PARIS: As France entered lockdown at midday Tuesday, city streets were largely abandoned after a panicky exodus to country homes where many prepared to wait out what President Emmanuel Macron has termed a “war” on the coronavirus outbreak.
In an unprecedented peacetime measure, millions have been ordered to work from home and look after their children as schools, cafes, shops and even public parks and gardens were closed.
A government decree required people venturing outside to show a certificate to justify their movements, which were limited to buying food, seeing a doctor, walking the dog or going for a jog, but prohibited meeting up with family or friends.
Going to work is allowed only if a company cannot make provisions for staff to work from home, and then only if special anti-infection measures are put in place at the office.
Supermarkets were overrun Tuesday as the country’s 65 million residents stocked up in preparation for the confinement, initially set for two weeks.
“We’ll go crazy if we stay home!” grumbled Jean, a Parisian in his 70s who was shopping in a city where gathering in parks, cafes, bars and restaurants is an key part of daily life.
“I don’t read, I’m not the kind of person who watches TV all day, and I live alone! I have to get out a bit,” he told AFP, interrupting himself to say: “Damn, I forgot my (hand sanitising) gel, I’ll have to go back up to fetch it.”
On Monday, Macron addressed an anxious nation to say that strict confinement was the only effective weapon against a virus that has infected more than 6,600 people and killed 148 in France.
The government is to deploy 100,000 police to patrol the streets, and violators can be fined up to €135 ($150).
The measure came after thousands of people flouted less severe restrictions on mass gatherings to shop at food markets and relax in parks on a balmy Sunday.
Many ignored advice not to shake hands or exchange traditional cheek kisses, and to keep a safe personal distance of one meter (3.3 feet).
In the capital, sidewalks, and public transport that has been reduced under the new anti-contagion regime, were much emptier than usual.
The Montmartre region in northern Paris, usually thronged with tourists, was all but deserted apart from a few joggers and people walking dogs.
At supermarkets and pharmacies, floor tape marked the distance clients are to keep from one another, and only a few were let in at a time.
Many shops had long queues of customers, and stocks of pasta, rice, toilet paper and tissues had run out long before lunchtime.
“It’s just crazy!” said a shelf stocker in Paris, declining to give his name without his manager’s approval.
Parisians left for the countryside in droves on Monday, in cars loaded with groceries that caused heavy traffic on main roads.
Traffic had eased to a trickle by Tuesday morning.
“Two people confined to 24 square meters (260 square feet) without having access to nature or even a park, it’s just not possible,” said Marie Bournazel, who was escaping Paris by train for Bordeaux, where her mother lives.
“We brought a lot of luggage as we expect to stay there for two, three weeks, maybe more,” she said.
Justine Daragon fled the capital to join family in Normandy, “annoyed by the lack of civic consideration among Parisians.”
“My father and my mother-in-law, who we will be staying with... have warned us of the risk, but we are all very careful at home,” she said.
Health Minister Olivier Veran said there was “no question of preventing people from leaving, but I urge them to be reasonable and, whatever their place of residence, to stay at home.”
Transport secretary Jean-Baptiste Djebbari said the government would reduce the number of trains “to prevent that such episodes of exodus spread the virus more widely around France.”
Older people are most at risk of falling seriously ill from the coronavirus, and Macron had urged people over 70 to stay at home whenever possible to limit contact with virus-carriers, who do not always show symptoms.
French city-dwellers flee for countryside in virus lockdown
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French city-dwellers flee for countryside in virus lockdown
- Supermarkets were overrun Tuesday as the country’s 65 million residents stocked up in preparation for the confinement
- The government is to deploy 100,000 police to patrol the streets, and violators can be fined up to €135 ($150)
35,000 crowd New Zealand’s Parliament grounds in support of Māori rights
“Just fighting for the rights that our tūpuna, our ancestors, fought for,” Shanell Bob said as she waited for the march to begin. “We’re fighting for our tamariki, for our mokopuna, so they can have what we haven’t been able to have,” she added, using the Māori words for children and grandchildren.
What was likely the country’s largest-ever protest in support of Māori rights — a subject that has preoccupied modern New Zealand for much of its young history — followed a long tradition of peaceful marches the length of the country that have marked turning points in the history of modern New Zealand.
“We’re going for a walk!” One organizer proclaimed from the stage as crowds gathered at the opposite end of the city from the nation’s Parliament. Some had traveled the length of the country over the past nine days.
For many, the turnout reflected growing solidarity on Indigenous rights from non-Māori. At bus stops during the usual morning commute, people of all ages and races waited with Māori sovereignty flags. Some local schools said they would not register students as absent. The city’s mayor joined the protest.
The bill that marchers were opposing is unpopular and unlikely to become law. But opposition to it has exploded, which marchers said indicated rising knowledge of the Treaty of Waitangi’s promises to Māori among New Zealanders — and a small but vocal backlash from those who are angered by attempts by courts and lawmakers to keep them.
Māori marching for their rights as outlined in the treaty is not new. But the crowds were larger than at treaty marches before and mood was changed, Indigenous people said.
“It’s different to when I was a child,” Bob said. “We’re stronger now, our tamariki are stronger now, they know who they are, they’re proud of who they are.”
As the marchers moved through the streets of Wellington with ringing Māori haka — rhythmic chants — and waiata, or songs, thousands more holding signs lined the pavement in support.
Some placards bore jokes or insults about the lawmakers responsible for the bill, which would change the meaning of the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and prevent them from applying only to Māori — whose chiefs signed the document when New Zealand was colonized.
But others read “proud to be Māori” or acknowledged the bearer’s heritage as a non-Māori person endorsing the protest. Some denounced the widespread expropriation of Māori land during colonization, one of the main grievances arising from the treaty.
“The treaty is a document that lets us be here in Aotearoa so holding it up and respecting it is really important,” said Ben Ogilvie, who is of Pākehā or New Zealand European descent, using the Māori name for the country. “I hate what this government is doing to tear it down.”
Police said more than 35,000 people crowded into Parliament’s grounds, with more spilling into the surrounding streets. People crammed themselves onto the children’s slide on the lawn for a vantage point; others perched in trees. The tone was almost joyful; as people waited to leave the cramped area, some struck up Māori songs that most New Zealanders learn at school.
A sea of Māori sovereignty flags in red, black and white stretched down the lawn and into the streets. But marchers bore Samoan, Tongan, Indigenous Australian, US, Palestinian and Israeli flags, too. At Parliament, speeches from political leaders drew attention to the reason for the protest — a proposed law that would change the meaning of words in the country’s founding treaty, cement them in law and extend them to everyone.
Its author, libertarian lawmaker David Seymour — who is Māori — says the process of redress for decades of Crown breaches of its treaty with Māori has created special treatment for Indigenous people, which he opposes.
The bill’s detractors say it would spell constitutional upheaval, dilute Indigenous rights, and has provoked divisive rhetoric about Māori — who are still disadvantaged on almost every social and economic metric, despite attempts by the courts and lawmakers in recent decades to rectify inequities caused in large part by breaches of the treaty.
It is not expected to ever become law, but Seymour made a political deal that saw it shepherded through a first vote last Thursday. In a statement Tuesday, he said the public could now make submissions on the bill — which he hopes will reverse in popularity and experience a swell of support.
Seymour briefly walked out onto Parliament’s forecourt to observe the protest, although he was not among the lawmakers invited to speak. Some in the crowd booed him.
The protest was “a long time coming,” said Papa Heta, one of the marchers, who said Māori sought acknowledgement and respect.
“We hope that we can unite with our Pākehā friends, Europeans,” he added. “Unfortunately there are those that make decisions that put us in a difficult place.”
Hong Kong jails 45 democracy activists in landmark national security trial
- Activists charged with subversion over unofficial ‘primary election’
- Organizers had faced up to life in prison under national security laws
- US criticizes trial as politically motivated, calls for activists’ release
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s High Court on Tuesday sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to jail terms of up to 10 years in a landmark national security trial that has damaged the city’s once feisty democracy movement and drawn international condemnation.
A total of 47 pro-democracy activists were arrested and charged in 2021 with conspiracy to commit subversion under a Beijing-imposed national security law and had faced sentences of up to life in prison.
Benny Tai, a former legal scholar identified as an “organizer” of the activists, was sentenced to 10 years in jail, the longest sentence so far under the 2020 national security law.
Some Western governments have criticized the trial, with the US describing it as “politically motivated” and saying the democrats should be released as they had been “peacefully participating in political activities” that were legal.
The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the national security laws were necessary to restore order after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019, and the democrats have been treated in accordance with local laws.
Closely watched trial
The charges related to the organizing of an unofficial “primary election” in 2020 to select the best candidates for an upcoming legislative election. The activists were accused by prosecutors of plotting to paralyze the government by engaging in potentially disruptive acts had they been elected.
After a 118 day trial, 14 of the democrats were found guilty in May, including Australian citizen Gordon Ng and activist Owen Chow, while two were acquitted. The other 31 pleaded guilty.
Sentences ranged from just over four years to 10 years.
Prominent Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong was sentenced to four years and eight months in jail, while Chow was sentenced to seven years and nine months; former journalist-turned-activist Gwyneth Ho, was sentenced to seven years.
Elsa Wu, the mother of Hendrick Lui, who was sentenced to more than four years in jail, was taken away in a police van outside the courtroom and shouted: “He’s a good person … he’s not a political prisoner … why does he have to go to jail?”
She screamed before police slammed the van door.
Hundreds of people had queued from the early hours outside the court, many holding umbrellas in light rain as they tried to secure a seat within the main courtroom and several spillover courts.
Authorities deployed a tight police presence outside the West Kowloon Magistrates Court and for several blocks in the vicinity.
“I feel such an injustice needs witnessing,” said one woman who gave her name as Margaret and had been in the queue since Sunday afternoon. “I’ve long followed their case. They (the democrats) need to know they still have public support.”
The ruling, which critics have said tarnishes Hong Kong’s role as a global financial hub, comes as the city is hosting an international financial summit to attract more business.
US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee as secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has been a staunch critic of the trial and in an earlier open letter criticized the convictions of the 47 democrats as evidence of the national security law’s “comprehensive assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy, rule of law, and fundamental freedoms.”
Britain, which handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, has said the 2020 security law has been used to curb dissent and freedom.
Divided G20 fails to agree on climate, Ukraine
- In a statement, the G20 called for “comprehensive” ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon
- On Sunday, Biden, who is attempting to ringfence support for Ukraine before Trump’s return to power, gave Kyiv the green light to use long-range US missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory
RIO DE JANEIRO: G20 leaders failed on Monday to break a deadlock in UN climate talks at a summit in Rio that was dominated by divergences over the war in Ukraine and Donald Trump’s impending return to the White House.
Ahead of the meeting, the UN had implored the leaders of the world’s richest economies to rescue stalled climate talks in Azerbaijan by boosting funding for developing countries struggling with global warming.
G20 members, who are divided on who should pay, did not make such commitments, saying only that the trillions of dollars needed would come “from all sources.”
“The leaders are kicking the can back to Baku,” said Mick Sheldrick, co-founder of the advocacy group Global Citizen, referring to the capital of Azerbaijan where the UN climate talks are taking place.
“This is probably going to make it harder to achieve an agreement,” he told AFP.
The risk of an escalation in the war in Ukraine and the prospect of a return of US President-elect Trump’s isolationist “America First” policies also dominated the talks in Brazil.
US President Joe Biden is attending the summit, but as a lame duck eclipsed by China’s Xi Jinping, who has cast himself as a protector of the international order in the new Trump era.
Xi, who held back-to-back meetings with other leaders, warned the world faced a new period of “turbulence” and said there should be “no escalation of wars, and no fanning of flames.”
In a statement, the G20 called for “comprehensive” ceasefires in both Gaza and Lebanon.
The summit was riven with divisions over Ukraine, however.
On Sunday, Biden, who is attempting to ringfence support for Ukraine before Trump’s return to power, gave Kyiv the green light to use long-range US missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.
Biden’s move — a major policy shift by the US — threatens to escalate a war Trump has vowed to quickly end.
Russia on Monday warned of an “appropriate response” if its territory was hit.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he would not follow Biden’s lead with his country’s Taurus missiles, but French President Emmanuel Macron praised a “good” move by Biden.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attempted to put issues close to his heart, such as fighting hunger and climate change, at the top of the agenda.
At the opening of the summit, he launched the centerpiece of his G20 presidency: a Global Alliance against Poverty and Hunger backed by 82 countries that aims to feed half a billion people by 2030.
He won further praise from campaigners by garnering support for a bid to make billionaires pay more tax.
The summit statement included a pledge to “engage cooperatively to ensure that ultra-high-net-worth individuals are effectively taxed,” and to devise mechanisms to prevent them dodging tax authorities.
“Brazil has lit a path toward a more just and resilient world, challenging others to meet them at this critical juncture,” anti-poverty group Oxfam said in a statement.
But Lula’s progressive social agenda met some resistance from Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei, an ardent fan of Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk.
Milei said he opposed points in the summit declaration, including increasing state intervention to combat hunger and regulating social media but saved Brazil’s blushes by nonetheless signing up to the joint statement.
The meeting comes in a year marked by another grim litany of extreme weather events, including Brazil’s worst wildfire season in over a decade, and the opening of a new front in Israel’s wars with its Arab neighbors.
“Today the world is on a knife edge,” EU Council President Charles Michel warned.
The get-together caps a diplomatic farewell tour by Biden that took him to Lima for a meeting of Asia-Pacific trading partners, and then to the Amazon in the first such visit for a sitting US president.
Conspicuously absent from the summit was Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose arrest is sought by the International Criminal Court over the Ukraine war.
Hong Kong to sentence dozens of democracy campaigners
- The sentencing is “a very important indicator to show the general public (the degree of) openness and inclusivity in our society,” Lee Yue-shun, one of those acquitted, told AFP on Tuesday as he waited outside court
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s largest national security trial will draw to a close on Tuesday, with dozens of the city’s most prominent democracy campaigners set to be sentenced for subversion, a charge that can carry up to life imprisonment.
Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on the financial hub in 2020, snuffing out months of massive, sometimes violent, pro-democracy protests.
Western countries and international rights groups have condemned the trial as evidence of Hong Kong’s increased authoritarianism.
The “Hong Kong 47” were arrested in 2021 after holding an unofficial election primary that aimed to improve pro-democracy parties’ chances of winning a majority in the city’s legislature.
Two of the 47 were acquitted in May, but on Tuesday, the rest will learn their sentences, many after more than 1,300 days in jail.
The sentencing is “a very important indicator to show the general public (the degree of) openness and inclusivity in our society,” Lee Yue-shun, one of those acquitted, told AFP on Tuesday as he waited outside court.
A friend of defendant Gordon Ng, named by prosecutors as one of five organizers, told AFP she had been suffering insomnia in the past few days.
“Gordon seemed nervous too,” the woman said about her visit to Ng in prison. “But... he kept telling us not to overthink.”
This case is the largest by number of defendants since the law was passed in mid-2020.
Another major national security trial will see a key development on Wednesday, when jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai testifies in his collusion trial.
The charges against Lai revolve around publications in his now-shuttered tabloid Apple Daily, which supported the pro-democracy protests and criticized Beijing’s leadership.
China and Hong Kong say the security law restored order following the 2019 protests, and have warned against “interference” from other countries.
At dawn on Tuesday, more than 200 people stood in the chilly drizzle outside the court where the sentencing will take place.
Some had been queuing since Saturday to nab a public seat.
Eric, an IT professional based in mainland China, spent a day of holiday waiting in line.
“I want to bear witness of how Hong Kong becomes mainland China,” Eric told AFP.
“In the future, cases like this may not be open to the public anymore.”
Jack, a law student, said he wanted to witness the sentencing because he found the judgment “was not particularly convincing.”
He said he was pessimistic that the sentencing would be lenient, but that even if it was, “people’s passion for political participation has dissipated in the face of restrictions.”
The aim of the election primary, which took place in July 2020, was to pick a cross-party shortlist of pro-democracy candidates to increase their electoral prospects.
If a majority was achieved, the plan was to force the government to meet the 2019 protesters’ demands — including universal suffrage — by threatening to indiscriminately veto the budget.
Three senior judges handpicked by the government to try security cases said the group would have caused a “constitutional crisis.”
The “principal offenders” face 10 years to life in jail.
Legal scholar Benny Tai has been named “the brain behind the project” by prosecutors.
Others singled out as “more radical” are the ex-leaders of the now-disbanded Civic Party Alvin Yeung and Jeremy Tam, young activist Owen Chow and former journalist Gwyneth Ho.
The oldest defendant is “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, the 68-year-old co-founder of the city’s last standing opposition party the League of Social Democrats.
His wife Chan Po-ying, the leader of the LSD, told AFP that Leung “does not have any special thoughts on the sentence” after visiting him on Monday.
“I feel rather calm too... I wish for no surprise and no shock,” Chan said.
Emilia Wong, girlfriend of rally organizer Ventus Lau, said Lau appeared more anxious in recent months.
They hadn’t discussed the potential sentence much because “it’s an unprecedented case,” she said.
“A long time ago, he said if the sentence is up to 10 years or 20 years, I should not wait for his release,” Wong told AFP.
“The (sentencing) day may be a significant milestone for the outside world but for me... I will just have to carry on with my normal life, visiting him and handling his matters.”
Starmer stays quiet on Ukraine’s use of UK Storm Shadow missiles
- Britain, which has provided Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range missiles, has consistently pushed to ease restrictions on Kyiv’s use of the weapons
RIO DE JANEIRO: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday said he would not “get into operational details” after US President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission to use Western-supplied long-range missiles against Russia.
Speaking to broadcasters at the G20 in Brazil, Starmer refused to be drawn “because the only winner, if we were to do that, is (Russian President Vladimir) Putin.”
Kyiv has long sought authorization from Washington to use the powerful Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, to hit military installations inside Russia as its troops face growing pressure.
A US official said Washington’s major policy shift on the missiles was in response to Russia’s deployment of thousands of North Korean troops in its war effort.
Britain, which has provided Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range missiles, has consistently pushed to ease restrictions on Kyiv’s use of the weapons.
Putin had previously warned that letting Ukraine use long-range weapons would mean NATO was “at war” with Moscow.
In parliament in London, lawmaker Roger Gale asked if Britain planned to “align with the United States” in granting Kyiv permission to use the UK-supplied missiles “as it sees fit in its own defense.”
Junior defense minister Maria Eagle said the government intended to “align with our allies” on how Ukraine “can make use of the capabilities that’s been offered” by its backers.
Starmer added: “I’ve been really clear for a long time now we need to double down.
“We need to make sure Ukraine has what is necessary for as long as necessary, because we cannot allow Putin to win this war,” he said.
Asked if he had spoken to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the G20, he said: “I haven’t spoken to Russia and I’ve got no plans to do so.”
Foreign Secretary David Lammy, speaking to reporters after a UN Security Council meeting in New York, also refused to discuss the use of British missiles, because it “risks operational security.”
Asked how concerned he was about the implications of Donald Trump’s presidency on the war in Ukraine, he said: “One president at a time.”
“We’re dealing with President (Joe) Biden and we are committed to putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position,” he added.
