Rising racism taints Italian electoral campaign

Northern League party's leader Matteo Salvini arrives for an electoral rally in Verona, Italy. Racist and anti-Semitic expressions have been growing more bold, widespread and violent in Italy. (AP)
Updated 09 February 2018
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Rising racism taints Italian electoral campaign

VERONA: When hundreds of hardcore Verona soccer fans chanted “Adolf Hitler is my friend” and sang of their team’s embrace of the swastika, Italian Jewish communities complained, and waited.
Local officials initially dismissed the incident — which was filmed and circulated on social media by the so-called “ultras” themselves — as a “prank.” Condemnation only came several months later, after another video from the same summer party, this time profaning Christian objects, also went viral.
“These episodes should absolutely not be dismissed,” said Bruno Carmi, the head of Verona’s tiny Jewish community of about 100, speaking at the Verona synagogue, which is flanked by two armed police patrols. “In my opinion, whoever draws a simple swastika on the wall knows what it means.”
Racist and anti-Semitic expressions in Italy have been growing more bold, widespread and violent. Anti-migrant rhetoric is playing an unprecedented role in shaping the campaign for the country’s March 4 national election, which many say is worsening tensions and even encouraging violence.
Hate crimes motivated by racial or religious bias in Italy rose more than 10-fold, from 71 incidents in 2012 to 803 in 2016, according to police statistics. The five-year period corresponded with an explosion in migrant arrivals.
The latest violence came Feb. 3 when a right-wing extremist shot and wounded six African immigrants in the small central Italian city of Macerata. Police say the suspect claims to have been acting out of revenge after a Nigerian immigrant was arrested on suspicion of killing and dismembering an 18-year-old teen whose remains were found three days earlier. The shooting drew widespread, but not universal, condemnation.
The attack also had a political taint. The alleged gunman, Luca Traini, was a failed candidate for the right-wing, anti-migrant Northern League last year and had previously flirted with more extreme neo-fascist movements. Police seized Nazi and white supremacist propaganda from his bedroom.
The night before the shooting, the leader of the rebranded League, Matteo Salvini, had cited the teen’s murder in a campaign appearance in Verona, pledging to send home 150,000 migrants if elected. He only dug in further after the attack.
Former Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who is competing with Salvini for leadership of the center-right coalition, significantly upped the political ante after the shooting. He claimed that 600,000 migrants were in Italy illegally, calling them “a social bomb ready to explode because they are ready to commit crimes,” and threatened to deport many.
“The facts of Macerata in some ways show that in recent years there has been a process of cultural, social and political legitimization of racism that is creating enormous damage, most of all at the expense of people’s lives,” said Grazia Naletto, president of Lunaria, a Rome-based non-governmental agency that compiles a database of racist incidents in Italy.
Lunaria counts 84 cases of racist violence against individuals in the past three years, including 11 racially motivated murders, a statistic that Naletto called unprecedented in Italy.
A report on hate for the Italian parliament last summer reported that 40 percent of Italians believe other religions pose a threat, especially the Muslim faith. It also said anti-Semitism is shared by one in five Italians. The IPSOS MORI polling company found that Italy is the least informed country in the world regarding immigration, with most people overestimating by more than three times the number of immigrants living in Italy.
Findings by the swg research institute based in Trieste published in January said the demographic most vulnerable to neo-Nazi ideals are those aged 25-34, and that among Italians overall, 55 percent of those in the lowest income range either indulge in or oppose combating neo-Nazi and neo-fascist ideals.
Experts cite many reasons for the spread of extremism and racist expressions that until recently were mostly relegated to the margins of society. They include a superficial understanding of history, as well as an economy weakened by a long crisis that sidelined many ordinary workers and barred many young people from entering the work force.
More recently, there is the added pressure of migrants arriving from across the Mediterranean, with arrivals nearing 120,000 last year and topping 180,000 the year before.
The head of the immigration office at the Verona diocese concedes that many Italians have not accepted that theirs has become a multicultural society, despite the fact that about 9 percent of the nation’s residents are foreigners. The diocese where he works hosts 11 foreign Christian communities, but resistance to integration is entrenched, he said.
“Romanian youths have less trouble integrating than ones from Ghana or Sri Lanka,” the Rev. Giuseppe Mirandola said. “That is to say, we still have difficulty with the color of the skin.”
He said even Pope Francis’ calls to welcome migrants in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation have fallen on some deaf ears.
“The theme of immigrants and the fact that Pope Francis insists on their welcome touches very sensitive nerve in some people who refuse this message,” Mirandola said. “While they appreciate the simple style of the pope, on this issue they find themselves ill at ease.”
The audience of some 500 for Salvini’s Verona appearance included farmers, families with children, university students, artists and political activists. Many spoke out against migrants, even before the candidate took the stage.
Luisa Albertini, whose family owns eight orchards in the province, echoed Salvini’s rhetoric of a migrant invasion “because not all are escaping from war. There are people who are taking advantage because they know that they can find everything they want here.”
Alessandro Minozzi, a city councilman from the town of Bolvone, said migrants being housed in the town pose a threat to order. “A person can’t go around peacefully if there are these 100 people who don’t know what to do during the day,” he said.
In the countryside around Verona, it is still possible to read inscriptions of Italy’s Fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s most infamous mottos on the sides of buildings, with some seemingly recently re-painted. Photographs of Mussolini can be readily found at flea markets and newly minted calendars bearing his image sell in newsstands.
And while such items may fall short of an apology for fascism — a crime in Italy — their public display without context can fuel a misunderstanding of history, said Carmi, the Verona Jewish leader.
“It was not a golden period for everyone in Italy,” said Carmi, whose great aunt and uncle were among the 8,000 Italian Jews deported to Nazi death camps, where most perished. “For some it was. Certainly not for us.”


Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre

Updated 12 November 2024
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Fifteen inmates killed in new Ecuador jail massacre

  • “Serious incidents were reported between inmates, resulting in a preliminary toll of 15 dead and 14 wounded,” the prison service said
  • The prison service said that a “significant contingent” of troops and police had been deployed to restore order at the prison, which was now under the “full control” of the authorities

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador: At least 15 inmates were killed and 14 injured in clashes Tuesday at a prison in the Ecuadoran port of Guayaquil, the latest in a series of massacres blamed on a war between drug cartels.
Once seen as a beacon of stability in South America, Ecuador has become one of the world’s most violent nations and a major drug trafficking hub in recent years.
Much of the violence has taken place in prisons where more than 460 inmates have been killed since February 2021, often in gruesome fashion, with their bodies dismembered and burnt.
The latest bloodshed took place in Litoral penitentiary, the country’s biggest, where 119 inmates were killed in September 2021 in Ecuador’s worst prison massacre.
“This morning, in a pavilion of the Litoral penitentiary, serious incidents were reported between inmates, resulting in a preliminary toll of 15 dead and 14 wounded,” the prison service said.
AFP drone images of the prison yard showed inmates in orange prison garb placing a body on the ground next to a dozen corpses wrapped in blankets.
In another part of the prison, dozens of prisoners could be seen sitting in rows, guarded by security force members.
The prison service said that a “significant contingent” of troops and police had been deployed to restore order at the prison, which was now under the “full control” of the authorities.
The violence in Ecuador’s prisons has spilled over onto the streets.
The Andean country registered a record 47 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, up from a rate of six per 100,000 in 2018.
In January, the violence reached a new peak following the jailbreak of a powerful narco boss, Jose Adolfo Macias.
In the most dramatic incident, gunmen stormed the studios of a television station in Guayaquil and held a presenter at gunpoint live on air.
Gang members also took scores of prison guards hostage and set off explosions prompting President Daniel Noboa to declare war on organized crime and deploy the army to combat the gangs.
Tuesday’s massacre is the first at a prison since then.
But tit-for-tat gang attacks left at least 17 dead near Guayaquil last month and prison officials continue to be targeted.
Five penitentiary staff were shot dead in the space of a month between late August and late September.
The victims included the director of Litoral, who was shot dead after her car was ambushed while traveling near Guayaquil and the head of another prison in the Amazonian province of Sucumbios, who too was shot dead while traveling by car.
Noboa claims his offensive against organized crime is nonetheless yielding results.
Between January and September, 4,236 murders were reported, down from 5,112 for the same period in 2023.


Spanish flood-hit towns brace for another storm

Updated 12 November 2024
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Spanish flood-hit towns brace for another storm

  • AEMET forecasts as much as 120 mm of rain in 12 hours
  • While the storm is not expected to be as powerful, it could be devastating for the towns that are still recovering

MADRID: Flood-hit towns near the eastern city of Valencia were rushing on Tuesday to clear the sewage system of mud and debris, pile sandbags and cancel school classes as they prepared for another approaching storm.
Two weeks after the worst floods in Spain’s modern history killed more than 200 people, national weather service AEMET issued an orange alert, the second-highest, for strong or torrential rains expected on Wednesday in the same area.
AEMET forecasts as much as 120 mm (4.7 inches) of rain in 12 hours. While the storm is not expected to be as powerful, it could be devastating for the towns that are still recovering.
The impact of the rain could be severe because of the quantities of mud already on the ground and because of the condition of the sewage system, Rosa Tauris, a spokesperson for Valencia’s emergency committee, told reporters.
Thousands of workers are cleaning buildings while removing the mud that accumulated on roads and sidewalks and clogged the sewage pipes and drains in towns and suburbs around Valencia.
The emergency committee issued a special warning requesting that municipalities and organizations take preventive measures, including closing schools.
Tauris recommended citizens work remotely when possible, avoid non-essential travel and follow emergency services’ updates.
The town council of Chiva, one of the worst-hit sites, canceled classes and sports activities, while in nearby Aldaia, workers piled up sandbags to protect the town.
“We are placing sandbags to replace the floodgates that the previous floods tore down,” municipal worker Antonio Ojeda said, hoping this would prevent the Saleta ravine from overflowing again.
They are also cleaning the ditches and drains that are obstructed with trees, tires and car parts.
On Monday, 10,000 tons of furniture, appliances and clothing were removed, almost as much waste as Valencia disposes of in a year.
Valencian authorities suspended classes and activities at recreational centers in the flood-hit suburbs, advising volunteers who flocked to the area to help clean up to avoid travel.
The AEMET’s weather alerts cover much of the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia, Valencia and Andalusia and the Balearic Islands.


Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

Updated 12 November 2024
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Court delays decision on sentencing Trump to November 19

  • Ahead of election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have case thrown out
  • Trump’s legal team almost certain to seek to oppose or delay any sentencing

NEW YORK: The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal case has delayed to November 19 a decision on potentially throwing out the US president-elect’s conviction, the court said Tuesday.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
The president-elect is due to be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
That landmark ruling saw the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, decide that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Ahead of the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move that prosecutors have firmly rejected.
If the judge throws out the case on that basis, there will be no sentencing of Trump, 78.
If he does not, Trump’s legal team would almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any sentencing, insisting it would interfere with Trump’s role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on January 20.
“The joint application for a stay of the current deadlines... until November 19, is granted,” the court wrote in an email to parties in the case, seen by AFP.
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
“Trump’s victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct,” said former prosecutor Randall Eliason in an article on Substack.
“That’s a severe blow to the ideal of the rule of law.”
The New York conviction, coming just months before an election that Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic developments in the race for the White House.
In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic Party’s candidate following a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.
That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color from a major US party to stand for president.


Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

Updated 12 November 2024
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Driver rams his car into crowd in China, killing 35, as police say he was upset about his divorce

  • Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack
  • He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said

ZHUHAI, China: A man who authorities said was upset over his divorce settlement rammed his car into a crowd of people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 and severely injuring dozens of others, police said Tuesday.
Police detained the 62-year-old man, who is being treated for wounds thought to be self-inflicted, shortly after the attack Monday night in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai. The city is hosting the People’s Liberation Army’s annual aviation exhibition, which opened Tuesday, and searches for what happened were heavily censored for users behind China’s Great Firewall.
Outside of the controls, however, videos circulated on the social media platform X. In several, dozens of people could be seen lying on the track at the sports complex, which is regularly used by hundreds of residents to run, play soccer or dance.
In one, shared by news blogger and dissident Li Ying, a woman says “my foot is broken.” That same video showed a firefighter performing CPR on a person, as others were told to leave. Li, who is known on X as Teacher Li, posts daily news based on user submissions
In addition to the 35 people killed, police said 43 were injured.
China has seen a number of attacks in which suspects appear to target members of the public at random.
In October, a man was detained after he allegedly attacked children with a knife at a school in Beijing. Five people were wounded. In September, three people were killed in a knife attack in a Shanghai supermarket, and another 15 were injured. Police said at the time that the suspect had personal financial disputes and came to Shanghai to “vent his anger.”
In May, two people were killed and 21 injured in a knife attack in a hospital in Yunnan province.
Police identified the man detained in Monday’s attack only by his family name of Fan, as is typical, and said he was unconscious and receiving medical care after being found in his car with a knife and wounded.
He was dissatisfied with the split of financial assets in his divorce, according to a preliminary investigation, police said.
Chinese authorities appeared to be tightly controlling information about the incident. Internet censors tend to take extra care to scrub social media ahead of and during major events, such as the aviation exhibition or the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress.
For almost 24 hours after the attack, it was unclear what the death or injury toll was. On Tuesday morning, a search on the Chinese social media platform Weibo for the sports center turned up just a few posts, with only a couple referring to the fact something had happened, without pictures or details. Articles by Chinese media from Monday night about the incident were taken down.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the “strict” punishment of the perpetrator according to law in a statement Tuesday evening.
He also called on all local governments “to strengthen prevention and control of risks at the source, strictly prevent extreme cases from occurring, and to resolve conflicts and disputes in a timely manner,” according to the official Xinhua news agency.


Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

Updated 12 November 2024
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Indian travel agents record surge in outbound tourism to Middle East

  • There has been an increase of at least 30% in trips to Middle East from Indian city of Ahmedabad alone, agent says
  • Indian travelers are drawn to ‘less explored’ Middle East region, which is increasingly becoming top choice

NEW DELHI: An increasing number of Indian travelers are visiting the Middle East this year, tour operators said on Tuesday after recording a significant surge to the region during the Diwali holiday season.

The Middle East has become an increasingly popular foreign destination for many Indian travelers, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE often cited as the top two countries in demand.

As the festive Diwali season and the long holidays that came with it concluded earlier this month, tourism players in India say there was a notable increase in trips to Arab countries.

“In this festival season, there was a huge demand,” Jyoti Mayal, president of the Travel Agents Association of India, told Arab News on travel from India to the UAE, citing Saudi Arabia and Qatar as particularly popular destinations.

“These countries in the Middle East are less explored and that’s why more and more people are traveling (to them).”

Travelers from the western Indian state of Gujarat were drawn to new and affordable packages offered to Gulf destinations like Dubai, said tour agent Manish Sharma.

“From Ahmedabad, I can say that compared to the past, there has been an increase of 30 to 35 percent in the outbound travels to the Middle East this time,” Sharma, who runs his business in the Gujarati capital, told Arab News.

Their top choices were UAE cities such as Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai, he added.

“The reasons for the growth are manifold — it’s cheap, easy connectivity, it’s near, you get good food,” he added.

Members of the Gujarati middle class “take at least one or two vacations every year,” he said. “During Diwali and summer vacation, they prefer to go to Dubai.”

Many Indians appear to be taking advantage of the increasing number of direct flights to the UAE. There are at least 14 daily flights to Dubai from Ahmedabad alone.

“There has been an increase in Dubai travel in the last 10 years, (and) in the last three years tourism has grown greatly. But this year, tourism to UAE has gone phenomenally and the reason is the increase in the number of flights,” Sharma said.