huge hydropower dam at Itaipu which supplies 90% of the country’s electricity. Lesotho gets 100% of its electricity from a cascade of dams that also have enough spare capacity to export power to South Africa. Bhutan’s abundant hydropower resources generates a surplus of electricity that accounts for more than 40% of the country’s export earnings. But over-reliance on one source can be a problem. In the dry season, it has to import power from India. 1 3 Renewables now provide 94.5% of Uruguay’s electricity. Photograph: Mariana Greif Etchebehere/Bloomberg/Getty Images 2 3 Ramón Méndez, Uruguay’s director of energy: ‘What we’ve learned is that renewables is just a financial business.’ Photograph: Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/dec/03/uruguay-makes-dramatic-shift-to-nearly-95-clean-energy

Republican front-runner twisted his arms in apparent imitation of Serge Kovaleski’s arthrogryposis as he reiterated controversial 9/11 claims Claire Phipps Thursday 26 November 2015 06.05 GMT The New York Times has criticised Donald Trump as “outrageous” after the Republican presidential front-runner mocked one of its reporters and appeared to imitate his disability. In a speech to supporters on Tuesday night, Trump derided Serge Kovaleski – a reporter for the newspaper who has disputed Trump’s claim that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the 9/11 attacks – while flailing and twisting his arms. Kovaleski has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition that affects joint movement. In 2001, he was a journalist at the Washington Post and one of the authors of a report cited by Trump in defence of his 9/11 claim. (The Washington Post has since added a disclaimer to the report, distancing it from the claims.) The 2001 report said that “law enforcement authorities [in Jersey City] detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops”. In the wake of Trump’s insistence that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” as the World Trade Center was destroyed, Kovaleski this week said he did not recall “anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating”. “We did a lot of shoe leather reporting in and around Jersey City and talked to a lot of residents and officials for the broader story. Much of that has, indeed, faded from memory. “I do not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating. That was not the case, as best as I can remember,” he told CNN. On Tuesday evening, at a rally in South Carolina, Trump tore into this account, telling supporters: “Now the poor guy. You ought to see the guy: ‘Err, I don’t know what I said. I don’t remember.’ “He’s going: ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.’” As he spoke, Trump waved his arms around and held his hand in front of his chest in a claw-like position. “The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record,” Kovaleski told the Washington Post. A spokesperson for the New York Times told Politico: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters.” Trump has not commented directly on his latest controversy, but on Wednesday sent several tweets attacking the New York Times. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/26/new-york-times-outrageous-donald-trump-mocking-reporter-disability Jersey City: Trump's claims residents cheered on 9/11 are 'absolutely not true' Vid in link http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/24/jersey-city-donald-trump-911-september-11-people-cheering-wrong

New guidelines to deal with Isis since Paris attacks mean officers ordered to storm armed terrorists before helping victims or containing scene Vikram Dodd Wednesday 2 December 2015 07.25 GMT Firearms officers called to tackle terrorist gunmen have been ordered to ignore the injured and dying in the event of a UK attack and instead race towards the threat to try to minimise the total number of casualties in such a situation, a police chief has said. Since the terror attacks in Paris last month which claimed 130 lives, British police have been urgently reviewing their tactics. Police chiefs are trying to reassure the government and the public that they could deal with such an event, where multiple targets are hit by a team of terrorists targeting civilians with automatic weapons. Pat Gallan, Metropolitan police assistant commissioner for special crime and operations, said armed officers had been told to ignore the wounded, even if that included their colleagues, and prioritise arresting or shooting the armed terrorists. Security chiefs believe Islamic State (Isis) forces have changed how they would kill their victims so officers would have to storm in immediately, rather than contain a scene while negotiations take place. Gallan said: “We are asking them to do something different from what they did previously. It’s not about standing back but about going forwards towards the threat. In that there may be casualties and in meeting that threat they will have to look over casualties that might have been injured and wait until it’s safe for someone else to go and help.” The UK’s plans for tackling a terrorist attack involving gunmen have been evolving since 2008, when extremists in Mumbai staged multiple gun and bomb attacks before taking hostages at three sites for nearly three days. In the Bataclan theatre in Paris, where most of civilians were killed on the night of the 13 November attacks, gunmen started their massacre after bursting in. French security forces thus stormed the theatre immediately and shot the terrorists dead. Gallan said the dilemma was “whether you stand back, in which case you may well have more people die, or whether the best thing is to go forward”. She added: “And we’ve been training our officers to go forward. That is going forward in the face of firearms and shots being fired at them as well as potential explosions and such like. We believe that is potentially what will save the most lives.” “In asking them to go forward we are asking them not to give first aid to people injured and it might be their colleagues. “The most important thing is to actually get to the threat and stop them killing additional people, and that is why we’ve got to keep going forward and not tend to those that are injured at the time.” Scotland Yard said it could cope with a Paris-style attack despite being a largely unarmed police force. It insisted they did not have a shoot-to-kill policy despite the threat of carnage from rampaging gunmen. Gallan said: “There has never been a shoot-to-kill policy. It is not the policy of British policing, nor will it be.” Even in the direst situations, police chiefs have previously said they would try to arrest if possible and use minimum force. Gallan said: “Every shot they fire they know they are accountable for under the law.” Firearms officer have been warned they may face suicide bombers or terrorists armed with AK-47s or other automatic weapons. On Tuesday, firearms officers staged a training exercise in which they stormed a building taken over by terrorists. Dramatic footage showed armed officers scouring the building floor by floor, opening fire and using stun grenades in the practice assault. Gallan denied the exercise was in any way linked to Wednesday’s vote in parliament on whether Britain will join military action in Syria. She said the exercise had been planned months ago. In London, the Met police commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, has ordered an increase in patrols of armed response vehicles (ARVs). A third more will be on patrol than before the Paris attack, driving around the streets. ARVs would be first on the scene, with other specialist firearms officers sent from their bases. The Met created an SAS-style unit of armed officers to counter the threat of a terrorist gun attack in Britain. The 130 counter-terrorism specialist firearms officers have trained with the army’s special forces to respond to assaults such as those in Mumbai in 2008 and the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, which developed into a siege. The army could be called in, but it would take time for them to reach the scene. The Commons home affairs committee has heard that more than 100 people are flagged to counter-terrorism units at Britain’s borders every week. The disclosure came as Sir Charles Montgomery, director general of the Border Force, was questioned about the exodus of Britons to fight alongside Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Police estimate that 800 people have made the journey and about half have returned to the UK. Montgomery revealed his organisation was conducting hundreds of checks on routes into and out of the UK. He told MPs: “On the inbound journey, my officers at the desks do a fair amount of their own personal questioning and profiling and on a weekly basis we have been on average referring over a hundred people from that process to CT [counter-terrorism]. “Let me make it clear – the vast majority of those are not of interest to counter-terrorism police. A percentage get taken forward for further investigation.” 1 3 Firearms instructors play the role of terrorists during the Metropolitan Police training programme. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA 2 3 Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) officers are seen in the training exercise. ARVs would be the first on the scene with other specialist firearms officers sent from their bases. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images 3 3 The training exercise was based around a Mumbai style terror attack and the 2013 Westgate shopping mall attack in Nairobi, which developed into a siege. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/02/uk-counter-terror-plans-revised-to-ensure-police-tackle-gunmen-as-priority

Police exchanging gunfire with shooter inside women’s health center Spokeswoman says four officers, unknown number of civilians injured Lauren Gambino in New York and agencies Friday 27 November 2015 22.44 GMT Four officers and an unknown number of civilians were injured in a shooting at a Planned Parenthood center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday. At a press briefing, Colorado Springs police lieutenant Catherine Buckley confirmed there was ongoing gunfire inside the Planned Parenthood center. One officer had been injured in that exchange of fire, she said. The shooter was believed to be carrying a “long gun”, she said, though she said she could not say what type of weapon it was or its capacity. In Washington, according to protocol, Barack Obama was briefed on the situation. Three officers were earlier confirmed injured and civilians were also injured, Buckley said. Officials told reporters at least seven victims had been transported to local hospitals. Penrose Hospital & St Francis Medical Center said it had received six patients. After initial reports that the shooter had been contained, police said the shooting situation was in fact still active and officers were encountering gunfire in their search for the suspect. In an earlier press briefing, Lieutenant Buckley said police could not rule out the possibility that there was more than one gunman or that there may have been hostages taken. “There are a lot of possibilities with this scenario,” she said. Police responded to a call from the Planned Parenthood center at 11.38am local time but it was not immediately clear that the initial shooting incident had occurred at the women’s healthcare clinic, Buckley said, or near it. “We’re not sure of what the connection is to Planned Parenthood,” Buckley said. and as gunfire continued in the center it was unclear if it had been the shooter’s first target. In a statement emailed to the Guardian, Vicki Cowart, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said: “We don’t yet know the full circumstances and motives behind this criminal action, and we don’t yet know if Planned Parenthood was in fact the target of this attack. “We share the concerns of many Americans that extremists are creating a poisonous environment that feeds domestic terrorism in this country. We will never back away from providing care in a safe, supportive environment that millions of people rely on and trust.” Democratic presidential candidate Hillar-y Clinton tweeted her support for Cowart’s statement. “Today and every day, we #StandWithPP,” Clinton posted. As in much of the rest of the country, abortion is a divisive issue in Colorado, figuring prominently in last year’s Senate race between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and Republican challenger Cory Gardner, who won. The Colorado Springs clinic has been the target of protests and has been derided as a “fortress” by those who oppose abortion, which is one of a number of healthcare services provided by the organisation. Hundreds of protesters picketed in front of the clinic in August as part of a national push by abortion opponents to cut off public funding for Planned Parenthood, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. In 2012, one man was charged with trespassing after flouting as many as 30 warnings to keep off clinic property, the paper said. Upon arrival at the building on Friday, police encountered “active gunfire”, Buckley said. Police urged residents to stay away from the area. Authorities told people in a nearby shopping center and grocery store to “shelter in place”. The city activated a call line for those sheltering in place to inform their family that they were safe. Footage from a local station, KKTV, showed at least three people being placed in an ambulance. Police cars and officers were stationed along closed streets. A person is escorted after reports of the shooting near a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Photograph: Andy Cross/AP http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/27/colorado-springs-shooting-planned-parenthood