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World

The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime

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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church.

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Associated Press.

Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against the LGBTQ community, and he himself referred to the issue in terms of “sin.” But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops in particular need to undergo a process of change to recognize the dignity of everyone.

“These bishops have to have a process of conversion,” he said, adding that they should apply “tenderness, please, as God has for each one of us.”

Francis’ comments are the first uttered by a pope about such laws, but they are consistent with his overall approach to the LGBTQ community and belief that the Catholic Church should welcome everyone and not discriminate.

Some 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, 11 of which can or do impose the death penalty, according to The Human Dignity Trust, which works to end such laws. Experts say even where the laws are not enforced, they contribute to harassment, stigmatization and violence against LGBTQ people.

In the U.S., more than a dozen states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books, despite a 2003 Supreme Court ruling declaring them unconstitutional. Gay rights advocates say the antiquated laws are used to harass homosexuals, and point to new legislation, such as the “Don’t say gay” law in Florida, which forbids instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, as evidence of continued efforts to marginalize LGBTQ people.

The United Nations has repeatedly called for an end to laws criminalizing homosexuality outright, saying they violate rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination and are a breach of countries’ obligations under international law to protect the human rights of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Declaring such laws “unjust,” Francis said the Catholic Church can and should work to put an end to them. “It must do this. It must do this,” he said.

Francis quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church in saying gay people must be welcomed and respected, and should not be marginalized or discriminated against.

“We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are and for the strength that each of us fights for our dignity,” Francis said, speaking to the AP in the Vatican hotel where he lives.

Francis’ remarks come ahead of a trip to Africa, where such laws are common as they are in the Middle East. Many date from British colonial times or are inspired by Islamic law. Some Catholic bishops have strongly upheld them as consistent with Vatican teaching, while others have called for them to be overturned as a violation of basic human dignity.

In 2019, Francis had been expected to issue a statement opposing criminalization of homosexuality during a meeting with human rights groups that conducted research into the effects of such laws and so-called “conversion therapies.”

In the end, after word of the audience leaked, the pope didn’t meet with the groups. Instead, the Vatican No. 2 did and reaffirmed “the dignity of every human person and against every form of violence.”

There was no indication that Francis spoke out about such laws now because his more conservative predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, recently died. The issue had never been raised in an interview, but Francis willingly responded, citing even the statistics about the number of countries where homosexuality is criminalized.

On Tuesday, Francis said there needed to be a distinction between a crime and a sin with regard to homosexuality.

“It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin,” he said. “Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.”

“It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another,” he added.

Catholic teaching holds that while gay people must be treated with respect, homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Francis has not changed that teaching, but he has made reaching out to the LGBTQ community a hallmark of his papacy.

Starting with his famous 2013 declaration, “Who am I to judge?” — when he was asked about a purportedly gay priest — Francis has gone on to minister repeatedly and publicly to the gay and trans community. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he favored granting legal protections to same-sex couples as an alternative to endorsing gay marriage, which Catholic doctrine forbids.

Despite such outreach, Francis was criticized by the Catholic LGBTQ community for a 2021 decree from the Vatican’s doctrine office that said the church cannot bless same-sex unions.

In 2008, the Vatican declined to sign onto a U.N. declaration that called for the decriminalization of homosexuality, complaining the text went beyond the original scope. In a statement at the time, the Vatican urged countries to avoid “unjust discrimination” against gay people and end penalties against them.

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World

Rights groups dismayed at lack of criticism for Peru abuses

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — In less than two months, more than 50 people have died in Peru, largely protesters at the hands of police officers. And while a few international voices of concern have emerged, much of the regional and global community has largely remained silent.

The silence comes at the dismay of human rights groups who are calling for more condemnation of the state violence after then-President Pedro Castillo was impeached and imprisoned for trying to dissolve Congress.

“The feeling is we’re alone,” said Jennie Dador, executive secretary of Peru’s National Human Rights Coordinator, a civil society group. “None of the states in the region have done anything concrete.”

As regional leaders gather in Argentina’s capital on Tuesday for a meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, there were signs that, at least for now, some leaders appear to prefer to leave the issue aside.

But not all. Chile’s President Gabriel Boric said there was “an urgent need for a change in Peru because the result of the path of violence and repression is unacceptable.” Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a staunch supporter of Castillo, gave a recorded message in which he demanded an “end to the repression” in Peru.

The two regional leaders spoke shortly after President Alberto Fernández of Argentina did not mention Peru in the opening of the regional summit.

That dynamic illustrates how although Peru’s repression of protests has received some global attention, activists say it is far less than what they would expect considering 56 people have died since Dina Boluarte, the former vice president, was sworn in as president Dec. 7. Of that total, 45 have been in direct clashes with security forces, according to Peru’s ombudsman.

“The international community has expressed concern, but really I think it could be more forceful,” César Muñoz, associate director of the Americas division at Human Rights Watch, said. A key thing other governments in the region could do, Muñoz added, is emphasize “that the rule of law means there must be independent investigations of all the deaths.”

Latin American leaders are meeting on a day when yet another large protest is expected in Peru’s capital, the latest in a series of street demonstrations that began last week when thousands, many from remote Andean regions, descended on Lima for mobilizations to demand Boluarte’s resignation, immediate elections and the dissolution of Congress.

In Lima, protesters have been met with volleys of tear gas as the government has maintained a defiant attitude, accusing protesters of fomenting violence and using street demonstrations to take power. Before last week, most of the large anti-government protests took place in remote regions of Peru, largely in the country’s south, exposing deep division between residents of the capital and the long-neglected countryside.

While human rights activists agree there have been acts of violence by protesters — including efforts to take over airports and the burning of police stations — that does not justify a broader effort to criminalize political protest in general.

“Peru has managed to fly under the radar,” Marina Navarro, executive director of Amnesty International Peru, said. “Given the gravity of the situation, with this number of people who have died, we don’t see as much said about it as there could be.”

That same pattern is likely to continue in Buenos Aires on Tuesday after much speculation that some countries were going to try to bring up the issue during the regional summit.

“Peru is a prickly issue,” said an official in Argentina’s Foreign Ministry who declined to speak on the record because they are not authorized to talk publicly about policy. “From a regional point of view, Peru is a reason for worry and division.”

Negotiations over whether to include the issue at the summit continued until Monday, the official said, noting there was a general agreement to leave controversial issues aside to focus on things where there could be a general consensus.

The crisis in Peru that has sparked the worst political violence the country has seen in more than two decade, has proven to be a divisive issue in Latin America with some of the more left-leaning governments in the region expressing support for Castillo, Peru’s first leader from a rural Andean background who was facing his third impeachment proceeding of his young administration when he tried to dissolve Congress.

Yet the larger question about how Boluarte rose to power should not impede comments about abuses, human rights organizations say.

“There must be international pressure for this government to cease all types of repressive attitudes and that has nothing to do with emitting an opinion about the government’s legitimacy,” said Manuel Tufró, the head of the justice and security division at the Center for Legal and Social Studies, an Argentine human rights organization.

But Boluarte’s government has also made clear it won’t take any criticism lightly.

After law enforcement raided a university in Lima on Saturday, where some protesters who traveled from far-away regions for the protests were being housed, Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on Twitter that the Organization of American States must “examine Peru’s case.”

Shortly thereafter, Prime Minister Alberto Otarola fired back and said Petro should “worry about your own affairs.”

Peru’s Foreign Ministry later issued a formal note of protest against what it described as Petro’s involvement “in issues of domestic politics.” It also issued a protest against Bolivia after its president, Luis Arce, expressed support for the protests.

One of the strongest statements criticizing Peru’s actions came from outside the region, with the European Union saying Monday that it “deplores the very large number of casualties since the start of the protests” and reiterated “its condemnation of the widespread acts of violence as well as the disproportionate use of force by security forces.”

The U.S. ambassador in Lima, Lisa Kenna, also surprised many observers earlier this month when she issued a statement saying it was “fundamental for law enforcement to respect human rights, the right to protest and protect the citizenry.”

For some analysts, the tepid response from the region tells a larger story about how Peru’s recent history of political crises — with six presidents over the past six years — means it has lost prominence on the world stage.

“Peru as a country has lost presence,” Oscar Vidarte, an international relations professor at the Catholic University of Peru, said. “It’s a chaotic country, a country that has become ungovernable, questioned in terms of democracy and respect for human life … countries in the region have clearly turned their backs.”

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Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.

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World

Russia official warns West of destruction for arming Ukraine

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KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament warned Sunday that countries supplying Ukraine with more powerful weapons risked their own destruction, a message that followed new pledges of armored vehicles, air defense systems and other equipment but not the battle tanks Kyiv requested.

Ukraine’s supporters pledged billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine during a meeting at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday, though the new commitments were overshadowed by a failure to agree on Ukraine’s urgent request for German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks.

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said that governments giving more powerful weapons to Ukraine could cause a “global tragedy that would destroy their countries.”

“Supplies of offensive weapons to the Kyiv regime would lead to a global catastrophe,” he said. “If Washington and NATO supply weapons that would be used for striking peaceful cities and making attempts to seize our territory as they threaten to do, it would trigger a retaliation with more powerful weapons.”

Germany is one of the main donors of weapons to Ukraine, and it ordered a review of its Leopard 2 stocks in preparation for a possible green light. Nonetheless, the government in Berlin has shown caution at each step of increasing its commitments to Ukraine, a hesitancy seen as rooted in its history and political culture.

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, said Sunday that he does not rule out sending Leclerc battle tanks to Ukraine and had asked his defense minister to “work on” the idea.

Macron spoke during a during a news conference in Paris with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as their countries commemorating the 60th anniversary of their post-World War II friendship treaty. In a joint declaration, France and Germany committed to their “unwavering support” for Ukraine.

France will make its tank decision based on three criteria, Macron said: that sharing the equipment does not lead to an escalation of the conflict, that it would provide efficient and workable help when training time is taken into account, and that it wouldn’t weaken France’s own military.

Scholz did not respond when asked about the Leopard 2 tanks Sunday, but stressed that his country already has made sizable military contributions to Ukraine.

“The U.S. is doing a lot, Germany is doing a lot, too,” he said. “We have constantly expanded our deliveries with very effective weapons that are already available today. And we have always coordinated all these decisions closely with our important allies and friends.”

Germany’s tentativeness has drawn criticism, particularly from Poland and the Baltic states, countries on NATO’s eastern flank that feel especially threatened by Russia’s renewed aggression.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that if Germany does not consent to transferring Leopard tanks to Ukraine, his country was prepared to build a “smaller coalition” of countries that would send theirs anyway.

“Almost a year had passed since the outbreak of war,” Morawiecki said in an interview with Polish state news agency PAP published Sunday. “Evidence of the Russian army’s war crimes can be seen on television and on YouTube. What more does Germany need to open its eyes and start to act in line with the potential of the German state?”

In Washington, two leading lawmakers urged the U.S. on Sunday to send some of its Abrams tanks to Ukraine in the interests of overcoming Germany’s reluctance to share its own, more suitable tanks.

“If we announced we were giving an Abrams tank, just one, that would unleash” the flow of tanks from Germany, Rep. Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC’s “This Week on Sunday.” “What I hear is that Germany’s waiting on us to take the lead.”

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat who is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also spoke up for the U.S. sending Abrams.

“If it requires our sending some Abrams tanks in order to unlock getting the Leopard tanks from Germany, from Poland, from other allies, I would support that,” Coons said.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of the Russian Security Council, said the U.S.-led meeting at the air base in Germany “left no doubt that our enemies will try to exhaust or better destroy us,” adding that “they have enough weapons” to achieve the purpose.

Medvedev, a former Russian president, warned on his messaging app channel that “in case of a protracted conflict,” Russia could seek to form a military alliance with “the nations that are fed up with the Americans and a pack of their castrated dogs.”

Ukraine is asking for more weapons as it anticipates Russia’s forces launching a new offensive in the spring.

Oleksii Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council, warned that Russia may try to intensify its attacks in the south and in the east and to cut supply channels of Western weapons, while conquering Kyiv “remains the main dream” in President Vladimir Putin’s “fantasies,” he said.

In a column published by online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda. he described the Kremlin’s goal in the conflict as a “total and absolute genocide, a total war of destruction”

Among those calling for more arms for Ukraine was the former British prime minister, Boris Johnson, who made a surprise trip to Ukraine on Sunday. Johnson, who was pictured in the Kyiv region town of Borodyanka, said he traveled to Ukraine at the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“This is the moment to double down and to give the Ukrainians all the tools they need to finish the job. The sooner Putin fails, the better for Ukraine and for the whole world,” Johnson said in a statement.

The last week was especially tragic for Ukraine even by the standards of a brutal war that has gone on for nearly a year, killing tens of thousands of people, uprooting millions more and creating vast destruction of Ukrainian cities.

A barrage of Russian missiles struck an apartment complex in the southeastern city of Dnipro on Jan. 14, killing at least 45 civilians. On Wednesday, a government helicopter crashed into a building housing a kindergarten in a suburb of Kyiv. Ukraine’s interior minister, other officials and a child on the ground were among the 14 people killed.

Zelenskyy vowed Sunday that Ukraine would ultimately prevail in the war.

“We are united because we are strong. We are strong because we are united,” the Ukrainian leader said in a video address as he marked Ukraine Unity Day, which commemorates when east and west Ukraine were united in 1919.

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Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Science

WATCH | Green meteor blazes across Oklahoma’s sky, people wake up to sonic boom

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The cameras installed in the doorbells of residents captured a celestial light passing through the night sky which appeared like a meteor in Oklahoma, United States. 

According to the footage shared on social media platforms, a green meteor is seen flying through the sky like a blazing fireball as residents reported that they woke up to a sonic boom that they heard in Friday morning’s early hours. 

Fox 23 meteorologist Laura Mock shared the footage captured in her dashcam on Twitter. In the video, a bright green blazing meteor is seen passing through the sky.

Meanwhile, various residents also shared videos of the meteor on social media platforms. Some even reported that they felt their house shake when the meteor passed. 

The footage captured in the doorbell camera is being widely shared on social media and is attracting comments from netizens across the world. One user said it was, “Optimus Prime’s return,” while another commented, “I told you Hogwarts is real.” One user wrote, “That’s Superman.” However, an inquisitive user quizzed, “Where it landed though?”

However, an official statement was released by the National Weather Service in Tulsa on Twitter after it was sent multiple reports on the appearance of a meteor in the night sky and stated that it was spotted by a lightning detector over Wagoner country. 

WATCH | Meteor lights up the sky over Norway: Spectacular sight of meteors burning up in the atmosphere

“We have received multiple reports this morning, including videos, of a meteor that occurred over northeast Oklahoma this morning. This was detected by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) shown as a blue dot over Wagoner county,” the department wrote. 

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According to the meteorologist, an explosion of the fireball took place in the atmosphere which led to a sonic boom that woke up the civilians.

(With inputs from agencies)

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World

Sections of Balkan river become floating garbage dump

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VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Tons of waste dumped in poorly regulated riverside landfills or directly into the waterways that flow across three countries end up accumulating behind a trash barrier in the Drina River in eastern Bosnia during the wet weather of winter and early spring.

This week, the barrier once again became the outer edge of a massive floating waste dump crammed with plastic bottles, rusty barrels, used tires, household appliances, driftwood and other garbage picked up by the river from its tributaries.

The river fencing installed by a Bosnian hydroelectric plant, a few kilometers upstream from its dam near Visegrad, has turned the city into an unwilling regional waste site, local environmental activists complain.

Heavy rain and unseasonably warm weather over the past week have caused many rivers and streams in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro to overflow, flooding the surrounding areas and forcing scores of people from their homes. Temperatures dropped in many areas on Friday as rain turned into snow.

“We had a lot of rainfall and torrential floods in recent days and a huge inflow of water from (the Drina’s tributaries in) Montenegro which is now, fortunately, subsiding,” said Dejan Furtula of the environmental group Eko Centar Visegrad.

“Unfortunately, the huge inflow of garbage has not ceased,” he added.

The Drina River runs 346 kilometers (215 miles) from the mountains of northwestern Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. and some of its tributaries are known for their emerald color and breathtaking scenery. A section along the border between Bosnia and Serbia is popular with river rafters when it’s not “garbage season.”

Some 10,000 cubic meters (more than 353,000 cubic feet) of waste are estimated to have amassed behind the Drina River trash barrier in recent days, Furtula said. The same amount was pulled in recent years from that area of the river.

Removing the garbage takes up to six months, on average. It ends up at the municipal landfill in Visegrad, which Furtula said “does not even have sufficient capacity to handle (the city’s) municipal waste.”

“The fires on the (municipal) landfill site are always burning,” he said, calling the conditions there “not just a huge environmental and health hazard, but also a big embarrassment for all of us.”

Decades after the devastating 1990s wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans lag behind the rest of Europe both economically and with regard to environmental protection.

The countries of the region have made little progress in building effective, environmentally sound trash disposal systems despite seeking membership in the European Union and adopting some of the EU’s laws and regulations.

Unauthorized waste dumps dot hills and valleys throughout the region, while trash litters roads and plastic bags hang from the trees.

In addition to river pollution, many countries in the western Balkans have other environmental woes. One of the most pressing is the extremely high level of air pollution affecting a number of cities in the region.

“People need to wake up to problems like this,” Visegrad resident Rados Brekalovic said.

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World

German caution on Ukraine arms rooted in political culture

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BERLIN (AP) — Germany has become one of Ukraine’s leading weapons suppliers in the 11 months since Russia’s invasion, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz also has gained a reputation for hesitating to take each new step — generating impatience among allies.

Berlin’s perceived foot-dragging, most recently on the Leopard 2 battle tanks that Kyiv has long sought, is rooted at least partly in a post-World War II political culture of military caution, along with present-day worries about a possible escalation in the war.

On Friday, Germany inched closer to a decision to deliver the tanks, ordering a review of its Leopard stocks in preparation for a possible green light.

There was still no commitment, however. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius rejected the suggestion that Germany was standing in the way but said, “we have to balance all the pros and contras before we decide things like that, just like that.”

It’s a pattern that has been repeated over the months as Scholz first held off pledging new, heavier equipment, then eventually agreed to do so.

Most recently, Germany said in early January that it would send 40 Marder armored personnel carriers to Ukraine — doing so in a joint announcement with the U.S., which pledged 50 Bradley armored vehicles.

That decision followed months of calls for Berlin to send the Marder and stoked pressure for it to move up another step to the Leopard tank.

“There is a discrepancy between the actual size of the commitment and weapons deliveries — it’s the second-largest European supplier — and the hesitancy with which it is done,” said Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, a Berlin-based senior analyst with the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank.

Scholz, an unshakably self-confident politician with a stubborn streak and little taste for bowing to public calls for action, has stuck resolutely to his approach. He has said that Germany won’t go it alone on weapons decisions and pointed to the need to avoid NATO becoming a direct party to the war with Russia.

As pressure mounted last week, he declared that he wouldn’t be rushed into important security decisions by “excited comments.” And he insisted that a majority in Germany supports his government’s “calm, well-considered and careful” decision-making.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Scholz listed some of the equipment Germany has sent to Ukraine, declaring that it marks “a profound turning point in German foreign and security policy.”

That is, at least to some extent, true. Germany refused to provide lethal weapons before the invasion started, reflecting a political culture rooted in part in the memory of Germany’s own history of aggression during the 20th century — including the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union.

“No German chancellor, of no party, wants to be seen out front in pushing a military agenda — you want to try all other options before you resort to that,” Kleine-Brockhoff said. “And therefore for domestic consumption, it is seen as a positive thing for a German chancellor not to lead on this, to be cautious, to be resistant, to have tried all other options.”

Scholz does face calls from Germany’s center-right opposition and some in his three-party governing coalition to be more proactive on military aid; less so from his own center-left Social Democratic Party, which for decades was steeped in the legacy of Cold War rapprochement pursued by predecessor Willy Brandt in the early 1970s.

Scholz “decided early on that he does not want to lead militarily on Ukraine assistance,” Kleine-Brockhoff said, though “he wants to be a good ally and part of the alliance and in the middle of the pack.”

But the cautious approach “drives allies crazy” and raises questions over whether they can count on the Germans, Kleine-Brockhoff acknowledged.

Berlin kept up its caution on the Leopard tank even after Britain announced last week that it would provide Ukraine its own Challenger 2 tanks.

The hesitancy isn’t just an issue between Berlin and Kyiv, since other countries would need Germany’s permission to send their own stocks of German-made Leopards to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Warsaw would consider giving its tanks even without Berlin’s permission.

“Consent is of secondary importance here. We will either obtain it quickly, or we will do the right thing ourselves,” Morawiecki said.

British historian Timothy Garton Ash wrote in The Guardian and other newspapers this week that “to its credit, the German government’s position on military support for Ukraine has moved a very long way since the eve of the Russian invasion.”

But he argued that the tank issue has become “a litmus test of Germany’s courage to resist (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s nuclear blackmail, overcome its own domestic cocktail of fears and doubts, and defend a free and sovereign Ukraine,” and that Scholz should lead a “European Leopard plan.”

Whether that will eventually happen remains to be seen. Scholz’s government has insisted on close coordination with the United States, a possible reflection in part of the fact that Germany — unlike Britain and France — relies on the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

On Friday, Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, denied reports that Germany had insisted it would only deliver Leopard tanks if the U.S. sends its own Abrams tanks. He rejected the notion that Berlin is trailing others and insisted it is taking the right approach.

“These are not easy decisions, and they need to be well-weighed,” he said. “And this is about them being sustainable, that all can go along with them and stand behind them — and part of a leadership performance is keeping an alliance together.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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World

Despite tear gas, Peru protesters vow to keep demonstrating

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Peru’s capital Friday and were met with volleys of tear gas for the second straight day, as demonstrators made clear they will keep up their mobilizations to demand the resignation of President Dina Boluarte.

Many of the protesters in Lima had arrived from remote Andean regions, where dozens have died amid unrest that has engulfed large portions of the country since Pedro Castillo, Peru’s first leader from a rural Andean background, was impeached and imprisoned after he tried to dissolve Congress last month.

“Dina, resign already! What is that you want with our Peru?” said José Luis Ayma Cuentas, 29, who traveled about 20 hours to get to the country’s capital from the southern Puno region, which has been the site of the deadliest state violence over the past month. “We’re staying until she resigns, until the dissolution of Congress, until there are new elections, otherwise we aren’t going anywhere.”

Until recently, the protests had been mainly in Peru’s southern region, with a total of 55 people killed and 700 injured in the unrest, largely in clashes with security forces.

Protesters now want Lima, home to around one-third of Peru’s population of 34 million, to be the focal point of the demonstrations that began when Boluarte, who was then vice president, was sworn into office on Dec. 7 to replace Castillo. The protests sparked the worst political violence in the country has seen in more than two decades.

At the beginning of the Friday’s protests, the demonstrators seemed more organized than the previous day and they took over key roads in downtown Lima waving flags while chanting, “The spilled blood will never ben forgotten,” “The people don’t give up,” and other slogans.

Police appeared more combative than the day before and after standing watch over protesters that had been blocked into downtown streets they started firing volleys of tear gas.

The firing of tear gas also appeared more indiscriminate. A group of protesters who were sitting in a plaza in front of the Supreme Court without causing a disturbance suddenly had to start running as approaching police fired round after round of tear gas that filled the area with smoke and a pungent smell permeated the air.

“I’m indignant, furious,” said Maddai Pardo Quintana, 48, as she offered water mixed with baking soda to protesters to flush their eyes from the tear gas. “They want us to respect them but if they led by example and respected us, we’d also respect them more.”

Pardo came to Lima to protest against Boluarte from the central province of Chanchamayo and vowed to stay in the capital until the president agrees to resign.

Anger at law enforcement was a constant throughout the march as demonstrators yelled “murderers” when they passed rows of police officers wearing helmets and holding up shields.

A few blocks away, Doris Pacori, 56, stood between police officers and protesters who had been blocked from reaching Congress.

“They are servants of the corrupt, cowards with them but abusive with the people,” Pacori, who held a sign that read, “Dina murderer.”

As night fell, protesters got locked into running battles with police while some demonstrators threw water bottles filled with rocks at officers.

Late Friday, Interior Minister Vicente Romero praised police action during the protests, saying that it “has been very professional.”

Protesters were particularly angry at Boluarte for a defiant speech she gave Thursday night in which she accused protesters of fomenting violence, vowed to prosecute demonstrators and questioned where they received their financing.

“You want to break the rule of law, you want to generate chaos so that within that chaos and confusion you take power,” Boluarte said Thursday night.

“The lady is very cold, she has no feelings, no compassion for other people,” Pardo said.

Boluarte has said she supports a plan to hold fresh elections in 2024, two years ahead of schedule, but protesters unanimously say that isn’t fast enough, particularly considering all the deaths in recent weeks.

Protests and clashes with law enforcement also took place in other parts of the country.

In Arequipa, Peru’s second city, police clashed with protesters that tried to storm the airport.

Also in southern Peru, multinational firm Glencore decided to temporary shut down its Antapaccay copper mine after protesters attacked the site.

Castillo, a political novice who lived in a two-story adobe home in the Andean highlands, eked out a narrow victory in elections in 2021 that rocked Peru’s political establishment and laid bare the deep divisions between residents of the capital and the long-neglected countryside.

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World

New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, an icon to many, to step down

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who became a global icon of the left and exemplified a new style of leadership, said Thursday that she would leave office.

Just 37 when she became leader, Ardern was praised around the world for her handling of the nation’s worst-ever mass shooting and the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. But she faced mounting political pressures at home and a level of vitriol from some that hadn’t been experienced by previous New Zealand leaders.

Still, her announcement came as a shock throughout the nation of 5 million people.

Fighting back tears, Ardern told reporters in Napier that Feb. 7 would be her last day as prime minister after five and a half years in office.

“I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple,” she said.

Lawmakers in her Labour Party will vote for a new leader on Sunday.

Ardern became an inspiration to women around the world after first winning the top job in 2017. She seemed to herald a new generation of leadership — she was on the verge of being a millennial, had spun some records as a part-time DJ, and wasn’t married like most politicians.

In 2018, Ardern became just the second elected world leader to give birth while holding office. Later that year, she brought her infant daughter to the floor of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

She notched up center-left victories while right-wing populism was on the rise globally, pushing through a bill targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, overseeing a ban on assault weapons, and largely keeping the coronavirus out of New Zealand for 18 months.

Her approach to the pandemic earned the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, and she pushed back against wildly exaggerated claims from Trump about the spread of COVID-19 after he said there was a massive outbreak and “It’s over for New Zealand. Everything’s gone.”

“Was angry the word?” Ardern said about Trump’s comments in an interview with The Associated Press at the time.

In March 2019, Ardern faced one of the darkest days in New Zealand’s history when a white supremacist gunman stormed two mosques in Christchurch and slaughtered 51 worshippers during Friday prayers. Ardern was widely praised for her empathy toward survivors and New Zealand’s wider Muslim community in the aftermath.

After the mosque shootings, Ardern moved within weeks to pass new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. A subsequent buyback scheme run by police saw more than 50,000 guns, including many AR-15-style rifles, destroyed.

Less than nine months after the shooting, she faced another tragedy when 22 tourists and guides were killed when the White Island volcano erupted.

Ardern was lauded globally for her country’s initial handling of the pandemic after New Zealand managed to stop the virus at its borders for months. But she was forced to abandon that zero-tolerance strategy as more contagious variants spread and vaccines became widely available.

She faced growing anger at home from those who opposed coronavirus mandates and rules. A protest against vaccine mandates that began on Parliament’s grounds last year lasted for more than three weeks and ended with protesters hurling rocks at police and setting fires to tents and mattresses as they were forced to leave. This year, Ardern canceled an annual barbecue she hosts due to security fears.

Ardern last month announced that a wide-ranging Royal Commission of Inquiry would look into whether the government made the right decisions in battling COVID-19 and how it could better prepare for future pandemics. A report is due next year.

Many observers said sexism played a role in the anger directed at Ardern.

“Her treatment, the pile on, in the last few months has been disgraceful and embarrassing,” wrote actor Sam Neill on Twitter. “All the bullies, the misogynists, the aggrieved. She deserved so much better. A great leader.”

But Ardern and her government also faced criticism that it had been big on ideas but lacking on execution. Supporters worried it hadn’t made promised gains on increasing housing supply and reducing child poverty, while opponents said it was not focusing enough on crime and the struggling economy.

Ardern described climate change as the great challenge for her generation. But her polices faced skepticism and opposition, including from farmers who protested plans to tax cow burps and other greenhouse gas emissions.

Ardern had been facing tough prospects at the ballot box. Her center-left Labour Party won reelection in 2020 with a landslide of historic proportions, but recent polls have put her party behind its conservative rivals.

She said the role required having a reserve to face the unexpected.

“But I am not leaving because it was hard. Had that been the case I probably would have departed two months into the job,” Ardern said. “I am leaving because with such a privileged role comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead, and also, when you are not.”

She said her time in office had been challenging but fulfilling.

“I am entering now my sixth year in office, and for each of those years, I have given my absolute all,” she said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Ardern “has shown the world how to lead with intellect and strength.”

“She has demonstrated that empathy and insight are powerful leadership qualities,” Albanese tweeted. “Jacinda has been a fierce advocate for New Zealand, an inspiration to so many and a great friend to me.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked Ardern on Twitter for her friendship and “empathic, compassionate, strong, and steady leadership.”

Ardern charted an independent course for New Zealand. She tried to take a more diplomatic approach to China than neighboring Australia, which had ended up feuding with Beijing. In an interview with the AP last month, she said that building relationships with small Pacific nations shouldn’t become a game of one-upmanship with China.

New Zealand Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon said Ardern had been a strong ambassador for the country on the world stage. He said that for his party “nothing changes” and it remains intent on winning this year’s general elections to “deliver a government that can get things done for the New Zealand people.”

Ardern announced that vote will be held on Oct. 14 and that she will remain a lawmaker through April. Because she will leave Parliament within six months of an election, no special election for her seat is needed.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson announced that he won’t contest the leadership of the Labour Party, throwing open for the competition for who will take over as prime minister from February until the election. Among the frontrunners is Education Minister Chris Hipkins.

If no candidate gets at least two-thirds support from the caucus when Labour lawmakers vote on Sunday, then the leadership contest will go to the wider party membership. Ardern has recommended the party chose her replacement by the time she steps down.

Ardern said she hadn’t had too much time to reflect on her tenure in the role, although she noted that it had been marked with crises.

“It’s one thing to lead your country in peace times, it’s another to lead them through crisis. There’s a greater weight of responsibility, a greater vulnerability amongst the people, and so in many ways, I think that will be what sticks with me,” she said. “I had the privilege of being alongside New Zealand during crisis, and they placed their faith in me.”

Aya Al-Umari, whose brother Hussein was killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks, tweeted her “deepest gratitude” to Ardern, saying her compassion and leadership during that grim day “shone a light in our grief journey.”

“I have a mixture of feelings, shocked, sad but really happy for her,” Al-Umari wrote.

Ardern said she didn’t have any immediate plans after leaving office, other than family commitments with her daughter, Neve, and her fiancé, Clarke Gayford, after an outbreak of the virus thwarted their earlier wedding plans.

“And so to Neve, Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year,” Ardern said. “And to Clarke, let’s finally get married.”

___

Associated Press reporter Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.

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World

French unions call new nationwide strikes, protests Jan. 31

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PARIS (AP) — At least 1.1 million people protested on the streets of Paris and other French cities Thursday amid nationwide strikes against plans to raise the retirement age, but President Emmanuel Macron insisted he would press ahead with the proposed pension reforms.

Emboldened by the high turnout, French unions announced new strikes and protests Jan. 31, vowing to try to get the government to back down on plans to raise the standard retirement age from 62 to 64. Macron says the measure is needed to keep the pension system financially viable, but unions say it threatens hard-fought worker rights.

During a news conference at a French-Spanish summit in Barcelona, Spain, Macron said that “we must do that reform” to “save” the pension system.

“We will do it with respect, in a spirit of dialogue but also determination and responsibility,” he added.

As Macron spoke, riot police pushed back against some protesters throwing projectiles on the sidelines of the largely peaceful Paris march. Some other minor incidents briefly flared up, leading officers to use tear gas.

Paris police said that 38 people had been detained.

In a country with an aging population and growing life expectancy where everyone receives a state pension, Macron’s government says the reform is the only way to keep the system solvent.

Unions propose a tax on the wealthy or more payroll contributions from employers to finance the pension system instead. Polls suggest most French people also oppose the reform.

Strikes across France severely disrupted transport, schools and other public services across France.

More than 200 rallies were staged around France on Thursday, including a large one in Paris involving all France’s major unions.

The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people protested across France, including 80,000 in Paris. Unions said more than 2 million people took part nationwide, and 400,000 in Paris.

Big crowds also turned out for protests against previous efforts at retirement reform, during Macron’s first term and under former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010. But none of those drew more than 1 million people according to government estimates.

Jean Paul Cachina, 56, a worker in human resources, joined the march in the French capital — a first ever for him.

“I am not here for myself,” he said. “I am here to defend the youth and workers doing demanding jobs. I work in the construction industry sector and I’m a first-hand witness of the suffering of employees.”

Many young people were among the Paris crowd, chanting “the youth is protesting. Macron you are finished.” High school student unions had urged members to join the protests.

Nathan Arsac, 19, a student and member of the UNEF union, said: “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen next. Losing our social achievements could happen so fast. I’m scared of the future when I’ll be older and have to retire.”

Sylvie Béchard, a 59-year-old nurse, said that she joined the march because “we, health care workers, are physically exhausted.”

“The only thing we have is demonstrating and to block the economy of the country,” she added.

The economic cost of the strikes wasn’t immediately clear. The government worries that a big show of resistance Thursday could encourage unions to continue with protracted walkouts that could hobble the economy just as France is struggling against inflation and trying to boost growth.

Police unions opposed to the retirement reform also took part in the protests, while those on duty braced for potential violence should extremist groups join the demonstrations.

Most train services around France were canceled, including some international connections, according to the SNCF rail authority. About 20% of flights out of Paris’ Orly Airport were canceled and airlines warned of delays.

The Ministry of National Education said between 34% and 42% of teachers were on strike, depending on schools.

National electricity company EDF announced that power supplies were substantially reduced Thursday amid the strikes.

Thierry Desassis, a retired teacher, called the government’s plan “an aberration.”

“It’s at 64 that you start having health problems. I’m 68 and in good health but I’ve started seeing doctors more often,” he said.

The strike also affected some monuments. The Versailles Palace was closed Thursday while the Eiffel Tower warned about potential disruptions and the Louvre Museum said some exhibition rooms would remain closed.

Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the hard-left CGT union, urged Macron to “listen to the street.”

Laurent Berger, head of the more moderate CFDT union, called the reform “unfair.”

Many French workers expressed mixed feeling about the government’s plan and pointed to the complexity of the pension system.

Quentin Coelho, 27, a Red Cross employee, felt he had to work Thursday despite understanding “most of the strikers’ demands.” With an aging population in the country, he said, raising the retirement age “isn’t an efficient strategy. If we do it now, the government could decided to raise it further in 30 or 50 years from now. We can’t predict.”

Coelho said he doesn’t trust the government and is already saving money for his pension.

French Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt acknowledged “concerns” prompted by the pension plans but said the government rejected other options involving raising taxes — which he said would hurt the economy and cost jobs — or reducing pensions.

The French government is formally presenting the pension bill on Monday and it will head to Parliament next month. Its success will depend in part on the scale and duration of the strikes and protests.

Most opposition parties, including the left and the far-right, are strongly against the plan. Macron’s centrist alliance lost its parliamentary majority last year, yet still has the most important group at the National Assembly, where it has a good chance of being able to ally with the conservative The Republicans party to approve the pension reforms.

Under the planned changes, workers must have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension. For those who do not fulfil that condition, like many women who interrupted their career to raise children or those who studied for a long time and started working late, the retirement age would remain unchanged at 67.

Those who started to work early, under the age of 20, and workers with major health issues would be allowed early retirement.

Protracted strikes met Macron’s last effort to raise the retirement age in 2019. He eventually withdrew it after the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Retirement rules vary widely from country to country, making direct comparisons difficult. The official retirement age in the U.S. is now 67, and countries across Europe have been raising pension ages as populations grow older and fertility rates drop.

But opponents of Macron’s reform note that, under the French system, people are already required to work more years overall than in some neighboring countries to receive a full pension.

The plan is also seen by many as endangering the welfare state that’s central to French society.

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Alexander Turnbull contributed to this report.

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World

Peru’s Andes ‘descended’ on capital to demand leader resign

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — People poured into Peru’s coastal capital, many from remote Andean regions, for a protest Thursday against President Dina Boluarte and in support of her predecessor, whose ouster last month launched deadly unrest and cast the nation into political chaos.

There was a tense calm in the streets of Lima Thursday morning ahead of the protest that supporters of former president Pedro Castillo hope will open a new chapter in the weeks-long movement to demand Boluarte’s resignation, the dissolution of Congress, immediate elections and structural change in the country. Castillo, Peru’s first leader from a rural Andean background, was impeached after a failed attempt to dissolve Congress.

“We have delinquent ministers, presidents that murder and we live like animals in the middle of so much wealth that they steal from us every day,” Samuel Acero, a farmer who heads up the regional committee of protests for the southeastern city Cusco, said as he walked in downtown Lima Thursday morning. “We want Dina Boluarte to leave, she lied to us.”

The protests have so far been held mainly in Peru’s southern Andes, with 53 people dying amid the unrest, the large majority killed in clashes with security forces.

“We’re at a breaking point between dictatorship and democracy,” said Pedro Mamani, a student at the National University of San Marcos. Students there are housing demonstrators who traveled to Peru’s capital for the protest that is being popularly referred to as the “takeover of Lima.”

The university was surrounded by police officers, who also congregated at several key points of Lima’s historic downtown district.

A total of 11,800 police officers will be deployed throughout Lima, Victor Zanabria, the head of the police force there told local media. He played down the size of the protests, saying he expected around 2,000 people to participate.

The demonstrations that erupted last month and subsequent clashes with security forces amount to the worst political violence Peru has experienced in more than two decades and has shined a spotlight on the deep divisions that exist in the country between the urban elite largely concentrated in Lima and the poor rural areas, where citizens have often feel relegated.

“In my own country, the voices of the Andes, the voices of the majority have been silenced,” Florencia Fernández, a lawyer who lives in Cusco, said Wednesday ahead of the protest. “We’ve had to travel to this aggressive city, this centralist city, and we say, the Andes have descended.”

By bringing the protest to Lima, demonstrators hope to give fresh weight to the movement that began when Boluarte, who was the vice president, was sworn into office on Dec. 7 to replace Castillo.

“When there are tragedies, bloodbaths outside the capital it doesn’t have the same political relevance in the public agenda than if it took place in the capital,” said Alonso Cárdenas, a professor of public policies at the Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University in Lima. “The leaders have understood that and say, they can massacre us in Cusco, in Puno, and nothing happens, we need to take the protest to Lima,” Cárdenas added, citing two cities that have seen protest violence.

The concentration of protesters in Lima also reflects how the capital has started to see more antigovernment demonstrations in recent days.

“Lima, which hadn’t joined the protests at all in the first phase in December, decided to join after the Juliaca massacre,” Omar Coronel, a political science professor at the Catholic University of Peru, said, referring to the 18 people killed in that southern city on Jan. 9.

The protesters on Thursday are planning to march from downtown Lima to the Miraflores district, one of the emblematic neighborhoods of the country’s economic elite.

The government has called on protesters to be peaceful.

“We know they want to take over Lima,” Boluarte said this week. “I call on them to take over Lima, yes, but in peace” and added that she would “wait for them in the Government House to be able to talk about their social agendas.”

Boluarte has said she supports a plan to push up to 2024 elections for president and congress originally scheduled for 2026.

Many protesters say that no dialogue is possible with a government that they say has unleashed so much violence against its citizens.

As protesters gathered in Lima, more violence erupted in southern Peru.

In the town of Macusani Wednesday, protesters set fire to the police station and judicial office after two people were killed and another seriously injured by gunfire amid antigovernment protests.

The officers had to escape the police station that the crowd burned in a helicopter, police said. Macusani, about 160 kilometers from the city of Juliaca near Lake Titicaca, is the capital of the province of Carabaya,

Activists have dubbed Thursday’s demonstration in Lima as the Cuatro Suyos March, a reference to the four cardinal points of the Inca empire. It’s also the same name that was given to another massive mobilization that took place in 2000, when thousands of Peruvians took to the streets against the autocratic government of Alberto Fujimori, who resigned months later.

There are several key differences between those demonstrations and this week’s protests.

“In 2000, the people protested against a regime that was already consolidated in power,” Cardenas said. “In this case, they’re standing up to a government that has only been in power for a month and is incredibly fragile.”

Another distinction is that the 2000 protests had a centralized leadership and were led by political parties. “Now what we have is something much more fragmented,” Coronel said.

The protests that have engulfed much of Peru in the past month have largely been grassroots efforts without a clear leadership.

“We have never seen a mobilization of this magnitude, there’s already a thought installed in the peripheries that it is necessary, urgent to transform everything,” said Gustavo Montoya, a historian at the National University of San Marcos. “I have the feeling that we’re witnessing a historic shift.”

The protests have grown to such a degree that demonstrators are unlikely to be satisfied with Boluarte’s resignation and they are now demanding a more fundamental structural reform.

The protests have emerged “in regions that have been systematically treated as second-class citizens,” Montoya said. “I think this will only keep growing.”

Analysts warn that a failure to listen to demands from protesters could have tragic consequences.

“We have to start to think what we want to do with Peru, otherwise this could all blow up,” Cardenas said.

———-

Associated Press journalist Mauricio Muñoz contributed.

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