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Hakeem Jeffries Elected Leader of House Democrats

WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Wednesday elected new leaders to take the mantle from the three octogenarians who have led them for two decades, ushering in a long-awaited generational change that, for the first time in the history of either party or chamber in Congress, installed a trio of top leaders that includes no white men.

In a display of unity after midterm elections in which they lost the House but had a stronger than expected showing, Democrats skipped a vote and by acclamation elected Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York to be minority leader, making him the first Black person to hold the top spot. Representative Katherine Clark of Massachusetts was elected as whip, the lead vote counter for House Democrats, and Representative Pete Aguilar of California as the chairman of the party caucus, in charge of messaging.

Mr. Jeffries, 52, Ms. Clark, 59 and Mr. Aguilar, 43, who for years have positioned themselves as an unofficial joint slate of candidates and have patiently waited their turn, ran unopposed after Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who has led the party for two decades, announced this month that she would step aside, paving the way for fresher faces at the top of her party.

Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, had considered trying to remain in leadership and said he had the support to do so, but ultimately decided against it. And Representative Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California, had weighed a challenge to Mr. Jeffries for the post of minority leader, but many Democrats said he lacked the votes. Last week, Mr. Schiff told Mr. Jeffries that he was instead exploring a run for Senate, and wished him well in the upcoming leadership election, according to a person familiar with the private conversation who disclosed it on the condition of anonymity.

The mood was jovial on Wednesday inside the ornate committee hearing room across from the Capitol where Democrats met to elect their new leaders.

“We want Petey Pie!” lawmakers chanted as they nominated Mr. Aguilar, using a nickname his grandmother gave him, according to two people in the room.

At another point, Representative Terri Sewell of Alabama led a call-and-response chant for Mr. Jeffries, borrowing a lyric from the rapper Biggie Smalls, whom Mr. Jeffries famously quoted on the Senate floor during former President Donald J. Trump’s first impeachment trial.

“If you don’t know,” Ms. Sewell shouted out, “Now you know,” the members called back.

Democrats, for the most part, said they saw the lack of competitive races as a sign of strength and unity, and a stark contrast to the fractured Republican conference, where Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, is struggling to win the support he needs to become speaker amid a revolt on his right flank. A historically weak midterm performance has handed the G.O.P. a razor-thin House majority for the next Congress, making the job of leading it exceedingly difficult.

“It shows that Democrats are in array, Republicans are in disarray,” said Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of California, noting that the new slate of leaders, which includes a Black man, a white woman and a Latino man, “reflects the beautiful diversity of America.”

Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota said she was excited to have a leader “who actually does represent the diversity of our caucus.”

Mr. Aguilar, in a news conference, said that “while Kevin McCarthy is auctioning off real estate and square footage for every vote he can, we’re united together.” Mr. Jeffries said House Democrats were united because they shared a commitment to fighting for “young people, seniors, immigrants, veterans, the poor, the sick, the afflicted, the least, the lost and the left behind.”

He said Democrats would “push back against extremism whenever necessary.”

Yet some Democrats called the uncontested election a missed opportunity for them to discuss how their party was shifting and how it should move forward.

“This is the most significant generational change that we have seen in House Democrats in several decades,” said Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. “I personally believe that we would benefit from a debate on what that means.”

The leadership elections marked a sea change for the caucus, which for two decades has been led by the same trio of leaders, who effectively froze out dozens of more junior lawmakers who had been waiting to ascend.

Ms. Pelosi’s announcement before Thanksgiving that she would step down from leadership set the long-awaited change in motion. Mr. Hoyer quickly followed suit and Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the whip, said he would relinquish the third-ranking spot and seek a lower position.

His decision to stay in leadership, however, rankled some members.

On Wednesday, Representative David Cicilline of Rhode Island, who is gay, said he planned to challenge Mr. Clyburn for the position of assistant leader.

“With so much at stake, I think it is critical that the House Democratic leadership team fully reflect the diversity of our caucus and the American people by including an L.G.B.T.Q.+ member at the leadership table,” he said in a letter to his colleagues announcing his bid. That race will be decided on Thursday.

In remarks to reporters ahead of the election, Mr. Jeffries described the role he was about to assume as a “solemn responsibility.”

“When we get an opportunity as diverse leaders to serve in positions of consequence, the most meaningful thing that we can do in that space is do an incredibly good job,” Mr. Jeffries said.

He downplayed the divisions among Democrats and expressed confidence in his ability, along with his expected leadership team, to keep the party united in the coming year.

“There’s nothing more unifying than being in the minority and having a cleareyed objective and goal of getting back into the majority so we can continue to deliver big things for everyday Americans,” he said.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said he has known Mr. Jeffries, a Brooklyn neighbor, for years and expected to speak with him the same amount he now talks with Ms. Pelosi: about four to five times a day.

“It’s a little like Pelosi,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “When I first met her, I said, ‘This person is special, she’s going somewhere.’ I felt the same way about Hakeem.”

Mr. Schumer said Mr. Jeffries “always had the leg up” in the race to succeed Ms. Pelosi.

“He’s very good at reaching out to people of many ideologies,” Mr. Schumer said, predicting Mr. Jeffries would be able to reach across party lines.

“There’s going to be a whole bunch of Republicans who are not going to be happy with the MAGA direction of the party, and I couldn’t think of a better person to work with them to try and get some things done,” Mr. Schumer said.

Luke Broadwater and Stephanie Lai contributed reporting.

House votes to avert rail strike, impose deal on unions

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House moved urgently to head off the looming nationwide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.

The measure passed by a vote of 290-137 and now heads to the Senate. If approved there, it will be signed by President Joe Biden, who urged the Senate to act swiftly.

“Without the certainty of a final vote to avoid a shutdown this week, railroads will begin to halt the movement of critical materials like chemicals to clean our drinking water as soon as this weekend,” Biden said. “Let me say that again: without action this week, disruptions to our auto supply chains, our ability to move food to tables, and our ability to remove hazardous waste from gasoline refineries will begin.”

Business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Farm Bureau Federation have warned that halting rail service would cause a $2 billion per day hit to the economy.

The bill would impose a compromise labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration that was ultimately voted down by four of the 12 unions representing more than 100,000 employees at large freight rail carriers. The unions have threatened to strike if an agreement can’t be reached before a Dec. 9 deadline.

Lawmakers from both parties expressed reservations about overriding the negotiations. And the intervention was particularly difficult for Democratic lawmakers who have traditionally sought to align themselves with the politically powerful labor unions that criticized Biden’s move to intervene in the contract dispute and block a strike.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded to that concern by adding a second vote Wednesday that would add seven days of paid sick leave per year for rail workers covered under the agreement. However, it will take effect only if the Senate goes along and passes both measures. The House passed the sick leave measure as well, but by a much narrower margin, 221-207, as Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it, indicating that prospects for passage of that add-on are slim in the evenly divided Senate.

The call for more paid sick leave was a major sticking point in the talks. The railroads say the unions have agreed in negotiations over the decades to forgo paid sick time in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits.

The head of the Association of American Railroads trade group said Tuesday that railroads would consider adding paid sick time in the future, but said that change should wait for a new round of negotiations instead of being added now, near the end of three years of contract talks.

The unions maintain that railroads can easily afford to add paid sick time at a time when they are recording record profits. Several of the big railroads involved in these contract talks reported more than $1 billion profit in the third quarter.

“Quite frankly, the fact that paid leave is not part of the final agreement between railroads and labor is, in my opinion, obscene,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “It should be there and I hope it will be there at the end of this process.”

Most rail workers don’t receive any paid sick time but they do have short-term disability benefits that kick in after as little as four days and can replace some of their income for a year or more. Rail workers do receive vacation and personal leave days, but workers say it’s difficult to use those for illnesses because they must typically be approved far ahead of time.

Republicans also voiced support for the measure to block the strike, but criticized the Biden administration for turning to Congress to “step in to fix the mess.”

“They’ve retreated in failure and they kicked this problem to Congress for us to decide,” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo.

Republicans criticized Pelosi’s decision to add the sick leave bill to the mix. They said the Biden administration’s own special board of arbitrators recommended higher wages to compensate the unions for not including sick time in its recommendations.

“Why do we even have the system set up the way it is if Congress is going to come in and make changes to all of the recommendations?” Graves said.

Pelosi sought to position Democrats and the Biden administration as defenders of unions and slammed the rail companies, saying they’ve slashed jobs, increased worker hours and cut corners on safety. But she said Congress needed to intervene.

“Families wouldn’t be able to buy groceries or life-saving medications because it would be even more expensive and perishable goods would spoil before reaching shelves,” Pelosi said.

The compromise agreement that was supported by the railroads and a majority of the unions provides for 24% raises and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020 along with one additional paid leave day. The raises would be the biggest rail workers have received in more than four decades. Workers would have to pay a larger share of their health insurance costs, but their premiums would be capped at 15% of the total cost of the insurance plan. The agreement did not resolve workers’ concerns about schedules that make it hard to take a day off and the lack of more paid sick time.

On several past occasions, Congress has intervened in labor disputes by enacting legislation to delay or prohibit railway and airline strikes.

___

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

At least 2 killed in Alabama as severe storms and tornadoes sweep across the South

Editor’s Note: Affected by the storms? Use CNN’s lite site for low bandwidth.



CNN
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Severe storms and tornadoes swept through parts of the South from Tuesday into Wednesday morning, killing at least two people in Alabama and damaging homes, other buildings and downing trees in several states, officials said.

Two people were killed and at least one other was injured when a tornado hit Wednesday morning in the Flatwood area near Alabama’s capital, Montgomery County Emergency Management Director Christina Thornton told CNN.

“Thanks to the heroic efforts of our first responders many other lives were saved. We pray for our community as we mourn this tragic loss of lives,” Thornton said.

At least 30 tornado reports have been made since Tuesday afternoon, mostly in central and southern Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in Louisiana, the Storm Prediction Center said. Winds also knocked down trees in Tennessee and Georgia.

Storm damage includes:

• Alabama: The tornado that killed two in the Flatwood area near Montgomery had winds estimated at 110 mph, the National Weather Service said. Tornadoes also are believed to have caused damage in the western and southwestern parts of the state, according to the service.

People walk through an area of destruction in Flatwood, Alabama, on Wednesday.

An apartment complex was torn apart late Tuesday near Eutaw Greene County, with a roof torn off and fallen walls exposing residents’ rooms, video from CNN affiliate WBMA showed.

A tornado with roughly 110 mph winds damaged the complex, the weather service said. The damage left some displaced residents taking shelter at a middle school, WBMA reported.

Debris is scattered in front of the damaged apartment building in Eutaw, Alabama.

In nearby Hale County, many trees and some homes were damaged in the small town of Akron. One fallen tree rested on a home’s roof, images from WBMA and CNN affiliate WVTM showed. No injuries were immediately reported in Akron, county emergency management Director Russell Weeden said.

In Sumiton just outside Birmingham, a commercial building’s roof was blown off and struck a house, city officials there said.

Track storms as they develop >>

• Mississippi: In Lowndes County east of Starkville, a tree fell through Mary Perkins’ trailer home, virtually slicing it in half.

The storm, which might have included a tornado, sounded “like a train coming through,” Perkins told CNN on Wednesday. No one was injured.

“I hope I can afford a trailer to get back in. … As old as I am, I don’t think about building a house. I hope for a trailer,” Perkins, a resident of the county for 34 years, said.

Volunteer firefighters helped some people who found themselves trapped in damaged buildings, Lowndes County Fire Coordinator Neil Austin said.

“We were successful in getting (to) some people that had to hunker down in their homes that were messed up,” Austin told CNN on Wednesday.

In the same county, a church’s steeple was blown off and a grocery store was damaged in the community of Steens on Tuesday evening, Cindy Lawrence, the county’s head of emergency management, told CNN. No deaths or injuries were reported in the county, Austin said.

Mississippi State University in Starkville briefly asked students to seek shelter during a tornado warning Tuesday night. Earlier in the day, classes at two of the school’s campuses were taught remotely and some dining halls were closed due to the threat. Regular operations were expected to resume Wednesday, the university said.

A steeple was blown off a church in the community of Steens, Mississippi, after a strong storm moved through the area Tuesday.

• Louisiana: Several homes were damaged in northern Louisiana’s Caldwell Parish, where the National Weather Service reports a tornado is believed to have struck Tuesday night, CNN affiliate KNOE reported. At least one home collapsed, with bricks, boxes, a mattress and other debris strewn around the area, KNOE video showed.

More than 41,000 power outages were reported in the Southeast late Wednesday morning, including 25,000 in Alabama, 12,000 in Tennessee and 4,000 in Mississippi, according to utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

Some parts of the South, including between Huntsville and Birmingham in Alabama, saw between 2 and 4 inches of rain Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the storm prediction center issued a rare “particularly dangerous situation” tornado watch, which is typically designated for the most significant severe-storm threats. That watch was in effect for central Mississippi, northeast Louisiana and southwest Arkansas through early Wednesday and has since expired.

New York Mayor says NYPD and first responders can involuntarily commit those in mental health crisis


New York
CNN
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New York Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday directed first responders to enforce a state law that allows them to potentially involuntarily commit people experiencing a mental health crisis, as part of an attempt to address concerns about homelessness and crime.

Adams said it was a myth that first responders can only involuntarily commit those who displayed an “overt act” that they may be suicidal, violent or a danger to others. Instead, he said the law allowed first responders to involuntarily commit those who cannot meet their own “basic human needs” – a lower bar.

New York Police Department officers and first responders will get additional training to help them make such evaluations and a team of mental health technicians will be available, either via a hotline or video chat, to help them determine whether a person needs to be taken to a hospital for further evaluation.

The city also plans to develop specialized intervention teams to work side by side with NYPD officers.

Adams said first responders weren’t consistently enforcing the law because they were unsure of its scope, reserving it only for cases that appeared the most serious.

“Many officers feel uneasy using this authority when they have any doubt that the person in crisis meets the criteria,” Adams said Tuesday. “The hotline will allow an officer to describe what they are seeing to a clinical professional or even use video calling to get an expert opinion on what options may be available.”

New York state enacted a law in 2021 to allow first responders to involuntarily commit a person with mental illness who is in need of immediate care.

The directive is the latest strategy aimed at getting control over a mental health crisis that Adams has identified as one of the underlying causes of violence and crime in the city.

In January, Michelle Go was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train in Times Square and killed by a man deemed to have been emotionally disturbed, according to city and NYPD officials.

In September, police arrested a mother who drowned her three children in the waters off the famed Coney Island Boardwalk and later told investigators she had dreams of them in the water, law enforcement officials told CNN.

Mental health was one of the topics discussed in October when Adams convened a two-day summit with city and state stakeholders as a way to get crime under control.

The directive led to a mixed response from officials, who acknowledged the challenges of properly and humanely treating mentally ill people.

“This is a longstanding and very complex issue,” NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a statement. “And we will continue to work closely with our many partners to ensure that everyone has access to the services they require. This deserves the full support and attention of our collective efforts.”

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh in a statement said the department is “proud to partner with Mayor Adams in addressing this critical public safety issue. Our mission is simple: To be there for all New Yorkers when they need help and provide critical mental health care.”

City officials made clear the directive allows for due process, and that if a person was evaluated and deemed unfit to care for themselves, there are legal avenues they can take to fight that designation. Civil rights advocates say that is not enough.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, in a statement called the move an “attempt to police away homelessness and sweep individuals out of sight.”

“The Mayor is playing fast and loose with the legal rights of New Yorkers and is not dedicating the resources necessary to address the mental health crises that affect our communities,” Lieberman said. “The federal and state constitutions impose strict limits on the government’s ability to detain people experiencing mental illness – limits that the Mayor’s proposed expansion is likely to violate. Forcing people into treatment is a failed strategy for connecting people to long-term treatment and care.”

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams told CNN on Wednesday he supported some of the mayor’s policy but was concerned that it was short on details of how to address long-term medical issues.

“New York City residents want to be safe and want to be able to use the subway,” he said. “But if you ask them, they don’t want police to be arresting people for having a mental health crisis. They want people to get assistance and a continuum of care. The problem with this plan is it doesn’t spell out what the continuum of care is.”

Former NYPD detective Andy Bershad similarly had mixed criticism, saying he was concerned about training and potential ramifications for NYPD officers.

“Are we looking at situations potentially when a situation goes badly?” he said. “If I go to take a patient that doesn’t want to go or against their will, now I’m taking them involuntarily, what is the ramifications for the uniformed officer, EMS provider?”

French baguette added to UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage

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Lovers of France’s iconic, long bread loaf: Rejoice! The baguette has now earned special recognition by the United Nations as an integral part of humanity’s cultural heritage.

That is to say, the culture and craftsmanship of baguette-making and consumption was added by UNESCO, the Paris-headquartered United Nations agency for culture, to a list that offers not just international recognition, but the option of applying for funding to preserve this “intangible” heritage for future generations.

The baking news sent France into a frenzy of memes — and members of the French UNESCO delegation celebrated by hoisting baguettes into the air as the decision was announced in Rabat, Morocco.

The baguette — which French President Emmanuel Macron once described as “250 grams of magic and perfection” — is an integral part of French culture and culinary habits, with many French people stopping by bakeries daily to pick up a warm loaf before heading home for dinner.

France’s baking industry has led a years-long campaign to secure this status on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

France’s culture minister, Rima Abdul Malak, said the decision is a “great recognition for our artisans and these unifying places that are our bakeries.”

Olivia Gregoire, minister for small and medium-size enterprises, trade and tourism, celebrated the decision as a milestone for France and its baking industry. It honors “French savoir-vivre,” “our traditions of sharing and conviviality and above all the know-how of our artisan bakers,” she said.

French bakeries produce some 6 billion baguettes a year, according to French newspaper Le Monde. But across the country, particularly in rural areas, bakeries have for the past few decades been disappearing at a rate of about 400 per year, leading to warnings from the industry that more needs to be done to protect the know-how of baguette-making.

“The baguette is very few ingredients — flour, water, salt, yeast — and yet each baguette is unique, and the essential ingredient every time is the baker’s skill,” Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Bakery and Patisserie, said after the decision.

In August in Paris, a baguette is sometimes a full 20 minutes away

French people celebrated the decision and their love for baguette.

Claire Dinhut, 26, a French American food and travel content creator, said via email: “The baguette is SUCH a staple of French identity so it makes me really happy to find out that it was added to the world heritage list.”

“I rarely eat baguette outside of France because eating a baguette without the French ‘ritual’ of walking to your local (and favorite) bakery is just eating bread. Eating a baguette is SO much more than that,” said Dinhut, who lives in London. “There is nothing comparable to the first rip off of a fresh baguette. It’s perfect on its own, with a fat slab of salted butter, sweet jam, a great chunk of cheese… The list goes on and on.”

France’s mustard shortage fuels drama and panic in grocery stores

UNESCO recognizes traditions, crafts and items as part of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage because of “the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted” through them “from one generation to the next.”

In this case, the nomination drafted by France highlighted the fact that baguettes “generate modes of consumption and social practices that differentiate them from other types of bread, such as daily visits to bakeries to purchase the loaves and specific display racks to match their long shape.”

“The baguette is consumed in many contexts, including during family meals, in restaurants, and in work and school cafeterias,” it added.

Two Chinese cities ease COVID curbs after protests spread

  • Riot police clash with protesters in southern Guangzhou
  • Death of former President Jiang comes amid tumultuous time
  • One of biggest acts of public defiance in a decade
  • Authorities probing protesters as security tightens

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Nov 30 (Reuters) – The giant Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of COVID curbs on Wednesday, a day after demonstrators in southern Guangzhou clashed with police amid a string of protests against the world’s toughest coronavirus restrictions.

The demonstrations, which spread over the weekend to Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere, have become a show of public defiance unprecedented since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.

The southwestern city of Chongqing will allow close contacts of people with COVID-19, who fulfil certain conditions, to quarantine at home, a city official said.

Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, also announced an easing of curbs, but with record numbers of cases nationwide, there seems little prospect of a major U-turn in “zero-COVID” policy that Xi has said is saving lives and has proclaimed as one of his political achievements.

Some protesters and foreign security experts believe Wednesday’s death of former President Jiang Zemin, who led the country for a decade of rapid economic growth after the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989, might become a new rallying point for protest after three years of pandemic.

Shanghai medical company worker Ray Lei, in his 20s, said Jiang was sometimes compared positively to Xi, given his skills on the international stage and relative openness to the West.

“So as for Jiang Zemin’s death, we feel a sense of tragedy towards the future of China’s leadership,” said Lei, who took part in protests in Shanghai on Sunday.

Jiang’s legacy was being debated on protesters’ Telegram groups, with some saying it gave them a legitimate reason to gather.

“How similar is history,” read one protester’s post, referring to former party General Secretary Hu Yaobang, whose death in April 1989 was seen as one of the drivers of the nationwide protests that year.

“We can all go onto the streets today and lay chrysanthemums,” another said.

Announcing the lifting of lockdowns in parts of Guangzhou, a city hard-hit by the recent wave of infections, authorities did not mention the protests, and the district where Tuesday’s violence flared remained under tight control.

In one video of those clashes posted on Twitter, dozens of riot police clad in white protective suits and holding shields over their heads, advanced in formation over what appeared to be torn down lockdown barriers as objects flew at them.

Police were later seen escorting away a row of people in handcuffs.

Another video clip showed people throwing objects at police, while a third showed a tear gas canister landing in a small crowd on a narrow street, sending people running to escape the fumes.

Reuters verified that the videos were filmed in Guangzhou’s Haizhu district, the scene of COVID-related unrest two weeks ago, but could not determine when the clips were taken or the exact sequence of events and what sparked the clashes.

Social media posts said the clashes took place on Tuesday night and were caused by a dispute over lockdown curbs.

The government of Guangzhou did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[1/7] Demonstrators protesting over coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions throw glass bottles towards riot police in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China in this screen grab taken from a social media video released November 30, 2022. Video Obtained by Reuters/via REUTERS

China Dissent Monitor, run by U.S. government-funded Freedom House, estimated at least 27 demonstrations took place across China from Saturday to Monday. Australia’s ASPI think tank estimated 43 protests in 22 cities.

EASING CURBS

As well as the easing of curbs in Guangzhou and Chongqing, officials in Zhengzhou, the site of a big Foxconn factory making Apple iPhones that has been the scene of worker unrest over COVID, announced the “orderly” resumption of businesses, including supermarkets, gyms and restaurants.

Earlier national health officials said China would respond to “urgent concerns” raised by the public and that COVID rules should be implemented more flexibly, according to a region’s conditions.

But while the easing of some measures appears to be an attempt to appease the public, authorities have also begun to seek out those who have been at the protests.

“Police came to my front door to ask me about it all and get me to complete a written record,” a Beijing resident who declined to be identified told Reuters on Wednesday.

Another resident said some friends who posted videos of protests on social media were taken to a police station and asked to sign a promise they “would not do that again”.

Several people gave similar accounts to Reuters on Tuesday.

It was not clear how authorities identified the people they wanted to question, nor how many such people authorities contacted.

Beijing’s Public Security Bureau did not comment.

In a statement that did not refer to the protests, the Communist Party’s top body in charge of law enforcement agencies said on Tuesday that China would crack down on “the infiltration and sabotage activities of hostile forces”.

The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission also said “illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order” would not be tolerated.

The foreign ministry has said rights and freedoms must be exercised lawfully.

COVID has spread despite China largely isolating itself from the world and demanding sacrifices from hundreds of millions to comply with relentless testing and isolation.

While infections and death numbers are low by global standards, analysts say that a reopening before increasing vaccination rates could lead to widespread illness and deaths.

The lockdowns have hammered the economy, disrupting global supply chains and roiling financial markets.

Data on Wednesday showed China’s manufacturing and services activity for November posting the lowest readings since Shanghai’s two-month lockdown began in April. read more

Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Writing by Marius Zaharia, John Geddie and Greg Torode; Editing by Michael Perry, Robert Birsel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Protests Stretch China’s Censorship to Its Limits

Within China, the videos have helped attract protesters. A former journalist in Shanghai said he first stumbled on a vigil at Urumqi Road in the city on Saturday, but went out to join another protest the next day after seeing videos on WeChat from his friends at the gathering.

He too shared videos of the protest on WeChat, though he deleted them after 24 hours in an effort to evade the authorities, who had begun to go after some demonstrators. Though only up shortly, his videos changed the minds of two people he had thought would be unreceptive: his parents.

“My parents, like many Chinese parents, used to think what I’m doing is meaningless and childish, but they have changed dramatically in the past two days,” Mr. Qu said. His parents now understand why he would participate in such gatherings, he said, perhaps in part because they too have struggled under Covid controls.

Despite the breakthroughs, some warned the censors will soon strike back, and may well recapture control of public opinion. Han Rongbin, a professor of media and politics at the University of Georgia who studies Chinese censorship, said that while he agreed the censors had been overwhelmed, their work, which has included pulling down huge numbers of posts and videos, has nonetheless been quite successful.

The goal of China’s censors isn’t to keep everyone in the dark, just enough people to ensure the spread of protest can be stopped. “I still think it’s quite effective, in that there is still a large number of people who are not sure what’s actually going on,” he said.

After the widespread demonstrations over the weekend, gatherings this week have been much smaller, as the authorities have smothered potential sites with heavy security. The question is how effective the censorship and other measures will be in deterring more protests in the days and weeks ahead.

Video production by Axel Boada and Muyi Xiao.

Biden poised to make Avi Kwa Ame a national monument in Nevada

The Washington Post

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Tribes, environmentalists and many local officials support protecting nearly 450,000 acres around Spirit Mountain, but some developers warn it could hamper renewable energy projects

November 30, 2022 at 6:00 a.m. EST

The night sky looms over the Knob Hill area of the proposed Avi Kwa Ame national monument in Boulder City, Nev.
The night sky looms over the Knob Hill area of the proposed Avi Kwa Ame national monument in Boulder City, Nev. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post)

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SEARCHLIGHT, Nevada — From the highway, Spirit Mountain — a 5,642 foot-high peak — appears gray. But at times, it glows a majestic pink. For the Fort Mojave and 11 other tribes, these mystical rocks are the site from which their ancestors emerged.

“There’s a spiritual connection that makes us Mojave people,” said Tim Williams, chair of the tribal council. “If it’s not protected, our generation will not have done our job.”

Two decades ago, Congress preserved the mountain — called Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE-kwah-may) in Mojave — and 33,000 acres around it as wilderness. Now the Biden administration is readying a proclamation that could put roughly 450,000 acres — spanning almost the entire triangle at the bottom of the Nevada map — off limits to development under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

President Biden will commit on Wednesday at the White House Tribal Nations Summit to protecting the area, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public.

The transformation of this 700-square-mile wedge between California and Arizona is likely to rank as the largest act of land conservation that Biden will undertake this term. The designation enjoys the support of tribes, local officials, environmental groups and the rural business community but has frustrated some renewable energy advocates, who warn it could undercut the nation’s climate goals.

Sitting between the Mojave National Preserve on the California side and Lake Mead National Recreation Area along the border of Nevada and Arizona, the monument will provide an expanse that will allow desert tortoises, bighorn sheep, golden eagles, and dozens of other species to live and migrate uninterrupted.

“This is the missing link connecting the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Plateau,” said Neal Desai, a senior project manager for the National Parks Conservation Association who has been working for more than a dozen years to protect the area.

Wind and solar companies, Desai said, will have to stay on the other side of the monument boundaries.

When it comes to having a chance to protect this much land, he added, “This really doesn’t happen very often. Not at this scale.”

In mid-November, nearly 250 people gathered at the Aquarius casino resort in Laughlin, Nev., for a two-hour public hearing with officials from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to discuss the prospective monument. A little more than two months before, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had visited the area and held a roundtable on the topic with Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nev.).

Amid a standing-room-only crowd at the casino, only about half of the monument’s backers got time to speak.

“Today is special,” Williams said. “We’ve established a map. It’s been a collaboration of a lot of different people, a lot of organizations … This is something that you don’t see every day, especially in this day and age, in this type of political environment, you don’t see this type of collaboration. And it’s here, and it’s now.”

Tribes spread out along the Colorado River have adopted resolutions endorsing a monument, including 27 of 28 tribes in the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada and all 21 in the Inter Tribal Association of Arizona.

Several sent representatives to Laughlin, offering their two-minute testimonies about how ancient sites in the area are still an active part of their lives. Artists, environmentalists, birdwatchers, dark night-sky preservationists, hunters and off-road-vehicle enthusiasts also showed up to voice support for the monument.

Frank DeRosa, vice president for policy and public affairs for the solar energy firm Avantus, said he supported the creation of a monument, but asked BLM to consider “a modest request” for a small adjustment to the map — a “sliver,” he called it, that “avoids all cultural and environmentally sensitive areas” so renewable energy companies can access transmission infrastructure from a long-decommissioned coal-fired plant in Laughlin.

This expanse of Nevada offers some of the best prospects for clean energy development in the country. The canyons here produce tremendous wind, and the sun shines 292 days per year, usually without any cloud cover. The area also boasts dozens of mining claims for rare earth elements, now coveted by the clean tech sector.

Four massive solar farms loom along U.S. 95 between Las Vegas and Searchlight. More than 100 turbines from the White Hills wind farm in Arizona are visible from some of the higher points within the proposed monument.

The Avi Kwa Ame map, as it’s been drawn, prevents similar projects from breaking ground. In previous negotiations between the town of Laughlin and Avantus — then called 8minute Solar Energy — the tribes agreed to exclude 23,000 acres from their proposal so a large solar project at the southern tip of Clark County could continue. But they would not make similar concessions for an area abutting California’s Dead Mountains Wilderness, on the grounds that the area is sacred.

Redrawing any portions of the plan now, Williams said, was not an option. “All the resolutions, all the agreements, were based on that map being presented as final.”

A week ago, according to an individual familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations, the chief of staff to Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) met with an official from the White House Council on Environmental Quality to discuss the coming proclamation. Sisolak’s aide raised concerns about whether hunters and had sufficient input into the process, this person said, and what impact the designation would have on renewable energy development.

How a toad and a tribe stopped a geothermal plant in Nevada

Biden officials assured the governor’s office that hunters could continue to sustain artificial water sources, known as guzzlers, to attract bighorn sheep, according to the senior administration aide. The officials added that the state would be allowed to access and maintain existing infrastructure — including water resources and electric transmission lines — under any monument designation.

Sisolak hasn’t taken a public position on the monument. The Democrat-controlled Nevada legislature passed a joint resolution in 2021 supporting it, and the lieutenant governor, who is also a Democrat, has been championing the economic benefits of Avi Kwa Ame since the spring.

For decades, activists had been working to safeguard key tribal, cultural and ecological lands in this region in a piecemeal fashion. But that strategy changed in 2017, when President Donald Trump scaled back three national monuments and voiced his support for industrial development.

“This was a big shift for the whole environmental community,” Desai said. “Not only did the Trump administration have a different outlook on public lands use, but we were seeing site-specific threats.”

In 2018, Crescent Peak Renewables — the American subsidiary of a Swedish wind power company, Eolus Vind AV — sought to build 248 wind turbines on 32,500 acres of BLM land in southern Clark County. Trump administration officials rejected the proposal, dubbed the Kulning Wind Energy Project.

Crescent Peak tried again last year, seeking access to just 9,300 acres to erect 68 turbines in a scaled-back version of the project. But BLM designated the application as “low priority,” effectively killing it.

“If we don’t do something, we’re going to lose this landscape,” said Alan O’Neill, a retired former superintendent for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area who consults for the National Parks Conservation Association.

The Fort Mojave tribe passed a resolution in September 2019 calling for protections of their ancestral lands extending far beyond Spirit Mountain, in a 381,300-acre national monument. By the time Rep. Dina Titus (D-Nev.) introduced a bill supporting the plan this year, the proposed size had expanded to 443,671 acres.

Monument supporters got a boost when Interior laid out a 10-year plan for locally led efforts to restore and conserve the country’s lands, water and wildlife in May 2021. The “America the Beautiful” initiative promised to protect 30 percent of the country by 2030.

How Harry Reid made his mark on Nevada’s desert, with Obama’s help

‘Gentle economic growth’

That’s when Kim Garrison Means, an artist, curator and college art instructor who lives in Searchlight (population 348), began going door-to-door to talk to residents about the proposed monument and to find out what it would take for them to support it

Garrison Means, who lives a mile away from her nearest neighbor, said she talked to nearly everyone in town, making the case that people who loved their rural way of life needed to support this measure.

“It was still pretty covid-y at the time. Some people hadn’t seen other humans for quite some time,” Garrison Means said. “We did a lot of listening.”

She said she found strong support for protecting the land around Searchlight from industrial development. “You don’t appreciate what you have until people want to make changes to it.”

While wind and solar companies promise good-paying construction jobs, the Avi Kwa Ame activists contend that having this national monument on their doorstep will welcome what Garrison Means calls “gentle economic growth” — businesses related to camping, hunting, birding, hiking, stargazing and other forms of outdoor recreation.

“It was surprising how together our community was,” she added. “It didn’t matter what flag they were flying outside their house, people wanted to protect this land.”

U.S. Senate passes same-sex marriage protection bill

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would protect federal recognition of same-sex marriage, a measure taken up in response to worries the Supreme Court could overturn a 2015 decision that legalized it nationwide.

The narrowly tailored bill, which would require the federal government to recognize a marriage if it was legal in the state in which it was performed, is meant to be a backstop if the Supreme Court acted against same-sex marriage.

It would not bar states from blocking same-sex or interracial marriages if the Supreme Court allowed them to do so.

“Today the long but inexorable march towards greater equality advances forward,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

“By passing this bill, the Senate is sending a message that every American needs to hear: no matter who you are or who you love, you too deserve dignity and equal treatment under the law.”

[1/5] A view of the U.S. Capitol building as the sunrises in Washington, U.S., February 10, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

The bill was passed 61 to 36, with 60 votes needed for passage. Twelve Republicans joined 49 Democrats in supporting the bill. One Democrat, Georgia’s Raphael Warnock, was absent, as were two Republican senators.

A similar, but not identical, bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this year with support from 47 Republicans and all Democrats. The House would need to approve the Senate version before it is sent to President Joe Biden to sign into law.

No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer told reporters on Tuesday the House would likely take up the Senate’s version of the bill next week.

In June, the Supreme Court overturned the nationwide right to an abortion, undoing 50 years of precedent.

In a concurring opinion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the court should consider reversing other decisions protecting individual freedoms, including the 2015 ruling on gay marriage.

About 568,000 married same-sex couples live in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Reporting by Moira Warburton
Editing by Chris Reese and Richard Chang

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Gram Slattery

Thomson Reuters

Washington-based correspondent covering campaigns and Congress. Previously posted in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, and has reported extensively throughout Latin America. Co-winner of the 2021 Reuters Journalist of the Year Award in the business coverage category for a series on corruption and fraud in the oil industry. He was born in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College.

China vows crackdown on ‘hostile forces’ as public tests Xi

BEIJING (AP) — China’s ruling Communist Party has vowed to “resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces,” following the largest street demonstrations in decades staged by citizens fed up with strict anti-virus restrictions.

The statement from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission released late Tuesday comes amid a massive show of force by security services to deter a recurrence of the protests that broke out over the weekend in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and several other cities.

While it did not directly address the protests, the statement serves as a reminder of the party’s determination to enforce its rule.

Hundreds of SUVs, vans and armored vehicles with flashing lights were parked along city streets Wednesday while police and paramilitary forces conducted random ID checks and searched people’s mobile phones for photos, banned apps or other potential evidence that they had taken part in the demonstrations.

The number of people who have been detained at the demonstrations and in follow-up police actions is not known.

The commission’s statement, issued after an expanded session Monday presided over by its head Chen Wenqing, a member of the party’s 24-member Politburo, said the meeting aimed to review the outcomes of October’s 20th party congress.

At that event, Xi granted himself a third five-year term as secretary general, potentially making him China’s leader for life, while stacking key bodies with loyalists and eliminating opposing voices.

“The meeting emphasized that political and legal organs must take effective measures to … resolutely safeguard national security and social stability,” the statement said.

“We must resolutely crack down on infiltration and sabotage activities by hostile forces in accordance with the law, resolutely crack down on illegal and criminal acts that disrupt social order and effectively maintain overall social stability,” it said.

Yet, less than a month after seemingly ensuring his political future and unrivaled dominance, Xi, who has signaled he favors regime stability above all, is facing his biggest public challenge yet.

He and the party have yet to directly address the unrest, which spread to college campuses and the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, as well as sparking sympathy protests abroad.

Most protesters focused their ire on the “zero-COVID” policy that has placed millions under lockdown and quarantine, limiting their access to food and medicine while ravaging the economy and severely restricting travel. Many mocked the government’s ever-changing line of reasoning, as well as claims that “hostile outside foreign forces” were stirring the wave of anger.

Yet bolder voices called for greater freedom and democracy and for Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, as well as the party he leads, to step down — speech considered subversive and punishable with lengthy prison terms. Some held up blank pieces of white paper to demonstrate their lack of free speech rights.

The weekend protests were sparked by anger over the deaths of at least 10 people in a fire on Nov. 24 in China’s far west that prompted angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by anti-virus controls.

Authorities eased some controls and announced a new push to vaccinate vulnerable groups after the demonstrations, but maintained they would stick to the “zero-COVID” strategy.

The party had already promised last month to reduce disruptions, but a spike in infections swiftly prompted party cadres under intense pressure to tighten controls in an effort to prevent outbreaks. The National Health Commission on Wednesday reported 37,612 cases detected over the previous 24 hours, while the death toll remained unchanged at 5,233.

Beijing’s Tsinghua University, where students protested over the weekend, and other schools in the capital and the southern province of Guangdong sent students home in an apparent attempt to defuse tensions. Chinese leaders are wary of universities, which have been hotbeds of activism including the Tiananmen protests.

Police appeared to be trying to keep their crackdown out of sight, possibly to avoid encouraging others by drawing attention to the scale of the protests. Videos and posts on Chinese social media about protests were deleted by the party’s vast online censorship apparatus.

“Zero COVID” has helped keep case numbers lower than those of the United States and other major countries, but global health experts including the head of the World Health Organization increasingly say it is unsustainable. China dismissed the remarks as irresponsible.

Beijing needs to make its approach “very targeted” to reduce economic disruption, the head of the International Monetary Fund told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.

Economists and health experts, however, warn that Beijing can’t relax controls that keep most travelers out of China until tens of millions of older people are vaccinated. They say that means “zero COVID” might not end for as much as another year.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said restrictions were, among other things, making it impossible for U.S. diplomats to meet with American prisoners being held in China, as is mandated by international treaty. Because of a lack of commercial airline routes into the country, the embassy has to use monthly charter flights to move its personnel in and out.

“COVID is really dominating every aspect of life” in China, he said in an online discussion with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

On the protests, Burns said the embassy was observing their progress and the government’s response, but said, “We believe the Chinese people have a right to protest peacefully.”

“They have a right to make their views known. They have a right to be heard. That’s a fundamental right around the world. It should be. And that right should not be hindered with, and it shouldn’t be interfered with,” he said.

Burns also referenced instances of Chinese police harassing and detaining foreign reporters covering the protests.

“We support freedom of the press as well as freedom of speech,” he said.

Asked about foreign expressions of support for the protesters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian defended China’s approach to handling COVID-19 and said other nations should mind their own business.

“We hope they will first heed their own peoples’ voices and interests instead of pointing fingers at others,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing.